Month: September 2020

Are you a small business that’s just purchased Salesforce for your staff? Do you want to learn the ins and outs of the CRM software and how it can help? If so, then you need to look into outsourcing to a part-time Salesforce developer for your business.

Doing so can help you learn about the different benefits and features of Salesforce. When done correctly, it can help you nurture leads in a way that you never though possible.

See below for an in-depth guide on why outsourcing a Salesforce developer is so advantageous for your small business and its workers.

1. Save Money on Employment

Many companies choose to hire a Salesforce developer to their staff to have them constantly working on the service. They could help add new leads, build new campaigns, and customize the layout however you see fit.

However, being a small business, you have to find ways of saving money. Research has shown that hiring an employee for your staff will cost you anywhere between 1.25 to 1.4 times their total payment for the year, even for part-time hourly workers.

Fortunately, you can get the benefits of a Salesforce developer without actually hiring one for yourself. By outsourcing to a trusted Salesforce CRM consultant, you’ll be saving your small business thousands of dollars.

Better yet, you’ll get immediate help for your software. Rather than hiring an employee that needs time to learn the system, outsourcing to a Salesforce consultant will give you access to a knowledgeable source right away.

There are many benefits of Salesforce, you just need the right consultant there to guide you through them.

2. Quick Reaction Times

Just because there’s a need for you to learn more about Salesforce and troubleshoot its problems doesn’t mean your operations will slow down for you. You still have clients that need to be serviced and daily tasks that need to be accomplished.

Because of that, you need your Salesforce questions and problems answered as quickly as possible. 

By outsourcing to a Salesforce consultant, you’ll gain access to a service with quick turnaround time. You can call them at any point to ask them various questions and they can solve them for you quickly. 

For example, maybe you’re trying to integrate a few of your small business’s favorite apps with Salesforce. You might be trying to fuse your WordPress site, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics, Slack, and so on.

Your Salesforce consultant will be there as soon as you call, ready to walk you through the process. They can help you and your staff learns the process in real-time, saving you from experiencing setbacks in your office’s operations.

3. Teaching Proper Habits

Many small businesses purchase Salesforce, but hardly any of them unlock the true potential of its capabilities. They never take the time to train themselves or their staff on its features, and elect a “sink or swim” learning curve right away.

Not only will this provide a setback for your staff’s daily tasks (such as cold calls, emails, etc.), but it can also lead to some bad Salesforce habits. 

For example, if your sales staff doesn’t learn how to properly log a call under their clients’ accounts, then they won’t have that information to reference the next time they speak with them. This can lead to miscommunication between your workers and clients.

A Salesforce consultant can learn the operations of your staff and teach all of you how to properly use the CRM software to optimize your daily activities. 

After seeing the operations of your staff, they can also make suggestions on apps you might want to integrate or ways to customize your Salesforce layout to further help your workflow.

4. Training for Your Staff

You wouldn’t send a sales representative out on a business meeting without proper training. You wouldn’t start a business without learning what it takes to do so. Why force your staff to use Salesforce without any proper training?

Doing so can lead to a very disorganized database. They may never learn how to log their touchpoints or tract the activity of their prospects/clients, which means your Salesforce account is harming your business more than it’s helping you.

A trusted Salesforce consultant can train you and your staff on the ins and outs of the software. They’ll learn about your daily workflow, then give you and your staff recommendations on how to improve it.

5. Knowledgeable Troubleshooting

Like any other CRM system, there will be times when you experience technical difficulties with Salesforce. All of a sudden, it may have difficulty connecting with other services such as HubSpot.

Imagine having to troubleshoot an issue like that on your own. To solve the problem efficiently, you need someone that understands the back end of Salesforce.

An outsourced Salesforce consultant will be on-call any time that you need them. They can quickly diagnose the issue and solve it as quickly as possible.

Better yet, they’ll walk you through the problem so that you can learn how to fix it by yourself in case it ever happens again.

Outsource to a Part-Time Salesforce Developer Today

Now that you’ve seen all of the ways outsourcing a part-time Salesforce developer can help your small business, it’s time to find the right consultant to work with.

Start by reading this article for more information on 10 Salesforce tips that small businesses should consider when learning the CRM software for the first time.

For more inquiries, please be sure to reach out via our contact us page and we will be happy to assist you further.

