So you’ve decided you want to try out Salesforce. Is your decision based on hype surrounding it or proper research?
Most Trials Go Like This
You sign up to the 30 day trial.
Play around with it for a few hours.
A salesperson calls to see how you are getting on with the trial, offers some help.
Before you know it, you receive an email saying the trial is almost over.
You’ve barely used the software and with some sales persuasion you sign up.
6 months later you are barely using the system (This is very real, a significant number of businesses fall in this group). Just imagine 6 months of subscription fees and no business return. Ouch!
Make The Most Of Your Salesforce Trial
Free 30 day trials can be great. But if you don’t put in the time and effort required, you won’t get the most out of the trial. You need a solid plan before you begin the trial and not 15 days into the trial. You cannot evaluate Salesforce properly when you only see a small percentage of what it can do.
3 Steps to Maximise Your Salesforce 30-Day Free Frial
Step 1. Before The Trial
Don’t sign up for the free trial yet!
Be prepared for change
To be successful, changes to business processes and user behaviour are required. You need to be disciplined, develop new processes and apply best practices. Using Salesforce with outdated process will simply execute errors faster.
Know your business needs
Decisions are often made at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons. Most businesses don’t even know what features they need. Sit down with all departments and get them to tell you what they would like from the system.
Set measureable goals
What does success look like? Establish some measureable goals which will start to show you results.
These 3 questions will help in setting your goals:
- What do you want to improve?
- What metrics do you want to achieve?
- What needs to be measured?
Is your team excited to use it?
Yes, your team needs to be excited. You’ll need to convince everyone about the benefits of using Salesforce, how it will improve their job and that it will not add more work.
Bad data due to users not adding information is common. To avoid this make sure your team understand the benefit of using Salesforce properly.
Bad data is worse than having no data. Decisions based on bad data can be damaging to your business.
Think long term
Don’t rush it. Salesforce is a long term solution, think at least 3 years ahead.
Step 2. During The Trial
Commitment and effort put into Step 1 means you are ready to put Salesforce to the test.
Know your budget
The 30 day Salesforce trial gives you access to the full version. You only want to evaluate features that are included in the version that’s within your budget.
Start small you can always upgrade later. The key here is to prioritise your requirements.
Next…
- Sign up to the Salesforce 30 Day Free Trial
- Beware of pushy sales folk
- Setup Salesforce – Get some help, you will save lots of time and shorten the learning process
- Get everyone involved in using the system
- You’ll have lots of questions – write them down
Step 3. After The Trial
- Get answers to questions you came across during the trial
- Don’t be pressurised into buying, if you need more time ask for a trial extension
- Ask to speak to existing Salesforce customers similar to your business
- Decision time, hire or fire Salesforce
Arrange a free live demo
Salesforce is not for everyone.
You don’t want to waste time setting your trial only to realise that Salesforce may not be a good choice for you. You also don’t want a sales person nagging you forever once you have registered for the trial.
With a live demo you get a quick walkthrough of the features available, see how it works and see if it’s going to be easy to use.
If you would like a free live demo please email help@cloudtal.com
P.S. We are independent of Salesforce.com. We’ll never nag you or try to convince you to buy Salesforce or contact you unless you ask us to. We are here to help you without bias so that you can make your own informed decision.