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Companies of all sizes are transforming the way they do business digitally with innovation in technology, in an attempt to engage customers in a new way. Enterprises are adopting a go-digital first approach with best in class out of the box software. Salesforce CRM happens to be one of them. Educating yourself about Salesforce is one thing. Understanding which products, applications best suit your unique business needs is another matter. Which is why almost most Salesforce customers turn to Salesforce experts to seamlessly enter the Salesforce eco-system. These experts are called Salesforce Implementation Partners. Over the last decade, Salesforce has nurtured a vast network of it’s implementation partners across the globe that help businesses achieve their business goals. Here's a look at some of the typical questions early adopters have about working with a Salesforce implementation partner. What is an implementation partner? To put it simply, an implementation partner is an firm that has been vetted and approved by Salesforce to implement their solutions for businesses on their behalf. Every implementation partner specialises in certain areas of technology, industry, or application. Which means, there are Salesforce implementation partners to address every need, business, industry and product. Why engage an implementation partner? Salesforce CRM solutions cover the complete spectrum of business operations. These include but are not limited to sales, marketing, service etc. Each product can be further expanded by third party add-on applications and cross-platform integrations. To put it in a nutshell, the Salesforce ecosystem has endless capabilities. The challenge is of aplenty – to select the right product with the features and functionality that best suit your needs. A larger organization may already work with multiple technology-based solutions because of larger budgets and diversity in lines of business. They may need guidance in understanding how a particular Salesforce product, say, Sales Cloud, can seamlessly integrate with their existing systems without causing any conflict. A smaller company on the other hand may be scaling up rapidly and will quickly realise that continuing to work with spreadsheets will not support their growth objectives. They would soon realize that they would need to automate some of their processes, and/or develop more personalised and engaging customer experiences. Implementing a CRM solution for the first time can feel intimidating. It is almost impossible for your internal teams or staff with no prior experience with Salesforce to consider all the variables involved in an implementation and also be able to implement a new instance of a highly configurable CRM platform. Hiring full-time resources to embark on the implementation process can also prove be an expensive option. These are some of the operational reasons that most of the Salesforce customers depend on Salesforce Implementation experts. Bringing in a partner late in the game may prove to be detrimental to your growth plans. For you to derive maximum benefit of such a powerful and configurable platform requires close collaboration not just internally, but also with your implementation partner.  The best way to do the implementation is when the journey begins together. When is the right time to hire an implementation partner? As early as possible. As is true with any big investment, first you need to do your due diligence. Understand what needs should be met, gaps to close, or issues that need to be addressed. Establish a vision of what you want to achieve with the Salesforce implementation. Next, determine how would you execute your vision with Salesforce, which is where the partner comes in. As soon as you estabish your goals, it’s time to bring in a partner. The right Salesforce implementation partner won’t just expedite the how, but they will also help you to sharpen your vision. They’ll help you get a clearer understanding of success metrics, establish realistic goals, and provide guidance on appropriate products. Finally, they’ll chalk out a sound project timeline for your entire implementation journey. Meet with multiple prospective partners. Assess them on key parameters like industry experience, certified consultants, years in business, reviews, number of successful implementations, their post-implementation training and support strategy. Get a sense of who they are and how they work. This is a crucial relationship for your business, so don’t compromise. How do I know which is the right partner for me? Some Salesforce Implementation Partners have generalised Salesforce capabilities. And some would specialise in particular areas or functions of the Salesforce platform. Some might specialise in Sales Cloud and Financial Services Cloud. Others might have expertise in harnessing the combined powers of Marketing Cloud and Einstein. Here are some pointers to guide you on what to look for in a Salesforce Implementation Partner: Industry expertise Does the Salesforce partner have experience working in the same industry as yours for other customers? Can they offer customer testimonials or case studies from similar projects? Salesforce expertise Does the partner have enough experience with the specific Salesforce solution that you wish to implement? Technical