Success with Salesforce — or any CRM — depends on successful user adoption, and user adoption requires effective Salesforce end user training.
Training programs, resources, and tools abound in the CRM world, yet user adoption remains a challenge. While much of the available information is helpful, a one-size-fits-all training program simply doesn’t exist. There are, however, some common crm mistakes that — when avoided — can help ensure you successfully train your end-users.
1. Providing Resources but No Live Instruction
It’d be nice if we could make our Salesforce end-user training program like this:
But taking an instruction-manual-only approach usually ends up more like this:
Providing Salesforce training manual, materials, resources, and guides is helpful, but you need to do more than that. Don’t expect your end-users to read through every piece of documentation and come out the other side as a power user.
Live instruction is worth the investment. It creates the space for interaction and allows trainers and managers to see what their end-users really care about and need to know (rather than assuming what they need and leaving it up to generic resources).
But you need to do more than just walk through a crm presentation…which leads to our 2nd commonly made mistake.
2. Demonstrating but Not Practicing
It’s important to have Salesforce live training instruction session, but you need to do more than just walk through a crm presentation. And screenshots won’t cut it. Demonstrate what you’re discussing by a crm live demo, then select volunteers to do what you’ve just trained them on. You can have other trainees guide them through what to do so everyone gets involved and exercises the material.
3. Never Telling End-Users The “Why”
People are less willing to start using new software or technology if they don’t believe it’s going to significantly benefit them. Too many organizations train their end-users on what to do, but not why it’s important. You can train a salesperson how to enter data into Salesforce all day, but if you don’t show them how it’s going to increase their pipeline and close rate, they’re probably not going to do it.
To do this well, you need to understand what pain points your end-users have. When implemented successfully, Salesforce alleviates pain and makes people more effective at their jobs. It’s the trainer’s job to convince them that what they’re learning will actually help them.
4. Throwing Salesforce End User Training Responsibilities on an Admin (Without Giving Them More Time)
Salesforce Admins know the most about your Salesforce Org and how it’s being used, so it makes sense to make them the default trainer, right? Not necessarily. Salesforce Admins have a full plate and then some. Throwing training responsibilities on their plate without giving them the space to do it well isn’t just unfair to them, it’s also unfair to your end-users.
Without someone who has space in their job description to focus on training, your end-users won’t get the training they need which can lead to low user adoption and low ROI.
5. Not Creating a (Clear and Helpful) Agenda
You put an event on everyone’s calendar for a training session. You’ve got the material prepared and you’re ready to go. But all anybody knows is that they’re supposed to attend a “Salesforce Training.” Look, we love Salesforce, but we also understand that not everyone wakes up giddy about a 2-hour long Salesforce training session.
Create an agenda that details what’s going to be covered and how it will benefit the end-user. You can also include some resources that they can explore before the session or reference afterward. By sending an agenda, you give your end-users time to prepare before the training session so they can come with better questions and more ready to engage.
It’s important to actually make the agenda helpful — don’t make it a bland outline with vague bullet points. Be specific, clear, and helpful.
Salesforce End User Training in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, TX
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to training, but avoiding the above five mistakes can help you more successfully train your Salesforce end-users and increase user adoption.
Ventas Consulting provides live Salesforce end user training in the major cities like Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, Texas to enhance and fasten Salesforce adoption. For information check out our Salesforce Implementation Services.