Many companies roll out Salesforce on their own with great results. Those same companies often struggle with Salesforce, however, as their organization undergoes growth and change. Over time, the addition of new employees, new processes, and new administrators leaves them in a situation where their initial platform configuration isn’t quite cutting the proverbial mustard.
Symptoms of Salesforce Implementationitis
There are a variety of Salesforce challenges that organizations face as they experience change. Those challenges often indicate a case of Salesforce Implementationitis, a “condition,” says Salesforce, that occurs when the company failed to follow a structured initial implementation. Some of those challenges include:
- A glut of unnecessary or redundant reports
- A lack of usable reports
- An inability to reconcile old leads
- Multiple entries for the same leads and clients leading to disjointed information
- A lack of data visibility for sales reps in the field
- A series of unnecessary or outdated fields that are never used in the sales or client management process
- A muddied pipeline that doesn’t present a clear picture of the sales cycle
When these symptoms arise, it is necessary for leadership to take a pause and develop a plan to begin utilizing Salesforce in a way that aligns with their needs today and assures it will stay aligned in the future.
The Cure For Salesforce Implementationitis
Some businesses choose to go out and hire a third-party company to help them overcome their Implementationitis. However, with the right approach and the right Salesforce developers in place internally, this “disease” can be overcome from within.
Strong Salesforce professionals will take a structured approach to overcoming common challenges. Their strategies will include things like:
- Defining (and developing a deep understanding of) business processes
- Drilling down to the key metrics that truly matter and will provide meaningful insights
- Streamlining the user interface based on the organization’s specific needs
- Validating permissions and visibility
All of these factors point to the KPIs that keep a business running smoothly and those KPIs are unique for every organization. It is clear exactly what the organization needs from Salesforce, the right processes can be developed to execute Salesforce effectively.
Once you overcome Salesforce Implementationitis, the most important lesson to learn is that Salesforce is not something you can set and forget. As your organization continues to grow and change, the way you utilize the platform will grow and change. That makes it critical to have Salesforce administrators and developers on staff who can ensure that you’re always getting the most from your investment and that users are able to input and access the data they need to succeed.
If your organization is looking for some additional help curing Implementationitis, contact the Salesforce team at CSS today to learn more about the ways we can help including staffing, training, managed services, and projects.
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