expertise Does the partner have the necessary technical capabilities to implement your Salesforce solution through customization, third party app integration or integration with other business systems within your organization? Proven Methodology Does the partner have a proven process methodology for Salesforce implementation and training? Do they implement using an Agile framework evolving with every iteration using a collaborative approach? Ongoing support What level and type of support are they providing to their existing customers? Do they provide 24/7 support? Pricing and Budgets What is their pricing model? What is the average size of the projects they have executed? Do they fit into your long-term budget? What a Salesforce Implementation Partner Does? Here are some of the things your Salesforce Implementation Partner will do as a part of their overall implementation: Work with you closely to establish your long-term and short-term goals for your implementation Document your existing business practices and make a detailed note of your specific requirements Assess your existing systems and business operations and recommend any changes that may help you to achieve your goals and improve the efficiency of your workflows Work closely with key stakeholders, adopting a collaborative approach to integrate Salesforce with your existing systems Train your teams on the new platform Salesforce implementation partners have extensive experience on the Salesforce platform across industries solving unique challenges in varied business environments. They know what it takes to execute and deliver a successful Salesforce implementation. A qualified partner can help you to avoid common pitfalls and get you up and running quickly. What challenges might I encounter during implementation? Salesforce has been around for decades now and it’s a known fact that bringing in a partner early in the game mitigates may of the implementation risks and challenges that may emerge along the way. What is also important is to be clear on what you want to achieve over time and how you measure success over that journey. Most often, confusion or dissatisfaction arises from a lack of understanding on part of the customer on clear goals and measurable metrics. If both you and your partner are not on the same page, its opens doors for unnecessary assumptions, and confusion and misunderstandings on timelines and system features can arise. This only complicates the process of achieving objectives and reaching success benchmarks that your set out with. Salesforce implementation is an expensive roll out and it’s a two-way street. Both you and your partner need to be transparent and work in close collaboration to make it a success. Never hesitate to ask the same questions. The Salesforce implementation process can be highly technical and it is only natural to seek precise clarification. Just as you place your customers at the center of your business, partners place you at the center of theirs. They measure their success by your satisfaction levels. Customer success translates to partner success. As it true with any successful relationship in life, this implementation partnership too thrives on open, honest communication from day one. Girikon is a Gold Certified Salesforce Consulting Partner that provides expert guidance and support throughout the client’s growth journey. Get in touch with one of our experts today to know more about how we can help you. Questions? Our reps have answers. CONTACT AN EXPERT

Customer relationships are the cornerstone of an organisation's growth, and you need to nurture and manage them efficiently and smartly. Salesforce is the world’s No1 CRM platform for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce provides out-of-the-box solutions that let growing businesses implement cutting-edge technology with minimum effort and connect all of the systems that are important to them. And has been recognised by leading user review organisations and industry analysts and as the market leader in CRM technology, Before we go deeper into what CRM technology can do for you, let us answer the basic question – Does my business need a CRM solution? If any of these is true for you, then the right CRM solution could make your job a whole lot easier. 1.You don’t have a single source of customer information. Does your company have customer and order information in multiple locations? If yes, then that's one glaring reason why you need a CRM. A CRM brings together all of your customer data from sales, marketing, service and support into one place allowing you to access, track, analyse, and act on it straightaway, from anywhere. If you store customer data in spreadsheets, then not just your sales reps but anyone who interacts with your customers is at a disadvantage. When information is modified in one system, other systems do not update automatically. There is no holistic, unified view of all of your customer data such as contact information, purchase info, and communication logs. 2. You have very limited visibility of customer interactions. Do you have a complete, single view of all customer information? If not, then you don’t have insight into what your salespeople and customer support teams are doing. It’s hard to help your sales and service teams be successful and accountable if you’re not sure what they are doing. 