8 Considerations for a Successful Salesforce Implementation

Salesforce is a dynamic CRM platform with multiple products and limitless customization capability. The low-code development tools in Salesforce allows users to build, design, optimize, and innovate solutions in less effort, budget, and time.

Despite the feasibility to develop and deploy solutions at a faster pace, Salesforce investment doesn’t always translate into success. To ensure foolproof success in Salesforce implementation, businesses need to have a plan in place that takes care of various aspects right from resource allocation, change management, migration, to training and support.

As an established Salesforce implementation services provider, we bring you some considerations that can help you overcome implementation challenges and ensure success post deployment. Follow these steps as you plan for Salesforce implementation:

1. Identify Your Needs from Salesforce

Ask each department to list down their trouble areas. It can be anything from recurring tasks to lack of features in existing setup. Based on their inputs and change requests, you can determine what to implement and how to do it. If you find difficulty in implementing Salesforce, don’t forget to bring an experienced Salesforce implementation partner onboard for strategy creation or execution.

2. Create a Budget Plan

Salesforce implementation costs vary from project to project. If it's a complex one, it’ll definitely cost higher than a simple customization or migration in your Salesforce ecosystem. Creating a budgeting strategy and putting caps on various expenses can help you use investments in a better manner.

Here are some of the common expenses in Salesforce implementation:

• Salesforce licensing
• Consulting fees
• Hiring implementation specialists
• Data migration costs
• Training and Skill enhancement
• IT maintenance
• End-user support

Tip: Hiring a Salesforce solutions partner under flexible contact can help you minimize investment and maximize ROI.

3. Find the Right Experts For Your Needs

Since Salesforce adoption is a huge investment, you must implement it under the guidance of professionals. Salesforce Implementation companies can help you prepare a strategic plan for implementation taking due consideration of your future needs.

To hire a Salesforce partner, you can look for consulting firms on AppExchange or other reliable portals. Do check your partner’s track record, technical skills, industry expertise, local and global presence, success stories, and training capability in depth.

4. Plan a Solid Change Management Strategy

Hoping that your entire workforce will happily adopt the new system from the word go isn’t a good idea. You should ensure your employees have everything they need to get started with the new system. If you want to secure positive outcomes from implementation, you must create a user-centric change management plan.

Do try to know the opinions and preferences of your employees before creating any change management strategy. You can conduct surveys digitally and collect the feedback of the employees during the initial phase of the process. After collecting responses from employees, you can sit down with a Salesforce implementation partner for execution and rollout plan.

5. Migrate Your CRM Data Carefully

To get new Salesforce up and running, you’ll require migrating data from legacy/primary systems to Salesforce (or from one Salesforce instance to another). To have a seamless migration, you should follow these practices:

• Identify the data objects and fields for migration
• Create templates for each objects
• Populate the templates
• Review templates before loading
• Prepare destination data
• Clean source data
• Validate data post migration

6. Roll Out Changes In Cycles

When you implement Salesforce, you’ll definitely customize out-of-the-box features to make them fit for your business. While making such changes is understandable, these changes can result in low adoption when rolled at once.

To prevent low adoption and ensure high productivity post implementation, teams should gradually roll out features. This will ease the transition and give employees some breathing room for adaptation to the changes.

7. Invest in Employee Training

After you roll out changes, you would want the employees to work comfortably on the new system. However, this can be a problem, especially if the employees are not trained well. To ensure high adoption post implementation, you should make plans for learning even before you get started with the implementation process. Investing in training and learning programs can help you ensure a seamless onboarding and productivity.

8. Get CRM Maintenance and Support

No matter how well you have implemented your CRM, you’ll have to be ready for new updates and changes. Your Salesforce implementation partner will likely help you in setting up the organization’s ongoing maintenance. You’ll also need their assistance in ongoing review of your processes and workflows in order to make changes from time to time.

Bottom-line

Salesforce implementation has to be carried out in a phased manner and in a planned way. By following the right steps, involving necessary stakeholders, and collaborating with experienced partners, teams can have a successful and profitable implementation. At Damco, we have implemented 100+ solutions for different industry leaders and SMBs and would help you succeed in your Salesforce journey with our planned implementations.