The time has finally come. You have decided that your company needs a tool that supports you in achieving and retaining customers. And not just any support. One with automated processes and artificial intelligence. Hosted in the cloud, intuitive and constantly updated with the latest innovations. In addition, it is highly configurable, which is why you have decided to buy the tailored suit of CRMs. Although this decision will bring significant benefits to your company, like any implementation, it will require adjustments to your business processes. After all, we want to improve them qualitatively. It is an opportunity to focus on our processes, to find out how we can improve operations. The Salesforce CRM implementer will be in charge of putting the means. 1. Make an implementation plan It all starts with a clear vision of where we want to go with the project. Having a defined plan makes it easier to follow the steps in order, know in advance the resources that we will need and be able to schedule the development, thus obtaining a clear completion date. Salesforce.com has templates available to tackle this task. For example, your “Salesforce CRM Getting Started Workbook” can be very helpful in laying out a project plan. Likewise, it is advisable to choose a project leader and then form a team with the profiles of the professional areas that should be involved in the preparation. They must know how to communicate how their business processes are articulated and what are the needs detected in them, in order to reflect them in Salesforce CRM. 2. Schedule Once you have shared with the CRM consultant the business process and what your company’s needs are, it will be beneficial for both parties to agree on the estimated times for each stage of the implementation process. In this way, the team formed for the implementation can be aware of the schedule and available to spend time on the implementation. 3. Personalized operations It is useless to start up a CRM like Salesforce’s if its main strength is not taken advantage of: the great capacity to adapt to the company’s requirements from the beginning. Making sure that we have contracted a tool that we are taking advantage of at 100% of its capacity, once the learning curve has been overcome, is vital for the success of the project. 4. Integration with other systems Data unification, as we told you in this post, is another of Salesforce CRM’s strengths. Be sure to include in your implementation plan a list of other platforms used in the company for similar or related business processes. If you have questions on this point, discuss it with your Salesforce CRM consultant. You’d be surprised how many integrations Salesforce offers and how much they’ll make your day-to-day life easier (for example, by generating high-quality reports). The objective is clear: improve operations and, above all, maximize your investment. 5. Keep it fresh! Or, in other words: keep flexible thinking during and after the Salesforce CRM implementation process. During the process: be open to changes. Take advantage of this turning point to innovate and grow. Let yourself be advised. Once released: foresee the possibility of needing additional developments, support, purchase of licenses… Salesforce is a CRM that is one step ahead of the spirit of the times, and once you are part of its community, it will be very tempting to apply to your company the new advantages launched by the best CRM in the world.
