"Why Salesforce Implementations Fail in Growing Companies" - The Fast Slow Motion Podcast - Ep 063

Eric Housh sits down with David Flick, Principal Account Executive at Fast Slow Motion, to unpack why so many Salesforce implementations fall short and what it actually takes to get them right. The tension is rarely technical. It's the disconnect between what leaders expect when they buy the platform and what it takes to make it work.

David and Eric cover the patterns that cause implementations to struggle, including process gaps, poor adoption, weak leadership alignment, and governance that disappears once the partner leaves. They also lay out what successful implementations share: a phased approach, an MVP mindset, and a commitment to treating Salesforce as a living system rather than a one-time project.

For the full episode video, show notes, and related resources, visit: https://loom.ly/CScZ0Ws

Fast Slow Motion has a new book out that's all about how to build a business you love while enjoying your life. To get a FREE copy of "The Scalable Business Framework," learn more: https://loom.ly/iAfjzpw

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Again, one of the things that that we see commonly is, you know, well, Salesforce was was bought and stood up five years ago, and leaderships changed maybe once or twice, and people started to get away from it from using Salesforce. We bought this new ERP or this accounting system, but now that sits outside of Salesforce. So right away, we're creating again a pro an environment where we've got a swivel chair. So without that, that governance, we're gonna we're just gonna have unhealthy scalability. In fact, we probably won't be able to scale.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

This podcast is brought to you by Fast Slow Motion, a team of expert consultants that have helped thousands of growing businesses build scalable systems on the HubSpot and Salesforce platforms. To learn more, visit www.fastslowmotion.com. Welcome to the Fast Slow Motion Podcast, where we discuss strategies, ideas, and insights about how to build a business you love while enjoying your life. I'm your host, Eric Hush, and today we're diving into a topic that a lot of growing companies run into once they decide to implement a CRM like Salesforce. The expectation at the onset of these projects is usually really high. Leaders hope the platforms will bring visibility, alignment, and structure to the business, but a lot of implementations just don't quite deliver the results that leaders expect. Projects stall, teams struggle with adoption, and leaders start wondering why the system didn't fix the problems like they thought it would. So today we're going to zoom in there. We're going to talk about why Salesforce implementations fail in growing companies and what separates the ones that actually drive real operational results. To help us explore that, I'm super excited to introduce my very good friend, David Flick, who is a principal account executive at FSM. David works closely with organizations implementing and evolving Salesforce environments, and he's seen a lot, a lot of the patterns that can cause implementations to struggle and the conditions that allow them to succeed. David, great to have you on the show, man.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

No, thank you. It's my pleasure. It's an honor to be here. I appreciate um appreciate you guys making time for me.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Absolutely. Well, let's talk about when companies decide to implement Salesforce, right? They're usually hoping that that decision, that the platform will bring clarity and structure to the business, but reality doesn't always match that expectation. Let's let's talk about that expectation. When they decide to implement something like Salesforce, what are they hoping the platform will do to them? What expectations are leaders usually bringing into that decision?

