10 Important Salesforce Training Tips
Salesforce can be a game changing tool…if you use it correctly, that is. If your users aren’t using the tool correctly, you can’t expect the tool to drive the results you’re after. Lucky for you though, when the tool is properly designed and the users properly trained, Salesforce can drive great results. Moreover, quality training ensures that every user understands why their cooperation is valuable not only for the team, but for their own performance in the long run. Here are some tips on how to best train your company’s Salesforce users:
1. Make Sure Your Salesforce Mimics Your Business Process
Your employees don’t want to have to learn an entirely new business process on top of a new tool. Your CRM user adoption will be vastly more accessible if it mimics a process with which users are already familiar. Some helpful tactics: customize objects that reflect data you already track, make sure the field names resemble what you already discuss, and be sure to remove anything unnecessarily recorded in the system.
2. Make Sure Everyone is Onboard For The Change
Making sure everyone is on board with the Salesforce tool is one of the most important steps you can take toward user adoption. Hold meetings where you discuss the issues people are having with tracking necessary information. Use this time to explain how Salesforce will help with their issues, making sure to use real life situations to do this. If someone isn’t on board, address this early on. Figure out their reason why and work with them. If everyone agrees that this tool will improve their efficiency (which it will!) from the start, then people will be more enthusiastic about training and adoption.
3. Make Sure You Have The Proper Training
Salesforce training is not a one time fix. Your training is an ongoing process that will reflect your ever-changing usage of the tool. Additionally,your CRM game plan will require a unique training plan for your specific business process. Because of this, its important to make sure the training you’re providing your employees is relevant to the platform they will be using. Your training is correct if your users readily recognize each lesson as an important piece of the system they are expecting. In order to do this, make sure you provide technical training, such as a basic understanding of Salesforce knowledge, as well as situational knowledge, instances of how they will be using Salesforce. Providing users with a broader context of what their Salesforce usage will really look like will better prepare them to be avid users.
4. Consider Looking For Outside Help for Support and Guidance
Are you entirely sure how the tool works? Will you be able to explain everything to your employees? What happens when they start asking questions you can’t answer? In an instance where both you and your employees are new to the tool or not fully comfortable with tool, seeking help will save you a lot of time and frustration. If you do end up hiring an outside expert, take full advantage of the opportunity to learn from them and become an expert yourself. There are many firms, like Kovida, that provide services specifically to empower their clients to take complete ownership of their system. Not to mention, they help increase your return on investment in much less time.
5. Finding The Right System Admin
Finding someone who knows Salesforce Training in Jaipur and can help you manage the CRM is key to both the training and the post-training period. Whether this is a person you hire or someone who already works with you, having a dedicated Salesforce administrator on board is extremely helpful. How do you choose the right Salesforce professional, though? Be sure your Salesforce guru has a few key qualities such as an understanding of your business process, excellent communication skills, experience with analytical and logical thinking, flexibility, and the ability to not only listen to the feedback of others but also speak to that feedback. If you’re having a hard time finding someone who fits the role, consider looking for a consulting company that offers Admin Services. Unlike the friendly IT guy on floor 7, an outside consultant might not be someone who you know and have worked with for years, but they do specialize in the tool and can address any Salesforce tribulations you might have. If you want, I can even recommend some extra friendly consultants.
6. Build a Salesforce Training Team
Before you even begin the training process, put together a group of people who will be your Salesforce know-it-alls. This way, people can walk around the room and offer more help to the people who are struggling without having to slow down the entire group. This will allow time to be used more efficiently and everyone will come away with the knowledge they need. If you’re simply sending people training videos or leaving this up to one person, it’s inevitable that someone (probably more than just one someone) will still be confused and frustrated at the end of the day.
7. Make Sure The Right People are Learning the Right Stuff
As you know, Salesforce holds a lot of information but, most of the time, not everyone needs to know everything in there. You don’t need your Sales team learning how to use tools you’ve built for your marketing team or vice versa. Not only is it more information for them to take in, it also just makes things more confusing. Limit what users can see based on what they need and only train them on the portion of the platform that might be relevant to them. Not only will this save you time, it will also save your employees a headache and prevent them from having to learn a bunch of things they’re probably never going to use.
8. Supply Go To Training Documentation to Refer Back To
After you’ve gone through training, supply employees with Salesforce training documents that they can review and refer back to if they have questions from the session or forget how to do something. As we know already - it’s a lot to take in; not everyone is going to understand or remember everything right away. If you supply them with training documents, they won’t need to ask you about every single thing they forgot. This saves everyone time and helps to ensure your employees are using Salesforce correctly. If you worked with a third party service provider to help with training, be sure to ask them for training documentation. They should have quality training documentation ready to provide to your team. Some service providers, like Kovida, will even help you create a comprehensive training/onboarding curriculum, including video tutorials, to help your organization offer the most efficient, accessible information to your users.
9. Solicit Feedback
Once your Salesforce is up and running, periodically ask for feedback. Figure out what is working and what is not. If something is confusing a lot of people, there is probably a better way to teach it.
10. Revisit Training
Every so often, it’s a good idea to for all Salesforce users to revisit training. Make sure your users have remembered how to do everything and that they’ve been going about key processes in the correct manner. By revisiting training, you’re ensuring an active dialogue, which will provide opportunities to address on-going struggles people are having with the tool and empower users by reassuring them they’re using Salesforce correctly. Revisiting training for everyone in your organization who uses Salesforce will not only help ensure correct usage of the tool but will also help to increase user adoption.
1. Make Sure Your Salesforce Mimics Your Business Process
Your employees don’t want to have to learn an entirely new business process on top of a new tool. Your CRM user adoption will be vastly more accessible if it mimics a process with which users are already familiar. Some helpful tactics: customize objects that reflect data you already track, make sure the field names resemble what you already discuss, and be sure to remove anything unnecessarily recorded in the system.
2. Make Sure Everyone is Onboard For The Change
Making sure everyone is on board with the Salesforce tool is one of the most important steps you can take toward user adoption. Hold meetings where you discuss the issues people are having with tracking necessary information. Use this time to explain how Salesforce will help with their issues, making sure to use real life situations to do this. If someone isn’t on board, address this early on. Figure out their reason why and work with them. If everyone agrees that this tool will improve their efficiency (which it will!) from the start, then people will be more enthusiastic about training and adoption.
3. Make Sure You Have The Proper Training
Salesforce training is not a one time fix. Your training is an ongoing process that will reflect your ever-changing usage of the tool. Additionally,your CRM game plan will require a unique training plan for your specific business process. Because of this, its important to make sure the training you’re providing your employees is relevant to the platform they will be using. Your training is correct if your users readily recognize each lesson as an important piece of the system they are expecting. In order to do this, make sure you provide technical training, such as a basic understanding of Salesforce knowledge, as well as situational knowledge, instances of how they will be using Salesforce. Providing users with a broader context of what their Salesforce usage will really look like will better prepare them to be avid users.
Are you entirely sure how the tool works? Will you be able to explain everything to your employees? What happens when they start asking questions you can’t answer? In an instance where both you and your employees are new to the tool or not fully comfortable with tool, seeking help will save you a lot of time and frustration. If you do end up hiring an outside expert, take full advantage of the opportunity to learn from them and become an expert yourself. There are many firms, like Kovida, that provide services specifically to empower their clients to take complete ownership of their system. Not to mention, they help increase your return on investment in much less time.
5. Finding The Right System Admin
Finding someone who knows Salesforce Training in Jaipur and can help you manage the CRM is key to both the training and the post-training period. Whether this is a person you hire or someone who already works with you, having a dedicated Salesforce administrator on board is extremely helpful. How do you choose the right Salesforce professional, though? Be sure your Salesforce guru has a few key qualities such as an understanding of your business process, excellent communication skills, experience with analytical and logical thinking, flexibility, and the ability to not only listen to the feedback of others but also speak to that feedback. If you’re having a hard time finding someone who fits the role, consider looking for a consulting company that offers Admin Services. Unlike the friendly IT guy on floor 7, an outside consultant might not be someone who you know and have worked with for years, but they do specialize in the tool and can address any Salesforce tribulations you might have. If you want, I can even recommend some extra friendly consultants.
6. Build a Salesforce Training Team
Before you even begin the training process, put together a group of people who will be your Salesforce know-it-alls. This way, people can walk around the room and offer more help to the people who are struggling without having to slow down the entire group. This will allow time to be used more efficiently and everyone will come away with the knowledge they need. If you’re simply sending people training videos or leaving this up to one person, it’s inevitable that someone (probably more than just one someone) will still be confused and frustrated at the end of the day.
7. Make Sure The Right People are Learning the Right Stuff
As you know, Salesforce holds a lot of information but, most of the time, not everyone needs to know everything in there. You don’t need your Sales team learning how to use tools you’ve built for your marketing team or vice versa. Not only is it more information for them to take in, it also just makes things more confusing. Limit what users can see based on what they need and only train them on the portion of the platform that might be relevant to them. Not only will this save you time, it will also save your employees a headache and prevent them from having to learn a bunch of things they’re probably never going to use.
8. Supply Go To Training Documentation to Refer Back To
After you’ve gone through training, supply employees with Salesforce training documents that they can review and refer back to if they have questions from the session or forget how to do something. As we know already - it’s a lot to take in; not everyone is going to understand or remember everything right away. If you supply them with training documents, they won’t need to ask you about every single thing they forgot. This saves everyone time and helps to ensure your employees are using Salesforce correctly. If you worked with a third party service provider to help with training, be sure to ask them for training documentation. They should have quality training documentation ready to provide to your team. Some service providers, like Kovida, will even help you create a comprehensive training/onboarding curriculum, including video tutorials, to help your organization offer the most efficient, accessible information to your users.
9. Solicit Feedback
Once your Salesforce is up and running, periodically ask for feedback. Figure out what is working and what is not. If something is confusing a lot of people, there is probably a better way to teach it.
10. Revisit Training
Every so often, it’s a good idea to for all Salesforce users to revisit training. Make sure your users have remembered how to do everything and that they’ve been going about key processes in the correct manner. By revisiting training, you’re ensuring an active dialogue, which will provide opportunities to address on-going struggles people are having with the tool and empower users by reassuring them they’re using Salesforce correctly. Revisiting training for everyone in your organization who uses Salesforce will not only help ensure correct usage of the tool but will also help to increase user adoption.
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