salesforce consulting companies

As a prominent name in the cloud CRM space, Salesforce is being leveraged by organizations to manage customer relationships, as well as their business processes. Today, several forward-looking businesses including small and medium sized businesses are considering implementing this robust platform within their business ecosystem. By associating with an experienced Salesforce Consulting Partner, businesses are making the most of this platform to drive business growth and efficiency by automating processes, streamlining customer data and fortifying networks.  What is Salesforce Lightning? Salesforce Lightning includes a set of applications, designed to help organizations manage their operations efficiently. Ever since the launch of this powerful and intuitive UI (user interface) framework i.e. Salesforce Lightning – businesses have enjoyed improved user experience, streamlined workflows, and augmented productivity. This component-based framework has helped businesses maintain their digital presence by helping them build applications on the Salesforce platform without any coding or development knowledge. This powerful, and enhanced version of CRM has the potential to maximize sales productivity, offer meaningful data insights, and transform the way people make a purchase. What Should Businesses Consider Migrating from Salesforce Classic to Lightning? While many organizations have already upgrade from Salesforce classic to Lightning, there are several others that are still hesitant to make a move. The reason might be ignorance about benefits of Salesforce Lightning, apprehension about missing features, and the fear of disrupting their business operations. While the Lightning platform had certain limitations, it has evolved significantly over the years. By providing a more visually pleasing, receptive, and adaptable user interface, Lightning offers a suite of powerful tools and features that enable businesses to streamline their businesses processes. Augmented User Experience: Salesforce Lightning is known to have an intuitive interface, which is a noteworthy improvement over the classic version. While the changes might not seem obvious, the overall experience is strikingly smoother and faster. In fact, the interface is fully responsive, providing users with an optimum experience across different devices. The drag-and-drop functionality of the Lightning App builder allows users to tailor the platform as per their unique business needs. Mobile-first: Salesforce Lightning can be easily accessed on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. In fact, users can easily access its functions even without the need for an internet connection. This advantage enables team members to work remotely or on the go. This not just boosts their output but also the overall performance of the organization. Advanced Reporting and Analytics: With Salesforce Lightning, organizations can utilize the reporting and analytics capabilities of this platform, including Salesforce Einstein. Salesforce Einstein offers intelligent insights into their data. Lightning enables the creation of dynamic reports by conducting data analysis, and envisaging data through graphs and charts, which leads to more informed decision-making. Improved Sales Productivity: Lightning equips sales teams with user-friendly features like customizable dashboards, automation tools and more. These functionalities help sales reps manage opportunities, leads and workflows thereby driving augmented productivity and better sales results. Seamless Integration: Salesforce Lightning can easily integrate with a wide range of third-party system, applications, and services, enabling businesses to centralize their data and streamline operations. Recognizing evolving business needs, the platform offers Salesforce integration services to boost efficiency and provide a single view of customer related information. Personalization: Salesforce Lightning allows businesses to tailor the platform to meet their unique needs. Users can create custom fields, dashboards, and pages to providing a personalized experience that supports their exclusive business processes. What are Benefits of Utilizing Salesforce Lightning? Customer satisfaction is at the heart of business success. Listed below are the business benefit of implementing this platform. Time Efficiency: Salesforce Lightning offers several features for optimizing time usage, which enhances business efficiency through efficient time management. Effective Sales Pipeline: Disorganized data is a major obstacle to an effectual pipeline. Salesforce Lightning offers an ingenious solution to this issue through its visual representation of the pipeline. Better Collaboration: Salesforce Lightning offers features such as chatter that foster team collaboration through real-time information and document sharing. The Bottom Line Salesforce Lightning marks a major dive in the CRM landscape, transforming the way organizations handle customer relationships. Its user-friendly interface, wide range of features, and continual evolution make it a robust solution for all the teams. If you are still on the fence whether your business should migrate to Salesforce Lightning, make sure to get in touch with one of the best Salesforce Consultants.

The business landscape is witnessing a significant shift, with several organizations ready to take the digital transformation. Wealth management, a key aspect of the financial service industry, is also influenced by shifting client expectations, demographics, and more. To manage this transformation, it makes sense to implement a robust solution that can eliminate the loopholes of traditional strategies. Salesforce Financial Cloud is a powerful platform that can be leveraged by organizations to deal with wealth management challenges.