SPEAKER_00 2:45

That's a great question. Uh generally speaking, most companies that we work with are hoping that that Salesforce will kind of act as this, as this growth engine, right, rather than uh than an administrative tool. Um they want to consolidate data, consolidate process, really move away from you know these MacGyvered spreadsheets, if you will, uh that siloed data, gain some visibility, right? You can't can't manage what you can't measure. Um we hear this all the time. Create that single source of truth. And then, you know, automate efficiency. We want to automate parts of our process. So that's generally what most of our clients want. Now, getting getting to the end of that, actually reaching that outcome, of course, is a journey. It's not a flip of the switch, uh, as you know. Um so I think there's the expectation gap really lies around this preconceived notion that that, hey, I bought Salesforce, so so everything's fixed, right? It's this magic fix. Like that's not the end. That is just the beginning of the journey. You know, that's really the beginning of the journey. So um we we kind of have this this gap between, hey, I bought it, I joined the gym, uh, you know, I I uh bought Salesforce, I bought this piece of technology. So didn't that just fix everything? No, it's it's it's definitely a journey. So that's a I would say that's probably the biggest expectation gap that we run into is the sort of the lack of understanding that there is a process to this. And and if I could take it one step further, I'd say that's probably one of the biggest expectation gaps is I I can get the technology first and then I can build my process. It's gotta be process first. We've got to have the process down so that we can map that into a system like Salesforce.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yes. They they bring those that lack of understanding around the problems with their deeper operational issues, and that can cause problems before the implementation even kicks off.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Very much. There's already problems. That's why they're that's why they're evaluating technology. Uh but again, that expectation gap of, well, I bought Salesforce or I bought this technology. So didn't that solve the problem? It doesn't. Uh the the process first, define your process, then we'll put that, we'll help you build that out in Salesforce, we'll help you define it. Um, but without that process first mentality, if it's a technology first mentality, it's it's likely gonna fail.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

And that's, I think, uh a lot of the value that companies like ours bring into software implementations is we force them to kind of back up, to not think the software is gonna be a silver bullet until we've had the opportunity to really dissect the process and not talk about how it currently works, but really how it should be operating. Um, David, you've seen a lot. You used to work at Salesforce. Uh, you've been with us several years now, you've seen a lot of different types of Salesforce implementations around a lot of different types of organizations. When implementations struggle or when they they fail to deliver the results that leaders expect, what sort of patterns do you see there? We've talked a little bit about the lack of process. What else do you see there?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

No, I appreciate you reminding me of how old I am. Thank you. Um the the reason a lot of the reasons that that they struggle or fail, I they're numerous, but I think probably in my you know, roughly decade of experience. Outside of process first mentality, having that defined process, moving too fast. Again, it's not a magic bullet. It is a process. We get asked this question a lot. When am I done building Salesforce? My answer is usually when are you done paying for your house? You know, even if you've paid off the mortgage, you still got a roof that needs to be replaced, an AC that maybe needs to be replaced. So it's it's really not a flip of the switch. There, there isn't this sort of overnight uh success. In fact, if I dropped a client into a very robust instance of Salesforce or maybe any other technology, I think they would struggle. I think they'd go right back to those spreadsheets uh because you didn't you didn't learn as you went. Jeff White one time challenged me, our CEO challenged me on um on that. And it was uh it was we can't do the homework for them. We can't do the build for them. Uh they've got to, you know, our clients have to be a part of that process. So moving too fast, really thinking, oh, I'm gonna take this big bang approach, and then you're not really adopting as you go. You're you're trying to, you're really trying to go too fast. You may think you know what it is that you want, but ideally, we're operating in an agile or iterative process where we build a little bit, show it to you, say, hey, Eric, does this meet your expectations? You're now more informed. A lot of our clients have never been through a technology implementation or haven't been through one of this magnitude. And so being more informed as we build, it allows us both to get to get closer. There's a lot more mutual collaboration. We can better understand you, you can better understand what the system can do. And therefore we can align on what those requirements and outcomes need to be. I'd say uh a couple others would be um poor data quality. That one's always a struggle. Uh, if we're pulling over junk data, it's kind of like cleaning out your you know, if you you're gonna move from one apartment to the next, take the time to clean that junk out. You don't need that. Pulling over that junk data, again, just just tends to clog up the system. Maybe it's ERP data. Um, who knows? But uh on that note, I would say a lack of integration also uh can drive some uh inconsistencies in the build or struggles in the implementation because you're creating an environment where we're gonna ask the users to do this over here, but then come over here for this and come up here for this. So you almost create siloed data or siloed processes. And and that can be really tough for uh for the end users. We want them to be involved. Involve your users with that. So those would be some of the high, more common rather reasons that implementation struggle for sure, that we that we run into.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

