5 Salesforce User Adoption Problems And How To Fix Them

5 Salesforce User Adoption Problems And How To Fix Them

“The sales forecast spreadsheets never match what’s in salesforce”.

That from the VP of Sales of a prospective customer last month. He was complaining about low sales adoption of salesforce.

I’m sorry? What did you say?

Why on earth are you still using spreadsheets for sales forecasting when you have salesforce?

Actually, low sales adoption of salesforce is more common that you might think. And one way this manifests is continuing to use spreadsheets for forecasting and pipeline management.

Here is the business impact that emerged when we discussed low sales adoption with this VP of Sales.

  • Lack of pipeline visibility. A single salesforce dashboard provides a perspective on the size, quality and trend in the pipeline from different angles. A spreadsheet usually gives a one dimensional picture.
  • It’s clearly more time and effort to maintain opportunity information in two places rather than one.
  • Inconsistent information. Different teams using different spreadsheet formats and structure.
  • Lack of consolidation. Rolling up multiple spreadsheets into a single company-level view is a cottage industry in its own right.
  • It’s difficult to view a spreadsheet from a mobile device or when you’re out of the office. And it can be very difficult if someone else is editing the spreadsheet at the same time!

So low sales adoption is a problem. But it’s one that can be fixed. Usually quite easily.

But of course if you want to change the situation then you need to understand why it happens in the first place.

So we asked the VP of Sales why he thought low sales adoption occurred in his business. We have listed the reasons he gave below – along with our recommended actions for improving sales adoption.

1. Fear of visibility of sales performance

 

Sales adoption problem described by the VP of Sales

Sales people generally don’t vote for more visibility. Or at least the lower performers don’t. Keeping the opportunity information and sales forecast in a spreadsheet minimizes this visibility.

Our sales adoption recommendation

Be careful that this isn’t a management problem. If senior managers are constantly breathing down the necks of sales people on every big deal, then there’s little incentive to use salesforce. And even if you move sales forecasting entirely to salesforce then you risk sandbagging.

If you are confident there isn’t a management problem then check the visibility levels in salesforce. Agree what people can see – and cannot see.

But other than that, tough. It’s a fact of life that sales people operate in a high visibility role. If it’s too hot then don’t come into the kitchen.

2. Managers unaware how to run a pipeline review in salesforce

 

Sales adoption problem described by the VP of Sales

Using reports and dashboards to conduct an effective pipeline review or create a sales forecast needs know-how. Not a lot, but some.

Salesforce reports and dashboards are a tool. In themselves, they don’t manage the sales team. But managers need to know how to use these tools.

Our sales adoption recommendation

Coach sales managers how to conduct both a short term and a long term funnel review in salesforce.

This blog post and the accompanying video explains how to use the single most useful chart on the salesforce dashboard. It’s a good place to start by learning how to conduct a funnel review in salesforce.

Sales Dashboard by GSP

Superb Pipeline Visibility and Sales
Performance Metrics from this free Dashboard.

3. No pipeline reports and dashboard charts set up

 

Sales adoption problem described by the VP of Sales

When a salesforce sales executive pitches the system, the first thing they do is demonstrate dashboards. And yet it’s remarkable how many companies that have implemented salesforce still don’t have pipeline reports and dashboards set up.

Or at least no decent ones that give effective visibility of sales performance.

If managers can’t get the visibility they need from salesforce then they’re going to keep opportunity information in spreadsheets.

Our sales adoption recommendation

The solution is obvious. Set up opportunity management reports and dashboard charts that give managers the visibility of sales performance and the sales pipeline that they need.

We’ve written extensively to help you do this. Take a look at our most popular blog post, 12 Charts That Should Be On Your Salesforce Dashboard. You might also want to try Spot Poor Quality Deals Using Salesforce Dashboards.

4. Salesforce is too difficult to use

Sales adoption problem described by the VP of Sales

Too many fields have been created on the opportunity. Or too many validation rules. It’s just too damn difficult to create and update an opportunity on salesforce through its lifecycle.

Sales people will, not unreasonably, take the route of least resistance.

If it’s hard to manage deals and produce sales forecasts in salesforce then sales adoption will suffer. Both managers and their team members will gravitate towards spreadsheets.

Our sales adoption recommendation

Take a long hard look at the way salesforce is set up. Are all the fields really necessary? Can the number of mandatory fields be reduced? Are there too many validation rules?

Implementing salesforce so that it genuinely adds value to the sales person is fundamental to sales adoption. There’s multiple ways to do this. For starters, try our blog post 5 Compelling Ways to increase salesforce benefits or even 5 More Compelling Ways to Increase Salesforce Benefits.

5. Lack of sales management desire to use salesforce

 

Sales adoption problem the VP of Sales described

The Sales Manager just doesn’t get it.

They’ve always used spreadsheets. It’s a tried and tested way to manage the sales team. You don’t have to be a computer genius to use a spreadsheet.

That scenario definitely exists.

But sometimes the Sales Manager does actually get it. It’s just that they lack personal confidence in using salesforce. And don’t want to look like a complete numpty in front of their team or peers.

Our sales adoption recommendation

The first scenario is increasingly less common. Where it exists, the Sales Manager needs careful education through demonstrations and external reading. Try many of our salesforce dashboard-related blog posts for examples of the power of using the system to manage sales performance.

And not everyone is confident using a PC or laptop. We have conducted a number of private training sessions for senior executives to educate, coach and instil confidence in using the system. It’s rarely a capability issue, more a matter of knowing how to navigate the system with confidence.

Update: Salesforce adoption in our customer’s sales team

I’m pleased to say the prospective customer on which this blog post is based is now a customer of GSP.

We ran several workshops with the sales team to listen to their concerns. This enabled us to create a tailored approach to increasing adoption and improving forecasting accuracy.

To start with we streamlined their salesforce user interface. Removed many of the superfluous fields and validation rules.