Insights derived from data are critical for businesses today. They facilitate informed decision-making and enable them to adapt to shifting market circumstances. There are many solutions available today for such tasks such as solutions for data mining that reveal patterns, solutions for data visualization that reveal the bigger picture, and solutions for predictive analytics that forecast trends. In this article, we'll look at one such solution – Salesforce Einstein Discovery, which helps businesses maximize the potential of their data and create sustainable success by helping them find new possibilities, solve problems, and make smarter decisions. What is Salesforce Einstein Discovery? Salesforce Einstein Discovery is an advanced analytics solution that helps businesses leverage cutting-edge technologies like statistical modeling and machine learning to extract more value from the data they generate. This platform allows you to forecast future events and even receive suggestions for how to make things better. It connects seamlessly with Salesforce making data analysis and predictions a breeze. Salesforce Einstein Discovery leverages predictive models to project future events and identifies the critical variables that affect results. This allows businesses to determine where their resources should be assigned for them to be most effective. Einstein Discovery provides practical recommendations to increase the likelihood of achieving desired outcomes, including determining the best sales or marketing plan for a particular customer. It directs users toward business decisions that have a higher likelihood of delivering results. Salesforce Einstein Discovery Features Automatic Data Analysis Einstein Discovery automatically performs analyses and detects patterns and correlations that would be very difficult for humans to detect. In addition to saving time, this automatic analysis produces more accurate insights and reduces the likelihood of errors that would normally arise if humans were to complete the task. Employees and business leaders can draw conclusions more quickly by leveraging its insightful recommendations, which also increase confidence in the generated predictions, suggested courses of action based on predictions, and suggestions for improved business outcomes. Interactive Visualizations A diverse set of AI capabilities and visualization options empowers users to spot trends, uncover new facts hidden in their data, and create a collection of visualizations that support evidence-based decision-making. Although creating these dashboards may appear to be quite a task compared to creating ordinary reports, Einstein Discovery makes them more accessible and configurable. Users can easily interact with the data presented by Einstein Discovery making complex information easier to comprehend. Users can explore the visualizations, delve deeper into the reports to discover more detailed information and tailor the visuals to their own requirements. Recommendations and Predictions Einstein Discovery goes beyond conventional analysis by making recommendations and predictions based on existing facts. It employs predictive models, which are a type of regression or machine-learning analysis, to assess the likelihood of future events. Once launched, a model can be used in a variety of Salesforce applications, including Lightning and Experience Cloud pages. The predictions are also compatible with other programs such as CRM Analytics Data Prep and Flow Builder. Users can obtain forecasts using REST or Apex API calls. Predictions can be recorded straight to records, used as needed or even incorporated into CRM Analytics datasets. User-friendly Interface The tool's UI is meant to make it easy for people with minimum technical ability to navigate through it. This levels the playing field and enables more team members to interact with the data, fostering a data-driven culture within enterprises. Integration with Other Salesforce Products Native integration with other Salesforce products allows users to access advanced analytics capabilities within their existing Salesforce processes, hereby augmenting the capabilities of the solution. For instance, sales reps can use insights to prioritize prospects and uncover upselling opportunities. Support teams can utilize Service Cloud to predict and address client issues before they arise. Similarly, marketers can use Einstein Discovery's analytics to improve campaigns, better segment audiences, and customize customer interactions, resulting in better overall results for the organization. Working with Salesforce Einstein Discovery Einstein Analytics integration in a production environment requires additional Salesforce licenses. Once you join up on their website, you can have access to the Salesforce Developer Edition environment, which includes the Einstein Discovery module. How does Salesforce Einstein Discovery work? In Einstein Discovery, the data analysis process is divided into two stages: Preparing the data set – involves data import and processing. Creating the analysis – specifying what we're looking for and selecting the analysis parameters. Preparing the data set This includes all the data we want to use in the analysis. To generate a data set, we can use existing Salesforce data. They can come from any single item, whether standard or created by us, or they can link data from many objects, such as business possibilities and the accounts and contacts they concern. Importing data (possible sources) With Einstein Discovery, you can connect and import data from external sources like: MySQL Hadoop Postgres SAP Oracle Microsoft SQL Server Netezza CVSV Einstein Discovery automatically assesses the data's quality and indicates what errors may exist and how to fix them. Examples of tool suggestions: Discovery identifies extremely rare values. Their limited number makes it harder to identify patterns between them and the rest of the data. The tool suggests double-checking values for accuracy, typos, and substitutions. It is also possible to remove the specified rows from