The Salesforce Champion – The Key to a Successful Implementation

In our latest blog, Craig Coates – Senior Salesforce Consultant here at Bluewave, gives an overview of the benefits of Salesforce Champions. This includes the importance of champions on a project, as well as how they can represent the user, generate enthusiasm, and smooth out concerns, leading the way to a successful implementation.

Within any tech implementation, there are multiple roles that are integral to success, this isn’t something that’s exclusive to Salesforce technology, but that’s what our focus will be today, for obvious reasons. Within a Salesforce implementation, each of the different parties involved has their own role to play; from Executive Sponsor, to Project Lead, to Subject Matter Expert. However, there is another role, which is often overlooked, that can bring enormous benefit to any project: the Salesforce Champion.

What is a Salesforce Champion?

The Salesforce Champion can be any individual involved within the project, whether they’re part of the leadership team or not, who is passionate about the success of the Salesforce implementation being carried out. Their role is to advocate for the project, be excited about what benefits Salesforce technology will bring to their organisation’s future, and to share that excitement with their colleagues. They are the vanguard of adoption, increasing awareness around the business, answering questions about what new features and benefits the system will bring, and more. The Salesforce Champion is also there to give reassurance to any users who may not feel represented within the project and to ensure that all valid view points are given due consideration.

User Adoption is Key to a Successful Implementation

With any new project, one of the key determining factors for success is user adoption. Without a good adoption rate, a business may feel they aren’t enjoying the best ROI for their new system. The Salesforce Champion is the ‘friendly face’ of the project and is best placed to placate any worries or tensions as they are happening. At Bluewave, we know communication is key, and it’s useful to have that Champion in place, communicating with users and stakeholders throughout the implementation process and encouraging user adoption later on down the line. Without that friendly face, front-end users may feel as though they aren’t being considered, or that there isn’t someone approachable to raise concerns with. All this can make users unhappy and cause fundamental issues when it comes to adoption.

The wellbeing of our users is crucial in the success of any project and having a Salesforce Champion in place demonstrates that this is being taken seriously. Whether there is a single Salesforce Champion, or multiple Champions in place, it’s their role to help bring users along the implementation journey, keep them abreast of any potential changes that may impact them, and gently ease them into the new world that awaits them. By feeling a part of the change which is taking place, users are much more likely to be receptive to change, something that will only make things easier when it comes to user training and adoption.

Global Champions

Salesforce Champions will also play a pivotal role in implementations for organisations which cover a large geography, different cultures, and perhaps most importantly, different languages. For instance, a pan-European implementation would benefit from a Champion in each market who can provide invaluable local knowledge and help to tailor the message so it is more suitable for that particular audience. This is just one example of how a Salesforce Champion can smooth the way for any implementation and increase the potential in terms of adoption and ROI.

“I have worked on a number of multinational projects, both with and without Salesforce Champions and the difference is noticeable. In one particular instance, an implementation was expected to be particularly challenging due to the country it was being delivered in and how they operate, compared to other neighbouring countries. We relied heavily on local Champions to help us engage with the teams involved and to ensure their voices were heard. The end result was a successful implementation with major business process updates, something that had never been achieved before.” – Craig Coates, Senior Salesforce Consultant at Bluewave

Salesforce Champions are crucial to the work we do here at Bluewave. We work with them, we train them, and our experts often embody the role ourselves through The Bluewave Way – our delivery success methodology. Our status as a Platinum Salesforce Partner means we are embedded deep within the Salesforce ecosystem and adhere to Best Practice standards when interacting with customers. If you’d like to know more about our bespoke offerings, or our collaborative process, check out What We Do, or read our Case Studies.

Bluewave utilises Salesforce-powered technology to guarantee improved customer experience for our clients. If you’d like to know more about how our experts facilitate secure digital transformations for organisations in the public and private sectors, please contact us today.