10 Steps for Ensuring a Successful Salesforce Implementation

Why advanced preparation is critical

Salesforce has the power to transform your business, catapult sales, and drive strong customer relationships. When the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is properly implemented, organizations can create a 360 view of their customers, enhance their marketing ROI, increase deal closure rates and velocity,  improve customer retention, and achieve greater precision in their forecasting.

However, many organizations fail to realize these benefits. This isn’t due to CRM platforms themselves. It’s often because people haven’t done the right advanced work needed to set themselves up for success. As a result, according to Forrester:

• 68% of CRM users struggle with getting a single view of the customer
• 48% struggle with creating customer insights to drive decision-making
• 29% have a hard time gaining cooperation across the organization to support CRM improvement projects
• 15% find it difficult to make business changes

Key benefits of starting with a Salesforce implementation right now

Salesforce has a robust infrastructure made up of several native products, each designed to meet the needs of sales, service, or marketing professionals. Three of the most well-known examples are Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is capable of improving lead conversion processes, drastically reducing the time it takes for an average deal to close. It can dramatically increase the number of email click-through rates in a relatively short time span while also being responsible for a significant reduction in the number of clicks an average sales process takes.

Salesforce Service Cloud can lead to a substantial reduction in case handling time. It saves a significant portion of a service agent’s time while drastically increasing their satisfaction rates.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud accelerates marketing production time while boosting conversion rates. It is also responsible for a massive increase in expedited lead segmentation efforts.

Other advantages of Salesforce include the Salesforce Platform, which massively accelerates project delivery speed with its “click-not-code” approach. The vast library of AppExchange add-ons and third-party tools can improve the original software’s feature set in practically every possible category, boosting the platform’s general versatility several times over.

Additionally, the current popularity of Salesforce means that there are a lot of Salesforce experts around that can help with implementation or customization processes, enabling seamless task delegation to a Salesforce implementation partner of your choice whenever you wish.

Salesforce implementation strategy in 10 steps

A successful Salesforce implementation requires a strategic, methodical, and collaborative approach. Here are 10 key steps to help prepare you for the SFDC implementation process.

1. Identify Salesforce implementation stakeholders

Salesforce can benefit users across your organization – but only if you know exactly what they want to achieve. Begin by identifying stakeholders from  each relevant department – such as sales, marketing, fiance, and customer success. These people will be responsible for gathering input from their teams, communicating goals and progress, and acting as a liaison to the Salesforce operations team during the preparation and implementation phases and likely beyond to everyday operations.  

2. Set specific goals

Once the key stakeholders with a vested interest in the SFDC implementation project have been identified, it’s time to consult with them to define the project’s objectives. Asking questions such as “What does success look like?” and “To what extent does your team encounter recurring issues?” can help determine the inefficiencies in the current processes and identify the specific features of Salesforce that have piqued their interest.  

The primary purpose of this stage is to pinpoint the areas where changes can have the most significant impact, thereby alleviating the most pressing problems. This approach can help set priorities and ensure that the objectives of the various stakeholders align effectively. It is critical to have a clear vision of the project’s goals before moving forward with the process.

Make sure to follow these SMART guidelines for goal-setting:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-based

3. Develop a realistic budget

Your Salesforce strategy will likely be shared by your available budget.  Having a clear understanding of your organization’s expectations can guide the selection of the appropriate features and pricing structures. 

However, keep in mind there are many elements that go into determining overall costs:

• CRM license pricing
• Consulting fees
• Customization expenses
• Data migration costs
• System integration
• End-user training
• After-launch support

4. Choose an implementation partner 

Salesforce implementations are inherently complex. To help ensure success, many companies work with Salesforce-certified partners. Qualified partners can:

• Provide guidance on a Salesforce solution that meets your needs
• Advise on optimal Salesforce pricing 
• Recommend AppExchange apps to consider in lieu of custom development
• Ensure your solution is technically sound to avoid future challenges with updates, data modeling, security, and over-customization
• Mitigate risks related to the project’s scope, timeline, and budget
• Address change management 
• Establish post-implementation maintenance processes that include critical tasks such as Salesforce data backups, software updates, security audits, and user support

There are many factors that should contribute to the Salesforce partner evaluation, including:

• Resource availability
• Industry knowledge
• Technical expertise
• Certification level
• Project methodology
• References from similar projects
• Cultural fit, and so on.

In addition to evaluating their Salesforce expertise, make sure to collaborate with a partner who has experience working with companies that are similar to yours in size, geography, and industry.

