Tag: salesforce consultant

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How to be a Salesforce Consultant?

salesforce consultant

Being a person who has been with the Salesforce environment for more than 10 years, I always dreamt of being a consultant. The opportunity to work on numerous Salesforce implementations for varied clients in a wide ranging business verticals allured me a lot. I really enjoyed the process of understanding how companies perform their business.

As a Salesforce customer, I was associated with various kinds of consultants, some were very good and others not very good. However, what I always marveled at was the depth and breadth of their Salesforce knowledge.

Understanding Salesforce from scratch

I began my association with Salesforce in 2008 when my VP of Marketing told me to find the team for new CRM. I assessed various products and zeroed in on Salesforce as the required solution. I swiftly got to know that the potency of the tool lay in the platform and the capability to create new functionality that wasn’t very innovative. To put it simply, I got convinced fully that I should forgo AVP title for pursuing Salesforce full time.

One Salesforce Administrator post resulted in another and then finally I ended up being in charge of all Salesforce products for a pan Indian, privately held company with numerous business units under a shade. My task was to work with these business units to learn their individual business requirements and then devise a tailored Salesforce solution for their group in a manner that also integrated their data with all of the other business units within the company. Consulting was a tough task and when the time was ripe to take my next step, I felt I was game for the change.

Willing to describe my journey

When I began my quest for the ideal Salesforce consulting shop, I spoke to a few different firms that I thought was a perfect fit for my requirement. As I talked to several prospective recruiters one sentiment cropped up inside my mind. It seemed that only those who were consultants previously were meant to be consultants. I mean it was the usual problem of not being able to gain experience till you already have experience.

Eventually, I lended up as a Solution Architect at a reputed entity — but it was not a cakewalk. So, if you experience similar kind of feeling and want to get into consulting, here are some valuable resume and interview tips:

Speak regarding your internal clients: Simply for the reason that the product owners or subject matter experts that you associate with are working in the same company as you, does not imply they are not your clients. You get additional points for speaking about tough as nails clients and the way you handled them.

Highlight your work with regard to projects: Salesforce is a continuously growing product and it might come across like one giant body of work, however, try to dissect those features that were made into individual projects and speak regarding the problems and successes that you achieved during those projects.

Speak about certain business woes: We very well understand that the Salesforce is an amazing tool but where it actually shines is in its capacity to simultaneously handle puzzling business issues and make the lives of end-users very convenient, so showcase those stories.

Highlight the numbers: You can speak about the amount of time saved by your Salesforce solutions or a certain dollar rate of new business wound up as a result of improved workflow. This explains lucidly why your solutions got a genuine ROI.

I am of the belief that these tips will help you get your next or maybe first Salesforce consultant. I am working as a Solution Architect with Winklix for a little more than a year now and it is a call I am really proud of. All the best.

Thanks ,

Mithitesh

Salesforce Consultant

Winklix

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Why has the Salesforce Marketing Cloud assumed significance among businesses?

Why has the Salesforce Marketing Cloud assumed significance among businesses?

In case you have a business or want to start one, what is the most significant thing you should work on? Without a doubt financial assets are critical. But, business isn’t only about trading goods or services. It is a must to have cordial relationships with your clients. Marketing is all about Customer Relationship Management (CRM). CRM is an integral aspect on which every business is based upon.

However, in case you require the best CRM for your business, you would want the best tools as well. This is where Salesforce Marketing Cloud fills in the blanks as it accelerates your business through specially designed tools. These tools happen to be technically superior and help you in knowing your customers inside out and this in turn, maximizes your profits. Hence, let’s delve into Salesforce Marketing Cloud and its various benefits.

Also Read : What is Salesforce ? It’s Features And Pricing ?

Main attributes regarding Salesforce Marketing Cloud

In a nutshell, salesforce brings companies and their customers together. Salesforce has got an integrated platform which aids you in handling marketing, sales, commerce, and services in one go.

‘Salesforce Customer 360 Platform’ is really trustworthy and you can count on it to get your work done. It gives an individualized experience to your customers by which you can gain other customers as well. If you employ Sales Cloud to tackle sales tasks and customer contacts, you’ll witness an increase in:

  • Win rates by 43%
  • Enhance rep productivity by 44%
  • 37% in bottom line
  • These apart:
  • Provide incredible shopping experience to your customers
  • React instantly to customer support matters
  • Automate time-consuming activities with customized apps and so much more.

Why opt for Salesforce?

Prior to getting into the reason behind selecting salesforce and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Benefits, it is pertinent to emphasize their values. Values imparted on their platform are unique in ways that they separate them from other companies in digital marketing solutions. Salesforce has developed a tradition and legacy of trust through which they encourage each other and the industry via their ideologies. Salesforce is devoted to transparency and total sincerity. They are of the view that profits can spike via honesty as well. While utilizing Salesforce users get several benefits. It is up to the user how they leverage the platform to enhance the scope of their business and CRM. These happen to be some of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud assistance.

