Seagate Technology has been in the data business since 1978. As a global leader in data storage solutions with over 50,000 employees worldwide, they have been developing amazing products that enable people and businesses around the world to create, share and preserve their most critical memories and business data.

To accelerate sales growth, Seagate saw that they needed to transform their sales reps’ user experience. Sales users were looking for an intelligent, metrics-driven, integrated solution paired with an intuitive, modern UI. The timing was perfect: Salesforce had just announced Sales Cloud Lightning, which redesigned Salesforce’s flagship product for the way modern salespeople want to sell.  

To speed the Sales Cloud Lightning rollout, Seagate signed up for two Salesforce Accelerators. Accelerators are short, focused work sessions with a certified Salesforce specialist, designed to solve specific challenges and help customers get the most out of using Salesforce. Seagate completed the Lightning Configuration and Customization Accelerator in December 2015. An Accelerator Specialist provided hands-on training and discussed Seagate’s Lightning roadmap. This past February, Seagate completed the Lightning Desktop Design Accelerator, which helped them develop a proof-of-concept to automate a process in Lightning and build out a Sales Path.

The transition to Lightning was swift. By April 2016, 150 sales users were enabled with Sales Cloud Lightning, and this has now grown to 500 users across cross-functional teams. The roll-out was so positively received that additional Salesforce users at the company are looking to get access.

The switch to Sales Cloud Lightning reinvigorated Seagate’s sales, cross-functional teams, and management. All of their data and processes are integrated, relevant, and intuitive. "Lightning was a no brainer," says Seagate’s Cristina Schwartz, Director, Sales Analytics & Automation, Seagate Technology. “We saw huge improvements in usability, user experience, and intuitive functionality – all great things we were trying to build on our own.”

Strong adoption of Sales Cloud Lightning has resulted in 5-10 hours a week of time savings back to sales reps

The sales team quickly began seeing improvements and benefits. Sales Cloud Lightning’s Account Insights delivers timely news articles about customers, partners, and competitors. Sales Path enables bucketing of opportunities, including definitions and tips to help reps produce product cheat sheets that link directly to products for more information. Task management has become much easier to manage and everything is now mobile, increasing productivity since Salesforce goes where everyone goes. Management always knows where to go to get answers. Strong adoption of Sales Cloud Lightning has resulted in 5-10 hours a week of time savings back to sales reps. “Usability is the biggest benefit. Before, everything was in spreadsheets, with reps constantly getting emails and calls for status updates. With Lightning, reports easily summarize all information and provide a single view for everyone,” says Schwartz.

Seagate intends to continue with their Sales Cloud Lightning rollout, focusing on optimizing their channel and org that qualifies products, as well as more cross-functional teams.

Seagate’s Sales Cloud Lightning Tips and Best Practices

• Go out to your users to understand their process needs and what needs to be captured. Engage with the business and IT

• Spend time getting IT and Sales up to speed on Sales Cloud Lightning

• Learn and understand the trade-offs. Think about what customizations to keep and where you can go out-of-the-box

• Seize the opportunity to do clean up. Do you really need everything you’re maintaining?

• Use an accelerator and any Customers for Life and Sales Enablement resources to help

• Start with a pilot and continuously learn from user feedback

Want to learn more about Accelerators and how they can help you get started quickly with Lightning? Contact Us