5. Develop a change management strategy

Introducing a new CRM often means big changes to organizational and user behavior and processes. It’s not unusual to encounter user confusion and resistance. With a well-planned change management strategy, you can ensure a smoother transition, higher adoption rates, and ultimately, the success of your Salesforce project.

Best practices for Salesforce change management

• Secure executive sponsorship and change advocates
  Executive sponsors can champion the project, provide necessary resources, and influence positive change across the organization.
  
  You’ll also want to identify and empower change champions within each department. These people can advocate for the Salesforce project, assist their colleagues with the transition, and act as a bridge between the project team and the rest of the organization.

• Engage users early
  Stakeholder involvement: Identify and engage key stakeholders from every department affected by the SFDC implementation. Their early involvement ensures their needs and concerns are addressed, increasing buy-in and support.
  
• Map out the change process
  Develop a detailed plan that outlines the steps of the Salesforce implementation, including timelines, milestones, and expected outcomes. This plan should be communicated to all involved parties to set clear expectations. This can help prepare your organization for the change and minimize any potential disruptions.
  
• Encourage feedback and foster a positive culture for change
  Encourages employees to voice their concerns and seek clarification about the changes as soon as they are announced. An anonymous feedback system can be useful in obtaining candid responses. 
  
  Remember, resistance to change is natural. Address concerns openly and provide clear, honest answers. Show empathy and work collaboratively to find solutions to any issues that arise. Recognize and reward flexibility and innovation among team members.
  
• Highlight quick wins
  Identify and communicate quick wins early in the implementation process. Highlighting these successes can build momentum and demonstrate the tangible benefits of Salesforce CRM for your organization.

6. Commit to training personnel  

Training is a crucial component of a successful SFDC implementation – both before, during, and after roll-out. In fact, 53% of organizations say that having better CRM onboarding and training would make their CRM system much more effective.

Skimping on training or doing it ineffectively can lead to lower adoption rates and overwhelming amounts of user errors. If either of these happen, you won’t achieve the outcomes your business needs. 

Best practice for organizations implementing Saelsforce for the first time is to contract with either your third-party implementation partner or another Salesforce training organization. 

Make sure you design comprehensive training sessions tailored to different user groups within your organization. Offer continuous support and resources to help users adapt to the new capabilities.

7. Implement a phased rollout with a defined feedback plan

One of the greatest benefits of using Salesforce is the wide range of possibilities it offers. However, its extensive capabilities can sometimes be overwhelming, leading to poor user adoption. To address this issue, introduce new features and elements slowly, allowing employees to adjust at their own pace.

Present a few features to each group in the initial rollout. Then check in with users to gauge their response and make any necessary adjustments before introducing any additional processes or features.

Make sure to develop a feedback plan with your implementation partner upfront. You’ll want to ensure expectations are being met once they’ve rolled out some functionality or implemented a proof of concept. 

Note that any feedback linked directly to an explicit requirement should be considered within the project scope and be implemented as part of a shorter build phase. If it falls outside the scope, the changes may need to be postponed and are likely to affect the overall project schedule.  

8. Pause before pushing the button

To ensure a smooth rollout, we recommend you:

• Conduct extensive quality assurance in advance to uncover errors caused by missing components, outdated elements in the sandbox, broken workflows, etc.
• From the start of deployment until all post-deployment checks have been completed, ensure that email deliverability in ‘Setup’ is disabled or set to ‘System Email’ only, double-checking with your Implementation Partner.
• Consider the impact on users and determine the best time to deploy.  
• Perform a brief run-through of critical features after completing post-deployment processes to ensure that the system is performing as planned.

9. Migrate your CRM data

Once everything is set up, you would have to move any data you want to work with in the future to the new environment. The basic data migration process is comprised of several important steps, such as:

• Backup
• Categorization for field mapping
• Miscellaneous considerations
• Scripting and potential cleanup
• Initial import and authentication
• Final import

It is a substantially more challenging process than what one might expect, especially if the company has underestimated the effort and skill it would take to perform the migration. In most cases, investing in an implementation partner with data migrating experience should be a good idea to ensure that the transition itself goes through smoothly.

