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Salesforce's customer adoption team is charged with making sure that 150,000 customers worldwide are able to adopt and leverage Salesforce products. I'm really proud to say that my team is focused 24/7 on ensuring that customers have a great experience from the moment they buy our products to the go-live and beyond.

So it's no surprise that my team often gets asked the question: “What can I do to make sure that my adoption is successful? I don't want to buy all this software and have it sit on the shelf!” The answer: keep your eyes on the prize. It might take some work, but adoption is possible - and possibly easier than you imagine.

I know the stakes are high. For our customers, adoption is a critical issue. I find that usually they buy Salesforce to keep on top of their customer needs, and to drive a great customer experience. But we've moved past the era where customer experience was only determined by the marketing and IT experts within the company. Today, the c-suite gets involved in decisions made around technology and solutions that help keep customers happy.

Think about it this way. As consumers become more sophisticated, brands need to respond, going further to turn their loyal fans into evangelists. This is ‘many-to-many’ marketing where customers start engaging with others in the same community to share positive information and content. Essentially they’re spreading the word about the company – something that’s become more important because of the rise of social media and the trust consumers place in word-of-mouth recommendations.

This “magnification” of marketing has massive ramifications, because when customers share their experiences with other customers, prospects and partners, they create an impact that could never be achieved through a pure marketing campaign alone. Their passion then plays out on social media, making a virtual community that can “be part of the magic” no matter where they might live. Cultivating these kinds of relationships means putting the customer at the center of everything you do and creating those sought-after brand evangelists.

So back to adoption. I know that in a perfect world, companies would buy technology and “presto-changeo” it would just magically start working. But in reality, most businesses need a few tips and tricks at a minimum to start using Salesforce. So our Customer Success Group teams have created a full portfolio of resources available via Success Cloud to every customer.

Well, we say that Success Cloud takes you from Trailhead to Transformation and we're not kidding. So let's start with Trailhead! It's one of the best ways to learn Salesforce (I have plenty of badges myself!)

The basic skill sets for Salesforce Admin and Salesforce Developers are clearly laid out in Trailhead.

If your business is looking for some free, curated, do-it-yourself resources, we've got plenty. The Salesforce Success Community is available 24/7 for anyone on your team to get support, learn about different implementation options, and join a community of like-minded users. There are literally thousands of webinars focused on adoption for every size of business in every industry every month.

We also offer some great options for quick starts for those who want a more 1-1 approach, advisory services, even full business strategic services.

After all, at the end of the day, even the world's best technology doesn't do its best work sitting on a shelf in your IT closet. Let's put it to work for you.