Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re talking to (drumroll) Mike Gerholdt! The Original ButtonClick Admin is back to talk about SABWA (Salesforce Administration By Walking Around) and the power of peer pressure.
More about this Insights session: Why SABWA helps you get into the world and make the connections you need to drive adoption.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Mike Gerholdt and Gillian Bruce.
SABWha?
Mike coined the term “SABWA,” which stands for Salesforce Administration By Walking Around. When he was preparing for a Dreamforce presentation in 2012 with Jared Miller, they created a concept of making the rounds to see how your users are doing but, at the time, they didn’t quite have a catchy way to sum it all up. When they realized that since everything’s an acronym, they figured they might as well hop on the bandwagon—and SABWA was born.
For Gillian, SABWA comes up all the time when she’s talking with users about best practices. Ultimately, if you want to be an Awesome Admin, you need to really understand how your users work. This is especially key if you want to see results with adoption.
Using SABWA to drive adoption.
The idea behind SABWA is to avoid that “SNL relationship” where you’re an IT guy who shows up out of nowhere and makes everyone’s lives harder. Instead of keeping hidden behind the curtain, SABWA is about getting out there, meeting with your users, seeing how they do things, and becoming a part of their workspace.
“As an Admin, you always see the perfect scenario,” Mike says, “but then you roll it out to your users and wonder why it isn’t adopted.” What you’re not realizing is that everyone’s workspace is different, and your new workflow isn’t so effective when there’s two phones ringing at once and a bunch of cases to manage.
It’s also about establishing a personal relationship with your users. They know you’re a resource that they can engage with, rather than just a picture of someone’s head that posts something to Chatter every now and again.
Why SABWA is great for your career.
SABWA also helps you become a better business analyst, which gives you valuable experience you can use to help grow your career. “It allows you spend one minute in sales and the next minute in service,” Mike says, “and that lets you identify gaps that can help connect more of your business together.”
In-person is the best, and even though Mike is famous for intentionally leaving an empty seat in the audience so he can “pop in” and have coffee with someone to demonstrate SABWA, it’s best to set up a 15-minute session in advance so you’re not showing up at a busy time. If you’re remote, you can still take advantage of screen share and chat to get a sense of how your team goes about its business.
To strategize, it’s a good idea to sit down with the manager or stakeholder and identify who the “power users” are: the reps who handle the most cases or the employees that have been around the longest. At the same time, Mike says, “You want both ends of the spectrum,” so you also want to see if you can get some time with new people who are maybe still learning the ropes.
How SABWA creates the good kind of peer pressure.
When it comes to driving adoption, peer pressure is a powerful tool to be able to get things moving. “Besides learning about users, SABWA also builds an internal army of advocates,” Mike says, “Look for the users that are asking questions a lot to identify who is super passionate.” You can use training sessions with these users to get them excited about helping the other members of their team use new features. This creates that valuable peer pressure that helps get you over the tipping point with adoption.
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