Sweep’s Post

Before you hire a consultant, read this. Does Salesforce Have an Issue With Bad Consultancy Partners? The TLDR: Salesforce implementations are complex, costly, and crucial for ensuring that the platform delivers its full value. But many organizations still face the daunting task of “cleaning up” poor implementations after they’ve gone live. With implementation costs ranging from $10,000 to upwards of $200,000, this isn't a problem that can be overlooked. The reasons behind this? 1️⃣ Quality vs. Profit: Some consultancies prioritize speed and cost-cutting over best practices. 2️⃣ Lack of Best Practices: Poor documentation and unoptimized setups lead to ineffective Salesforce orgs. 3️⃣ The “Certified But Not Experienced” Trap: Certifications are great, but experience is where the magic happens. So, how to avoid becoming another cautionary tale? Invest in the right tools and partners who prioritize long-term success. At Sweep, we focus on helping companies optimize their Salesforce setup by automating key processes like deduplication, routing, and data management. We help streamline, clean up, and optimize your Salesforce org—saving you time and money so your team can focus on scaling, not fixing. https://lnkd.in/dgwJwTxq

Why Do Salesforce Implementations Go Wrong? Let’s Talk About It! I just read Aleksandra Semjonova article and it really got me thinking about some hard truths we all encounter as Salesforce consultants. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting, the topic hits close to home: Why do some Salesforce implementations fail, and what can we do better? 💡The Insight That Stuck With Me Great implementations aren’t just about “doing what the client wants.” They’re about guiding clients toward the right solutions—even if it means having tough conversations. Think of it like being a tour guide, not a taxi driver. 🚕 Clients need a partner who’ll set them up for long-term success, not just deliver a quick fix. 🛑 The Big Problems 1. Prioritizing speed over quality: Too many projects prioritize speed or cost over quality. This leads to half-baked solutions that don’t work or aren’t user-friendly. 2. Missed Value Realization: Clients often say, “We bought Salesforce, but we’re not getting value from it.” That’s a major red flag. 3. Lack of Documentation: One of the most frustrating complaints is incomplete or nonexistent documentation. 4. Inexperienced Talent: Certifications ≠ experience. Many consultancies bring in junior talent without proper mentorship, which can cause big issues. 🛠️ What We Can Do Better 1. Be Transparent Early: Set clear expectations from Day 1, with realistic timelines and deliverables. 2. Mentorship Matters: Experienced consultants should invest in training themselves and the next generation on consulting, business analysis and project management skills. 3. Focus on Long-Term Success: Help clients understand what a sustainable, scalable solution looks like—and be brave enough to push back when necessary. 4. Prioritize Best Practices: Salesforce’s Well Architected initiative exists for a reason. Follow it! https://lnkd.in/ga9_K9QK 🧗 My Takeaway As consultants, it’s on us to uphold the trust clients place in us. When we focus on quality over shortcuts, we’re not just doing right by our clients—we’re also building a reputation that lasts. Let’s hold each other accountable and share best practices to raise the bar across the ecosystem. What’s your experience? Have you ever had to clean up a messy implementation or deal with tough client expectations? I’d love to hear how you’ve navigated these challenges! Let’s keep the conversation going. 👇 #Salesforce #SalesforceConsulting #Trailblazers

Great read! I’ve definitely seen my share of good, bad and ugly I think clear expectations need to be set in both sides of the relationship - Partner and Client along with taking the right amount of time in Sprint 0 to plan, organize, document and creat a good working relationship between partner/client team members to hit the ground running at sprint 1. Do your best to not rush into the project. it’s a big investment - don’t lose your ROI by prioritizing speed and cost over quality. #CRM #Salesforce #Awesomeadmin

Happy to see a familiar leader, Tal Frankfurt, sharing great perspective on this. Aligning with the end user is critical to these implementations. Using skills prioritized in Social Work can provide clarity: empathy, listening, and motivational interviewing. When things are built at record speed, documentation always falls to the wayside. AI can support the need for documentation.

Great article on an important topic, and with so many factors to reflect and comment on. However, top of mind for me at the moment is the client-consultant relationship, and more specifically fit. Not every consulting company is created equal, nor is every client. Finding the right fit with a consultant — and being in both conceptual and practical alignment on your goals, how you want to reach them, and how fast — is paramount to a successful partnership, and to achieving meaningful ROI on your Salesforce investment.

