As an independent Salesforce architect, here are the apps I use on a daily basis.
1. Scheduling Tool
By now, most of you know of Calendly. It’s great, but I’m still waiting for the feature where you can limit the number of meetings per week.… Read the rest
Most people know the expression, “assumptions make an ass of you and me”. This definitely holds true as a Salesforce consultant and in general life.
As a digital nomad, I live 6 months in Canada and 6 months in Spain. I love Spain so much I recently bought an apartment.… Read the rest
As a “good enough” Salesforce consultant, you’re going to be in demand. It’s natural you will receive offers from many potential clients. And it’s also natural you won’t want to work with all of them.
Politely saying “no” to a client takes practice.… Read the rest
One important element of a fixed price proposal is managing change orders. And when I say, change orders, I mean not having any.
The whole purpose of being fixed price is being fixed. What would be the point if the price kept changing via change orders?… Read the rest
You’ve just submitted a 5 page fixed-price proposal for a Salesforce project. The client is shocked your prices are so high and attempts to negotiate. What do you do?
To start, there are two things to consider:
1. Perhaps you didn’t assess the situation correctly
If your prices are actually too high, it’s possible you misread the situation.… Read the rest
When submitting a proposal for a Salesforce project, there are a number of important sections to include.
1. A situational appraisal
This section, usually the first in the proposal, explains the situation back to the client. It shows you’ve paid attention to their needs and the circumstances.… Read the rest
Long-term readers of these emails know I’m usually very scheduled with them. 99% of the time, you’ll find an email in your inbox, every weekday at 7am EST.
I lapsed a little in early Dec, and took a longer break than normal over the holidays.… Read the rest
Many issues with your Salesforce project can be avoided by applying a simple test, before commiting to the project.
This test is performed during the sales call, while your potential client is introducing themselves and the project. About halfway through the conversation, ask yourself, “Can I see myself having a meal with this person, in a non-business setting?”… Read the rest
In yesterday’s example of a mid-project change, some readers commented it was a fairly minor change (switching from Zapier to Make). Some asked what can be done if it’s a larger change during a fixed-priced project. In essence, this is a question about scope creep.… Read the rest
One of my current projects is a Shopify to Salesforce integration. The client had purchased Zapier, and I was OK with it, so it was the chosen connector.
Products and orders needed to be synchronized with Salesforce, one way only.
With Zapier, the order lines were concatenated on a single line.… Read the rest
A while back, I asked you to complete the “Good Enough” questionnaire.
The short survey allows me to see who exactly is my audience. By knowing this, I can tailor my emails so they are more relevant to you, dear reader.… Read the rest
Let’s consolidate the previous two posts about scope and price in a Salesforce project.
The flowchart below allows you to see the steps and process involved in determining scope and pricing method.
This is the exact process I’ve been using for the past two years, so I hope you find it helpful.… Read the rest
Once you’ve an idea of what your client wants and the value of the Salesforce project, it’s time to sit down and determine options for price and scope.
Remember, scope is last, so the next step is deciding your prices.
Here are two popular pricing methods:
1.… Read the rest
One of the most popular questions I’m asked is, when doing fixed pricing, how do you accurately scope a Salesforce project? Don’t you need to add tons of conditions to protect yourself?
Note: This question doesn’t apply when you’re selling a product or a productized service, as the price and scope are already established.… Read the rest
Let’s assume you’re a freelance Salesforce consultant, and are currently billing by the hour.
You’ve heard me speak about fixed pricing before, and the topic interests you. You just don’t know how to switch.
Here are three considerations to help you with this transition:
1.… Read the rest
An earlier project with a challenging client quickly became a vast source of knowledge. Knowledge of what NOT to do. Here’s one example.
This client was challenging to work with, because they wanted everything. They didn’t believe in a MVP, so in their first release of Salesforce, they wanted
There are many reasons why I choose to be a digital nomad. Here is reason #12.
My primary residence is in Montreal, Canada. During the winter, it’s cold. And I mean damn cold. For example, today is -16C (4F) and with the wind chill it feels like -22C (-8F).… Read the rest
How many Salesforce projects should you be working on at the same time?
As a consultant, and especially when you’re good enough, you’ll be in demand. Whether you work in an agency or are a freelancer, the option to work on simultaneous projects is available.… Read the rest
When working with Salesforce flows, you often need to refer to static strings.
For example, let’s say you have a custom text field called `Entity` on the account, which you want to set to “Organization” in a flow.
Option 1: When setting the Account record variable, just set `Entity` = “Organization”
This is definitely the quickest and easiest method, but it’s the hardest to maintain.… Read the rest
When updating or creating records in screen flows or autolaunched flows, you have two main choices for determining how the record is set:
Admittedly, option 1 takes slightly longer to set up.… Read the rest
In Salesforce flows, having a proper and consistent naming convention is important. It helps with readability, understanding, and logic processing.
When working with a single record, it makes sense for the variable to be singular. Similarly, when working with multiple records in a collection, it makes sense for the variable to be plural.… Read the rest
Yesterday’s email sparked some great feedback from readers, so let’s expand the topic of building your Salesforce network.
LinkedIn was mentioned, but it doesn’t really matter which social media platform you participate in. For example, Twitter/X has a vibrant Salesforce community.… Read the rest
Having a strong professional network helps attract clients and projects. Once you are known, you can refer business to others, and they can refer business to you.
So how do you become known?
There are three main ways to build your professional network.… Read the rest
People have various opinions about naming conventions for Salesforce variables in flows. Some draw their opinions from old VB code, others from C or Java.
As a previous C developer, below is my approach, which follow specific design patterns.
1. Keep it simple and concise
If a variable name can be written shorter, then shorten it
E.g.:… Read the rest
There was a recent discussion on LinkedIn about the input variable “recordId”.
Most flow developers know about the special variable “recordId”. (Note: the “I” must be capital, but the “r” can be upper or lower case). In a screen flow, when you set this specific variable as an input and text, it’ll automatically be populated with the Salesforce Id of the current record from where it was called.… Read the rest
In Montreal, Canada, there’s a popular diner for smoked meat sandwiches.
It’s basically an institution in the city, and there’s always a long line outside the establishment, regardless of the time of day.
Inside, the chefs carefully prepare each sandwich, whistling, and cracking jokes at each other.… Read the rest
Dear reader,
I’ve decided to extend my email break by another week. Normally I only take a break for a week every once in a while, but this time I feel the need to take more time for myself.
I’m also trying to make progress on a few work projects, and will use this week to focus on them and some personal projects.… Read the rest
Pausing your normal routine is wonderful for your mental health. It breaks the daily churn of what is to be expected, and opens your mind to the art of the possible.
You can break routine by going on a holiday, traveling to a new place, visiting a new restaurant, or many other things that simply get you out of your comfort zone.… Read the rest
Not so long ago, there were only two Salesforce editions, Professional and Enterprise. Then they introduced Developer, Starter, and Unlimited. After that, Essentials was introduced.
Note: If you want to know the differences between these editions, checkout https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.overview_edition.htm
Last week they announced Unlimited+ (UE+), which is a bundle of services.… Read the rest
This week Salesforce announced their Scale Test is now generally available.
This automated testing tool provides the following: