Starting the User Adoption Training Process

Getting a team efficient with Salesforce can be challenging. It requires forethought and pre-deployment, customized training to ensure maximum user adoption. While that may seem like common sense, it’s actually one of the most frequently missed steps we see with customers. Most businesses don’t think about training their teams and applying user adoption strategies until Salesforce has already been implemented.

Training doesn’t solely apply to the end-users either. To achieve the most out of user adoption, companies want to make sure that they’re training everyone who will be impacted by the implementation of Salesforce, such as the end-users, the technical team, the stakeholders, executive and IT sponsors, etc. Training the entire team will also help establish common terminology, allowing for thorough understanding and cooperation throughout the entirety of the project.

Additionally, a well-designed training program allows for everyone to understand and perform their roles as they are supposed to. One of the more challenges we’ve seen occurs when firms hire a consultant or bring on an implementation partner when the team isn’t fully trained up on Salesforce. In instances like these,  the consultants often spend more time teaching and getting the team up to speed, instead of spending valuable time designing the best solution. Challenges inevitably arise when the consultant and the client, mired in misunderstandings and terminology terms and can often lead to contentious discussions.

Training workshops tailored to the audience allow everyone to do the job they are designated to do from the start with the new platform. It also enables technical teams to learn the platform’s specifics instead of focusing on learning Salesforce when it’s already in use.

Which Type of Training to Use

User adoption is critical, and it requires constant reinforcement for an implementation to be successful. If a company trains technologists before a project, every day after will be training reinforcement. With continuous reinforcement, user adoption and knowledge sharing have a  much greater chance of being smooth.

The training approach should start simple. There is no need to customize training material yet. If a company trains its technology or implementation team beforehand, standard off-the-shelf training is the perfect place to start. The goal is to inform the team of the basic ins and outs, do’s, and don’ts of Salesforce. Customized training is preferred, however, for the end-users who will need to understand the specific configurations made to the system.

Instructor-led training remains the preferred training method. Yes, it’s the most expensive, with daily trainer rates and possible travel all a factor, but hands-down it’s the most effective. 66% of organizations already use virtual classrooms for employee learning. With live instructors leading the sessions in real-time, many team members will feel more comfortable and confident. Questions are asked and answered on the spot and a skilled instructor will know how to draw out their students leading to a more collaborative and engaging session. With instructor-led training, you also can receive carefully crafted content and materials developed by experts.

In a study conducted by trainingindustry.com, the ability to reuse content and materials was a high priority. Self-paced training can be more cost-efficient but might not be the best option if maximum user adoption is what your company is striving to achieve. Self-paced learning allows for quicker, less expensive training, but it also limits the team from asking an expert questions as they arise, and it relies heavily on individuals keeping up independently.

According to a study conducted for the Journal of Memory and Language, “the advantage of self-pacing was apparent only in subjects who allocated more study time to normatively difficult items.” Regardless, whether a company chooses instructor-led or self-paced training, it’s also vastly significant to train the team together. It’s important to use training as an opportunity for the team to recognize each other and build comradery.

User adoption is one of the most important factors to a successful business. It provides an efficient workplace which in turn provides the company a better outcome. But user adoption is one of the hardest things to accomplish if companies refuse to train employees. By providing a simple yet effective Salesforce training plan before the project start date, a company will be one step closer to handling the team and the implementation project the right way, in turn increasing user adoption rates and efficiency within the company.

So What’s Next?

Want professional training services for your end-users and managers? Stony Point offers world-class instructor-led Salesforce training. With classes for beginners all the way to experts, we can help you train your employees to be more efficient and productive.

Did you already purchase training but still see your employees struggling with adoption? Digadop Help by Stony Point is a Digital Adoption platform designed to increase user adoption. With customizable, targeted help, you can create a different help experience for each employee, no coding needed. Digadop reinforces the training you paid for and builds on it.