Are you a small business using Salesforce for your CRM software? Is your sales team struggling to keep up with updating your software? Or, are you unsure if they’re using it the most effectively?

If so, then you could benefit from hiring a Salesforce expert. But what if you can’t afford to bring on a full-time expert? Then consider hiring a freelance Salesforce administrator instead.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what to look for or how to find the best expert for your situation. We’ve got you covered, keep reading to learn exactly what to look for and how to know what you need help with.

What You Need to Know to Hire the Best Freelance Salesforce Administrator

You love using Salesforce for your customer relations management software, but how can you be sure you’re using it to the fullest potential? Salesforce has so many amazing features you don’t want to miss out on any of them. To make sure you’re getting the most you can out of it, you need an expert to help your sales team learn everything they need to do their job well.

There are three key questions you need to answer before you can hire a freelance Salesforce administrator to help your company.

1. Know Your Budget

As a small business, you need to start with your budget. You don’t have deep pockets, but you also know you need to invest in your CRM to ensure growth for your company. Your sales team is only as good as their understanding of your CRM. So, you’re willing to invest in a professional to offer their insights and training.

However, if you know you have a certain budget you can make other decisions to help control costs. As you answer the other two questions, you might find you don’t need help in everything about your Salesforce CRM. You might only need help with one piece of the puzzle or one area of expertise.

By knowing your budget up-front you can then use the next two questions to pinpoint where you need help. And then you can stay within your budget while also focusing on your priorities.

2. Know What Areas You Need Help In

Salesforce is an amazing, all-encompassing CRM software. However, your team might have a handle on some areas while they have many questions on others. Take the time to narrow down where you need help.

This way, when you hire a freelance consultant you can point them in the right direction to help you. Three key areas you can begin to assess include:

Customer Information

Does your customer database have duplicate or incomplete customer profiles? Do you need help with importing new leads into Salesforce? A quality administrator can help show your team how to do this so they can save time, which will save you money.

Do you have former team members who still have access to your database? Don’t risk security breaches, a quality administrator can act as your gatekeeper to your important and sensitive customer information.

Systems Maintenance

Nothing will slow down productivity like unreliable duplicate data. A great Salesforce administrator can run a deduplication tool to scrub your database regularly.

A great Salesforce administrator can keep you up-to-date on the amazing new features offered regularly by Salesforce. Don’t miss out on new features because you didn’t know about them or how to use them.

Hire an expert to keep you abreast of each new feature as they’re released.

Database Reports

How can you know how well your team is doing without the right data. Your freelance administrator can run regular reports for you and maintain a healthy database.

You can have your new administrator run profile reports, field utilization reports, and more. A great administrator who is an expert in Salesforce can get you the information you need to run and grow your business.

There is no sense in paying them to train your team in an area they are already comfortable with. So, take the time to do this before you start hiring so you can get the right expertise you need.

3. Know What Skills You’re Looking For

Once you know your budget and problem areas you can now narrow down on the skills you’re looking for in the perfect administrator to help with your Salesforce questions.

Some skills to look for are:

• problem-solving skills
• database management
• attention to detail
• specialize in Salesforce software products

Now, you’re ready to start looking for the perfect expert to help your company. You know your budget, what areas your team is having the most problems in, and what skills you’re looking for. You are sure to find the right expert for you with this information in hand.

Hiring Freelance Consultants Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Hire the Best

When you know what you’re looking for you can still find the best help in the right freelance Salesforce administrator for your company. Don’t think that because you’re hiring a freelancer you need to skimp on expertise. And don’t think you need to spend a fortune to get the best, you can have the best while staying within your budget.

Hiring a freelancer gives you flexibility and freedom from hiring a full-time employee. But it doesn’t mean you can still hire the best and get the most for your money. Use the information in this article to find the best systems administrator you can and give your sales team the information and help they need to be successful.

For more information on how we can help you with your Salesforce needs, contact us today.

Implementing Salesforce is already transforming your business, but who’s going to maintain it? If you’re new to Salesforce, managing licenses, running reports, and automating tasks can leave your head spinning.

Even if your IT team pushed for Salesforce, that doesn’t mean they have the experience to manage it on their own. That’s where a Salesforce administrator comes in. A specialized Salesforce administrator can help you get all the benefits of Salesforce without the headaches.

