The Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide

Before I begin with this Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide, let me share something with you. Over a decade ago, I’ve discovered Salesforce and was amazed at how quickly it can transform businesses. The amount of power you get within the cloud is absurd! I didn’t like Salesforce’s implementation process, which made me lose more clients than I’ve won. Back then, all things were manual. So you had to learn some programming (visual force, apex) and practice a lot of customization on the platform to make anything look good. The results weren’t great – most implementations took months or even years!

But things are changing, and salesforce is changing as well. Now, when I look back to when I’ve started using salesforce, I can’t believe it. The platform itself is much more advanced and highly optimized for success. The implementation process has become twice as efficient. The effort you need to put in is half of what it used to take. The best part about this is that you don’t have to know anything about programming because Salesforce wants it to be user-friendly for everyone! All you need is the right guide; that’s why I created The Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide.

Do you want me to help?

The Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide ensures that your next implementation will succeed by telling you everything you need to know about how good practices are done today in the modern era. The Guide contains a list of steps that will guide you from the start to end, including all valuable information. The goal is not for me to do your job or tell you what to do as a system administrator but as a consultant I’ll make suggestions on how things can be done but you’re free to choose. The Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide has only one goal – help you with your next implementation!

The best part about The Ultimate Sales Cloud Implementation Guide?

The Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide is split into chapters so instead of reading through pages and pages of text, just go straight ahead with implementing what’s important for your company. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or an experienced system administrator (or a business user), The Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide will guide you through the process step by step. The best part? The guide is free! All I ask for in return is for you to share your experience with others so they can benefit as well. If anything goes wrong, I’m here to help you out because what’s most important is that my clients are happy with their implementation. The goal of The Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation Guide might sound cliche but it’s true – every business deserves fast, reliable and working customer relationship management!

STEP 1: Define goals

The first step in preparing your company to use the Sales Cloud is to define goals. These goals can be metrics such as “increase customer retention” and “identify and engage potential customers.” The second step is to review all of your existing systems, including your current CRM and e-commerce platforms. The third step is to identify all stakeholders who will need access to the data throughout its lifecycle. This includes internal users such as sales staff, support staff, and marketing team members. Finally, it’s important that you run an impact analysis to find out if this solution will impact any other business systems and processes.

How to define salesforce implementation goals

Defining your CRM implementation goals is crucial to your success with Salesforce. These goals can be either quantitative or qualitative, but you should make sure to be specific and measurable so they can be implemented right away. Some of the most important things to consider when setting these goals are:

• Which metrics will we track and measure? Which ones would we like to see improve?
• What will be our resources for each goal? For instance, do you want to develop new skills or change the organizational culture around a certain metric? How much time and money might that take?
• How many resources will be needed initially, as well as in the long term, to meet those goals?

STEP 2: Find consultant

There are many reasons why businesses should use a salesforce consultant to implement the Sales Cloud. One of these reasons is that consultants are typically experts in CRM implementation, which means they have the knowledge and experience needed to get your company set up on Salesforce quickly. Another reason is that, by hiring a consultant company, you’ll increase the CRM’s implementation success rate, which could prevent any problems before they happen. Finally, it’s important to note that there are many firms out there who provide not just one but multiple services in one package. This includes all of the different services that may be needed when implementing Sales Cloud, such as consultancy, development or training.

Plan in advance

An important thing to remember when considering whether or not to hire a salesforce consultant is the fact that you should start this process early. This means hiring a consultant 2-3 months before your company’s Salesfroce Sales Cloud implementation date, which will give them enough time to learn about your industry and business goals as well as create an effective roadmap for success.

Risks of implementing salesforce without consultant

The risks of not using a salesforce consultant, or a CRM consulting firm, to help with your company’s implementation is that you will not know what to do next. This makes it more difficult to set up the CRM and make sure it works as expected. Another risk is that not having a company work with you on this project could force you to spend time and money on training and development that may be unnecessary. The last risk is that some people who implement the Sales Cloud alone find they do not get the desired results, which means they end up spending more time and money on their CRM than they would have if they had hired a consultant.

How to find a great salesforce sales cloud consultant

One way to find a great consultant is to create a spreadsheet that lists the different steps related to the salesforce implementation process. The titles of these columns should include things like “search phase,” “resume review,” “interview,” and more. This way, you can keep track of all of your research and identify which company would be best for your business.

