Integrations should make life easier, not more complicated. An integration only works when it adds real value, helping your tools work together to deliver something better. Integrating your learning management system (LMS) with Salesforce is a good example. This combined service can help you streamline employee and customer training and make it significantly easier to track important KPIs. That sounds great, but managing an integration like this may sound daunting for non-technical customer success (CS) team members.
The good news? You don’t need to be a technical expert to understand how Salesforce LMS integrations work or to implement one effectively. This guide will break down the essentials so you can take a fast but strategic approach to integrating these important platforms.
Your CS team’s role vs. IT’s role in a traditional LMS integration
In the past, unless your CS team had its own internal technical staff, successfully integrating your LMS with Salesforce required collaborating with your company’s IT team. Each needed to contribute unique expertise to the process.
Your team’s role
Your team’s primary responsibility was to manage the project’s stakeholders and shape the strategic goals and outcomes of the Salesforce and LMS integration project. That process could include a few key tasks:
- Providing context: Identify key stakeholders in and outside your organization. Share insights into your customers’ and team’s needs to ensure the integration aligns with real-world use cases.
- Setting objectives: Clarify what you aim to achieve for all stakeholders. Do you want to automate data collection, improve the visibility of your training program, or align training practices with sales performance? You need to get everyone on board.
- Selecting use cases: Work with stakeholders to identify which sales and learning processes, metrics, or data points will benefit most from the integration
IT’s role
At the other end of the project, your IT team handled all of the technical tasks. Their responsibilities included:
- Integrator configuration: Connect your LMS to Salesforce and verify data passes back and forth between them correctly.
- System customization: Customize settings, data feeds, and other features on each end to handle the use cases defined by your stakeholders and CS team.
- Ongoing maintenance: Monitor the integration for technical issues and perform scheduled updates.
Curious about other platform integrations? Read LMS CRM integrations: Everything you need to know
3 ways to simplify your Salesforce LMS integration
Relying on an IT team to handle your Salesforce LMS integration used to be the norm. But not every CS team has that kind of support. Or even if you do, IT might not have the bandwidth to prioritize their integration project. So, what happens if the heavy lifting falls on you?
Integrating your LMS with Salesforce doesn’t have to be a technical headache. Here are three things you can do to get the same quality results without bringing in new technical resources.
1. Choose a no-code solution
The need for extensive custom development is a thing of the past. Many modern LMS platforms offer no-code solutions or pre-built configuration wizards, making integration with Salesforce straightforward.
Deployment is much faster with a configuration wizard because the company has already done the heavy lifting for you. All the coding and adapting you’d wait on your IT team for has already been done by the provider. So, instead of fiddling with technical settings, you can focus on adapting the LMS’s features to your team’s strategic goals.
Salesforce Connector
Absorb LMS provides a no-code integration with Salesforce called Salesforce Connector. This integration simplifies many CS team workflows and makes training more accessible to your organization and your customer base. Sales teams can assign and sell training directly to clients, creating new revenue opportunities. Meanwhile, ops teams can track training ROI and KPIs like sales performance and support efficiency. For customer service, the integration ensures customers have access to the latest product training, helping reduce support requests and improve satisfaction.
Absorb’s Salesforce Connector has single sign-on (SSO) functionality, meaning employees can access training right in the Salesforce interface. There’s no need to manage multiple logins or bounce back and forth between two apps. This integration also supports targeted learning, displaying relevant courses on the Salesforce home screen to promote upselling opportunities or introduce prospects to new products.
2. Focus on the 5 Ws
A software integration is all about getting two valuable resources working together. It’s a concept that works well for project management too. If you can integrate your project resources better, you’ll have a much simpler process. If you need a framework for better-integrated project planning, focus on the 5 Ws—who, what, when, where, and why.
- Who: Identify the key roles for users of your Salesforce-integrated LMS—for example, learners, CS team members, sales reps, and both LMS and Salesforce administrators.
- What: Define what data needs to flow between the systems, like training completions or certification statuses.
- When: Determine when data synchronizations should occur. Does your team need real-time sync on prospective customers' actions? What about your brand champions? Maybe data on them can be scheduled.
