When it launched in 1999, Salesforce intended to revolutionize customer relationship management (CRM) via a cloud-based model. By nearly all standards, it succeeded: Today, Salesforce’s market cap is 255 billion USD. Its products remain in high demand, particularly from companies that want to track customer interactions and sales data, then use this data to improve their operations.

As a fledgling company, Salesforce made headlines when its employees staged a “theatrical protest,” per Nira.com, that demanded an “end to software.” In reality, Salesforce was simply reimagining software. Their products, available via a subscription service, marked the beginnings of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Today, the SaaS market continues to expand impressively, and analysts predict a valuation of 1.22 trillion USD by 2032.

Salesforce milestones include its 2015 entry into the Fortune 500; the 2016 launch of Einstein AI, a CRM-supporting AI technology; and the 2023 launch of Einstein’s successor, Einstein GPT, in 2023.

In 2020, Salesforce resources helped companies worldwide as they struggled with the pandemic’s impact on work; new offerings included Salesforce Care and Vaccine Cloud.

Given Salesforce’s impressive rise, its large suite of offerings, and its relevance in a world that is increasingly reliant on cloud-based technology, Salesforce consulting services can be particularly welcome to Salesforce users who are new to the Salesforce platform. These service providers are expertly skilled in installing Salesforce products, training employees on using them, and helping businesses maximize this usage to produce better business outcomes.

In general, Salesforce managed services consultants help enterprises use and scale Salesforce products. They add a level of competency to a company’s experience with Salesforce. They simplify customer relationship management (CRM) for the company and enable them to make the most of the Salesforce platform and of Salesforce products and services. Companies that employ Salesforce consultants tend to benefit from increased optimization, improved workload management, and familiarity with Salesforce offerings. Beyond offering their own expertise, Salesforce consultants will work with business leaders and employees to increase Salesforce knowledge sharing. Salesforce consultants tend to be good with people: They know how to manage relationships with the company and with clients, they can support and guide technical teams, and they can create and manage projects from beginning to end.

A Salesforce consulting service’s responsibilities will vary from company to company. However, experienced Salesforce consultants should be able to perform many of the same functions. Company leaders might task consultants with building Salesforce reports and analyzing Salesforce data; performing data migrations; proposing technical requirements; implementing Salesforce Sales Cloud solutions; troubleshooting and solving issues with the platform; gathering requirements; and performing current-state assessments. Virtusa, as one of Salesforce’s Summit partners, has 15 years of experiencing implementing Salesforce CRM solutions and helping clients achieve a high return on investment (ROI) from their Salesforce services.

Salesforce consultants can also assist companies with improving the customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX). Well-rated consultancy services have experience with design consulting, they can implement Salesforce solutions at speed and at scale. They can also support the company’s marketing goals through customer data analytics, search engine marketing (SEM) strategies, and search engine optimization (SEO). Salesforce consulting services are also familiar with change management best practices, and they can shepherd business leaders and teams through a smooth transition and help them arrive at desired outcomes.

As in all industries, certain Salesforce consultants will be more suited to certain businesses. For example, a banking and financial services (BFS) company might want to hire a consulting service that has a proven track record of assisting other banks with Salesforce integrations. Along the same lines, a healthcare company should examine Salesforce implementation success stories within the healthcare and life sciences (HLS) industry. Companies that rely heavily on the success of operations outside the office should hire a Salesforce Field Service Management (FSM) expert. Salesforce consulting services that are familiar with FSM can employ Salesforce software to communicate with technicians, determine repair and maintenance needs, schedule regular inspections, and track the progress of employees who are working out in the field and not in the office.

When performing a cost-benefit analysis of implementing Salesforce consulting services, companies should consider their business growth needs and their CX/UX goals. They should also consider that a more efficient use of Salesforce can increase cost savings through automation, a reduction in manual efforts, and an improved knowledge-sharing culture across the entire organization.

Salesforce consultants will use their familiarity with the platform to implement customization options for the business. These customization examples include visual style changes to the user interface (UI); the development of low-code applications; implementing batch processing; and reconfiguring user permissions, workflows, and security settings. Business leaders should ask consultants if they feel comfortable customizing Salesforce offerings in response to the company’s unique and developing growth needs.

Additionally, Salesforce consultants can help companies face common challenges in Salesforce implementation projects. These challenges can include employee reluctance to embrace Salesforce and CRM software; data integrity and data migration issues; customization problems; and user training.

Enlisting Salesforce consulting services can generate the following business benefits:

Smooth implementation of Salesforce offerings
Mitigation of issues typically associated with any software deployment (e.g., integration challenges, data mismanagement, staffing shortages during training sessions, poor preparation for system changeovers, and dependency conflicts)
Customization of the Salesforce product to satisfy unique business needs
Increased knowledge about cost savings associated with an efficient use of Salesforce
Requirements gathering
Management of business-client relationships with the help of Salesforce products
Acceleration of data migrations and implementation timelines
Improved marketing strategies with the help of Salesforce Marketing Cloud

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