Choosing the Right Salesforce Partner – What to Look For?

Salesforce is user-friendly, and small startups and nonprofits with limited functional requirements sometimes choose to self-implement the Starter Suite. However, as the business grows, the need for complex CRM functionalities increases. To truly leverage the capabilities and scalability that Salesforce offers, any business will be better off hiring expert Salesforce implementation partners with unique skill sets and experience. This article discusses how you can choose the right Salesforce partner for future-ready CRM implementation in your business.

The Salesforce partners?

Salesforce is a leading cloud-based platform with a suite of enterprise applications for the automation and management of marketing, sales, customer services, e-commerce, analytics, and related processes. Salesforce partners are Salesforce – authorized consulting agencies and organizations providing professional guidance, assistance, and support to businesses in implementing, customizing, and integrating Salesforce cloud services and Salesforce AppExchange applications.

It is the network of authorized partners that extends the reach of Salesforce and also enriches the Platform’s capabilities with their industry, size, and business scale-specific customizations. Besides, many partners also double up as software vendors with Salesforce-based business applications and add-ons.

Example:

A super-specialty hospital follows different practices (mostly manual) for OPD appointment scheduling, payment processing, and IPD patients’ admission. With an increasing number of patients, they now want to automate these processes with the objectives of minimizing delays, increasing patient safety and satisfaction, and accommodating future expansion plans.

They can choose to hire a CRM expert and build a team of CRM employees before beginning the actual work on the implementation. On the other hand, the hospital can choose to consult multiple Salesforce partners or compare their plans and quotations and begin implementing the CRM with minimal delay and maximum cost savings.

Categories of Salesforce partners

Broadly, Salesforce partners can be segregated into three different categories—Consulting partners, Cloud resellers, and Independent Software Vendors (ISV).

Consulting and integration partners are agencies providing customization, configuration, integration, development, training, and maintenance support to businesses of all sizes and industries.
ISV are independent application developers in the Salesforce ecosystem with software products, and they also provide development-intensive customization support to businesses.
Cloud resellers are partners extending Salesforce’s reach in local markets where the Company does not have any direct presence.

Based on certification, projects, and customer satisfaction ratings, Salesforce categorizes partners into four tiers. These are:

Base (formerly known as ‘Registered’) is the entry-level tier, comprising newly joined certified Salesforce professionals.
Ridge (formerly known as ‘Silver’) is the tier comprising certified professionals (points above 500) with a basic level of demonstrated experience.
Crest (formerly known as ‘Gold’) is the tier for Salesforce professionals (with over 750 points) who have specialized training, delivered significant value to customers, and have considerable experience in multiple industries.
Summit (formerly known as ‘Platinum’) is the top tier. Only the experts and the most experienced certified professionals (with points over 1000) can enter this tier.

Example:

Manras Technologies is a Platinum Salesforce Consulting firm with a team of over 110 Certified Salesforce professionals. They also offer Communicat-O, an in-house-developed app for unified Salesforce social media interaction management.

Choosing the right Salesforce partner

The Salesforce ecosystem is tremendously large compared to Salesforce as a company. The partner ecosystem clocks businesses of over 5 times of the Company, and comprises around 1,70,000 Salesforce-certified individual professionals.

So, navigating the ecosystem and finding an appropriate partner for your implementation, training, and maintenance projects can be a task in itself. After all, the right Salesforce partner must fit the experience, expertise, and budget you are looking for.

The key consideration for vetting and finding the right partner for your Salesforce implementation:

Check the certifications and team capabilities

One of the keys to Salesforce implementation success is hiring teams and individuals with Salesforce certifications. The Company offers over 40 certifications, categorized into Associate, Admin, Designer, Marketer, Developer, etc. These certifications validate an individual or a team’s skills and knowledge in respective categories. So, it is essential to begin your vetting process by checking certifications. Besides, the size of a team is also important. Smaller teams often face resource shortages and cause unforeseen delays to your implementation project.

Assess experience and track record

Certifications of individuals and teams validate their knowledge and skills, while the industry experience establishes their practical capabilities. The higher the experience, the more confident you can be in their implementation. One easy way to assess a partner agency’s experience is to request customer testimonials and information on the agency’s success stories relevant to your industry. You should check for evidence of outcomes and compare clients’ needs with the solutions provided.

Evaluate communication and collaboration skills

Salesforce implementation projects require strong collaboration between implementing agencies and different stakeholders within the client organization. So, a Salesforce partner’s communication and collaboration style can be a major determinant of project success. For example, what sort of project management tools and methodologies a partner uses? What are their strategies to implement your project? Do they have a reputation of completing projects within a timeline? How transparent are they in their communication?

Compare services offered and prices quoted

While requesting quotations from multiple Salesforce partners, it is usual to come across cost estimations in different ranges. Sometimes, partners belonging to the same tier may quote different costs. The reasons could be in the services offered. Sometimes, partners may compromise on a few services to achieve a cheaper quotation. So, it is essential to compare quotations in the context of services partners are committing to offer.

Understand the cultural fit with your organization

Salesforce implementation, management, and maintenance are ongoing processes requiring a long-term relationship and trust between a client organization and its Salesforce partner. So, it is crucial to have a match between the culture and the value system. Otherwise, it may lead to conflicts, lack of collaboration, and failure of the project. For example, a startup with a highly dynamic team of agile professionals may feel comfortable working with agencies with similar work cultures.

Finding the right Salesforce partner

The Salesforce AppExchange can serve as an official marketplace where you can explore and discover certified Salesforce partners, add-ons, and applications. It provides detailed information, like partner ratings, customer feedback, and many more, for a comprehensive comparison of partners.

Worldwide, over 70% of Salesforce implementations are spearheaded by Salesforce partners. A right Salesforce partner can be the gap between ‘positive customer satisfaction with improved bottom line’ and ‘future cost overruns in CRM implementation and poor user adoption’. Are you planning to migrate to Salesforce, customize functionalities, or looking for managed services? We are here to help, Manras Technologies is of the top-tier Salesforce consulting agency with a 100% customer satisfaction track record since 2015.

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