Essays
Ideas, arguments, and better questions.
24 October 2026
Planned in Pieces, Delivered in a Heap.
Your team isn't resisting change. They're absorbing more of it than anyone in your organisation has ever added up. In this episode, I look at why change is planned in pieces but delivered in a heap, why experienced users quietly use less of Salesforce every year, and why the most valuable thing a trainer can do is decide what people don't need to learn. If you're responsible for Salesforce adoption, this is a conversation about the weight your users are carrying, and who should be making it lighter.
18 October 2026
The Person Who Built It Is the Wrong Person to Teach It
Three weeks before go-live, someone asks who will train the users. The answer is almost always the same: the admin, because she knows the system best, or a developer who will record a walkthrough. It sounds logical, it costs nothing extra, and with AI it now looks cheaper than ever. In this episode I explain why that default quietly undermines adoption. Builders teach the build, while users need to learn their job. And as Salesforce moves from screens into conversation, through Claude, Slack and AI assistants, what people need to learn shifts from where to click to how to judge an answer. That makes teaching harder, not easier. Building is getting cheaper. Teaching is getting harder.
11 October 2026
Your Team Looks More Productive Than Ever. Are They Getting Any Better?
AI in Salesforce has made your records fuller, your activity higher and your pipeline tidier than it has ever been. It has also quietly changed what your users do all day, what they are learning, and what you should be measuring them on. Most organisations haven't noticed any of it yet.
3 October 2026
Claudeforce Gave Every User Their Own Salesforce. Who's Going to Teach Them?
With Claudeforce, Salesforce has stopped asking people to come to the platform. Your users can now reach Salesforce from inside Claude and build their own view of it just by describing what they want. It removes years of friction, and it quietly removes something most organisations never realised they relied on: a shared screen that told everyone what mattered.
27 September 2026
The Change Programme the Board Never Sees
Most Salesforce transformations begin with a real frustration at board level. "We can't get proper reporting." "We need to move faster, and do it with less." Salesforce arrives as the answer, and before long the programme has grown into something much bigger: restructures, new job titles, new ways of working, all delivered quickly and at scale. A polished change framework is presented to the board, and it lands beautifully. Then it reaches the people who actually use the system: the sales rep, the call centre agent, the field service manager. That's where the story changes. In this episode, I talk about the disconnect between board-level change plans and the change that actually happens on the floor. I cover why training so often ends up underfunded and rushed, why low adoption is so often "fixed" with more technology, and the hidden work trainers and enablement teams do behind the scenes to hold it all together. If you've ever been part of a transformation that looked green in every status report but felt very different on the ground, this one is for you.
20 September 2026
The Smallest Line in the Contract Decides the Biggest Outcome
Every Salesforce implementation looks the same on go-live day ; dashboards render, the ribbon gets cut, everyone claps. Twelve weeks later, a login report is thinner than it should be, and nobody's quite sure how to say so out loud. In this essay I break down why that happens, and it isn't the story most people tell. It's not resistant users. It's arithmetic ; training and adoption usually get a fixed budget decided before anyone worked out what the job actually required, while everything else in the contract gets properly scoped. It's also a platform that looks deceptively simple, when the processes underneath it have real consequences when people get them wrong. And it's an ecosystem where adoption barely features in the certifications that shape how consultants and architects are trained to think about the job in the first place. None of this is one villain's fault. It's a system nobody's questioned.
13 September 2026
Before You Add Claudeforce, Open What You Already Bought
Dreamforce opens this week, and Claudeforce will be one of the loudest things on the floor; an AI co-worker that will look effortless on stage, drafting emails, qualifying leads, updating records, all in a perfectly clean demo org. In this essay, I want to ask the question that never gets asked in the room: what does that same demo look like run inside your actual organisation. the one with the licences nobody's using, the features nobody finished rolling out, and the admin already holding everything together with no time to spare? This isn't an argument against Claudeforce, or against Dreamforce, or against AI. It's an argument for opening what you already own before you sign for what's new. I unpack why every year's newest capability gets the best-resourced introduction it will ever have, while last year's sits quietly unfinished and I close with five questions worth asking before your next renewal conversation.
