You already know how a powerful CRM can bring incredible results to your business, but it’s a moot point without Salesforce adoption. Results like improving response times by 10%, decreasing handle times by 20%, and serving customers faster than ever only become available when your team can experience them for themselves.
The bottom line is simple: your Salesforce investment won’t pay off without widespread usage. Solid adoption not only ensures a strong return on investment (ROI) but also positions your representatives and your company for success.
That’s why, in this article, we’ll explore key strategies to drive Salesforce adoption, ensuring your team can see groundbreaking results – and become your best Salesforce ambassadors.
Understanding Salesforce Adoption and Navigating Challenges
Salesforce adoption measures how well – and how often – users have incorporated Salesforce into their day-to-day tasks. It indicates how well the Salesforce Admin has configured and customized Salesforce to fit the organization’s unique needs.
But sometimes, adoption isn’t a piece of cake. For example, some users may be resistant to change and may be hesitant to use Salesforce. Providing training and ongoing support can help overcome this challenge.
Users may not be familiar with Salesforce’s features and functionality. Again, the goal is to familiarize them with the platform and make using it a breeze, so regular training sessions and additional resources are a must.
Finally, Salesforce is only as good as the data you enter. Yes, getting reps to update the CRM is hard, but why? Most don’t see how it helps them with the day-to-day work, so your mission is to shine a light on the stakes, so they know how accurate data helps them close deals more efficiently.
Strategic Planning for Adoption
Planning goes a long way in ensuring proper Salesforce adoption. This section will cover the key components of strategic planning so you can get as many raving fans as possible!
Benchmark Your Sales Performance Before Salesforce
What does your performance look like now? Be sure to benchmark and document it.
Considering that your team will successfully adopt and implement Salesforce, you’ll have a realistic way of measuring how crucial the platform was in improving not only their results but also their daily processes.
Get Everyone on the Same Page
Before anything else, you need to get a thumbs-up from the stakeholders and reps who will use Salesforce moving forward. This will help everyone set healthy expectations from the start.
Ideally, start open discussions to understand the needs of different departments and individuals. If a specific team doesn’t see how Salesforce will assist them, help them understand.
You could start with questions like:
- What functionalities or features are crucial for your daily tasks or departmental processes?
- Are there any pain points in the current system or processes you hope Salesforce can address?
- What data or information do you need to flow between Salesforce and other platforms?
(This will also make sure you tick all the integration and implementation boxes!)
Set Clear Goals to Ensure Salesforce Adoption
Start by pinpointing the bottlenecks in your existing sales process and identifying how Salesforce will address them. The answers you got from the discussions should help at this point.
With those insights, you’ll be able to craft one or more clear goals you want to achieve with the adoption and implementation of Salesforce. For example, a clear goal would be to “boost sales efficiency with streamlined lead-to-deal processes, seeing a 15% conversion lift.”
To track progress toward those goals, establish key performance indicators (KPIs), including metrics like lead conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, or other KPIs that align with your goals.
Deciding How to Configure Salesforce
Salesforce should fit your team like a glove. But in order to tailor it perfectly, you need to know what your sales reps truly need to excel in their roles. Fortunately, you’ve got options for collecting that information!
Conduct Surveys to Improve Salesforce Adoption
Craft a survey that covers a range of questions, ensuring you touch on specific aspects you’re curious about. While surveys may not provide in-depth responses, they offer a variety of insights.
Conduct Over-the-Shoulder Research
If time allows, spend a day accompanying the users to meetings, listening in on calls, and observing their tool usage. It’s an eye-opening experience that reveals the intricacies of their daily tasks and any areas where Salesforce adoption will help them.
Talk and Listen
Take the time for one-on-one conversations with individual sales reps. Dig deep into their unique challenges, preferences, and requirements.
Finally, when done, consider giving small tokens of gratitude to thank the people who generously shared their time and insights.
Help Your Team Engage to Improve Salesforce Adoption
To say “yes” to Salesforce, the team – from sales reps and managers to the tech team – needs to be aware of the benefits. Don’t just tell them, but show them how it can automate tasks, trim unnecessary steps, and consolidate all the information they need in one place.
