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
Let’s say you have a few webforms to design, which will be embedded into a public facing website, and used by a non-authenticated user
When a form is submitted, it’ll be send to Salesforce, applying a previously discussed webform pattern.… Read the rest
This is the age-old apex trigger question, but for flows. Should an object have one after-save trigger flow or multiple?
In apex, it was usually recommended to have a single apex trigger handler that organized which subclass was called based on the type of trigger (after insert, after update, etc.).… Read the rest
While working with a Salesforce client recently, I noticed they used an interesting reporting structure.
There was a report folder called “Development”, used by the development team. Under that were several subfolders, one per calendar year.
The reports in each subfolder were slightly different, and some in the 2023 folder still had the label of 2021.… Read the rest
Salesforce training isn’t something you do once the project is launched and is never discussed again. It’s an iterative process you need to keep in mind at all times.
Why is that?
Because people don’t remember everything they’ve been taught on the 1st pass.… Read the rest
How many Salesforce sandbox instances should you have? What is each of their purposes? What are their inputs and outputs? When do you migrate from one to another?
At the absolute minimum, there should be one sandbox for development and testing.… Read the rest
On Oct 11, 2023, I’ll be publicly presenting Dryad Receipting, a modern and easy-to-use tax receipting Salesforce application for Canadian nonprofits.
The event is hosted by a Salesforce user group and I’m super excited about it!
Until now, I’ve only been demoing the app to potential partners and clients.… Read the rest
Error messages in Salesforce validation rules have a lot of responsibility. They are not just supposed to indicate what went wrong, but be specific about why, and mention what to do about it.
For example, let’s say if “Reason Code” (which is a picklist) has a value of “Other”, then the field “Reason Code Other” (which is text) is required.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant conducting a technical discovery session, you need to ask a lot of questions.
Having a handy reference guide to keep track of key topics to discuss is useful, so below is my checklist.
You’ll notice they mostly consider Sales Cloud.… Read the rest
Years ago, I noticed there was an important feature missing from Salesforce core. It wasn’t well filled by 3rd party apps either, and that’s generating tax receipts for Canadian nonprofits.
Admittedly, tax receipting isn’t the sexiest topic. But charities need to issue receipts, and Canadian rules are precise and strict.… Read the rest
Today was the 1st working session with a new client. It’s for a Salesforce discovery project, and was the 1st of many technical sessions.
Here’s how I prepared for and conducted that 1st session.
I first reviewed the Statement of Work (SOW), to make sure I fully understood what the business goals of the project are.… Read the rest