2 Factors to Consider when Selecting a Salesforce Partner

There are many great Salesforce Partners out there but picking a quality Partner for the wrong type of project is where you are guaranteed to run into issues.

It's a matter of finding a Partner that will prioritize you.

And this is why we don't believe any Salesforce Customer should use just one Partner. Identifying different vendors for specific scopes of work will guarantee alignment in priorities and lead to more successful outcomes.

At the most basic level, you want to start with these pieces of criteria when vetting new Salesforce Partners.

Capabilities

This probably seems obvious but is worth highlighting nonetheless.

The first box to check when selecting a Partner is around capabilities.
Where do they have expertise?

In other words, do their Consultants know the specific Salesforce Products (CPQ, Marketing Cloud etc) you’re working on and can they show previous success in these areas?

Project Type

The second area is more commonly overlooked but just as important!

What is their ideal engagement?

👉 Consulting Partner A might work primarily on new implementations and only take on a fractional managed services projects periodically - but that’s not the type of work they ideally want to scale the business on.
👉 Alternatively, Consulting Partner B might do some implementation work here and there but the real focus and priority is long-term managed services engagements.

Even though Consulting Partner A is more than capable of delivering managed services, selecting them for this type of work will lead to misaligned priorities. When a flashy new implementation comes up, they will re-allocate their top Consultants to work on that project because it's a priority - and you'll be left with a team of new Consultants dropped in to pick up where they left off.

On the other hand, Consulting Partner B has built an entire business around these ongoing relationships. Their IDEAL scenario is to assign a Consultant to you and have that very same person work with you ... forever.

It comes down to how they prioritize projects and customers.
Will you be their biggest account or are you a small fish for them and potentially lower priority?

Ultimately, what matters is finding the type of Partner where you (and the work you need to get done) and their core focus, competency, and desired project.

4 Types of Salesforce Projects

Implementation

Services Delivered: Strategy & Execution

Overview: Typically, these are fixed-scope projects with a timeline determined upfront. This allows Partners to get in and out efficiently and move their Consultants on to the next project.

Managed Services

Services Delivered: Strategy & Execution

Overview: By nature, these are ongoing Salesforce engagements and typically delivered in a part-time capacity. A Partner will allocate a multi-disciplinary team (Admins, Developers, Architect, Project Lead) that handles all ongoing product strategy and project executing on an ONGOING basis.

Advisory

Services Delivered: Pure Strategy

Overview: This is what you get from a Fractional Salesforce Architect and is similar to the role of Program Architect at Salesforce. They look at things from a 30,000 foot view to ensure a cohesive roadmap, help Leadership problem solve in specific areas, guide platform or vendor selection for larger projects, and serve as an ongoing Advisor.

Staff Augmentation

Services Delivered: Pure Execution

Overview: You most commonly see this with companies that have a team capable of driving Salesforce product strategy but they need extra horsepower with delivery - Administrators or Developers are embedded into the org (typically on a full-time basis) and function as an extension of the FTE team to deliver ongoing work.