Imagine this scenario. You’ve just been hired at a new company and they have Salesforce. You receive your login access as part of your on boarding. As you get familiar with the layout, you’re cruising through files, popping in and out of file folders and along the way you realize that you can see a LOT of data, maybe more than you’re supposed to. You’re seeing not only your own accounts, but the entire account list. You can see every Contact in the database, as well as every Opportunity that your colleagues are working on, and the commissions that the sales person is making. You dive further and then discover the HR department file folder and see not only your personal information but also those of your colleagues, the VP and CEO compensation packages, performance reviews etc.
What would be your first reaction (after your inaudible WTF)? Call HR? Or poke around some more. Perhaps call a cubicle mate over for a peek at your newly found treasure.
Many small to mid-sized businesses don’t understand that when you purchase Salesforce licenses, full administration rights are available to everyone. The tech guys call this CRED (where records can be Created, Read, Edited and Deleted) and it needs to be shut down yesterday.
Sound like a nightmare? We are telling you that we’ve seen this more times than we’d like to see. The response is usually “Oh, it’s OK. We’re a small firm. We’re transparent.”
Think about it this way for a second. Would you hire a new employee and then immediately tell them, oh, and as part of your orientation package here are the keys to everyone’s office, and their filing cabinets? Oh don’t worry, go ahead and go through them whenever you like. It’s perfectly normal. After all, we’re a small firm. We’re transparent.
Rather than handing everyone the master key to the Finance, HR, Sales and Marketing departments, we recommend that two people in a company should have administration rights. The CEO, and the Salesforce Admin. That’s it. No one else. Those who use Salesforce, depending on their department, will have access to files that are pertinent to them. You wouldn’t want the marketing team having access to sales commission reports but maybe you want to give them access to sales calendar to see who can attend a meeting.
If you aren’t sure if your Salesforce set-up is in Fort Knox mode, ask your administrator. Then determine which department can have access to which folder or fields and perhaps create a policy or check-list on which manager can have read-only or editing privileges.
Businesses should protect their assets, eliminate the risk of liability and up your security levels now more than ever. Do this before your sales team demand a raise.
Salesforce Training helps organizations improve their utilization of Salesforce and increase adoption rates. With consultants and trainers across the U.S. and Canada, we are well positioned to help sales leaders with the guidance and ongoing support to ensure positive behavior change in their sales teams.
If you are leading a large to mid-size organization and you know your Sales Manager would benefit from Salesforce Training, contact us at info@salesforcetraining.com or call 1-800-761-7382.
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