3. Reports are tedious and painful. Does your team go through the arduous process of creating reports manually? If that is true, your performance-tracking capabilities are extremely limited. You should be generating reports automatically and view real time analytics of your sales team’s progress versus their targets. 4. You’re losing valuable customer data. IF you are not sure what you’re following up on, it is going to be very hard for you to schedule follow-up interactions with customers and prospects. If your interactions across touchpoints aren’t being tracked, important details get lost through the cracks, especially if a key staff member leaves your organization. 5. It’s challenging to stay in touch on the go. Can you sales reps quickly and easily find the information they need to close a deal when they are in the field? When they are meet prospects and come across valuable information, does the rest of your organization have access to it? Information captured in handwritten notes and on PCs is a potential gold mine.  6. Every customer is treated the same. Are your customers and prospects getting similar types of messages and offers from you? If that is true, you’re missing out on potential opportunities. You want the to be able to target prospects based on their industry, geography, and the value they can bring to your business to make the most of every interaction. 7. Can you scale fast? If you company grows rapidly, can your business processes scale just as quickly as the demand? You cannot afford to let your own processes be the impediment to your success.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Studio is the leading enterprise email marketing platform allowing marketers to deliver an intelligent personalised message at scale. Connecting commerce, sales, service and customer communities for a consistent customer journey. Now each message can be tailored using an intuitive UI with drag and drop tools, easily customising content for your target audience. While personalising unique content for each subscriber. Email marketers can leverage Einstein AI to predict the needs of their customers, empowering them to suggest the right product at the right time. With automation, brands can connect with customers with one-to-one messages even at the scale of millions. Email studio lets you easily switch between templates or code when creating the right look and feel for your message. Once your message is ready, email studio allows you to review each email before sending to each subscriber is delivered the right content. Once emails are sent, marketing teams can use first-party data to target and attract new customers through advertising across the web or connect with them on their mobile devices. Real-time analytics empowers you to monitor campaign performance across the entire customer journey. View campaign metrics to optimise campaigns and ensure users stay engaged. You can approve content, deliver campaigns and monitor performance, and manage users from anywhere. Before we talk about Design Strategy, let's look at what you can do with Marketing Cloud e-mail Studio. TARGET YOUR AUDIENCE Create profile data based segments to drive engagement. Deliver great content to your target audience Use drag-and-drop functionality to segment and fine-tune your subscribers, to deliver relevant messaging. Filter millions of profiles at the click of a mouse and get real-time counts for sending. Become more efficient by automating most tasks. Effortlessly import, segment, and filter data from any source to allow you to deliver focused campaigns. Discover the right audience with inbuilt intelligence Keep your most active subscribers engaged more often, and improve overall message deliverability by reducing messaging frequency to inactive subscribers. BUILD YOUR BEST EMAIL Create sophisticated, engaging messages. Deliver responsive design based messages to customers on any device Effortlessly optimize messages for mobile so that your emails appear exactly as you intended whenever and wherever they’re opened. Always. Use a library of customizable templates to build your emails Get creative with best-in-class templates and populate emails content in to time. Deliver dynamic messages that inspire call to action. Take advantage of user-friendly dynamic features like a personalized scripting language, drag-and-drop functionality and carousels to delight your subscribers in real-time. Engage customers throughout their journey with personalised messaging Foster strong customer relationships with conversations that engage at every stage of the customer lifecycle. PERSONALIZE YOUR CONTENT Deliver relevant and engaging email experiences in no time. Deliver data-centric content. Get the most out of your data using dynamic content and scale personalization across your campaigns. Enhance and enrich the subscriber experience. Deliver multi-dimensional, engaging, and delightful experiences to your subscribers’ inbox. Leverage Einstein to power personalization. Use AI to tailor content for each message based on individual user behaviour. Automate intelligent messages. Create your message once, and leave it to AI to deliver the best and freshest content every single time. Review metrics to refine your content over time. SCALE YOUR CAMPAIGNS Reach customers with 1-to-1 messages, even at the scale of millions. Send with confidence. Preview