How Salesforce adoption could make or break your company in turbulent times

The uncertainty surrounding coronavirus is not just bad for business – it’s bad for our everyday lives. But it’s not a time to sit and wait. This is a time for organisations to ensure we thrive, keeping people employed and continuing to provide excellent customer service. This is a time to ensure remote working is as productive as face-to-face working. We looked into how wide Salesforce adoption enables companies to prepare for the inevitable bounceback after this global pandemic subsides.

Credera is being asked now, more than ever, to help companies get full value from their investment with Salesforce. Some organisations need to suddenly do more with less, while others struggle to cope with unprecedented demand for their services. Many were unprepared for their entire workforce to work remotely and need to adapt under duress.

We previously wrote about how those who had already adapted to working on the cloud will be at an advantage. This blog looks at how our customers achieved impressive results just by optimising their Salesforce usage across the business.

Why you need to get this right

If you’re just starting your Salesforce journey, it is important to remember that 50% of new CRM implementations fail. Your focus on getting this right will avoid risk and ensure business success.

If your company is a long-standing Salesforce customer, you need to ensure you continue to get value. It should be in-step with the way your company evolves. Keir Bowden, Credera CTO & Salesforce MVP, gave his tips about what to do if you inherit a bad Salesforce org. Your company may have acquired a business, or is in fast growth. It’s likely your Salesforce org was originally built for a different purpose.

You need to keep in mind why your organisation bought into Salesforce in the first place. This blog from a Salesforce expert helps to bring the focus back up to the higher business value. She suggests asking, “Does Salesforce help my sales team close more deals?” or, “Does Salesforce allow my service team to close more cases?” If you can’t answer questions like these, you know you have a problem. The problem is likely that your people aren’t using Salesforce properly.

Data is increasingly valuable because it leads to insight. Remember: your insights will only be as good as the data you put in. If your employees are not entering data into Salesforce, you’ll have gaps. The advantages to increasing your quality and quantity of data in Salesforce is even greater today than ever before. Thanks to Einstein Analytics, if you gather enough, accurate data, you’ll be able to utilise machine learning to generate insights. You’ll be able to make accurate forecasts and understand your customers to new depths using the power of artificial intelligence.

Where to start

Credera has a proven methodology to ensure that customers get the most value out of their investments with Salesforce. Especially as companies make difficult decisions around business growth, continuity or decline, our flexibility is crucial. We documented the work of two companies who, with Credera, were able to increase their company’s adoption of Salesforce. This led to significant results.

Large real estate company: from start to finish

This company originally came to us with a need to refresh their vision for Salesforce SalesCloud. Credera worked with the company to understand their new vision. The company needed their Salesforce to be more directly applicable to their industry, so Credera implemented Field Service Lightning.

The relevance this brought to the company meant that Salesforce could be taken up more broadly across the company. The company would reap the benefits, with more high quality data capture leading to better forecasting and reporting.

Large luxury automotive company: from scope definition

When this customer told Credera they wanted to give their VIP customers a unique experience, they already had their vision. They knew what the success metrics would be and they’d mostly mapped out the business process they wanted to follow. They just needed Credera to deliver their vision, which would be underpinned by Salesforce. 

This not only gave the customer a unique experience. It also made it easier to record the right customer data in the right way. It made business processes simpler for sales and customer success professionals within the organisation. By making Salesforce part of their process, the company can understand and serve their customers better in the long run.

Weathering the storm

In times of crisis, you need to ensure your company has the infrastructure to at least keep it stable. To do this well, your customers and potential customers need to be kept informed and they need to feel secure.

This will be the time for companies to shine where they have pinned down their customer service and sales experiences. Those who act flexibly, regardless of external factors, will weather the storm. These companies will thrive when the inevitable bounceback comes around

To understand more about how Credera has optimised Salesforce for its customers and ourselves, listen to our recent webinar. We spoke to property developer Mount Anvil about how they have set up their business for success using Salesforce.