You mentioned a few moments ago adoption. That's another challenge that we hear about a lot. The system technically works, but nobody likes using it. Why does that happen so often? Man, that's a that's a really good question.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Um I think for I think for a lot of reasons. I I think the number one that I've run into, again, is that that lack of user involvement. If I'm gonna ask our sales team to go in and fill out next steps field and and really use the system, I want to know that that they've had an opportunity to weigh in on it, right? That they've they've been able to sort of put their spin on it or their their flair on it. Because at the end of the day, I can build for what I think I want to do and and what the organization wants. But at the end of I'm asking the users to go in and use the tool. They need to be involved in building the process. Otherwise, they're not going to feel ownership. There, there may be uh they may be resistant to change. What is this? It's foreign. I didn't help build this, I'm not familiar with it. You know, another is is insufficient training. You can have this beautifully technically built uh Salesforce system, but if if no one's adopting it, it's just digital paperweight, right? So we we need more than a one-time session. We really need someone internally that's that's that's picking up the mantle, that's leading that charge on the client side to say, hey, this is how our teams learn, this is how we adopt, this is how technology implementations have gone in the past. Um and having that, it's it's really it's important because it'll again allows collaboration from our team and the client side to ensure that their users feel really positive about this. And the last thing I'll say on that as far as adoption is kind of back to that iterative or agile approach. It's build small and check frequently. Build small, get the users involved, get their feedback, and you'll know where you are and how close you are to meeting their expectations and providing value for those end users. Uh that's that's by far the most important piece.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Yeah, we say internally a lot, those that write the plan don't fight the plan. So having those teams materially involved in the design of the system and really taking care at the onset, not to make it super overly complex. You know, let's take a bite of the Apple, let's introduce the technology slowly, let's iterate on that. One thing uh I want to call out too, Flick, that we see a lot is the leaders have to buy in, right? If you're wanting people to move off the spreadsheets and and and have a single source of truth in Salesforce, you've got to consider Salesforce as the source of truth of the business. You've got to go there to answer the questions. And we see a lot of leaders, you know, you know, still going down the hall asking the questions when when the data should be right there in Salesforce. Um let's let's stay on leadership for a moment there because I think it's crucially important in having a successful implementation. A lot of times with growing companies, you know, the leaders wearing several hats, so the tech initiatives sometimes just get delegated down the line. They have leadership approves the investment, but the implementation itself becomes somebody else's responsibility. So from your perspective, what role does leadership alignment play in whether or not a Salesforce implementation is ultimately successful?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

That's a great point. So we talked about how important it is for the end users, right? And that's sort of that bottom-up approach. But absolutely, Eric, exactly what you what you said is is very, very true. You also have to have a top-down approach. So it's got to be bottom-up as well as top-down. The role of leadership is really that executive ownership. It's critical because those those implementations often face kind of a, I would say, sort of a cultural resistance, possibly, depending on on the nature of your company and how things have gone in the past. But leaders have to lead the charge, right? They have to they have to be transparent about why we're doing this, uh, why we're we're we're implementing this change, why we're we're moving to Salesforce. We've got to have someone on the other side, on the client side, again, internally, that's that's really driving that change. Um otherwise, the the project risks become sort of this low priority, and and everyone just thinks, oh, well, someone else has it. We've got to have that ownership. We've got to sort of be the change that we want to see. If our if we're gonna ask our end users to go into Salesforce and put information in, then as you said, it's crazy that someone's gonna come walking down the hall and you're going, it's it's right there in that field. It's in the next step field. Like, let me Google that for you. You know, let me let me build the report and show it to you. Um, but they they really have to be transparent um about their own efforts, how they're adopting the system. And you got to hold your teams accountable to that, to that defined process. So again, we can't can't just just flip a switch. We can't just say, hey, we bought Salesforce and and that's it. If we're gonna expect end users to come in uh and and really adopt the system, we've got to be transparent as leaders about how we're adopting the system, why it's so important, and what is the value? Part of this, you know, the the role of leadership is to is to define the value for those end users. Why should they go through uh and and start using a system like Salesforce?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

