I can tell in a manner of minutes looking at someone’s Salesforce org and talking to Users if a prior implementation partner or Administrator spent any time optimizing Salesforce to be easy to use. Here are some symptoms of a Salesforce org that has not been optimized for usability: Users complain of not being able…
One of the questions most asked of a certified Salesforce.com consultant is what is your rate for Salesforce consulting and what fees can I expect? I can only speak of what I’ve observed in the Dallas market for Salesforce.com consulting rates, but the spectrum starts at $150 an hour for freelance consultants up to $300…
What is Cloud 2? Marc Benioff publicly launched Cloud 2 in April of 2010 with much fanfare. But what the heck is it? The thrust of Benioff’s presentation was that in this age of Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter – the traditional enterprise data model is disconnected from the conversation with the customer. “Why isn’t all…
It’s the home stretch. You’ve been slogging down the playing field gathering requirements, configuring Salesforce.com, organizing data and importing records, creating reports and dashboards and the only thing between you and go-live is end user training. Guess what? The next ten yards are probably the most important to your project’s success. If your users don’t…
Go the extra mile – tweak the configuration for better Usability I’m a big stickler on configuring and training end users to use all the time savers that are available in Salesforce.com. Features like mail merge, email templates, Views, report links, Connect for Microsoft Outlook, etc. Teach them all the usability shortcuts available in Salesforce…
At a Salesforce User’s Group meeting I heard a story about an Administrator that was brought in to manage a Salesforce.com org after the implementation was completed. What made this particular case interesting was that the partner that did the implementation created a lot of customization to replace many native functions – such as a…
Start with the right team Create an internal project team and set expectations for their availability and required commitment. Having a set team for the duration of the project, versus a revolving door of contributors, will pull time out of your Salesforce implementation. Selecting the right people for the team is just important. You want…
If you ultimately have three departments that need to be live on Salesforce.com, you might want to look at rolling on each department one at a time rather than going live with all three groups simultaneously (big bang). A phased approach has the financial benefit of getting some productivity out of your licensing costs sooner…
What is the purpose of Leads and do I have to use Leads? Leads are a way to separate prospects (people you’d like to sell to) from business contacts (people you’re actively selling, have sold to, or are business acquaintances, partners or vendors). Think of a Lead as a business card that you’ve captured from…
When do I “Convert” my Lead into an Account and Contact? What should be my Lead Status and Opportunity Stages? How many steps should I have in my sales process? When is a Lead “Qualified”? What are Sales Activities? I have yet to find a company that sells exactly like another. I know it sounds…