Invest in Salesforce UX/UI?

Imagine this scenario: Seymour, your newest rep is on their first big pitch. The client, Susan, is the primary decision maker and she likes and trusts Seymour. As Seymour goes in for the close, he gains buy-in and gets a verbal "Yes" from Susan, based on the price and value of the service. As Seymore is drawing up the paperwork, Susan says "This includes implementation and training, correct?"

Seymour freezes after realizing he forgot critical steps in the Needs Analysis stage. After apologizing, he pivots to asking additional questions and setting up a time for another pitch as the price will be changing.

Susan has lost trust in Seymour and is going to explore other vendors.

Seymour is upset the deal might be lost, and he is frustrated that he missed such a critical part of the sales process. He feels like he should have had better training and more support, especially considering everyone talks about how Salesforce helps Sales people sell more!

If only there was a way to help new reps by ensuring the proper sales process is followed. Good news, there are many ways!

What are some aspects found in good UX/UI?

1. Purposeful: Provides clear value and is user-friendly.
2. Intuitive: Streamline processes with simple, visually appealing designs that get the job done effortlessly.
3. Focused: Sit with the end user to understand their needs and pain points to ensure the right solutions for the right problems.
4. Flexible: Components should be consistent and often reusable where possible, increasing agility as your business grows. Imagine a rep that grows into leadership, they may need new features, while also valuing consistency as more functionality is made available.
5. Engaging: We have all worked with that person who still likes to log calls on their cell phone, and longs for the ways things 'used to be'. Bring them into the process upfront to help ensure reps want to use the system. Reward them through improved visibility, automation, and ultimately increasing their capacity to reach goals.

Investing in Salesforce UX/UI Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Improved productivity and profit
• Increased adoption of Salesforce
• Increased process adherence
• Decreased ramp-up period for new team members
• Improved team member retention
• It will be rewarding

Cons:

• Initial investment of time and resources
• Experienced reps may be averse to change
• It will be daunting

Features & Tools to improve Salesforce UX (Not all-inclusive)

• Record Types: (optional) Creating record types on opportunities helps ensure maximum flexibility as your product offerings scale.
• Sales Process: Helps ensure the appropriate stages are available, some product offerings may require more, less, or different stages.
• Validation rules: We all want to move faster, it is human nature to find ways to cut corners. Validation Rules (VRs) allow you to ensure specific steps are followed before saving a record or proceeding to the next stage in your Sales Process.
• Page Layouts: If you are newer in your Salesforce journey, page layouts are a simple way to organize the fields you want visible to your users, and remove the ones you don't. You can tweak these layouts by record type and user profile today. Important to note that the writing is on the wall for page layouts & profiles to be deprecated in favor of Permission Sets combined with dynamic forms and actions.
• Paths: One of the great components available in Lightning experience to provide clear visibility on where you are at in the Sales Process and critically important showcasing important fields and tips for success in that stage.
• Lightning App Builder: A whole article could be written here, and just might be in the future! You can create custom app pages, home pages, and record pages. Focusing on record pages, think about what is most important for your users to achieve desired outcomes. Leverage out-of-the-box (OOTB) components such as paths, dynamic forms/actions as well as field/component visibility. This will ensure the most relevant fields, history, actions, and more are available in the moments that matter.
• Bonus: One of my favorite apps for prototyping with Salesforce is Avonni. Check them out at https://www.avonni.app/. *Not a sponsored link.

Wrap-Up

Investing in and optimizing user experience can be a game-changer for your business. But, like any investment, it requires time, effort, and resources. To get started, sit with users who are doing the job to understand their pain points and ensure you connect any enhancements to those pain points when releasing/training.

If you need additional help, don't hesitate to reach out. During my 18-year career, I have had the opportunity to work with and lead great folks across Sales, Sales Operations, and Technology. I have learned so much and continue to do so. While I have achieved some success in that time, much of that was through standing on the shoulders of the giants before me - so I hope to provide that same opportunity for others. If you are interested to learn more about how Salesforce can help your business please comment below with subjects you are interested in.

*This article was outlined using ChatGPT, and thoroughly edited based on my own experience leading Salesforce development and product management teams responsible for thousands of users across sales, service, and marketing.

**I am not a writer by trade, content creation on social media is new to me so please message me with the gift that needs no holiday - feedback!

Michael Berris