5 September 2026
Claudeforce Is Built For The 20% Salesforce Never Left Behind
Salesforce just gave sellers an AI CRO. Nobody planned for the other 80% of the workforce. Claudeforce puts Claude inside Salesforce and removes the interface that made every past adoption problem visible — and fixable. In this episode, I unpack what actually happens the week after a rollout like this goes live, why it was built for the 20% of any workforce who never needed convincing in the first place, and why permissions and governance got solved while confidence and capability were left behind. This isn't a case against AI. It's the training and adoption conversation nobody on the keynote stage wanted to have.
30 August 2026
Salesforce Bypassing: Why It’s Not a Training Problem
Every organisation has a process nobody actually follows. It doesn't get announced. It builds quietly — a verbal handoff that never gets logged, a forecast number delivered from memory, an approval that happens in a hallway instead of the workflow built for it. Most leadership teams call this resistance to change. It isn't. It's a rational response to a system that stopped rewarding the effort of doing things properly. In this episode, I break down why bypassed process in Salesforce is almost never a training problem, what "learned helplessness" tells us about why the shortcut becomes automatic, and what it's actually costing your business in decisions built on data that was never fully true to begin with.
23 August 2026
Training Isn't the Problem. Reinforcement Is.
In today's fast-paced business environment, companies are constantly seeking ways to improve their Salesforce adoption and overall CRM adoption, which is crucial for business process improvement and digital transformation. Many organizations invest heavily in Salesforce training solutions, but often find that training isn't the problem, reinforcement is. Effective change management and user adoption strategies are essential to ensure that employees are using the system to its full potential.
16 August 2026
The Real Reason Leadership Doesn't Trust the Salesforce Forecast
Most organisations treat unreliable forecasting as a data problem. The instinct is always the same: clean up the CRM, tighten the opportunity stages, add another dashboard, try the newest AI forecasting model. In this essay, I make the case that the instinct is misplaced. Forecasts don't become untrustworthy because Salesforce is short on information. They become untrustworthy because of what happens to that information long before it ever reaches the CRM — the sandbagging, the "happy ears," the quiet incentives that teach a sales team exactly how much of the truth is safe to report. Salesforce isn't usually the cause of a broken forecast. It's usually just recording one.
9 August 2026
Why Your Salesforce Adoption Problem Isn't What You Think It Is
Most Salesforce problems aren't technology problems — they're adoption problems hiding behind reporting issues, data quality issues, and process compliance issues. In this essay, I break down why intelligent, well-intentioned employees quietly stop relying on Salesforce, why "resistance to change" is the wrong explanation, and what organisations with genuinely high adoption do differently. If you lead a Salesforce team, this reframes how you think about the problem entirely.
#Salesforce#Salesforce Training Solutions#Salesforce Success Secrets#Salesforce training2 August 2026
If Your Salesforce Could Send You an Invoice
Most organisations know exactly what they pay for Salesforce, but almost none can quantify what poor user behaviour is costing them. Every duplicate record, spreadsheet workaround and ignored process creates a hidden invoice that quietly erodes productivity, trust and return on investment. The greatest cost of Salesforce isn't the platform itself—it's everything that happens when people don't use it as intended.
26 July 2026
Why So Much Corporate Training Fails Before It Even Begins
Most organisations don't have a training problem—they have a training design problem. If training is built to transfer information rather than create capability, it's already failing before the first session begins. In this week's essay, I explore why organisations need to rethink learning if they want transformation to translate into real business performance.
19 July 2026
Platform Stewardship vs Platform Ownership
Most organisations can tell you who owns Salesforce. Far fewer can explain who is actively stewarding it. In this episode, I explore the leadership skill nobody talks about: Platform Stewardship. Why do some Salesforce environments continue to create value year after year while others slowly become more complex, less trusted and harder to use? The answer often has less to do with technology and more to do with leadership, ownership and long-term thinking. If Salesforce is a strategic business asset, perhaps it's time we stopped managing it like a project and started stewarding it like an investment.
12 July 2026
The Growing Gap Between Salesforce Experts and Salesforce Users
Salesforce has never been more powerful, yet many organisations continue to struggle with adoption, data quality and user engagement. In this episode, I explore the growing gap between Salesforce experts and Salesforce users, why it exists, and how it quietly impacts business performance. Drawing on years of training and enablement experience, I examine the five forces driving this divide and the three practical steps organisations can take to bridge it. Because the biggest challenge facing many Salesforce programmes isn't technology—it's translation. Understanding that difference could transform how your organisation approaches adoption, change and long-term success.
