When doing a Salesforce discovery project, the deliverables are usually a series of documents. Here are the usual suspects, sometimes with different names:
In one particular project I’m finishing up, these documents were originally written in Google Docs.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, what are you actually providing to a client? Do you believe you are providing a new Salesforce feature, an integration, a series of reports, or anything like that?
You’re not.
You’re providing the results of the new feature, the integration, or series of reports.… Read the rest
I have a confession to make. I’ve lied on my resume.
Now, some would call it a bold-faced lie, while others would call it an exaggeration. Either way, I wrote something that wasn’t true.
This was a very long time ago, so I’m open to sharing this now, but it’s always been a sensitive topic for me.… Read the rest
Let’s say you’ve dedicated time to work on your own Salesforce practice. One of the first steps is to determine who is your ideal client and what services you plan to offer.
To determine your ideal client and positioning, start by yourself the following:
1.… Read the rest
Let’s say you’re an employee working at a Salesforce agency, with dreams of becoming a freelance consultant.
What’s the best way to make that happen?
Let’s start by talking about how it shouldn’t happen.
You probably shouldn’t just drop your full-time position and announce to the world that you’re now a freelancer.… Read the rest
They say the shift from 0 to 1 is harder than from 1 to 2, or any greater number.
Let’s say you’re a full-time Salesforce employee with ambitions to start your own business. You may be working on several projects at the same time, but you don’t own any of them.… Read the rest
One great way to offer your services as a Salesforce consultant is with a monthly package.
This is often well-suited for support work, but can also be for larger projects in which you are one of many and don’t control the project’s scope.… Read the rest
Last year, a Salesforce agency was struggling with their developers. The devs were attempting to tackle a project that was beyond their knowledge. In addition, they needed advice on how to approach certain technical situations.
I was engaged to help. A monthly subscription-style service was proposed, as it provided flexibility to the agency to decide the duration of the engagement.… Read the rest
One fellow reader asked me to write a “lesson learned” story about value based pricing.
A small nonprofit was looking for help with their automation. Things like
So we agreed on a rough scope, which included the problems above and a few other minor issues.… Read the rest
All the cool Salesforce kids are using flows these days. As a result, it’s not as popular to write apex code anymore.
However, there are moments in which flows aren’t the best choice. Apex classes can fill in those gaps and can perform some really heavy lifting.… Read the rest
I’ve previously talked about how, as a Salesforce consultant, it sometimes feels like we are a janitor or a firefighter.
Other days, we can feel like a pirate.
A pirate is someone who doesn’t get seasick while navigating troubled waters.… Read the rest
As your Salesforce instance grows, you’ll appreciate following a standard naming convention.
What exactly is a naming convention and why would you bother?
It’s a standard on how to name your objects, fields, buttons, permission sets, flows, flow variables, apex classes, apex variables, reports, and so on.… Read the rest
Marc Benioff just announced that Dreamforce 2024 will remain in San Francisco. Until this moment, there was a time in which he considered moving the conference to another city.
Now that Dreamforce is secure for at least one more year, here are 3 tips on how to get the most out of your time at this conference.… Read the rest
There’s a common mantra in the Salesforce world: Never configure anything directly in Production.
Generally, this is a good idea, but we’ve all broken this standard. And probably more than once 😉
So, when is it OK to configure something directly in Production?… Read the rest
A student of mine recently asked me for advice regarding a Salesforce proposal he was about to submit.
The submission included a presentation of his proposal, and my student wanted to be well prepared for any arguments the client had. One of his concerns was, what if the client says my prices are too high?… Read the rest
Last week was the Nonprofit Dreamin 2023 in Chicago. It’s a Salesforce conference for partners and clients working with nonprofits.
Provisio, a Salesforce partner, hosted the event at their really cool new office. It’s right next to the Chicago river, with spectacular views of the water and surrounding building.… Read the rest
Yesterday’s article left off with the question: how can you come up with a time and price estimate for the implementation phase of a Salesforce project?
The non-typical answer is: you don’t.
That is, you don’t estimate anything. Instead of the typical approach of
Here’s the non-typical approach:
This is called value-based pricing (VBP), and it’s a completely different mindset than hourly billing.… Read the rest
I’m wrapping up a Salesforce discovery project with a multinational client. The engagement went really well, so they’ve asked for a proposal to do the implementation.
The client was also transparent from the start of the engagement. They said they would submit a Request for Proposal (RFP) so other Salesforce partners could bid on the project.… Read the rest
I recently had a conversation with a frustrated client.
He wanted a straightforward report that shows all contacts in Salesforce with the following criteria:
The report must display
This information would be used to segment an audience for upcoming events.… Read the rest
The possibility to nominate someone for 2024 Salesforce MVP is currently open.
But wait, what is a Salesforce MVP?
As defined by Salesforce, Salesforce MVPs (most valuable person) are exceptional leaders and product experts who go above and beyond to help others succeed in the Salesforce ecosystem.… Read the rest
I was recently a guest on Jonathan Stark podcast, and the episode was just published.
For your information, Jonathan is my main mentor for fixed pricing and value-based pricing. Listening to his podcast episodes and digesting his articles about the topic completely changed the way I do business.… Read the rest
Well, it’s official!
After many
I was recently on the Mission: Impact podcast with Carol Hamilton. The topic was, “Finding the right CRM for your nonprofit organization”.
This may sound odd coming from a Salesforce Architect, but I don’t believe Salesforce is the right choice for all organizations.… Read the rest
Keeping track of all the possible user licenses Salesforce offers is tricky because they change often. It’s usually best that Salesforce manages the commercial agreement with the client.
However, it’s important to be aware of what kind of user licenses exist and to sometimes provide guidance.… Read the rest
Once the ledger of technical debt reaches a certain amount, it’s a good idea to sit down with the product owner (PO) and review the list. The PO can prioritize the work, and the project manager (PM) can slot the work into a future release.… Read the rest
Technical debt is not not always a bad word. Sometimes it can be useful.
Whenever creating tech debt however, it’s a great idea to record it. This could mean something as simple as a note in a technical design document. The goal here is to create a ledger of the debt.… Read the rest
Another of the great breakout sessions at Northeast Dreamin’ 2023 last week was by Hunter Dunbar. His session was called, “The Leverage and Luggage of Technical Debt”. Here’s a summary of that session.
Let’s start with a definition.
Technical debt, tech debt, or code debt, is the result of the shortcuts taken by the development team to speed up the delivery of a piece of functionality.… Read the rest
One of the wonderful breakout sessions I attended at Northeast Dreamin’ 2023 last week was by Daniel Gorton. His session was called, “Delivering Empathic and Joyful User Experiences”.
Being UX certified myself, I was drawn to the words “empathic” and “joyful”.… Read the rest
For the last two days, I’ve been at Northeast Dreamin in Manchester, New Hampshire, and it’s been a blast!
Some familiar faces were present, most of whom I met in person while at the Salesforce World Tour in NYC earlier this year.… Read the rest
This email may be a little controversial. I don’t mean it to be, but it’s something I’ve noticed more often these days.
Salesforce, as a company, has certain targets to meet. They tend to focus the client’s attention in a very specific way.… Read the rest