To hire a Salesforce administrator, you need to know what you’re looking for. If you’re not familiar with Salesforce, hiring the right person can feel impossible. However, finding the right administrator for your small business doesn’t have to be hard!

You can find a great Salesforce administrator that won’t break your budget. Here are our top 5 tips for hiring the right Salesforce administrator for your small business.

1. Soft Skills are a Must

Having good people skills is an absolute must for a good Salesforce administrator. Your Salesforce administrator is a key part of your technical support team, so they need to work well with less tech-savvy employees. User management is a significant part of your CRM manager’s job, so make sure to ask questions to gauge if your job candidate is good with people.

Salesforce isn’t useful to your team without a high adoption rate. If adoption is lagging, a Salesforce administrator may need to show employees how to use Salesforce for daily tasks. In this case, having someone patient and friendly can make a big difference in encouraging employees to use the platform.

Great soft skills can help your administrator gain insight into your employees’ needs. If your consultant is easy to work with, they may get a better sense of which processes you need to automate.

2. Check for Training Experience

If you plan to build on the platform with apps from the AppExchange, you’ll need an administrator that can help employees use a new app. Training and change management experience will help employees adjust to changes in the platform.

A good Salesforce administrator provides strong backend support and answers frequently asked questions. Working with a developer may not be useful if you’re still looking to get team members to use the platform. The right administrator will make adopting new technology easier for your team.

Hire a Salesforce consultant who can explain the platform to trainers, employees, or even C-suite execs. Even if they aren’t hosting training sessions, they’ll be able to give walkthroughs on new features.

3. Ask For Examples of Automated Workflows

Small businesses rely on Salesforce to make running their business easier. Automating tasks can reduce human error and help your employees be more productive. Salesforce runs best with robust automated workflows that take many manual tasks off your team’s to-do list.

Setting up automation is one thing, but a good administrator can help you identify tasks that need improvement. During your interview, ask what types of business problems your admin has helped solve. This offers a good idea of what can be accomplished with automation.

A good Salesforce administrator can help you see where automated workflows will benefit your business. Plus, the right hire can set up automated reporting with complex data sets to give you a better look at how your business is performing. Even if you aren’t sure what to automate yet, an administrator can identify and put in place automated workflows that help your business.

4. Get Help with Customization

With so much information available in the Salesforce platform, it’s important to show only the data your team needs. Customizations can help your teams get the data they need without getting distracted.

Salesforce is all about making day-to-day business activities more convenient. Having the data your team needs readily available will make your team more inclined to use the software.

Different dashboards and layouts can help each department do their job better. Your Salesforce administrator can help create the right customizations for each department. During your interview, ask your candidate what types of customizations they’ve made.

Before going into an interview, talk with your teams about what data they want to collect and see. An admin may be able to recommend the right customizations for you, but they are not the expert on your business. Share your data collection and reporting needs to see if you need custom fields, page layouts, or dashboards.

5. Screen for Passion

Salesforce is an evolving platform, and a good administrator is always looking for something new to help your business. Keeping up with the latest and greatest in Salesforce technology can help your business take advantage of the platform.

While almost anyone can get a Salesforce administration certificate, that doesn’t mean they’re the best person for the job. Looking beyond certifications can help you find the right admin support for your needs.

A passionate Salesforce power user may not have the tech background you would typically look for in a software administrator. Their experience with what your company needs and their passion for the platform are more important than certificates.

Ask if your candidate engages with the Salesforce community and if they are continually growing their skillset. If they’re passionate about Salesforce, they’ll have a lot to say on this topic.

Understand Your Goals Before You Hire a Salesforce Administrator

Some mid-size companies may need custom coding or complex integrations. However, most small businesses need help maintaining the platform, answering questions, and managing permissions. Before hiring someone, it’s important to understand what your administrator will be doing.

If you’re searching resumes for extensive technical chops, you may hire someone who isn’t right for your company. Many small businesses may only need a part-time administrator to meet their needs. Sit down with your IT department to help create goals and better understand what tasks call for a Salesforce administrator.

Most small businesses don’t need full-time, internal administrators to meet their Salesforce goals. At Cutopia, we offer the part-time support you need at a price you can afford. Contact us today to hire a Salesforce administrator for your small business!