So yeah, the success of the platform then has as much to do with alignment, clarity, ownership across the org uh as it does with the actual configuration. We've got to have everybody on the same page. Leadership has to be bought in. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

We've got to we've got to push people to use the system. Uh you've probably, I know you've heard this before, but when I was at Salesforce, uh we've this was a common saying, if it's not in Salesforce, it didn't happen. Right. So if we're not, if if it's not in Salesforce, if we're not using it, um, I get that. It's also got to be the mentality of leadership, right? We've got to hold ourselves accountable and say, hey, as a leader, I didn't put this in Salesforce or I didn't look in Salesforce first, or I didn't build our process or define a process that puts everything sort of in that single source of truth. If that's the idea, is that we want Salesforce to be the single environment where all data flows, all processes contained, then then we've got to sort of lead that charge and be the example of that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

So, David, we've talked about the importance of process clarity at the beginning of an implementation, really asking those questions so that we have uh clarity around that. Uh, one of the things that I think once we have some of these implementations stood up, a thing that often gets overlooked is the ongoing governance and the ongoing updating of the system. A lot of companies treat Salesforce like a one-time implementation project instead of an operational system that should be evolving with a business. You mentioned earlier the roof is going to start leaking, the AC is going to need some repair. From your perspective, what role does governance of the system play in the long-term success of a Salesforce implementation?

SPEAKER_00 16:06

I think that that, Eric, is probably more important than the, maybe more important than the initial uh implementation. I think clients tend to judge how well an implementation went if they're using a partner on how well the implementation went when the partner was there. What we should really be thinking about is how how well did the implementation go when the partner left? How successful were you in in continuing to use the tool and adopting the tool and what sort of value did you get out of it? So from a governance standpoint ongoing, that's you got to have governance around reducing technical debt. We don't want to come in and and you know overly build this thing. Again, one of the things that that we see commonly is, you know, well, Salesforce was was bought and stood up five years ago, and leaderships changed maybe once or twice, and people started to get away from it from using Salesforce. We bought this new ERP or this accounting system, but now that sits outside of Salesforce. So right away we're creating again a pro an environment where we've got a swivel chair. So without that, that governance, we're gonna, we're just gonna have unhealthy scalability. In fact, we probably won't be able to scale as we as we continue to build. Um we've got to have feedback loops. So we've got to know that as we build, um, users can submit issues or or request enhancements. There's always gonna be something to do, right? Your your business changes all the time. You think back to just six years ago uh with COVID, how how drastic the landscape changed, customer expectations change all the time. There's always some new competitor, right, to take a take a uh a share of the pie. And so the the landscape's very dynamic. It's constantly changing. So we've got to ensure that the platform is evolving with the needs of the business and the needs of the uh of the users over time. So I mentioned iterative implementation in the beginning, but it doesn't stop there. We need to think about Salesforce, and again, kind of any other technology. This isn't just uh just bespoke to Salesforce, but treat Salesforce as a living structure, if you will, requires regular stepbacks, asking, okay, is this current process still serving the business? Are we still finding value in this? Uh, should this still be the way that we do things? We sort of need to constantly be doing that, or at least, you know, very often coming up and kind of coming up for air, as I call it, looking around, going, okay, yes, things are going well. Now we can kind of dive back under the hood. But without that ongoing governance and maintenance and the mentality that that's really what it takes to be successful and scale this solution, you you just you can have the best initial implementation. The first year is going great, uh, but the longer you use it and the further you get away from that vision and that governance, the, the, the worse off your business is going to be. You'll, you'll, adoptional suffer. And suddenly you're paying for a system that, you know, isn't isn't really worth it at that point. The ROI becomes minute.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Let's um let's talk about some things that companies do right when when it comes to Salesforce implementations. You've seen a lot. Obviously, we we tend to understand that we're experts at this sort of works. We've seen a lot of really good implementations that work really well for our business clients. Um, you know, what once Salesforce is configured the right way, the the important data is surfaced, the team is using it, we have operational clarity. What are some of the commonalities? Those companies that tend to get it right, and we've talked about some of these concepts today. What are the ingredients uh those companies tend to do well in terms of Salesforce implementations?