5 July 2026
Systems think in objects. Humans think in outcomes
As Salesforce races towards Agentforce and Headless360, are we building the future around technology or around people? This thought experiment explores what Salesforce would look like if it were designed by end users, trainers and frontline teams first.
28 June 2026
The People Between Strategy and Reality Run Salesforce
Everyone talks about executives. Everyone talks about users. Almost nobody talks about the people stuck in the middle translating strategy into reality. Yet they may be the single biggest factor in Salesforce adoption, data quality and long-term success.
21 June 2026
The Gap Between Salesforce's Vision and Reality
Salesforce is racing towards an AI-first future, but are most customers ready to follow? After attending World Tour London, I found myself reflecting on a simple question: if many organisations still struggle with Salesforce adoption today, how realistic is a future built around Agentforce, autonomous agents and Headless 360? In this article and podcast, I share my perspective from over a decade working with the people expected to use these systems every day.
14 June 2026
Is Poor Salesforce Adoption Costing You a Fortune?
Most organisations can tell you exactly what they spend on Salesforce, but very few can tell you what poor adoption is costing them. In this episode, I explore five simple questions that reveal hidden productivity leaks, management overhead, spreadsheet dependency, reporting distrust and user avoidance that quietly drain value from Salesforce investments. If you're a Salesforce Product Owner, Sales Leader or Executive, this conversation may change the way you think about adoption, training and business performance.
7 June 2026
The Missing Feedback Loop in Salesforce
What separates Salesforce environments that continuously improve from those that slowly accumulate friction and complexity? In this episode, we explore the four characteristics shared by high-performing organisations, why trainers often have the clearest view of real user behaviour, and how better feedback loops can transform the way businesses design, support and evolve Salesforce over time.
31 May 2026
The Biggest Salesforce Mistake Happens Before Training Even Begins
Most Salesforce adoption problems do not begin after go-live — they begin at the very start of the project, when businesses fail to properly identify, involve, and understand their users. In this episode, I explore why so many organisations design systems around processes and technology before considering the real operational realities of the people expected to use them every day. Because when users are treated as an afterthought instead of part of the journey, even the most technically successful Salesforce implementation can quietly struggle underneath the surface.
24 May 2026
Death By 1,000 Clicks: The Hidden Cost of Tiny Salesforce Inefficiencies
Most Salesforce inefficiencies don't arrive as major failures. They appear as tiny delays, extra clicks, unnecessary fields, and small moments of friction that quietly compound into lost productivity, poor data quality, and frustrated users. In this episode, we explore how these seemingly insignificant inefficiencies create significant business costs over time—and why some of the most expensive Salesforce problems are the ones organisations have stopped noticing.
17 May 2026
Why Executives Overestimate Technology and Underestimate People
Most organisations don't fail because the technology was bad. They fail because they overestimated what technology could fix and underestimated the complexity of human behaviour. In this podcast, I explore why executives often mistake implementation for adoption, why users quietly disengage long before dashboards show it, and why training, confidence, and behavioural support are the real drivers of long-term transformation success. If you work in Salesforce, digital transformation, AI, or change management, this episode will completely change how you think about adoption. Technology may power transformation — but people determine whether it survives.
10 May 2026
The Adoption Illusion: Why Your Metrics Are Lying
Are login numbers truly reflecting success? We discuss how leadership teams often celebrate adoption based on seemingly healthy login numbers and increased platform engagement. It's crucial to look beyond surface-level performance metrics to ensure genuine business growth and effective strategy. Consider if your key performance indicators are truly capturing the full picture of your CRM's impact.
3 May 2026
The Hidden Gap Between Delivered Training and Usable Knowledge
Completing training does not automatically mean people can use what they have learned when it matters. This essay explores the often-overlooked gap between information being delivered and knowledge becoming usable, and why bridging that gap is one of the most important factors in long-term Salesforce adoption and success.
27 April 2026
The First 30 Days After Go Live Decide Everything
Most organisations treat go-live as the finish line of a Salesforce project. In reality, it is the beginning of the most important phase. This essay explores how user habits, perceptions and workarounds are formed in the first month after launch, and why those early weeks often determine whether adoption succeeds or quietly begins to fail.
