when choosing a salesforce partner€¦ · with salesforce, there are variety of different ways to...

19 QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN CHOOSING ASALESFORCE PARTNER

19 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Salesforce Partner 2

WORKING WITH A PARTNER

Don’t Go It Alone

Why Working Without a Salesforce Partner is a Gamble3

5PREPARATION

Under the Microscope

The Importance of Self-Evaluation & Setting Expectations

Questions 1-7

6EVALUATION

Interviewing Partners

How to Determine Which Partner is the Best Match for Your Business

13CONCLUSION

Work With VennScience

A Firm for Discerning Clients

Quantitative Questions 8 -117

Qualitative Questions 12 -199

Table of Contents


There’s no sense in sugarcoating it: If you can’t afford Salesforce expertise, you can’t afford Salesforce. You need both to be successful.

Harsh as this sentiment might seem, it isn’t intended to discourage would-be Salesforce

users but rather to impress upon them the potential risks associated with attempting

an implementation (or other similar projects) without the assistance of an expert. At

first glance, Salesforce might seem like a simple point-and-click system — but when

you dig deeper, you’ll notice that it’s a vast platform and that figuring out where to

begin can be an exhaustive effort.

With Salesforce, there are variety of different ways to complete the same task or

accomplish the same goal. For example, to automate a business process you could:

• Create a workflow rule

• Write a process builder

• Enlist the services of a developer to write an API for an Apex trigger

• Use a quick action

Each of these methods is a perfectly viable option, however, only an experienced

implementation specialist can determine which is the right option within the context

of your larger implementation strategy and plans for the future. Some companies are

fortunate to have full-time experts on staff. Most companies — even those with full-

time experts — look to Salesforce’s partner network to fill this vital role.


Don’t Go It AloneWhy Working Without a Salesforce Partner is a Gamble


Making the wrong choice for this and other similar decisions could have long-lasting,

negative effects on your system and cause additional expenses in the future when you

inevitably have to rip and replace. From a consultant’s perspective, it’s exponentially

more expensive and time-consuming for both parties — client and partner — to repair

or replace poor implementation than to do it correctly the first time.

Businesses that attempt a Salesforce implementation without assistance often lack

the resources to deploy and roll out systems to their user base without affecting day-

to-day productivity and are often unable to triage problems in a timely manner. User

enablement is another area in which businesses without a Salesforce partner struggle.

Effective user enablement is an art form and a skill developed through multiple cycles

of training exercises. In order to drive user adoption, organizations must provide

comprehensive user training and be able to understand and answer any questions

end users might have.

We’re glad you asked. Our team of experts has assembled this comprehensive list of

questions for both internal and external evaluation specifically to help you identify the

right partner and get started on your Salesforce journey.

Don’t Go It Alone

With hundreds of Salesforce partners to choose from,

how can you know which one will be the best fit for both

your business and your particular implementation?



PREPARATION

Under the MicroscopeThe Importance of Self-Evaluation & Setting Expectations

Before you begin your search for a Salesforce partner, put your organization under the microscope

to gain a better understanding of your unique business needs and expectations for the project.

This information is critical when interviewing potential partners because it will help you determine

whether a partner’s core values align with your own and whether they have the ability to integrate

seamlessly into the unique ways in which your business functions. Consider the following

questions a rubric for internal evaluation.

1. What’s important to your business?

• Would you prefer to work with a smaller firm that can provide high-touch service, or a larger consultancy with a low-touch approach?

• What kind of reputation are you looking for in a consultant?

• Do you want a partner that is local?

• Do you tend to pay for top expertise or budget for lowest price available?

• Do you want to build a long-term relationship with your Salesforce partner?

• Do you want to maintain this implemen-tation internally or do you want to outsource maintenance?

2. Who in your organization will manage the relationship with your implementation partner?

3. Who in your organization will be responsible for measuring the success of the implementation?

4. What sort of timeline do you want to establish for this project?

5. How does your organization define success?

6. Do you have a clear vision for the prospective outcome of this project?

7. Do you want an off-the-shelf implemen-tation, or an implementation tailored to your organization’s specific needs?


Quantitative questions help you establish a baseline for a consulting firm’s level of

experience, while qualitative questions help you understand the consultant’s typical

approach to implementation and what it might be like to work with them. Combined,

these questions will provide a complete picture of a potential Salesforce partner and

the quality of the services they offer.

