“The implementation, improvement, or support of a CRM system always rests on the budget. Money is the foundation stone of each project. This is the reason why it can be completed, paused, or closed. And ROI is the key metric by which the C-level usually analyzes the success of a project. That’s why we’d like to focus on it ”, – Dmitri Leichick, Twistellar’s CEO and founder.
Twistellar is a #1 Salesforce Consulting Partner in Denmark that has grown from 0 to 100+ in-house consultants in 5 years and works with customers in the USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company provides top-quality Salesforce solutions development services to solve complex business issues and boost sales.
Typically, the cost of a Salesforce implementation project consists of two parts — Salesforce licenses and implementation services.
- Salesforce licenses
The bread and butter of Salesforce — Sales and Service Cloud licenses have the price of $75/month for Professional Edition and $150/month for Enterprise Edition, paid annually per seat.
If you compare Salesforce Sales Cloud Enterprise Edition licenses with other CRM solutions, the choice will not be in favor of the first one. However, when it comes to calculations, we always recommend our customers consider first the impact of a project on their business. Most of the time, it’s worth it.
Ultimately, any planning stage should end with a sufficient identification of ROI. There are many factors that can be taken into account in the final budget, and they are not always directly related to the cost of the solution itself.
We often notice this kind of doubt when considering the financial side of projects we deal with, so here’s a reminder and some advice on how you can use your resources effectively. Choose your licenses wisely.
We often encounter a situation when customers purchase licenses for different Salesforce Clouds that do not meet their business needs. This way, they may overpay, forming a huge annual cost item that could be spent on developing other areas of their business. An experienced consultant will help to avoid such a case by choosing the best license type at appropriate cost.
General Salesforce Product Pricing overview can be found here.
- Implementation services
Implementation costs are more complicated to forecast and calculate.
Some consultants provide “basic” package prices for the implementation of Sales, Service Cloud or Marketing Clouds. Our experience shows that the actual spread of the project costs varies greatly depending on the company and its goals.
“We had projects dedicated to the implementation of a basic CRM functionality, such as a sales pipeline, that cost hundreds of thousands. And on the contrary, configuring the sales pipeline for a smaller company cost just 5K”. – Dmitri Leichick
This gap in prices happens because people use the same words to name completely different projects and scope. There’s no average price, each project needs to be discussed individually for the right estimate.
But why spend money on the implementation services in the first place? Can a company just implement Salesforce themselves? Let’s talk that over.
For a new user, the capability of Salesforce can be overwhelming. If you choose to go alone on this journey, you may encounter the following difficulties:
- Be ready to spend a lot of time and human resources
Data migrations, integrations, and customization of your system require quite a high level of knowledge and experience. Research and training will take much more time than with the help of experts who have already handled other projects and can highlight the best solution just for your business. Furthermore, you may end up with a redundant functionality solution that your team will never use.
- Working solution today doesn’t mean it will work later
You may create some low-level tasks to automate separated flows, with the hope that they will be effectively connected somehow. That doesn’t usually do much good and results in data model discrepancies, gaps in automations, and disappointment. Eventually, you might have to turn to consultants to rebuild the processes. That means you’ll have to go back where you started.
We recommend turning to a consulting company not only to save your time, but also to have the working solution able to grow with you without any technical debt. In this case, saving money means evaluating your own strengths and using the potential of your Salesforce partner’s expertise.
The implementation timeline depends on the scope of your project and the features you plan to implement. Ideally, the project needs to be rolled out in stages. Thus, the timeline is separated into phases, when each of them already brings value and can be deployed separately to make user adoption more iterative and smooth.
Based on our experience, you can expect the initial implementations of Salesforce Sales Cloud or Service Cloud to last for 4-6 months. If you’d like to leverage Salesforce Community Cloud – that may take another 1-2 months for styling and customization.
- If you don’t know where to start, here’s an article on the typical issues solved by consulting companies, factors to consider when you look for a Salesforce partner, and what happens when you find one.
- If your decision is to start the digital journey as a trailblazer from scratch by the efforts of your company, we can share with you an ultimate guide to successful Salesforce implementation.
Anyway, stepping on a path of business automation will take effort and preparation, but the effect of a successful Salesforce implementation project can really overcome your expectations.
