Dreamforce Presentation
on salesforce.com Adoption

salesforce.com taped this presentation delivered by Dell at Dreamforce, salesforce.com’s global conference. The presentation focused on best practices for driving salesforce.com adoption. This page provides a link to the presentation recorded by salesforce.com and a summary of the key points.

 

 

Prior to August 2007, Dell did not have a unified CRM to coordinate the sales activities of a 20,000 member sales organization. In her presentation, Daria Frankiewicz addresses the obstacles Dell faced in rolling out salesforce.com, the key components that led to successful adoption, and the benefits realized in the process to date.

 

Dell identified two critical elements to drive salesforce.com adoption:

• Front Line Sales Buy In - Getting field reps and inside reps to use salesforce.com and the sales process are two main drivers to improving effectives and creating ROI. Dell met this challenge by recruiting "field evangelists" to share best practices, and by deploying monthly webcasts to address the latest updates in salesforce.com, the key metrics being measured in the adoption strategy and the scorecard, and recorded best practices in the form of Knowledge Nuggets.
• • Executive Buy In – Without robust executive support, salesforce.com adoption would have been inconsistent and ineffective. To increase the value of salesforce.com for its executives, Dell interviewed leadership to identify specific performance gaps the executives were concerned with. Dashboards were then built for the global executives around issues such as pipeline management, win/loss, and activity management to provide them with real-time information needed to oversee operations. Executives also agreed to include salesforce.com metrics in sales rep performance plans.

Dell also identified two important best practices for driving salesforce.com adoption:

• Communication – In order for salesforce.com adoption to spread throughout the organization, messaging that referenced expectations and processes surrounding the implementation and operation of salesforce.com was centralized to ensure consistency and relevancy.
• Support Process – Users must have access to timely and knowledgeable support at all times. Dell provided in-house support, so that reps knew exactly when and how support would be accessible to them. Dell also made use of salesforce.com Premier support as a second support option.

Finally, Dell determined that in order to drive maximum salesforce.com proficiency and adoption, they needed a targeted Sales Enablement process. To achieve this goal, they contracted with Baker Communications, a leading provider of sales transformation services, including the effective deployment of salesforce.com. Baker’s unique program provided "day-in-the-life" practical salesforce.com training focused on generating revenue while accelerating adoption and generating significant, measurable ROI. The pilot program was built around:

• 6 sales teams
• A coordinated sales and marketing play that extended over 12 weeks
• Weekly 90-minute training/coaching sessions delivered via WebEx

At the end of 12 weeks, the results of the pilot program were:

• Revenue up 19% from last year
• Account Planning up 76% from last quarter
• 89% Follow-up on leads, a 36% increase.