"Does Salesforce.com actually work?" That is what some of your resistant users are asking themselves. They also ask questions like, "Why do I need to enter all of this information?" or "Things were working just fine - why change?"
As a Trainer and an Admin, you've been put in charge of answering these kinds of objections. The tricky part is that many of your users don't actually ask these questions out loud - most just don't sign in or update data.
So, how can we get everybody to "dance?"
You Can't Force Them
One of my favorite sessions at Dreamforce 15 featured the Chief Technology Officer at MaidPro, Jeff Wechsler. He shared how MaidPro successfully rolled out Salesforce to their organization, not by using a big stick, but by being patient, persuasive, and using marketing tactics.
MaidPro is a franchise business, and they have Franchisees all over the country. Jeff was responsible for switching his sales team and franchisees from their old system to Salesforce.com. Usually, organizations push new systems out regardless of whether users want a new system or not (and they suffer from lack of user adoption because of it) - but Jeff didn't want to demand that everybody use Salesforce.com against their will. He was willing to try a different tactic.
Jeff wanted franchisees to ask, "Can we use the new system?" And he had a plan for how he was going to accomplish that.
First, he persuaded his sales team to begin using Salesforce.com and worked with them until they were experiencing a lot of success with the new system. Then, he shared that success with other franchisees.
Second, when MaidPro had a new Franchisee sign up, the Franchisee didn't know an old system existed - so they were given Salesforce.com right from the start. Soon, the new Franchisees were experiencing a lot of success with the new system, and again, MaidPro shared their success with other franchisees in the business.
Promote Your First Followers
This principle is clearly seen in Derek Sivers TED talk, where he shares a video of a shirtless, dancing guy on a hill. At first, the guy looks a little crazy. But then, something happens - he gets one follower. And the shirtless, dancing guy treats the first follower as an equal, and the two of them are seen by everybody to be having a pretty good time.
And then, a third person joins in. Not particularly talented, and not very intimidating - in fact, he almost gives off the impression that anybody can do these dancing moves and have a good time.
Soon, a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh... eventually a whole crowd joins in the fun.
Derek points out that the shirtless, dancing guy is a nut - until he gets a follower. "The first follower transforms the lone nut into a leader," and can help start a movement. And while the shirtless, dancing guy is later thought of as being the leader, it is actually the first followers who gave the movement some traction.
Followers Beget Followers
Jeff's brilliance with MaidPro's Salesforce.com rollout was that he didn't force anybody to "dance" - he didn't say, "I'm the CTO and you will accept everything I give you!"
He was like the shirtless dancer who started to move (although he didn't actually dance for us at Dreamforce), and convinced at least one follower to join in. Once he had a follower (or two or three), he made sure others saw their success. Jeff knew that good followers were the ones others would follow - so he found them, nurtured them, and made sure their success was real and visible.
It worked. Eventually, Franchisees were asking how they could begin using the new system because they wanted to experience the same kind of benefits and success that others were experiencing.
Marketing Salesforce.com to Your Users
Sometimes we assume that people aren't acting a certain way because they don't know how - so we push formal training sessions and mandate everybody be compliant. And while knowing how is critical, a lack of knowing the why or "what's in it for them" can also be a barrier to change.
So, how can you persuade your organization to adopt Salesforce.com? One idea is to do what Jeff from MaidPro did - find a few followers, help them be successful, and then promote their story like marketers promote a product or a brand. Send emails out about how a team is using a new feature to win deals, show a video testimonial of an ordinary salesperson providing a better customer experience, have a manager share how he's able to help his salespeople do more because of his visibility into their pipeline.
When you kick off the next training, start with why this new feature/app/platform is being rolled out - what was the pain being felt? Then share a story of a user's success. You don't need to be flashy and you don't need to be markety - you just need to be honest, and go about it in a way that other followers feel like they can do it, too.
