Every business must change to find success. Whether it’s adapting to new needs of their customers, or meeting a new industry standard, change comes with the territory and how companies navigate it is what determines the best from the rest. As a consulting agency, Bluewolf is constantly helping businesses adopt changes. Here are the key things we’ve identified as being crucial when implementing a big change, such as Salesforce adoption, in your business.

Put Yourself in Your Employee’s Shoes

Imagine if one day you received a phone call from your boss announcing that you had won a new house! The company is going to move you into the house and cover all expenses, beginning next week. You would probably be thinking, “Wow, that is exciting! Wait! Next week? That’s not enough time to get ready! What do I have to do to get ready for this move? I have to pack up all my stuff and make sure it is organized! I have to clear out all the clutter! Who’s going to help me? What if this house isn’t as nice as the one I already have? I like my house and it’s comfortable. It’s mine!” You’d probably be feeling angry, scared, maybe excited, but still uneasy because you don’t know what’s really going on, how it’s going to work, or what you need to do.

Many times, this is how employees feel when transitioning to Salesforce because it asks them to make a big shift in how they do many pieces of their job. This fear and resistance can be mitigated with an effective Change Management strategy. To form that strategy, you must first understand what the transition means for your employees.

Market the Transition

In order to present the transition in a positive, encouraging way, take your understanding of the “people side of change” and consider how it relates to your business so that you can market the right message to your end users. Help your employees to understand what the benefit of this change will be for them. Does this new technology make their jobs easier? Will it be faster and allow them to complete tasks more quickly? Perhaps it eliminates the need for another technology so they can work in the same interface all day without having to switch into a different tool? Regardless of the benefits, make sure a core piece of your message is that employees will receive the help and support they need in order to make the transition smoothly.

Create a Team of Empowered Advocates

Here’s an example of an implementation of Sales Cloud that was set up for success. The company’s leadership team got highly involved from the start of the project by being visible, inviting management and end users to the table early, and discussing Salesforce in every meeting. Bluewolf helped them create a program of champions for the upcoming transition to using Salesforce. The champions were representatives within the company from all around the globe. They decided it would make the program more fun if it was branded in the theme of Star Wars and “The Force” was the equivalent of Salesforce. Champions received light sabers to display at their desks to designate them as champions and encourage other employees to reach out to them. Each champion received trainings to help them identify and mitigate resistance, early demos of the system, and advanced copies of communications. Some groups dressed up as Star Wars characters and passed out flyers about the new system, and their cafeteria had a special menu the day their new Salesforce went live with Star Wars themed food.

Since the champions included front line reps, managers, and executives, they were able to call out benefits, issues, or risks for each level of employee in the company. They then helped create solutions to potential problems before they became huge issues. Bluewolf also led sessions for in-house trainers so that they could not only train during the roll-out but also in perpetuity with new hires. Because champions and end users were involved early, the whole company felt ownership of the system and eagerly adopted Salesforce.

To learn more about Bluewolf’s Change Management and Learning practice, click here.