Salesforce Archives

Salesforce FAQ: The Top 6 Most Frequently Asked Questions

Posted on November 26, 2024November 26, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

Salesforce is one of the most robust and widely used Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms worldwide. No matter if you are new to Salesforce or looking to expand your knowledge, navigating its functions and features can seem daunting. To help deepen your understanding, we’ve compiled the six most frequently asked questions about this versatile solution. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned user, these insights will guide you through the essentials.

The top six most frequently asked questions about Salesforce are:

What is Salesforce CRM and its benefits?
Which departments use Salesforce, and why?
How do you ensure data quality in Salesforce?
What are some challenges faced in Salesforce, and how do you overcome them?
What are the top integrations with Salesforce?
Do you need an implementation partner for Salesforce?

Let’s dive into these responses!

1.What is Salesforce CRM and its benefits?

Salesforce CRM is a cloud-based platform offering a suite of products that provide a 360-degree view of your customer and relationship with them, allowing better service overall. It allows you to understand buying patterns, improve the customer experience, and even unite departments of an organization. Salesforce is designed to help businesses manage and analyze their customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. It offers a centralized system for tracking sales, customer service, marketing, and other business operations, allowing teams to collaborate and make data-driven decisions, especially with new enhancements with data cloud.

The key benefits of Salesforce include improved customer relationships; enhanced sales performance through automation and AI-driven insights with Einstein; better communication and collaboration among teams; and customizable workflows that adapt to the unique needs of each business. Because Salesforce cloud-based, it provides accessibility from any location, scalability to adapt to changing demands, and continuous improvements to enhance performance and reliability.

2. Which departments use Salesforce, and why?

Various departments of an organization can use Salesforce, including but not limited to sales, marketing, finance, senior leadership, customer service, and operations. Sales benefits the most directly, as they use it to manage customer relationships, take advantage of its automated workflows, and forecast sales. Marketing teams also leverage Salesforce to run targeted campaigns, analyze customer data, and track engagement through integrated marketing tools. Customer service and support teams also utilize Salesforce to provide efficient case management, track customer issues, and offer personalized support. Finance and operations teams use it for reporting, data analysis, and process automation. And finally, senior leadership uses Salesforce to gain a comprehensive, real-time overview of the organization’s performance and strategic metrics by leveraging customizable dashboards and reporting tools. They’re able to track KPIs, monitor sales pipeline health, analyze customer trends, and assess overall business growth.

3. How do you ensure data quality in Salesforce?

Ensuring data quality in Salesforce requires a balanced approach to managing custom fields, validation rules, and ongoing data maintenance. Overuse of custom fields can lead to data fragmentation, making it difficult to maintain consistency and find relevant insights. Using the path of least resistance is to only offer those fields that are required to fill, as too many will lead to user frustration. It’s essential to carefully evaluate the need for each custom field and avoid unnecessary complexity. Similarly, while validation rules are crucial for maintaining data integrity, excessive or overly strict rules can frustrate users and hinder adoption. Striking the right balance in validation logic is key to ensuring accurate data entry without creating bottlenecks. Additionally, regular data clean-up, typically performed on an annual basis by the operations team, is critical to identify and remove obsolete or duplicate records.

This will ensure the system remains efficient and reliable. By periodically reviewing and optimizing fields, rules, and data, businesses can maintain a high standard of data quality in Salesforce. Leads and contacts decay at different rates. Any leads that are over a year old are probably no longer viable. Any contacts over two years old are similarly ineffective as people change jobs rapidly. Consider using an integration with ZoomInfo or any enrichment service to help de-dupe or remove unnecessary data.

4. What are some challenges faced in Salesforce, and how do you overcome them?

Salesforce users often face several challenges that can hinder system performance and user experience. One common issue is duplication of data, which can occur when records are created or imported multiple times, leading to inaccuracies and inefficiencies. To overcome this, implementing robust data validation rules using tools like duplicate management and conducting regular data cleanups are essential. Another challenge is too much automation, where excessive workflows, triggers, apex flows, and process builders can cause performance issues and result in integration failures. To address this, it’s important to periodically review and optimize automation, consolidating processes where possible and leveraging tools like Flow for more streamlined automation. The accumulation of technical debt is another concern, as ad-hoc customizations and outdated configurations can make future changes more difficult. Regular code reviews, refactoring, and establishing clear governance can help manage and reduce technical debt. Finally, rogue integrations—especially those authenticated with a System Administrator license, thus making it difficult to triangulate the issue origin—can compromise system integrity and security. A proactive approach includes maintaining a strict integration management policy, using middleware for controlled connections, and regularly auditing integrations to ensure they align with best practices.

