The Importance Of People: 4 Reasons Global Salesforce Implementations Fail

There are three key factors behind the success or failure of any organisational change: people, process and technology. In today’s blog, we’re looking at how people can impact the success of global Salesforce projects, focusing on the 4 most common ways that people can cause implementations to fail.

The use of Salesforce as a CRM tool is on the rise globally, having been ranked the #1 CRM provider for the eighth year in a row. But surprisingly, not all organisations are getting the most out of the platform. Due to challenges involved in user adoption and failure to grasp a clear understanding of the breadth and depth of its capabilities, the tool can be misinterpreted. There can also be uncertainty surrounding where and how to use what and when. It may be the case that the processes implemented are not the most efficient, or the easiest to navigate for the business user. Salesforce is a complex and tricky tool to get your head around at first and many organisations face barriers as it can require a significant investment in time with an all-hands-on-deck approach to realise your desired goals.

However, when correctly implemented, Salesforce has all the tools you need to help your business grow, and more. Whether you are a small-medium sized business, large enterprise or somewhere in between, Salesforce has the potential to improve your organisation’s efficiency and profitability. So, why do so many organisations struggle to achieve success? If the platform isn’t meeting your operational needs, there may be barriers affecting user adoption in your business. Keep reading to find out what these barriers might be and how you can solve them…

No executive sponsorship or top-level support

Depending on the depth and breadth of your projects, your organisation should be allocating key roles to deliver the most value from Salesforce. Usually, this would start with the executive sponsor – a leading individual who sets the vision, strategy and project success criteria, while making the tough decisions. Having a figurehead who will shape the Salesforce implementation and support the rollout across all levels of your organisation will increase visibility and understanding of the project company-wide. And, of course, improve ROI.

But one executive sponsor shouting about Salesforce is unlikely to be enough to ensure user adoption is at its best – support from your organisation’s leadership team is also key. Top-level managers should be fully transparent and involved in the process – in-market leadership and manager buy-in is pivotal. By adopting such responsibilities, important strategic information can cascade down to other key players throughout the implementation to ensure a better understanding of Salesforce’s value.

A lack of communication, support or buy-in from senior executives might be the reason why your Salesforce implementation is failing. It is the responsibility of top-level management to promote the credibility of the platform, create excitement and encourage buy-in from the rest of the organisation. Salesforce is an incredible solution with huge potential for your business, but it won’t work as intended if there’s a lack of investment from all parties, starting at the very top. After all, if your executives aren’t excited about it, why should their teams be?

The challenges of resourcing

There’s more to Salesforce than just the implementation. Salesforce, like any tool, lives, breathes and unlocks growth in your business, but only if managed correctly. Do you have an effective strategy in place to maximise your return on investment over time? Who will you employ (or allocate) to manage it? Do they have Salesforce experience? If so, what experience? Will their existing skills cover all bases (products), or will you need to invest in training? The platform itself requires a fair bit of love and affection to unlock greater benefits over time, so ensuring that your organisation is adequately equipped is a must.

There are two key actions you can take to ensure your business is adequately resourced: ensure a strategic roadmap is in place and that your employees have the operational-know how and time required to manage the platform on an ongoing basis.

Lack of training (leading to low user adoption)

So, you decided to go with Salesforce, your implementation team has you up and running and you are ready to go live… but, what’s next? Training, of course!

If your staff aren’t shown how the solution works, you’re unlikely to get much out of it at all. Poor communication and insufficient training plans are common contributors to poor user adoption. Thankfully, there are some simple tricks that you can put in place to solve this:

1. Implement thorough training in small focus groups to better understand how to use the platform. These small groups can then train your wider teams, providing ongoing support and collecting regular feedback through collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams.
2. Establish champion users across the team – these should be key points of contact who will work closely alongside the users to provide training, support and feedback daily.
3. Build an internal knowledge base with FAQs. At Trigg, we find Salesforce Knowledge and myTrailhead to be really effective tools, particularly as both provide a search engine feature and the functionality for your operational teams to create and share content as new questions are raised.

The result of these three tricks? A happy, productive and supportive user base, with increased platform use and improved productivity in the business overall! Without training, Salesforce could be perceived as too confusing and too complex. But this is exactly what we need in a CRM solution – the ability to target pain points and fine-tune processes to transform the way we currently work. Investing in a CRM is only advantageous if the users know how to use it right. So, if you’re experiencing problems, it’s time to check that your training plan is up to scratch!

Looking for support with your Salesforce implementation plans?