Imagine self-implementing a system as vast as Salesforce to find out 6-8 months later that you cannot prove its ROI. Meanwhile, you’ve already spent quite the investment already so that your budget is locked up for the rest of the year. For the past 10 years we’ve seen this all the time, and it is all caused by self-implementation.
Whether you have decided to pick Salesforce as your customer success platform or are strongly considering to do so, what usually follows is, “Can I self-implement? Why do I need to hire a consultant?” Yes, you can do implement Salesforce yourself, but it’s not recommended unless you have a Salesforce admin with over five years of hands-on experience. Although, we highly suggest against self-implementations as it usually does not lead to the proper transfer of business processes onto the platform. This comes from the Salesforce client not having the knowledge of what Salesforce can do as a platform when implemented company-wide.
In the big picture, having a successful implementation with the help from a Salesforce consultant will set you up with a solid foundation and get the most from your investment. Here are a couple of the top reasons why you should hire one:
Time:
Learning and building the Salesforce platform will take time. This means you will be up against a steep learning curve, while trying to implement your business strategy. Not to mention, you have your normal tasks to take care of – so adding more responsibilities may cause your internal staff more stress and potentially be distracted as they try to self-implement the platform.
This can take your team days, weeks, or even months to get up to speed and have your implementation up and “running.” Whereas Salesforce consultants do this for living – day in and day out, they know what they are doing without any distractions and will be able to get you up and running in no time.
Assistance
Instead of troubleshooting for hours and maybe days to fix an issue, Salesforce consultants will be able to provide solutions right away and get your up to speed about your Salesforce platform. They are there to help you be aware of key metrics and notify you about any important updates about your system.
Having help from a Salesforce consultant will allow you to increase your user adoption because users will have a professional to turn to when needed. Your Salesforce will be built from your users’ preferences rather than the other way around.
Quality
Another lovely perk that you get from leveraging a Salesforce consultant — you get the best and current business practices. They will be able to steer you away from potential pitfalls and expensive mistakes that aren’t clear to first-time users during self-implementing.
Having a consultant will provide years of knowledge to ensure that your platform is optimized and performing to its full potential rather than spending even more money to fix potential bugs and issues as they come up.
ROI
At the end of the day, ROI is what matters most. Companies that choose to self implement often are focused on getting their Salesforce platform up and running. How hard can it be? Not only does this lead to potential issues but also leads companies to forget about the additional features Salesforce has that can bolster your system. They want to be able to use it as soon as they can rather than being focus on getting the most out of it in the long-run. Why pick one over the other — a Salesforce consultant will be able to do both of those things for you.
In addition, they will be able to measure your ongoing ROI to see how your growth is. They’re there to ensure you are getting the most out of your investment as well as what areas need help or need to expand.
If you had all the tools and guides to build a house for the first time, would you do it yourself or hire someone? If you do it yourself you’ll be paying in the long-term for minor fixes that a professional would have saw and fixed from the start.
The same ideology applies here, hire a Salesforce consultant to make sure you maximize your Salesforce investment.