5. What are the top integrations with Salesforce?

Salesforce offers a wide range of integrations that enhance its functionality and streamline business processes. One of the top integrations is with HubSpot (utilizing HubSpot Selective Sync), enabling seamless syncing of marketing and sales data. This helps teams align efforts and improve lead nurturing. ERP integrations, such as NetSuite, allow businesses to connect their financial, inventory, and supply chain data with Salesforce, providing a unified view of operations. This is typically done with middleware such as Celigo, Workato, Boomi, or Mulesoft. DocuSign is another popular integration, simplifying the contract management process by enabling users to send, sign, and manage documents directly within Salesforce. For sales teams, Gong.ai, integrates conversation intelligence into Salesforce, providing valuable insights from customer interactions that can drive sales strategies and improve deal forecasting. Lastly, Jira’s integration helps development and product teams collaborate more efficiently with sales teams through ticket synchronization. Jira can sync your cases with your tickets to see how many customers are impacted by an issue or a change that someone may have made.

6. Do you need an implementation partner for Salesforce?

Technically, you do not need an implementation partner for Salesforce, but it’s highly recommended. When implementing Salesforce, you can make simple errors early on that often lead to a lot of technical debt. A good implementation partner will have deep knowledge of best practices to share with your team that will set you on the right path. If you opt to handle on your own, you will likely need to hire someone expensive in-house to unwind all the mistakes that were made during the initial implementation.

These experts bring specialized knowledge and experience, ensuring that Salesforce is configured and customized to meet your business’s unique needs, helping to maximize its potential. With a deep understanding of industry standards, an implementation partner can accelerate the setup process and minimize disruptions. They also provide valuable training and support to ensure your team can fully leverage the platform, leading to quicker user adoption and higher productivity. Additionally, an implementation partner can help with data migration, integration with other systems, and ongoing optimization, ultimately ensuring that Salesforce is aligned with your evolving business goals and driving long-term success.

Need help with your Salesforce environment? Contact Caravel in form below and we will get back to you immediately.

eBook | Mastering Salesforce CPQ: A Guide to Streamlining Your Installation Process

Posted on September 26, 2024September 26, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

This comprehensive guide delves into the intricate planning and collaboration needed to work the complexities of implementing your CPQ so it is accurate, highly functional, and user-friendly.

Download the full guide below.

The Complete Guide to Understanding Salesforce Org Merges

Posted on July 29, 2024August 1, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

At some point during the growth of an organization, one might encounter a time when consolidation is required, particularly when it comes to tech merging. When companies merge or acquire one another, they might need to merge their various software. There are times when organizations are faced with redundancies in technology and need to decide which will be the primary in the merge. In this article, we will examine the merging of Salesforce orgs, as there are specific nuances and intricacies involved that you may not have thought about previously.

The benefits of merging Salesforce orgs are many. Beginning with operating from “one source of truth” is valuable to the entire organization so that all departments function under a singular platform with accurate data on customers, performance, leads, campaigns, and reports. Operating under one Salesforce system also streamlines operations and optimizes processes, thereby enhancing efficiency and effectiveness and reducing redundancies and bottlenecks. Cost savings are also a huge plus, with a reduction in maintenance and subscription costs from competing solutions.

Salesforce Org Merge Considerations & Planning

An org merge demands significant planning and training and can rarely be done effectively without a Salesforce implementation partner. In general, team members are mostly at capacity in their current roles and don’t have the necessary experience in the many intricacies of such a large project.