the dataset. If the record includes a date and time, Einstein Discovery recommends that you determine whether the exact time is critical to our analysis or if it is best to discard it. If both columns have the same name, Einstein Discovery will suggest renaming either of them. Errors in data Einstein Discovery assigns one of three types – text, numeric, or date to the data. It determines how numbers change over time and in relation to the text data that corresponds to them. Before checking the data, ensure that the types have been correctly assigned. For example, if you import a product ID that just contains numbers, Einstein Discovery may mistake them for a number rather than text. Einstein Discovery also allows you to: Include a column on numerical fields that shows the average, maximum, minimum or the outcome of simple mathematical operations. Check whether the value in date type fields is before, after, or equal to the selected, different date by adding or subtracting the indicated number of days. Include more columns from already established data sources. Sort the data based on the fields and values specified. Creating the analysis A Salesforce user can complete the analysis on the desired topic in a matter of minutes if they have a ready data source. You don't need to know statistical data models or technical programming. Click "Create Story" after choosing the data source to begin creating it. After that, you will be directed to the settings page where you can choose whatever value to maximize or decrease. Additionally, you can: Specify the fields from the data source that will be used to create the analysis. All fields are chosen by default. If the data source has date-type fields, you can choose a range to see how the data changes over time. Indicate the fields that you can modify. Einstein Discovery will convert the ones that have the most impact on the results. Modify the model's parameters to forecast potential future outcomes and select the desired statistical approach. Once the appropriate criteria have been chosen, click "Create Story" once more. Einstein Discovery will start its work. What is the outcome of the analysis? Einstein Discovery findings are displayed as short text tips and charts that relate to the specified parameter that we wish to look into. It generates a business history based on the advice it deems most significant, explaining what the parameter under test depends on and how we may affect its value. We can make changes to the history, such as removing or adding tips. We quickly export it as a presentation or Word document when we believe it is ready and addresses the questions that are important to us. Additionally, we can also select the question for which we would want to see suggestions. We have the option to select: What happened? Why this happened? What changed with time? What is possible? How can I make this better? Einstein discovery shows you how many fields affect the parameter. You can choose any combination of parameters and values to compare results. For each result, you will get: A chart The key findings in text format Numerical information displaying the number of records, standard deviation, mean deviation, and value for the chosen parameter Streamlining the analysis Einstein Discovery assesses data quality further throughout processing and suggests ways to make it better. We can choose whether or not to use the analysis and improvement suggestions after reading them. If that's the case, Discovery will run another analysis. Examples of improvements: Deleting duplicate columns from a dataset if many columns have identical data Deleting records whose values are significantly off from the average. These are severe, mostly nonexistent instances that could affect the standard deviation and mean results. Eliminating fields whose values are determined by the magnitude of the parameter under investigation, have the biggest influence on the tested parameter based on the first analysis, and we don't think there is any mathematical dependence between them. The Difference Between Salesforce Einstein Discovery and Einstein Analytics? Despite having different uses and strategies, Salesforce Einstein Analytics and Salesforce Einstein Discovery are both components of the Salesforce Einstein platform that leverage Einstein AI. While Salesforce Einstein Discovery employs machine learning to uncover hidden patterns in your data and forecast future events, Salesforce Einstein Analytics is utilized for data exploration, visualization, and predictive analytics. Using emails and calendar activities, Einstein Activity Capture can be used as a data source for Einstein Discovery models. It can be summed up as follows: While Einstein Discovery provides predictive insights by seeing patterns and trends, Einstein Activity Capture provides descriptive insights by recording actions and interactions. All Salesforce apps now come with a new conversational AI assistant called Einstein Copilot that can respond to natural language questions and deliver accurate and reliable answers.  How can you get Einstein Discovery predictions in a CRM Analytics dataset? Make sure your CRM Analytics dataset contains all the information you need. Leverage your CRM Analytics dataset to enable Einstein Discovery to build and train a predictive model. Use Einstein Discovery to give predictions for your CRM Analytics dataset after your model has been trained. Connect Salesforce apps with the insights, discoveries, and recommendations produced by Einstein Discovery. Summary Salesforce Einstein Discovery is a great solution that leverages artificial intelligence and sophisticated statistical models for analyzing huge data sets. Girikon, a certified Salesforce consulting company, can help you set it up and optimize it. Our Salesforce consultants will integrate Einstein Discovery into your current workflows and train your staff, including those without any prior technical or statistical expertise, on how to utilize it to its fullest potential. Contact us today for a free consultation on Einstein Discovery.