When evaluating potential Salesforce partners,

there are two types of questions you’ll want to ask:

quantitative questions and qualitative questions.

Pro TipOne mark of a good Salesforce partner is whether they ask you as many

questions as you ask them; this demonstrates that they’re curious, thorough, and

committed to doing the best job possible. A proper vendor should bring expertise,

perspective, and experience to your implementation; hiring someone to blindly

take orders counteracts many of the benefits of partnering with a Salesforce shop.

EVALUATION

Interviewing PartnersHow to Determine Which Partner is the Best Match for Your Business


Do you have Salesforce-certified experts on your team?

As mentioned in section one, “Working With a Partner,” experience is absolutely essential

when embarking on a Salesforce implementation. The more experienced the team

supporting you, the more likely your project is to succeed — and few in the field are

more experienced than Salesforce-certified specialists. Take care to thoroughly vet the

credentials of each potential Salesforce partner, as well as their familiarity with the system

or systems you intend to deploy.

Also, know that not all certifications are created equal. Certified Administrators aren’t

typically as qualified as Certified Consultants (of which there are unique certifications across

Salesforce’s various clouds: Sales, Service, Community, and so on). Best of all are Architect-

level certifications, which impart the highest domain-level expertise available on Salesforce.

It’s important to find a partner that has Certified Consultant resources — ideally, Architect

resources — to support the design, solution-building, and vision of your organization. Be

wary of partners that only provide Certified Administrators or App Builders.

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Quantitative Questions


Will the resources assigned to my project be junior-level or experienced?

Again, everything comes down to experience. Although a junior-level team might bring a

great deal of enthusiasm to the table, they’re less established and less likely to have the

expertise to effectively execute a Salesforce implementation on the first go-round. Most

of the best Salesforce implementation experiences are borne out of prior experiences.

Experienced consultants can bring ideas to the table that are derived from other

industries, business functions, and technologies to ensure that you’re getting the best

solution possible. Bearing this in mind, look to partner with a Salesforce consulting firm

with a proven track record and a demonstrated history of success.

What level of redundancy does your team offer?

Similar to how system engineers build redundancies into implementations to avoid creating

a single point of failure, it’s important that your Salesforce partner build redundancies

into their team. Rather than have a single individual (the single point of contact in this

analogy) act as your go-to expert and point of contact, your partner should have multiple

professionals capable of handling any challenges that you might face.

You should also gauge whether the Salesforce partner in question organizes its resources

to accommodate for vacation schedules, unscheduled leave, and other expected

disruptions to the work environment. More than just a deep bench, it’s vital that your

partner have multiple resources aware of your project and be able to capably step into a

disrupted resource’s shoes should the need arise.

How do you intend to manage the scope of the project?

In an ideal world, every project would play out exactly as anticipated during the initial

planning stages. In reality, however, that is rarely the case. Because of this, it’s important

that your Salesforce partner has a clearly defined plan for how to adapt to changes in the

scope of the project or in your organization’s needs.

QUANTITATIVE QUESTIONS

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Does your organization’s culture closely align with mine?

“Culture” might seem like a vague concept, but it’s an important one. A partnership can

be a long-term relationship across multiple projects and requires close collaboration

between your team and your Salesforce partner, so it’s important that you genuinely

get along on both the business level and a personal level. By asking this question, you

can establish a potential partner’s core values and determine whether you take a similar

approach to projects.

Do your organization’s goals for this project closely align with mine?

Think back, for a moment, to your days in grade school and to group projects. You

might recall that such projects were either a blessing or a curse depending on who

you were assigned to work with: Pair up with someone who shared your vision, and

the project would go smoothly (and might even be fun to complete); get stuck with

someone with a wildly different vision, and things would quickly go off the rails.

You can apply the same line of thinking to working with a Salesforce partner on a system

deployment. If you and your partner don’t see eye-to-eye on project objectives, you’re

more likely to encounter issues along the way that could, potentially, delay the project or

derail it entirely.

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Qualitative Questions


Pro TipExtra points awarded to partners with experience across a range of methodologies

and that are comfortable adopting the methodology your firm uses most frequently.

Does your implementation methodology align with my organization’s

previous experience?

There are multiple models for software development and project management but two

stand out as the most mature: waterfall and agile. The waterfall method — the more

traditional of the two — is a linear design that moves through project phases sequentially.

As a result, it is less flexible than other models. The agile method takes a more collaborative

approach to project management and encourages adaptive planning and continuous

improvement.

Both come with their own pros and cons. For example, the waterfall method is easy to

follow, simplifies change management, and builds more rigorous testing and quality

controls into the process. As its name implies, the agile method is more flexible, making

it more adaptable to the sometimes-volatile nature of business application development.

The agile method also enables the client to be more involved in the implementation

process.

Ask partners whether they use the waterfall method, the agile method, or a different

method entirely to determine whether their preferred approach to an implementation

project aligns with yours.

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QUALITATIVE QUESTIONS


What is your organization’s communication style?

True collaboration begins with good communication — however, what constitutes “good

communication” varies from one individual to the next. Would you prefer to communicate

with your Salesforce partner consistently throughout the project lifecycle or to receive

updates after each stage is completed? Would you rather have regular in-person check-

ins with your consultant or keep communications strictly virtual?

Regardless what your preferred method or frequency of communication is, you’ll want to

ensure that you and your Salesforce partner are on the same page in order to maintain

total visibility into your project.

Will your consultancy be willing to push back when necessary?

Any Salesforce consultant worth their salt will push back against their client when it

makes sense to do so. Business leaders sometimes get pie in the sky ideas about what a

system implementation should include or want to expand far beyond the original scope

of the project. In many cases, it’s possible to achieve these objectives, just not within

the parameters of the current project or the current project phase without jeopardizing

initial user adoption. User adoption is crucial to the success of any implementation, so it’s

important that your systems be user-friendly. A truly qualified Salesforce partner will offer

honest and direct feedback — even if the client is reluctant to hear it — in order to keep

the project on track, as well as outline steps to achieve bigger goals and objectives in the

future.

Are you willing to meet with me in person?

To reiterate: You’ll be spending a lot of time with your Salesforce partner, so it’s important

that you like them. Meeting your partner upfront and scheduling regular in-person

meetings (or, at the very least, video conferences) is an excellent way not only to strengthen

your relationship, but to learn who you’ll be working with, what to expect, and how they

intend to help you overcome any challenge you might encounter during the project.


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Who will be working on the project?

Although you don’t need the exact names of every single individual involved, it’s important

to have a general idea of who will be working on your project in order to hold all parties

accountable. Find out the team’s certifications, experience level, and other pertinent

information; be wary of any Salesforce partner unwilling to supply this basic information.

What level of risk will be involved in this project?

It’s crucial to identify potential vulnerabilities well in advance of a project in order to

adequately anticipate that project’s needs and provide total visibility. A qualified Salesforce

consultant will work closely with you to highlight possible risks, such as lack of adoption,

lack of support, and so on, and clearly outline how they intend to address these issues to

ensure a successful deployment. A firm that tells you your project can be completed “no

problem” without some identification of the risks is likely to be unexperienced, so don’t

buy into empty hype.


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One More Thing...You might have noticed that we didn’t include any questions concerning whether

your Salesforce partner has worked with other companies in your industry. Although

prior industry experience is helpful, it also comes with the risk of replication.

Certain Salesforce partners will specialize in one industry and offer what is essentially

the same implementation for each business they work with in that industry. This is

a problem not only because it neglects the unique needs of each organization but

also because it displays a reluctance to innovate in any meaningful way. Look to

firms that have worked with clients in numerous industries and that are willing to

trying something new and innovative to distinguish themselves from competitors.

Ultimately, the most important deciding factors are whether your Salesforce

partner’s vision for the project closely aligns with your own, and whether it’s able

to execute on that vision.

CONCLUSION

Work With VennScienceA Firm for Discerning Clients

Looking to work with a Salesforce partner with the proven expertise to help your

business realize the benefits of cloud-based business applications?

Look No Further.

The team of Salesforce-certified specialists at VennScience excels at delivering expert guidance

to companies like yours and is uniquely qualified to implement, enhance, and administer your

cloud technology portfolio. Start a conversation today to find out how we can help you execute a

flawless Salesforce system implementation.

Let’s Talk

[email protected]

111 Maplewood Avenue, Suite E

Portsmouth, NH 03801

(603) 433-8500

when choosing a salesforce partner€¦ · with salesforce, there are variety of different ways to...

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