Salesforce Gone Bad

At Summit Technologies, we see a lot of different Salesforce orgs from a wide range of companies. And a surprising number of them are, to use a technical term, totally jacked up.

The first question that comes to mind is, how did they get this way? Salesforce is supposed to be EASY, right? How could so many organizations filled with smart, talented people mess up what is supposed to be an easy product? Using our investigative and deductive powers, we found some answers to the burning questions of how Salesforce gets messed up.

1. Just because it is easy to do doesn't mean you should do it

It is easy to create new tables and fields in Salesforce, and many people do. Often without first checking to see if it or the equivalent already exists.

2. Too many cooks in the Salesforce kitchen

If everyone in a Salesforce org has Administrator privileges, no one has control, which means anarchy. If any word is the polar opposite of good business practices, it would be anarchy. Important changes should be made after careful consideration, not on an ad hoc as needed basis. There needs to be a limited number of Administrators in Salesforce, and communication between them is critical.

3. Bad data happens (without oversight)

Have you ever seen a table of states where Connecticut lives as CN, CONN, CT and even CO? We have. Good data practices put in place can avoid this, combined with vigilance.

4. TMI (or not everyone needs to see EVERYTHING)

Multiple record types, user profiles and page layouts can create experiences within Salesforce that are taylored to different users or data requirements. Unfortunately, these are not always set up, leading to a visual free-for-all with irrelevant fields or data appearing where they should not.

Similarly, not everyone in the company needs to see every report. They should be organized in folders that are only shared with relevant users to reduce clutter.

5. If you are copying data from Salesforce into a spreadsheet, something is very, very wrong

Salesforce should replace any spreadsheets storing account, contact or sales data. If these spreadsheets still exist or have been re-created, it is time for an intervention.

6. Embrace change

With three releases a year, it can be tough to keep up with all the changes to Salesforce, but you should. Things change for the better. New, improved functionality, apps and UI's are being released. Someone needs to stay on top of this stuff and make sure everyone is aware of and trained on the latest productivity features.

Does any of this sound like familiar? Give us a call at the Salesforce Control Center (Summit Technologies) at 614-859-6543 or send me an email.

#salesforcecheckup #salesforce #SalesforceTraining