So you’ve stepped into a new sales role and the company uses Salesforce. If you have been in sales for any length of time we suspect that you either have been hearing about or using Salesforce for years. Even if you think you are a Salesforce Pro, give the following a read on how best to get up to speed at your new company so that you can focus on selling.
- Salesforce is designed to facilitate process. Yes, it collects data, but really it collects data along the way to completing some process. This simple mind shift is huge and will help you put Salesforce into perspective. Salesforce is not big brother watching, it is your company trying to ensure that an efficient and consistent process is followed.
- Know that every organization has set up Salesforce differently. It is important that even if you have used Salesforce in the past you take the time to learn how your new organization may have set it up.
- Regardless of how your organization thinks or delivers Sales training, you should break it down into three parts
- The products you sell
- The processes around how we need to sell it
- How to use Salesforce. You need to become an expert at using Salesforce so don’t be afraid to supplement the training your organization might provide with additional learning. Trailhead from Salesforce is a great place to start.
- Every professional Sales Rep should know how to do the following in Salesforce, assuming your company allows you to:
- Add and Convert a Lead
- Add an Account
- Add Contacts to an Account
- Add an Opportunity
- Understand when and how to use the different Activity Types: Tasks and Events
- Know how to create and use List Views.
- Salesforce has two new features that you should make sure are turned on: the Task Tab and Calendar View
- Create a Simple Report
- Salesforce tracks what it calls is Last Activity which is the date that the Last Activity. This field can be used to create reports or list views for say accounts that have not been contacted in the last 30, 60 or say 90 days. Assuming you log your Activities.
- Know that Salesforce and Outlook and Gmail can be integrated with Salesforce. This will really help your log activities, see and update Salesforce from within your email package. This is really a cost-effective solution that leads to better adoption.
- Advocate for yourself and great tools. Know what Salesforce can and should be doing for you. If you feel that Salesforce has not been set up correctly or that it is missing something that will make you more efficient ask for it. If you are a superuser of Salesforce, use it every day your company will be more apt to listen to you and give you want you to need.
- Finally, own your data! Assigned to 100 accounts…make sure that all Account, Contact and Opportunities fields your company asks you to complete are complete. Clean data will help you report on, group, sort and segment your data.
Getting a grip on these 8 aspects of Salesforce will make a world of a difference to your client retention. Ensuring that you’re utilizing your tools correctly makes the sales process seamless, effective and manageable. Interested in learning more? Take a look at Salesforce’s Solutions for a Sales Role