Then we implemented a number of measures to streamline sales processes. This includes implementing Conga and DocuSign to automatically produce customer-ready quotes and proposals directly from salesforce. And in order to make it much easier to find Products and add them to Opportunities we implemented the Product Selection Wizard.

We have re-built their reports and salesforce dashboard charts. The sales team now has full visibility of the sales pipeline. And the ability to forecast accurately using salesforce.

We implemented new target functionality so that sales people and their managers can easily view sales performance against target. This led to a tremendous boost in the popularity of the system for sales executives.

New metrics now track user adoption across the team. Rather than focusing simply on whether sales people have logged on, the metrics measure the quality of interaction with the system. The purpose is to identify people that might benefit from further coaching and advice on how to get the best from salesforce.

One final thing. We conducted a series of one-to-one coaching sessions with each of the sales managers. We showed them how to conduct a pipeline review and sales forecast in salesforce. This gave the team the confidence and know-how to use salesforce reports and dashboards to manage the team effectively.

Needless to say, the sales forecast spreadsheets have been ditched.

So goodbye spreadsheets. Hello sales adoption, accurate forecasting and a more effective way of working.

12 Must-Have Dashboard Charts

Our 27 page eBook shows you the 12 killer
Sales Charts for your dashboard.

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Forget login frequency: Measure salesforce user adoption this way

Forget login frequency: Measure salesforce user adoption this way

Over half of the new prospects that come to us for help have issues with salesforce user adoption.

These companies have the system. But their CRM project is not the success they hoped. Something is getting in the way. And sometimes that something is people. People aren’t using salesforce. User adoption is low.

But don’t give up hope. Many companies have gone from low to high to full salesforce user adoption.

And here’s the place to start. User adoption metrics.

Because as the saying goes, “if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it”. Of course the reverse is also true. If you can measure it you can manage it.

Unfortunately managers often think that the best way to measure salesforce user adoption is to track whether people have logged in. And that’s reflected in the standard user adoption dashboard that comes with salesforce. But that dashboard is a blunt instrument. In fact it tells us next to nothing.

More subtle and powerful adoption measures are available. Ones that measure not only the quantity – but also the quality – of salesforce user adoption.

So here are 4 dashboard charts and reports that track salesforce user adoption effectively. Use these reports and charts to drive adoption and increase the benefits your business secures from your investment in salesforce licenses.

Adoption metric #1 – Opportunities with Close Dates in the past

This is a straight forward report and a great indicator of both a neglected pipeline and low salesforce user adoption. Quite simply, an Opportunity can’t close in the past so what’s it doing there on the graph?

Measuring opportunities with close dates in the past is a good way to accurately measure salesforce user adoption.

Salesforce report that measures opportunities with close dates in the past in order to provide a user adoption metrics.

The dashboard chart and report show there’s some significant deals with Close Dates earlier than today. Perhaps some of these deals have already closed but not been updated in salesforce. Maybe they need the Close Date moving to a future date. Either way it indicates both poor user adoption – and reduced visibility of the sales pipeline.

Adoption metric #2 – Number of Contacts created

Anyone in a sales, business development or account management role is meeting new people all the time. So they should be regularly adding new Contacts to salesforce. Measuring the number of new Contacts created not only provides valuable insight into each customer or prospect organisation, it improves the range of people that are available for marketing and lead nurturing purposes.

The number of Contacts created is a great measure of salesforce user adoption.

Tracking the number of new Contacts created per month provides an immediate indication of whether sales people are using salesforce.

But it’s not just about quality – we want an indication of quality. So the percentage of those Contacts that have the Email field populated has been added to the underlying report. This can just as easily apply to the phone number or other optional data. Conditional highlighting on the report allows us to immediately identify opportunities for improvement.

In the chart above we can see that Mike is adding the least number of Contacts. And many of that he does add don’t have the email address populated.

Adoption metric #3 – Percentage of Opportunity fields completed

If we’re focused on measuring user adoption among the sales team then apply this metric Opportunities. But it can just as easily be added to any object in salesforce.

The chart shows the percentage of fields on the Opportunity into which the sales person has entered data.

Include only important fields and not necessarily every field on the page layout. Of course there’s no need to include mandatory fields in the adoption metric – they’ll have data in any case.

A small percentage of non-mandatory fields completed on Opportunities means low levels of salesforce user adoption.

In our example, Ricky and Ted should really be filling in more fields on opportunities.

This is a great way to measure salesforce user adoption. But experience also shows that the more thorough the information gathering on opportunities then the higher the win rates.

Adoption metric #4 – Opportunity Stage Movement

If sales reps are using salesforce to manage their deals through the sales process then we should see the majority of Opportunities moving progressively through each Opportunity Stage.

The Opportunity Stage Movement report tells us whether this is indeed the case.

The opportunity stage movement report highlights opportunities that are not moving progressively through the sales cycle and means salesforce user adoption is low.

The report shows, for any given period of time, what has happened to the Opportunities. For example, in the chart and report above we can see that of the 335 Opportunities that were in the Prospecting Stage, 85 then moved to Investigation Stage.

However 28 Opportunities moved directly from Prospecting to Closed Won.

Depending on the nature of your business that might be an acceptable ratio – after all, some deals do close almost immediately, without going through the various other stages. But an excessive number of Opportunities following this pattern indicates that sales executives are not updating deals as they move through the sales cycle.

That means salesforce user adoption is low. It also means that sales managers are losing valuable insight into the sales pipeline and sales performance.

Sales Dashboard by GSP

Superb Pipeline Visibility and Sales
Performance Metrics from this free Dashboard.

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5 Factors to Consider When Switching to Salesforce Lightning

5 Factors to Consider When Switching to Salesforce Lightning

Like many long-time Salesforce users, I had to learn to love the Lightning interface.

In part, that’s because the Classic interface is burned into every blood vessel in my retina.

I can navigate it with my eyes shut.

So, like you, at first I had to work hard to adapt to the Lightning layout.

But, here’s what happens when you learn something new:

You approach it with a fresh perspective.

That means finding ways to make it better; ways to improve the Lightning experience.

