5 tips for Independent Broker Dealer SalesForce Adoption

SalesForce Adoption is different when a company has Independent Broker Dealer. In a traditional adoption you can get management buy in. Often a key mistake is that assuming the user isn't logging in because the they don't want to, when in reality the user may not know how to log in. In theory a one time webinar is all you need to train a group of users spread out across the country; however, its important to make sure the users know the difference between training and a demo. Its also important to follow up with the users, that are not logging or otherwise not using the system correctly, to see if they need additional help.

1 Help them make the right choice

A company that uses Independent Broker or Dealers often can't force the Broker or Dealers to use the software as these users often buy their own software or may be Independent contractors that work for several companies. In this case the Broker or Dealers are more like franchises or affiliates, where they need to be brought on one at a time or by the group of people they work with. Since these user have a choice, adoption is a cross between sales and business analyst. I find it useful to build upon what they know and assume they are unfamiliar with SalesForce terminology.

2 Use terms they already know

They may be more familiar with excel and outlook so you can build upon that.

Each user may have their own system or data source they need migrated to SalesForce. Data can always be added latter, but starting off with migrating existing data. An integration like outlook sync will increase user adoption, because otherwise the users will need to continue using the old system.

3 Invite their fellow associates

They may have their own, or several of them may share, a support Admin assistant or coordinator. These support user report to one or more brokers but from a SalesForce hierarchy they may need to be above the the users they support in order to do work on behalf of the user they support. Most new user won't know what SalesForce is, so don't waist time asking them if they want to share each object with their support user; instead, the choice is to either: share all with support or they don't want support. Permissions can always be changed latter, and you can start them off with no sharing if unsure.Some may actually work with different group for different reasons, including domain knowledge groups.

Additionally, users have a number options to share with each other that don't require an admin to set up. I had one user tell me SalesForce was useless until I showed him how to use personal groups.

4 Be flexible

When bring on lots of brokers from various locations or across the globe, you need to be flexible in the use of the fields. While some fields will have specific meaning it good to give the users other fields that they can may use for filters for their own reporting needs. With large groups of users, that are use to doing things their own way, less customization is more flexibility. You can't please everyone but you can try to give them something that's useful to most.

5 Train, follow up, and train

User may not be use getting a username and password from support@salesforce.com because they expect to be getting an official corporate email for security reasons. User may also mistake a training session for a demo with more information. Additionally user need to be activated in order for some permissions to be set up (like groups); so make sure users are set back to not active, if their Log In Email has not been sent out yet.
Start by providing official notification of what the companies plans are and what the user should expect to receive and do (next steps). These plans should include training session dates and where log in comes from. Warn the user to check their spam for the the login and who to notify it it doesn't arrive be a certain date. For training give them multi time slots to choose from. Although its good to train an entire team at once, don't let one person delay the entire team. Some of these people are on the road a lot and their support user may be the one doing most of the work. By having multi training slots users have the option of repeating the the training; as well as, taking it at a time that is convenient to them.
Chatter groups are good a Questions and Answers, but be careful not to squish discussions. Often a mistake of help desk is to quickly say no it can't be done or spread fear of doing something. The goal is to encourage system use, and just because method is not yet a best practice doesn't mean it can't become one.

SalesForce Users stop waiting on your admin to share records with a group or team

Tired of waiting on your admin to set up permission, well then take matters in to your own hands with Public Groups or Default teams. That's right, if you're in a private org, and need to share data with you co-workers in ways that only makes sense to you when your in the moment, on a record by record bases, then this is the solution you've been waiting for! Take control of your data by creating and using your own Public Groups or Default Teams (Default Account Teams and Default Opportunity  Teams). If you want even more power over your sharing with a Team and Group,  then have the admin auto add you to your own Default Account Teams. Now you can manually share with a single user, create Public groups or teams to manually share with several users or use teams to auto share with users. Never again will you need to wait for the admin or put up with limits on criteria based sharing rules (nor need to come up with criteria.) Best of all you can watch the below video & start sharing today!

Public Groups:
- Created By Admin
- All Users can use
- Great for sharing with Global, Domain knowledge or helper users
- Any user can share records with a Public Group
- Admins can user Public groups for sharing folders, List, email alerts, and more

Personal Groups:
- Created by 1 user for their own person use
- Seen Only by the Creator
- Great if you share with several different groups of people

Default teams:
- Created by User or Admin
- Only Admin can increase access level
- Great for if only on one team or need more power

Why Cloud isn't used for IT projects?

Traditionally making changes to software requires a tedious process of waiting on the IT depart to make any seaming little change. We in IT no that even the smallest change requires impact analyst. However, with Cloud based software like Facebook, SalesForce, LinkedIn, Google, and more, the IT department doesn't need to maintain and ignores the software.
For example, Marketer may be able to update the companies Facebook page with no help for the IT department; as a result the IT department is not kept in the loop as to what happens on Facebook. Therefor the Cloud Admin works in a silo without creating system documentation, collaborating with other IT, or being included in the companies current and future Roadmap plans.
Similarly SalesForce or other Clouds that could be used for company wide IT projects are seen as managed by the users; and therefor not considered or more importantly evaluated by the IT department. By being too easy for the user to use, the IT department does not need to be involved with the software, and therefor focuses on software that requires their attention. This results in a lack of interest and skill on the unfamiliar cloud & ultimately limits its use and growth to what the user can do on their own with what ever free time they have to do it. Further more, the cloud software admin is usually doing jobs so the time spent on changes is rushed instead of thought out for impact analyst.
Like it of not, the new Cloud admins may be part time with primary job as a Marketer, Coordinator, Administrative Assistant, or other. This means they are part of the IT department and should be included in the IT discussions for future company wide IT projects, and Cloud platforms considered as useful tools. The IT department doesn't need to learn how to develop in every platform as most of these don't require maintenance and you can always find a temporary contractor to find to do the work. Like with Agile development its the collaboration and impact analyst that is most important to the successful implementation of any project.

What is SalesForce: an Excel & Outlook comparison

Many Salesforce beginner's don't know what SalesForce is, so but they do know what Excel and Outlook are; therefor I building upon what they know to teach them what they don't know.

The below video, briefly discusses quickly what is Salesforce.com.
It  covers: (editable views) excel; Outlook (contacts, tasks and events);  It builds upon outlook contacts to get companies/accounts; continues on to Opportunities and sharing.

I've been working a project recently, were I started verbally giving this explanation to user that didn't know what SalesForce, as part of streamlining on boarding new users. I wanted the video to limit its scope to the minimum info the users needed for out of the box functionality, so as not to confuse the users and to keep them focused. However, I believe this will make a good intro for anyone that doesn't know what SalesForce is, as big issue is people don't know what they are ordering until they see and taste it.