by Henry Abenaim | Aug 15, 2018 | Blog, Salesforce Tips
Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or expert admin, or have recently inherited an org, there are a number of things just about any admin can do to make their org more user-friendly. With some of these simple tricks and processes, you can not only give your users a better environment to work in, but you can also reduce the administrative challenges on your end too!
So what does it mean to have a user-friendly org? We all get that it means to tailor the system towards your users’ specific needs, but a truly user-friendly system will have most if not all of the characteristics below:
- Easy to use and understand, leading to higher adoptions
- Enforced business processes – a properly designed user experience will naturally enforce business process, and not allow gaps or loopholes for improper practices
- Increased user buy-in and confidence in their processes
- Significantly increased efficiency from a well setup system
- Increased data integrity & accuracy – making it easier for users to create records, and ensure they are accurate
So without further ado, here is our list of tips that in even small amounts, will be able to make your org more user-friendly:
1.) Reduce data entry and duplicates
This might seem like a no-brainer, but that’s why we put it at number one. Why spend hours entering data, or dealing with duplicate records if you don’t have to? One of the big advantages of Salesforce is that you have so many options for automation. And you should automate just about as much as you can. Lack of automation can lead to:
- Inefficient processes – manual data entry wastes time, plain and simple
- Turns off users – a user who has to repeat multiple steps throughout the day will likely be a disengaged user
- Data quality issues – the time users spend manually inputting tedious amounts of data, the more likely they are to make mistakes
- Reporting issues – if you have data quality issues, you certainly can’t use that data for reporting. Now your decision makers can’t have reliable metrics to track performance and understand where the company stands.
If you have some significant processes that need automation, feel free to talk to one of our Salesforce Specialists and see how we can streamline your data entry process.
2.) Use visuals and a smart UI layout
Spending a bit of time thinking about the visual layout and design of your org will make a big difference to people who work with it every day. A page full of small lines of text immediately looks overwhelming. Spice it up with as many visual indicators as you can.
For example, consider using custom icons (via custom fields) on account pages to indicate what type of account it is, or on a related case list!
Also, consider laying out your important pages in a way that people will naturally be led through the page. The Gutenberg Diagram has been a proven as one of the smartest ways to approach UI.
The tldr: People generally look at the top left first and visually scroll diagonally to the bottom right. Use this to your advantage for placing the most important elements on your page.
3.) Embed reports and dashboards
Keeping with our theme of making things as visual as possible, a good admin tip is to embed relevant reports onto different pages, such as accounts and opportunities. This will make it easy for your users to see all sorts of important details, without needed to scroll through lines of data.
Make sure you spend some time, talking to your users and execs to find out exactly what reports they would like and what would help them the most.
4.) Streamline what users see
There are a lot of fields in most Salesforce orgs. Too many fields some would argue. Make it easier on your users by keeping layouts clean, organized and focused with only the fields that are really necessary. present fields when relevant, focus user attention.
In addition, you can customize search layouts, so that when users are searching for records, only the most relevant fields will be displayed.
5.) Add help text
For those fields that you do keep on each page, adding help text will make everything a bit easier. You will be hard pressed to add too many helpful tips. Define just about anything for your users with these simple hover tools, such as what type of data is required, or how to understand the input.
6.) Enable quick actions
Salesforce Quick Actions are a great way for users to focus on the most important workflows and information that they need every day. This integration works from any computer or device that connects to Chatter. Through the Chatter feed, users can log cases, add notes to records and more! native in chatter feed. Can quickly do it when mobile, traveling etc. Because Quick Actions can be easily accessed from Salesforce1, they are pretty much an essential addition for any user who is regularly on the road.
That wraps it up for our quick 6 Admin Tips for a more user-friendly org. Feel free to comment below with any thoughts or other user-friendly org tips that you find particularly helpful.
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz team
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by Henry Abenaim | Jul 31, 2018 | Blog, Salesforce Tips
Ask any salesperson out there, there is a lot to do each day. From calls to emails to meetings, the daily schedule of a salesperson can be pretty hectic. So much so, that often salespeople feel like all they are doing is chasing a never-ending stream of tasks, but they can never really catch up, or get ahead of the work.
Sales productivity is, in the end, all about how effectively your time is used as it relates to closing sales. A salesperson certainly needs to spend a good amount of time talking and meeting with prospects, however, there needs to be a balance between that and administrative/prep work. It’s all about being efficient with each task and making sure you are spending your time wisely.
So in the spirit of looking ahead, and finding little things that can make a big difference, we have put together a list of some key tips that can help just about any salesperson. No matter your industry, from Aerospace to Merchant Cash Advance, these 6 tips should help any sales rep increase productivity and get a better handle on their workload.
