A key element of any business is its sales team. It is what makes the money. Without it, there is no revenue and no business. How do you manage your sales team? How can you run a sales team that is successful?

Salesforce has been around since 1995 and continues to evolve. Salesforce DX is the latest evolution in the sales force automation platform. It offers new features that make it easier to develop faster.

To maximize ROI (return on investment), sales professionals must be trained in new ways.

You can find out everything you need about best practices in salesforce development here. Our quick guide will help you to increase your revenue and reduce costs by customizing wisely.

These seven best practices for Salesforce should be followed by every organization

Salesforce best practices are a continuous process. However, once you have the right people and know where to find them, you will be better equipped to use Salesforce to improve your products and customer experiences.

These are seven best practices that you can follow, whether you’re just starting with Salesforce or looking to make the most of your Salesforce investment.

1. Know your internal processes before you start a project.

Our teams recommend that you fully understand your workflow and process before installing any new features or tools.

You must fully understand the user’s journey from the first to the last step.

What next?

What causes the following event?

Do you need an executive to approve it?

If we don’t know how to automate, or what to produce, then we won’t be able to know what to automate.

No matter if you are an established org or just starting with Salesforce, it is essential to continue to learn about and develop the processes of your team, as well as how technology can help.

2. Proper data hygiene

If you don’t have a clear approach, you risk creating a difficult or unmanageable new system for your team.

This is especially true when you combine data from multiple sources. Salesforce will be a valuable tool for your team if data hygiene and governance are in place. For example, you might have multiple databases that contain customer names.

Salesforce is meant to be the single source of truth for an organization, but without the right data, you won’t get the best out of your investment. Salesforce offers data picklists and naming conventions that can help you keep your data clean.

To ensure your reporting runs smoothly, however, you need to make sure your data entry is consistent. This is an ongoing effort, regardless of where you are in your Salesforce journey.

3. Determine who will be responsible for the product.

Salesforce should be considered a single source of truth. Your company should also have one point of contact that “owns” Salesforce. Salesforce is a complex piece of software that requires constant updates. Your team must know where to go to get help and who to contact for questions.

It could be a Salesforce administrator but it could also be a Salesforce champion for your company.

It’s not about technical skills, but more about mindshare and managing projects, especially when you’re starting a Salesforce implementation.

A single point of contact is needed to keep the project on track. They must also be trusted by the business to communicate daily with SMEs and stakeholders.

It is a best practice. However, it does not have to be an in-house resource. Our managed services team assists clients new to Salesforce in getting up to speed as they search for the right person to hire.

Silverline can manage your Salesforce instance from start to finish, no matter if you need help implementing new features or keeping up with all the changes that are coming.

4. Avoid the “shiny object syndrome” when it comes to new features.

Salesforce is configurable so it is easy to get lost in all the bells and whistles. Even if you have a well-established company, we recommend that you use regular Salesforce features whenever possible.

They are also easier to maintain and troubleshoot.

Only write Custom Objects when necessary to support your process (see best practice #1), and always keep the user’s needs in mind.

How many times have there been times when you needed to fill out an online form, or call to make a booking for a service appointment, that you had to go through hoops?

Your user flow should not contain unnecessary steps. It’s a good idea if you plan to use certain data.

It’s best to think about whether it’s just a nice feature or if you are adding it to your flow to make it more exciting. Salesforce should be used to benefit your company and its users.

5. Check that everything works properly. Then, test it again.

Salesforce, as with any piece of software, doesn’t always work the way it should.

Salesforce developers should include testing in their development processes for new and existing features. You can easily make connections break between new products, operating systems, and data sources if you don’t monitor the tool.

Testing is often done in a rush by many firms. This is understandable as you want to move your project forward as quickly as possible.

New features must be tested thoroughly in a Sandbox environment before going live. This is especially true if they involve sensitive customer information, mission-critical data, or revenue numbers.

6. Create a strategy for change management.

People are resistant to change. It is one of our most distinguishing characteristics as humans. Half of our success is attributed to preparing the technology for people and half to preparing people for technology.

Change management is crucial, regardless of whether you are working on Salesforce projects or using Salesforce generally.

Your employees should be allowed to learn new features and refresher sessions throughout each year. It’s possible that some members of your team don’t get the Salesforce experience.

Perhaps they know how to do a few things in their current job but don’t know how to use advanced reporting features.

It is useless if Salesforce is not used.

You will need to create a change management plan if you are launching a new feature within four weeks. This will ensure that your team is well-informed, understands it, and reaps all the rewards of the hard work behind the scenes.

To create a welcoming and pleasant Salesforce environment, it is important to have champions and high-ranking stakeholders on your team.

7. Create a list of top Salesforce resources.

As you learn more about Salesforce updates, your Salesforce strategy will be adjusted wisely and effectively. Salesforce releases new updates regularly throughout each year.

Trailhead allows you to find out about the latest Salesforce releases right from your Salesforce instance.

An overview of each module’s updates will be provided, as well as supplementary materials. This will allow you to see exactly what has changed. Earn points to earn badges!

There are many resources online that can help you if you feel overwhelmed or confused by the Salesforce ecosystem. However, some resources are better than others.

Bonus Tip

Get started with a mobile strategy.

Every year, the number of mobile users grows exponentially.

Your sales team may not be focusing on a digital strategy if they aren’t implementing one. This could lead to missed opportunities to increase sales by better-serving customers and closing more deals.

Mobile apps should be optimized for user experience. Sales force automation is no exception. You can ensure that sales staff members have instant access to the information they need.

These are great resources to learn best practices for salespeople:

Stay connected with Salesforce Trailblazers through the Salesforce Trailblazer Community.

This Salesforce for Dummies Cheatsheet can be saved to your favorites so you can brush up or learn new skills.

If you are a voracious reader, David Taber’s Salesforce.com Secrets to Success: Best Practices For Growth and Profitability is a great resource.

Salesforce Consulting Partners are knowledgeable and entertaining. Keep in touch with us.

Salesforce’s blog is the best place to find out about it. You will find industry advice, release information, and unique use cases posted regularly.

These blogs often include a video about each release, a preview, and release notes. This means that no matter your learning style, you will be covered. Salesforce experts are the best place to learn about updates and best practices.

Salesforce best practices

Salesforce Shield and native Salesforce products offer a variety of security features. It is up to the customer, however, to make the most out of these features. These are the top security tips that experts recommend you follow:

Enable IP restriction for user logins to reduce the risk of unauthorized access in case of compromised accounts.

Multi-factor authentication can be used to reduce the risk of unintentional access.

Organization-wide sharing rules should be as restrictive as possible while allowing for typical business functions. You can also extend access beyond the organizational-wide sharing rules by using role hierarchies and sharing practices.

Secure passwords must contain at least 8 characters, which can include numbers, symbols, and uppercase letters.

Limit the number of unsuccessful login attempts to 3-5

Allow password resets using secret answers that are obfuscated.

If a session timeout occurs force a log-in again but gives the session timeout warning window a chance to expire.

Your Salesforce users should not become annoyed by the session timeout.

Disable caching and autocomplete on the login page.

After they are created, passwords for users must expire after 90 days.

Password history should be protected so that the same password cannot be used again until at most 5 different passwords have been used from the last time it was used.

Passwords should not contain the word “password”

You should create a new tenant secret every day if you use platform encryption. This will generate a new encryption key.

Before discarding encryption keys, ensure all data encrypted with the key has been decoded.

Re-encrypt any encrypted data that is being used with old keys.

Clickjack protection should be enabled on Customer Visualforce pages that have standard headers.

Visualforce customer pages have no headers