Reach out to consultants

You should also make sure to set up calls with each potential candidate before making any decisions. You should talk about what their capabilities are, what training they provide, and why they should be selected. Make sure you do this in order to make sure you are getting the right team for your company’s goals.

Finding a consultant for your sales cloud implementation checklist

Create a spreadsheet that lists the different steps related to the salesforce implementation process. The titles of these columns should include things like “search phase,” “resume review,” “interview,” and more. This way, you can keep track of all of your research and identify which company would be best for your business. Always set up calls with each potential candidate to talk about what their capabilities are, what training they provide, and why they should be selected

Talk to us before you make your final decision

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Blondie is one of the top Salesforce consulting firms. One reason why Blondie is so successful is that we hire only the best consultants to work with our clients, which gives you a much better chance at long-term success than working alone. We also provide complete services for every aspect of your company’s Sales Cloud implementation process, which means that you don’t have to worry about finding someone else for all of those different pieces.

STEP 3: Analyze your business processes

It is very important to analyze your business processes before making any final decision about how to implement the Sales Cloud CRM. One way to start this process is by completing a BPA or Business Process Analysis. This will allow you to see how much time and effort you spend on different tasks in your workplace, and it will help you identify which task to decide to use in your CRM.

The next step in this analysis would be deciding what data should be in the CRM and what fields should be there to display that data. For example, if your company sells products, you might want fields like product name, price, inventory, manufacturer information and more. It is also important during this process for you to answer questions like “What value will my CRM bring to me?” and “How will I use the CRM in my business?” Answer these questions so you can determine what information needs to be collected, how it will be used, and whether or not it is worth collecting.

What is the sales business process

A sales process is a series of steps that take place from the moment a customer wants to buy something from your company all the way to where they provide payment for their purchase. The first step in that sequence is when a potential customer decides they want to buy something from your company and reaches out to you or one of your employees.

This is also called your “sales funnel” because it looks like an upside-down funnell with the wide end at the top. Once someone contacts you, then you need to answer them back and send over some information about what they’re interested in (let’s say, phones).

Then, the person who contacted you will need to look at all of your products and decide if they want to buy one. If so, then they’ll deliver payment for it (with cash or credit card). Let’s say that instead of buying a phone, this particular customer asked for some information about prices. This would be the next step in the process because someone else at their company needs to see how much things cost before deciding whether or not they want to make a purchase.

How to analyze sales processes

There is a good old technique to figure out which business processes should be analyzed first. Especially at the early stage of

Gather Process Definition

The first step in the process analysis is to list all processes. This is done by using a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) gap analysis and creating a gap analysis matrix with these four factors and the target organization’s objectives on one axis.

Evaluate Strength Of Current Sales Processes

Once goals have been set for sales process improvements, an evaluation of current strengths of sales processes is necessary so development can know where to focus its efforts. Using this approach will help narrow down problems that need attention from management teams more urgently than others.

Analyze Weakness of Current Sales Processes

This stage of the process begins with an analysis on where problems can be addressed. These weaknesses are typically identified through interviews with people who are executing the sales process, as well as those who are not. One way to identify problems is by identifying missed objectives or goals that could not be reached during the performance of the process.

Identify Opportunities for Improvement

Once weaknesses have been identified, opportunities for improvement can be identified. This is done by looking at each of the five critical success factors identified in SWOT analysis and determining which one has not achieved its desired objective.

Identify Threats to Current Sales Processes

This step involves deciding whether the current sales process is not meeting management team’s objectives. These threats are usually identified through SWOT analysis and interviews with employees, managers and other people involved in or impacted by the sales process.

Map out Current Sales Process

Once weaknesses, opportunities for improvements and threats have been identified, it is time to identify what needs to be done to reduce these problems. A map of how the sales processes currently flows should then be created. This flowchart will help different departments understand where they fit into the whole picture, while also providing a visual representation of gaps that need to be addressed.

STEP 4: List your requirements

Once you have analyzed your business processes, next step is to produce a list of requirements for you project.

To create a list of requirements for your CRM project, start by listing the features and functionalities desired in your CRM. For example, make a list of the “must-haves” and “nice to haves.” Next, prioritize and weigh each item on your list to determine which ones make the most sense to include in your scope.

When determining priorities, it’s important to track how many users will need that particular function. The final step when creating requirements is identifying which items are required for you CRM to function properly and which ones are nice add-ons that may not be necessary.

