WalkMe for Salesforce: How To Make Your Implementation More Successful
I had a conversation with a client the other day, specifically about Salesforce and change management. She asked, “how can I get better usage from my sales team. I feel I am in a bit of a rut”. This is a common question I have heard over the years, but first, a little about me.
I have used WalkMe for the better part of 10 years, a bit of an “old schooler” you could say. I first found WalkMe when I was a Salesforce Administrator for an oil and gas company in Houston. This was my first experience with implementing Salesforce and training a sales team. Boy was it an experience. Have you ever tried to teach algebra to a horse? Well, that is what it was like. The goal was to get the company into the 21st century using 21st-century tools, but it was worse than pulling teeth.
When we first pushed Salesforce out, I do not think I have ever gotten so many hate emails and phone calls reminding me that the sales team was not hired to be admin staff. They are to be on the road selling, not sitting behind a laptop, adding (in their minds) useless data to Salesforce. For sales reps reading this, I love you all and I understand. So, I needed to find a solution and fast. This is where my question for digital adoption began, and this was in 2012, before digital adoption was even a “thing”. I scoured the internet day and night, trying to find a way to make utilizing Salesforce simpler and one day I found it. WalkMe. After months of WalkMe demos and proofs of concepts, we had sealed the deal. WalkMe was purchased and ready for liftoff! I was now the official Salesforce Admin and WalkMe Admin; hooray for multiple hats, right?
After a few months of building, I was ready to publish my WalkMe content. I had worked so hard building these WalkThrus, adding a plethora of SmartTips and Launchers, that was going to make the lives of the sales reps so much better. I was ready to hit that dreaded Publish to Production button, but I did it, and off the content went!
After a few weeks, I went into Insights and checked to see if my blood, sweat, and tears had paid off. I was disappointed to see that very few people were using the tool. How was that possible? It was in their face. I made it impossible to avoid WalkMe guidance, but they were ignoring it, and I just did not understand why.
So, let us go back to my client’s question, “how can I get better usage from my sales team”. I had that same question once I reviewed my Insights data. I discovered that it all comes down to change management. It took me time to figure this out, and keeping change management in the forefront of your mind, I discovered a few ways in which you can make your implementation more successful.
Executive buy-in. If you do not have people preaching from the top down that WalkMe needs to be used, it is going to make your job that much harder. Make sure executives are included in the purchasing of WalkMe and that they are committed to helping tell their teams that they need to use it. You could even suggest some KPIs be added based on WalkMe usage.
Roadshows. Not literally hit the road, but get the word out there. Host calls with the different offices or divisions. Show them in real-time what WalkMe can do to help them. Remember, we are a “what’s in it for me” society, so show them what is in it for them!
Office evangelists. You cannot be everywhere, all at once. Have office evangelists help you spread the WalkMe word and remind the sales team that they have help at the click of a button.
Aggressive solutions. I wanted to think that users would see that handy little WalkMe widget and open it to get help but that didn’t necessarily work. I decided to be more aggressive with my approach. I added more Walkme automation, ShoutOuts reminding users of the help they would have at the click of the mouse.
I know this isn’t a definitive list, but with these items in mind out of the gate, I promise your implementation will be more successful. I wish I had known these when I first started but they definitely helped me at the other companies I ended up implementing WalkMe at. Hopefully, I’ve helped some learn from my mistakes. Best of luck!
Kelli Boyd
Enablement Lead
GuideMe Solutions