To sustain in today’s competitive business landscape, businesses require maintaining amiable relationships with their customers. Today, as customers grow more informed, they expect prompt and personalized responses to their queries. To keep up with customer expectations, organizations require adopting robust software like Salesforce. As one of the world's leading CRM platforms and a market share of approximately 20 percent, Salesforce is being utilized by enterprises of varying scales and across diverse sectors for streamlining business processes and smooth management of operations. However, to draw maximum value out of this platform, businesses must ensure its successful implementation. This is easier said than done and requires the expertise of one the most proficient Salesforce Consulting Partners. However, failing to choose the right partner for guiding an implementation can have a negative impact. Mentioned below are some fatal mistakes that organizations usually make when selecting a partner: Failure to Consider Business Goals: When selecting a partner, an organization must have a clear vision of their business goals, as well as their pain points. It’s very important to understand the requirement of implementing Salesforce for operational efficiency and the problems it could address. If they fail to evaluate all these, they are perhaps wasting their time and money upon engaging the services of a consultant. Engaging the Wrong Partner: Rushing into selecting a partner without thorough research isn't prudent. Rather than taking chances with an unfamiliar entity, organizations must invest their time in examining potential partners, comprehending their expertise, scrutinizing their previous projects, and gathering testimonials from former clients. The decision to appoint a certified and experienced Salesforce consulting partner can significantly impact the implementation process as engaging an inexperienced partner will result in wasting time, money, and effort, as they will be unable to offer optimal utilization of the Salesforce solution. Consequently, giving due diligence is crucial to selecting the right partner. No Support from the Internal Team: To fully harness the capabilities of Salesforce CRM, the internal team of an organization needs to collaborate closely with consultants. When enlisting Salesforce development services and consultants, organizations should ensure that their executive team is informed and actively participating. This involvement is crucial as the time, effort, and engagement of the operational team are crucial for successful implementation. This collaborative approach enables a comprehensive understanding of the implementation process, facilitating smooth integration of the Salesforce solution. Organizations should encourage their entire team to align with the Salesforce consultants and actively engage in utilizing their expertise. Once they grasp the workings of the Salesforce consulting partners, they can effectively maintain the momentum of the process. Partnering with Consultants for a Short-term: A common mistake frequently made by organizations is assuming that the role of Salesforce consultants concludes immediately after the deployment of the CRM solution. This assumption is wrong. Rather, after the deployment of the solution, the project transitions into a post-implementation analysis phase. During this phase, expert support is crucial for conducting a thorough analysis. This process ensures the seamless adaptation of the Salesforce solution and verifies that the platform has been appropriately configured. It's imperative to update the configuration after each Salesforce release to address any identified issues within the company's operational system. Engaging Salesforce consultants shouldn't be viewed as a short-term partnership, as their expertise will be indispensable for future customizations and enhancements within their CRM tool. Prioritizing Cost Over Quality: Organizations desire a reputed and experienced Salesforce consulting firm that fits within their budget and offers services at low costs. The temptation often lies in opting for cheaper alternatives. However, selecting a low-cost option can result in unexpected expenses, project delays, or even failure due to potential cost overruns. Hence, it is recommended to collaborate with certified developers to mitigate future complications. While this option may come at a higher cost compared to other alternatives, it significantly enhances the likelihood of achieving success. Ignoring the Marketing Expertise of Salesforce Consultants: When seeking top Salesforce consultants, organizations should focus on finding individuals capable of adeptly managing customer relationships within their organization. This approach not only empowers marketers to analyze campaigns, gauge ROI, and monitor leads for revenue generation but also ensures comprehensive proficiency in digital marketing—an aspect not mandatory for Salesforce consultants. To optimize their investment in CRM solutions, choosing consultants with digital marketing acumen is crucial. Besides facilitating CRM implementation, deployment, and customization, these consultants can effectively align CRM strategies with the digital marketing objectives of an