6 Ways Salesforce Administrators Can Deliver Business Value

“What is business value?” To me, it’s being described as a ‘wizard’ by my Salesforce users and making their lives easier every day by being an #AwesomeAdmin. However, it’s not unusual to hear from people within a company that they don’t actually understand what a Salesforce Administrator does, or how exactly they add value to the business. So, I decided to put this “admin wizardry” into words and create an easy structure to help you deliver insane amounts of value for your organization as a Salesforce Admin.

After racking my brain for a long, long time, I realized it ultimately comes down to understanding the vision of the business and championing solutions that achieve the goals of the business.

Here are six ways that you — as a Salesforce Admin — can deliver business value.

1. Align your goals to the values and mission of the organization

This is all about ensuring that the work you do gives you a sense of meaning and purpose. By understanding the values and mission of your organization, you will gain a better understanding of where you fit in the bigger picture. This ultimately gives you confidence that each project you work on helps the organization achieve its mission. When you can see the direction of your organization, it makes it easier to define your own work-related goals and tailor them to work toward the common mission.
This is all about ensuring that the work you do gives you a sense of meaning and purpose. By understanding the values and mission of your organization, you will gain a better understanding of where you fit into the bigger picture. This ultimately gives you confidence that each project you are working on aids the organization to achieve their mission. When you can see the direction of your organization, it makes it easier to define your own work related goals and tailor these to work towards the common mission.

2. Have a vision

When assessing a business need or problem, aim to create solutions that are built to support business growth or long-term sustainability — not just to fix the here and now. Knowing the right questions to ask is crucial to achieving a successful outcome. The most common question a Salesforce Admin needs to ask is “why?” — and it’s important to be confident enough to ask it. This will give insight into the user’s request and, ultimately, their end goal. Having a long-term vision for a solution will be recognized by the business as proper planning, and celebrated.

3. Communicate, communicate, communicate

I can’t stress enough the need to communicate. Whether you’re talking to an executive or your end users, clear communication is of utmost importance. I recommend involving end users at the very beginning of, as well as throughout, a project. This helps you understand their scope and get their input on a solution, and allows them to be part of the process. You will see much better user adoption if your users feel a sense of ownership on a project. Also, remember that communication is not only verbal but also about documentation. Having clear documentation of your production org will be a source of truth that anyone can refer to and will provide a massive benefit to the organization as it grows by on-boarding new staff. Trust me: A well-documented org is one of the most valuable things you can have as a Salesforce Admin!

4. Bring it all to life

As a Salesforce Admin, it’s important that you’re involved in any Salesforce project from start to finish, even if an external partner has been brought on board to assist. When you work on a project, you will be better able to understand what’s “under the hood” and better prepared to support the solution internally going forward. It may also give you an opportunity to skill up if the new project requires using a new product — a further benefit to both yourself and your business.

5. Prioritize user adoption

The key to a successful implementation or new feature rollout is high rates of user adoption. This can be a tedious task for many but can be done well with the right techniques. Plan for all types of learning styles so that users get an opportunity to learn in a way that works for them. The three techniques I use are:

i. Campfires: Hold a campfire virtually or in person, and give users an end-to-end walk-through of Salesforce features and functionality. This caters to users who learn by doing. To hear more about Campfires ⛺?, listen to this episode of the Salesforce Admin Podcast.
ii. How-to videos: Record a how-to video that explains the new feature. This assists users who are time-poor, travel a lot, or perhaps prefer to learn at their own pace.
iii. Written instructions: Create documentation or a written walk-through of the process. This caters to those who prefer to read instructions for a process.

All involved will thank you for the time you took to cater to everyone — and no one can say they weren’t aware of the release!

6. Invest time in Trailhead — for yourself and your users

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Trailhead! There are so many different hands-on learning areas on Trailhead — everything from the “Value of Sleep” to “Leadership for Executives.” If you and your users are motivated to learn and are continuously developing new skills, it’s better for the business that will ultimately receive the benefit from your continued professional development. For example, your business might be introducing Salesforce CPQ Billing for their financial solution; this is a perfect opportunity to jump on Trailhead and follow the trails toward becoming a CPQ specialist.

Delivering business value and being able to communicate this value in a meaningful way to your users and executives is one of the best ways you can set yourself up for success as a Salesforce Admin. Investing time in yourself, your company, and your users goes a long way — so be proud of the work you’re doing, and show off your #AwesomeAdmin skills. You got this!