Is your business ROI getting the most out of its Salesforce investment? If your company has used the platform for many years or is at a pivotal point, like the addition of a new app integration, now is a good time to conduct an assessment.

An assessment is important for multiple reasons. One of the key factors is it magnifies what needs to be tackled before a company spends time and money on customizations or additional applications from the technology stack.

Whether you hire an outside consultant or ask your in-house Salesforce Administrator to do the legwork, here are some key considerations that should be taken into account. 

ApostleTech’s 7 key considerations for a Salesforce assessment

1.       User CRM adoption: What does current user adoption look like? Be honest, was it ever at 100 percent? What ApostleTech often learns through the assessment process is that the user buy-in is lacking in organizations that have not created a Salesforce adoption strategy. The process can be time consuming for management. However, once effectively implemented, the capabilities of a fully utilized CRM are next to none to help your business to create strategies around onboarding, training, and continued professional development.

2.      Data cleanliness: In order to make data-driven decisions, there must be confidence in the data that’s being reviewed. When was the last time your database underwent a cleanliness check? Clean data is paramount. While it’s great to use the reports and capabilities in the dashboard, they’re not serving your business unless the data is integrated across the organization and it’s spotless.

3.     Management of change requests: If you are receiving frequent change requests, many can be mitigated with a thoughtful Salesforce change management strategy. Most businesses, however, don’t have one in place. It can be a little more complex though when working on a Salesforce platform that is heavily customized. When it comes to the management of change requests you need to figure out a process regardless and appoint a person to prioritize them. Afterall, change is inevitable, but it’s how your business decides to manage it that matters most. An assessment can help create a clearer vision for this important task.

4.     Who owns the roadmap: Does the business have a voice in determining the expansion and enhancements of Salesforce? This is where the buy-in conversation becomes apparent again. If the key-decision makers overseeing the roadmap don’t have confidence in the platform (because they have not taken the time to understand its potential), the assessment will uncover this. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help those that realize the benefits of a fully operational CRM. Unless your business has an experienced Salesforce Administrator on staff that can explain how to maximize ROI, the likelihood of the platform becoming dormant is high.

5.    Training: If your business has a Salesforce adoption strategy in place, training is typically built-in to the onboarding process. Enhancing the solution as your staff becomes more experienced is great but ongoing training and accreditations need to align too. With programs, such as Salesforce’s Trailhead, your team has the ability to skill-up, earn globally recognized credentials and connect with the popular Trailblazer Community. Salesforce is big on accessibility and providing equal pathways in the industry through its CRM trainings.

6.     Customer journey experience: Recent research from Salesforce indicates that 80 percent of customers consider their experience with a company to be as important as its products. CRM plays a crucial role in the customer journey map. Not only does it track the whole sales process, but if you are managing the customer journey in Salesforce, it helps to identify trends and the communication capabilities between sales and marketing ensures that your business can create a more personalized customer experience.  

7.     Data integration: Data is king and working from a single source is the best way to achieve accuracy, efficiency, and trust in the organization. When you integrate your data and converge it from multiple sources the organization is able to extract, analyze and share the information in many different ways, providing the business with a more comprehensive view. Data drives decisions and failure to integrate the business’ entire data flow is a missed opportunity.

Why it pays to partner with a CRM solutions provider

As a premier Salesforce partner, ApostleTech has built its reputation on a long-term collaborative approach. We take the time to learn and understand our customers’ business, designing integrated up-to-date solutions to facilitate growth. ApostleTech serves as a true partner, successfully taking customers from development through adoption and beyond. Contact us here to set up a time to talk.CRM