Choosing a Salesforce partner is an important decision.. This goes far beyond looking at who is available or who is the cheapest. It is a decision that you should consider carefully with your team, because choosing wrong could have persecution for both your company and your clients, and choosing wisely has great benefits.
In this post, we’ve put together a list of seven qualities you should look for in a Salesforce partner before making a decision. These tips could go a long way in hiring a Salesforce CRM consulting partner who identifies with your business, commits to your goals, and helps your business get the most out of this important investment.
Look For Salesforce Certifications:
Knowledge is the number one thing you should look for in a Salesforce partner and any Salesforce CRM consulting partner should have various certifications in order to successfully help your business.
While there are more than 30 Salesforce-issued certifications that could demonstrate a partner’s knowledge and ability, that doesn’t mean you have to have them all. The choice of certifications to seek will depend on the nature of your company, its needs and what is intended to be achieved with the implementation of the CRM.
Understanding Your Business:
The ideal Salesforce partner is the one who puts themselves in your shoes. A partner or any partner will work to provide a specific solution and offer support to your company for a certain time or period. However, a quality Salesforce CRM partner is one that cares about deeply understanding your business needs and strives to offer the most complete solution, regardless of the timeline.
Avoid those Salesforce vendors or consultants who rush in and out of your office, the ideal partner will not abandon you at the end of the contract.
But how do you identify a partner that shows understanding for your business? Approach those partners who, from the first interviews or conversations, focus on helping you find long-term value and not on the execution of the project.
Also, an ideal partner will not try to sell you the moon. The ideal partner will look for a solution that fits your needs, taking the time to understand the current processes, the budget and any other data that is relevant to the project.
Do They Have the Intent or Ability?
A Salesforce consulting partner should be able to design a clear process for your company from start to finish. So when asking questions of a potential vendor or consultant, consider whether they have the intent and ability to plan and execute a well-structured implementation process.
Knowing Salesforce CRM is great, but understanding how an organization fits into a big technology strategy is even better. Salesforce implementations for larger companies require proficiency beyond Salesforce development.
Look for a partner who knows the technology, looks at the big picture, and is also able to put together a tailor-made plan before taking on the job.
Determine their Confidence Level:
Salesforce CRM implementation the most important thing is to build great relationships so that everyone succeeds while always providing great customer service.
Look for a partner that inspires confidence and with whom you can imagine working in the long term. Although, it is possible that right now you are thinking of executing only one project, but surely over time new needs will arise that require the support of a trusted Salesforce expert.
Ability To Solve Problems:
An extremely valuable and important skill in a Salesforce partner is the ability to solve complex problems. Industry experience and Salesforce certifications can help a partner solve common situations, but an ideal partner should be able to customize through creativity to solve your company’s unique problems.
Application Development and Architecture:
Another quality of a partner that can help make a difference in a Salesforce CRM implementation project is their vision and innovative mindset. In principle, a CRM is a technology equipped to serve all (or almost all) the business needs of a company. However, the reality is that it is not the best for every problem.
There are plenty of third-party solutions and apps that can integrate with Salesforce, and a partner or consultant needs to be open-minded and capable enough to develop a consistent, custom architecture for your business.
Industry Experience and References:
Lastly, another important quality to look at in a Salesforce partner before making a decision is their experience in your industry and references from other clients.
Industry experience can be a huge advantage when it comes to outlining capabilities, mapping business needs, and adhering to implementation best practices.
A Salesforce partner or consultant with experience in the industry your business is in will have a deeper understanding of your specific pain points and be able to offer educated, well-researched solutions on how to use Salesforce to solve the problems you face every day.
Keep in mind that the more experience a Salesforce consultant has, the better equipped they are to meet your needs and overcome some of the common challenges.
So before making a decision, check out the potential partner’s experience by looking at the references posted on their website, asking previous customers, and researching the most relevant success stories.
The Bottom Line:
So you must have understood how to choose the right Salesforce partner for your business.
Choosing the right Salesforce CRM platform partner for your company is just the first step in a long journey. Whether you’re starting from scratch with your Salesforce CRM implementation or need a partner’s help to execute a special project or receive assistance and support, having the right implementation partner is key to being successful with this tool and achieving things never seen before in your sales team.
At OFS, our experts will help you leverage the Salesforce capabilities (Service, Sales, Community, Marketing etcetera…) and grow your business potentials by many folds. We deliver based on industry best practice templates and further customize the org to fit nuances, as required by business use cases. Consulting with us would let you choose from a range of standard configurations and best practices that comes pre-built with the ecosystem, which we help in identifying for you depending upon your business needs.