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Salesforce is a CRM platform that can help you maintain leads and track your past customer interactions. As efficient as this tool is, some organizations are making mistakes that are preventing them from getting the platform’s full potential in terms of improved sales and marketing. Businesses make several common mistakes when using Salesforce that will decrease their ROI and stop them from getting the most out of their investment.

In reality, many organizations who try to implement Salesforce end up falling somewhere between never entirely utilizing it or, at worst, altogether abandoning it because they don’t feel they can make the most of it. Salesforce is user-friendly, no doubt, but as most software providers will reveal, there is much more to implementing an application such as this than just clicking a few buttons and then watching everything fall into place.

While there can be technical challenges along the way, they won’t necessarily affect the project’s outcome. With that in mind, we’ll address the top salesforce mistakes that will decrease their Business ROI.

Common Salesforce Mistakes Made By Businesses

Choosing the wrong salesforce consultant

Salesforce consultants come in all shapes and sizes, with varying expertise, experience, and professionalism. Choosing the wrong consultants is one of the biggest salesforce mistakes that will decrease your ROI.

Some consultants may be great at selling their services but lack actual experience implementing Salesforce solutions. Others may have extensive experience with Salesforce but are lacking in other areas of business acumen essential to running a successful implementation project.

You want to work with someone who has both technical knowledge and experience successfully working with businesses like yours on similar projects.

Melonleaf‘s highly-skilled and experienced Salesforce consultants are passionate about leveraging our problem-solving skills to help your business reach its unique accomplishments. Certified professionals with proven success in consulting can assist you with understanding Salesforce implementations and leveraging our services to obtain the maximum value from your CRM.

Starting With Undefined Goals

Before investing in any digital tool such as Salesforce, it’s vital to have a clear purpose or to know your “why.” This will remind you why you’re interested in implementing Salesforce and what processes you want to improve with it. Undefined goals lead to improper planning and execution, making it one of the crucial salesforce mistakes that will decrease your ROI.

You need to understand if your organization’s goals are aligned over the next 6–12 months, specifically with Salesforce. In other words, your salesforce goals should parallel your overall business objectives and support their accomplishment.

Not Developing A Standardized Data Collection Process

It’s one of the top reasons CRM systems fail. Sales data is the fuel to keep your system running smoothly, so it has to be 100% accurate, relevant, and up-to-date. There will be duplications and errors, leading to user abandonment of your system if they aren’t getting anything out of it. To avoid this, you must have a standardized, documented process to collect data.

Underestimating The Training And Resources Required To Gain Traction

Training is essential to implementing any product, yet it’s one of the common salesforce mistakes that will decrease your ROI. While Salesforce provides a library of training materials for its tools, relying solely on this information won’t be enough, mainly since every implementation is unique. Every quarter, sales teams should re-train themselves.

A one-time training or once-per-year isn’t enough to ensure adherence to standardization and best practices. Salesforce consistently releases feature updates (three times per year), so you might want to schedule training around these releases to stay on top of the most relevant available information.

No Strategy for Process Automation

Some organizations have not yet optimized the time-saving potential of Salesforce products such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Marketing Automation, Service & Support, and Security.

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One of the most significant benefits that Salesforce offers includes automating processes such as quotes, contracts, approvals, and marketing emails. By implementing these automation features in your organization, you free up a lot of time, which can be used for other important tasks. It includes managing projects or improving your knowledge of Salesforce, which ultimately helps you make more value for your company and your industry.

Not Investing Enough In Salesforce Administration

When technical issues arise or new features are rolled out, it can seem like you’re all alone. However, with a Salesforce administrator on hand and keeping up with new updates, you’ll be able to deal with any problem that gets in the way. At times, it’ll be necessary for this person to excel in various areas of Salesforce, such as management hierarchies or integration modules.

The administrators need to remain up-to-date in their knowledge and understanding of how your organization works so they can handle every facet and intricacy that comes up—which is precisely why they’re an essential resource. Also, remember that while they may be experts at Salesforce, they could also benefit from training and knowledge-sharing sessions just like everyone else if there seems to be any room for improvement. This will help enhance customer relations. 

Not Customizing The System As Per The Company’s Requirements

As unique as businesses are, every company faces different obstacles that they need to overcome. What may be perfect for helping one become more effective could have the opposite effect on another. However, the Salesforce CRM is built with all these things in mind, and oddly enough, this is what makes it unique—how customizable it is.

Because of the eight leading cloud programs and more than 3,400 available apps in the AppExchange, companies don’t have to worry about ending up with a system no one will use. It’s something that happens when you look at other alternatives out there that are designed to work for everyone. That’s why Salesforce CRM seems like a good choice for your business – it helps you meet your individual goals.

Ignoring Data Migration And Integration

In the startup world, there is a saying that goes something like “no business plan survives first contact with a customer.” This is important to remember as you build your company. Take on new partners and make significant decisions that could have long-lasting consequences. One of the most important is data migration and integration, followed by building up a unified team dashboard.

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Data migration helps get all the necessary project info into one centralized location, making it easier to use the information gathered to move the business forward. On the other hand, integration helps ensure that data updates seamlessly across different systems such as CRM, inventory management, billing, and payments so that no critical information gets lost or distorted when used for other purposes.

Finishing Up

It can be easy to take for granted the powerful machinery and commit the common salesforce mistakes that will decrease your ROI.

Many organizations are still not taking full advantage of the resources that could help boost their overall sales and the efficiency of their employees on a more grassroots level.

Companies with better Salesforce management actively experience a 25% increase in revenue, a 35% increase in customer sat
isfaction, and a 34% improvement in productivity. With everything at stake, has your company caught up yet?

Choose Melonleaf to avoid the common pitfalls related to salesforce. We offer a Salesforce design and implementation consulting service featuring our outstanding team of certified Salesforce professionals. We also have a wide range of experience working with this platform, so we’re confident that you’re guaranteed the best possible results when you choose us.