That’s exactly what happened when I studied the salesforce Lightning interface. I found simple ways to make Lightning better for salespeople.

That means improved usability, increased user adoption and superior visibility of the sales pipeline.

Since then, I’ve applied these Lightning best practices to dozens of companies.

Now you can do the same.

Here they are:

13 Easy Salesforce Lightning Tips That Will Please Salespeople. 

1. Set every lightning page to default on Details.

2. Add Related List Quick Links to Lightning page layouts.

3. Use Lightning Paths to move Stages.

4. Update opportunities using the Kanban view.

5. Make it easier to add products to opportunities.

6. Customize Dashboard components to highlight key information.

7. View report details more easily.

8. Customize Duplicate Matching Rules in Lightning.

9. Decide whether Notes are right for your business.

10. Modify the Lightning page Highlights Panel.

11. Customize the Lightning App menu.

12. Decide if the Quarterly Performance Goal is for you.

13. Put regular functions on the Lightning Utility Bar.

 

Continue reading to learn how each of these tips can help to improve your lightning experience.

 

1. Set every Lightning page to default on Details

The Default tab on any Lightning page is Activity.

In other words, when you click on a record, you land on the Activity tab.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

However, here’s what I find:

The first thing most salespeople do is click on the Details tab.

So, make it easier for them.

Lightning Tip #1: If you only do one thing to improve the Lightning experience, set the default tab on every page to Details.

This means salespeople will first see the Details tab when they click on any record in Lightning.

One other thing whilst were on Lightning page tabs:

Make the order of tabs consistent across all page layouts.

For example, Activity, Chatter, Details.

The order doesn’t matter. Just make it the same on all Lightning pages.

 

2. Add Related List Quick Links to Lightning page layouts

The Related tab clutters Lightning pages.

That’s because the right-hand side of the page also displays Related records.

In other words, the same information is in two places on Lightning pages.

Therefore, Lightning Tip #2 comes in two parts:

First, remove the Related tab. Second, add the Related List Quick Links to the right-hand column.

For example:

The Related List Quick Links makes it easy for salespeople to jump straight to the relevant section.

The result:

A cleaner user interface.

That means salespeople find the information they need quickly and easily.

 

3. Use Lightning Paths to move Stages

Lightning Paths provide an easy-on-the-eye way of viewing a picklist-based process on any object.

The most obvious, and most used, example is the Opportunity Stage.

However, not everyone realizes that you can hover over the current stage and see how long the opportunity has been there.

Businesses that have complex sales processes can also provide salespeople with additional information about each Stage.

Lightning Tip #3: Use the Lightning path to help salespeople navigate through essential processes.

4. Update Opportunities using the Kanban View

Robust pipeline visibility relies upon salespeople keeping opportunities up to date.

That means the Close Date, Amount and Opportunity Stage are always our best assessment of the current deal situation.

The Kanban View makes this much easier in Lightning because salespeople can drag and drop Opportunities between Stages.

In addition, there’s a warning flag to highlight opportunities that have no open activities.

And the drop down arrow makes it easy to edit Opportunities directly from the Kanban view.

Lightning Tip #4: Teach salespeople how to use the Kanban View to quickly and efficiently update opportunities.

5. Make it easier to add products to opportunities

It was never very easy to find Products to add to Opportunities in Classic.

Now, some people think it’s even harder in Lightning.

I agree.

Look:

Products you’ve recently used get in the way; and the pane for reviewing available Products isn’t big enough.

It’s like trying to select products through a letterbox.

Here’s one other challenge common to both the Classic and Lightning interfaces. There’s no way to picture all the Products together, grouped in a logical way.

 

Lightning tip #5: Use the GSP Product Selection Wizard.

The result?

It becomes much easier for salespeople to find Products and add them to Opportunities in Lightning.

The wizard groups Products in a logical way. For example, here it’s by Product Family.

However, your system administrator can decide the best way to group the products, with nested levels of product grouping if necessary.

Quantity and Price details are entered in the top right. The salesperson sees a running total of the selected Products on the Opportunity in the bottom right.

There’s a video and more details here: GSP Product Selection Wizard app.

Add Products To Opportunities Quickly and Easily

Interested in this app? Get in touch with us today

6. Customizable Dashboard components to highlight key information

With Classic we are stuck with three columns.

Pretty boring.

And often, it’s hard to quickly spot the really important chart on the dashboard.

That changes with Lightning.

Lightning Tip #6a: Use the 12 Column version of Lightning Dashboards. It gives more flexibility to organize the dashboard in a user friendly and logical way.

After that, use the customizable dashboard features to draw the eye to the most important information.

For example, in this case the Sales Forecast report.

Lightning Tip #6b: Use shading and layout to draw the eye to the most important elements of each dashboard.

7. View report details more easily

A key benefit of Salesforce is reports and dashboards that deliver pipeline visibility.

Both salespeople and managers need to drill down to an underlying report and then easily see the details that make up any given number.

The way this works in Lightning is definitely an improvement over Classic.

For example, view a report of opportunities by Close Date and Stage.

Clicking on any number in the report reveals the opportunities that make up the number.

This means it’s much easier to manage by exception. View the report. Spot the number that catches your eye.

Then check the details that make up the number.

Lightning Tip #7: Teach users how to view the details that make up any report number.

8. Customize Duplicate Matching Rules in Lightning

Duplicate records have a big, bad impact on Salesforce user adoption.

They also reduce the effectiveness of many processes. For example, it’s difficult to identify high priority Leads if you have duplicates of the same records.

There’s no magic wand. However, Lightning gives a useful way to reduce the number of duplicates and stop new ones being created.

Lightning Tip #8: Implement and customize duplicate rules.

Here’s the Duplicates function in action on a Lead record.

Click View Duplicates to see the individual records and merge them.

However, I’ve found the standard matching rules not to work that well. In fact, Leads that have a matching email address but a different Name are not identified as potential matches.

This often happens, for example, if you have content on your website that people only need to enter an email address to obtain. These people are created as Leads when the fill in the form.