1. Productivity On the Go
Depending on your industry, you may be frequently traveling for customer meetings and can’t easily sit down in front of a computer. Having the right tools to stay connected, and be productive in between meetings, and without the need of a computer can seriously boost your efficiency. The right tools, such as Salesforce 1, can connect your CRM and your phone, allowing you to stay on top of your pipeline and projects from just about anywhere.
2. Avoid Distractions
Being 100% productive all the time is not only impossible, but it can take a bit of the joy out of your job. We all need a few minutes from time to time to get up, stretch, make idle chat around the water cooler. However, too many distractions can have a bigger negative impact than you think. I fact it can take up to 25 minutes to get your focus back after a big distraction. Making better habits here is the key. When you need to really focus, little things like putting your phone on silent, putting in headphones and setting your internal messenger to “busy” can keep you in the zone and productive.
3. Manage Your Emails Better
Business professionals receive an average of 85 emails per day (that’s almost 600 emails each week!) and they spend more than 1/3 of work time reading, organizing, and replying to emails.
If you don’t have time to thoroughly read ever email in your inbox, chances are the people you are emailing don’t either. So when writing emails, keep it short and concise. Get to the point, have a goal for each email, and leave the recipient with a clear call to action or next step.
And when it comes to fighting with that overfull inbox, don’t let yourself chase every new email that comes in. If possible, give yourself a few designated times during the day to just respond to emails. This will keep you focused during the day, and you be more efficient when it comes time to respond.
4. Improve Your Follow Through
Talking to someone once or twice might seem like enough, but 80% of sales require 5 follow-up calls after the meeting and 44% of sales reps give up after 1 follow-up. Stay persistent and don’t give up after a few failed attempts. Or, if your sales team is stretched a bit too thin, consider an AI sales assistant that can be directly integrated to your CRM and help lighten the load.
5. Qualify Prospects Better
Nothing can be more deflating that chasing around prospects that turn out to be a bad match. Taking an extra 15 minutes for qualifying that lead can save you hours in the future. The more information you get at the beginning, the better.
If your marketing team has access to lead scoring and engagement tools, you can further improve your prospect qualifying. Lead qualifying and scoring automation, like those available through Pardot, can give you smart rules to define who is a good lead and who isn’t. The automation runs in the background, taking care of a large portion of the prospecting legwork.
Then you get notified when your prospects reach a certain score threshold—so that you can follow up with people who are more likely to convert.
6. Automate Your CRM
If you aren’t automation as many procedures as possible, you are going to fall behind. With today’s rapidly evolving technologies, smart automation is everywhere, and all of the best CRM’s, especially Salesforce, are taking advantage. Automation can trigger tasks, events, or approvals while artificial intelligence can go one step further by recommending actions, uncovering the right insights (automatically), and making sure you don’t miss any important details.
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz team
by Henry Abenaim | Jul 25, 2018 | Blog, Salesforce-Apps-AppExchange
Not all forms are created equal. A modern looking, clean and crisp form does something special for a webpage. On the other hand, an old and outdated one can bring down the overall value. With Formstack, you get a powerful drag and drop form builder, with a wide variety of fields, customizations, and options available. The app is native to Salesforce, and integrates seamlessly into your org.
“Build powerful, mobile-friendly web forms and surveys with Formstack’s 100% native form builder for Salesforce. No connectors or integrations needed.”
Check it out here!
by Henry Abenaim | Jul 18, 2018 | Blog, Salesforce Tips
Automation saves time and prevents human error. On most forms, entering the address is a manual process where the street, city, zip, and country must be entered individually, and without verification. However, if you want your form to be better than most, you can make your address inputs smarter with Google Places. By using Google places you speed up the submission process, prevent mistakes and add an additional layer of address verification to just about any form.
Google Places utilizes the vast Google and Google Maps database to autocomplete the location details in the form, from only a few keystrokes. With this feature enabled, as you type in the address field you will see suggestions for the full address and can easily pick the correct address and watch as the Street, City, State, Postal code, and country are populated automatically. Not only is this a faster way to define the location, but it ends up being more accurate too!
From a developer standpoint, the addition of Google places is relatively simple. Users need to first sign up for a Google Places API key https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/places/ – Google gives you unlimited API calls if you are just using them for the basic simple places address autocomplete (https://developers.google.com/places/web-service/usage-and-billing#standard-usage-limits-for-places-api) Then in the backend, reference the Google Places library and set which fields you want it to apply to.
Click here to learn more about Google Places
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team
by Henry Abenaim | Jul 11, 2018 | Blog, Salesforce Tips
Configure. Price. Quote. CPQ can revolutionize a sales cycle, and though CPQ is not unique to Salesforce, (there are many different options for CPQ out there) but the powerful Salesforce version is one of the better options on the market.
What is CPQ?
