When your Salesforce CRM needs are changing quickly and you operate in a fast-paced workplace, you begin to deal with technical problems like technical debt, unclean data, and low adoption. Are you having trouble figuring out how to make sure your organization is operating effectively with having little time and money?

The two pillars of developing a strong, CRM-effective Salesforce CRM are tracking end-user adoption and eradicating technological debt. Salesforce is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps businesses to better understand, engage with, and serve their customers. If you are using Salesforce for your business, there are several ways you can optimize the platform to get the most out of it.

So, go in-depth on some of the best, most useful pointers and techniques to assist you improve your Salesforce CRM. To do so, here are five tips below:

Customize the platform to fit your business.

In many corporate scenarios, adjusting your Salesforce experience to meet business requirements enhances Salesforce ROI. You can ease the burden of data entry on your sales team, enhance the quality of your data, and set up your Salesforce instance for future integrations by developing customized, automated processes. Your sales team excels at both relationship building and selling. However, they lack IT and data entry expertise. You can make the most of your sales team’s strengths and protect the security of your corporate data by automating operations within Salesforce.

Salesforce is a highly customizable platform, and you can tailor it to fit the specific needs of your business. Consider customizing the user interface, adding custom fields and objects, and integrating with other tools and systems to make the platform work for you.

Use automation to save time and effort.

Salesforce offers a range of automation tools that can help you to save time and effort when managing your customer relationships. Consider using automation for tasks such as creating tasks and events, sending emails, and updating records. This can help you to focus on more important tasks and improve your productivity.

You don’t have to be an expert on automation functions. All you have to do is comprehend its significance and potential power. This is how automation functions:

By automating financial planning and accounting tasks, time is freed up for more crucial strategic tasks like analysis, strategy, and stakeholder participation. Information gathering is automated, bills are automatically matched to pertinent papers, and approvals are routed. This improves efficiency while simultaneously lowering the possibility of mistakes.

Simple queries like “How do I change my password? ” don’t require a human to be able to answer. Chatbots, voice bots, and self-service are already widely used and free up agents to assist clients in more complicated support situations. The Internet of Things is used in next-generation service automation to foresee service events and handle them digitally. Additionally, it can provide customers with a comprehensive view of service activity for computer-controlled tracking and self-service assistance.

It serves no purpose to always click “send” whether creating an email, campaign, or social media post. You can target clients with automated messaging via a variety of channels by automating your marketing. The best solutions enable you to pinpoint your target market, create the most pertinent content, and automatically launch offers depending on schedules and user behavior. Then, these initiatives could be coordinated using a customer relationship management (CRM) program.

Approximately one-third of sales tasks, according to one management consultancy, can be automated, but many corporate decisions don’t use this option. Automation opportunities exist in the areas of sales strategy and planning, lead qualification and identification, configuration, pricing and quotation, order administration, and post sales. Early adopters, the company claimed, typically report more time spent with customers, greater customer satisfaction, and productivity gains of up to 15%.

Lastly, numerous processes can be automated by HR systems, including the processing of job applications, response tracking, scheduling of interviews, job offers, onboarding and offboarding, payroll management, and benefit administration. These technologies can also offer insights into the mood, output, and engagement of the workforce via analytics.

Use reports and dashboards to gain insights.

Salesforce provides a range of reports and dashboards that can help you to gain insights into your customer data. The records that fulfill the criteria you specify are listed in a report. It can be sorted, grouped, or shown as a graphical chart in Salesforce, where it is displayed in rows and columns. Each report is kept in its own folder. Files can be read-only or read/write and can be made public, hidden, or shared.

These tools can help you track key metrics, such as sales performance, comer satisfaction, and campaign results. Use these tools to monitor your business and make data-driven decisions.

Train your team on the platform.

To get the most out of Salesforce, it’s important that your team is trained on how to use the platform effectively. Consider providing training on the key features and functionality of Salesforce, as well as best practices for using the platform. This will help your team to be more productive and successful with Salesforce.

Remember, CRM solutions can have a positive effect on businesses, offering advantages including increased productivity, more income, and improved customer service. To do so, follow the steps below:

Pick a CRM that is compatible with the present procedures used by the sales department.

You face a significant risk of user backlash if you don’t have a thorough understanding of your sales department’s present process, including who performs what and how job duties will alter with a new CRM. The final CRM purchase decision may be simpler to make in a small group, but there may be long-term repercussions if top managers in the sales department are not consulted.

Include your sales department in the adoption process as soon as possible.

You may find it easier to gain support from other staff members if you select a few tech-savvy sales department members to observe demos. Senior sales representatives and managers joining the team early also creates a fantastic built-in support system for employees who are more receptive to change.

Identify a CRM supervisor.

Even though you’ll want everyone on your team to be familiar with your CRM software, you should designate a high-performance user to be the CRM manager. Make sure your CRM manager can easily communicate with others about the technology because they will act as the point of contact between your staff and the new program.

Promote value early and frequently.

Marketing the CRM internally and emphasizing its unique features for sales people, such as its CRM analytics tools. Your employees will be considerably more receptive once they discover a CRM application may streamline time-consuming, tiresome operations and possibly enhance sales. Get your team pumped up about the advantages of a CRM solution as part of effectively conveying value early and frequently. Some people could view the program as an additional tool they must learn or as a project to add to their already hectic workdays, but they need to realize that a CRM is actually there to support them and make their tasks simpler.

Utilize a system of incentives to promote participation.

You’re sure to encounter less resistance from staff when you make CRM user adoption enjoyable and rewarding. When the software is launched, offer a CRM rewards program to entice staff to adopt it immediately away. Start with a temporary rewards system, and as time passes, determine whether it is still necessary. Offering incentives for even just the first month may be sufficient to elicit enthusiastic involvement from your staff.

If you abide by these suggestions, your sales team ought to overwhelmingly support the CRM deployment. Be careful to involve your sales staff in the process, whether introducing a new CRM system or moving away from legacy software, to enhance the effectiveness of your CRM deployment.

Stay up to date with new features and updates.

Salesforce provides a number of ways to integrate with your current systems. By integrating Salesforce throughout your company, you can eliminate silos and give the executive team access to reporting that covers all facets of the business. It’s challenging to predict how a change will impact the organization when decision-making tools are restricted to a certain area of the business. By integrating data, you may speed reporting, improve decision-making, lessen the effort of data entry, cut down on errors, and get ready for future system integration.

Remember, Salesforce is constantly evolving, and new features and updates are released regularly. To stay ahead of the curve, make sure you are aware of the latest developments on the platform. Consider subscribing to the Salesforce blog and attending Salesforce events to stay up-to-date with the latest features and updates.

Bottom Line

There are many ways you can optimize your Salesforce CRM to get the most out of the platform. One of the most potent CRM platforms available today, Salesforce offers a number of features that increase admin productivity, enhance summary views for quicker consumption, and offer more transparent graphical representations.

By customizing the platform to fit your business, using automation, gaining insights with reports and dashboards, training your team, and staying up to date with new features, you can improve your use of Salesforce and drive better results for your business.

Martin Gessner

Martin Gessner is the Founder of Focus on Force.

He has spent over 10 years working in various Salesforce roles including business analyst, project manager, consultant and solutions architect. Along the way he has earned twelve certifications, published "The Salesforce Career Playbook", and helps Salesforce professionals learn more about Salesforce, develop their career and prepare for certifications.