4 Questions to Ask Yourself When You Start a Salesforce Business
Lessons learned from 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem

Editor’s note: Tal Frankfurt (@TalFrankfurt) is the Founder and CEO of Cloud for Good, as well as the founder of CRM Market. He was chosen in 2010 to be one of the first Salesforce MVP Program members and has maintained that status to date. For more on the topic of starting a Salesforce business, check out Tal’s recent Partner Marketing Power Hour recording.
Salesforce is a powerful platform with an ecosystem made of thousands of partners who are projected to generate 1.9 million jobs within the Salesforce customer base between 2015 and 2020. The Salesforce ecosystem revenue is three to four times bigger than Salesforce itself and IDC predicts that by 2020, for every dollar Salesforce makes, the company’s ecosystem will earn $4.14.
I discovered the power of the platform almost 13 years ago and have had the pleasure of watching it grow over time. Below, I am sharing four questions that I think you should ask yourself (and answer) prior to starting your own Salesforce business.
1. Do you want a job or a business?
The story I normally do not share about how and why I started Cloud for Good, is that when I first moved to the United States in late 2009, I was looking for a job. My plans at that point in time did not include starting my own business. I interviewed with numerous consulting firms who focused on Salesforce for nonprofits but I did not receive offers to join any of their teams.
In January 2010, after an intense two-month period full of interviews, I realized that I wasn’t going to obtain employment with these firms and decided to start my own business. In my first four months, I made about $500 cumulatively (yes, that’s about $125 per month) but closed out the first year with almost $200,000 in sales. As the demand for my services grew, I had to ask myself, did I want a job or did I want to run a business?
When you start a company, this needs to be the first and most important question you ask yourself. Do you want to be an employee or an entrepreneur? The answer to this question will determine the future of your business and your role in it. It will influence your answers to the next three questions.
2. Are you ready to hire?
As part of growing the company and working on the business (i.e. driving growth) versus in the business (i.e. working on projects), I had to hire a team. I hired my first employee when I had too much work to complete on my own. As we grew, we shifted from hiring based on the existing demand and instead started hiring based on the demand that we were creating for our services.

As a consulting firm, talent is our biggest asset. Early on I decided that I needed to hire rock stars — people who were not only strong technically, but were also passionate about both the platform and our mission. It’s essential to hire people that make your company proud, while implementing solutions that make you proud to have in your growing portfolio. I encourage you to ask yourself if you are proud of everyone who is working for you. If you are not, you should probably re-evaluate your hiring processes.
3. What is your process?
As your business grows you can no longer “wing it.” To replicate your success, you will need to have processes in place.
Here are a few examples:
· What is your hiring process?
· What is your onboarding process?
· Do you have an implementation methodology?
· Do you have different methodologies for different types of clients, sizes of implementations, different clouds/products?
· What is your feedback process (both internal and external)?
One of the main reasons Cloud for Good continues to grow is because we took time early on to document and create processes. It is difficult to spend time on methodology early in the startup phase, but it is a must to continue growing.
4. Where are your deals coming from?
Salesforce is an Account Executive (AE) centric organization. In many cases, AEs are driving the business for both consulting firms and ISVs. Learn how to work with them and not against them.
- AEs want to sell licenses. They want to sell them today and not next month.
- AEs do not want red accounts. Remember that everyone may have a red account every once in a while, and that is OK, but what matters is how you handle that account.
- AEs often want to own the client relationship — don’t create frictions.
- Be responsive.
It is great if you get a larger percentage of your deals directly from Salesforce, but can you stand on your own feet? For me, at Cloud for Good, it was very important to also generate my own deals and not be fully dependent on another referral source. The best way to generate interest and create demand is to give back to the community. Ways to do this include:
- Salesforce User Groups: Join your local user group to learn, share, and network.
- Success Community: Join the Salesforce Success Community to listen and share knowledge.
- General Success Community
- Partner Success Community
- Power of Us Hub for Salesfroce.Org clients
- Speaking engagements (Dreamforce, World Tours)
- Write blog posts, initiate webinars, and publish white papers.
These are my key takeaways from almost 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. Do you have additional tips? Please share them in the comments below.
Cloud for Good is a certified B Corporation, Fortune Magazine Best Place to Work, and an Inc. 5000 company, which works with nonprofits and higher education institutions to create transformational value with Salesforce. Learn more at www.cloud4good.com.
CRM Market is a trusted community marketplace for people and entities to list projects, discover talent, and implement Salesforce solutions. Learn more at www.crmmarket.com.