10. Create a feedback loop for continuous development

After the implementation is live, it is a good time to start setting up everything to ensure it can stay up for the foreseeable future. The true value of a platform such as Salesforce only arises when it can be flexible and adjustable enough to keep up with all the changes in your business. Here is how you can do that:

• Create a feedback mechanism to collect input from users on their experiences and pain points with the current Salesforce implementation, be it in the form of dedicated meetings, suggestion boxes, or simple surveys.
• Identify adoption trends and areas for potential improvement using Salesforce’s built-in analytical toolset.
• Align with key stakeholders on a regular basis to evaluate if the system is still in line with all the business goals. This process is best when performed semi-annually or quarterly, and it can be used as the means of figuring out how the existing solution can be improved.
• Keep an eye out for all the new Salesforce features and updates, making sure that you do not miss some new feature that might dramatically improve the value of your organization or its performance.
• Try to create a culture of continuous learning with regular refresher training and an encouragement for teams and individual users to explore something that can optimize existing workflows, be it advanced features of Salesforce or some of its newest integrations.

Different approaches to SFDC implementation

Before we begin with explaining the proper Salesforce implementation strategy, it would be important to draw a distinction between the different implementation models that Salesforce provides. All users have a choice between managed, hybrid, and self-managed implementation models, and we would like to elaborate on this topic further below.

Managed implementation model

A managed implementation model means that the consulting partner would perform the majority of the process. This model relies a lot on external expertise for maintenance and ongoing support and is also usually more expensive than the alternatives. However, there are also several advantages that this approach can provide:

• Minimized risk and guaranteed high-quality results.
• All the technical work is performed by an expert with extensive industry knowledge.
• Consulting partners connect business processes with the desired outcome in mind.

Hybrid implementation model

A hybrid model divides responsibilities between a company and a consulting partner. This approach is also often called semi-managed; it usually takes more time to implement than the managed model, and the effectiveness of the final result relies completely on effective communication and collaboration between the company and the consultant. With that being said, there are also several advantages that this model has:

• A balance between external expertise and internal control over the implementation process.
• Substantial amount of hands-on experience for your staff that comes from configuring your part of the process.
• Expert-led Salesforce architecture design.
• The total cost of implementation is lower compared with the managed model.

Self-managed implementation model

A self-managed model implies that the CRM software implementation is handled internally, with nothing but advisory guidance from the consultant. It is a somewhat risky endeavor, with limited access to specialized knowledge, a longer total implementation process, and a non-zero potential for errors and inefficiencies caused by the lack of expertise. However, it is worth the effort in some cases, primarily because of the following advantages:

• Massive amount of knowledge and experience to the team responsible for the implementation process, making it far more likely to keep supporting the platform with a high degree of efficiency.
• Low cost of implementation, the cheapest option of the three.
• The setup process is self-sufficient and does not have to rely on external guidance or approval to proceed.

What role does an implementation partner play in Salesforce integration?

SFDC implementation partner plays an important role in the entire process, serving as a project guide, technical expert, and strategic advisor of the company at the same time. A Salesforce implementation partner is a certified professional that is supposed to provide best practices, deep expertise in Salesforce’s internal systems, and the ability to adjust to industry-specific situations.

Aside from the original set of requirements, SFDC implementation partners can also assist with anticipating potential challenges and translating business requirements into practical solutions. In most cases, an implementation partner manages the technical aspect of the deployment while also being available when it comes to offering insights into other facets of the process, such as business process optimization.

A competent implementation partner serves as a proverbial bridge between Salesforce’s technical capabilities and your company’s business needs, working on platform configuration, data migration, system integration, and so on.

Choosing the right Salesforce implementation consultant

The process of selecting the right implementation consultant for Salesforce relies on a multitude of factors that have to be followed as much as possible. One of the biggest factors is the experience in your specific industry due to the highly varied nature of compliance considerations and other unique requirements to data storage depending on the target field. 

Requesting case studies and references from past clients is another important factor to verify the authenticity of one’s experience in the field since it is highly recommended to look for partners that have already completed projects of similar scale and complexity beforehand. There’s also the topic of certification levels that also makes the choice a lot more difficult depending on the situation.

Salesforce provides a selection of partnership tiers that defines the level of expertise and project completion rates of an individual (including positions such as Registered, Silver, Gold, and Platinum). Yet, these levels should never be the sole deciding factor of a company due to the fact that a more specialized consultant with an abundance of experience in your industry would be far more beneficial to the process than a higher-tier partner with little-to-no experience in your field of work.

The consultant in question should also align with your organization’s general approach and culture when it comes to both communications and the overall project methodology. It is important to try and assess their ability to understand and work with your unique business requirements instead of pushing a universal option with barely any customization to it. The ability to explain complex technical concepts in business terms would also help a lot when it comes to communicating with stakeholders and business owners, as well.

