Change is hard.

Yes, we’ve heard the same thing over and over in different ways: Try something new, reach beyond your comfort zone, take risks and you will be richer for the experience. We all know it’s true, but still, change is hard.

At work, I live and breathe in Salesforce. My CRM is the single most important program on my computer, and it’s truly a rarity that anything I do happens outside of it. So when a new and improved version of Salesforce – Salesforce Lightning – was released, it would be safe to assume I jumped at the chance to try it out.

Nope. Not even close.

I hesitated and made every excuse to avoid the switch. I allowed myself to assume that new didn’t mean better and there was no need to reinvent the wheel. I’m so used to how Salesforce Classic works that I didn’t want to risk losing my momentum, or ultimately reducing my sales performance by working with a tool I didn’t understand.

InGenius was first to market with a CTI solution compatible with Lightning, so I knew it was inevitable that I learn to use it myself. Sure enough, our team was soon encouraged to migrate to the Lightning experience.

Yet I continued to resist.

I made brief attempts to switch to Lightning on various occasions, but quickly reverted to Classic the moment I hit a snag, whenever I needed a button that wasn’t where it used to be, or a process had been modified. I thought it would take away from my productivity and sales performance to spend the time figuring out the new interface.

Finally one day, I promised myself that I would live exclusively in Lightning. I would make the complete switch and work on making Lightning work for me. If I was honest with myself, how could I continue to be effective in my role if I couldn’t speak to how InGenius Connector Enterprise interacts with the newest versions of CRM platforms?

To make the transition, I armed myself with a notepad and pen. Each time I switched back to my configured Classic console to accomplish a task, I made a note. This became my record of what I needed to work through in Lightning.

Soon my list took shape, but surprisingly enough, as I committed to navigating my way through the unfamiliar halls of Lightning, I found myself appreciating it more and more. Compared to Classic, I found shortcuts and more efficient ways to complete the same tasks.

Part of what makes Lightning so usable is its configurability. Despite my dedication, there were some changes I needed my Salesforce specialists to implement. But armed with my trusty notepad, it was an easy process to make my requests.

I’ve now been using Lightning exclusively for three weeks and despite my initial hesitation I can honestly say that I no longer want to use Salesforce Classic. The emails I send from Salesforce, along with the use of InGenius Connector Enterprise for my outbound calls, have far surpassed my performance in Classic console. I can now reach more customers and make more valuable connections, which have not only improved my sales performance but my customer’s satisfaction as well.

At the risk of sounding cliché: Try something new, reach beyond your comfort zone, take risks and you will be richer for the experience, the Lightning experience.