Successful #SALESFORCE Implementation

#Salesforce implementation is a serious investment, so the preparation process shouldn’t be taken lightly. Before you launch your project, start with the following checklist:

Step #1: Bring Together the Business Stakeholders to Discuss the Main Goals and Challenges

It’s essential to engage with different teams and people within your company to have a complete picture of your business needs for Salesforce implementation. To know what to expect from your CRM, you need to understand what internal challenges you have. Interview key members at every level of business to understand what pain points they experience every day. After that, you’ll be able to identify what can be solved with the help of software and prioritize your teams to set realistic goals for your system.

Step #2: Document All The Internal Processes And Daily Tasks

It’s important to stop and think about the day-to-day tasks of your teams and how their workflows look like.Reach out to each department of your organization and ask them to document these processes and how they can be optimized.

Step #3: Set Project Timeline and Budget

Make sure that your Salesforce implementation project doesn’t overlap with other ongoing significant projects. To reduce risks of key resources shortage, set the best time frame in advance.As soon as you’ve defined the project timeline, plan vital rollout phrases, testing, and kickoff meetings.Also, evaluate your key needs and expectations to balance them with a high-level budget estimate. To get more detailed budget projections, it’s better to contact a few Salesforce consultants with long-term experience with various CRM implementation approaches.

Step #4: Create Several Scenarios of the Project Outcome

Salesforce project estimation is heavily influenced by a number of factors, including company size, amount of data to import, and required customization. To avoid unexpected situations and predict possible risks, create three scenarios of the Salesforce implementation process: optimistic, pessimistic, and the most likely one.

Step#5: Establish Metrics for Success

To measure the success of your Salesforce implementation project, you need to set tangible goals and metrics. For example, you want to reduce case resolution time by 40% or increase lead flow by 30% with the CRM rollout. Such specific metrics help to envision goal completion and modify your implementation strategy accordingly.

Step #6: Set Communication Channels and Create a Communication Plan

To achieve CRM implementation goals, team collaboration should be clear and consistent. Effective communication between implementers, project stakeholders, and teams within the organization is a key to successful Salesforce CRM deployment and adoption.

Step #7: Identify your Project Stakeholders and Individual Roles

Even if your organization’s resources are too limited, you have to appoint key people who will be involved in the Salesforce implementation process.

Generally, CRM rollout project stakeholders involve:

• Senior management
• Platform users
• Sales, service, and marketing teams
• Channel partners
• Customers
• IT specialists

But it doesn’t mean that you need to have a large, dedicated team to set up CRM implementation because one person can handle several major roles.

It’s also vitally important to identify:

• Your primary stakeholder that will assure your preparedness for the CRM implementation project
• The person who will oversee the whole process internally and will serve as a primary point of contact
• The technical resource who is in charge of systems in place that you’d like to integrate with Salesforce or migrate from

Step #8: Explore Your Source Data

Before starting your Salesforce implementation process, you need to prepare your data for the import. Regardless of its source, you need to be sure that your data sets are accurate and free of errors to nourish your new system and business operations. Establish policies for naming conventions and data duplication prevention.

Step #9: Create Change Management Plan

Be sure that you have a definite change management plan in effect prior to launching Salesforce implementation. It should continue throughout the CRM project and after the go-live date.

Step #10: Understand Salesforce Structure and UI

Getting to know the look, feel, and structure of Salesforce is also a necessary step before moving to Salesforce. It will help you and your team manage your expectations in regards to system capabilities in translating your business process into a new platform.

All additional questions will be answered by Kate Boyko