Benefits of partnering with a SFDC implementation partner

Technical expertise is an obvious advantage of introducing a professional implementation partner, but the real scope of benefits one such person can provide extends far beyond that. Partners like that can bring their past experience with other projects in order to avoid common pitfalls, acting as a walking list of best practices to work off of. They’re also the most suitable for providing optimal solutions to your specific issues due to their vast experience across many project types.

It is not uncommon for Salesforce partners to have established relationships and contacts within Salesforce, which makes it easier for them to escalate issues and resolve conflicts when necessary. Salesforce partners are always up-to-date on all of the recent updates and features of the platform, and they can even offer many insights into growth opportunities and scalability pathways within Salesforce.

Other capabilities of Salesforce implementation partners include the ability to assist with establishing governance frameworks, generating documentation, developing training programs, and help with critical change management tasks, if necessary.

Building a strong relationship with your implementation partner

Clear communication is the foundation of a successful partnership in any situation, and SFDC implementation partners are no exception. Being able to establish clear roles and responsibilities for your own team and for the partner is a good start. This also includes regular check-ins, key decision documentation, and the effort to create a collaborative environment that does not shy away from discussing potential challenges upfront.

Relationships with an implementation partner often extend far beyond the initial deployment process, maintaining ongoing relationships with the partner in question to receive assistance in user training, system optimization, and even future enhancement projects. 

In this context, planning for a long-term relationship from the start is the prime recommendation, ensuring continuity and maximizing the value of the investment. A competent partnership with a Salesforce expert includes:

• Clear escalation paths for project management or technical issues
• Strategic discussions about success metrics and business objectives (on a regular basis)
• Direct and transparent communication about potential risks, budget constraints, project timelines, etc.

The success of this relationship depends a lot on the amount of preparation and effort from the side of the company. In order to create such a relationship, a company should be ready to share its business processes, objectives, and challenges as openly and directly as possible, having an open mind toward making quick decisions in order to maintain overall project momentum.

A combination of a strong working relationship and a competent implementation partner is a surefire way to dramatically increase the chances of a Salesforce implementation becoming a resounding success.

Additional aspects of Salesforce implementation

Building a SFDC implementation team

A defined plan of action is great, but having complete confidence in the team responsible for said implementation is just as important. A strong implementation team would be able to ensure alignment between technical capabilities and business needs, driving the project forward and making key decisions along the way.

The most important roles in a Salesforce implementation team are:

• Project manager. Responsible for the entire implementation, as well as coordination, timeline management, and deliverables.
• Executive sponsor. Person responsible for securing resources and removing organizational obstacles. Should have the authority to make high-level decisions and perform changes in an organization.
• Business process owners. Representatives from different departments that have a clear understanding of current workflows in order to translate business requirements into Salesforce functionality. Responsible for the implementation being grounded in reality.
• System administrator. A technical lead of the implementation, also responsible for platform management post-implementation. Should have a clear understanding of system architecture and configuration decisions, implying their involvement from the very beginning.
• Data manager. The headliner of data migration strategy, along with data quality and maintenance tasks. Works closely with the implementation partner to verify the clarity and accuracy of data transfer workflows.
• Quality assurance lead. Responsible for testing throughout the implementation process. Also develops testing scenarios and verifies the adherence of the system to all necessary requirements before launch.

The core implementation team should be small while also having representatives of all key stakeholder groups. It is highly recommended to include both technical and business-focused team members with strong communication skills and change management experience. Additionally, there should be a clear framework of roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority, along with enough time to make the implementation process the best it can be.

Defining the Salesforce implementation goals

The foundation of an implementation strategy lies in creating clear, measurable goals to align with a company’s broader business objectives. It is important to consider the following factors when defining the goals of a Salesforce implementation:

• Long-term vision: Map out how Salesforce is going to support your company in the next three to five years.
• Technical requirements: List out specific customizations, integrations, and features needed to support your business in the future.
• Priorities: Locate the most pressing business challenges that Salesforce can address.
• ROI expectations: Find specific metrics that can be used to measure return on investment for your company, be it reduced customer service response times, increased sales productivity, improved lead conversion rates, etc.
• Realistic milestones: Each objective on the implementation timeline should be associated with a specific goal or milestone.

Salesforce CRM implementation stages

Now that we understand the different implementation models available, we can dive into the key implementation phases for CRMs like Salesforce. In this section, we’ll cover five major implementation phases, each with a specific goal:

1. Developing a CRM strategy

This is where an action plan for the entire implementation process is created, keeping all of the requirements, needs, and capabilities in mind, considering how each of them is necessary to fulfill different business objectives. 

