Now that your Salesforce CRM application is implemented and set up for your business needs, you want your users to use it. That’s why you took the time and made the effort to ensure a great Salesforce CRM roll out—to ensure enthusiasm and usage. But how do you know if your users are really getting the most from Salesforce adoption? The best way to tell is to proactively measure adoption rates. It’s not enough to just track user logins. But it can be confusing to figure out what to measure.

That’s why you need to develop a framework of key performance indicators (KPIs). To come up with these metrics, we recommend involving key stakeholders—such as managers, senior managers, and executives—to determine KPIs based on business benefits and desired process performance. If you don’t define and regularly monitor KPIs by incorporating the reports and dashboard features in Salesforce CRM, you may find that Salesforce adoption, consistent usage, and data quality will suffer.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the Force.com AppExchange for adoption dashboards to track login activity and new records added by users.

Choosing Saleforce adoption metrics

Consider these three key areas when choosing Salesforce adoption metrics to measure user adoption:

• Usage
• Data quality
• Business performance

1. Usage

Your first measurement of Salesforce adoption—and a basic indicator of success—is login rates. You also need to ensure that users are actively and consistently updating data and creating new Contacts, Opportunities, and/or Cases, depending on their roles in the organization.

Below is a list of suggested baseline metrics to track usage. Which metrics to use and how often to track them depends on your unique requirements, but we’ve provided some guidelines to get you started:

• Metric Frequency
• Users Logged in, Last 7 Days Weekly
• Users NOT Logged in by Last Name, Last 7 Days Weekly
• Users NEVER Logged In Weekly
• Accounts Created by Owner Role, Last 120 Days Monthly
• Opportunities Created by Owner Role, Last 60 Days Monthly
• Contacts Created by Owner Role, Last 120 Days Monthly
• Activities Completed, Last 60 Days Monthly
• Accounts Last Modified by Owner, Last 120 Days Monthly
• Neglected Opportunities by Role, Next 60 Days Monthly
• Open Tasks by Assigned Role, Current and Previous Quarterly

2. Data quality

Data quality is a valuable metric for measuring Salesforce adoption. Looking at critical fields and making sure users fill them out correctly is important. If certain fields are not filled out, or not filled out correctly by users, it may compromise Salesforce adoption. Designing a protocol to ensure users fill out all fields in a consistent and accurate manner creates strong data integrity and reliability, which translates into higher user confidence and Salesforce adoption.

Below is a list of suggested baseline metrics to get you started in tracking data quality:

• Metric Frequency
• Opportunities with a Close Date, Last 60 Days Monthly
• Stage Opportunities are Entered Monthly
• Prospect Accounts Missing # Employees, Last 60 Days Monthly
• Lead Rating on Converted Leads Monthly
• Accounts with All Key Fields Populated Monthly
• Accounts Missing Rating Field Monthly
• Key, Non-Required Fields Filled Out Monthly

3. Business performance

Usage should also reflect business performance and compliance. Ensure that your users are not just using the application, but are using it in a way that enhances business effectiveness. For example, measuring the number of calls is not as valuable as measuring the types of calls and the level at which calls actually close deals. Also, build analytics that will uncover patterns and trends that track performance levels and identify trouble areas:

• Metric Frequency
• Pipeline by Owner or Owner Role Monthly
• Monthly Sales Trends Monthly
• Activity Type by Assigned Owner Quarterly
• Win Ratio for Current and Previous Fiscal Year Quarterly
• Open Leads by Owner Role, Open Not Contacted Quarterly
• Deal Type by Owners Winning, Current and Previous
  • • Quarters
  • • Quarterly
• Deal Type by Owners Losing, Current and Previous
  • • Quarters
  • • Quarterly

Successful Salesforce adoption is critical to your CRM success. It gives you an overall sense of your organization’s health from the top down. As you gain experience with sales adoption metrics, you’ll be able to prioritize those areas where you need to focus, adjust, and improve. Whether you’re just rolling out Salesforce CRM or have used it for a while, drive up your Salesforce adoption rates to get the most from your solution.
Matt Jadhav http://www.salesforce.com/community/crm-best-practices/