Some of them are:

It maximizes your power to spread business across several markets by assisting you to connect with the bigger market. For example, you have merged apps with AppExchange, which helps you connect to the world’s biggest marketplace. Going by its name, it aids you in increasing your sales by linking directly to each customer. The sales employees in your company can obtain access to this platform with ease to learn the requirements of your customers well.

7 advantages of Using Salesforce Marketing Cloud

1.Customize with ease

Salesforce bestows you with the authority to customize online marketing tools as per your market base. With customization tools, you are free to offer a personalized touch to every customer devoid of any hiccups.You can even utilize integrated apps to learn about the several requirements of your customers. The customization aspect helps you in dealing with different customers in line with their issue. This facility apart from bettering your revenue also assists in multiplying customer base.

2. Aids in adapting to changes

There are some businesses that are very trustworthy and the reason for the same is that they have a good knowledge of the psychology of their customers. To take your business to new heights, you should be flexible enough to change in line with the transformation in the market. This is where Salesforce gets into action. It assists you in adapting to the change better in line with the variability of your customers. It even aids you in learning the underlying shift in the pattern of customers. Through this platform, you derive the power to make right decisions at the right time. This is the best part of Salesforce Marketing cloud.

4. Absolute safety

We are living in a world where data gets stolen every minute. Salesforce platform is ideal to counter such a threat as it provides ultimate protection against the misuse of data. By evaluating the data, you can secure your business from all threats emanating from cyberspace and your business rivals. It even assists in the encryption of data between your company and the customer. Also through Salesforce you can safeguard your customers from different kinds of stealth. And by providing high security, you can build loyalty and trust among your customers which can be beneficial for you in the long run. So, security is very vital when it comes to customer and company management, and Salesforce provides you with the same in abundance.

5. Increased Sales

With all the salesforce Marketing Cloud features at you disposal, the sales will also go up. The spike in sales differs in proportion to the security you offer to your customer. Also, it got custom-specific platforms and apps, which aid you in establishing connection with your customers via a single touch. This facilitates increased sales as well. Further, through data analytics offered by salesforce at an economical price, it becomes convenient to concentrate on big data to hike your sales by a huge margin.

6. Innovate easily

When the sales part is taken care of very well by Salesforce, you get plenty of time to involve with your customers and this leads to innovation. That’s the reason Salesforce is considered ideal. With this platform, you can come up with innovative ideas and execute them directly to learn the optimal returns of ideas. It is assumed that innovation can come out at any level in the hierarchy. Considering the same, this platform offers opportunities at various levels to every user. So as to have innovation to benefit the entire community and business.

7. Helps in making decision

Decision making is very critical in an organization. Now decision making can only be effective if you have administered information presented professionally. So, Salesforce aids you in better decision-making as well. The platform assists you by providing every information collected graphically. Also, it enables you in foreseeing the future trends, thereby rendering your choices very precise.

Spreading happiness

Armed with these features and your toil and diligence, delight of your customer is totally assured. It goes without saying that, if your customer is satisfied and content, you will benefit immensely as well. This is what Salesforce does for you: It can take your business to a new level altogether. That is the reason why Salesforce Marketing Cloud has gained currency across the globe as well.

Finally

In the end, it can be safely said that Salesforce isn’t only about buying or selling. It’s got to do with increasing happiness via connectivity and power for the benefit of customers as well as business. Salesforce tools are not merely materialistic assets, but they serve the purpose of entertainers, who give immense joy in several ways while toiling excessively internally.

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How to enhance your contact center operations through Salesforce and Vlocity

salesforce

Despite customers shifting in droves to digital channels, traditional contact center support will stay as a critical service channel. In several contact centers, the capacity to serve customers is severely crippled by agent’s requirement to obtain multiple legacy applications. Also, the current Corona-induced work from home schedules have drastically affected the functioning of contact centers.

In the present ever-evolving marketplace, the contact center has a direct bearing on your turnover. To derive the maximum ROI on processes, technology, and employee performance, several companies are fixated on accomplishing the following within their contact centers:

  • Less issue resolution time
  • Widening self-service choices for customers
  • Minimal admin time for agents
  • Curtailed agent training and onboarding
  • bring down customer attrition
  • Heightened customer spend: lead generation, cross and upsell possibilities
  • High CSAT and NPS scores

Prior to resolving the above, you have to find out your pain points: The challenges or hurdles confronting you, High expenses, fresh agents, customer grievances, and call deflection needs.

To explain success lucidly for your business, you require key performance metrics for the sake of comparison. Have you started to track metrics? Certain traditional metrics such as Net promoter score (NPS), Customer satisfaction (CSAT), Average handle time (AHT), First call resolution (FCR), Call Deflection rate, or Agent Attrition rate will aid you in understanding where you need to focus first.

Once you are aware of what to target, you need tools for the same as well. So, what tools will help you get there?

