Tips for Choosing The Right Salesforce Consulting Partner

Salesforce, a robust CRM platform, is projected to touch USD 18.03 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 7.9% during the forecast period. (Business Research Insights)  With its growing global presence being truly able to maximize its potential to streamline your business operations becomes a daunting task.

That’s where Salesforce consulting partners come into the picture. They are a business’s strategic allies that help maximize the value of their Salesforce investment. The consultants deliver expert guidance and valuable advice across a variety of services to ensure alignment with one’s business objectives and drive project success.

Further, a report by Statista states that leveraging the power of Salesforce to its fullest helps clear the common pitfalls that lead to a 63% failure rate in CRM projects. Therefore, selecting the best partner among many is indeed a crucial decision. To help you make the right decision, this blog guides you through tips and evaluation criteria to choose among the best Salesforce consulting partners. 

Let’s dive in!

Pre-Requisites Of Opting For A Consulting Partner

Before you end up making a final decision, consider evaluating your current business situation. Look for where your business stands and how a Salesforce consulting partner can help you boost your growth. 

• Start by Assessing Your Goals 

Clearly define your objectives and goals as to why you want to partner with a consulting firm. What are the challenges that you are facing right now? Are you unable to start with the implementation process, or are you not able to make the most of your Salesforce investment? Be clear about all the challenges you are facing and how Salesforce can cater to them with ease. 

Having a clear picture of where you want to reach allows you to concentrate on the specific solutions you can seek. Moreover, think of what benefits or opportunities your business can seek after these challenges are addressed. 

Assessing your goals not only helps you decide what solutions you want but also from who you want. You can compare your requirements with the potential partner’s offerings and evaluate whether they can deliver those results.

• Conduct Your Own Research

When talking about potential partners, you must conduct thorough research on consulting firms that can meet your unique requirements. Rather than opting for a general partner, consider all the challenges you are facing and how the partners specifically deal with them. Try looking for the ones with industry expertise. If you find partners who specialize in your specific industry segment, what could be a better option than that? 

Further, go through their website, read case studies, success stories, and customer reviews. Also, you can connect with their customers to know how and what benefits they got by acquiring services. 

It is suggested to go through the AppExchange marketplace to seek reviews, as it is one of the most trusted sources by Salesforce. Here you get every detail about the partner on a single page. The services they are offering, their expertise in a particular domain, the projects they have worked on, and other relevant information. 

• Avoid Rushing 

Don’t feel the pressure to choose the first or immediate Salesforce consulting partner you meet. As discussed, conduct proper research and take your time to connect and conduct interviews. 

Don’t hesitate to ask relevant questions that can help you make the right decision, such as those related to cost, examples of similar projects they have catered to, what is their implementation approach, and their plan or process of execution. 

Further, amongst many, narrow down your search and perform comparisons. See which partner offers a multitude of benefits on a lower budget. But consider quality service as your top priority. 

• Discuss With Your Project Teams

Discuss with your internal teams about the potential partners you have listed out. As, they are the ones who work over the system and know of all the whereabouts. Therefore, establish a clear communication channel between your internal teams and consulting partners. It is your internal teams who would be closely working with them and ensuring their comfort is a priority. Plus, it is required to keep everyone informed, aligned, and on the same page to achieve a successful Salesforce implementation.

Factors To Consider While Choosing A Salesforce Consulting Partner

Below are some of the key factors that you must consider while evaluating a consulting partner. By doing so, you check off the right checklist and end up making a decision that will be fruitful for you in the long run.

1. Experience

See if the Salesforce consulting partner has worked on a similar project to yours. Gain insight into their project success rate, as it helps you determine whether they will be able to handle the dynamic requirements of your business.

You can judge their potential by looking at how well they handled problems that occurred during the implementation process. Also, this is an added advantage, as they have already dealt with issues, know how to avoid them while working with you, and won’t repeat the same mistakes.

Consider asking them questions like:

• Have they worked on a similar project?
• If yes, then what is the success rate?
• Do you have industry-specific experience?

2. Expertise

Evaluating the expertise of a company can help you gain insight into how well they are doing in a particular domain and what competence they bring. You can know their strengths and how they will benefit you during the partnership tenure. To evaluate the same, consider the following:

Salesforce Partner Level

Salesforce consulting partners have four tier levels, starting with Base, Ridge, Crest, and Summit Partners. These tiers are assigned to a company after they pass a strict evaluation bar for quality.

Industry-Specific Expertise

Being a business, you must be serving a particular industry. Plus, when you have clearly stated your objectives, it is better to evaluate relevant expertise rather than evaluating generalized expertise of the company you will be partnering with.