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah, it's I think number one is that phased approach. What I mean by that to be more specific and not use kind of buzzwords, but build an MVP. Build your minimum viable product first. Then you can start to layer on complexity once you have a need to. That's that's probably one of the most successful um endeavors a company can can can embark on is building that MVP and then iterating from there. Don't get over your skis. Don't think you know exactly what it is that you need today or what your users want out of the system. But take that phased approach, start with your MVP and you become get that foundation really strong. Then you don't necessarily have to worry about the foundation. Now you can, now you can start to enhance. And you again, you can't create that feedback loop that we talked about. I think it's also standardization. We need to enforce process, uh, sales methodology, project management, whatever the sit we have in the system, let's standardize that process kind of throughout the entire organization, throughout everyone that's using, uh, that's using Salesforce. And then shared visibility, really creating that single pane of glass. So all departments can come in, can collaborate on these projects, involve your team, involve the team. We don't want too many cooks in the kitchen, as they say, but we don't build in a vacuum, right? If I'm if I'm building in a vacuum, I'm I'm gonna build what I think Eric wants, not what Eric told me that he wants. And and the best way for you to know what you want, if you don't know what you want, is to start with that MVP, really uh get develop an understanding of what Salesforce can do, how you're gonna use it, uh, where the value lies, and then continuing to tweak uh as you go. But those are those are probably the top three sort of successful indicators, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

It's that crawl, walk, run approach that we talk about often when we're doing new implementations, getting people uh understanding that we're going to start somewhere, we're going to evolve from there. For organizations that do it the right way, that have successful implementations. What sort of impact do you see Salesforce begin to have inside the business?

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Really, uh we talked about standardization, standardizing process within Salesforce. Everyone starts to adopt. What you really get a lot of, and I think this gets missed. We don't, we probably don't talk about this enough, but it gives visibility, it gives structure to say, um, I'll use a term, it it democratizes process, right? So that institutions. Institutional knowledge, your best reps aren't aren't just stuck with institutional knowledge. Everyone has access to the process. So I think standardizing that process really drives a ton of value for the users and therefore for the organization, reducing, sort of reducing swivel chair, reducing frustration on the end users on their experience, if they're having to go to five or six or seven different different tabs or different tools, that that can be frustrating. So that that's really impactful if you can bring everyone in uh into Salesforce and everyone can kind of you know use it effectively, and we all share, share data. Again, I think that's on the end user side, but from a leadership standpoint, that's incredibly impactful too. You we we said this earlier, you can't you can't manage what you can't measure. And so having everything in Salesforce, data follows process. So get your data in, uh sorry, get your process in, and data's gonna follow that. Uh, so everyone benefits when when when we're using Salesforce, when everyone's in Salesforce, we have that standardized process. We all have access to the data, at least the data that we should have access to, maybe not, give everyone access to everything. But it really allows, allows visibility into uh high-performing reps and and their process, and again, kind of democratizes that, spreads it out so that we're we're not as reliant on institutional knowledge. We can share all of that. And then your your sales teams, or or it doesn't have to be sales teams, could be customer service teams, right? Salesforce is used uh in a myriad of different ways, but under my sales lens, that's how I look at it, is now I can see what really high performing reps are doing. Other reps can see that, and then we can we can start to uh start to to create a scalable, repeatable process around that.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

