Investing solely in a Salesforce Customer Relationship Management tool doesn’t guarantee you success in business or necessarily improve your customer relationship strategy. You still have a long way to go even after you have implemented Salesforce integration services for your company. To successfully implement those services, you require a Salesforce Consulting partner, to provide the expert business assistance that supports the operations in your organization. They can advise both technical and non-technical implementation of Salesforce CRM.
Normally, when a startup business implements Salesforce, they need to roll-out proper Salesforce training for their employees to make the implementation a success. And that’s when they are required to hire a Salesforce Consultant. As valuable as the Salesforce CRM tool is, implementing it into your workforce can draw a bit of challenge. There will always be a few speed bumps in the road when your team transitions to working on new technology. A dedicated Salesforce consultant not only helps you integrate the CRM in your organization but make this transition smoother getting your team through the process.
The only concerning part is deciding whether a Salesforce consulting company, partner or Salesforce consultant is a right fit for your project or not. If you want to evaluate the suitability of a Salesforce consultant, more importantly, learn the key practices to consider before hiring a Salesforce Integration Consultant. Then you have come to the right place. Before we tell you that you, You should know why to hire a Salesforce Consultant in the first place.
Why Hire a Salesforce Consultant to Implement your CRM?
Being certified, experienced and skilled professionals, Salesforce consultant isn’t just capable of making your implementation worthwhile. There are, in fact, several benefits a company can reap by hiring a Salesforce consultant, and below are few of them.
Focused Services
Say you work on the Salesforce setup and customization by yourself. But you and your team already have a lot of internal work on hand. The work gets stacked up, next thing you know, you are unable to handle the workload and miss something essential along the way. Recruiting a professional to manage the Salesforce integration challenges, lets you close the matters at hand without any distractions.
Time-Saving
The response time of Salesforce consulting companies is high, which is a time-saving process. Being highly experienced and skilled in this technology, these consultants know the tiniest detail of implementation. Which makes it easier for you to explain the complete problem set and customization requirements your company requires. As we have learned from the experience, saved up time will only help your business to stay ahead of the competition.
Quicker configuration
Once you're done with the setup process, every time you introduce a new extension or product to the platform, you need to configure that particular product. Your internal team can take hours or even days completing a simple job which can be done in a matter of minutes. Consultants know exactly where to look for, and how to configure individual settings that will speed up the process.
Quality and experienced outside opinion
A consultant can come in handy whenever you need any outside opinion on making a decision related to the Salesforce platform. On top of that, the consultant can offer you complete and precise knowledge of the problem you are dealing with, thus suggesting the optimum solution.
Improved User Adoption
A Salesforce CRM tool doesn't do any good when users fail to implement it well. With the help of Salesforce Consulting Partners, you will be able to improve user adoption and help employees embrace the new technology. They equip you with the necessary tools and implement the strategies that are important to the user's adoption. Which in return, improves your business performance in the long run.
Things to consider before hiring a Salesforce Consultant
To examine if the Salesforce consultant suits your project completely or not, you need to know what questions to ask. Same goes for your in-house practices and key policies to consider for hiring a Salesforce consultant. Which is precisely what we provided in our selective set of questions or practices to determine the right fit.
Note: We also want to put it out there that there’s nothing like a best consultant. If a consultant satisfies your business needs and delivers the result you want, then he becomes the best consultant.
- Certification: Make sure the consulting company possesses all the necessary certifications required for your particular business needs.
- Cost: Make a strict budget for hiring a consultant and see if the amount you are willing to spend in doing that fits within your budget.
- Experience: It’s better to keep searching for other prospects if the experience of the Salesforce consultant doesn’t match your needs.
- Reviews: Check what their previous clients have to say about the company.
- Clear Communication: It’s important that a consultant maintains clear communication with you. It will be a key factor for sales and the project process.
- Free trial: Don’t hesitate to ask for a free trial as many Salesforce consultants are providing that lately.
- Time Period: Ask for the general time frame they take to complete a specific task.
- Scalability: Check whether or not your company is going to face scalability issue in the future
Project design considerations for Salesforce Consultants
- Set up a project overview document that outlines the timelines with checkpoints.
- Know the total time fixed by the consultant for discovery, prototype reviews, validation, testing, feasibility study etc?
- Does your project need offshore resources? If yes, then what would be time zones? If time zones are different then what is the mode of communication?
- How would you check the project growths, and what would be communication models throughout the project?
- Ask if they are going to follow agile or adaptive methods. If there is any case study or resource that could help you to understand how the process will be conducted.
Technical issues counselling by Salesforce Consultants
- Are there any scalability issues that you can face going forward?
- Is there any compliance issue that should be discussed before starting?
- Does the project require any kind of custom code creation? If yes, then to what extent?
- Can you face any user adoption obstacle for this project?
- If there is any requirement for any third-party products or custom apps.
- Do you need cloud computing for the project from outside the SFDC platform?
Technical practices for Salesforce Consultants
- How will the consultants access the systems? Whether they have dedicated users, shared or licensed ones?
- Check their experience in Salesforce Lightning, Classic, and Salesforce1 mobile app.
- Which backup tool or configuration setup are they using?
- What are the coding standards being followed by consulting authorities?
- What would be the size of the APEX test code and at which phase they will be created?
- How large the APEX trigger and method should be?
- Is there any rollback method recommended by the consultant?
Take Away
While evaluating whether you need Salesforce consulting partners, think about the problems you want to resolve at both a business and a technology end. And if a Salesforce integration consulting company has the skills, expertise, and ability to resolve those things then go for it.
With that in mind, Evon Technologies would make a perfect partner for your Salesforce integration needs. We have worked with small, independent companies and large corporations to provide Salesforce development services in India and everywhere else, so they make the most of this platform. With the help of our Salesforce developers and experts, your team will experience a smooth transition to the CRM platform. This, in turn, will enable a streamlined workflow to improve internal and external communications in your organisation. Need further guidance? Contact us today or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to start this journey with us.