Starting by identifying key stakeholders to involve in the decision-making process and assigning roles and responsibilities is step one after selecting an implementation partner. Clearly identifying and documenting business processes is key so that those involved have clarity and common understanding of how things will operate moving forward. This reduces confusion and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Creating a detailed merge plan and timeline is vital to minimizing disruption in ongoing operations, and to ensure that there is complete process alignment. Part of the merge plan may include processes like maintaining data integrity, user adoption and training plans, testing and validation proposals, as well as compliance and security implications.

Risk assessment and mitigation strategies are also key to lessening potential challenges and risks, but also help ensure a smoother transition, maintain data integrity, enhances system reliability, and support overall business continuity and compliance.

An effective communication plan for stakeholders and users is equally important to the process, to keep everyone on track with common goals and milestones.

Data Management and Migration

As part of the Salesforce org merge, a vital portion of the process is the management and migration of data. After you and your implementation partner decide which will be the primary Salesforce instance, they will work with you to take an inventory of existing data and systems. This involves determining all the sources of data that need to be migrated or merged.

Following the inventory, the next step is to cleanse the data and employ a deduplication process to ensure that your organization is working off one source of truth. Next is ensuring the data follows a consistent structure and naming convention, as well as validating the data against business rules and Salesforce requirements. Deciding whether the data will be migrated all at once or in phases is something that your implementation partner will decide with you.

The next step is to map the data by creating a mapping of data fields between the different Salesforce instances. Determining which objects from each Salesforce org will be merged, as well as identifying corresponding fields in the source and target orgs is part of this process.

Data transformation, another part of the process, involves modifying data from the source org to meet the structure and requirements of the target Salesforce org during the merge. This involves data cleaning, standardization, enhancing the data by adding missing information and additional details, ensuring that data is organized and structured uniformly, as well as validating transformed data to ensure it meets the rules and constraints defined in the target Salesforce org.

Customization, User Management & Security

The org merge process continues with the evaluation of any custom code, triggers, or workflows that were previously implemented. It’s important to identify any conflicts or dependencies that could arise during the merge with regard to code review, as well as ensure that integrations with external systems or APIs are compatible. You and your implementation partner will evaluate trigger logic to prevent conflicts or unintended behavior post-merge. Also, reviewing workflow rules to verify that criteria are still valid, and actions are appropriate after the merge is completed at this time, as well as checking field updates and dependencies to ensure consistency across the merged org. Your implementation partner will develop a strategy for merging custom objects and fields and will offer best practices for handling integrations and third-party applications.

Managing user roles and profiles during a Salesforce org merge is a critical aspect to ensure smooth transition and effective user access control. Part of this process entails documenting all existing roles and profiles in both orgs, and identifying and duplications or discrepancies. Determining the roles and profiles needed post-merge based on the organizational structure, user responsibilities, and access requirements will also be done at this point, as well as training and supporting users throughout the transition.

Testing & Go Live

Your implementation partner should relay the importance of thorough testing in a sandbox environment. It’s crucial to conduct thorough testing to ensure the merged org functions correctly and meets business requirements. Some tests may include integration testing, data integrity checks, data conversion testing, user acceptance testing, performance testing, and security testing. Part of your partner’s job will be to handle any issues that may arise from feedback from testing, as well as the final preparation and checklist for going live.

Monitoring the system post-merge and handling post-merge issues along with continuous optimization are some things that a strong implementation partner will be able to take on as well.

Salesforce org merges require careful planning, communication, and a thorough comprehension of technical and organizational landscapes. Working alongside an implementation team will ensure a successful org merge, as they recognize it’s not just about merging data, it’s about integrating cultures, aligning strategies, and driving growth for the organization.

Contact Caravel below to learn more about how we can help your organization successfully implement a Salesforce org merge.

How Can CRM Implementation Boost Team Collaboration and Efficiency?

Posted on June 3, 2024June 4, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

A well-implemented CRM serves as a central focal point for teamwork that enables collaboration, communication, and coordination among team members. It’s a platform that offers automation and workflows to streamline repetitive tasks and is a place that can boost sales and the customer experience all at once. Let’s examine how this incredible software enables teams to achieve success.

Fostering Teamwork

With a successful CRM implementation, users can easily collaborate on sales opportunities when they share insights and resources. This coordinated effort in selling helps team members leverage each other’s strengths and close deals more efficiently and effectively. When customer data is stored in a central hub, it’s easily shared, updates are made in real-time, and everyone is on the same page. Visibility into reports and other elements, such as communication history, helps teams hold each other accountable and facilitates teamwork. Synchronized data and shared interactions from various departments provide a 360-degree view of the company and its goals, thereby paving the way to successful outcomes.