Here’s how to fix this.

Create a custom matching rule, based only on email address.

Then associate it with the Standard Lead Duplicate Rule.

That way your duplicates are picked up much more readily.

 

9. Decide whether Notes are right for your business

Recording notes on calls, meetings and discussions on opportunities is essential.

Of course, they’ve got to be easy to find in the future. Not only for the person that wrote them; but anyone else with an interest in the deal.

However, that brings a dilemma in salesforce Lightning.

Lightning tip #9: Decide upon the best place to record notes in Lightning. Then do it consistently.

Unfortunately, that’s not quite as straightforward as it sounds.

There are three options.

One: create an Activity. The Log A Call button is one easy way to do this. It automatically sets the resulting Task to Completed.

Two: create a Chatter post. This has the advantage that you can proactively share the information with another person.

Three: create a Note. This is new to Lightning.

My advice, having worked with many businesses on Lightning migration: be careful if you decide to use Notes.

Here’s the issue.

You now have three places to enter information on calls and meetings. Activities and Chatter work well. Users tend to look there first for information.

Use Notes and you risk ambiguity. Salespeople become uncertain about the difference. Other people tend not to check Notes.

In addition, there’s one other challenge.

If you are migrating to Lightning from Classic, it’s likely many people will have stored important documents in the Notes & Attachments section.

Lightning Notes replaces the Notes part of Notes & Attachments. Files replaces the Attachments.

Therefore you’ll need to migrate your Notes & Attachments into Notes and Files respectively.

Of course, if you’re new to salesforce and going straight into Lightning, that’s not an issue.

Either way, be clear and unambiguous about how you want salespeople to record information about conversations and meetings.

 

10. Modify the Lightning page Highlights Panel

It’s important to see important information easily and quickly.

However, the key fields may be well down the page. Or separated into various logical sections of the page layout.

Lightning Tip #10: Modify the Highlights Panel on each page.

Adding key fields to the Highlights Panel means it is easier to grasp essential information.

For example, on Opportunities, these fields are displayed in the Highlights panel by default:

  • Account Name
  • Close Date
  • Amount
  • Opportunity Owner.

All useful.

However, you can have up to six fields in the Highlights panel. Here, we’ve added two pipeline quality metrics:

The number of Close Date Month Extensions metric counts how often the Opportunity has slipped from one month to another.

The Days Since Last Stage Change shows when the Opportunity Stage was last updated.

In many businesses, these are important metrics for robust sales forecasting and pipeline management.

By the way, you can get both these pipeline quality metrics and many powerful pipeline management charts by installing the free GSP Sales Dashboard.

Awesome Pipeline and Sales Performance Visibility

Download the FREE Dashboard from the AppExchange today

 11. Customize the Lightning App menu

A Lightning App allows salesforce users to see different combinations of tabs.

The matrix of nine dots at the left-hand end of the tabs is where you select the relevant Lightning app.

However, the result can be confusing.

Clicking the matrix reveals a list of hard-to-distinguish Lightning apps.

What’s more, many of these apps (Service or Community, for example), may not be relevant to salespeople.

Lightning tip #11: Create an App that contains the tabs your salespeople need. Give it a meaningful logo to make the app easy to identify.

Whilst you’re at it, remove irrelevant apps from the menu selector.

For example, here’s what the screen above can look like. In fact, it’s taken from the Lightning environment in our own salesforce environment.

There are fewer highlighted apps; and those that are visible, are easy to identify.

12. Decide if the Quarterly Performance Goal is for you

All salespeople want to measure their sales against target.

For managers, tracking sales versus target is a fundamental aspect of driving team performance.

Consequently, you have a decision to make:

Decide whether the Lightning Home page Quarterly Performance Chart is right for your organization.

If it is:

Lightning tip #12: Decide whether the Quarterly Performance chart on the home page is right for your business. If that is the case make sure salespeople know how to set their Goal and adjust it each quarter.

However, I’m not a massive fan.

That’s because the Quarterly Performance Chart is a broad-bush tool. It gives limited insight on whether the pipeline is big enough to meet this quarter’s target.

Also, never mind the size. There’s no information on whether the quality of the pipeline is good enough to meet target.

If the Lightning Quarterly Performance Chart is not right for your business, then you have three other options for tracking sales versus target.

  • One: use the standard Forecasts tab. That will suit some businesses. However, in my experience, not many. It’s a challenging piece of functionality to apply correctly.
  • Two: replace the Quarterly Performance Chart with your own dashboard chart. However, it’s still a challenge to provide the detailed insight necessary for robust target management. That’s because there’s nowhere to store the salesperson target figures.
  • Three: use the GSP Target Tracker app. We think (not least, because we built it and customers love it) this is the ultimate way to measure sales versus target in Lightning. The app delivers detailed information on the contribution of won and pipeline deals to target; together with other metrics and insights on target performance.

This blog post explains the 3 Ways To Measure Sales Versus Target.

For more information on the GSP Target Tracker, watch the video and see more screenshots.

 

13. Put frequent functions on the Lightning Utility Bar

The Utility Bar is the strip that runs along the bottom of any salesforce Lightning page.

Customize this bar to make it easy for salespeople to access important functions.

This might be as simple as an important pipeline chart.

However, Utility Items can also include Process Builders, Dashboards, CTI SmartPhone, Visualforce Pages and more.

Lightning Tip #13: Customize the Utility Bar. It’s a simple but effective way of speeding up use of Salesforce.

Lightning tips for salesforce

So there you have our 13 Lightning tips that will please salespeople.

You can see many of these tips demonstrated in our video below. Of course, if you need more help then use our Contact Us page to get in touch.

Popular Apps

GSP Target Tracker

Track targets in Salesforce including won and pipeline deals

Popular eBook

Download The 12 Must-Have Dashboard Charts

This fully-illustrated 27 page ebook shows you the 12 Killer Sales Charts for your Dashboard and explains How to Read Them and When to Use Them.