For any company that faces the challenge of quickly and efficiently producing error-free sales quotes, CPQ is the answer. CPQ is essentially a software that helps your Sales reps create accurate, up to date and effortless quotes for clients. This software is especially effective if your company offers a large number of pricing and combination options.
CPQ takes what used to be a complex, time-consuming process and makes it quick, simple and eliminates errors.
CPQ functions like a pricing wizard. It tracks and stores all of your products, prices, and options, and allows your Sales reps to click through the process to create the quote. Let’s take a look at each function.
Configure
Creating an accurate quote can often be quite a challenge. Every business has their share of bundles, combinations and product options, and each of these can, in turn, have their own associated requirements. Maybe a certain product can only be sold in a bundle or perhaps a product requires a number of customizations. You don’t want to send out a quote that doesn’t include these essential details.
In the end, memorizing all of your business’ pricing rules, dependencies and exceptions can be tricky if not impossible. And pricing spreadsheets and charts aren’t always effective either. This is why having all of your business’s rules loaded into a smart guide is a must for many companies. CPQ does the hard part and makes sure every quote is configured according to your specific rules.
Price
Just like product configuration, there are very often pricing exemptions and discounts that need to be considered for every quote. Few businesses sell their products at full list price to all customers. From discounts for nonprofits to special incentive promotions to credits for current customers, you probably have more than a few considerations for every price quote.
Mispricing a quote can not only be embarrassing but can potentially jeopardize the deal. With CPQ, you can create advanced pricing rules and take into account discounts, pre-negotiated pricing, subscriptions and more. The more complex your pricing options, the more your Sales team needs CPQ to streamline the entire process.
Quote
Following the configuration and pricing automation, CPQ provides a professional and efficient method of creating the quote. Salesforce CPQ allows reps to create the quote and send it via email (complete with e-signature options) all with just a few clicks. This is all done from a WYSIWYG editor, making template creation a breeze.
The Benefits of CPQ
More Sales – Turning out fast quotes leads to higher conversion rates and also gives your reps more time to work on additional deals. Complex, in-efficient processes leading to long quote creation times are a huge problem for many companies. Getting an accurate quote out the door quickly is pretty essential in the fast-paced world of 2018. Adding in the automation of CPQ to the process dramatically speeds up the process, giving your company a decided advantage over your competition.
Better Accuracy – Automating your company’s workflow rules not only makes the process faster, but it means significantly increase accuracy. Validation rules ensure that every quote that goes out is properly priced and configured, and will take into account all of your business rules that could easily be forgotten or inaccurately applied through human error. With CPQ, you can rest assured that outgoing quotes have the correcting pricing, product combinations, description and are within discounting limits.
Efficient Invoicing – With an easy quoting process, that is stored directly into your CRM, you also get full tracking and reporting on your invoicing. Not only does this save you time, but it also leads to improved customer service.
Subscription Management – Subscription-based services require quite a bit of administration, but CPQ can help. The software streamlines many of the processes, such as discounts, refunds, renewal and contracting to make subscriptions easier.
Usage-based billing – Salesforce Billing and CPQ allow your company to handle complex usage and subscription-based monetization needs out of the box.
Better Reporting – An integrated solution, connected to your CRM, provides deeper insights into your business. You can track and report on buying patterns, projected cash flows and more. Create custom dashboards so you can keep an eye on your most important metrics with a quick glance.
Reduced Administration – With streamlined automation for invoices and quotes, CPQ takes a lot of the legwork out of administration. You can reduce administrative overhead, and have them spend more time on other projects.
Salesforce Quote-To-Cash
Salesforce doesn’t do just a basic CPQ, but offers what they refer to as a full “quote-to-cash” platform. Quote-to-cash is the combination of both Salesforce CPQ and Salesforce Billing that brings together the best features of both. You get everything from the chart below:
Not only do you get all of these fantastic features, but you can keep your CPQ on the same platform as your CRM, making for a better and more powerful integration. With Salesforce CPQ, you can access customer credentials, past purchase history and many other great integration features.
Do You Need Salesforce CPQ?
Like most customer configuration and development projects, adding a software like Salesforce CPQ to your org will be based on a number of individual factors. If one or more of the below apply to your company, you may need CPQ:
- You have a large Sales Team. Think 100+ employees.
- If your salespeople spend around 25% of their day creating quotes
- Your products have many different custom configuration options
These are just a few simple guidelines, and by no means are hard and fast rules. If you think Salesforce CPQ is something that would help your company and would like more information, Contact one of our Consulting Specialists.
-Ryan and the CloudMyBiz Team
Want to discuss adding Salesforce CPQ to your implementation? Need to boost your ROI and maximize your investment?
Whatever your needs, we have you covered. Contact one of our Salesforce experts and we will find you a better business solution.
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