Examples of project requirement for salesforce sales cloud

Here are some sample requirements for you salesforce sales cloud implementation. I would recommend to produce high-level requirements first and then deep dive into more details.

• User will be able to edit accounts in the system.
• Users will be alerted when they receive a new account assignment.
• There must be an export function in the system that lets me download my contacts list in excel format.
• Users must be able to edit contact data in the system.
• There should be a “find by email” function for sales reps in the sales force sales cloud.
• Users should be able to see historic data in the system so they can do accurate forecasting.

Importance of MVP

MVP is a term used in software design to describe a philosophy of minimizing the time and effort spent developing a product by maximizing the amount of validated learning that can be achieved during development.

This philosophy asserts that the best way to ensure a product will be successful is to release an early version of the product with enough features to satisfy early adopters, and then use feedback from this group of initial users in order iteratively develop more features which will address their needs.

In user experience design terms, MVP has been described as being “minimum viable product,” referring to the practice of releasing an early, in-progress version of a product with limited functionality.

Developing your CRM project MVP requires you to perform necessary research and analysis before designing or building any function or feature.

Risks of going with large projects

I have seen so many time companies try to plan their budgets for years ahead not thinking about risks involved. The longer and larger is CRM project, the higher there is probability that your project fail. Do not plan your project for years ahead. You risk to end up with bulky CRM which went way over the budget and user adoption is at a very low level.

STEP 5: Create project timeline

With your list of requirements, you next task is create a project time line.

Start by determining when you need certain functions or features to be ready for the sales force sales cloud. Then, budget that into your project timeline. This will help ensure that you’re on track and hitting deadlines for each part of your CRM implementation process.

Finally, keep in mind there are factors outside your control during the implementation process which may affect when certain features are ready. That’s why maintaining flexibility in your schedule is key when it comes to implementing a systems like Salesforce sales cloud. Some aspects may take

Limiting CRM project risks

The best way to avoid high risks of CRM project is to limit the size and scope. Limit CRM project budget and set time frame according to your business needs. CRM should be able to adapt to changing environment, especially with technology rapidly changing. It also should be able to adapt new processes as they are created or changed by you or your organization.

The longer and larger is CRM project, the higher there is probability that your project fail. Do not plan your project for years ahead without taking risks into consideration. You can end up with bulky CRM which went way over the budget and user adoption is at a very low level.

Great salesforce implementation project timeline example

Here a great example on salesforce implementation project timeline.

Week 1: Get team onboarded

Getting management team on board with their assigned tasks is one of the most important things to do when implementing a CRM. Start by explaining why the project is important and what it will do for the company.

Keeping everyone in sync on how the project is going and what’s been done is even more crucial. Make sure to have daily stand up meetings where you go over everything that happened since last meeting, what will get done before next meeting, and what issue popped up during the meeting.

Week 2 to 10: Launch project customization project

1. Launch project customization project
2. Keep stakeholders in sync with what is happening
3. Make sure to have daily stand up meetings where you go over everything that happened since the last meeting, what will get done before the next meeting, and any issues that popped up during the meeting
4. Limit CRM project budget and set time frame according to your business needs
5. Consider risks of going with large projects

Week 11: Prepare your project launch

Plan rollout of CRM to users. Ensure you have pitched to all stakeholders.

Prepare training material. This can include videos, online help, FAQs and presentations.

Find out what the users already know about CRM/Salesforce – what are their pain points? What are they hoping to achieve? You may need extra training sessions to explain new features if they are not familiar with Salesforce.

Take feedback from your pilot group throughout the process to make changes where necessary.

Week 12: Rollout of CRM begins

Start the rollout of Sales Cloud to sales reps! This should be done in waves so that there are always enough people available to receive training. The first wave of sales reps will get all the necessary training for Salesforce and a light overview of their new account management. If they have a lot of experience with a previous CRM, they’ll spend more time going over the new features and how they work, but only if the situation calls for it.

Week 13: Train, train, train!

It’s time to fully launch your new CRM. Your training programme should be finalised by now so start giving access to all of your sales reps. They should have gone through full Salesforce training and have an understanding of the account management process. These are the people who will drive sales forward on a daily basis so it’s important they know how to use every feature of the system to its fullest extent.

Monitor how smoothly more experienced users are adapting – do they need extra help? Offer it if necessary, but only if you are confident that this won’t slow down their progress. Start planning for the next wave of training.

