how to have a successful salesforce implementation

What are the 8 steps for a successful Salesforce implementation project?

• Identify what you need (and want) from Salesforce.
• Create a budget.
• Find the right experts for your needs.
• Plan your organizational change management strategy.
• Migrate your CRM data.
• Roll out features gradually.
• Invest in employee training.
• Provide proper CRM maintenance & support.

Full Answer

How to implement Salesforce successfully?

• Prioritize data hygiene. Your business may need to clean up and standardize existing data to improve its quality and resolve or prevent duplicate data. ...
• Integrate your data. Next, your organization will need to connect all existing Salesforce apps to Customer 360. ...
• Get a 360-degree view of your customers. ...

How do I implement Salesforce?

• It allows editing templates and controlling any changes made within a document.
• You can send signature requests to multiple individuals, adding their roles and request expiration dates.
• There are numerous features for adding initials. You can draw, type or capture them with a camera.

How to prepare for a Salesforce implementation?

Salesforce Implementation Process

1. Define Stakeholders. First things first: who is relevant to the project? ...
2. Define High-level Goals. Now that you’ve defined your stakeholders, you can engage them to determine what the goals of the project are.
3. Gather Requirements. ...
4. Prioritize Requirements. ...
5. Build. ...
6. Testing and Implementation of Feedback. ...
7. Prepare for Go-Live. ...
8. Go-Live. ...

What is the best Salesforce implementation process?

1. Bookmarks
2. Recommendations
3. Feeds

See more

What is the best way to implement Salesforce?

What are the Best Practices for Implementing Salesforce CRM?Plan and prepare.Establish a project timeline.Cost planning.Define success metrics.Prepare to Go live.Create a Change Management strategy.Provide training and drive adoption.Develop a post-implementation plan.

How is Salesforce implemented?

CRM Implementation Steps Salesforce recommends these steps for a successful implementation: Prepare by building a team, defining your vision, and setting goals. Set up by importing data, defining permissions, and adding customizations. Engage company-wide through training before going live.

How do I start a Salesforce implementation?

How to Implement SalesforceStep 1 – Hire a Salesforce Partner. ... Step 2 – Determine Who Will Be Your Project Lead (Executive Sponsor) ... Step 3 – Set an Estimated Timeline for the Process. ... Step 4 – Determine Key Decision Makers. ... Step 5 – Gather Insight From End Users. ... Step 6 – Maintain the Data. ... Step 7 – Launch in Phases.More items...•

What makes Salesforce successful?

One of the reasons that Salesforce is so popular is that it is packed with features like no other CRM software; features such as contact management, workflow creation, task management, opportunity tracking, collaboration tools, customer engagement tools, analytics and an intuitive, mobile-ready dashboard.

Is Salesforce easy to implement?

Invest in training. Salesforce is extremely powerful, and while it is easy to use, your employees will likely experience some questions. Prepare for the impending learning curve that will occur when you switch over from your previous business processes and systems.

What are the steps for CRM implementation?

How to implement a CRM systemSet realistic, actionable goals. ... Do your research to find the right CRM solution. ... Select a CRM team, with department champions. ... Forecast the costs and benefits. ... Migrate and integrate data. ... Train the team and test the system.

Why is Salesforce implementation important?

Salesforce has various products that are specially designed to deliver each goal: Sales Cloud, Revenue Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Pardot, and so much more. With the proper implementation of this CRM, you will increase sales efficiency, close more deals, and increase the accuracy of forecasts.

How much does a Salesforce implementation cost?

Depending on multiple factors that we will discuss later in this article, Salesforce implementation cost can go from $10,000 for the implementation of the very basic version to more than $100,000 for the multi-component project including complex integration, heavy optimization, and continuous customization and/or ...

What is CRM how CRM is implemented by Salesforce?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology for managing all your company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal is simple: Improve business relationships. A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability.

What are three tiers of Salesforce platform?

1 AnswerLevel 1 – Front line basic support.Level 2 – Advanced level support.Level 3 – Backend Development.

What is a Salesforce strategy?

Salesforce's growth strategies lie in investments by focusing on Cross-Selling and Upselling, extending existing service offerings, reducing customer attrition, expanding and strengthening the partner ecosystem, international expansion, targeting vertical industries, expanding into new horizon markets, extending go-to- ...

What are the top 5 reasons that have made Salesforce #1 CRM?

Top 5 Reasons to Choose Salesforce CRM for your BusinessCoping with Business Inefficiencies.Understanding the Customer Lifecycle.Need Better Analytics.Data Gaps.Single Source of Truth.

How do you implement Salesforce?

It is not enough to purchase the world’s best CRM license – that’s just the first step. The second, most important step is knowing how to adapt and customize it for your own business so you can get the most out of it.

Salesforce Implementation Process

A Salesforce Implementation typically follows the following structure:

Tips for a successful implementation

Define requirements that are as clear, explicit, and unambiguous as possible: Salesforce implementations go wrong when reality doesn’t quite match up to expectations. Clear expectations avoid this.

Is it time to invest in CRM?

Given the consequences that the coronavirus has brought to the global economy and how it has affected many businesses around the world, we firmly believe that it is the right time to make the change and protect your business today.

Need Salesforce support?

Get in contact with EMPAUA today and make the most out of your Salesforce implementation.

How to prepare for long term success?

1. Align around a shared vision as a blueprint for success. Everyone understands that having a clear vision is critical to success.

What is change management strategy?

A change management strategy should be uniquely woven into the fabric of the corporate culture , and while it’s great to utilize industry standards for change management, you also need to look deeply into the specific ways people work to ensure successful adoption for your unique needs.

How to integrate Salesforce?

1. Plan your integration. Planning is always paramount for successfully completing a project - in this case, integrating Salesforce at your company. First, define the specific objectives and outcomes of this integration.

Why do you need a C level executive in Salesforce?

You need a c-level executive who understands why implementing Salesforce is essential and has the authority to redirect resources as necessary to finish implementation. The last thing you want is for implementation to stall because management isn’t allowing time to be allocated to it.

How does Salesforce implementation work?

To ensure success, a Salesforce implementation has to involve key employees from each division of your organization early on, in order to express challenges and requirements; this feedback is essential. In summary, a Salesforce implementation should start with more planning and strategy , well before anything is actually integrated.

What are the scenarios for Salesforce?

To avoid wasting your time on guessing, it’s better to use the assistance of experienced Salesforce consultants, who can provide clear timeframe and three scenarios of Salesforce implementation: optimistic, pessimistic, and the most likely one.

What happens if Salesforce data migration goes wrong?

If something goes wrong, you might lose essential data, mix it, create duplicate records and, unfortunately, your CRM will be useless.

What is Salesforce administrator?

Salesforce Administrator is a person who daily maintains the Salesforce CRM system support after launch, helps the organization with new functionality on the post-implementation phase, and supports training and adoption.

What is Salesforce consulting?

A professional Salesforce consultant will advise on how to implement your software: support the existing business processes with Salesforce, tailor them to Salesforce or redesign the business processes and then map them to Salesforce.

What is user adoption in CRM?

User adoption is a key indicator of a successful CRM implementation. “Adoption” means that your stakeholders use your CRM software confidently, log in it regularly, and feel that their workflow has become much easier, faster, and more satisfying.

Can you use Excel to track CRM?

And yes, quite often people simply ignore CRM and might use Excel, Google Sheets, Outlook or Gmail to track their correspondence with prospects and clients. 2. Talk to Salesforce Implementation Consulting Partner.

How often does Salesforce release?

As salesforce release 3 times a year and brings really cool features that will help you to take your implementation at the next level and improve as you use it.

What does an executive sponsor do in Salesforce?

The executive sponsor lends their influence to the project by becoming its champion. According to Salesforce MVP and implementation expert, Tal Frankfurt, “Having that person’s full support and participation—from the planning stage until the go-live date and beyond—is absolutely critical.”.

What is waterfall approach?

The waterfall is the traditional, phased, sequential approach that may lead to a drawn-out implementation timeline. The scrum approach is to constantly build and deliver small units of functionality and revisit and refine them with each cycle.

Why is change management important?

Change management is an essential part of any implementation because it tells your constituent base what to expect, invests in the project, and empowers them for success. For example, if you’re making upgrades to your existing Salesforce implementation, your change management strategy should communicate to end-users how long Salesforce will be down — or, better yet, eliminate downtime entirely — and how they should track data until they’re able to log back in. If you’re deploying Salesforce for the very first time, your change management strategy should explain to end-users how they’ll benefit from the new systems and which training courses they should take to get up to speed.

