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Getting any new business solution up and running can be a challenge. By choosing a cloud-based solution such as Salesforce CRM, you’ll find that the implementation process—and ongoing maintenance—is much easier than with traditional software solutions. Still, there are some red flags to look out for. We’ve identified the 8 most common issues when it comes to implementing CRM. Make sure you have these bases covered and you’ll be on your way to success. 1.
 
Lack of strategic vision 2.
 
 No project team 3.
 
 No clear business process 4.
 
 Not knowing how to measure success 5.
 
 No change management process 6.
 
Inadequate training 7.
 
Dirty data 8.
 
 Not getting help Let’s explore in more detail at how you can address each of these challenges—and how we can help.
Challenge #1: Define your strategic vision
Every successful CRM project starts with a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. That vision will drive your strategies and decisions at every step of your implementation. What are your business goals? To  build long-term relationships, create customer loyalty, increase sales? Your goals should be clear—to everyone in your organization. To help with this process, use the 
 to capture and communicate your vision statement. It’s one of the Getting Started resources on the Salesforce.com Community site. Use it as a work in progress to come up with and document all the important decisions about your application.
 
Abstract
Get a jump-start on implementing CRM! Use these tips to avoid common pitfalls and get your implementation started on the right foot.
By: Nancye Michaelian
Meet—and beat—these 8 CRM challenges
 
Meet—and beat—these 8 CRM challenges BEST PRACTICE 2
Challenge #2: Ramp up a project team
To achieve your vision, it helps to have a project team or steering committee that includes major stakeholders. It’s a common mistake to assign a single project owner and expect that person to deliver a finished product. To be successful, you need the buy-in and participation of people with various  perspectives and skills, including stakeholders from all business units. That way, you can avoid many communication and adoption problems before they start. If you’re a small business, this task may sound a little daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Just make sure you cover the following roles: executive sponsor, project owner, administrator, and a power user. Use the 
to document your team as it grows and evolves.
 
Challenge #3: Define your business process
To get the most from Salesforce CRM, you’ll want to make it work the way you do. To do that, it’s critical to define your business process so you can prioritize which features, reports, and customizations you want. As you work to define your process, be aware of too much complexity. If there are too many fields,  picklists overflowing with values, or poorly organized page layouts, your users will be overwhelmed, unproductive, and frustrated. Keep it simple and get feedback from prospective users before you launch— and all along the way as you refine and build out your application. Always keep the following usability goals in mind:
 
Match your business process
 
Simpler is better
 
Organization is everything For more information on defining your process, go to the Rollout Guide and then to Plan>Define your Process. Document your own process in your MySalesforce.com Workbook.
Challenge #4: Define success
As with everything in life, it helps to reach your goals if you track your progress along the way. So far, we’ve discussed the importance of having a vision, goals, and a business process that can meet those goals. Along the way, you also need to track those measures that show you’re moving toward your goal. What should you measure? How do you know you’re on track—and that you’re staying on track? That’s where key performance indicators (KPIs) come in. KPIs will show the areas in which the project is meeting your goals. They’ll also help to identify whether you need change course. Common KPIs include the following:
 
Closed sales QTD (quarter to date)
 
Key opportunities
 
Meet—and beat—these 8 CRM challenges BEST PRACTICE 3
 
Top 5 sales reps
 
Lead conversion rate
 
Completed activities In addition to such quantitative metrics, also define goals for adoption rates, performance, and continuous education. Here’s a dashboard  that can serve as a great starting point for tracking and reaching your goals.
Challenge #5: Manage change
Change is a given. You may find that 6 months after you go live, your application no longer meets some  business needs. For example, territories are realigned, an account has too many unused fields, or you might want to add a great new feature. Because Salesforce CRM is so easy to change, you’ll need a process to manage these changes, so they don’t interfere with your business process or undermine your business strategy. Creating a change management plan helps keep your organization’s vision, strategy, and goals closely aligned. Although change management is most critical for complex implementations, customers of all sizes should have a change strategy. Here’s a change management example you can use to help manage your changes.
Challenge #6: Train and train again
Although we’ve won lots of awards for our easy-to-use interface, training is still crucial. In particular, you want to be sure users make the most of the customizations that affect their day-to-day jobs. Training is one of the most important things you can do to improve adoption and enforce your business  process. Be sure to train users initially and reinforce that training periodically. It’s also a good idea to create training resources to support your specific implementation, such as newsletters, brown-bag sessions, and tips of the week. Many customers create an Education Web tab to manage their training resources. Be sure to use salesforce.com’s resources to help you train your users and manage your training:
 
A free resource for tracking course completion statistics (Setup | Manage Users | Training History)
 

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