by Barry Thomason | Aug 9, 2018 | Business, Process Improvement, Sales, Salesforce, Salesforce Adoption
During Salesforce implementation discussions, we often encounter people that struggle with how to use the Salesforce Leads object. This post will give you a framework for thinking about and working with Leads (even if you don’t use Salesforce yet). Note that for the purposes of this post, Leads are defined as individuals that are potential buyers or buying influencers. We are not talking about the use of Leads as it relates to a potential business opportunity, though some businesses also use the word Lead in that way. These type of Leads are dealt with differently and separately than buyer or buying influencer Leads. There are a variety of ways to deal with potential business opportunity Leads, but we will not address those here.
To set the framework for this discussion, here is a matrix you can use to categorize Leads.
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by John Burdett | Sep 15, 2017 | Business, Customer Success Stories, Entrepreneurship, Salesforce, Salesforce Adoption, Software, Technology
If you own a small, rapidly-growing businesses it may sound like a dream come true—but it doesn’t come without its fair share of nightmares along the way! Such companies rapidly outgrow their business processes and this creates headaches in all areas of the day-to-day running of the business. Often, they muddle along with inefficient processes, poor communication, and frequent costly errors that harm relationships with customers. Ultimately, service delivery problems lead to customers leaving and the nightmares beginning for the business owner. But turning this round is often simply a case of re-defining the sales processes and introducing more automation to improve the service delivery for clients. Salesforce is one of the best tools for achieving this. (more…)
by Barry Thomason | May 5, 2017 | Business, Data, Process Improvement, Salesforce, Salesforce Adoption
There’s an old saying about having ham and eggs for breakfast – the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. Just like the pig, when Salesforce has become the backbone of your business, you’re all-in. In our previous posts on adoption, Introducing the Model, Keys To Success, and Levering Salesforce, we discussed the early stages of adoption and hurdles that may occur. In this final stage of the Adoption Maturity Model, we are discussing how you know you’re all-in. In our consulting experience, we usually see companies hit the all-in stage within a year of launching the platform. (more…)
by Barry Thomason | Feb 20, 2017 | Business, Process Improvement, Salesforce, Salesforce Adoption
Previously, we introduced the idea of a Salesforce Adoption Maturity Model as a way for companies to gauge how well they are capitalizing on their Salesforce investment. We discussed the first level of the model, Basic Adoption, which is focused on getting the fundamentals in place and developing discipline within the organization to use the solutions. In the second level of the model, Leveraging the Platform, you will have reached the intermediate stage when you have begun to automate processes and expand usage of Salesforce into the areas of your business that will help you create a 360-degree view of your relationships.
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by Barry Thomason | Nov 1, 2016 | Data, Process Improvement, Salesforce Adoption
It’s a fact, the person with the easiest access to the most information gives the best service (unless they are lazy). That said, it is very common to encounter Salesforce users or prospective customers that say it takes too much time and effort to capture data in Salesforce. But for many jobs, especially sales and service jobs, you can’t perform well without a lot of information, and you need data in order to create information. Think about it, information is required in order to provide service.
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