Your Salesforce clients know their business. This is what they do every day and where their expertise lies. That’s their job.
They shouldn’t be expected to know Salesforce. This is what you do every day. That’s your job.
So in order to understand their needs, it’s your responsibility to speak to them in their language.… Read the rest
Yesterday’s email about “Yes, and”… with clients and the example with a client with a dumb idea seems to have ruffled a few features. So let’s talk about another use case, one in which you’re working with fellow team members.
Let’s say you’re doing a Salesforce discovery session with a handful of colleagues and the client.… Read the rest
In a Salesforce discovery session with a client, someone is bound to share some stupid ideas.
It’s not that the person is dumb, it’s usually the idea they are communicating just doesn’t fit in the current context.
Rather than point out how weird that idea is, here’s a tip from improvisational comedy: Say, “Yes, and …” and then redirect the conversation to something else.… Read the rest
Last week I wrote an email about Asking for the no: A negotiation lesson from Calvin & Hobbes, in which Calvin attempts to use a negotiation strategy called the door-in-the-face technique.
Today’s negotiation strategy is about the opposite method. It’s called the foot-in-the-door technique.… Read the rest
Despite wanting to believe that you and I are superhuman, our brains have the same limits as everyone else. And knowing some of these limits can help us be better communicators during Salesforce projects.
The limit for today is: the number of daily decisions we are capable of making before “decision fatigue” kicks in.… Read the rest
Another negotiation tactic that involves the word “no” comes from the Black Swan Group.
According to their website, “When someone says yes, they’re committing to something, and people are hesitant to make such commitments. On the other hand, when they can say no, they feel protected.”… Read the rest
When I was younger, I used to love reading the comic, Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson in the Sunday newspaper.
Calvin was linguistically wise beyond his years, and it was lovely to re-read all the books with my nephew more recently.… Read the rest
Many years ago, I didn’t have the ability to hire professional movers. Instead, like most university students, I would rent a truck, like U-Haul van, pack everything myself, and then ask some friends to help me load and unload.
It was a cheap but effective option when friends were willing and available.… Read the rest
Let’s continue the conversation from yesterday about navigating delays in a Salesforce project.
The question was, when a project is built, tested, and approved and is just waiting to be scheduled, should you allow changes if the scheduled date is in the short-to-medium future?… Read the rest
Here’s a realistic hypothetical situation for you, the Salesforce consultant.
The build phase of the MVP is complete. Internal testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and training is done. The client is overall happy with the results and is excited to using it.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, one simple and effective way to build a connection with a new client is to compliment them. This can also be used to deepen a connection with an existing client.
As you know, people love receiving compliments!… Read the rest
Being a Salesforce consultant means being able to adapt your language based on your audience. We often need to explain what Salesforce is to a non-technical person, but not so often to a techie. So, how would you explain what Salesforce is and how it works to a techie?… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, you constantly need to make decisions.
Some are easy, such as whether you should rename standard objects (the answer is “no”). Some are more challenging, such as what will be the long-term impacts of adding a custom field to this object (the answer is “it depends”).… Read the rest
There are many ways to build trust with a new client. Here is one of the more unusual ones: swearing.
According to a 2017 study, “We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level.”… Read the rest
We’re all human. And humans make mistakes. Which means you make mistakes.
Talking about mistakes is even a popular Salesforce interview question. It’s usually phrased as, “tell me about a mistake you made and how you learned from it”.
Taking the time to understand and analyze your mistakes is an important step to learn from them.… Read the rest
Clients will usually ask for more. And a perfectly acceptable response is, “no”. This may seem obvious to some, but it’s worth underlining.
It doesn’t really matter how much you are already proposing to deliver. The scope of your Salesforce project could be small or large.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, trust needs to be part of your DNA. If your client cannot trust you, you’re effectively useless.
So, how can you build trust?
There are several ways, and here’s a REALLY easy one: do what you say you’ll do.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, you sometimes need to deliver not-so-positive news. The recipient of this news can be a fellow colleague or a client, and the topic can be related to their performance or the project, or anything in-between.
The most popular method to deliver bad news is to use the sandwich model.… Read the rest
Last week, I wrote about a power question to use when your client no longer responds to your emails. The goal is to encourage a response so you can move the project forward.
There’s another one-liner you can write, when you’re in the same scenario.… Read the rest
Recently, a colleague of mine was sharing a story about a Salesforce Field Service (SFS) project he’s currently working on.
As anyone who has worked with SFS knows, these projects can be tricky. It always feels like the client needs to follow a strict structure and process to benefit from it.… Read the rest
The subject of this email is an extremely powerful negotiation tactic.
To give it more context, imagine a scenario in which you are communicating with a potential client. They are a warm lead and you believe your services would be an excellent fit for their needs.… Read the rest
I’ve been recently helping a client interview for a MuleSoft developer position. The client is using a recruiting agency, and we receive numerous candidates each week. Unfortunately so far, all of them have a common issue.
Once all the technical questions have been asked, I switch gears and ask soft-skill questions.… Read the rest
Yesterday, I was a guest speaker on The Nonprofit Show. It’s a daily live broadcast where the national’s nonprofit community comes together for problem solving, innovations, and reflections to foster greater social impacts.
The subject of the episode was about whether nonprofits are using the tech right, and included topics such as
When I’m doing my podcast, I’m the one asking the questions, and it’s not live, so it’s easily editable.… Read the rest
No, I’m not talking about using your face as a type of authentication to your device.
We all know that watching your client’s face for micro expressions is an important method to provide hints. These hints tell us whether the client is happy or sad or frustrated or anything in between.… Read the rest
Another way to build strong connections and gain insight into your client’s perspective is with empathy.
Let’s say you’re discussing a deadline with a client. Their position is that a certain Salesforce feature needs to be in production by the end of the week, and it’s just not feasible to do this.… Read the rest
One way to build trust quickly with a client is to repeat their words.
This simple yet surprisingly effective tool can not only help build trust, but also help with project negotiations. It’s a type of verbal mirroring (as opposed to physical mirroring).… Read the rest
Several years ago, I was working with a client on a new web feature. It wasn’t in Salesforce, but Siebel CRM. For those of you who are unaware, Siebel was *the* CRM before Salesforce, perhaps 10-15 years ago.
The new feature was a tree-like hierarchical folder structure, like you see in Windows Explorer.… Read the rest
In honor of the 50th episode of my podcast, Agents of Nonprofit, there was a special guest.
This guest is not used to speaking about himself very much. As such, although he’s the host of a growing podcast, he prefers to interview others.… Read the rest
In continuing the theme from yesterday, your clients are like your children.
As a parent, you quickly learn everything is a type of negotiation. Whatever you give your children, they’ll want more of it or a bigger version or to keep it for longer.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, clients are like our children.
We want them to grow up strong, healthy and self-sufficient. We nurture them, guide them and show them the right way to move forward and be successful.
But every once in a while, we need to fire the bastards!… Read the rest