Tips for Evaluating the Expertise of a Salesforce Consulting Partner?

Do you know implementing Salesforce can truly transform your business operations and customer experiences? However, having the right Salesforce consulting partner makes all the difference. With so many firms out there, however, how do you determine which one is the ideal match for your needs? 

Here are some secret tips you need to know:

Define Your Business Requirements First

Before even starting your partner search, take a step back to clearly define your goals and needs for optimizing Salesforce. What are the current bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or gaps in your business processes? How could Salesforce improve areas like customer tracking, sales operations, marketing capabilities, or anything else? Having a solid handle on your specific needs allows you to effectively communicate them to prospective partners from the get-go. It ensures they understand exactly what you require and can propose tailored solutions.

Industry Expertise is Invaluable  

Salesforce is highly flexible and can be customized for any industry, such as:

• Healthcare
• Finance
• Manufacturing
• Retail, and more

However, each field faces its nuances, regulations, and potential roadblocks. A salesforce CRM consulting partner that specializes in your particular industry can leverage deep contextual understanding to shape better solutions. They’ll know the needs, processes, and best practices for your line of business inside and out. While generalist partners exist, niche industry experts tend to provide the highest value.

Look at Their Certifications

Salesforce offers a wide range of certifications that validate skills and knowledge across their various tools and capabilities. When vetting partners, pay close attention to what relevant certifications their team holds. 

For example, if your project will involve complex customizations or coding, look for certified Salesforce developers. 

If you need to implement marketing cloud tools, seek out certified marketing consultants and specialists. The more certifications a potential partner has lined up with your project needs, the more confidence you can have in their hands-on expertise to deliver.

Ask for Examples of Prior Work

A top-notch Salesforce partner should be able and willing to provide case studies and walk-throughs of their past projects in detail. Review these examples carefully:

• Were their past clients similar to your company in size and industry? 
• Did the projects have comparable complexity, processes, and scale to yours? 
• How did they navigate hurdles and what were the outcomes? 

Seeing concrete examples of their real-world experience allows you to validate their capabilities rather than taking their pitch at face value. If they can’t provide relevant case studies, it may signal a lack of proven expertise.

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Assess Their Salesforce Knowledge  

In discussions with the potential salesforce partner company, ask very specific, detailed questions about your particular requirements. Listen carefully to how they respond:

• Do their answers demonstrate a thorough, nuanced understanding of Salesforce’s functionality? 
• Do they seem to lack insights into the technical considerations and potential limitations? 

A top partner will be able to have an intelligent back-and-forth dialogue using plain language. They should never rely solely on pre-scripted sales messaging. If they can’t articulate substantive, thoughtful responses to your questions, it may raise doubts about their true expertise level.

Understand Their Processes  

Successfully implementing Salesforce requires much more than just technical know-how. You’ll also want to carefully evaluate the consulting processes, methodologies, and overall governance protocols a potential partner follows. Figure out:

• How do they comprehensively gather requirements and design custom solutions? 
• What are their quality assurance practices for testing and user acceptance? 
• How will they drive ongoing training for your team? 

However, a lack of defined, streamlined processes and milestones can often lead to project delays or missteps. The strongest partners will have transparent, replicable frameworks, communication plans, and ways to ensure long-term effectiveness.

Look at the Full Project Team  

Salesforce deployments require an array of key roles and skills, for instance:

• Developers
• Architects
• Administrators
• Project managers

Look beyond the number of people to the structure and specialization of a potential partner’s project team. You need to figure out:

• Will you have professionals specializing in both technical and functional areas? 
• Who will own what responsibilities and how will they collaborate? 
• What qualifications do your primary project lead and key contacts have? 

Get Customer References

Don’t just take a partner’s word for their expertise and quality service and ask for customer references you can speak to. When you talk to those references, go beyond surface-level questioning for example:

• Get specifics on how the partner handled change requests, roadblocks, and evolving scope. 
• Were they available and communicative throughout the project duration? 
• What was their process for documentation and knowledge transfer? 
• Were there any unexpected costs or delays? 

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Discuss Support Plans and Roadmap  

As you evaluate partners, ask about their offerings and plans for continued maintenance, upgrades, and support after going live. What channels will be available to get assistance if issues arise? Do they have training programs to keep your team current on new Salesforce innovations? The strongest Salesforce partners take a long-view approach to driving continued success rather than cutting ties post-deployment.

Review Availability and Responsiveness  

Even if a partner checks all the right technical boxes, subpar responsiveness, and availability can quickly lead to frustrations and bottlenecks. From the very start of evaluation conversations, take note of how attentive and timely they are in communications and information sharing. 

Are there lags in response times or is it difficult to get answers? If so, it may be a sign of poor responsiveness to come later. Additionally, discuss their current workload and bandwidth to properly staff and prioritize your implementation based on required deadlines. You want to feel confident they can dedicate enough focus and resources without being spread too thin.

No partner will be perfect in every area, but taking the time to carefully assess factors like industry expertise, relevant certifications, technical knowledge, team structure, processes, service standards, and responsiveness will go a long way. 

Conclusion

By following these tips and carefully evaluating the expertise of potential partners, you can ensure that you find the right partner to help you achieve your goals. Ready to take your sales and marketing to new heights? Partner with WhiteRock and experience the difference that expertise, dedication, and innovation can make. Boost your business with us!