3 Secrets for Navigating the Salesforce Ecosystem as a Small Business
Pragmatic tips to help you invest your time wisely
“To look for a needle in a haystack”… the origins of phrases can sometimes be disputed, but they often have literary pedigree. In this instance, the phrase can be traced by to the works of Sir Thomas More in his Renaissance works of 1532. Half a century later, the metaphor was brought to life by a 27-year old Italian artist, Sven Sachsalber, who placed a large haystack on a gallery floor and live streamed a two-day show of the artistic hunt. For Sachsalber, the search for the needle was a metaphor for hope. He searched the giant haystack one handful at a time and 30 hours later, he found the needle — proving that whilst it was it is not entirely impossible, it is very time-consuming and tedious.
Finding a needle in the Salesforce ‘haystack’ can be daunting if you are a smaller company with limited resources.
So how do we best navigate this ecosystem for success?
Here are three things we have learned that can ensure that you spend your time wisely.
Communicate how you create value for your customers.
You must be able to clearly articulate how you create value for customers through your solution. When you win those early customers, translate why they bought from you and tailor this message to Salesforce Account Executives (AEs), Sales Engineers (SEs) or the RVPs (Sales Managers). Packaging the ‘use cases’ and early wins will help you build credibility. Your marketing collateral should reference how the customer leveraged the Salesforce platform as a part of working with you. Now you need to practice telling that story in a really concise manner in the language of Salesforce. Check out the Partner portal for guidance on “How to Sell Like Salesforce.”
Understand Salesforce’s Strategy, Goals, and Organizational Structure
You must understand the Salesforce story so far and what the future looks like. Immerse yourself in all things Salesforce and attend as many events as you can. Go to the keynote sessions for the broader strategy and then pinpoint breakout sessions that are related to the ecosystem or your customer base. And don’t forget to network! Ask those around you with more experience for their advice, people are happy to give it!
By understanding where Salesforce is investing, you can align your story and how you further enable that investment. For example, Salesforce is looking to grow their market share in specific industries — therefore, there will be additional resources in terms of people, product and marketing to further this goal. Do your research and plug yourself into the right conversations by demonstrating that you understand this strategy.
Also make sure to understand organizational structure at Salesforce. How do they set up and incentivize their teams? There are sales teams aligned to industry, geography and/or size of company. What does this structure look like in your country? Remember that some Sales teams have Sales Engineering (SE) support, with a single engineer potentially supporting a team of 10 Account Executives (AEs). We have found it productive and scalable to engage with these SE teams first to build brand awareness. A couple of quick tips here:
- SEs are always busy — often more than AEs. Make life easy for them with assets that explain what you do, as well as the use cases and the value for the customer. Keep it to one page!
- If you are an ISV, create an org and give the SEs access so that they can familiarize themselves with your product, and demo to customers where appropriate.
- Provide ‘click guides,’ which includes your scripting to SEs so that they can demo effectively.
Remember: Small can be Beautiful
You may be a smaller company but that doesn’t mean you are not important! If you bring valuable customer insight or market intelligence, then this will get you noticed. But don’t try and be everywhere at once. You need to place your bets and foster good relationships — recognize that it will take time.
If you focus on building a strong reputation and are seen as a safe pair of hands by both Salesforce and their Partners then this will help you to grow your presence in the ecosystem.
Recently our team at Precursive was asked to speak at Salesforce World Tour London on how the AppExchange is driving innovation for customers and strategies that new entrants can leverage in this ecosystem. This shows that Salesforce can provide opportunities and a platform to share your story so make sure you focus on your narrative!
Precursive helps companies across the creative sectors, telecoms, high tech, consulting and professional services, to grow. The ability to leverage people effectively and delivery projects smoothly is the key to creating great customer experience. Learn more about how to connect sales and delivery teams here.
