Have You Been Searching The Internet For A “Salesforce Consultant Near Me?

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If You Been Searching The Internet For A “Salesforce Consultant Near Me”, We Can Help!

Have you been searching the Internet for a “Salesforce consultant near me?” Do you need a Salesforce consultant to help you implement Salesforce for your business? Are you worried that the consultant or firm you find won’t have the right expertise to set you up for success? Let me offer you a few tips about the best way to find an experienced Salesforce consultant who can point you on the right path to generate the returns you’re seeking with a Salesforce implementation for your business.

Many businesses looking for a Salesforce consultant either already have Salesforce and are looking for assistance with their current Salesforce implementation OR they are looking for a Salesforce consultant to help them with a planned Salesforce implementation based on their unique needs for their business and industry. In either case, a basic set of guidelines can help you accomplish your objectives for implementing Salesforce from scratch or adding enhancements to an existing Salesforce org in a transparent and cost-effective manner.

Things to Look for in a Salesforce Consultant

First, you should always look for a Salesforce partner who has expertise implementing Salesforce solutions in your industry vertical or a business sector similar to yours. Industries like construction, manufacturing, medical and pharmaceutical, real estate, etc. have unique elements that are best supported in their Salesforce adoption or enhancement by consultants familiar with how those businesses operate, the types of information they need to track, and the outcomes they measure to determine progress and success. It’s obvious that a Salesforce consultant you work with should have subject matter expertise in all of Salesforce’s functionality and features but also, it’s vital that your consultant understands your business and the sector in which you operate.

Another attribute in a Salesforce consultant that is important is whether or not he or she has familiarity with all of Salesforce’s offerings. This is particularly true for businesses who are just beginning the process of implementing Salesforce. While most Salesforce consultants are familiar with Sales Cloud and many with Service Cloud, most are not familiar with Salesforce Platform. Furthermore, if you are working with a Salesforce direct account executive, he or she will rarely ever tell you about Salesforce Platform. Salesforce Platform is just as useful for customers as Sales Cloud but is less expensive. It is an offering that is available but is not usually suggested to businesses because consultants don’t even know it’s available for potential Salesforce customers. You’re probably wondering, “What’s the difference between Salesforce Platform and Sales Cloud?” First, there is a significant price difference. Generally, Salesforce Platform runs anywhere between $20-$150 per user per month less than a Sales Cloud implementation. Doing the simple math in the case of 10 users, that adds up to between $2400-$18,000 annually in license costs alone. This amount doesn’t even include any additional consulting fees you might have built into your budget. Certain standard Salesforce objects are not available in Platform. However, the functionality of those objects can easily be replicated for your specific needs in a custom object. In the end, you can accomplish the same amount of functionality for less money all in Salesforce Platform – but only so long as you have a Salesforce consultant who can advise you about the existence of Platform and how it can be implemented.

In addition to the attributes listed above, it’s important when looking for a Salesforce consultant to find someone who meets you where you are in your business.

Many Salesforce consultants will advocate for more advanced technology and functionality in the form of complicated customizations, flows, and other automations. While these can be very useful, they often are not needed by a business. Or, a business is not yet ready for them. Instead, the business is better served by maximizing Salesforce’s foundational elements for activity history tracking of calls, appointments, and emails; optimizing email integrations for Outlook and Gmail to track tasks and other activities; and adopting user processes for utilizing chatter and other Salesforce collaboration features. At CloudArc, we advise clients to always begin with basic technology implementation that stresses use of the existing Salesforce “out of the box features.” Once processes have been defined and users are comfortable with those features, then customizations, automations, etc. may be considered to further a business’s objectives in using Salesforce to generate return on investment. Our fundamental guidance is: start simple and only add complexity after your users have embraced the tool and your business has started to grow beyond the basic Salesforce functionality.

Finally, we suggest businesses look for a Salesforce consultant who will help them implement lasting user behaviors with adoption of the technology. It’s not uncommon to hear stories of businesses that license Salesforce and work with a consultant to build out the system only to find themselves with technology that users don’t like or use and for which managers question the value based on their return on investment. Different factors can account for this outcome so it’s essential to find a consultant who will work with you to ensure you don’t end up with noncompliant users and frustrated managers.

A good Salesforce consultant will help you bridge these types of gaps to make users comfortable early on and reinforce system usage and adoption through manager buy-in.

This is accomplished by your consultant in a couple of ways.

• Training: A consultant should work closely with you to identify what generic Salesforce training your users and managers will need as well as what specific training your users and managers will need. At CloudArc, we provide training content to our customers that is not only general in nature about the basic features of Salesforce but also we create specific training content for customers based on their unique needs. We provide both synchronous and asynchronous training so a user can access the content real-time if he or she is confused or unclear about how a feature in the system works.
• Reports and dashboards: Salesforce consultants should also work with you to carefully identify what information is most critical to track through reports and dashboards. One of the hallmark features of Salesforce, reports and dashboards quickly roll up data to show to users, groups, divisions and managers different “pictures” of information they each need to track and measure. These views enable individuals and decision makers to see how the business is progressing in meeting its goals and objectives.

When looking for a Salesforce Consultant Near Me

When looking for a Salesforce consultant, it’s important to find someone with whom you can work and who understands your business. It’s also critical to find someone who knows the nuanced license options available within Salesforce. Finding a consultant who not only knows the technology and the license offerings, but also understands how to plan for technology adoption that starts simply and only adds complexity when necessary, is vital for businesses optimizing their Salesforce implementation. Locating a Salesforce consultant who is able to advise you through the processes described above as well as help you formulate reports and dashboards to inform behaviors is all the more important to create a valued tool that will serve your business interests for years to come.

Learn more about the CloudArc Approach

If you would like to learn more about the CloudArc approach that is based on the processes and guidelines described herein, register for our upcoming Webinar to get a front row seat with our experts and a zero pressure introduction.

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