Important Checklist For Successful Salesforce CRM Implementation
The infrastructure concerns had become a matter of past with multi-tenant and cloud-based architecture. As a result, Salesforce CRM implementations have also gone easier when compared to past CRM systems. In this blog, we will discuss on the most important checklist for the successful CRM implementations. This does not either you are an experienced Salesforce user or the beginner, this checklist will help you to jump-start your implementation work on the right foot.
Salesforce CRM implementation has become an inevitable requirement for businesses that are looking forward to driving their sales seamlessly. Companies can integrate all the business requirements on a single platform by implementing Salesforce CRM. However, Salesforce implementation is something that requires special attention and planning before getting the desired results for the businesses. Even the smallest mistake can have a significant impact on the business and profit of the company. Lack of proper planning can result in unnecessary expenses and delay in the successful CRM implementation.
Let’s understand in brief and elucidate them further later in the article. Here is the checklist.
Planning is the primary thing that companies have to do before commencing a project. A planning phase would typically include goals of the business, vision, mission, and areas of expertise etc. The performance metrics should be also included as a key parameter in deriving the business intelligence.
The data available must be used for the purpose of Salesforce implementation. Businesses will have to take into consideration the availability of the resources as well as the output they expect after the CRM implementation. Companies will have to work to achieve a greater consensus from the stakeholders in ensuring the implementation process is smoothly performed.
Put in place the perfect team who is capable of successfully implementing the Salesforce CRM into business. The whole team would be comprised of an executive sponsor, a project manager, system administrator, trainers, and users.
Organizations usually assign a single project owner to deliver the product successfully. But this is not the perfect solution but the best idea is to hire experts from the different business unit and ask them to work together in coordination to get the work done smartly.
The goals being set should be realistic and should be possible to achieve instead of setting up goals that cannot be achieved. This type of goals would help in dividing the entire project into smaller goals and helps in tracking the implementation as per the time period.
Also, the decided goals and visions should be discussed with everyone in the organization for a more effective outcome. When everyone would be sure about the goal then this is easy to reach the heights together with a proper business process and implementation strategy. Here, is the process how should you start with goals that is mainly divided into three major categories –
Most of the users forget to implement this step and upload the data directly into the CMS. It is desirable to contribute sufficient time in analyzing the data and cleaning it up. The cleaning up of the data will also help businesses to keep track of the business-critical data. Reviewing the additional data will help businesses to keep track of how the performance of the Company can be enhanced.
Bad or unorganized business data is one of the biggest reasons why most of Salesforce projects fail. At the same time, organized data results into faster decision making and maximum leads generation that results in attractive revenues in the end. Further, you should hire Data scientists or data analysts to make most out of your business data. Here are the most popular steps that are taken as must-have requirements for every CRM project.
Two different approaches can be used for successfully implementing the Salesforce CRM. One is the ‘Waterfall’ approach and the other one is the ‘Scrum’ approach. In the waterfall approach, the project is implemented in a sequential manner whereas in a Scrum approach the performance can be monitored by a meeting that would be conducted once in a week by the project managers. The activities would be then monitored on a regular basis.
The scrum implementation approach is generally taken preferable option when compared to the waterfall approach. Also, the new functionalities can be added quickly based on requirements and project releases is much easier than your expectations. Now you have to decide yourself which implementation approach suits best your project.
It is essential for companies to precisely and effectively set their priorities. It is desirable to make a detailed list of features that are very important for the successful implementation and then classifying them into those that are inevitable and those that are desirable for your business.
Further, you have to decide on the time to design, develop and deploy for both the implementation approaches or the approach you decide earlier. Also, list down the features that can be completed in parallel. Now, look out for the total project requirements and efforts needed to complete the project. Also, calculate the proper implementation time for each of the requirement and start your work accordingly.
Once the implementation plan has been determined, it is essential to list down the approach, the resources and the goals after which the CRM can be customized as per the specific requirements and then set up. Every time when you customize any Salesforce CRM then make sure that it is just optimized but not overly configured. In case, they are configured more than the requirements then it may frustrate the end-users completely and there are chances that system can fail completely.
After careful research and observation, we have listed down the important customization techniques that work amazingly for almost every CRM business.
To make any CRM project a great hit in the market, this is necessary that customize should always be made based on customer needs and feedback only. Also, the report generation is equally important to keep track of all customizations made in the system.
Users should be added after successfully setting up the CRM. Companies will receive consistent feedback regarding the Salesforce CRM system from these users. The feedback from users will be considered by the businesses in making future modifications if any.
Further, create awareness among users by giving proper lessons on how the Salesforce CRM has to be used easily. There is a manual process to add users into CRM system altogether. Make sure that users are added in sandbox environment first before they are finally added to the production environment.
Although Salesforce CRM implementation is easy, yet there is a need for proper planning and preparation that is necessary for each CRM project. Setting up a CRM system and align it properly with your business is an art. Also, keep modifying your application regularly based on users’ feedback and targeted mission of the Company. To support your Salesforce implementations, there are Salesforce communities to get your work done on the right foot.
With all above-mentioned features, we wish you luck for the successful Salesforce CRM implementation and the development!
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