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From cold caller to consultant: Why industry knowledge is key to a successful partnership

Sep 21, 2020 | Admin, Latest News, Managed Services, Sales Cloud, Salesforce CPQ

As a consultant, I’ve worked with clients on various Salesforce needs, ranging from small and out of the box to large, complex, and heavily customized. When I know clients have used other Salesforce partners in the past, I ask them why they chose us at Simplus over the incumbent. While I do get a wide range of answers, there is one answer that prevails:

“The previous Salesforce partner we hired didn’t really understand my business.”

This is what I feel separates me as a professional Salesforce consultant. I spent ten years in B2B outside sales before joining the Salesforce ecosystem, and that experience and training has been the number one factor to my success by a wide margin. 

I spent most of my sales career in two major industries that support many other industries (trucking and apparel). The various sales roles I had came with world-class training and aggressive prospecting metrics, which rapidly introduced me to a wide variety of industries. Weekly, I had to average 200–300 calls, 30 in-person cold calls, 15 appointments, five proposals, and one sale. With that many touchpoints, you had to be absolutely certain that you knew everything you could about the prospects and their businesses to provide a valuable solution. Otherwise, you were wasting time and couldn’t keep up. Those aggressive and oftentimes stressful metrics helped me become a more effective and organized sales representative, using my CRM knowledge and helping me learn more about our target verticals. 

So what does this have to do with being a good consulting partner? Everything. 

At Simplus, I am a Senior Consultant on the Managed Services team, specializing in Sales Cloud and Salesforce CPQ. I can play to my strengths at Simplus, and it provides an immediate return on investment for my clients. Having experience in various industries and a career as a sales professional, I can add immediate value in several verticals with less “onboarding” time spent having clients explain their industry in detail.

One of the many reasons our customers rate us so highly time and time again is because we focus on more than just the technical merit. While we utilize great resourcing tools to staff our projects with the right experience and know-how properly, there is a constant internal conversation around getting the industry knowledge right for our clients. It’s one thing to have Salesforce experience, but it’s another to truly understand the sales process from lead to cash. 

The Simplus Managed Services team comprises a vast array of knowledge and experiences. Our clients can rest assured that we have the tools and resources available to provide critical insight, technical solutions, and scalable processes fit for their industry needs. Having such industry experience on your side, in the form of your Salesforce partner, is crucial to your success. 

 

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