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12 Must-Have Salesforce Dashboard Charts | With Video And Examples

 

Why You Need To Compare Average Closed Won Opportunity Size

 

How To Spot Neglected Accounts You Should Be Focusing On

 

How to use opportunity conversion reports for superior results

How And Why To Integrate Salesforce Data With Google Maps

How And Why To Integrate Salesforce Data With Google Maps

Ever wondered where on earth your Leads are?

Or your customers and prospects for that matter?

Well here’s the way to find out. Display your salesforce data in Google Maps.

Here are two ways to do it.

The first is a cinch. A five minute job. But the results are hugely impressive. And nine times out of ten it’s all you’re going to need.

Simply follow the step by step instructions below. Or watch the video at the foot of this post to see examples of salesforce data displayed in Google Maps and a demonstration of how to achieve it.

The second way is to integrate salesforce and Google Maps using the API. Of course don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like our help with this.

8 reasons to display salesforce data in Google Maps

Here are 8 reasons to display Lead, Account and Contact data from salesforce in Google Maps.

  1. Major trip planning. Identify the customers and prospects you can visit on a single trip. This was exactly the approach we used to plan our upcoming multi city US-trip.
  2. Run an event. Plan an event or series of seminars based on the location of your customers and prospects.
  3. Sales territory coverage. Understand whether you have the right level of sales person coverage in each territory based on the location of your customers and prospects.
  4. Market penetration. Assess your market penetration by displaying your customers and prospects on a Google Map.
  5. Day-to-day trip planning. Easily work out who else you can visit today. Or give telemarketing teams that make field appointments the information they need to maximize sales person efficiency.
  6. Team meetings. Work out the best location to gather your team by displaying data about each salesforce user in Google Maps.
  7. Field engineer coverage. Do the planning that helps locate your field support teams in the areas of greatest customer density.
  8. Track competitor locations. Understand how close your competitors are to your customers. This is particularly important for a logistics company that we work with.

If you can think of any more let us know and send in a screenshot!

Types of salesforce data that can be displayed in Google Maps

Any record with an address in salesforce can be displayed on Google Maps. So in terms of standard objects that’s Leads, Accounts, Contacts and Users.

But here’s the wondrous thing. You can display related data along with the address information. And you can use different icons in Google Maps to add intelligence to the salesforce data that’s displayed on the map. That means you can create powerful maps that have practical value for decision making.

Here’s some examples of salesforce data displayed in Google Maps. The examples work in any country that is supported by Google Maps.

Display Customers and Prospects in Google Maps

This Google Map shows Accounts split by customers and prospects using the Type field in salesforce. The green icons are customers. The orange icons represent prospects.

Display customers and prospects using salesforce data displayed in a google map.

Display Accounts with and without Opportunities in Google Maps

In this Google Map we’re displaying salesforce Accounts. The red markers show Accounts without open Opportunities. The stars identify Accounts with open Opportunities in salesforce. If you look carefully you can see the Opportunity Amount displayed beneath the star.

Google Map showing salesforce accounts with and without opportunities

Clicking on an individual icon reveals more information about the Account and Opportunity in the left panel.

Google Map displaying salesforce data with additional information about a specific opportunity.

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Display Leads by Lead Score in Google Maps

This Google Map displays all open Leads along with the Lead Score. The Lead Score is an indicative ranking of the level of engagement by the Lead with your marketing emails and web site content. The Lead Score is an automated calculation that is pulled from the marketing automation application (Marketo in our case) and stored in salesforce.

In this Google Map the icons reflect different bands of Lead Score. Those with a score of 40 or more are show as stars.

Watch the video to see how we created this Google Map using Lead data from salesforce.

Lead score data from salesforce displayed in a Google Map

These examples illustrate the type of sophistication can be added when displaying salesforce data in Google Maps.

Easy Way To Display Salesforce Data On a Google Map

Here’s a really easy way that anyone can do to display salesforce data in Google Maps. All of the examples we show above can be done this way.

  1. Create a report in salesforce that contains the data you’d like to show on the Google Map.

For example, to create the ‘Leads by Lead Score’ map we created a Lead report that included data (the lead score) that is passed from our marketing automation tool (Marketo) to salesforce.

The ‘Customers and Prospects’ map was created by building a report in salesforce that showed Accounts with the Type field. And the data for the Accounts and Opportunities map was created from a custom salesforce report type of ‘Accounts with and without Opportunities’.

Be sure to include the address information you want to use to locate the salesforce record on the Google Map. Typically that’s going to be Street, City, Zip / Postal Code and Country.

2. Export the salesforce report to Excel. Save the Excel file to your PC.If you want to use different icons in Google Maps to display different types of salesforce data then you need to repeat the report / export process. For example, create a report that shows all Accounts filtered by Type = Customer. Export this to Excel. Modify your report to Type = Prospect then export this into a second Excel file.

3. Create a new Google Map. To do this go to https://www.google.com/maps/d/ and click on Create New Map.

4. Click on ‘Untitled Map’ and give your map a name. “Leads by Lead Score” for example.

5. Click on “Import”. Follow the easy-to-use instructions to import your first Excel spreadsheet containing your salesforce data. For example import your Customer file.

6. Now click on Add Layer. Give it a name and import your Prospect data into this layer of the Google Map. Use the Options link to give this data a different icon or colour to the first layer.

It’s simple. We promise. We demonstrate the import process in the video. And for good measure here’s the official Google help page that describes the process https://support.google.com/mymaps/answer/3024836?hl=en

How to display real-time salesforce data in Google Maps

All of the maps we showed above were created by exporting data from salesforce using a report. Then importing the Excel file into Google Maps.

But sometimes it’s useful to have more up to date or even real-time salesforce data displayed in Google Maps.

For example, a field based sales person wants to see the latest leads and prospects in his territory without having to import the data to Google Maps each time. That way day-to-day visits can be planned using the very latest data held in salesforce.

To do this you need to use the Google API to generate the map in salesforce.

