This sponsored post is produced by StarrForce.
Salesforce has quickly become a constant in the business world due to its ability to help businesses manage their customer relations. But as many discover, it doesn't happen overnight or with the flip of a switch.
Assembling Salesforce to work for your business and employees takes time and effort -- and making it truly effective can be difficult. Along the way, there can be many different challenges, but with the right approach and resources, these can all be addressed. Once you're able to maneuver around these obstacles, Salesforce can be the invaluable tool that's made it one of the biggest cloud-based companies today.
Understanding Salesforce licensing
There are multiple types of Salesforce licenses, and it's important to buy the right license type for your business. Knowing whether or not you need automation in Salesforce is key to determining if Professional or Enterprise licenses are right for you, but where most companies struggle is with the use of Force.com licenses.
Force.com licenses do not have all the capabilities that Enterprise licenses have, but they are a fraction of the cost and typically have enough functionality for departments such as HR and Engineering. Knowing whether or not your company can utilize Force.com licenses can save your company thousands of dollars per year.
Integrating the team with Salesforce
Routines are comfortable and it can be tough to get employees and sales teams to change their method of operation and adopt a new system. In order to maximize Salesforce’s benefits, however, it's important that it is universally adopted and enforced company-wide. One way companies have successfully brought everyone on board is by adopting the policy “If it’s not in Salesforce, it doesn’t exist” as a way to enforce employee usage.
Training is also vital. As with any tool, lacking training, users will never be able to maximize its use, or worse yet, get frustrated, confused, or overwhelmed. Along with providing training on how to use Salesforce, employees should have someone to turn to when they have questions, such as a Salesforce Administrator. If users aren't being guided in how to use the platform, early frustration can lead them to stop using it altogether -- making Salesforce entirely irrelevant.
Maintaining the system
As much as people may wish otherwise, Salesforce is not a “set and forget” tool. Once implemented, it needs to be continuously managed and maintained in order to stay up to date and relevant to users. Hiring a Salesforce Administrator is a great way to keep Salesforce maintained and employees using Salesforce. With a Salesforce Administrator in place, you have someone dedicated to managing Salesforce, which can include generating reports, updating page layouts, modifying automation processes, and most importantly, answering user questions.
Many businesses try to tack on these responsibilities to a current employee’s job, but without the proper training, it's difficult for someone to properly administer Salesforce. For companies who don't want to hire an in-house Salesforce Administrator, it's common to outsource these responsibilities to a certified Salesforce partner such as StarrForce -- providing you with an expert to manage Salesforce, while you're able to focus your resources on the core of your business.
Measuring progress
A lot of companies struggle with knowing whether or not Salesforce is helping their business and providing a positive return on their investment. The only way to know this is by developing quantifiable goals to measure the overall effect of Salesforce.
For example, sales teams can look at the effect Salesforce has had on their opportunity win rate and revenue to determine whether or not it is a success, or service departments can track success based on an increase in either customer satisfaction or the ability to meet SLAs. By creating quantifiable goals that relate to your business and Salesforce, you can see firsthand the effect Salesforce is having on your company.
Facing additional challenges with Salesforce? Read more articles like this one on StarrForce's knowledge base.
Darren Starr is CEO of StarrForce
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