Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant
What Exactly is a Salesforce Consultant?
In the Salesforce ecosystem, a consultant is someone who can work with you to understand your requirements for a new Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system. Once a set of requirements are clearly defined, a consultant will design a solution using Salesforce and a set of apps and integrations as necessary to get you up and running. Once you’ve had a chance to review and accept the requirements and solution, the consultant will build your solution in Salesforce so you’re ready for testing the solution, receiving training, and finally going live with your new CRM.
Consultants usually work for Partners, businesses accredited by Salesforce to build solutions for organisations. They may be supported by developers where more technical build is required and may need the help of a technical architect or a solution architect if the requirements are complex enough. They may also be supported by Business Analysts and Project Managers, although this is dependent on the size of the solution.
Consultants are an essential part of the Salesforce ecosystem, especially when you’re running an initial Salesforce implementation project, or adding a large new chunk of functionality to your CRM. The best consultants work in a way that: minimises the risks of big projects, uses rigorous processes to ensure requirements are understood and delivered, tests the solution thoroughly to catch bugs and issues, trains users sufficiently for the new CRM and ensures go-live goes smoothly.
Consultants Aren’t Always the Right Fit
No matter how well your consultant delivers your project, at some point your organisation will need to take responsibility for managing and operating your new CRM. Ideally this will be the job of an internal system administrator, although not every nonprofit is able to fund a full time system administrator role. It can unfortunately be difficult to find someone with the skills you need if you are ready to recruit a system administrator. Some organisations also can’t afford to use consultants for projects as the majority have significant daily rates of $2000 or more
Building Your Internal Capacity with Salesforce Mentor
If your organisation needs to implement or improve Salesforce without the help of a consultant, you’ll probably need some help to understand the best ways to implement Salesforce solutions that meet your requirements. You may even need help to identify your requirements!
Salesforce Mentor can help by building the capacity of your internal team so they have the skills they need to effectively manage and improve Salesforce. This could be a system administrator or someone who put their hand up to look after Salesforce on top of their existing job. More than just upskilling, a mentoring relationship can also give your team the confidence to improve Salesforce and avoid a situation where no one makes changes to Salesforce out of fear of what could go wrong. Learning how to make changes to Salesforce can be a daunting and time consuming process, and a mentoring relationship can help your team get the most out of the time they spend learning and improving Salesforce.