organization. Thus, engaging an informed and skilled Salesforce consultant ensures efficient execution of tasks. Unwillingness to Invest in a Salesforce Admin: Salesforce consulting partners often recommend assigning a Salesforce Admin to oversee the utilization, upkeep, and enhancements of the Salesforce solution within companies. However, many companies aim to minimize investment costs and ignore the idea of hiring a Salesforce Admin. Consequently, consultants deploy the CRM solution and depart from the company. Effective utilization of Salesforce CRM demands knowledgeable oversight to unlock its full potential. Additionally, these solutions perform optimally with regular maintenance and functionality checks. Organizations and their team may lack the time to address CRM maintenance or functionality requirements. Ignoring AppExchange Reviews: Failure to explore the AppExchange during the research phase for potential partners indicates a lack of due diligence. AppExchange customer reviews serve as an excellent method to assess customer satisfaction levels. Reading reviews is crucial for understanding both the strengths and weaknesses of a product or software. Moreover, independent websites also provide evaluations of businesses and their products, offering valuable insights. The Bottom Line: Investing in Salesforce marks a significant step, requiring meticulous planning to fully leverage its suite of services. Engaging the services of one of the best Salesforce consultants, free from misconceptions and with a clear understanding, is crucial for maximizing the CRM solution's potential.

Most business leaders across the world recognize the value of Salesforce. They are aware of how the world's leading cloud-based CRM platform can help them cultivate rewarding customer relationships, address gaps in customer service, and enable them to adopt a more holistic approach to managing day-to-day operations. What many of them are not aware of, however, is the role of a Salesforce consultant to help them navigate the challenges involved in transitioning to Salesforce. And that's not the full picture. Salesforce consultants can also help to optimize and automate business processes to enable a seamless transition. What is a Salesforce Consultant? Salesforce consultants help customers achieve their long-term business goals by ensuring the smooth implementation of Salesforce tailored to their unique business needs.  They also assess the dynamic market landscape and adapt the customer's operations to be future-ready. Salesforce consultants also manage customer relationships, and project plans, do market research, understand user needs and sentiment, gather requirements, research organizational data, and train employees to get the most out of Salesforce. The best Salesforce consultants have deep knowledge of Salesforce technology, rich experience in similar prior implementations, and awareness of the best business practices. Challenges that Salesforce Consultants face and how they can solve them As a business leader, if you really want to unlock the true power of Salesforce, we recommend that you choose the best Salesforce Implementation Partner. Apart from implementing the CRM, they can also help you solve various key business challenges. Here’s a look at some of them. 1)   Handling sensitive information One of the key challenges organizations must deal with while transitioning to Salesforce is ensuring their customer data is safe. Any data breach can result in drastic consequences for the business. A Salesforce consultant will follow industry best practices to ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place to secure the data exchange between your existing systems and Salesforce. Additionally, they also ensure that once your data is in Salesforce, it can be accessed easily by users. This allows them to get a comprehensive view of their customers including contact details and interaction history in the least number of clicks. This helps them to make data-driven decisions leading to greater customer satisfaction. 2)   Providing personalized assistance All businesses are unique. This is true even for businesses offering similar products or services with a similar customer base. Each business has its unique vision, goals, and strategies that set them apart from each other. Consequently, they may have completely different reasons to implement Salesforce and completely different expectations from the implementation based on their unique business objectives.  A vastly experienced Salesforce is well aware of the nuances of customer goals and expectations and works closely with customer and implementation teams to ensure the CRM implementation is fully tailored to the customer’s unique needs. 3)   Offering valuable insights Salesforce has been purpose-built to provide a 360-degree view of your customers. It includes everything from your contact information, purchase history, service interactions, interests and preferences, and social media interactions. As a business owner, you want to have deeper insights into customer behavior along with intelligent recommendations in a single place. A good Salesforce consultant makes that possible. They can help aggregate siloed data and give you a unified, single-window view to help you better understand customer preferences and behavior patterns, regardless of which channel they interact with you on.  