One of the most common statements I hear on Salesforce projects sounds perfectly reasonable at first glance.
“Our users just need training.”
It is the kind of sentence that appears logical, responsible and practical. When adoption is struggling, data quality is declining, or users seem disengaged, training feels like the obvious answer. Yet over the years I have come to believe that this seemingly innocent statement is one of the biggest reasons Salesforce adoption initiatives fail.
The problem is not training itself. The problem is the assumption hidden inside the statement. It assumes that users are fundamentally the same. It assumes that if we provide enough training, in a consistent format, everyone will learn what they need and adoption will naturally improve.
The reality is very different.
In every Salesforce organisation I have worked with, regardless of industry, geography or company size, users tend to fall into several distinct groups. They arrive with different levels of confidence, different experiences, different motivations and different concerns. Yet organisations often place them all in the same virtual classroom, show them the same slides, demonstrate the same processes and then wonder why adoption results vary so dramatically.
When training fails, it is rarely because Salesforce is too complex. More often, it is because the right people received the wrong training at the wrong time.
Over the years I have found myself returning to three broad categories of users. They are not official personas and they certainly do not cover every individual nuance, but they appear often enough to be useful. The first group are the novices. The second are the reluctant users. The third are the high performers. Understanding the differences between these groups can completely change how organisations think about training, onboarding and adoption.
The first group, the novice users, are often misunderstood.
These are the new starters, graduates, career changers and employees who are either new to the business, new to their role or completely new to Salesforce. Organisations often assume these users are slow because they lack experience. In reality, most novice users are not struggling because they are incapable. They are struggling because they are overwhelmed.
Imagine joining a new organisation. You are trying to understand company culture, learn unfamiliar processes, remember new names and navigate a new role. At the same time, you are expected to master a system that may contain hundreds of fields, multiple record types, dashboards, reports and custom processes. The challenge is not intelligence. The challenge is volume.
Many novice users operate in a constant state of uncertainty. They do not know what good looks like yet. They do not know which actions are critical and which are optional. They do not know what mistakes are acceptable and which ones might create problems. Behind the scenes there is often a quiet fear of clicking the wrong button, entering incorrect information or appearing incompetent in front of colleagues.
Unfortunately, organisations frequently respond by providing even more information. New users are shown every tab, every object and every possible feature. They receive a system tour rather than practical guidance. Salesforce is explained as though they already understand the business, while business processes are explained as though they already understand Salesforce.
The result is predictable. Information overload sets in and very little of it is retained.
What novice users need is not more functionality. They need clarity and confidence. They need to understand why a task matters before they learn how to perform it. They need role-specific guidance that focuses on the activities they will perform each day rather than the entirety of the system. Most importantly, they need psychological safety. They need to know that mistakes are part of learning and that confidence develops through practice rather than perfection.
When organisations get this right, something interesting happens. Users do not simply learn Salesforce. They learn how the organisation operates. The system becomes a tool for understanding their role rather than an obstacle standing in the way of it. For novice users, successful training is less about speed and more about creating confidence.
The second group is often viewed as the most challenging: the reluctant users.
These are the individuals who frequently become labelled as resistant to change. They are the people whose names appear in project meetings when adoption concerns are discussed. Leaders often describe them as difficult, sceptical or unwilling to embrace new ways of working.
Yet I have found that this interpretation is usually unfair.
Most reluctant users are not resisting Salesforce itself. They are responding to experiences they have had in the past. They have lived through previous system implementations. They have seen ambitious transformation programmes launch with great enthusiasm and then quietly lose momentum. They have experienced rushed rollouts, inadequate training, broken processes and promises that were never fully delivered.
Their scepticism is often rooted in experience rather than negativity.
This distinction matters because it changes how organisations should respond. Too often, training programmes attempt to eliminate resistance by increasing the volume of training. More sessions are scheduled. More demonstrations are delivered. More mandatory attendance requirements are introduced. Yet none of these approaches address the underlying issue.
You cannot train someone out of scepticism if you refuse to acknowledge why it exists.
The most successful trainers and project leaders are often the ones willing to have honest conversations. They acknowledge previous frustrations. They recognise where past implementations created unnecessary work. They validate concerns instead of dismissing them. This approach does not weaken the change effort. In many cases, it strengthens it.
Once trust begins to return, training becomes significantly more effective. But the style of training also needs to change. Reluctant users rarely respond well to lengthy click-by-click demonstrations. What tends to resonate is practical, scenario-based learning that addresses real-world challenges. They want to understand how the system helps them solve problems, reduce effort and improve outcomes.
They are not looking for more features. They are looking for evidence that this time will be different.
The third group receives far less attention than it deserves.
These are the high performers.
They are the top sellers, the experienced advisors, the operational experts and the individuals everyone turns to when something goes wrong. They know their jobs exceptionally well. They understand the business. They have developed workarounds, shortcuts and personal methods for getting things done.
Ironically, because they appear successful, organisations often stop investing in them.
Training budgets are directed elsewhere. Support resources focus on struggling users. High performers are expected to continue delivering results with minimal assistance. In some organisations they gradually become unofficial support desks, helping colleagues navigate challenges while still managing their own responsibilities.
This creates a significant risk.
High performers do not stop needing development. They simply stop being offered it.
Over time, two outcomes tend to emerge. Some become frustrated by inefficiencies they are forced to tolerate every day. Others become overwhelmed by the additional responsibilities placed upon them. In both cases, organisations risk losing some of their most valuable people.
The training needs of high performers are fundamentally different from those of novice users. They do not require onboarding support. They require optimisation. They want to work smarter, not harder. They benefit from advanced reporting techniques, more efficient workflows, improved use of automation and opportunities to remove manual effort from their daily activities.
When organisations invest in this group, the benefits extend beyond the individuals themselves. High performers often become role models for others. They demonstrate better ways of working, influence team behaviours and help raise standards across the organisation. Supporting them is not an act of reward. It is a strategic investment.
Ultimately, most Salesforce training programmes struggle because they are designed around a fictional concept: the average user.
The average user does not exist.
What exists are individuals with different experiences, different motivations and different barriers to success. Novices need confidence. Reluctant users need trust. High performers need leverage. Treating these groups as though they are identical inevitably leads to disappointing results.
When everyone receives the same training, novice users often leave feeling overwhelmed. Reluctant users leave feeling unheard. High performers leave feeling overlooked. The training may have been delivered successfully, but the learning outcomes remain uneven because the audience was never truly understood.
The next time adoption challenges arise, organisations should resist the temptation to ask whether users need more training. A more useful question is whether users are receiving the right training.
Because Salesforce rarely fails when people cannot use it. More often, it fails when people stop believing it was designed to help them succeed. The organisations that recognise this distinction are the ones most likely to achieve lasting adoption, stronger engagement and better business outcomes.
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