The most noteworthy elements of this step are:

• Task prioritization
• Guiding consulting partner selection
• Creating a CRM vision
• Establishing and documenting project requirements
• Assigning responsibilities to personnel in regard to processes and technology needs.

2. Establishing the foundations of the project

At this step, the most important structural elements of the implementation are established, such as stakeholders and project management needs. Other necessary steps at this stage are:

• Primary success metrics establishment
• Risk management plan development
• Governance structure creation
• Change management requirement creation

3. Specifying requirements and selecting implementation partners

This next step is where the SFDC implementation partners are selected, choosing platforms and solutions that are necessary for the implementation plan to succeed. Additionally, the following sub-steps are performed:

• Request for Proposal drafting
• Design process completion
• Data review and analysis to identify potential issues
• Reevaluation of technology needs, if necessary

4. Deploying a CRM system

The actual deployment process is what takes most of this implementation phase. However, it is also predated by the following:

• Selecting the most suitable edition of Salesforce
• Analyzing requirements for technology customization
• Fine-tuning the implementation plan, if necessary
• Testing and modifying the prototype design of the CRM system before deployment

5. Training users and evaluating performance

Once the deployment process is complete, the implementation plan still has a number of important steps that have to be brought to life, including training and onboarding programs for essential personnel and re-evaluating project documentation. Other necessary elements of the post-deployment stage are:

• CRM workflow organization in order to share tips or best practices
• Planning of the follow-up training to optimize the CRM environment
• Success analysis using pre-defined key factors
• Analyzing how many initial business and CRM objectives were completed
• Performing a review of the project roadmap to verify the alignment with business goals

Monitoring Progress During the Implementation Process

Effective progress monitoring is a necessity for any project that wants to stick to its objectives and deadlines. There are many parameters and key aspects that can be monitored during and after the implementation process, all of which can be separated into four large categories:

• KPI tracking and reporting. Covers budget utilization, resource allocation, and user engagement during testing phases. Monitors implementation milestones against projected timelines and documents technical issues (as well as their resolution times).
• Regular status reviews. Responsible for reviewing and updating risk management plans, along with maintaining a centralized issue log for the entire project. Also includes bi-weekly stakeholder updates and weekly progress meetings.
• Quality Control checkpoints. Validates customizations and integrations, as well as the accuracy of data migration. Establishes testing protocols for every single implementation phase and analyzes user feedback from pilot groups.
• Scope management. Maintains alignment with original project objectives while documenting and reviewing scope modifications. Evaluates how each change would affect budgets and timelines, monitors score creep.

Post-Implementation Review and Adjustments

The work is not over after the initial deployment process is complete, either. A thorough review has to be conducted immediately while starting the development of potential adjustment plans for system optimization and other long-term goals. Here’s what is included in the post-implementation review process: 

• System performance evaluation
• Documentation updates
• User experience assessment
• Optimization planning
• Business impact analysis

System performance evaluation covers the following aspects:

1. Error log reviews
2. Performance metric analysis
3. Response times and system availability measurement
4. System usage pattern analysis
5. Migration effectiveness assessment
6. Adoption rate analysis

Documentation updates include a number of important steps:

1. A detailed record of best practices and lessons learned throughout the implementation
2. Training materials revision based on user feedback
3. Knowledge base article creation to assist with resolving common issues
4. System documentation update with up-to-date configurations

User experience assessment is an aggregation of the following actions:

1. Training effectiveness evaluation
2. Pain point identification (including ways to improve them)
3. Common user challenges documentation
4. Feedback analysis from interviews and surveys with end users

Optimization planning is a necessary process for developing the long-term, covering the following parameters:

1. Regular maintenance update scheduling
2. Ongoing training program development
3. System enhancement prioritization
4. Phase 2 implementations planning (when applicable)

Business impact analysis has to be performed to find out whether the implementation process has met its goals and how it can be improved in the future, including:

1. Customer satisfaction impact assessment
2. ROI and business value measurement
3. Comparison between initial objectives and actual results
4. Process efficiency improvement review

Tips for successful Salesforce implementation

Salesforce implementation can be a challenging endeavor, even with a detailed implementation strategy at hand. With that in mind, we have also prepared a number of tips that should assist with successful Salesforce implementation, including:

