Salesforce Training & User Adoption

What is user adoption and why does it matter?

User adoption is the situation in which users adopt a new system–in this case, Salesforce– that works to fill a specific need. Often overlooked, user adoption is the single most critical element to the success of your implementation. Once you’ve deployed Salesforce, you need to convince your team to trade in their old system for your new, better, faster, more efficient system. Should be easy enough, right? Wrong. Just because your new system is better than the old one doesn’t mean your employees will eagerly jump on board. In fact, studies show that the opposite is true.

“70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals due to employee resistance & lack of management support.”
McKinsey & Company

Why do employees resist?

Human beings are creatures of habit–they like routine and consistency in their everyday work and personal lives. So imagine what happens when an organization implements new technology and expects everyone to embrace a different way of doing things… Frustration and struggle usually ensue. In fact, according to Salesforce, employee resistance is the #1 barrier to a successful Salesforce implementation project.

So how do you get your employees onboard?

Through training & user adoption strategies. You need a plan, regardless of the size, complexity or geographic footprint of your rollout.

Managing the people-side of your Salesforce implementation.

Our Training & User Adoption Programs leverage a proven set of tools, methods and Salesforce-specific standards that encourage impacted users to be ready, willing and able to adopt Salesforce. Together, we’ll work to custom-build a structured approach and program that meets the needs of your implementation, accelerates user adoption, removes barriers and helps you see the value of Salesforce sooner.

See the value of Salesforce, sooner.

Our Training & User Adoption Program includes 4 key elements.

Change Readiness & Communication

Communicating project goals, benefits and new ways of working while creating user awareness, understanding and readiness for change is critical to the success of your implementation. We’ll work with you to:

Initiate a Change Management Strategy that identifies impacted individuals & groups.
Develop a strategy to build support, advocacy & ownership over the success of your implementation.
Identify key changes & user benefits that accompany your project.
Develop & deploy a communication plan to help you prepare your organization for change.

Stakeholder Engagement & Support

User adoption can be difficult to achieve without the buy-in of your stakeholders. To ensure key people are informed and involved each step of the way, we will work with you to:

Identify & interview key individuals to gain alignment on your project objectives & engage them in supporting organizational adoption.
Create a Salesforce Champions network to build grassroots support & advocacy.
Develop a plan for engaging individuals & groups throughout each phase of your project.

User Adoption Measures

The ability to measure the use of Salesforce is essential to driving and sustaining user adoption. To achieve this, we'll partner with you to:

Set custom metrics to enable proactive monitoring & management of user adoption & link application usage to overall business performance goals.
Train your managers so that they can support leaders in incorporating adoption metrics in their management approach.
Develop a plan for implementing & managing adoption metrics.

Personalized Training

To achieve maximum ROI on your Salesforce investment, you’ll need to help your employees realize the full potential and functionality of your Salesforce implementation. And the only way to do so is through training.

Here’s what we know about learning retention: Retention of learned information refers to having information stored in long-term memory in a way that can be readily retrieved and used. Humans retain approximately 10% of what they see; 30-40% of what they see and hear; and 90% of what they see, hear and do. But when first introduced, to a new system such as Salesforce, a user can be easily overwhelmed and can retain less than half of that information, which only decreases as the days go by. For instance, here’s what a user retains after a single-learning event:

After 24 hours - 50% of the information, he/she learned.
1 week later - 15%
2 weeks later - 2%

Overwhelmed with the stats? Don’t worry, we’ve got you! Based on our extensive experience with training teams to use Salesforce confidently and comfortably, we know that repetition can dramatically improve recall; which is why we recommend adding multiple learning events and repetitive practice to each of our programs. Together, we’ll custom-build a training plan that works best for you.

Training Planning & Management - after a detailed analysis, we’ll develop a customized training plan that’s specific to your organizational goals, business processes, and unique applications.
Role-based Training - we’ll work with you to develop hands-on content tailored to the needs of each of your unique Salesforce roles complete with real-life scenarios & data that enables users to understand how Salesforce will impact their day-to-day. We’ll also include the What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) value propositions and skill check development activities.
Training Sessions - through our personalized and flexible training sessions, we’ll provide your team with the materials, tools, and knowledge to help them effectively use the platform.

Our training options include something for everyone-
- Virtual instructor-led training via Zoom or webinars
- Private, one-on-one sessions for groups of 1-4 people
- Blended training in larger group settings
- Train the Trainer
- Executive Leadership
Post Training Support - includes quick reference guides, how-to’s or “Ask SkyPlanner” office hours held onsite or virtually.

The Complete Guide to User Adoption
The Key Elements Your Training Plan Must Have