The Value of Hiring a Local Salesforce Consultant
When I ask people what's most important to them when seeking Salesforce support from an outside vendor, they almost always respond with:
“I’m really looking for someone local. I want someone to sit at the table with me and look at the same screen together.”
Then, they really get to what they mean:
“I just want to make sure they can hear what I’m actually saying.”
And that’s the truth. People want to be heard. When you hire outside consultants, it’s a significant investment for your organization, and you’re trusting that you’re getting the input of an expert. Communication is vital to the success of any engagement.
While we’ve certainly helped customers located outside North Carolina with their Salesforce challenges, the majority of our projects are located right here in the Triangle. Working with someone local can mean there’s a much higher likelihood of conducting key knowledge transfers and user training in person, without the costs of travel.
So much of communication is nonverbal, and we as your Salesforce guides can collect such a deeper breadth of knowledge about how best to support you when we have the opportunity to be in the same room.
Having an expert on site can help break down barriers you might not be able to identify. And if your Salesforce users are experiencing pain in the system, it can build immediate trust by having that expert in front of your users.
The two parts of the process where you will get the most value out of working with someone local are:
Discovery
This is where we’re getting to know you, your team, and the current state of your Salesforce solution for the first time. We’ll conduct interviews with key stakeholders and, in addition to better understanding how they use Salesforce to support their roles, get to know what’s most important to them and what’s holding them back from being most efficient.Training
When we’ve made a training and adoption plan for the new Salesforce solution we’ve created, we need to ensure that users are properly trained and onboarded. If you have an amazing system but nobody uses it effectively, it’s no better than a crappy system.
When we’re able to conduct training sessions in person with groups of users, we can better engage and adapt to the needs of the group. Again, nonverbal communication plays a huge role here! People will not only feel more comfortable asking questions in this setting, but they’ll also come up organically as you work through the solution together. Change can be difficult but with the right guide offering in-person support, it can really take the edge off.
We live in a technology-driven world. People are used to working with platforms, apps, and devices but they can get into a rhythm of working a certain way. Good change management practices can help put your team at ease when change is necessary. And hiring local help is a great move because your consultant can meet with your entire team to manage the process, establish expectations, and ensure the partnership proceeds as smoothly as possible.
Of course, hiring local also benefits the local business economy. It can be a great way to partner with experts you may not know well — word of mouth is powerful and connecting with other organizations you trust about their experiences can help you feel confident moving forward.
We’re proud to have helped local partners like higher education consulting firm Credo throughout our four-year partnership through our Admin as a Service model. We’ve also helped Habitat for Humanity of Wake County streamline their application process so they can help more local families get safe and affordable housing. Want to learn how? Read about our work with Credo here and Habitat for Humanity here.
Ready to sit down with an expert? Curious what we can do for your organization? If you’re stuck with Salesforce and could use some support, let’s have a conversation!