and test every message before sending to ensure quality and establish criteria to disallow accidental delivery of test messages. Automate the email journey. Boost your marketing team’s efficiency and simplify your job. Set up delivery schedules for messages so that customers experience your brand exactly the way you want with the minimal manual workload. Build 1-to-1 relationships with customers. Leverage flexibility and scalability of email studio and empower yourself to maintain engaging 1-to-1 relationships even with an audience of millions. Fine-tune on the go. Make iterations to your journey as you go, and run tests quickly. Understand what’s working, and what isn’t, and driving perfection in your campaigns. From building your email strategy to delivering seamless journeys, here are the 5 best email campaign design practices to help you drive customer engagement at scale. STRATEGIZE Develop your email plan of action. Know your audience, establish clear goals, and build a content strategy to maximise the impact of your email messaging. Build in-depth personas. Develop persona profiles having information about day-to-day work habits, challenges to conversion, and key questions. Leverage CRM data. Use your CRM to understand demographic and behavioural data, which allows you to segment your audience effectively. Identify consumer needs. Clearly identify the journey of your target audience. Whether it be onboarding or a re-engagement email journey. Set a clear vision for email marketing. Set specific goals. Outline the objective you wish to achieve through your email campaigns such as brand awareness, deeper engagement, or driving sales. Create useful content. Understand how and why your audience should connect with your message and how you can deliver content that meets their needs. Chart your path. Define how you intend to measure the success of your email strategy both for your business as well as your audience. Develop an effective, customised content strategy. Map clear journeys. Plan for different email journeys, such as transactional and onboarding journeys, that show you a connected flow from one email in a journey to the next. Make a schedule. Create an outbound email calendar that details the frequency of your outgoing communication. Collect useful metrics. Determine the data collection mechanism to measure the success of your outreach program. Parameters such as open rates, click-through rates, landing page impressions, sales originating from your emails, can help you get clarity on the effectiveness of your campaign. DESIGN Content is vital to great email design. Engage your audience with effective content. Sender ame: Cleary reveal your identity to the viewer Subject line: Create an effective subject lines that reflects the content in the email to encourage engagement. Header: This is at the top of your email area  that includes your brand’s logo. Navigation bar: The navigation bar mirrors your website navigation and drives traffic to key entry points of your site. Primary message: The primary message includes your main reason for reaching out to your audience. Social media bar: Include links to your brand’s pages on social media networks. Footer: This includes an unsubscribe link, compliance information or link, and disclaimers.   Device friendly Content.   Automatically tailor messaging, that’s fits any device.     Design to inspire engagement.   Create and truly responsive designs powered by live content     Start with coding.   Use CSS3 to adjust font size, frame width, and image size for a richer experience.   DELIVER Send every email with confidence. Ensure inbox delivery and avoid the spam and junk folders. Get permission twice. Ensure that you are sending emails only to an engaged audience by using double opt-ins like email or SMS to confirm with new subscribers. Set clear expectations. Ensure subscribers know what they’re getting and when is the communication expected. Determine the best time for engagement. Boost your reputation. Establish a good sending reputation by using a sender authentication package, a collection of products that optimizes email delivery. Clean your list. Clean your subscriber lists regularly by reviewing data such as open rates. Segment subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails over a certain period, and launch re-engagement emails. Avoid ambiguous “from” addresses. Avoid using no-reply@business.com or other such impersonal sender addresses. Steer clear of being marked as spam by subscribers and email service providers. Keep it legal. Abide by the CAN-SPAM act. Include a clearly visible unsubscribe option, honor unsubscribe requests, and choose a legitimate “from” address. ANALYZE Test emails to optimize performance. Go deeper into demographic, behavioral, and contextual data and personalize every email. Demographic data: Aggregate demographic data that may include subscriber’s name, gender, date of birth, mailing address, and other information collected on a signup form. Behavioral data: Track actions across multiple channels. This may include includes browsing activity, downloads, purchase history, email opens, and more. Contextual data: Marketing teams can use contextual data to deliver just in time experiences, the moment an email is opened. Measure metrics to understand email performance after sending. Track positive results