💃 7 Deadly Client Sins 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! As you know, Salesforce consultants aren’t saints 😇.

You’ve built things directly in Prod 🫣. You’ve told clients it’d take 6 weeks when you knew it’d only be 3 weeks. You may have even lied on your timesheet 😮!

But you know who’s really not a saint? And is maybe even the devil 😈 ?

Clients!

Here are your client’s 7 deadliest sins 👇

THOU SHALT NOT…

Client’s 7 Deadly Salesforce Sins

🔌 Integrations

It’s not the integrations that’s the problem. It’s the client’s infinite underestimation of the complexity of integrations 💯.

Some integrations are simple, but not easy (hello, Zapier!). And most are not simple, AND not easy.

Don’t let the client, who is paying you for your expertise 🧠, dictate the perceived complexity-level of an integration. Be the expert, manage integrations accordingly.

💩 Poop In, Poop Out

Reports are the output of user input. If reports “are off” then the most likely culprit is bad data entry or bad business process 🤷🏻.

For example, if your report that measures the time between statuses is off, then there is a kink in the process that manages the timestamps. It could be a user doing something they’re not supposed to, like skipping or stage. Or not doing something they’re supposed to do, like fill out the “Estimated LTV” field to generate that timestamp.

🤹 Change Management

Users love change ❤️!

They love when is field is added. Or taken away.

When there is a new validation field. Or a new email template. Or a list they used to be able to see, they can no longer see.

Just kidding. Users hate change.

It’s why change management exists! Change is hard. It is hated. But change is constant, and it must be managed.

Most clients don’t understand this. Or they don’t know how to do it. So they bring in the big guns - you 🙂.

😵‍💫 Over-customization

You’ve seen way too many orgs that have been turned into this 🤮.

Sure, you can blame the stakeholder, the business requirements, and the constraints your faced to implement the monstrosity.

But you designed it, you built it, you rolled it out to the client. It’s got your name on it as much as the stakeholder who signed off on it. Your fellow Salesforce peers will judge you🧑‍⚖️!

Don’t let the client’s sin be your sin…

🧱 Automate Undefined Processes

VP of Sales: “We need to automate that proposal process.”

You: “Sure. Can you define the process and I will workflow it out?”

VP of Sales: “The process doesn’t exist yet. But it needs to be automated.”

You: 😐

🧑‍💻 Testing

Client testing. UAT. Whatever you wanna call it - it’s a deadly sin because clients are paying you to reduce their ownership in the implementation, but UAT is one of the gates where they can’t wiggle out of their accountability.

Deferring testing makes some clients think they’re not accountable for their CRM and that you own anything imperfect about the solution 🤔.

Don’t let your client skip on their responsibilities 🙅. Facilitate a beautiful UAT session 🙌.

🤲 Post-Implementation Support

Designing and building a solution is half the battle. The other half is maintaining and supporting it 🙌.

How to troubleshoot? What to do if something goes wrong? Who to contact to resolve an issue? How to rollback? Where is the roadmap for future enhancements?

You 🫵 know that. Does your client know?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Takeaway

Clients are gonna client…

That is to say - clients will make bad decisions that make their lives harder AND your life harder 🤬.

It’s your responsibility to setup the client for success 💯. And knowing, in advance, the mortal sins they’re capable of can help you strategize for managing those scenarios.

And maybe, just maybe, we’re projecting a little, and we also are guilty of any of these 7 sins, and we need to check ourselves before we march into the arena with our clients 🫡.

What are your thoughts?

So which was the most egregious sin? Or did we miss it and you’ll hit “reply” to this email with what it is?

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

and now....Your Salesforce Memes