Why is planning important in a project?

Planning is very crucial for the success of the Project. It has been a proven fact that Planning internally as a Customer becomes crucial for the success of the Project.

Is CRM adoption positive?

CRM adoption is positively correlated with sales success Once you’re up and running, it’s critical to get your users on board. To do so, it’s important that you support your users, measure adoption, and encourage adoption.

How to implement salesforce?

This will allow you to better plan a successful salesforce implementation. 2. Establish a project timeline. After deciding your implementation approach and requirements, you can start building the project timeline.

How long does Salesforce take to implement?

How long does a Salesforce implementation take? Salesforce implementation time can vary based on organizational requirements. On average, it could take 3 to 4 weeks and this time can be much longer in some cases. Understanding common best practices in salesforce implementation can increase speed and minimize costs.

Why do enterprises invest in Salesforce?

Enterprises invest in Salesforce ai ming to manage complex business challenges. If Salesforce implementation is done wrong, businesses cannot meet their desired outcomes. It is usually recommended to have a Salesforce implementation project manager in place who owns the process and guides the project to successful completion.

What is change management strategy in Salesforce?

If you are making any changes to your existing Salesforce software, your Change Management strategy can help you communicate to your employees how long it will take and what they should do until the changes are done. Change Management can go a long way in ensuring user adoption.

What are the two approaches to project timeline?

There are two common approaches that companies follow: SCRUM and Waterfall approach. Irrespective of what you choose, there are numerous other variables that you must consider, starting with dependencies.

How to achieve growth in business?

To achieve growth in business, set realistic goals and success metrics. Goals can vary depending on the organization. For example, company A’s goal might be to increase the average deal size by a certain dollar, and company B’s might be to reduce customer churn rate by 20%.

Can DAPs replace Salesforce training?

However, DAPs cannot replace traditional training completely.

4 Pillars for Salesforce Implementation Success

Salesforce can transform your organization into a digital powerhouse and provide sustained success given the right time frame. Unfortunately many organizations expect an ‘overnight success’ as soon as they roll out the carpet for Salesforce.

Stakeholders Buy- in

Stakeholder buy-in is the first and most important pillar that defines your Salesforce implementation project success. A Salesforce implementation should involve all departments in the organization without which there will be gaps in defining and sharing goals and objectives.

Data Management

IBM research claims that 27% of business leaders do not know how corrupted their data is and that’s a big mistake. Also according to Gartner’s Data Quality Market Survey, organizations can lose up to $15 million a year on average because of poor data.

Implementation Team

A successful Salesforce implementation requires all hands on deck. It’s all about assembling the right team who bring in the best value from your Salesforce implementation project.

User Adoption

You may have spent a lot of time and money implementing Salesforce. But if you find it difficult to gain user acceptance, your CRM doesn’t serve it’s actual purpose. Your Salesforce implementation is considered a success only when your users are enthusiastic about logging onto the platform and actually using it.

How to make Salesforce successful?

To make your Salesforce implementation successful, you need to find the user adoption rate within the organization. You need to know whether the users are familiar with the functionalities that they need to perform their job or not.

What is an assessment in Salesforce?

An assessment is an opportunity to understand the trend and to analyze where the Salesforce adoption stands. Every organization is different and as a result, will measure different KPIs to gauge the success as that factor is dependent on the industry, competition, and company’s priorities.

Why is it important to use KPIs?

Using the right KPIs is essential to assess the initial impact and improvise the strategy to make the most out of your investment. Written by Krishnan Kaushik. Krishnan works at Apty. He is passionate about Marketing and in love with Google SERPs.

Why is it important to have answers to all these questions in the initial phase?

Having answers to all these questions in the initial phase helps you to strategize well to ensure data quality and enable process compliance. Every industry is different and the way data is processed within a particular industry is different because of the specific different guidelines and rules that apply.

Why is it important to reduce the sales cycle?

Reducing the sales cycle is not only the key to close more deals in record time but also the key to focusing work on high-quality leads. This way the outcome of your Sales and Marketing teams is improved drastically and acts as an important success factor.

What is digital adoption platform?

You can use a Digital Adoption Platform which doubles up as a training method that can help the users while they are using the application. Tools like DAP are modern training methods designed to train your employees within the application while they do their job.