June 23, 2025
Listen to this articleSalesforce is the leading CRM platform that has changed the way businesses manage customer relationships and helped them to increase their sales productivity, deal closures, sales revenue, and forecasting accuracy. Without a doubt, Salesforce has robust capabilities, but managing it effectively is still a challenge for many businesses. Implementing and customizing Salesforce to suit your business needs is a tough cookie. That’s why you need a Salesforce implementation partner.
So, let’s break down the best practices to choose the best Salesforce implementation consultant for your needs. Keep on reading!
Picking the right Salesforce implementation is a cornerstone for ensuring your business success with Salesforce. Here are the five best practices that shows how you can do it.
You should always look for an implementation partner that has the right and relevant industry experience. The right partner will understand your unique challenges and best practices specific to your industry and offer tailored solutions, all while sticking to compliance requirements. For this, you can review their past work and review their track records for successful implementations. Also, check the number of certified consultants they have and inquire about the certifications and training they have.
This is an important practice to follow while choosing a Salesforce implementation partner. Always look for references from past clients and reach out to them to learn about their experiences, project deliverables, and satisfactions with the offerings. In addition to that, read online reviews and industry forums to understand the partner’s reputation. Keep in mind to consider both negative and positive feedback to gain a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and how well they handle client relationships.
Always ask about post-implementation support because that’s when you need it the most. A trusted partner who is result-oriented will offer ongoing support to resolve issues, improve functionality, and offer user training if required. Also, don’t forget to review the service level agreements to get a better understanding of the response time, issue resolution metrics, and technical support availability.
Even the most technically competent partner can fall short if communication suffers. Therefore, it is crucial to consider the clarity and cadence of communication and cultural fit between your organization and the implementation partner. You’ll only have a successful partnership if you have shared values and if your implementation partner understands your business culture. Therefore, you should look for partners who are interested in a long-term relationship and not a one-time project.
It’s a no-brainer that an unclear pricing model can quickly derail even the best implementation plans. So, when selecting a Salesforce implementation partner, it is important to evaluate the pricing and cost structure. Analyze their pricing structure and see if they are charging a flat fee, hourly rates, or a combination of both. Understanding the payment structure can help you avoid additional and unexpected costs as the project progresses.
Start with building trust with your implementation partner and begin with a separate discovery phase before committing to the full implementation. This ensures you are completely confident in the recommendations and sure about the partner who understands business transformation and has the depth of talent to deliver it.
Q.1 What is a Salesforce implementation partner?
Ans. A Salesforce implementation partner is a certified consulting firm that helps businesses set up and customize Salesforce to fit their needs. They handle everything from planning and configuration to training and ongoing support, making sure Salesforce actually works the way your business runs.
Q.2 What are the levels of partners in Salesforce?
Ans. Salesforce classifies its partners into four levels: Base, Ridge, Crest, and Summit. These levels reflect a partner’s experience, certifications, and customer success. Summit is the highest tier—these are trusted experts with deep technical skills and proven delivery across industries.
Q.3 What does an implementation partner do?
Ans. An implementation partner helps you translate business goals into a working Salesforce solution. They set up your org, customize workflows, integrate tools, train your team, and stay with you post-launch to ensure long-term success. In short, they make Salesforce work for you—not the other way around.
Q.4 Who are Salesforce’s biggest partners?
Ans. Some of the biggest Salesforce partners include Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, Cognizant, and Capgemini. These firms lead large enterprise projects globally. For mid-sized or fast-moving companies, niche Summit-tier partners like 360 Degree Cloud offer more agility with deep, hands-on expertise.
Our experts would be happy to help in your Salesforce implementation journey. Just drop us a line at contact@360degreecloud.com, and we’ll take it from there!
CEO
Siddharth Sehgal is CEO & Salesforce Communication Guru. He helps businesses grow exponentially by putting their Salesforce CRM on steroids with his unique techniques. He is on a mission to help businesses build deeper relationships with their customers.
