Hacks, habits and helpful hints the admins guide to steering a successful salesforce ship

HABITS, HACKS, AND HELPFUL HINTSThe admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship... The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 3This guide is organized for our

HABITS, HACKS, AND HELPFUL HINTS

The admin’s guide to steering a

successful Salesforce ship

Salesforce can be the backbone to your

organization and its infrastructure, but like any

great ship, it needs an experienced captain

This means you, mighty Salesforce Admin, have

more potential impact than ever You not only

steer this massive ship, but you keep it afloat,

take it to new places, and bring your organization

and its employees along for the journey

Yes, perils abound: Adoption woes The sea of

budget blues A mountain of information to

absorb Pirate attacks Have no fear, we’re here to

help you overcome these issues so you can stake

your claim as office captain

Steer your Salesforce ship toward CRM Adoption

Island, the Education Passage, and the Big

Mountain of Company Growth

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 3

This guide is organized for our fearless captains

Captain’s Daily Habits Captain’s Weekly Habits Captain’s Monthly Habits Captain’s Quarterly Habits Captain’s Yearly Habits

CAPTAIN’S DAILY HABITS

Talk to your shipmates

Write these tips down in your captain’s journal and use

them every single day They’re all about engaging and

interacting with your users, to help them improve their

day-to-day Salesforce adventures.

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 5

Watch, learn, teach

The best way to learn how Salesforce is being used in your

office is pretty straightforward: Lean in and say, “Ahoy

Matey!” Ask them how it’s going Give them tips See if

they have questions for you Oftentimes, your users have

questions; however, they don’t take time to ask Take your

expertise to them.

DAILY HABITS

Be a social leader

Someone needs to be at the Salesforce helm,

so you won’t always be able to walk the deck

Instead, set up a Chatter group for Salesforce

users, and make yourself a virtual resource

But you’re not the only resource: Every user in

your office has Salesforce knowledge and tips

to share If you get your users in the habit

of using Chatter as a socially-driven resource,

they’ll start helping each other It’s like creating

a bunch of little captains to help solve

problems, which will give you more time

to focus on your Salesforce vessel

Use Quick Actions to allow users to submit feedback and log cases.

Hack

DAILY HABITS

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 7

CAPTAIN’S WEEKLY HABITS

There’s a lot to be

learned, so explore!

Focus on upping your own Salesforce

knowledge on a weekly basis (which

spreads to your users) There’s much

to learn out in these wide open waters,

so grab that spyglass telescope and be

a knowledge seeker.

Download the AppExchange Dashboard pack.

Hack

Download the AppExchange Dashboard pack.

to learn and get better at your job When you study solutions, you start to develop an eye for spotting issues in your own org

It’s inspiring! Next thing you know, you’ll start recognizing areas where your Salesforce ship’s prow and port can improve

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 9

WEEKLY HABITS

Belay there!

Explore the Salesforce Community

The social-savvy crew of Salesforce experts and evangelists have created a wealth of resources

that you absolutely cannot lose at sea You owe it to yourself and your users to keep these tools

on board

Here are some ways to stay up-to-the-minute on all the latest apps and AppExchange news:

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The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 11

CAPTAIN’S MONTHLY HABITS

Communicate big ideas with those around you

All of your new daily and weekly habits come into play in a big way on a monthly basis

Without all the knowledge gained day-to-day from brain exercises, you might as well call

yourself a landlubber.

MONTHLY HABITS

Connect with your mates

About once a month, it’s time for a gut check with

your mates, or internal stakeholders In other words,

talk to the team managers using Salesforce Take time

to sit down and ask how it’s going in their department

Come prepared with ideas on how to improve their

processes (If you’ve been visiting the AppExchange

and other resources, you should have plenty.)

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 13

All hands hoay!

“All hands hoay” means making time for all of your stakeholders to come

together once a month for governance This is when you all set the forward path,

as a Salesforce ship crew One of the beauties of Salesforce is how well it

works across departments, so it makes sense that stakeholders and leadership

have the opportunity to discuss Salesforce-related initiatives together.

MONTHLY HABITS

Me hearties!

Share with the Salesforce

Admin Community

From stories of new apps to stories

of life at sea, the information in the

Salesforce Admin community is there

to share the latest app tales Give the

world your tips and tricks in an admin

group Does one of your users make

you say “Yo ho ho!” as a result of your

help? Share the success story not only

in your internal Chatter group, but

with other admins out there

RELATED TIP:

Don’t be afraid of uncharted waters

To get even more involved and learn new things, travel to a Salesforce Admin group at least three

or four times a year, and present something to the group Public speaking is nerve-racking for a lot

of us, but it’s a great skill for your arsenal User group meetings let you compare your org’s progress to other orgs, so you can see how it stacks up

MONTHLY HABITS

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 15

CAPTAIN’S QUARTERLY HABITS

Focus your efforts

Our quarterly habits are all about running a tight ship We get it It’s really easy to get caught up

in the day-to-day, but it’s incredibly important

to block off some time to tidy up and do some

prepping for the future.

QUARTERLY HABITS

New releases — whether seasonal updates from Salesforce or an app implementation from you — can be ugly as a scallywag if you’re not prepared It can require a lot of reading, but you need to study those Salesforce release notes and communicate the most relevant changes to the users who are depending on you That goes for your internal changes as well Always test internal changes in your sandbox and then demo them to your users You can do demos

live or via a video posted in your Chatter user group.

New releases P L A N FO R

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 17

Hot product tip

Tame Your Release Notes Eat and Delete

1 Print out new Salesforce release notes

2 Mark new features that are automatically turned ON, so you know you need to take action

3 Mark stuff that can be turned

ON in another color Evaluate with stakeholders and your team if you think it will support your users

Schedule time to meet with groups

of your users, give them lunch, and

go through report folders to see what is and isn’t being used If it’s not being used, throw it overboard (a.k.a archive it)

Beyond your crew, mates, and stakeholders, go up the

ladder and meet with your company’s high-level decision

makers, such as C-level executives Get key insights on the

company’s overall direction, such as planned increases in

headcount, changes in product offerings, or new pirate hats

Also ask if there’s anything you can do to help or share your

Salesforce-related, big-picture ideas.

QUARTERLY HABITS

Shipowners

M E E T W I T H

The admin’s guide to steering a successful Salesforce ship 19

CAPTAIN’S YEARLY HABITS

Despite doing your best to keep users up to speed, some things can slip through the cracks Interestingly enough, one of the things that slip is knowledge of the basics It may have been several years since some users were trained on how to use Salesforce We all forget stuff, so retrain them

You’ll be surprised how many “Aye!” and “Arr!” and “Oh wow! I didn’t know I could do that!” moments they’ll have

Run Salesforce refresher training for crewmembers

YEARLY HABITS

Review and update your Salesforce Help Text

The Hover and Discover feature can be really helpful to

users, so you should make sure what they’re discovering

is current and relevant.

Create an app to track how long each user has been trained If you’re a new admin, it’s a great way to get you into building your own apps

Salesforce certifications aren’t just about showing what you know or going for

a raise It’s also about how your users, stakeholders, managers, and other crew members feel about you And it’s about how YOU feel about you It instills confidence in your ability to get the job done Certifications say that you’re passionate about your job, you’ve got what it takes, and that there is smooth sailing ahead.

Bottom line: certifications are undisputed proof that you rock, and give

stay up-to-date on all of the latest apps.

Get certified!