To generate excitement among higher-ups, challenge your reps to log into Salesforce regularly, rewarding those who consistently meet this goal. This creates a friendly competition that ensures active engagement.
If your team isn’t into gamification, there are other ways to keep them engaged and increase Salesforce adoption:
Make Salesforce the Go-To Platform for Critical Activities
Propose that the entire sales team exclusively uses Salesforce for core tasks like forecasting and pipeline management. There will be some pushback, but the sooner you transfer core tasks into Salesforce, the sooner your team will adopt it.
Tie Commissions to Salesforce Adoption
Strengthen the link between Salesforce implementation and financial incentives. Make it clear that Salesforce will be the only way to track deal success and pay out the subsequent commissions.
Offer Training and Certification Opportunities
Throughout the implementation process, provide training and support to ensure stakeholders are comfortable using Salesforce. This might include online tutorials, in-person training sessions, and ongoing support from a dedicated Salesforce administrator. More on training later!
As You Build Up to Your Launch
Give It a Test Drive (With the Right People)
Think of this as the big revelation to a select group of end users before the launch. Seeing it in action will help you identify any gaps you may have missed and spot (Salesforce adoption) improvement opportunities.
The question is: who should this select group be?
It can include anyone you know will benefit from Salesforce, such as sales reps, team managers, or customer support personnel. Additionally, consider involving people from different departments to triangulate your data, like marketing specialists, IT professionals, and even enthusiastic early adopters across various teams.
Be sure to include your C-suite as well. They’ll have a lot to share with you from a leadership perspective, and this is a great opportunity to position Salesforce as a winner.
Get Ready to Launch
Announce the Big News
Make your Salesforce an exciting event by involving executives in launch emails or videos. Their visible support and expectations for reps can create a positive atmosphere across the board (and that’s definitely going to help with Salesforce adoption).
You can even consider an office party or an announcement at a meeting (whether through a webinar or in-person).
Now that you know where to say it, it’s time to understand how you’ll say it. Salesforce suggests that you avoid jargon, as even acronyms like “CRM” can introduce friction to new users. For example, you could say that Salesforce is a “sales assistant that organizes client information, tracks deals, and accelerates the closing process. No more paperwork chaos or hunting for details – it’s all centralized. So you can speed up your workflows, get more wins, and improve collaboration with the team.”
Plus, recognizing and rewarding early adopters or active participants is crucial during the launch phase.
Invest in Salesforce Training Programs
As your team navigates Salesforce, they will have questions. Thankfully, Salesforce has plenty of comprehensive training programs. You can offer in-person training, webinar or video training, self-help documentation, or Trailhead modules.
Focus not only on what is easier for your team, but also on the training that best fits your timeframe and budget.
Maintaining High Salesforce Adoption Rates
Implement Feedback and Iterate Constantly
Encourage your users to provide feedback. Then, use it to make improvements to your Salesforce setup.
For example, you can create a feedback form or survey that users can use to talk about what they like or dislike about the platform – as well as the features they need. If you stay open to adding features they’re asking for, they’ll become fans in no time, and your Salesforce adoption rates will skyrocket!
Of course, spot and collect valuable feedback you get through internal communication channels, like Slack or Salesforce Chatter.
Salesforce Adoption Analytics and Reporting
Just like you monitor your sales data, you can also monitor adoption rates. You can track user logins, usage of specific features, and the number of opportunities created.
Then, you can create adoption reports and dashboards to visualize your team’s progress. It’ll be great for spotting any bottlenecks and improvement areas, so you can deal with them before they snowball into an issue.
Keep Up the Good Work!
As your team continues to use Salesforce, track how their performance has improved since the launch. Remember that initial benchmark? It’ll be the proof you need to prove value so the users stay invested for the long haul.
Even after you launch and your reps become the platform’s biggest fans, go over these tips whenever you need to iterate on or improve usage. It’s an ongoing process!
Finally, keep the excitement alive. Announce new features, share success stories, and do your best to paint Salesforce as the protagonist in the success of your organization. Because once your people fully adopt it, it certainly will be.
