Why Salespeople Do Not Use Salesforce and How to Fix It
We all know why companies buy Salesforce.
They want better visibility into the sales pipeline. They want more reliable forecasts. They want managers to understand what's happening with opportunities and accounts. They want real-time reporting instead of spreadsheets and a consistent place to manage customer information.
And salespeople often want it, too.
Salespeople understand the appeal of having a sophisticated CRM that can help them manage opportunities, prioritize deals, track customer activity and stay organized.
So why is it that getting salespeople to actually use Salesforce can be so difficult?
The problem usually isn't Salesforce itself.
It's the way the system is designed, the way managers use it and the way salespeople perceive the value of putting their information into it.
I've seen three issues come up repeatedly.
1. The "Big Brother" Effect
One of the biggest concerns salespeople have about Salesforce is that it gives management more visibility into what they're doing.
And let's be honest: most salespeople aren't necessarily asking for more management visibility into every aspect of their day.
They may wonder whether every activity is being monitored, whether every missed task is going to be noticed or whether their manager is going to use Salesforce primarily as a surveillance system.
But here's the important point:
Salesforce didn't create management accountability.
Sales managers have always needed to know what's happening with their business.
The difference is that Salesforce can make that information much more visible and much easier to access.
The answer isn't to hide information from managers.
The answer is to demonstrate to salespeople that the information they're putting into Salesforce creates value for them, too.
Make Salesforce Useful to the Salesperson
If the only benefit a salesperson gets from Salesforce is that their manager can see what they're doing, adoption is going to be difficult.
Instead, configure Salesforce around the salesperson's actual workflow.
Remove unnecessary fields.
Eliminate information that doesn't serve a purpose.
Make it easy to find important accounts and opportunities.
Give salespeople reports and dashboards that help them manage their own business.
Show them which opportunities need attention.
Give them visibility into their performance against target.
Help them understand what's happening in their pipeline.
And, where appropriate, automate administrative work rather than requiring salespeople to manually enter everything.
The basic principle is simple:
If Salesforce makes the salesperson's job easier, the visibility it gives management becomes much less threatening.
2. The "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" Effect
Here's another Salesforce adoption problem that is almost entirely within management's control.
Managers tell salespeople they need to use Salesforce.
Then the managers don't use it themselves.
Executives ask for accurate forecasts but don't look at Salesforce.
Managers require salespeople to keep opportunities current but maintain their own spreadsheets.
Sales leaders ask for reports that already exist in Salesforce instead of going into Salesforce themselves.
This sends a terrible message.
It tells salespeople that Salesforce is something they are required to use, but management isn't.
That makes it very difficult to establish Salesforce as the company's system of record.
Managers Have to Use Salesforce First
If you want salespeople to use Salesforce, managers need to use Salesforce as part of their normal management process.
That means conducting pipeline reviews in Salesforce.
Using Salesforce during one-on-ones.
Reviewing opportunities and forecasts in Salesforce.
Using Salesforce information to identify coaching opportunities.
Looking at reports and dashboards before asking the sales team for information.
And, perhaps most importantly, not creating parallel systems for information that should already be in Salesforce.
If a manager asks for an Excel spreadsheet every Friday to see the pipeline, don't be surprised when salespeople decide Salesforce isn't really that important.
Your behavior is the adoption strategy.
Give Managers Something Worth Using
There's another side to this.
Don't simply tell managers to use Salesforce. Show them how it can make them better managers.
A good Salesforce management dashboard might help a manager quickly identify:
- Opportunities that haven't progressed
- Deals without meaningful next steps
- Pipeline that's aging
- New opportunities being created
- Changes in forecast
- Sales activity and customer engagement
- Areas where individual salespeople need coaching
That's much more useful than simply teaching a manager how to run a report.
The objective of Sales Manager Development should be to help managers use Salesforce as part of how they actually manage the business.
When managers get value from Salesforce, they're much more likely to reinforce that value with their teams.
3. The Salesperson-Technology Paradox
Salespeople want technology to make their jobs easier.
But Salesforce can become complicated very quickly.
That's the paradox.
A company buys Salesforce because it's powerful and flexible. Then it turns on more features, adds more fields, creates more customizations and builds more processes.
Eventually, the salesperson opens Salesforce and sees a system that feels like it's asking them to manage the company's data rather than manage their customers.
That's when adoption starts to suffer.
Salespeople generally don't want to make a dozen decisions about which fields they should complete every time they update an opportunity.
They want to know what information matters and what they are expected to do.
