Choosing the right CRM for your company and industry proves to be quite the task. As soon as you say the word “CRM,” you start to see ads, receive email after email, call after call, and eventually demo after demo. It’s a lot. So, now that you have navigated those waters and decided on the best in the biz, Salesforce, what do you do next? Follow these steps to help guide you through your Salesforce journey.
Take a deep breath.
You did it—you chose a CRM! That’s no easy feat.
Become best friends with Trailhead.
Trailhead is Salesforce’s self-guided learning tool. Here are some of our favorites if you are just getting started:
Find a consultant.
Consultants are a great resource in many areas of business. Specifically, Salesforce is a huge ecosystem of people that are always there to help. Salesforce Consultants provide best practices and industry knowledge for your implementation. Hiring a consultant when you first purchase Salesforce will ensure that you build your Salesforce instance right the first time. Not convinced you need a consultant? Read more about the benefits of hiring one.
Prepare your data.
Salesforce will soon be the central location for all of your client data–phone numbers, emails, addresses, and more. Begin compiling all of this data and make sure it is clean. There are some great tools such as Dun & Bradstreet that can help with this task. This tool also integrates with Salesforce to keep your data clean forever!
Document your business processes.
You may think that you don’t have a typical process but, you do. Take some time to talk to department heads about what their employees do day to day. Then map these processes individually and at a company level. Having these processes documented will help you determine the goals for your business throughout your implementation.
Ready to start your Salesforce implementation? We’re here to help. Contact us today!