Avoid These Common Mistakes In Your Next Salesforce Project Discovery
Nov 17th, 2021
Posted on Sep 7, 2021 Tools & Tips
Why is adoption important? Lots of reasons. For example, it drives lead conversion, forecast accuracy and sales productivity, which all ultimately drive Sales Win Rate.
So, fundamentally, you’re not going to see your ROI soar until your sales team gets into the habit of entering their information into Salesforce.
Here’s the catch: Your users are human, and humans are emotional, habitual and naturally resistant to change. Your mission is to move them gently, but firmly, into new habits. Fortunately, the “Fast Track Adoption Cycle” can help you do this by working WITH human nature, instead of against it. It will help you reward and reinforce adoption, supercharge your ROI, and as an added bonus, focus your Salesforce strategy into the future.
At a high level, it consists of four steps:
Before we do a deep dive into the four steps, let’s take a step back and talk about the big picture.
Salesforce is a journey, not a one-time visit. If you are currently using a Sprint / Backlog process to expand your Salesforce capability, consider adding the Fast Track Adoption Cycle to work in conjunction with that process. Since the Adoption Cycle includes collecting feedback from your users, it should not be done on a “stand alone” basis.
Feedback gathered from users should drive your vision and backlog priorities. The key concept here is: Your Adoption Cycle shouldn’t just be an afterthought following each of your deployments. It should be one of the drivers of your overall Salesforce strategy.
If you are not currently using a Sprint / Backlog process to expand your Salesforce capability, or you’d like to learn more about it, check out our blog, The Ultimate Salesforce Delivery Machine, Part 1: The Backlog.
Here’s a diagram of how the Sprint / Backlog process and the Fast Track Adoption Cycle can work together:
Focus on rewards first – “Rewards” can be anything from reducing the number of clicks a user must make to log a call, to a trip to Key Largo for winning a Closed Won challenge. To find the right rewards, ask yourself:
Start with high-value quick wins – As you begin to roll out changes with rewards, you want your users’ first experience to be successful so it will teach them it’s ok to “jump in” to Salesforce, the water’s fine! It will also engage them and motivate them to give feedback when the time comes.
Plan to reinforce rewards with weekly meetings – Nothing ensures adoption better than weekly meetings in which managers use Salesforce data to gauge progress. If a user happens to “forget” to enter their data before a weekly meeting, they may miss out that day, but they’ll remember next week. Think about what data you review in your sales meetings today, and how that may change when you focus on Salesforce data.
Give your rewards the thought they deserve – Choose rewards that are extensions of the rewards that already exist in your company’s culture. Design them so Salesforce will be the only path your users can take to achieve them. For example, if competitions are already routine at your company, plan to use Salesforce data to determine the winners.
TIP – Avoid rewards that only recognize data entry, such as logging activities. They are not as effective as rewards that recognize the specific things that make sales happen, like qualifying leads, or logging specific types of activities.
When your Salesforce changes are ready to be deployed, communicate, communicate, communicate!
Here’s a list of great ways to share information with your users prior to deployment. When delivering them, do what you can to give everyone equal access so they can start on a level playing field.
Training, games and job aids are helpful, but by themselves, they won’t guarantee adoption. Why? Because humans are human. In addition to being habitual, humans are also naturally efficient. If they see their managers in a training session telling them to enter data, but in their weekly meetings failing to mention any Salesforce data, they’ll conclude that it’s not really important. Because they are naturally efficient, humans will typically not expend all that energy to learn a new tool or a new habit until they’re sure their manager really cares about it.
Again, nothing ensures adoption better than weekly meetings in which managers use Salesforce data to gauge progress. Nothing.
Leadership is key. Follow through on the promises you made in the Roll Out by delivering on the rewards after deployment. Your users will know you mean business, and they will adopt accordingly.
There are three rules to gathering feedback:
And then … repeat! Like the chart above shows, adoption is an integral part of a larger process. As soon as you’ve finished one cycle, it’s time to start thinking about the next.
Although Salesforce is a technology platform, it’s important to remember that Salesforce adoption is very much a human experience. It’s not all “1’s and 0’s.” It’s about habits, fears and emotions, too. So, you’ll need to do both: build a system that serves everyone’s needs, and base your adoption strategy on your company’s culture, habits and management styles.
For help with this and other ways to optimize your ROI from Salesforce, contact the experts at EightCloud. We are Salesforce success experts, and available to ensure your success!
Author: Erin Freed, Salesforce Consultant
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