Configure Salesforce Around the Sales Process
Salesforce should reflect the way your organization actually sells.
That doesn't mean blindly copying your existing sales process into Salesforce. A poor process doesn't become a good process just because you've automated it.
It means defining the sales process first and then configuring Salesforce to support it.
Every field should have a reason for existing.
Every required piece of information should support a business decision, sales activity or management process.
Every stage should have a clear meaning.
And every step should be as easy as possible for the salesperson to complete.
If nobody can explain why a field exists or what information belongs in it, that's a pretty good candidate for removal.
This is where Salesforce Platform Optimization becomes important.
Optimization isn't about squeezing more functionality out of Salesforce.
Sometimes it's about taking functionality out.
Don't Make Salespeople Manage the Technology
There's a difference between giving salespeople a powerful tool and asking salespeople to become Salesforce administrators.
Your salespeople should be focused on selling.
They shouldn't have to understand every configuration decision that went into Salesforce.
They shouldn't have to navigate through unnecessary screens.
They shouldn't have to maintain duplicate information.
And they shouldn't have to figure out for themselves what management wants from the data.
The system should make the right behavior easier.
That's one of the reasons the sales process needs to be clearly defined before the Salesforce experience is designed.
If the process is unclear, the technology becomes complicated.
If the technology is complicated, adoption suffers.
If adoption suffers, management gets less reliable information.
And then everyone starts blaming the salespeople.
The cycle continues.
Training Helps—but Training Isn't the Whole Answer
Good Salesforce training is important.
People need to understand how Salesforce works and how to use the system to accomplish the tasks they are responsible for.
But training can't compensate for a poorly designed Salesforce environment.
If a salesperson is trained on a system with 40 unnecessary fields, the training hasn't solved the problem.
If the sales process is unclear, training can't make it clear.
If managers don't use Salesforce, training can't make them accountable.
If salespeople don't see any personal benefit from using the system, training alone won't create that benefit.
That's why Salesforce adoption requires more than classroom instruction.
It requires the right combination of Process, Platform and People.
That's the philosophy behind our P3 Framework:
Process first. Platform second. People throughout.
The sales process needs to make sense.
Salesforce needs to support that process.
And managers and salespeople need the training, coaching and reinforcement necessary to make the behavior stick.
What Sales Managers Should Do
If your sales team isn't fully using Salesforce, don't immediately assume you need another training session.
Start by asking three questions.
Do salespeople see the value?
Does Salesforce help them manage their pipeline, prepare for meetings, prioritize opportunities or save time?
If not, that's the first problem to address.
Are managers using Salesforce?
Is Salesforce actually being used during pipeline reviews, one-on-ones, forecasting and coaching?
If not, fix the management behavior first.
Is Salesforce simple enough?
Are there unnecessary fields, confusing processes, duplicate data entry or information that nobody can explain?
If so, simplify the system.
These three questions can tell you a lot more about Salesforce adoption than simply looking at login statistics.
The Goal Isn't Salesforce Usage. It's Better Sales Performance.
It's easy to get caught up in adoption metrics.
How many people logged in?
How many records were updated?
How many activities were entered?
Those numbers can be useful, but they're not the ultimate objective.
The reason you invested in Salesforce wasn't to create more CRM activity.
You invested in Salesforce because you wanted a better way to run the sales organization.
You wanted better visibility.
Better forecasting.
Better pipeline management.
Better coaching.
Better decisions.
And ultimately, better sales performance.
Salesforce adoption is successful when the system becomes part of the way your sales organization works—not when people simply spend more time inside the application.
Make Salesforce Work for Salespeople
Salespeople aren't necessarily resistant to Salesforce.
They're resistant to systems that make their jobs harder without giving them anything useful in return.
They're resistant when Salesforce feels like surveillance.
They're resistant when managers demand behavior they don't demonstrate themselves.
And they're resistant when the system is unnecessarily complicated.
All three problems are manageable.
Give salespeople a Salesforce environment that supports their sales process.
Give managers the skills and dashboards they need to actually manage through Salesforce.
Remove unnecessary complexity.
Show people the value.
And reinforce the behavior consistently.
That's how Salesforce becomes more than another system the sales team is required to use.
It becomes a tool that helps them sell.
And when that happens, Salesforce adoption becomes much less about compliance—and much more about productivity.
If you're struggling with Salesforce adoption, our Salesforce Adoption & Change Management services can help you identify whether the problem is really training—or whether process, platform and management behavior are getting in the way.