Displaying salesforce data in Google Maps brings your database to life. And using the methods we’ve explained in this blog post there’s nothing to stop you getting started today.

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Video – how to display salesforce data in Google Maps

The Power Of Displaying Salesforce Data in Google Maps

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10 Tips To Merge Salesforce Environments

10 Tips To Merge Salesforce Environments

It can be a tricky business to merge Salesforce environments.

But actually it’s a surprisingly common activity. One company purchases another and both use Salesforce.com, for example. And in many large companies, different regions or divisions within the same business have historically had their own Salesforce environments.

Merging Salesforce environments provides a single, consolidated view of the sales pipeline and sales performance. It means global clients can be managed in a holistic fashion. And there may be a strong imperative to integrate a single Salesforce environment with an ERP or marketing automation system.

We’ve successfully merged Salesforce environments (also known as Salesforce instances or Salesforce orgs) for five different global businesses. In each case there was a mountain of data to migrate. Pipeline and sales values had to balance to the penny. Configuration and code needed to be transferred from one environment to another. Conflicts and contradictions in functionality and data had to be resolved. And users needed minimum disruption before, during, and after the switch.

Based on that success, here are our 10 tips on how to merge Salesforce environments or instances.

1. Create a detailed merge plan and checklist

Tips

  • There is a logical order for migrating data and functionality. Use this to create a detailed merge plan.
  • Include user and stakeholder communication within this plan.
  • Include sufficient time for testing and validation of data in the merged Salesforce environment.
  • Create a checklist of tasks that need to be done at the point of cut-over.

Rationale

  • Merging Salesforce environments is a non-trivial undertaking.
  • Migration of data and functionality needs to be undertaken in a logical and methodical manner.
  • Cut-over of Users needs careful handling in order to avoid confusion and down-time.
  • Success requires planning and preparation, particularly if there is a short cut-over window.

2. Transfer merge data incrementally

Tips

  • Do the bulk of the data migration before the cut-over date.
  • Transfer new and modified records incrementally.
  • Do this several times as the cut-over date approaches.
  • At the point of cut-over, migrate only new and modified records from the previous day.

Rationale

  • It’s not realistic to migrate ALL data on a single weekend or evening.
  • Migrating large volumes of data takes time.
  • Manual effort is required to extract the data from the source instance, prepare the import file and physically upload the data to the target Salesforce environment.
  • The greater the quantity of data associated with a migration, the more opportunity there is for errors to occur.
  • Importing the bulk of the data beforehand means that it can be thoroughly checked. If errors are subsequently introduced with the incremental transfers, then it’s much easier to identify the source of the problem and apply corrective action.
  • Migrating in steps allows the project team to practice and refine the migration process. This significantly reduces the risks associated with the final cut-over.

3. Enable Created and Last Modified dates to be editable

Tips

  • In the target environment, create a Case with Salesforce for ‘create audit fields’ to be enabled.
  • During the data import, this feature allows the ‘Created Date’ and ‘Last Modified Date’ for each record in the target Salesforce environment to be set to the same values as the source environment.
  • The ‘Created By’ and ‘Last Modified By’ Users can also be specified during the import process.

Rationale

  • Without this feature, the Created Date, Last Modified Date, Created By and Last Modified By fields will be set according to the date and person performing the data import.
  • This impacts key reports e.g. number and value of Opportunities created by User each month.
  • It also makes it more difficult for Users to understand the history of each record.

However, bear in mind that the Last Modified Date and Last Modified By are only be set at the point of record creation. If records are subsequently updated during the data transfer process (e.g. to add Opportunity Product Line Items to Opportunities) then the original Last Modified Date and User is overwritten.

This article in the Salesforce.com success community explains in more detail on how this feature works and the Case that needs to be created.

4. Arrange courtesy licenses for both Salesforce environments

Tips

  • Arrange for access to the source environment to be maintained for a period of time following cut-over. Do this by requesting courtesy licenses from Salesforce.
  • In the target environment, arrange for temporary courtesy licenses to be available for Users that are no longer active in the source environment.

Rationale

  • Any problems identified by Users after the cut-over may require going back to the source environment to retrieve or check data.
  • In the source environment, Opportunities and other records are likely to have been created by Users that no longer work for the company and who no longer have active licenses.
  • However, in the target environment, data can only be loaded against active Users.
  • Assigning temporary courtesy licenses to these Users in the target environment means records can be associated with the employees that created the data.
  • This protects key reports (e.g. Opportunities ‘Created By’) and preserves the integrity of the migrated data.

5. Consolidate the source Salesforce environment

Often it’s necessary to migrate configuration and code in addition to data. Use these tips to simplify the migration process.

Tips

  • Avoid migrating configuration, records and reports that are not required.
  • Install Field Trip by Qandor from the AppExchange into the source environment. This FREE tool automatically generates reports to show the record count and % of records that have each field populated. Use it to identify any fields that can be deleted.
  • Create a “Report on Reports” and (with agreement from Users) delete reports that are no longer used or required.

Rationale

  • Obsolete fields can clutter up your nice new, merged Salesforce environment.
  • Fields in the source environment may have been added incrementally over time.
  • Remove those fields that are no longer required (e.g. the field is populated in less than 1% of records).
  • Migrating reports takes time and has many trip hazards. Minimise your work by removing those reports that are not regularly used.

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6. Use the case sensitive Vlookup to link records

Tips

  • Create a custom External Id field in the target environment for every object for which you will be transferring records. Set this as Unique and Case Sensitive.
  • Populate this External ID field with the 18 digit salesforce record ID that is output by the Data Loader when you extract your source data.
  • Use a case sensitive Vlookup formula in MS Excel to link records (see below).

Rationale

Records need to be related to each other. Opportunities need to be linked to Accounts. Opportunity Product Line Items need to be linked to Opportunities. And so on.

This means, for example, that before Opportunities can be migrated to the target environment, the Accounts records first need to be inserted. Then, to link the Opportunities to the new Accounts, the newly created Account IDs need to be retrieved. These IDs need to be linked to the historic Account IDs from the source environment in order to match up the Opportunities. This means using the Vlookup function in Excel.