Reducing Workload

Customized workflows within a CRM allow processes to fit specific needs, which promotes streamlined operations, automated tasks that are repetitive, and consistency across the board. This all contributes to a smaller workload. Teams have visibility into everyone’s activities and progress, and this transparency leaves everyone accountable for their actions, thereby improving teamwork. In a time when automation has become almost mandatory, automating certain steps will speed up processes and allow team members to focus on more important tasks. Employees are more productive when certain tasks are automated and when they have faster access to information, which is what CRM implementation can offer.

Shared Databases

A powerful CRM tool such as Salesforce can serve as a centralized database for company information like customer profiles, interactions with customers, history of purchases, and more. All users have access to the same real-time information, thereby ensuring they’re all on the same page and eliminating any confusion.

Task Management

CRMs feature task management capabilities, allowing users to assign tasks to each other with deadlines and progress tracking. This ensures that all involved know what needs to be done and by when, which boosts accountability and efficient processes.

Real-Time Communication

Throughout the CRM, users can easily communicate with each other by leaving comments, notes, and updates related to specific outcomes and customers, thereby fostering collaboration and keeping everyone in the loop. Streamlined communication can inspire teams to collaborate more efficiently and promotes a sense of community.

Reporting, Data Analysis, and Insights

Analytics tools resulting from CRM implementation help users to track performance, identify trends and patterns, and make better, more data-driven decisions. Teams can better serve customers by targeting their efforts and optimizing their strategies. Without debriefs, teamwork is next to impossible. Robust reporting capabilities within a CRM are a big part of fostering teamwork and improving efficiency. Visibility into shared insights and promoting data transparency fosters a culture of collaboration that drives improved performance and customer experiences. Through reporting, inefficiencies are easily spotted and can be addressed together, too. Tracking progress in shared objectives helps to align efforts and see how everyone’s contributions are being implemented.

When executed properly, CRM implementation can significantly improve team collaboration within an organization. With data transparency, various teams are all on the same page, while sharing insights derived from reports allows for identifying opportunities, patterns, and trends that can then be expanded upon. A reduction in workload can boost morale and allow teams to focus on important goals, while real-time communication saves time and increases efficiency.

A Prime Example

A carbon-credit startup whose original CRM was Click-Up—a task management platform. Click-Up didn’t meet any requirements that the company needed from a sales perspective. They required a customer management system so they could have contacts, accounts, opportunities—and notes associated with those. Click-Up is a platform that works to monitor tasks and is not a repository for customer and sales data. It doesn’t give you the forecasting ability of a CRM, nor the ability to do trending, or give users the story behind anything. A CRM such as Salesforce allows users to see into deals and opportunities and gives you information such as who participated and who was responsible for each step. It answers questions such as, “How did we get here?”

The startup began to demonstrate that their sales were a lot more effective and really began to communicate with each other. They started to understand why they failed at certain opportunities and take lessons from those they won. They were also able to bring in other departments, such as marketing, which was not something they were able to do with Click-Up. Their velocity in bringing in more deals blew up, because marketing and sales were in step, in the same system. Their end-to-end reporting capability exposed their marketing funnel, and allowed them to see into each other’s progress, tracking, and conversions.

Collaboration between teams on a singular platform with one source of truth became the force behind their success.

Want to learn more about how your teams can benefit from CRM implementation? Contact us below, and we’ll walk you through it.

Behind the Scenes: A Day in the Life of a Salesforce Implementation Partner

Posted on May 7, 2024May 31, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

We sat down with Caravel’s Director of Salesforce Practice, Kevin Dimond, and Senior Salesforce Consultant, Kelsey Rafac, to get an insider’s perspective on the responsibilities, challenges, and successes of a Salesforce implementation partner. Discover what they had to say and how you can apply this valuable insight into your due diligence for a CRM implementation partner.

What is a Salesforce Implementation Partner, and why do you need one?