data. Track the delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, to have a deeper view into the engagement levels. Learn from negative results data. Adjust your strategy based on what’s not working. Assess unsubscribe rates bounce rates to re-align your campaign. Know your testing audience. Test campaigns with new subscribers because they haven’t been influenced by previous marketing or communication campaigns. Avoid targeting segments that are dormant that can potentially dilute results. ELEVATE Evolve your email strategy as you grow. Know the consumer experience. Take stock of all other consumer touchpoints across your company’s channels, including social media, SMS, website, app, and even sales and service interactions. Assess the role of email. Understand how email fits into each individual consumer’s journey. Identify opportunities to boost experiences in awareness, acquisition, onboarding, engagement and retention. Inform your adjustments. Test the consumer’s journey before going live. Modify and optimize the journey before your subscribers actually experience it to give your marketing teams the best chance at success. Contact Girikon today, a certified Salesforce Consulting Partner to help you create engaging, objective-oriented email campaigns that deliver results. Questions? Our reps have answers. CONTACT AN EXPERT

Whether you are already running a Salesforce instance in your organization and would like to upgrade it, or you want to set up a Salesforce implementation from scratch, you will probably need the expertise of a Salesforce consulting partner. With the global adoption of the world’s No.1 CRM platform, the Salesforce consulting partners network has been growing over the years, ranging from individual consultants to global partner firms, offering extensive expertise across Salesforce products and industries and third-party apps. But, how do you find a consultant that is best suited for you?  Here are the top 9 mistakes companies usually make when Salesforce consulting partner and how to tackle them. Mistake #1: Not having a clear definition of business goals As a business leader you are expected to show the way. It’s not the job of a consultant. Before you decide what type of implementation you want, it is critical to understand why you need the proposed solution in the first place. How does it address your business goals? What problems is it going to resolve for you? What direction do you want your business to take post implementation? Without a clear understanding of these aspects, you may end up squandering time, money and effort on an underutilised Salesforce implementation and never really realise its full potential. To set the right direction for your business with the help of your Salesforce implementation, you need to clearly define: Determine Business Objectives – Enlist what you wish to achieve with the Salesforce platform, just in the immediate term, but over a 3-4 year period. Define Optimal Project Schedule – Set realistic expectations you’re your project execution timeline. Typically, implementation times take months for for mid-size businesses. Define your budget – Do thorough research and establish the budget range you are willing to invest into Salesforce implementation and administration going into the future over a 3-4 year period. Establish your Partnership Model – Determine the implementation scenarios of your project based on budget, time and resource constraints: will your Salesforce Implementation Partner perform complete implementations, will you split responsibilities with your partner, or you will do everything with internal resources while being guided by your partner. Define Project Stakeholders – Identify key people from your team who you want to involve in your project implementation. Amongst them, identify a champion who will drive the project. Define Salesforce Partners Roles – Identify the project roles and responsibilities that can be outsourced to your partner. Draft an RFP based on these roles which will help you to simplify discovery sessions with your prospective partner. Mistake #2: Lack of Basic Salesforce Knowledge This step is often overlooked.  To be on the same page with your implementation partner or consultant, you need to be familiar with the most common terms and capabilities of the Salesforce platform. Educate yourself with product demos, Case Studies and Whitepapers on the Salesforce websites to know about the features relevant to your business domain. Knowing how Salesforce has helped companies around the world in your domain, will help you speak the same language as your partner. Mistake #3: Prioritizing Price over Quality Yes, you would like best Salesforce Consulting Partner your money can buy. And there is always a tendency to attracted to cheaper offers. But sometimes, when you hire a low cost alternative with tight budgets, there are costs overruns and hiring that consultant may actually result in even higher running costs than originally planned, schedule overruns or worst case, project failure. Eventually, you may decide to invest only in Salesforce developers. Initially it may seem financially viable. However, if your developers do not have holistic expertise on the domain as well as the product, you may end up with an implementation that may either be underdeveloped or well developed but under-adopted by your