The training phase of a salesforce.com implementation is the best opportunity to drive end-user adoption. To increase your chances of success, follow these good training practices:
1. Role-based training: training should not be the same for all roles; It must be adapted to each role and start with the managers. focus on showing them the value of the tool and how to get the information they want from it; they don't need to know how to turn a lead into an opportunity as much as they need to know which reports will be most useful to them and how to run them
2. Scenario-based training: end users don't need to know * what * all screens and functions * do * as much as they need to know * when * to use salesforce.com; Instead of describing each screen, take an example from the real world and walk through it together; it almost ends up being more business process training than software training
3. Train as a team: it is crucial that the manager is training with the end users (after ensuring that the managers see the value of salesforce.com, of course); With their manager present, end users know that management is involved and expected, and they are less likely to say or think "this is a waste of time, I'm not doing it"
4. Train in the Live System: It's tempting to train in a fictitious organization with leads and fake contacts and other data, but then you have to trust users to take what they have learned and put it in. translate to the real world; instead, ask them to * actually * work with * real * data (for example, bring your stacks of business cards to class and enter actual leads during training); that way, they have already started using salesforce.com when they finish a day of class; It's so much easier to * keep * using a new tool than to * start * using it!
5. Hands-on Training: This may be obvious, but it should be noted: Most people don't learn by listening to an instructor or by watching videos and learning online; they learn by doing; each student should have their own workstation or device and should practice each process taught in the classroom
6. Reinforce training over time: Research shows that two weeks after training, people generally retain 2-4% of what they have learned ... unless they actually use what they learn. they learned; the one-time training strategy is not enough, as even the fastest end-users are unlikely to use the night delivered during the first week after training; you should check and update after one week and again after a second week
End-user adoption can be one of the hardest things to achieve with salesforce.com, but it's also one of the most important. With initial and ongoing support from direct managers, along with these best practices, any organization can expect and enjoy the high end-user adoption rates of salesforce.com.
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