A Salesforce implementation partner is there to guide you through best practices for optimal use of the software. From gathering your business requirements to turning them into the best solutions for your business, as well as optimizing them, your partner should be giving you recommendations on how Salesforce will help operate your business. In addition to the technical aspect, they should be reviewing your process—something that is vastly overlooked in CRM implementations. “Your Salesforce implementation partner not only provides you with technical help, but they offer you best practices with the software, which goes a long way to utilizing it properly,” says Kelsey Rafac, Senior Salesforce Consultant at Caravel. “They help with sales process, and finance process. Salesforce is a complicated ecosystem with many moving parts, and it’s difficult to know how to tailor it to your business and make it as efficient as possible.”

Kevin Dimond, Director of Salesforce Practice at Caravel, agreed with Rafac. He adds that a Salesforce Implementation Partner “should be your trusted advisor in the Salesforce ecosystem. They should be impartial to what Salesforce pushes and focus on the right choices for your organization. He continues by iterating, “Your partner will be your hands-on keyboard that will be helping your organization configure it to your needs. For instance, take Pardot. Many organizations choose to integrate the marketing automation system into Salesforce, but what they do not know is that if they ever decide to change systems, Pardot can never be removed. It can be turned off but can never be removed.” It’s use cases like these that he has seen throughout his career, where users make grave mistakes trying to configure Salesforce without knowing specific implications, that can leave you with technical debt.

What can a Salesforce implementation partner do for an organization as a whole?

Salesforce should be about adding business value to organizations. Many organizations are siloed in the way they track their business; therefore, having a Salesforce implementation partner come in and establish it as a single source of truth is tantamount. Rafac says, “It should be built out so all users can go into one place and see how the company is performing, whether it’s in the opportunity pipeline or how many cases need to be worked. Having everything in one place makes operations more effective and efficient and really gives back to the business.” Implementing Salesforce can potentially add to more revenue growth and quicker case closure.

Your Salesforce consultant may also collaborate with leadership to develop strategies and roadmaps to leverage the software to drive growth, improve customer experience, and achieve other KPIs. They can also assist in ensuring that Salesforce helps to comply with regulatory requirements and security standards that mitigate risk and protect sensitive information.

What are the challenges you can face with implementing Salesforce on your own?

Some in-house implementations can be successful, but it must be done with someone who has previously implemented Salesforce and succeeded. “The last thing you want is to accumulate technical debt…sometimes, when you’re implementing, you don’t see the forest through the trees. You stay focused on the one problem you’re trying to solve without taking a step back and thinking about the implications. And unfortunately, in the Salesforce ecosystem, there are many implications,” says Dimond.

Although Salesforce can be set up “out of the box”, not being aware of best practices and optimal usage can cause some issues down the line. Organizations can incur technical debt, which results from taking shortcuts instead of implementing tasks the right way the first time. By doing this, Salesforce is not being utilized optimally, and elements like unused workflows lingering in the background and other underutilized features can take up unnecessary space.

Another thing to consider is improper data migration. Transferring data from other systems into Salesforce is complicated, and without a proper understanding of data structures and mapping, you’re taking unnecessary risks. Going at it alone can also lead to incomplete customization, as some aren’t aware of Salesforce’s full capabilities, which may lead to using a system that doesn’t fully meet the needs of the business. Without a Salesforce consultant, you will lack adequate training and ongoing support, and you can take security risks that can otherwise be avoided.

What are the strategic steps you take to ensure that CRM implementation goes smoothly?

Beginning with a structured plan is first and foremost. A Salesforce implementation partner must have a solid methodology. Some partners will utilize agile methodology to see quick turnarounds with the work they’re doing for an organization. The process typically begins with requirements gathering and scoping, which is distilled into a business requirements document. It’s important that your partner hones in on your business challenges and finds ways in Salesforce to optimize those challenges. Rafac explains that their goal should be to relieve “any pain points you’re having.”

Once requirements gathering is complete, the partner should walk through everything to make sure you’re still on the same page. This time is a great opportunity for organizations to truly commit or adjust what they want and need. Things that should be discussed include any integrations with existing systems, customization, and data migration.