This enables you to provide seamless interaction experiences to your customers across sales, marketing, and customer service across multiple channels. 4)   Providing instant support When customers interact with a business's customer support, they want instant resolution to their problem. And businesses are no different. When you invest in a platform like Salesforce, which includes licensing and implementation costs, you want your users to be up and running quickly so that they can close deals faster and resolve customers' concerns quickly. While a library of documents, manuals, and videos may be helpful for your users, they may not be able to help in resolving a critical issue that may be disrupting operations. What businesses need is the support of an expert who has been there and done that.  That expert is your Salesforce consultant. A Salesforce consultant understands the nuances of the platform and knows where to make tweaks to resolve common issues. 5)   Configuring user permissions Would you allow complete access to your financial data to all your employees? Would you allow access to customer information to your HR department? Sounds absurd, right? Assigning the right access privileges to users is a critical part of any Salesforce implementation. Creating the right user-profiles and customizing permissions in Salesforce requires a certain level of expertise that your existing IT team may not be equipped to handle.  This is where the roles of Salesforce consultants become important.  They can ensure that your users have access to only that functionality of Salesforce that allows them to do their job effectively.  Not less and certainly not more. A Salesforce consultant can help you navigate the complex domain of user management to get the most out of your users. 6)   Discovering business-specific solutions The goals and needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are different from their larger counterparts. Consequently, their CRM platform needs are also different. How do you go about designing a solution that is tailored to your unique requirements? Purchasing a Salesforce license is just the starting step. Salesforce has virtually limitless capabilities and you may not have the requisite expertise in-house to choose the best-fit features of the platform to achieve your vision. A good Salesforce consultant leverages their prior experience and deep knowledge of the domain to establish clear goals and business requirements. They then use this information to recommend solutions that are aligned with your goals and needs. 7)   Boosting user adoption Poor user adoption is one of the primary reasons why many Salesforce implementations fail to achieve their true potential. In fact, industry research indicates that the problem is so acute that in the absence of adequate guidance and training, teams are likely to stop using the platform altogether. And this should be a matter of concern for you. When users don't use the platform, each of them relies on personal, non-standardized methods to manage customers and their data. Without a unified view of customers based on gold-standard industry practices, your executives are unable to make critical strategic decisions. Which is why you need a Salesforce consultant. With adequate guidance and training programs tailored to each user group based on their job functions, they can ensure that your employees feel empowered when they look at customer data, giving their productivity a shot in the arm. 8)   Other challenges Quick setup Setting up and managing Salesforce can be complex unless done by an expert. A Salesforce consultant knows the nitty-gritty of configuration, where to tweak the platform and configure the right security settings to ensure a robust and secure CRM that works for your business. Enhance customer experience Organizations that have achieved success with Salesforce will be able to tell you the value a Salesforce consultant brings to the table to improve productivity and provide enhanced customer experiences. With deep insights on customer behavior, and automation of customer service, they can help you close service cases faster translating to greater customer satisfaction. Easier and faster Salesforce adoption A good Salesforce consultant can help you go live quickly with minimal disruption in your day-to-day operations. They draw upon their extensive experience and deep business domain knowledge to come up with a comprehensive roadmap that includes implementation, training, and strategy to drive user adoption. Risk reduction A certified Salesforce consultant has the right experience and technical know-how to help organizations manage uncertainties associated with Salesforce implementation such as data migration and security, process automation, and migration to ensure a seamless holistic transition. Salesforce Consulting Services from Girikon, a Gold Salesforce Partner, can help you unlock the true power of Salesforce. With customized solutions aligned with your unique business needs, we have helped many businesses improve productivity, boost efficiency, and increase revenues. Get in touch with an expert to learn more.