Adding Vlocity to your Salesforce Org

Salesforce happens to be a little bit more than a CRM — so kindly utilize it likewise. Activate your Org by developing and deploying cloud applications, tools, and services to automate business procedures, and merge with external applications. Having appropriate tools for automation is a must for your contact center to function smoothly and widens your team’s bandwidth to deal with more complex customer-specific concerns.

Salesforce gels perfectly with others. If united with Salesforce, Vlocity can quicken business process transformations focussed on agent and customer experiences. Vlocity also offers innovative solutions for industry and customer modules that can be fully exploited to enhance value. The advantages of Vlocity lies in its framework: Vlocity Cards, OmniScript, Data Integration tools, and innovative industry-centric functionality. These tools are adept at solving any issues plaguing your contact center.

By properly executing Vlocity in your contact center, you can bring down call handle and training times by offering contact center agents a single engagement layer via Vlocity’s Card Framework, Vlocity Actions and Omniscript. Omniscripts denoting guided processes are easily downloadable and customized from the Vlocity Process Library for usual service requests such as intimating a beneficiary, seeking an ID card, address changes, and dozens of others. Guided Processes do away with the need for a different Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) binder as the SOP is encoded into the Omniscript. These processes can be utilized for portals and mobile apps apart from the contact center. By easing the process of merger with external systems via microservices these transactions happen with merely a few clicks and without exiting the Salesforce platform.

Improving customer satisfaction and agents’ AHT

In the past, contact center agents wasted a lot of time going through several applications in order to find and resolve the caller grievances. If a lot of time is wasted in resolving the issue then it can be frustrating for both customers and agents. By utilizing optimally both native Salesforce Service Console and Vlocity cards, every information can be showcased in a single view on an agent’s screen. This results in an improvement in agents’ Average Handle Time and even the time spent on the call comes down, enhancing customer satisfaction and your key CSAT and NPS metrics. Having the right platform, can help you to swiftly and conveniently better your ROI on your people, processes, and technology. However, the benefits go beyond these. Whether you are striving to bring down issue resolution or cut down admin time for agents, these goals aid your team to be involved:

More agency for agents

Agents are very vital to the scheme of any contact center. If your team gets job satisfaction constantly and the feel of empowerment while performing their jobs, then resultantly it brings down agent training, onboarding time, and eventually agent attrition. By having proper tools in place, and the right training at the beginning, your contact center will have more merrier and engaged employees.

Whittle down complexities

Complexities pertaining to certain products result in longer training times, together with high agent turnover and your expenditure to bring in and retain/retrain agents can mount significantly. By optimizing Vlocity OmniScript, a stable call script can be optimally utilized for every kind of call. The training time needed for fresh agents can come down by several notches. Intuitive tools permitting an agent to control and learn customer interactions on their own assists in cutting down attrition rates and enhances employee satisfaction.When several tools are employed in one comprehensive program, then contact centers can optimally utilize staff across various channels, betters the handling time of customers and reduces training time for employees.

Assures compliance

With regard to contact centers in extremely controlled industries, apart from field tracking offered by Salesforce Shield, Vlocity includes caller verification and interaction logging to the compliance toolset. The Vlocity system even has functionality like innovative elements to carry out caller verification before showcasing the caller’s information. This element can be configured for various types of verification issues. There is even an extra facility for the agent through which he or she can click on an icon to comfortably capture crucial data elements being shared during the call. This gets automatically included in the interaction log.

Turning customers ecstatic

Cutting down customer attrition and maximizing customer self-service potentials happen to be two business drivers that work in tandem to accomplish any goals of the company, keeping customers in good humor. Salesforce Customer Communities makes an engagement platform for customers to communicate unlimitedly with company, at their convenience and leisure. Unifying Communities abilities with Vlocity’s Cards and Omni Scripts, customers get increased opportunities for self-service features and call deflection, which enables your agents to focus more on core activities related to customers.

Incorporating email or text to offer dynamic notification to involve your customers can significantly enhance NPS, especially notifications regarding crucial milestones in old transactions. Giving proactive information to your customers also serves the purpose of a call deflection mechanism. For key or long-running transactions, you can involve your customers by optimizing nurture campaigns. Each of these happen to be the strength of Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Add more value to your contact center

It’s common knowledge that contact centers happen to be a tough working environment. Bettering agent toolkits to effectively tackle, deflect, and resolve customer calls is a continuous procedure. Integrating Salesforce and Vlocity in order to offer clarity over the customer and relevant data points, permits agents to concentrate more on customer issues than the procedures needed to do so. By properly utilizing Salesforce and Vlocity capacities, your company can enhance customer retention, eliminate the requirement for legacy interfaces, maximize customer satisfaction, cut down AHT and training time, and offer a holistic view of your customer to all agents. Our incisive sub-industry focus, together with success related to Salesforce and Vlocity, make us better placed to offer additional value to your contact center operations.