Once there’s an agreement, your partner should start configuring Salesforce in a “sandbox” to demonstrate and show you and your team what it will look like live. From there, you can make more adjustments. Your partner should maintain constant check-ins with you.

Project timelines are dependent on customization and what the organization is looking to accomplish. They can take anywhere from 3–6 months, if the organization is truly on top of what they’re doing. Pilot testing with a small group of users is also part of the process that identifies any issues or areas for improvement before rolling out to the entire organization. Performance monitoring and optimization are continuous during this phase, and here, you’re still gathering additional feedback to ensure you’re always improving efficiency and effectiveness.

End-user training is also part of the strategic steps taken to ensure a successful implementation. Your Salesforce consultant should train SMEs and sometimes all end users and provide documentation as well. Your Salesforce consultant should take this time to answer questions and provide further training, if necessary.

What should you look for in a Salesforce implementation partner?

According to Kevin Dimond, “A Salesforce partner should be one that understands the end-to-end process and the lead-to-cash process.” They should be helping their client service their customers as fast as possible before their competition does. They should be examined by their effectiveness, turnaround time, structured methodology, and knowledgeable consultants. Your partner should be going above and beyond with communication to your organization and be available when you need them to answer questions.

What defines a successful implementation of Salesforce?

A successful implementation means that value has been added to the business; they should be operating better, more efficiently with optimized processes and performance. “Simply put, return on investment; showing the work you put into it is generating revenue on day one,” reveals Dimond. He explains that a CRM should never be a cost center, it should be a revenue center; you should be generating money from it. User adoption is another important aspect of a successful implementation.

Part of a successful implementation means that employees are trained and ready to work the system. if users are not effectively using the platform, it will not deliver on its full potential benefits. Ongoing support is crucial as well, as continuous improvement and optimization cannot happen in a vacuum.

Success should be measurable, and the impact on KPIs should be regularly monitored and evaluated. Some metrics can include sales productivity, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth, as mentioned above.

Overall, a Salesforce implementation partner plays a crucial role in in aiding an organization to maximize the benefits of Salesforce, driving efficiency, innovation, and growth across the organization. It is with this hands-on experience and approach that organizations can truly benefit from Salesforce.

If you’re looking for help to either implement or optimize your Salesforce ecosystem, please get in touch with the experts at Caravel below.

Salesforce Migrates from Workflow Rules and Process Builder to Flow Builder

Posted on April 25, 2024April 25, 2024 by Sarah Bensimon

If you’re an avid Salesforce user, you probably heard that the software giant will be removing Process Builder and Workflow Rules at the end of 2025. What are the implications, and what does this mean for you? While change is inevitable as software innovates, we are here to help you advance alongside it.

Salesforce recommends migrating automation to the new Flow Builder. Although Workflow Rules and Processes will continue to work, they won’t be offering support or bug fixes for them. The newly created Flow Builder will allow for more complex logic compared to its predecessor and will allow its users to create multistep processes with conditional branching, loops, and screen elements for user interaction. It will also offer increased flexibility with data manipulation, allowing you to perform more difficult data transformations, create records, and more—with a single flow. Compared to Workflow Rules and Process Builder, the new Flow Builder will offer more robust debugging and testing capabilities that users can troubleshoot more easily. Flow Builder will also integrate with APIs and external systems more seamlessly, for even more sophisticated automation scenarios.

The migration to Flow Builder will take some time, so we suggest you start as soon as possible to allow time for testing. Salesforce has a Migrate to Flow tool and, along with that, Caravel will be offering support to its Salesforce customers.

Users currently heavily rely on these automation tools for lead routing, task assignments, and email notifications; the new alternative will work just as well, but it will require an adjustment period.

Caravel will help you with understanding and familiarizing yourself and other users with Flow Builder. We will start by helping you assess your current workflows and processes and determining which ones will need to be migrated. We can also help you recreate the logic, criteria, and actions of each workflow and process.

Once these steps have been taken, we will work with you to test out your new workflows in various scenarios and cases, validate the new functionality, and identify any potential issues. We can also help train current users on the new Flow Builder to ensure they understand the differences between new and existing processes.

Contact us below if you’re new to Caravel and want some help migrating to Flow Builder. If you’re a current customer, please reach out to your customer support manager.

Category: Salesforce