So, you’ve decided to use Salesforce as your CRM platform. Good choice! Inevitably, after determining that Salesforce is right for you, people ask, “Can I implement this system myself or do I really need a Salesforce Consultant?” The answer is simple, yes. Yes, you can implement Salesforce on your own, but will you get the most out of your investment if you do? Probably not. So again, yes. Having a Salesforce Consultant complete your implementation will guarantee a successful rollout. Here are the top reasons we believe that everyone should use a Consultant to implement Salesforce.
Three words – Speed. Quality. ROI.
SPEED
Diversions – Your team is already stressed about how much work they have on their plates – do they really have extra time to devote to this project? Will it end up at the bottom of their to-do lists behind all their other critical tasks? Consultants will be completely focused on completing your project on time and on budget. No distractions. No excuses.
Learning Time – With any new product or platform, there is a learning curve – not just with using the product but with implementing and customizing it as well. Using your internal staff to implement the Salesforce platform can add multiple hours, days or even weeks and months to the project timeline. Not to mention, you’re assuming the tools and procedures they’re implementing are correct. Salesforce Consultants spend all day, every day working in the system and typically have been for years. They know their stuff.
Planning Time – Your team will need to take time to get organized and map out a detailed implementation plan. That may be easy if you have a Project Management Officer (PMO) or if your team is experienced in managing CRM implementations. If not, it will likely take them some time to ramp up and come up with an appropriate implementation plan. Experienced Salesforce consultants will have standard implementation plan blueprints they can customize to fit your unique requirements.
Setup and Configuration Time – Your team can, and will, learn how to setup and configure Salesforce. However, we recommend letting them learn when the stakes aren’t so high and the pressure’s not so great. Salesforce consultants have configured many organizations. They know exactly what steps need to be done to add your custom fields, modify your user settings, and configure security settings so that each user sees just what you want them to see. And, they can do it in a fraction of the time it will take your team.
QUALITY
Best Practices – When leveraging an experienced Salesforce Consultant for your implementation, you are sure to get industry best practices for using, testing, and customizing the platform. These best practices are learned from years of completing similar implementations and can put your company on the right path to fully optimize the system and what it has to offer. Let your Salesforce consulting team provide you with tips, tricks and nuances without you having to learn them the hard way.
Constant support – If you partner with the right Salesforce Consultants, they won’t just disappear after your implementation. Although future training, support and issue resolution may not be covered in your initial implementation contract, a true Salesforce Consulting partner will be there to help. In addition to providing constant support of your Salesforce system, your consultants should always be notifying you of future releases and changes to your Salesforce org so you can stay ahead of the new features.
ROI
What is ROI? Return on Investment. Magic words to any CFO.
In a yearly study by Bluewolf called The State of Salesforce 2017, 77% of people surveyed think their company could be doing more with their Salesforce investments. Don’t become one of these companies, let your Salesforce consulting team guarantee you are using the platform to it’s fullest potential. Salesforce self-implementations tend to focus on just getting the system up and running. The bells and whistles that Salesforce offers then become a “nice to have”, not a “need to have” and can be completely forgotten. With a Salesforce Consultant you can have both.
User Adoption – To accurately understand whether or not your Salesforce users have been adopting the new platform, you will want to measure their useage, data quality, and business performance. Are they logging in and contributing to the system? Is the data they’re entering correct and complete? Is Salesforce being effective at improving business performance? Proper training and understanding of the Salesforce platform can lead to increased user adoption and positively affect all three metrics. Using a Salesforce Consultant for your implemetaton can help provide the tools and skills necessary to maintain user adoption.
Ongoing ROI – For many companies, ongoing ROI is a large factor in deciding whether or not an investment has been worth it. To help companies better understand their ongoing Salesforce ROI, Salesforce has provided a CRM Benefit Calculator which can be found here.
Speed, quality and ROI are all words that can be used to describe your implementation if you use a Salesforce Consultant. To learn more about how using a Salesforce Consultant to implement your new Salesforce platform can make all the difference, fill out the form below or call us at 614-212-1111.
Whether you end up deciding to self-implement or hire a Salesforce Consulting partner to implement your new Salesforce system, it is important to have an executive sponsor championing the project. To learn more about how you can become an executive sponsor, read our blog, “7 Ways to be an Effective Executive Sponsor.”