end-users. Which is why Salesforce recommends working with Salesforce Certified partners so that there are no surprises in the long run. It is an expensive option compared to others, but the chances of success are much higher. Mistake #4: Underestimating the power of reviews All companies design their websites to look great. And why wouldn’t they? They want you to think that are the best at what they do. However, that’s not the entire story. But what are their clients saying about them? Customer reviews on AppExchange are a great indicator of customer satisfaction levels. Read reviews to know what’s good and what not about a product or app. There are also third part websites which publish reviews of companies for their services. Mistake #5: Rushing into a decision Investment into a Salesforce implementation is a huge decision. There is absolutely no reason to rush into it just because your competitors are doing it. Take your time, understand how a partner can help you and make an informed decision. Ping your network for references, surf through Salesforce platforms like AppExchange and the Trailblazer Community to access a larger pool of consulting companies. Go through their portfolios in detail. Browse through their client case studies for similar projects, determine how their work experience matches with what you need and compare. Mistake #6: Ignoring the marketing background of a Salesforce partner At the core of its business, Salesforce is a digital marketing company that empowers businesses to manage customer relationships and enables marketers to launch campaigns, track conversions, and measure ROI. However, not all Salesforce consultants have adequate digital marketing experience, and while it’s not mandatory, in order to maximize utilization of the power of Salesforce, you should find one that does. Solution implementation customization and administration are not the onoy things you need help with. You need to know how your business goals align your marketing goals., Mistake #7: Hiring a Salesforce Consultant with inadequate relevant experience You will find that there is no dearth of skilled technical experts on the AppExchange platform. But are technical skills and certifications enough to ensure the success of your project? No doubt, relevant technical knowledge is critical for successful Salesforce implementation, and you should always pay importance to the proper certifications of the consultants on your partner’s team.  However, domain expertise is equally important. What if Salesforce doesn’t offer out-of-the-box solutions for you line of business. You will then need to identify experts that can customize Salesforce for your unique business needs. Lack of relevant and adequate industry experience may lead to an implementation with cracks and consequently impact adoption by your team and your ROI. Besides domain knowledge, you should also look for partners who have enough resources to work with a company of your size and have worked on similar projects. Your due diligence on your prospective partner’s technical and marketing background will augur well in the long run. Take your time and do a thorough investigation into identifying the best fit partner for your project. Mistake #8: Not Choosing an Expert Why do you need to hire an implementation partner? Because you don’t have that level and kind of competence and experience available within your organization, right? And the last thing you want is a partner that readily agrees to every suggestion you make. What you need is a real expert who has the technical as well as the industry expertise to examine and inquire your business in-depth, and will confidently take the lead and suggest the path forward. Certified Salesforce Consultants avoid common mistakes, because they’ve learned the hard way, and will suggest the best path forward even though it may not appear right to you.  In other words, they will not hesitate to disagree with you. Mistake #9: Not looking long-term One of the most common misconceptions amongst businesses is that their engagement with their implementation partner finishes with the deployment of Salesforce. The truth however is quite to the contrary. Post implementation, your project will enter a phase where you will need expert support of a different kind: to drive user adoption of the platform, ensure that your platform is configured correctly after each Salesforce release, and troubleshoot all solution-related issues. Your organization is going to grow over the years, and so should your CRM. When new enhancements or customizations are needed, it’s much more efficient and easier to work with a tried and tested Salesforce partner who know your project ground up. Smart businesses today are focussed on fostering meaningful long-term relationships, that complement their core offerings with innovation. Investment in Salesforce is a huge step, and should be undertaken with proper planning. And Salesforce partnership is a handshake, where both client and partner work on common goals with shared responsibilities. Girikon, a Gold Certified Salesforce Implementation Partner, provides expert guidance and support throughout the client’s growth journey. We will assist you with your Salesforce initiative and deliver your unique CRM implementation solution working hand in hand with you Questions? Our reps have answers. CONTACT AN EXPERT