• Aligning stakeholder expectations with project goals and capabilities. The common misconception around implementation processes like these is that business stakeholders rarely have any say in the technical part of the implementation. In reality, the involvement of stakeholders is a necessity to gather as much input, feedback, and classification as possible at different stages of the implementation process. The implementation team should have constant contact with business stakeholders to meet their requirements.
• Investing in stakeholder buy-in early on. Stakeholder contribution is a substantial part of a successful Salesforce implementation, and the number of stakeholders that believe in your implementation expectations directly correlates with the amount of assistance and constructive feedback you can receive in the process. 
• Creating clear and actionable expectations for the implementation. There should be practically no discrepancy between your expectations and reality, considering how many Salesforce implementations fail when they are unable to match up with expected results.
• Test all aspects of the implemented environment before going live. Testing is another important part of the implementation process, considering how it is supposed to verify the working state of the implementation and root out the most egregious errors before going live. Testing can only be completed when the current version of the implementation meets all of the detailed requirements that were defined before the implementation process began.

Ways to measure the success of Salesforce implementation

In order to understand whether the implementation process was a success or a failure, there would have to be specific metrics that can measure that success. Here are our examples of the most convenient Salesforce implementation success metrics:

• User adoption is a significant success metric for Salesforce, considering how the entire platform actually needs to be used by the employees in order to be valuable to the company. This metric can be bolstered using additional employee training and possible gamification of the process. Tracking login frequency, data entry rate and user satisfaction are all part of the user adoption metric.
• Revenue growth is a goal of any business at the end of the day. Salesforce implementation contributes a lot to the parameter, increasing the number of closed deals, customer satisfaction, reduced budgets, increased productivity, and many other parameters that can affect total revenue, both directly and indirectly.
• Data quality is the foundation of most CRM-related operations, be it informed decision-making or reliable data-driven insights. Data needs to be accurate and consistent in order to provide a better understanding of a customer’s needs and requirements. Additionally, Salesforce itself can generate data quality reports to identify and troubleshoot common issues with data quality while noting down the factors that showcase the quality itself, such as low error rates.
• Process effectiveness is one of several advantages of a Salesforce implementation. The simplification of business processes should drive the average time for task completion lower while also assisting with identifying bottlenecks and providing optimization suggestions.

Salesforce implementation pricing. The cost of Salesforce implementation

The cost of Salesforce implementation can vary a lot, from a few thousand dollars to over a hundred thousand. Such a large discrepancy in cost is a direct consequence of how many different factors can influence it:

• License cost
• Integration cost
• Product edition cost
• Customization cost
• Training cost
• Data migration cost
• Consulting cost, and so on.

We would also recommend considering indirect costs as a part of the total implementation cost, such as the price of man-hours spent on implementing and adopting the solution. These costs also vary depending on a multitude of factors, such as the chosen implementation method that we have discussed above.

The aforementioned consulting costs vary depending on the location of the company, the consultant’s industry experience, their technical specialization, and the general scope of a project. 

Licensing costs also vary significantly depending on the situation since Salesforce has a substantial range of pricing points in its licensing model. We highly recommend referring to the official website in order to receive the most relevant information about the cost of a specific edition of this CRM.

Budgeting for Salesforce CRM implementation

Effective budgeting for Salesforce implementation necessitates a far more complex approach than just calculating the basic licensing cost. Our best recommendation at how to structure your implementation budget is presented below:

1. Initial assessment
   1. 15-20% of the total budget
   2. Technical architecture planning
   3. Implementation partner selection
   4. Business analysis and discovery workshops
2. Core implementation
   1. 40-50% of the total budget
   2. System integration costs
   3. Data migration and cleanup
   4. Salesforce licenses and product subscriptions
   5. Custom development costs and configuration
3. Training and change management
   1. 15-20% of the total budget
   2. Internal communication campaigns
   3. User training programs
   4. Change management initiatives
4. Contingency planning
   1. 10-15% of the total budget
   2. Potential scope changes
   3. Extended support needs
   4. Buffer for unexpected challenges
5. Post-implementation support
   1. 10-15% of the total budget
   2. System optimization and updating
   3. Maintenance and support contracts
   4. Additional user licenses

Making your team a part of your Salesforce strategy

It is important to recognize that the success or failure of a Salesforce implementation ultimately depends on the team responsible for its adoption.

CRM deployments often fail to deliver expected results because employees don’t use the CRM. They don’t understand the value that CRM can impart to their jobs. They also often don’t know how to use the CRM features because of inadequate training.

Forrester

By following the above steps, you can ensure your organization is well-prepared and that your implementation can deliver the changes your business needs. 

To get even greater value from Salesforce, use GRAX to protect your investment and ensure actionable insights that truly transform your business.