A Salesforce to be Reckoned With

In this technological age, a company doesn’t successfully run without some type of AI-managed customer service platform or an enterprise cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. Salesforce, one of the industry leaders in CRM, reports that by implementing their software, businesses increase sales revenues by 28% and sales win rates by 26%. And on average, a CRM system can promise a return of $8.71 for every dollar spent initially. Salesforce streamlines every process to track sales, revenue, and create a database for clients and prospects—making management easy and seamless.

For organizations already using Salesforce, it’s wise to audit how your users and admins are using Salesforce daily to make sure you’re achieving maximum adoption and seeing a return on your investment. Here are ten tips to keep in mind to help boost your company’s ROI while using Salesforce.

The Ten Commandments of Salesforce Optimization

Here are ten tips to elevate your company’s ROI with Salesforce.

Tip 1: Avoid the Accidental Admin

“Accidental Admins” happen when someone unintentionally fills the role of a Salesforce Admin, without prior education or experience. Certified Salesforce Admins have hands-on experience and extensive training. An Accidental Admin–who may have a background in accounting, marketing, or facility management–can’t compare to a Certified Admin. Additionally, Certified Salesforce Admins uphold specific standards for access to and dissemination of sensitive data. While Accidental Admins will do their best to meet the requests of your business, it’s best to avoid that sticky situation and instead invest in Certified Salesforce Admins who will have education, resources, and Salesforce experience.

Tip 2: Classify Automation Opportunities

One of the best ways to optimize your Salesforce workflow is through automation. By identifying and classifying automation opportunities, your company can automate tedious tasks and get time back to focus on other important work. In the end, low-value tasks can be replaced with automated solutions—which means less “busy work” for your team. It’s literally the definition of “work smarter, not harder!”

Tip 3: Utilize Quick Actions in Salesforce Lightning

Similar to automation, Quick Actions are a vastly underutilized tool in the Salesforce admin toolbox. These nifty actions should be an admin’s best friend—they’re not hard to make, they’re simple for end users to use, and most importantly, they’re incredibly versatile. Generally, quick actions are used to make tasks (like creating records, logging calls, and sending emails) faster and easier for your end users.

Tip 4: Measure Your Company’s Salesforce Usage

“If it can be measured, it can be managed.” But beyond basic management, measuring your company’s Salesforce usage can also identify how your team is using the CRM and what needs changes to improve your company’s overall ROI. Monitor metrics like user login rates, record creation, activity completion, opening/closing tasks, Salesforce Chatter, etc. By measuring these performance metrics, you’ll understand how your company is using Salesforce, problem areas, and what is most beneficial to your organization’s success.

Tip 5: Assess the Efficacy of your Company’s Salesforce Usage

Once you are steadily measuring your company’s Salesforce usage, take things a step further and assess how efficient that usage is. You can create custom dashboards based on patterns of your organizational usage, and examine how efficient Salesforce is through those dashboards. Bottom line? See if Salesforce is helping your company—and if it’s not, identify areas that can be adjusted to make your organization more successful.

Tip 6: Keep Your Data Accurate and High Quality

The foundation of Salesforce is the data within the CRM. If you want your company to have the highest ROI using Salesforce, you need a strong foundation—which means high-quality and accurate data. Training sessions for employees and check-ins are helpful, but also utilize data quality reports to make sure any inconsistencies are identified early and fixed appropriately.

Tip 7: Gather End-User Feedback

If you want the highest ROI from Salesforce, it’s important that your users are using the CRM properly and feel comfortable interacting within the platform. Regularly check-in with employees, create an anonymous survey, and gather feedback directly. Then, use that feedback to solve any problem areas or identify possible future Salesforce Admins who can help take your company to the next level!

Tip 8: Track Your Business Performance

As your organization settles into using Salesforce, be sure to track your business performance over time. Just because employees are logging into the CRM, doesn’t always translate to correct usage—and if you want to maximize your ROI, you’ll need a way to better track your performance. Instead of basic analytics, look deeper. Instead of the number of calls, look at time spent on calls, the type of calls, and calls that led to closed deals. Analyze your business performance, and use the results to increase productivity and overall usage.

Tip 9: Work with a Salesforce Consultant

Salesforce is a dynamic system, and organizations jumping into this pool want to make sure their lifeguard is on duty. That’s where a Salesforce consulting partner, like Bitwise Industries, comes in! Finding a trusted partner to walk you through the Salesforce implementation process isn’t a one-and-done endeavor. It can be a mutually beneficial relationship that will grow and stretch over time. That time and shared experiences are the bridge to building trust and a lasting partner.

Tip 10: Understand, Reward, and Replicate

Throughout the Salesforce adoption process, make sure to reward the efforts of your employees. It’s no easy feat to learn and utilize a new software, especially one as large as Salesforce. Recognize the efforts of team members in learning Salesforce, reward them, and replicate it with others. Before long, your team will be using Salesforce like pros!

Understanding is Key

Don’t forget the bigger picture. Salesforce is built to strengthen your business, not hinder it—so make sure your team understands how it is specifically helping your organization. This is the key to overcoming any challenges around adoption and also identifying whether folks are using Salesforce correctly. Regularly check-in with employees during training, ask for feedback directly and indirectly, and use that feedback to inform future training sessions. Share with your team members how Salesforce is specifically strengthening the organization—analytics like time spent on calls, types of calls that led to sales, and patterns and behaviors that led to deals. By proving the value of Salesforce to your end-users, the more likely they will be to adopt and use it in their workflows.

We Can Help

Bitwise Industries specializes in custom software development, Salesforce implementation and administration, and Contact Center-as-a-Service support. Our technology professionals have deep experience applying cutting-edge technology solutions to help entities of all sizes navigate the technology landscape to find solutions to optimize their operations.

This post was written by Leah Sadoian, Content Specialist, at Bitwise Industries. When she’s not working, you can usually find Leah logging some 5 A.M. miles around the Tower District, as she prepares to run her 7th half marathon this fall.

If you’re interested in uncovering the tech possibilities available to your organization or want to find more ways to increase your ROI with technology, click this link to schedule some time with one of our experts.