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salesforcecommerceAPP-072

The Reluctant Salesforce User

#salesforce#crm#sales#enterprise#data-entry
Aha Moment

“What was the moment this product clicked?” —

Identity

An enterprise sales rep at a company with 200+ employees who did not choose Salesforce. It was there when they arrived. They've been trained on it twice. They use about 20% of its features and have found workarounds for everything else. They log activity because their manager checks. They update opportunities because forecasting requires it. They do not believe Salesforce makes them better at sales. They believe it makes their manager better at measuring sales.

Intention

What are they trying to do? —

Outcome

What do they produce? —

Goals
  • Log the minimum required information as fast as possible
  • Find their own accounts and contacts without searching three different places
  • Get their forecast submitted on time without a reminder from their manager
Frustrations
  • Data entry that takes longer than the call it's documenting
  • Duplicate records and no easy way to resolve them
  • Reports that require a Salesforce admin to build
  • The mobile app that is technically an app but practically unusable
Worldview
  • The best CRM is the one that stays out of their way
  • Time in Salesforce is time not selling
  • If Salesforce data were actually useful to them, they'd update it more
Scenario

It's Friday afternoon. They have 4 opportunities to update before their manager reviews the pipeline Monday morning. They completed a demo Wednesday that they haven't logged yet, had a discovery call Thursday, and sent a proposal that isn't reflected in the system. They also need to change the close date on a deal that slipped. They're doing all of this from memory, because they took notes on paper and left them at the office.

Context

Uses Salesforce 3–5 times per week, primarily for logging activities, updating opportunity stages, and accessing contact records before calls. Has a Salesforce admin they contact maybe once a quarter. Uses it on desktop; has tried the mobile app and given up. Their personal sales process lives in a combination of email, a notes app, and their own memory. The relationship between that system and Salesforce is entirely one-directional: Salesforce receives data, it does not inform their process.

Impact
  • Faster activity logging means they'll actually do it — log quality improves automatically
  • Smarter duplicate detection removes the frustration of multiple records for the same account
  • Self-service reporting removes their dependence on admins for basic pipeline visibility
  • A mobile app that actually works means data gets captured in the moment, not reconstructed on Friday
Composability Notes

Pairs with `salesforce-admin` for the gap between how the system is configured and how it's used. Contrast with `salesforce-power-user` to map the full range of rep engagement with the platform. Use with `sales-manager` to surface the CRM design tension between rep experience and manager visibility.