- Where: Map out where the data will live in Salesforce. Do you want to use existing contact records to track training progress? Do you need custom objects? Or can some data stay in one system or the other?
- Why: Clarify the purpose of each data point. Why are you including it in your integration? How does it support business goals?
Communicate your 5 Ws to all stakeholders so everyone is on the same page before your integration project is underway.
3. Create a non-technical go-live checklist
Even if you’re using a reliable, no-code LMS integration, there might still be technical ‘gotchas’ to double-check. We suggest creating a checklist of essential features before you go live.
What to include in your checklist:
- Current workflows: Are all existing workflows still doable?
- Sample data: Is test data flowing as expected?
- Success metrics: Are KPIs measurable and reportable post-integration?
- Stakeholders: Review your key team members’ needs. Do they have what they need?
- Goals and outcomes: Review your high-level goals for your integration project. Are all the resources above in place for you to achieve them?
Ready to foster success and enhance customer training with your LMS?
8-step process to lead a non-technical Salesforce and LMS integration
Here is a step-by-step guide non-technical leaders can follow to ensure their integration runs smoothly. Many of the steps are the same as in a traditional integration project, but their order and scope may change to accommodate a project that doesn’t involve IT.
1. Align your Salesforce LMS integration with strategic business goals
Determine how the integration will support your company’s broader objectives. Align your integration strategy with specific goals, such as reducing time-to-value, increasing customer retention, or improving employee productivity.
Questions to ask:
- What business problems are we trying to solve?
- What’s our priority? Do we want this integration to improve workflows, decision-making, or both?
- Which teams will benefit most?
- What metrics will be our key performance indicators?
2. Identify key stakeholders and team members
Start by assembling the right team to carry out the integration. This group should include representatives from departments like sales, customer success, HR, IT, and operations. Include external stakeholders too. You could involve brand champion customers to lend an outside perspective or business partners.
Clearly define each member’s roles and responsibilities in the integration process and share them with the group. Your goal is to ensure all perspectives are considered, everyone is accountable for their part, and you support collaboration.
3. Assess your current data
Evaluate the data stored in your LMS and Salesforce systems. Identify which data points are critical to your integration, such as course completion records, user certifications, and customer profiles. Look for data gaps. Decide whether to address them before, during, or after integration.
4. Get buy-in from leadership
You need to make a case for how a Salesforce LMS integration benefits the business as a whole. You don’t want to speak in terms of your own KPIs. Explain its value in terms of ROI, efficiency, and strategic business impact.
Compare the cost and complexity of a Salesforce connector with a custom-coded solution. Highlight the advantages of a pre-built connector, such as faster implementation time, reduced maintenance, and minimal reliance on IT resources.
5. Track important metrics
Think about what you want to monitor. Often, you will want to measure how actively users interact with the platform, how well they complete courses, and the positive impact on business outcomes.
So relevant data you may want to measure, include:
- Enrollment rates
- Course completion rates
- Customer/user engagement metrics
- Learner feedback
- User satisfaction levels from surveys
6. Track your milestones
Set meaningful milestone checkpoints in your integration where you can assess progress.
Common milestones include when you:
- Complete an audit of your existing data
- Configure your LMS’s Salesforce connector
- Conduct a pilot test
- Finalize system settings and workflows
- Go-live
7. Share your results with leadership
Once the integration is in place, share the outcomes with your leadership team. Highlight key successes, such as time savings, increased training engagement, or improved customer satisfaction. Use data-driven reporting to demonstrate the integration’s ROI and contribution to overall business performance.
8. Continuously improve your workflows
An integration is not a one-and-done process. You’re assembling an essential connection whose value and features evolve with your business. Review your LMS-related workflows regularly to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies and adjust as needed. Gather feedback from end users and internal stakeholders to understand their experience and refine processes to better meet their needs.
Integrated systems are more powerful than the sum of their parts
Leading a Salesforce and LMS integration doesn’t require technical expertise. It requires clear objectives, effective collaboration, and a focus on measurable outcomes. Whether you’re looking to align training programs with sales goals, improve data accessibility, or enhance your reporting capabilities, this integration can add value to your organization. An effective system like Absorb LMS with Salesforce Connector enables organizations to create engaging customer education directly on the platform used most by staff and customers.
