Training Salesforce End Users

When you do a big project and it goes well, everything works great and you built a beautiful solution, the project can still go face first into a mixed dirt - easier than you'd think.

Taking the time to consider thoughtful training of users at the time of go-live starts when you consider the action you're hoping to build towards.  Here are a couple pointers to get you started.

Before building, Confirm the Need

The first step is to produce buy-in and confirm that what you'll be spending your time on (the company's money) is actually necessary.  It could be a wishlist of a VP of Sales, or something someone said in passing.

Confirm three things with both the stakeholders and End Users (if you can) to ensure:

1. There is a cohesive plan to train the team with an Owner.
2. There will be a financial benefit to the company.
3. There is a financial benefit to the End Users (more below).

For number 3, I don't mean every time fill in the picklist value they hear a "ding" sound over their headphones.  They must find what you are doing useful enough to help THEM make more money by reducing their time needed on a task, allowing them to prioritize their business, or communicate to the parallel teams to get more support from the business.

If the end users do not see a value, and you are asking actions from them, beware.

Who will do the training?

Often companies will have a Sales Enablement Manager, in which case on Business Transformation projects it's mostly the company themselves.  That said, sometimes I'm asked to do the training for their sales teams.  Here is my answer, "No."

There is one big reason for that.  As a consultant, our time is limited with your company.  Once we leave, your end users won't have anyone to turn to when they have a question or want to make a change.  It's less pain for your company in the short term, but it prepares you for failure quite quickly.

For that reason, I'm a believer in "Train the Trainer" as my role is to build an internal expert at your company.  Sometimes companies want us to do both, but in our experience it's enough of a pressure relief valve that that trainer doesn't give it enough time.  Nothing like a little bit of pressure to stir up fast learning.

What does training look like?

For Business Transformation projects, it's very well planned.  We'll have training during the project to the future Admins in way of Test Cases (testing all the functionality with us on the phone answering questions).  We'll install a training program, apply an owner and develop a plan that makes the most sense for your team and the size of the change.

For internal admins, it becomes much more as needed.  You're constantly making changes, and every change doesn't need training.  Here are some quick tips:

1. If you have access to a Sales Enablement Training platform like wonderway, use that as it's best to use what you already have!
2. Give special access to important Salesforce Users.  If there is someone on the team that can sway the opinion of the others, bring them into a smaller group to train.  Having the space to address their grievances prior to the whole team hearing them is vital to adoption.
3. Go-Live Training - sometimes this is before or after go-live.  Depending on the size, this is long and mandatory for reps, which means it won't be enough.  Get ready to add additional trainings and office hours, but this is typically a mandatory step.
4. Depend on a wide group to train by holding the Managers Accountable for their team's usage.  Do pipeline reviews and ensure the new Sales Process is being followed, etc...
5. Build so they can't get off the path.  Best way to train is to build a beautiful system with UI/UX that matches exactly what you want them to do.

If training has been a sticking point for and your team, and you want some guidance on where to start and how it would fit into a larger project, reach out at The Sales Nerd and we'd be happy to talk with you about our strategy for this important part of a project.