Not so long ago, I started to feel overwhelmed. I was trying to properly organize my contacts and sales opportunities. They were related to my project implementations, the Salesforce app for nonprofits, and notes about my coaching students.
Until then, I was using a combination of Google Contacts (contacts), Evernote (notes) and TickTick (todo list). They worked well up to a point, but then things started getting a little messy and it became more challenging to know what I should be doing on a particular day.
I’ve heard about this pivotal moment from many clients in the past. They too outgrew their current systems and needed something more robust.
As a Salesforce architect, I should have immediately reached for Salesforce to solve my problems, right?
But I didn’t.
Salesforce is an awesome CRM and platform. It serves the needs of 150,000 customers (as of today) and its presence is growing everyday. But does that mean it’s the best in every scenario? Realistically, if it was true, it wouldn’t be one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of CRMs available today.
So when is Salesforce not the best fit for a customer? Have you ever talked someone out of using Salesforce?
The takeaway
Part of being a “good enough” consultant is knowing a solution is fit for purpose. Just because you know Salesforce well doesn’t mean it should be applied in every scenario to every potential customer.
Knowing when not to use it is just as important as knowing how to use it.