The Value of Salesforce Training for Employees Explained

Companies who invest in their employees invest in themselves. Employee training can be one of the most cost-effective measures a company can take to improve its Salesforce.com return on investment (ROI).

Salesforce can be tough to learn and even tougher to implement. That’s why proper and constant reinforcement before a Salesforce implementation is critical to any user adoption strategy. But training ahead of time can’t be where it stops.

Constant Training Improves Effectiveness and Retention

Successful Salesforce user adoption requires constant training and reinforcement available for employees. Organizations need to be prepared to provide year-round training. Many people that were originally trained may have left and the others who stayed will need reinforcement training as platforms and processes evolve.

Keeping up with the training needs of employees is an essential part of the business model. Prior training will help employees learn the basics to understand and function well with a new CRM system like Salesforce.com but it’s not the only training employees will need.

According to a study by the NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science, 5% of learners retained information when they learned from a lecture compared to 75% of learners who retained information when they practiced what they learned. Employees need constant reinforcement and practice to retain information and increase user adoption.

Employees need your help with their training. With 94% of employees saying they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development, it’s important to see that employees depend on you to provide the resources for their success.

While some believe introductory training will be enough, it’s important to establish a regular cadence of consistent training. Most organizations make continual updates to Salesforce. As a company that uses Salesforce, you should consider providing ongoing training for your employees whenever new functionality is offered. Be prepared to demonstrate to them the context on what will change and what they need to learn.

These small training camps can be done by a power user: high-performing individuals with expertise in both the business process and Salesforce. Ideally, these power users would be your managers, people who you trust and your employees’ trust. Power users can come in handy when needing to do quick virtual training calls. They can provide your end-users with the necessary information about Salesforce releases, company changes and so on.

It’s also important that whenever changes in business practices occur within Salesforce, your employees are brought up to date and trained on how those changes will impact their responsibilities. Their success and the company’s success depends on it.

Reinforcement Saves Money

Not only is it important to keep constant training available for CRM users to understand and learn Salesforce, it’s also important to find new ways for them to practice and reinforce that training. A good option for training reinforcement that allows employees to practice while they work is Digital Adoption Platforms.

Digital adoption platforms provide users with Salesforce integrated help content that will allow them to view documents, videos and texts to help them understand the section they are in, all while working. Digital adoption platforms allow for constant training reinforcement without having to sacrifice your employee’s time on the job to attend the actual training. At Stony Point, we developed Digadop, our Digital Adoption Platform that fully integrates into Salesforce in order to provide the user with immediate and easy to locate training support.

Small doses of reinforcement have a big advantage over rolling out a complete training program, mainly, that it’s less expensive, both from a training cost standpoint, as well as the cost of taking employees away from their jobs.  Like any other activity, Salesforce is something that needs consistent practice to increase adoption rates. Whether that’s yearly Salesforce training, weekly trailhead badges or daily use of digital adoption platforms, it’s essential to reinforce your employees’ skills to help optimize user adoption in your company.

The more training you provide, the better your employees will feel, and the more they can contribute. Studies showing 40% of employees with poor training will leave a company within the first year, only offer credence to the argument that it’s more important now than ever to offer your employees the tools for success.

Constant training and constant reinforcement are a must for companies that want to leverage their Salesforce investment fully. The investment upfront can generate a significant ROI in the long run by keeping your employees content and involved while also providing your company with employees who know how to utilize and evolve with the technology platform.

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.