But, there’s a problem. Salesforce record IDs are case sensitive. The standard Vlookup function in Excel is not case sensitive. So instead use the custom case sensitive Vlookup formula below.

=IF(EXACT(D2,VLOOKUP(D2,$A$2:$B$2000,1,FALSE))=TRUE,VLOOKUP(D2,$A$2:$B$2000,2,FALSE),”No match”)

Where,
– D2 contains the data item you want to lookup
– Column A contains the records that you want to lookup against
– Column B contains the corresponding values you want to return.

Note that the formula assumes the spreadsheet has column headings and that the returned result is populated in Column C.

7. Watch out for trip hazards when importing data

Tips

  • Make a conscious decision on whether you want workflow rules, assignment rules and validation rules to apply when the data is migrated to the target salesforce environment.
  • Switch off rules that should not be applied.
  • Where appropriate, configure data appropriately to avoid validation rule errors, or adapt rules to skip the new records.
  • Don’t forget to switch on de-activated rules post migration.

Rationale

  • Many large existing salesforce environments contain multiple validation rules, workflow rules and assignment rules.
  • Tripping over validation rules is a major source of errors when importing data.
  • Triggering workflow or assignment rules upon can have unintended consequences on the imported data if not switched off prior to import.

8. Use the Apex Data Loader efficiently and effectively

Tips

  • Data Loader settings can be modified from the standard values.
  • In particular, pay attention to the Time Zone setting.
  • Set the Time Zone in the Data Loader to reflect the time zone of your User record in the appropriate environment. If the User records in the source and target environments are set to different Time Zones you will need to change the Time Zone setting in the Data Loader between imports and exports. It’s easier to ensure both users are in the same Time Zone rather than do this.
  • Set a smaller batch size (even down to 1) when the records that are being imported need to fire code in the target environment.
  • Use multiple Data Loader sessions, running concurrently, for very large data sets or where the batch size is small.

Rationale

  • Inconsistent Time Zone settings may result in dates in the target environment being set incorrectly.
  • Any record that triggers code may require a batch size of 1 in order to fire the code and be imported successfully. The results in a large import file taking many hours to complete processing.
  • Running multiple concurrent Data Loader sessions significantly reduces the processing elapse time.

9. Merging salesforce environments is a task for more than one person

Tips

  • For large data transfers, have two people working on the migration, particularly at the point of cut-over.
  • Ideally have a third person with responsibility for reviewing, checking and validating the data transfer results.

Rationale

  • There is scope for human error in migrating large volumes of data. Collaboration between two people in identifying any errors is more effective than a single person working alone, particularly if there is time pressure on the cut-over date.
  • Regularly checking that the reports and dashboards are producing the expected results is an essential method of validating the data transfer results. The third person should constantly be checking the output whilst the others are migrating the data.
  • Having one person working on the next upload file in MS Excel while the other is loading the previous file will substantially reduce the cut-over time.

10. Provide immediate post-merge support

Tips

  • Ensure support is available for one to two days immediately after cut-over to resolve any issues.
  • Include system administrators with expertise in the source environment in the support team.
  • If possible, locate the support team in one physical location.

Rationale

  • Any inconsistencies in data or functionality in the merged salesforce environment need to be addressed quickly to avoid adverse impact on Users.
  • This may require specific knowledge and understanding of the source environment as well as the merged salesforce environment.
  • Experience shows that problems are more quickly resolved if the support team are physically together. This is particularly the case where the problem relates to low-level data issues.

Merging Salesforce Environments

Many businesses gain significant benefits by merging salesforce environments. Our experience shows that success requires detailed planning and preparation, combined with a logical and methodical approach. But it’s very achievable, especially if you use our 10 tips!

And of course, if you’d like to find out how The Gary Smith Partnership can help your company to merge salesforce environments, then please, get in touch.

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52% of high-performing sales people are power users who take full advantage of their company’s CRM technology compared to only 31% of under-performing sales people.

That’s according to “What Separates the Strongest Sales People from the Weakest” published in the Harvard Business Review by Steve Martin of the University of Southern California School of Business.

Martin’s research focussed on identifying what separates high-performing sales people who exceed their quota from under-performers who miss their targets by more than 25%. The ability take full advantage of the company’s CRM system was key differentiator between the two groups.

In our experience, there are several reasons for this. Sales people that use a CRM system fully are able to:

  • Understand whether they have sufficient pipeline to meet their sales targets.
  • Quickly identify critical deals that contribute most to target attainment.
  • More effectively track actions related to opportunity closure.
  • Collaborate more efficiently with peers and colleagues on deals.

Not every sales person needs to be a power user. But here’s the rub.  Many companies struggle to achieve even acceptable levels of CRM user adoption. And that means reduced benefits and lower sales.

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5 Killer Ways To Increase Your Salesforce Benefits

5 Killer Ways To Increase Your Salesforce Benefits

Last month we gave you 5 Compelling Ways to increase your salesforce.com benefits. As promised, here’s another five ways our customers have increased the benefits they deliver from salesforce.com. See which ones apply to you.

1. Improve sales funnel management

Nearly every sales funnel contains padding. Deals that rumble along month after month. Opportunities that with the best will in the world, are unlikely to ever close successfully. It’s these Opportunities that are artificially inflating your sales funnel and giving everyone a false sense of future revenue. So improve sales funnel management in your company by identifying these lame duck deals and weeding them out. Here’s three metrics that help you do just that: – Number of Close Date changes. – Number of days since the last update in the Opportunity Stage. – Number of days the Opportunity has been open. These are key metrics that measure the quality of opportunities in the sales funnel. Tracking these metrics will improve the effectiveness of your sales funnel management. These metrics increase salesforce.com benefits by measuring the quality of opportunities in the sales pipeline. Let’s say your typical sales cycle is 90 days. The Opportunity in the screenshot above has been open for 143 days. The Close Date has moved 12 times. And the Opportunity Stage was last updated 60 days ago. Can you rely on this deal to successfully close? Probably not. Combine these metrics with sales target solutions to determine whether you’ve sufficient opportunities in your sales funnel to meet your revenue goals. Remove The Poor Quality Sales Deals That Inflate Your Sales Funnel explains how to increase your salesforce.com benefits by creating these metrics.