I'm imagining there's some business leaders out there in our audience listening that may be in the middle of an implementation that feels like it's gone a little sideways. So, what advice would you give those listeners and where do they need to start looking to get things moving in the right direction?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Yeah, I'm gonna sound like a uh a broken record here, but but process. Consult before you configure, right? If we see a poor, a poor process, call it out, let's fix it before we build it in Salesforce. You can model your process in Salesforce, you can model it in spreadsheets, but just have a process, right? Have a defined process that everyone can follow, uh, at least to start. And then we can we can pull that in. So consultation before configuration. We're very big on that. I think you know good partners measure, measure twice, cut once. We probably measure three times and cut once. Uh, and that's that's I mean, that's part of the recipe for our success. It's why we're so, you know, we're so successful, we're so good at what we do, and and helping our clients be successful. I would also say clean your data. You know, start start with the undertaking of data cleanup. Your data doesn't have to be pristine, but it is much easier to clean data outside of Salesforce or any other system than it is to try and do it inside the system. So start that as early as possible. It's it's always gonna be harder than you think. And at the end of the day, we advise our clients, you guys know your data better than we do, right? So you're you're you're gonna, I'll save you some money here by telling you that if you clean up your data first, because you know your data better, you know, someone else to go clean up your data, they're probably gonna get it wrong and it's probably gonna be more expensive. They're not gonna know what you want to keep, what you don't want to keep, um, et cetera. So, you know, take that effort on yourself. But again, it doesn't don't think it has to be pristine. I I'm not sure that any organization we work with has 100% data accuracy. The last advice I'd give, the last piece of advice would be um hire hire for belief, hire for for people that believe in your mission, that are gonna align to those company initiatives. They're gonna be the ones that that that really help drive adoption. They're gonna be the ones that come to you with those enhancement requests. Um, they're gonna be the ones that that really that stick with you through those that blood, sweat, and tears uh of a digital transformation. So make sure that that you hire for belief, but when you include those, those those end users that are gonna be a part of this project, make sure that that they're those folks are are the ones that believe in the mission, that they're the ones that are you know helping march towards the the organization's objectives and goals.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

David, before we wrap up, as we kind of come come to a close here, we always ask our guests one final question. What's one quote or piece of advice that's made a meaningful impact on you and your career?

SPEAKER_00 26:57

I think back to servant leadership. I would say to truly lead, you have to serve others and help them grow, right? You have to kind of think about, think about that, take yourself out of the equation, focus on others. And that's a core philosophy here at FSM is servant leadership, that principle of servant leadership. You know, leader success is is measured by how much we empower our teams, right? To rise to the challenge, adopt the systems that we use. So to truly lead, you have to serve others and help them grow. Otherwise, you know, you're you're just a dictator. Nobody wants to follow a dictator. Servant leadership, put your people first. Um, make sure you love them, respect them, uh, and make sure they know they know that that you you feel that way. Let them feel that. And and that'll that'll carry you far. That's something I've learned. And, you know, I've been blessed to have the opportunity to serve in a leadership capacity here at Fastlow Motion. Uh, and that's something that that that I've seen uh before coming into this role, and and I I do my very best uh poorly probably to to embody that servant leadership. But put your people first, uh, help them grow. Um, they'll feel that and and and they will grow and the rest of it will take care of itself.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Wonderful advice, David. Thanks so much for joining the show today, man. It's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

No, I appreciate it. Again, thank you for the opportunity. Uh, and thanks again for reminding me of of how old I am. I'll try and put that with use.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Well, I'm older than you, so take solace in that. Uh uh for our listeners, we appreciate you all. Uh, that's gonna bring us to a close here. If you like what you're hearing on this uh podcast, you can see more episodes at fastlemotion.com slash podcast. And we're also on Spotify and Apple and all the major platforms. And if what we've been talking about today is sounding familiar, if you're navigating a tough or challenging Salesforce implementation or think you can get more out of that platform than you already have, that's our wheelhouse. That's what we do. We'd love to help you talk talk through it and help you out. Uh, you can reach our team and David's team at the link in the description. And if you uh we'd love to get your feedback, so hit fast slowmotion.com slash podcastfeedback. If you want us to explore any future um ideas in a future episode, we'd love to hear it. See you next time.