20 April 2026
Designing for Humans vs Designing for Processes
Many organisations use the words training and enablement interchangeably, but the distinction is more important than it appears. This essay explores how language shapes perception, investment and behaviour, and why capability-building is a far more powerful driver of Salesforce success than traditional training alone.
12 April 2026
If I Took Over Your Salesforce Tomorrow, Here's What I'd Do First
The first step in improving Salesforce is rarely another feature, automation or dashboard. It is understanding how people experience the system, where friction occurs and whether users truly have the confidence to work within it. This essay explores the priorities I would address before touching the technology, from user behaviour and data habits to capability, Superusers and critical business moments.
5 April 2026
The Superuser Myth - Choosing the Wrong People
Many organisations select Salesforce Superusers based on technical expertise, only to discover that adoption remains low and support structures fail to gain traction. This essay explores why influence, trust and communication are often more important than system knowledge, and how the right Superusers can become powerful drivers of long-term adoption and behavioural change.
30 March 2026
The Forgotten Blueprint for Modern AI
A visit to Bletchley Park revealed a lesson that feels surprisingly relevant in today's AI-driven world. Long before artificial intelligence, success depended on discipline, consistency and well-trained people working with complex information. This essay explores why the future of AI depends less on technology itself and more on the quality of the human foundations that support it.
23 March 2026
The Silent Cost of Over Customisation - When Tailored Becomes a Trap
Most Salesforce environments become complex through a series of sensible decisions. Over time, however, every new field, process and automation adds to the mental effort required to use the system. This essay explores the concept of cognitive debt and why simplifying the user experience is often more valuable than adding more functionality.
15 March 2026
Your Best Employees Resisting Change? The Psychology Explained
Why do some of the most experienced and capable people in an organisation often resist new systems the most? This essay explores the psychology behind CRM adoption, examining how autonomy, status and competence influence human behaviour during change. Understanding these forces can help organisations move beyond resistance and create lasting, meaningful adoption.
9 March 2026
Good Salesforce vs Great Salesforce | What's Missing?
Many Salesforce organisations reach a point where the system works, but no longer reflects the business as it exists today. This essay explores why maturity is different from maintenance, and how revisiting user capability, process clarity and system alignment can unlock the next stage of growth without starting over.
2 March 2026
Digitization vs Transformation: The Critical Difference
Many organisations describe technology implementations as digital transformation, but installing new software is not the same as changing how people work. This essay explores the difference between digitisation and true transformation, and why lasting change happens through behaviour, operations and capability-building rather than technology alone.
23 February 2026
The Difference Between Good and Great Salesforce Training
Most organisations believe Salesforce training begins when the slide deck is created. In reality, effective training starts months earlier with behavioural analysis, role-based design, hands-on practice, and ongoing enablement. This essay explores why traditional training often fails and what organisations must do to turn Salesforce knowledge into lasting capability and adoption.
17 February 2026
Your Data is Only as Good as Your Training
Many organisations believe AI will solve their data quality challenges, but technology can only amplify what already exists. If users lack clarity, consistency and confidence, AI simply scales those problems faster. This essay explores why training, enablement and human behaviour remain the true foundations of clean data and successful AI adoption.
9 February 2026
The Real Reason Users Complain About Salesforce
Most Salesforce complaints are symptoms, not root causes. When users say the system is slow, complicated, or easier to replace with a spreadsheet, they are often highlighting deeper issues with process design, leadership decisions, and enablement. This essay explores why user frustration is rarely about the platform itself and how organisations can transform complaints into valuable insights that drive adoption, engagement, and long-term success.
4 February 2026
Three Salesforce Users Walk Into Training… And Only One Learns Something
One-size-fits-all training is one of the biggest reasons Salesforce adoption struggles. In this essay, I explore the three user groups that exist in almost every organisation — novices, reluctant users, and high performers — and why each requires a different approach to learning, support, and enablement. Understanding these differences can transform training from a tick-box exercise into a genuine driver of adoption and performance.
27 January 2026
The Hidden Costs of Poor Salesforce Training
Most Salesforce complaints are not actually about Salesforce. When users say the system is slow, complicated, or easier to replace with a spreadsheet, they are often highlighting deeper issues with process design, training, and user experience. This essay explores how to decode those complaints and use them as valuable signals to improve adoption, confidence, and business outcomes.