2. Use Product Schedules to track future revenue

Many businesses do not receive the total value of an Opportunity in a single invoice. The traditional sales funnel view gives good insight into the total value of potential deals. But it does little to inform management on how the income or cash will be received. Here are five examples of situations where Product Schedules can bridge that gap:

  • Recurring revenue models, such as maintenance or support contracts.
  • Manufacturing businesses, in which the goods are shipped and invoiced over several months.
  • Framework agreements, in which a customer draws-down orders against an overall contract.
  • Project-based sales, in which revenue is invoiced based on work completed.
  • Transactional sales, in which customers make multiple repeat orders over the course of the year.

In other words, Product Schedules are highly useful when the Opportunity Amount is invoiced and received through a number of instalments. They enable revenue recognition to be managed in salesforce. And they significantly increase sales funnel visibility by projecting how the gross sales value on potential deals will be invoiced over time. Creating custom Product Schedules enables even more advanced functionality. Here’s an example of an s-curve revenue schedule in salesforce.com used by a customer in the construction industry. S-curve in salesforce used in the construction industry. Reports and dashboards show the accumulated Product Schedules across all Opportunities to generate a revenue profile for the months and years ahead. Use Product Schedules For Revenue Recognition And Funnel Visibility explains how the standard salesforce Product Schedule feature works. It also demonstrates how custom Product Schedule solutions can easily be created to significantly extend your salesforce.com benefits and forecast recurring revenue. If you want to know more in general about using Products in salesforce then Learn The Basics; and even try The Ultimate Guide to Product Price Books.

3. Load Invoices or Orders into salesforce

Many businesses rely upon regular repeat orders from existing customers. For these companies, an Opportunity represents the process of acquiring a new customer that will subsequently make many repeat purchases. These repeat orders will often be processed through an ERP or Finance system rather than directly through salesforce. Importing the actual Order or Invoice data into salesforce on a regular basis provides powerful insight that drives business development and account management. It reveals customers whose orders are increasing or decreasing. And allows managers to track the relationship between business development activity and invoiced revenue. Orders imported against the Account record and inline charts used to display the trend in Order value and increase salesforce.com benefits. The screenshot shows Orders imported against the Account record and in-line charts used to display the trend in Order value. In this particular customer, the Orders are also automatically linked to a Target record to track performance against target in salesforce. Getting the data into salesforce doesn’t necessarily require full blown integration. Quite the contrary. We have many customers that load Invoices or Orders into salesforce using the Data Loader on a weekly or monthly basis.

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4. Use web to lead to capture new sales enquiries

It’s amazing how many companies don’t implement web to lead.

Most business people will acknowledge that the quicker you get in touch with a new Lead, then the greater the chance of a sale. This is particularly the case when the prospect contacts several companies. Being the first to respond dramatically increases your probability of success.

Yet very often companies using salesforce.com fail to implement web to lead. This is a shame, because it gives an easy way to capture new leads from your web site and immediately direct them to a person that can respond quickly.

Here’s what you can do with web to lead:

  • Automatically insert new Leads into salesforce from a Contact Us page on your web site.
  • Immediately send an acknowledgement email to let the prospect know you’ve got his enquiry.
  • Automatically send prospects content (white papers, case studies, product specifications) that they request from a form on your web site.
  • Automatically assign the Lead to the person or team that can respond quickly.
  • Use multiple web to lead forms on a single web site, each tailored to a particular product area or geographic region.

And of course reports and dashboards provide management information on how well each Lead Source is performing and how quickly sales teams are responding.

The web to lead wizard makes it easy to integrate salesforce with your web site.

The web to lead wizard in salesforce makes it easy to integrate salesforce with your web site.

There’s plenty of advice available on using web to lead to increase your salesforce.com benefits.

5. Use Quotes with Opportunities and Products

So you’re already using Opportunities and Products. And now maybe you’re considering Product Schedules. Why would you want to muddy the water with Quotes?

Let’s say a customer asks you for two different versions of the same proposal. You want to keep both because you don’t know which one he’s going to choose.

Of course the value of the Opportunity is NOT the sum of the two Quotes added together. The Quotes are mutually exclusive. The customer is going to accept one or the other. So how do you calculate the value of the Opportunity?

The answer to this is Quotes. You can create multiple Quotes on an Opportunity. Each Quote can have its own combination of Products. You decide on the ‘most likely’ Quote. It’s this Quote that is synchronised to the Opportunity and is populated into the Opportunity Amount.

If the customer changes his mind and chooses one of the other Quotes, no problem. Just synchronise that Quote to the Opportunity.

Single Opportunity with multiple Quotes

The screenshot shows a single Opportunity in salesforce with multiple Quotes. Quote 1 is synchronised to the Opportunity. It’s the value of this Quote that is counted for funnel purposes.

Using Quotes means you can increase your salesforce.com benefits by:

  • Getting an accurate view of the number of Quotes you’ve sent.
  • Differentiating between Quotes and Opportunities.
  • Retaining each Quote on the Opportunity so you’ve got a record of what’s been sent to the customer.
  • Integrating Quotes with third party applications such as Conga ComposerEchosign or DocuSign to automate the physical production, delivery and acceptance of the Quote.
  • Integrating Quotes with Approvals to streamline Pricing Approvals and Quality Assurance processes.

Learn more about How And When to Use Salesforce Quotes on it’s dedicated blog post.

Increase your salesforce.com benefits

It’s always possible to drive more benefits from your salesforce licenses. We’ve given you ten examples of how that can be achieved in these two blog posts. And of course don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to discuss implementing these ideas into salesforce.com in your own business.

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