For many companies, full-scale Salesforce adoption is a struggle. In some cases, users don’t know how to use the platform and don’t know who to ask for help. In others, they just don’t want to use it — likely because they don’t understand the value it will bring.
Thankfully, there are ways to combat these issues, and rigorous user training sessions should be your company’s first defense. These sessions — ideally led by whatever Salesforce partner helped with your implementation — are designed to educate users about how they should use the platform on a day-to-day basis in their specific roles.
Of course, regardless of who conducts the training sessions, leaders have a major influence on the outcome. Here's how.
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4 Salesforce user training tips for leaders:
1. Make sure the entire team is free and on site
It’s essential that leadership convey to employees how important it is that they attend all scheduled user training sessions, and one great way to do that is by ensuring that everybody is actually able to attend. Communicate the dates of the sessions well in advance, and don’t schedule any company-wide meetings or events on those days. And if you’ve got employees who are regularly on the road, make sure they’ll be in the office.
While technologies like Zoom make it possible for employees to virtually attend sessions from anywhere in the world, the best learning often occurs “in the classroom.” The consultants doing the teaching will be better able to read the room, recognizing who needs extra help and personal attention, and your team will have an easier time asking questions and voicing any concerns.
2. Communicate your future Salesforce support process during training
After training ends, your implementation team’s job will be done, but that doesn’t mean your users will never have another question about Salesforce. Going forward, you’ll want a Salesforce admin — or a team of admins, depending on the size of your organization — to handle all internal support issues.
Before user training ends, you should introduce your support person (or people) and explain the appropriate processes for requesting help. That way, even if a user experiences an issue on day one, they’ll know exactly how to deal with it.
3. Be open to user feedback
Ideally, by the time you reach user training, you and your implementation team will have iterated to the point of completion — your team should be completely satisfied with your Salesforce build. That said, it’s not unheard of for an employee to notice an issue or make a recommendation for improvement during a user training session. And instead of telling them that it’s too late to make any more changes, you should hear them out.
This helps reinforce the idea that Salesforce is a tool meant to help them do their job better — a productivity tool — and that you value their feedback. When an employee feels more ownership over a particular technology, they’ll be much more likely to use it.
4. Announce your go-live plan during training
Training is the final step before your company officially “goes live” with Salesforce — and that makes it the perfect opportunity to communicate your company’s launch plan. What day will it happen? How long will existing legacy technologies remain active? At what point will data that’s not in Salesforce be considered not to exist, as far as the company is concerned? These are the kinds of questions you should be answering.
By doing this, you’ll help position user training as a lead up to a defining moment for the company, and not just some random requirement.
By doing everything listed above, you’ll help make sure that training goes well and that it leads smoothly into widespread Salesforce adoption. Your team will understand the platform’s importance and know who to go to for help when they get stuck, making them much less likely to simply ignore the new technology. And that’s great news for your business.