Week 14: Training begins again

It’s time to start preparing for the second wave of sales reps who should already have a good understanding of Sales Cloud/CRM and their new account management process. This will be an opportunity to expand their knowledge and show them how they can use Sales Cloud more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

An so on… you get an idea.

STEP 6: Rollout your project

You’ve worked hard to get your project set up. Now it’s time for the next step – rollout! Phew, that was a lot of work – now you can start seeing some benefits. Preparation is key here – you don’t want a last minute rush before go-live which impacts quality and results in unhappy users. On the other hand, you don’t want to leave your project waiting around until it’s ‘perfect’ – that’ll never happen. Get started now!

Get started with data import

Now it’s time to do your data migration homework. This is far from the most fun part of the project, but it’s important to get right. The data you’re moving will be used by your end users for years – don’t mess it up! If necessary, enlist help from a partner or consultant – but make sure they understand what you need them to do. Make yourself an expert on this part of the process before go-live day comes around.

Get started with testing

Testing has two main purposes: getting teams familiar with using Salesforce and checking that everything works as expected. How you run these tests depends heavily on your Salesforce administrator skillset, so choose who’ll run them wisely! We recommend having system administrators involved in at least some testing activities, even if they aren’t writing the tests themselves. At a minimum, they should be there to make sure that your tests aren’t breaking any existing Salesforce functionality.

Find and fix pr up resolution!

After running your tests, fix up anything you found during the testing process. This may be as simple as swapping one test result for another because you’ve changed your implementation since the test was written – or it could involve writing new tests entirely. Either way, it’s an important step that ensures that your implementation performs as expected after go-live!

Get feedback

Finally, ask for feedback from users and stakeholders! Get them to leave their thoughts on a post-implementation survey . You could even invite them to review certain features live in Salesforce using Trailhead reviews . The more information about how they’ll actually use the system once it’s live, the better!

Get users onboard

Next step is to get all users on board with your project and make sure they’re ready for go-live. If you’ve already done training and it’s been well received, conducting refresher sessions can help – especially if new people have begun working on the team since the last session. Include refreshers as part of overall training plan, along with communication about go-live date so everyone knows what’s coming up ahead of time.

Change management

Last, but certainly not least, is change management. Make sure everyone knows what’s changing before it changes – with plenty of warning about the go-live date! This includes support teams as well as users. You want to avoid any nasty surprises on that big day!

Go live!

You’re now ready for your big switch-on. Congratulations! Now make sure you monitor the system regularly after go-live to find and fix bugs quickly, keep training people on new features, look out for any areas of confusion or difficulty with the system and – above all else – enjoy working in your great new Salesforce implementation!

STEP 7: Support your project

It is important to provide support for salesforce after it has been launched. The salesforce administrator in-house or outsourced should be able to add and update business processes. It’s also important that these updates are coupled with training sessions and communication on the best practices for salesforce.

After salesforce has been implemented it is important to continue improving the system. The best way to do this is to focus on reports and dashboards for managers and admins, which can be used on a daily basis.

It’s also important that the data in the CRM is accurate. It should add more value than extra work, so it’s important to invest in training for the salesforce administrator and other users.

Subscribe to managed services provider

Subscribe to managed services provider, it can reduce costs and give you peace of mind.

It is important to hire salesforce administrators who are qualified for the job. A salesforce administrator should have experience in system management, programming, business process management, and data modeling. It’s important to take into account the skills of the salesforce administrator before hiring them.

Subscribe to our managed services solution

It is important to hire salesforce administrators who are well-qualified for the job. A salesforce administrator should have experience in system management, programming, business process management, and data modeling. It’s important to take into account the skills of the salesforce administrator before hiring them.

We offer a wide variety of services that are designed to help you get the most out of your salesforce CRM solution. From salesforce administration to apex programming and training, we have it all. Subscribe to our managed services today!

STEP 8: Write digital into your DNA.

Once you are up and running, it’s just the beginning. You have to start onboarding other executive onboarding and take them through the whole process. This is where you get the most out of your Salesforce investment – it becomes a living, breathing system.

The ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud implementation should be one that everyone in the company should understand and take part in.

It’s a long journey but if you start planning for it from day one, it’ll be a smooth ride all the way there.

Last word

Thank you for reading this post. I hope it helped and gave you some insight into Ultimate Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation .