Multimillion-Dollar Manufacturing Company Achieves 99% Salesforce Adoption with Knowledge Ops

The Challenge

No operational consistency for the sales team

Two failed CRM implementations had left the company with a set of undefined and inconsistent sales processes. As a result, their sales reps would resort a number of workarounds to fill the gaps, leading to inefficiencies, a poor prospect experience, and ultimately, missed opportunities with potential customers.

For the sales leaders, the fractured and inconsistent data made it difficult to see how their teams were doing in reports. The company needed a way to centralize their national, regional, inside and partner sales reps, and implement one method for managing CRM at the corporate level.

It was time to try another CRM. To ensure complete adoption this time, they needed to start with strong training.

The Solution

Salesforce rollout with a knowledge ops platform and Find & Follow training

After reviewing their options, the company made the switch to Salesforce CRM. Because of its complex capabilities, they needed a training solution that could get everyone up to speed quickly.

With the help of a dedicated trainer, the company identified weaknesses in their current sales operations and mapped out a solution to reach their ideal state with Salesforce.

With the ideal state in mind, the trainer created a number of interactive checklists and decision trees in their ScreenSteps knowledge ops platform. These articles were designed to guide sales reps through every click and step of a process. This included everything from simple tasks like making a new opportunity to complex actions like reporting and pricing.

Finally, it was time to train the reps on how to use Salesforce.

The first week of Find & Follow training was primarily made up of real-life practice activities. During these sessions, reps were taught how to find and follow the digital guides in the knowledge ops platform to perform tasks. These practice activities were based on scenarios they would actually encounter in the field and gradually became more complex over the course of the week.

Once the live training finished, the reps wrapped up with a 90-minute virtual training course within ScreenSteps. Supporting knowledge base articles, how-to videos, and knowledge checks were linked directly to the course material, continuing to reinforce what reps had learned from the live training.

The Results

Faster time-to-value and better processes

With the support of ScreenSteps training solutions, the company reached 99% adoption among their sales reps before CRM launch day.

Throughout the training, the reps had become completely familiarized with the knowledge base. This enabled them to hit the ground running and start problem-solving from day one.

Additionally, the company was able to save money by:

• Cutting down training by a full day
• Eliminating the need for ongoing live support post-launch
• Achieving full productivity immediately post-launch, rather than having to wait for widespread adoption

Finally, with the knowledge base as a single source of truth, the company no longer had to worry about processes becoming diluted or decentralized over time — saving everyone time, money and frustration in the long run.