💃 Salesforce Admin and Consultant Red Flags 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! Can you trust your Salesforce Admin or Salesforce Consultant? Are they looking at business problems from the relevant perspectives? Will their solutions stand up to the users?

What are some red flags to look out for with Salesforce Admins or Consultants?

Agenda for today includes

• Admin Red Flags

• Consultant Red Flags

• Daily Principle

• All the Memes

3 Salesforce Admin Red Flags

1. Knows everything about everything, but the org is still busted af

• Know-it-all. Has a response for everything, but is allergic to action (and ownership).

• Talks in "perfect world" scenarios; no concept of the real world and what is, and is not, controllable.

• Convos with other Salesforce professionals - consultants, architects, etc - are seen as opportunities to brain dump knowledge instead of asking questions.

2. Configs directly in the Production environment

• No. Just, no.

• Very high risk, very low reward.

• If an IT professional is managing a SF Admin who is configuring directly in Production, then at least 51% of the blame is on the manager.

3. Does not know how to use dataloading tools

• There will be a data load needed at some point. WHEN, not IF.

• Free tools are sufficient. It is an exceptional case to need premium tools to load data.

• Dataloading is a base skill for every Salesforce professional.

3 Salesforce Consultant Red Flags

1. Consistently is not able to explain problems or solutions to others in a comprehensible manner

• If you can't get someone else to understand it, then you don't understand it.

• How will a support role, like Business Analyst, help a consultant who cannot define problems? How will expectations be set and met?

• The odds of getting to a high-integrity solution from a poorly explained problem are slim....

2. Has an exceptional attachment to a client's org

• Physically treats the client's org like it is their own. For example, Page Layouts to their own spec, not the clients.

• Emotionally treats the client's org like it is their own. For example, if the client makes a decision the consultant does not agree with, the consultant has an emotional response.

• This is more common for consultants who work with a single client versus having multiple clients.

3. Client-facing meeting agenda and notes are prepared in advance

• First, prepared means that the agenda and notes are written, reviewed, and refined, ie ready for game time.

• Client meetings, especially in these post-pandemic times, are often the client's only exposure to their very expensive implementation investment. Consultants need to nail client meetings.

• A good consultant is preparing for meetings days or hours in advance. A great consultant is perpetually updating documents and always has a pulse on the agenda and notes to be discussed. Oh, and guess what, all that time is billable.

Daily Principle

Person A thinks about their neighbor's political lawn signs that triggers them, the lack of sleep they'll get because they have a million things to get done like play video games or the Netflix series they're behind on, and the hate for their boss for not acknowledging their contribution.

Person B thinks about increasing their 401k contribution since their car is paid off, facetiming mom because it's been awhile, and that feedback their boss gave them and how to action it.

Who would you rather be with? Who would you rather be?

and now....Your Daily Memes