Carlos Montejo, managing director of advisory services at Simplus, and Dr. Amy Cook, CMO at Simplus, discuss how companies can use advisory services to grow revenue.

Cook: Tell us what the Advisory Services program entails?

Montejo: Advisory Services is split into two core focus areas: (1) strategic services, where we help customers develop business cases for entering the Salesforce ecosystem, and (2) modernization engagement, or, in other words, [how] we can help customers take their Salesforce program to the next level with all its capabilities.

Cook: How do you help focus these client processes on driving revenue?

Montejo: One of the exercises we typically go through as part of our strategic services revolves around executive visioning. We run executive leadership workshops and do one-on-one interviews. We ask very specific questions around business drivers in terms of how a CRM enterprise platform like Salesforce can drive revenue for a company’s overall strategy. When we go through these different exercises, there are essentially three basic business outcomes that come out of this business transformation journey: this notion of operational efficiencies [and] customer satisfaction, and those two pieces [lead] to the ultimate business drivers, which of course are profitability and revenue growth.

We have a very standard type of methodology that allows us to uncover the core business drivers in terms of helping customers evolve their CRM platform, and revenue growth is one of those top three initiatives.

Cook: So basically, what you’re saying is that Operational efficiency + Customer Satisfaction = Revenue Growth. Is it really that easy?

Montejo: It can be. If you look at CRM enterprise platforms like Salesforce, you’ll notice that the ecosystem is very complex. The platform provides a number of different capabilities, whether it’s sales, service, quoting, billing, etc. The list goes on. So part of what Advisory Services does is help unpack that complexity for customers and hone in on what those specific business drivers are that ultimately lead to that revenue growth.

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