It takes preparation to ensure successful Salesforce change management, as well as a robust strategy and planning that integrates best practices. It’s a mistake to try and start the process of Salesforce change management in hindsight – this should always be done as part of a preparatory stage. So, how do you go about managing it? These are our tips for ensuring that you’re planning Salesforce change management effectively.

• Get your team together. These are the people who will have a clear idea of how the change is going to affect the business and the impact it’s going to have on other partners and stakeholders. It’s important to ensure buy-in at every level, which means your team should have clearly defined roles for everyone, from a training lead to an executive sponsor.
• Get clear on how ready your business really is for change. This is all about understanding the motivation for making the change, as well as the impact that you expect it to have on the business. It’s essentially a process of answering some key questions, including what the business objectives are for this initiative, what is going to change (specifically), and how this will impact both staff and customers, as well as quantifying how big the change is and whether there is likely to be internal resistance. It can also be useful to get very clear about the culture of your organisation and what works for you when it comes to training and communication.
• Create a Salesforce change management strategy and plan. Using the information on how ready your business is for change you’ll be able to build this specific strategy and start planning for the next step. This will include looking at the impact of changes and how they are going to ripple out from one department to the next, as well as finding ways to engage stakeholders. The plan will need to be detailed, including specific tasks and activities, dates and timelines, and who is responsible for what.
• Define a communication strategy. This is vital for any change and especially Salesforce change management. The motivation here is to ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time. So, look at the communication channels that work best, who needs to know what pieces of information and the key stages involved in communication (awareness, understanding, adoption and reinforcement).
• Establish a training and support network. This will be necessary for both existing employees and also for any new staff that come on board in the future. Training strategy should include the training approach you’re going to take, as well as the delivery methods available. What are the training objectives for each role and what do you want everyone to learn during the training process?

Preparation is a vital part of the process when it comes to Salesforce change management – not one that any business can skip. These are some of the key prep steps you can take to ensure effective Salesforce change management takes place. Get in contact with Ignyto to find out how we can help your business with a successful Salesforce change management.