How to Find The Right Salesforce Training Vendor
Wondering Which Company Provides Good Salesforce Training?
Leading the employee training initiative to support a new Salesforce CRM implementation can be a daunting task depending on how effectively change is managed at your organization.
For many of our clients here at TrainingFolks, change is not usually welcome with open arms and therefore ensuring the best approach to the communication and training of the new software is critical.
The first question you may need to deal with is answering which company provides Salesforce Training. This is assuming of course that you’re not going to facilitating this software change internally.
While there are several providers that can assist with your Salesforce training, many of them may not actually deliver the right training to achieve your desired rates of user adoption.
When thinking about what companies can deliver your training, here are some important factors to keep in mind.
Is the training off the shelf?
One of the most common mistakes that companies can make is to choose to go with off the shelf training for new technology. While the content is detailed and provides a great overview of all the different aspects of the software, take a step back and think about what your employee training program is really about. Does your Sales team need to know how to use the same tools as your Marketing team? Does Customer Service training equate Sales training? If the answer is no (and in most cases it is) then off the shelf training courses can be tricky to navigate through to be effective.
Instead, you should consider providing custom training for your specific teams that delivers the content that is most relevant to their job requirements. Not only does this help to create a learning experience that is much more engaging but is the best way for these employees to actually learn how to use the Salesforce platform. The more specific you can get with your training, the more the employee will relate and retain, which in the end is the whole point of the exercise right?
What’s the instructor’s story?
Another best practice to keep in mind when speaking to training vendors is questioning the instructors that will be carrying out your training programs. While all companies will most certainly provide a learning professional that is Salesforce certified and have experience with training in a corporate environment, you need to take it one step further. Will the contract trainer that comes into your organization also bring with them industry and role experience? For example, an instructor-led Salesforce training experience conducted by someone with former sales experience or better yet someone that used Salesforce in a sales role, will be far more effective than someone equally matched on credentials but never worked a day in sales. Why? Well for one, when questions are asked by your employees, they won’t always be specific to the platform. Instead they will more likely include things that address how to use the software specifically for their job requirements. Someone who has essentially ‘been there, done that’, will be able to speak to best practices, shortcuts or even explain the tools better from the perspective of the end user, not the software developer.
Is a training needs assessment part of the plan?
If you speak to a company about providing your Salesforce training program and they don’t ask for or budget in a training needs assessment, back away slowly! Jumping into a learning initiative without a clear plan laid out is a recipe for failure. In cases like this you’re probably headed for off the shelf training that provides a generic learning experience designed for the masses. This will lead you right to poor user adoption rates and inevitable failure. Taking the time and spending the money on clearly assessing your learners’ needs and designing the most appropriate learning to meet these will end up saving your organization money in the long run. Your needs analysis is going to prompt you to consider the best modality for training, post-training event support and the specific areas to focus on by your targeted teams. All of these are essential to a successful learning initiative.
What kind of support will the vendor provide?
A common mistake when selecting a Salesforce training company is choosing based solely on cost. If you’re going to have a company provide you with generic training and treat the event like a one-and-done situation then paying less makes sense. But, make sure to budget for additional training that will be required thereafter!
A very important factor to consider during your selection process is what kind of support you can expect along the way and what kind of post-training support will be planned for and put into place?
Is the Salesforce Trainer near me?
Lastly, consider where your training vendor is located, and where your Instructional Design consultants, instructors or contract trainers are going to be travelling from. If you have multiple locations that are affected by this training rollout will you have to budget for costs of travel from the vendor’s home office? This can add up fast.
Instead, look for a vendor that can provide you with the learning professionals you need on a local level. This helps to control costs of the project while also providing your teams and your learners with someone that walks their walk and talks their talk! With in-class training, rapport with the trainer is very important and if they speak differently, don’t know common practices to your city or are detached from issues that people in your organization deal with every day, this will take a hit.
The answer to this question depends on a number of factors, all which need to be carefully considering when compiling your list of potential Salesforce training vendors.
Now that you know what to look for before choosing the best Salesforce training company for your organization, here are some questions you should have answered in advance.
6 Key Questions to Answer Before Selecting a Salesforce Training Vendor
1. What is the scope of the project?
2. Which employees/teams need to be included?
3. Does the training impact one office or multiple offices?
4. What version of Salesforce are you training on?
5. What is your budget?
6. What are your goals and key performance metrics?
Each of these questions will greatly impact your list of providers but more importantly, help you to really shape your project proposal and plan.
Once you have a clear idea of what your new Salesforce program or upgrade will include you know what is going to expected of the company that you decide to move ahead with.
Contact the corporate training team at TrainingFolks today and get started with our Salesforce experts. Our team can provide you with a customized approach that will bring you the user adoption rates that you want to achieve and help your employees truly understand how to use the platform for their specific needs.