SalesForce Training

 Though many of the forum threads are developer-focused, you can sort by topic to look for sales-related questions or general concerns about using the platform.

 Pricing: The forum is free to access, but you need to sign in with your Salesforce ID to post or answer questions.

 Key benefit: Your team can get specific, direct answers to their problems instead of sorting through general self-help materials or product documentation.

 Consider offering your team multiple types of Salesforce training, including videos, structured courses, and text-based supplemental reading. That way, you can appeal to different learning styles, and every person will be able to figure out what method works best for them.

 Learning to use new technology, especially a platform as nuanced and multi-faceted as Salesforce, can be frustrating. Make the process more fun with gamification. Several of the training resources discussed above have gamification elements built-in. Salesforce Trails, for example, has levels and badges team members can earn.

 You can also motivate your team and create an air of friendly competition by displaying individual progress and achievements on a leaderboard dashboard.

 Salesforce has been the most popular CRM for the last eight years, and it’s currently running in 150,000+ organizations. It’s a massive sales platform with dozens of products and third-party integrations.

 As a large, enterprise CRM platform, it also offers endless customization and functionality than other options. As with complex solutions, the platform is also complex – meaning difficult application onboarding and training, as well as the need for continuous end-user support.

 Organizations implementing Salesforce should prioritize an individualized training approach by providing a plethora of learning options and resources, tailored to various users and departments, to ensure employees have support for their unique needs.

 A robust Salesforce training program will help set your team up for success, drive CRM adoption across your reps, and empower your entire sales organization to get the most out of your new Salesforce CRM investment.

 Because each organization will have a unique CRM that will likely be a combination of Salesforce products, third-party integrations, and possibly custom-built features, the skills your employees will need to learn will be unique to your organization.

 The level of customization available when using Salesforce makes it impossible to simply set your employees up with standard training and call it good. You’ll need to build a detailed plan that identifies all the information and skills employees will need to use the particular CRM you’ve designed for your organization.

 It’s not enough to say you want certain departments to learn Salesforce. You need to dig down and figure out what, exactly, each team needs to know in order to get the most out of your unique platform. Start by reaching out to department heads and asking them for a detailed list of what they’ll be using Salesforce for.

 Determine how many employees will need training and what they’ll need to learn. Encourage them to get specific. The better you understand how employees will be using Salesforce and how much experience they have with the platform, the better the training you’ll be able to give them.

 Obviously, you can’t implement training without funding to pay for it, so one of your earliest tasks will be to secure resources from leadership.

 Now that you know exactly what skills and knowledge each team needs, you can determine the costs. While Salesforce’s Trailhead training program is free, instructor-led classes can run anywhere from $300 per half-day for an online class to $2,900 per employee for a week-long, onsite training.

 You’ll need to decide which types of training fit your employees’ needs in order to build an accurate cost estimate. For instance, employees who will need to do simple tasks in the CRM may only need a half-day online course, but for those who will be spending a good portion of their workday in the platform, you’ll need a longer training that goes into more detail. Once you’ve decided which kind of training is right for your employees’ needs, you can add up the estimated costs and build a budget proposal.

 With Salesforce instances being highly unique for different organizations, exactly how long it takes to train employees isn’t standardized either. Add to that, people are all different and absorb the information at their own pace.

 If your CRM is fairly simple with few customizations and your employees have available time every day to devote to training, you’ll probably be able to get staff up and running in a couple of weeks. More complicated CRMs with lots of customization will take longer. It’s not uncommon for Salesforce training to take months or even longer.

SalesForce Training

 Many organizations roll out Salesforce implementations gradually instead of throwing a number of new tools and processes at employees at the same time. In those cases, it’s wise to also roll out training gradually as well.

 If you are using an implementation partner, they can help you create a realistic timeline based on their knowledge of your system and their experience with Salesforce implementations. Many implementation partners even offer training as one of their services.

 Remember there will be updates and changes made to your CRM over time and new employees will be added to the team, so training won’t be something employees go through just once. Whenever you update your Salesforce products and processes, make sure you train employees on all the changes.

 A major factor in the success of any project is how it’s communicated to the organization. If your employees don’t know what kind of training will be available to them, how they go about accessing it, and when they can expect to get started, they’re likely to feel frustrated and left out.

 Plan to start communicating about the training as early as possible. There will likely be things you don’t know yet because you’re actively working on how best to proceed. That’s okay — just be honest with employees about it.

 Create a documented training timeline for employees to reference. When that’s in place, hold a kickoff meeting to go through the process and answer questions from your team. Ongoing announcements and updates through internal communication channels, like Slack and email, are also helpful.

 Building an effective feedback system is important to the success of your Salesforce training. Your employees’ unique experiences and insights will be critical to preventing stumbling blocks and improving training over time.

 Building an effective feedback system is important to the success of your Salesforce training. Your employees’ unique experiences and insights will be critical to preventing stumbling blocks and improving training over time.

 A simple survey (whether it’s a Slack poll, Survey Monkey survey, Google form, or another option) can tell you a lot about how to best support your employees throughout their training with just a few questions on employee preferences.

 The key is to not sit around and wait for employees to come to you with their opinions and ideas. You have to reach out to them. And not just once while you’re building your training plan, but on an ongoing and frequent basis. Your employees are experts on their own experiences and full of helpful insights. Listen to what they have to say and act on it to your best ability.

 It’s important to also run a post-training feedback survey to help gather insights into your Salesforce training program – helping you to improve your content and lessons when onboarding new hires into the application.

 Before your training is even up and running, set training goals and plan how you will measure results. Clear goals are a critical asset to improving your training, ensuring high engagement, and finding success with Salesforce.

 Go beyond counting how many employees make it through the training and consider using innovative ways to measure your training, like using surveys, 1:1 meetings, and xAPIs. Be curious about your employees’ experience in the training and be on the lookout for new ways to understand their experience.

 Above: You can use Whatfix to solicit and gather feedback on your Salesforce training content, in the flow of work.

 Think of your training as a constant work in progress. You’re always aiming to make it better with each employee who goes through it.

 Since there will always be new employees who will need training, employees who need to upskill, and new products and functionality to learn, training will be an ongoing part of running Salesforce.

 There are many different approaches you can take when it comes to training. Instead of trying to choose a single option, offer as many different ways to learn as possible.