A very interesting observational piece from Salesforce Ben. After working as a Salesforce Partner for over a decade I've got my share of black eyes and scars. No partners are perfect all the time, in my experience, failures are usually a blend of the following: - Partner doesn't have the right resources on the project at the right time (consulting can be a game of musical chairs) - Partner salesperson is not an experienced consultant that understands project risk or has skin in the game if it fails - Partner doesn't follow standard project documentation and change control processes - Partner fails to manage expectations with the client, especially around scope and the definition of MVP - Client doesn't have sufficient budget, stakeholder or executive buy-in - Client doesn't have skilled internal resources (eg Product Owner/PM/BA/SMEs/Testers/Trainers/IT Support) to support the project lifecycle adequately - Client & Partner don't manage dependencies / risks proactively - Client & Partner allow over-engineering of the solution. Great is the enemy of good. - Client doesn't make budget available for ongoing maintenance, support and adoption - Client doesn't invest in employees learning about Salesforce - Client doesn't think they have a data problem, when they do - Client falsely expects their Salesforce implementation to be one and done / set and forget / drag and drop - Client doesn't understand value in data cleansing, middleware or robust integration, resulting in a house built on sand - Salesforce AEs often recommend partners with “quickstart packages” over more expensive tailored projects because it helps sell licenses faster -Salesforce AEs sometimes deter partners from selling ongoing services in the first instance because it blows up the TCO - Salesforce often demo a pimped out version of Salesforce, and set a perception thats what you get, always protected by their famous Safe Harbor statement Failure is never intentional by any of the parties. Nobody starts a project, sells a license or signs a contract with that in mind. It requires experience, skill and intention to avoid failure, the more ALL parties can keep their eyes wide open to the reality of failure, the better it can be mitigated. Let me know your thoughts.

Power of Salesforce is in the implementation.

Salesforce DOES have an issue with bad consulting partners. If you don't think so, you haven't spent enough time with customers who are in tears. We have. A lot this year. Caveat: I enjoy the quality that comes from Salesforce Ben, but you can't interview consulting/contracting firms to get an accurate representation of client sentiment. Echo chambers are bad for business.

💡This article from the Salesforce Ben team highlights the need for independent third party, quantitative & objective evaluations of Salesforce implementations. This is exactly why we built Hubbl Technologies to democratize customer success across the ecosystem. Hubbl Diagnostics provides the fastest, easiest & most secure way to get started. ➡️ It's free ➡️ It takes 2 minutes of effort to create your account & run a scan ➡️ No AppExchange package to install that leaves behind technical debt ➡️ No PII/PHI accessed ➡️ Free results are summarized in interactive executive-level visualizations ➡️ Free results are benchmarked against all orgs scanned in the ecosystem ➡️ Free results include a custom code security review to help secure your org ➡️ Free results include a personalized roadmap to optimize your org ➡️ Free results include a Agentforce readiness results for Case & Opportunity objects to help accelerate Agentforce Service & SDR agent roll-outs ➡️ The free version can be scheduled to run once per month automatically ➡️ Upgrade to get more advanced insights 🙋♀️ Are you a Salesforce Customer looking to monitor the quality of your current Salesforce partner? Take two minutes to set up an account and track implementation quality - even in your sandboxes where the partner is working pre-deployment. 🙋♀️ Are you a Salesforce Customer looking for a new partner? Reach out and we can get you a referral to a Hubbl Technologies preferred partner. 🙋♂️ Are you a Salesforce Consulting Partner? Join the preferred network of consulting partners using Hubbl Diagnostics to: ➡️ Get a metadata audit from a prospect by just sending an email ➡️ Automate scope generation ➡️ Monitor & guarantee the quality of their implementation across all their teams 🙋♀️ Want a deeper dive into your org to visualize what was implemented, uncover process bottlenecks and track adoption? Check out Hubbl Process Analytics, the first Process Mining app built natively on Salesforce. 🚀 First time you've heard of us? Hubbl Diagnostics was built by early members of Appirio & Traction On Demand, the Platinum/Summit consulting partner that was bootstrapped from a single person to ~1500 consultants and recently purchased by Salesforce (ToD is now part of Salesforce Professional Services). Get started here: https://hubbl.link/4eVIRBf

Great article from Salesforce Ben this week on the state of the Salesforce consulting world. A key theme was the gap in learning 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 versus learning 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺. However, one potential cause not mentioned is that Salesforce's addition of products can spread consultants - even experienced consultants - too thin. There is a difference between consulting and taking orders. One of those lets you use best practices, the other does not. Without experience on new products/clouds (or, ahem, the intricacies of data integrations), you're flying blind on new products, and 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 recommend best practices. With new clouds, 3x annual releases, and larger product announcements (i.e., #Agentforce), how are consultants supposed to keep up?! Add third-party products to the mix? Forgeddaboutit. 🥴 Want better implementation outcomes? Let partners focus on a few things they do really well. #DataMadeEasy #Coordona #Data  #BusinessOptimization #BusinessIntelligence  #Efficiency #DataAnalytics #Tableau #DataIntegration #DataMigration #Integration #Salesforce #SalesforcePartner #Migration #BestPractices https://lnkd.in/gUH3ygVM