Is your company in need of a new customer relations management (CRM) software? Are you looking for ways to set your small business up for success? If so, then you need to consider Salesforce, one of the best CRM programs out there!

It allows all of its customers the same benefits while offering customizability for your small business’s operations. Using Salesforce is easy and it’s accessible from almost anywhere. In fact, you can unlock all the benefits by hiring a Salesforce consultant.

See below for the many benefits of Salesforce for small business. Be sure to consider how your company can benefit from all of these perks.

1. Accessibility for Your Staff

Imagine the horror of paying for a CRM software for your business, then only having access to it when you’re in the office or using a company desktop. Not only is that inefficient, but it can also put quite a damper on your staff’s daily operations.

Think of your sales reps, for example. In the office, they need access to different sales campaigns in order to cold call and prospect B2B sales. However, they might also need to pull up the CRM before an out of office meeting with a client to go over talk points.

Thanks to Salesforce, your small business’s CRM is only a login away. Salesforce is a cloud-based service, meaning you can access it from any device, anywhere in the world. All you need is the login credentials for your company’s specific page.

No matter whether you’re traveling for a business convention or going door to door to generate more leads, Salesforce will be at your beckoned call.

2. Ability to Integrate With Major Apps

Think of the setback that your small business would have from the get-go if you invest in a CRM software that can’t integrate helpful apps. You and your team would have to use each app individually, which can be a huge time waster.

Fortunately, Salesforce can integrate with many different well-known apps that can help your company in its daily operations.

Apps such as WordPress, Marketo, DocuSign, and MailChimp are just a few of the apps that can streamline your operations. Now your lead generation, sales conversions, and call/email campaigns can all be tracked from one source.

Salesforce allows you to integrate the apps you desire so that you aren’t paying for certain aspects of the CRM software that your company has no need for.

If you want to learn all the capabilities that Salesforce has for your small business, then be sure to reach out to a Salesforce consultant to learn more. They can point you in the right direction of apps you might consider integrating into Salesforce to achieve your company’s goals.

3. Customer Management Made Easy

As the name (CRM) would imply, Salesforce’s main task is to help you organize, control, and nurture all of the contacts that you get your hands on. That could be B2B prospects, returning customers, business partnerships, leads from events, and so on.

It offers you different tools to keep track of your touchpoints, make notes of the conversations that you’ve had, set appointments, and streamline your customer service.

You can build many separate call campaigns, divide leads for your sales staff, and receive highly-informative analytics on performance. For managers, it can also help you keep track of your team’s daily output with calls, emails, meetings, and so on.

All of this equates to better customer experience. By organizing your customers in one central hub, you’ll find it easier to nurture each contact.

If they call, you can pull up their account in a matter of seconds. If you’re on your way to a meeting with them, you can pull up notes from previous conversations to pitch new products without sounding like a broken record.

4. Customizable With Your Preferences

Ask 10 small business owners how they prefer to organize their leads, and you may very well receive 10 different answers. Everyone has their own ways of organizing contacts and projects within their company’s walls.

Salesforce allows you the chance to organize all your contacts in one central hub for every department. However, it doesn’t force you to use certain layouts, you can customize it however you so choose.

Your company can edit things such as the layouts of each page, processes for documenting activity, and only integrating the apps that you find valuable.

5. Customer Service For Your Company

If your company is going to spend money and pay for CRM software, you want to know that the provider has your back.

You might run into an issue with login credentials, managing workflow, installing new applications, or learning more about a particular portion of the CRM.

Salesforce’s customer service is well-regarded as one of the best in the industry. They offer 24/7 customer support with a well-trained staff that can troubleshoot your problems.

Of course, you’ll find those calls unnecessary if you’re well-trained in the art of Salesforce for yourself. By simply hiring a Salesforce consultant, you can unlock all its potential and learn how to read the analytics that is provided to you.

Salesforce for Small Business: It’s a No-Brainer

Now that you’ve seen all the different benefits of Salesforce for small business, it’s time for you to unlock the perks for your company today.

Be sure to read this article for more information on the Salesforce1 mobile app and all of its capabilities, as well as how it benefits your company.

For more inquiries, please be sure to reach out via our contact us page and we will be happy to assist you further!