Salesforce, the world’s leading CRM platform empowers businesses with tools and services to manage customer data, automate processes, streamline operations, and drive customer satisfaction. Salesforce consultants aren’t just experts at handling the software; they recognize that Salesforce is a great tool to improve business productivity and align themselves with customer goals, wants, and needs to unlock the true power of the platform.  In short, they empower teams to do what was earlier not thought to be possible. As a Salesforce Consulting Partner for over a decade, our experts have compiled a list of tips to guide the next crop of Salesforce consultants on their path to success. These tips are a result of over a 100-man years of Salesforce experience, countless hours spent with customer teams, and millions of lines of coding. Let’s dive right in. 1. Understand the ‘Why’ While there are certain skills that can be acquired such as data management, data analytics, and process automation, critical thinking is one area that can only be awakened from within. Critical thinking entails having a larger-than-life view of the business while having an in-depth view of the everyday activities of the organization. Many Salesforce consultants have a great technical background and are adept at turning requirements into recommendations and ideas. But what is truly required to be understood is the "Why". Why do they need it? What are their business goals and what is stopping them from achieving them? What are their people like? What are their pain points? What do they want in terms of work satisfaction? Finding answers to these fundamental questions will go a long way to advance your career in Salesforce consulting. You need to evolve from being a manager or business analyst to being a problem solver, and for that, you need to identify and understand the problem and all its constituents and dependencies to the last detail. 2. Adapt your communication strategy Salesforce consultants have to work closely with engineering teams, customer user groups, and senior leadership which may sometimes be spread across the globe. For you to be successful as a global Salesforce consultant, you need to adapt your communication depending on who you are interacting with. Understanding the audience, their vision, and the way they see the business and its horizon (both short-term and long-term) plays a vital role in the success of the projects you are working on. As an example, if you are interacting with engineering teams, you may want to interact in a way that they understand via a common language. As a representative of your organization (like a front office), you need to be aware of your unique communication style and how your interactions are received by others. As a thumb rule, communication strategy varies from who you are interacting with to the size of the group you are addressing. 3. Know Your Audience Whether you are presenting to a CXO at a Fortune 500 company or interacting with individual project members, knowing your audience is one of the key skills all Salesforce consultants need to have. When you are involved in multiple projects and have to interact with different audiences, whether it is for project updates or course corrections, an instinct is to use the same template for interaction. This approach rarely works as each individual user group has its own perspective and level of understanding. Recognize the value each stakeholder is seeking and develop a mindset to tailor your presentations to align with the audience. 4. Develop a self-help attitude One of the job responsibilities of a successful Salesforce consultant is to hire new consultants. And you can only attract talent as good as yourself. When recruiting new consultants, veterans of the game often look for leadership traits such as taking self-motivated initiatives. What homework did they do before they sought help from seniors? Demonstrating a self-help attitude would go a long way in cultivating strong leadership and problem-solving skills. 5. Always be willing to learn   Salesforce consultants, especially ones who are still young in their consulting journey, need to constantly upgrade themselves on products, processes, and frameworks, but more often than not they get no guidance or direction. Well, if you want to grow, you are on your own. It’s your mindset to self-direct your learning and find solutions to challenges that will take you on the path to growth. Having a keen learner’s mindset goes a long way in building a keenness to take on new challenges and learn to grow. 6. Pick an Area of Expertise While it’s great to be a jack of multiple trades (skills), it’s important to be very good at something. Whether it’s a certification in Sales Cloud or your early experience as a Salesforce administrator, it's important that you pick one area in which you are an expert. Expertise in a certain area builds client trust and establishes credibility. And once you pick an area you want to build further on, make sure you are up to date with the latest product innovations in that area and establish how you can help businesses leverage your expertise in these new innovations. 7. Know When to Say No Customers want the moon. Literally. If it was left to them, they would want to implement their entire roadmap for the next 10 years as of yesterday. Many times, consultants agree to customer requests while working on a project even when they know it is not in their best long-term interest, or it just cannot be done at this stage. While customer satisfaction is extremely important in your line of work, you also need aware of what is in the best interest of the customer and the project. Make your point politely yet firmly, with an irrefutable basis. You were hired because you are an expert in your field, and this is time to say it emphatically. While it's always tempting to say yes to every customer request, learn to say no when you have a reasonable basis for it. Draw on your past experience working with multiple customers on a variety of Salesforce projects. Offer alternative suggestions and help the customer see the larger picture. Your job as a Salesforce consultant is to be a partner with your customer, working towards a common goal and that job includes knowing when to say no. Conclusion Hiring a Salesforce consultant is an investment you make to achieve the heights that you envision for your business. Ready to unlock the true power of Salesforce? Team up with a Salesforce Implementation Partner who can guide you on the right path. 

