Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This cloud-based platform interacts with your customers’ data, keeps marketing, sales, customer service, and commerce in the loop of your business to keep your company in top form. Plan your Salesforce implementation after the purchase of the Salesforce program, teach and educate your company employees on how to use the software, get your data ready to move onto the platform, and finally transfer your data. To make sure your Salesforce implementation succeeds, track your progress. Update, communicate, and repeat the learning steps until Salesforce becomes second nature to your team.
Utilizing the best salesforce consulting agency will help you employ a Salesforce application with a little headache and with ultimate success. There are steps you need to take to ensure that your Salesforce implementation succeeds and is not draining on your company.
Beth Saunders, Certified Salesforce.com Sales Cloud Consultant and Administrator advises, ”Salesforce is a culture – it is a collaboration platform that epitomizes the definition of relationship management. Successful implementations start with senior leadership and sponsorship and continue with organizational culture change to ensure user adoption horizontally and vertically. To use Salesforce.com is to adopt a new way of doing business.”
Steps to Salesforce Implementation
Plan the Implementation.
Nothing will work unless you have a plan for completing a project. Integrating Salesforce at your company can be seamless if you plan.
Define the objects and outcomes of the implementation. Write down why you are switching to Salesforce and what sale metrics you intend to enhance. Parameters include what management pipeline you hope to use and improve and at what percent this salesforce implementation succeeds. These are total or big picture questions that will give you direction for the Salesforce implementation project.
Recruit a salesforce consulting service who understands why implementing Salesforce is essential for your business. Give them the authority to redirect resources to finish the entire implementation process. You don’t want the implementation to stall because you haven’t given the Salesforce consulting service the keys to getting the job finished.
Outline the implementation tasks and provide timelines. Timelines are where the best Salesforce consulting agency works its magic. They know what needs to be done and record everything that needs to reach success. A Salesforce consulting service will start with the sales process and work through your company to map your implementation. Use the best salesforce consulting agency you can find to ensure your employees are doing their jobs and not being bogged down with software implementation.
Educate Your Team
Bring in a Salesforce consulting service to teach your team about the CRM platform. Persuade the entire sales and marketing team of the benefits they are about to experience. Be enthusiastic. If your team isn’t on board with the Salesforce plan, a Salesforce consulting service will help you bring the software to life.
Salesforce is the #1 CRM platform and this message can convince your team this will not bring them more work but will provide them with tools to streamline their work. Give your team the big picture of a more efficient sales process and how to better manage data.
Salesforce is more than just a different software; it is a new way of functioning. Things will be different from the old CRM system a team is used to, but Salesforce provides less confusion, better communication with customers, and a way to track progress on goals and objectives.
Assign each member of your team tasks and allow the team to participate in Salesforce implementation. Let your team “own” Salesforce.
Meetings are the part that stakeholders don’t like. However, sessions ensure the Salesforce implementation is moving forward and meeting help resolve issues that may arise. Don’t keep meetings long, just informative.
Prep Your Data
Take inventory and clean up data that is missing, confusing, or just messy. Manage duplicate accounts and get rid of clients who are no longer part of your pipeline.
Go through your data with a salesforce consulting service and determine what data should be transferred to the Salesforce platform. Align Salesforce with your goals and preferred sales processes.
Take the time to clean up your data before you transfer it into Salesforce. Merge accounts when you can.
Transfer Your Data
Transferring data is the time where Salesforce implementation from a Salesforce consulting service is a vial.
Start by transferring a small batch of content to test the import. Ensure the fields are aligned and all the data components for a single contact are transformed. Test and keep checking to find the errors and fix them quickly.
Evaluate your settings and discover if you need to fix any configuration issues. Now is the time to make any tweaks. Get your team involved and keep them informed of the timelines. The last thing you need is sales reps entering data on the old platform after data has already been imported to Salesforce.
Create reports based on your objectives. Salesforce is key in allowing you to aggregate, filter, and format your sales metrics. Involve your Salesforce consulting service to help with your report customization.
Track your Progress
Once you have successfully imported your data to Salesforce, make your data actionable. Ensure that each team member knows what metrics they need to hit – calls, emails, meetings, monthly sales, and a number of opportunities they have.
Tracking the performance of your sales team is vital, and you can track this performance through customized reports generated in Salesforce. Keep reviewing Salesforce implementation processes and proactively ask for feedback from your team.
Update and Communicate
Keep in touch with the best Salesforce consulting agency to know when new functions become available. Like all software, Salesforce is periodically updated to keep your company on top of the latest Salesforce tools.
Your company will also grow and change. A Salesforce consulting service is vital to ensure that everything is current, relevant, and working for your team.