Salesforce Certifications

Ask this question: What Salesforce certifications does your team possess?

Certifications are important as they denote one’s expertise in a particular domain. It acts as proof that professionals have met the rigorous standards set by Salesforce and possess the required skills and knowledge.

Therefore, to ensure the collaboration of the right experts with your team, look for the following certifications:

• Salesforce Administrator
• App Builder
• Architect
• Implementation expert or Consultant
• Developer
• Marketer
• Pardot expert
• CPQ Specialist

One such Salesforce consulting partner is Cyntexa, with over 400 certified professionals. They help you with all things related to Salesforce and prioritize customer requirements to develop tailored solutions.

Additional Questions You Can Ask:

• Which industry projects have you catered for the most?
• What was the success rate of those projects?
• What specific industry expert do you consider yourself?
• Do you have any MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) or specific industry experts in your team?

If the company answers with a yes to the MVP question, then congratulations! You are a step closer to choosing the right partner. MVP is a professional recognized by Salesforce for their exceptional knowledge, leadership, and community contributions.

Cyntexa takes pride in having Shrey Sharma as the CEO, who is recognized as the youngest MVP (2019).

3. Services They Offer

Now that we talked about pricing, you must also see what services you are getting for that particular quote. Ensure that your Salesforce consulting partner offers comprehensive services starting from the initial stage of assessment, designing, and then going further with development, implementation, and training until offering ongoing support.

Moreover, the partner must be able to meet your unique and business-centric goals. Customizing the platform as per your needs while keeping it aligned and centric towards your business goals is a must to do practice.

If you wish to assess their competence, ask for a trial or demo service where they work on a specific part of your project. Their approach and performance help you decide whether they are the perfect fit for your business or not.

By opting for a company that provides a variety of services, you can be confident that all your requirements will be taken care of efficiently and effectively. This will allow you to focus on your core business objectives without worrying about the technicalities.

4. Go Through Customer Reviews

What’s a better way to decide than by listening to existing customers’ opinions of a consulting company? Thus, go through customer reviews on different websites and see what past or existing customers have to say about the company.

Feel free to ask the company for their client references. This gives you an idea of their reliability and credibility. This should be the foremost thing that you should do after learning about a consulting firm.

5. Pricing And Engagement Model

Cost should not be the only consideration, but it is one of the most important aspects when it comes to choosing a partnering firm. Some partners might offer fixed pricing, while others prefer to work on time or project basis. It is up to you as to which pricing and engagement model suits your business the best.

You can ask for quotes based on different engagement models, compare them, and then make the right decision.

Prioritize a firm that is transparent and offers comparative pricing. There are no hidden or additional costs involved in their pricing model, and everything is clearly stated.

Also, consider your budget plan. It is not always necessary that a firm that charges more for its services will only guarantee quality work. This is why other factors should also be considered.

6. Other Important Roles And Responsibilities

You not only require human resource centric to Salesforce expertise but also other key staff that work to cater to the day-to-day activities parallel to the implementation process. 

Consider asking your partner what other expert areas they would cater to, to make your existing system compatible with Salesforce. 

Here is a list of roles to help you decide better: 

• Requirements or data architect: These professionals are responsible for assessing your business’s requirements and transferring them to developers after a proper understanding. Also, they assess your existing data, ensuring it is clean and accurate before it migrates to Salesforce platform.
• Change management consultant: Some businesses might require undergoing change in their environment to ensure the success of Salesforce implementation. Therefore, these professionals are responsible for assessing the current scenario of your business and further describing the changes that are to be made to fit in with Salesforce implementation.
• Technical project and consultant management: A person or a team of professionals from the partner’s side who are responsible for managing their own tasks to ensure the project or task deadline is met. You would report them if your integration causes a problem or Salesforce suddenly stops working. 

7. Post-implementation support

Even after a successful implementation, your Salesforce environment will undergo major updates and advancements in the future that meet the changing demands of businesses. Therefore, to ensure its optimal working throughout, you need maintenance and support services to deal with inefficiencies and seek the right advice over an advancement.  

Hence, evaluate whether the consulting partner offers these services or not. If they do, then what is their response time? Also, inquire about the channel of communication—email, which requires a few days, or direct communication with immediate resolution.

Conclusion

Choosing the right Salesforce consulting company is a critical decision that can significantly impact your business’s growth. The selection requires thorough research and a tight hand on your budget. The aim is to optimally allocate your investment to a company that steps up with you and proves to be a scaling solution.

By considering the pre-requisites and above factors, you can select a company that aligns with your business objectives and can effectively guide you through your org.