In any organization, the sales team plays a pivotal role in business success. The sales department is under tremendous pressure to capture quality leads, create lead pipelines, track opportunities, close deals quickly, and manage customer relationships. However, attaining all these is easier said than done. This is where the need for a robust software system that can effectively achieve the aforesaid effectively arises. Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein can offer businesses with numerous features that every sales team can wish for while helping businesses stay competitive. The software solution is endowed with out-of-the-box AI capabilities that relieve sales reps of cumbersome and time-consuming tasks, allowing them to focus on core business activities. To make the most of this predictive analytic tool, it’s crucial to get in touch with a certified and experienced Salesforce consulting partner. What is Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein? Salesforce Einstein Sales Cloud is an AI module that drives precise lead scoring and powerful pipeline management. This sales engagement platform helps identify qualified leads, convert opportunities, and retain customers with ease while improving stakeholder relations. The platform helps in analyzing the data and provides proper insight to close deals. Based on the sales data, Einstein suggests actionable insights to close more deals. The platform offers some unique features that are designed to help sales reps involved in different stages: Lead Scoring: Though the contact details and other sales activities are automated, sales reps have to indulge in managing leads.  To track all the leads efficiently, automation is mandatory. With Einstein lead scoring, it is possible to apply the power of AI to analyze the power of lead conversions and figuring the right patterns in those conversions. Since Sales cloud, Einstein comprehends your opportunity data, it easily analyzes and understands patterns as soon as it is turned Einstein Opportunity Scoring: It becomes convenient to manage, track and follow up with leads and turn them into opportunities after leveraging Einstein Lead Scoring. However, Sales reps have to deal with another challenge i.e. closing deals even with organized lead data. Einstein opportunity takes note of opportunity scoring and other details to create a predictive model to provide a score for each opportunity. Einstein Opportunity Insights: This feature uses sentiment analysis and machine learning to close more deals. It provides quick analysis, anticipation, and follow-ups on various opportunities to help sales reps plan their next steps. Once the sales reps manage to close a deal, you can use Einstein insights and forecasting to manage your customers.  Einstein Activity Capture: Sales reps spend a lot of time categorizing Sales activities and contact data. this task is automated by Einstein, which saves a lot of time. By connecting their calendar and email to Salesforce their activities are added to the concerned Salesforce records automatically. Einstein Activity Capture also empowers your reps to view which activities are added to Salesforce and the people who can see them. They can also update those controls either from Salesforce or inbox at any time. Benefits of Salesforce Sales Einstein: Besides the aforementioned features, the predictive analysis tool allows organizations across the globe to scale besides offering several benefits: Collaborative Selling: Sales reps can easily figure out if an opportunity would match or exceed the size of the deal quota as the platform allows sales reps to analyze opportunities in real-time while sharing insights on the deals that are likely to close. Insight into the Pain Points of Customers: Organizations can leverage this platform to predict the behavior and actions of their customers. This insight can be useful in predicting the number of contacts that might be required for cross-selling. Email Alerts: With Einstein, Sales reps can receive reminders that are tailored based on their priorities. This feature also helps sales reps track pipeline activity and search deals.  Increased Sales Meetings: This tool tracks the research required for every opportunity during the pipeline stage. This would help sales reps to focus more on client meetings and spend less time researching sales data allowing them to close more deals. Improved Sales Performance:  With this feature, organizations can create a culture of competition where high performers will be rewarded and underperformers will be provided with requisite training. Sales reps have access to dashboards for viewing sales reports and the data they need to measure success easily. Quick Wrap-up: Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein is an AI-powered tool that provides sales reps with necessary guidance, automation, scoring, lead prioritizing, and forecasting for managing your leads, customers, and opportunities. Endowed with multiple features, this tool empowers sales reps to close more deals quickly while augmenting the productivity of your sales team. To know more about this tool, it’s important to partner with one of the best Salesforce consulting companies.