Finding an implementation partner can be a challenge.
There are infinite questions businesses must consider when seeking out a partner, including:
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Does the partner understand your business needs?
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Will they dedicate the right resources to see the project through?
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What is their role after the initial engagement?
Often, businesses realize the wrong fit too late, costing them valuable time, resources, and money. To spare you from the difficult search, we’ve put together a guide to help you find the right implementation partner.
Secret — it’s all in the questions you ask!
Before meeting the partner, answer the following questions:
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What is the partner being onboarded to do? Consider what purpose and outcomes you want to achieve and how this aligns with your use case.
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What tasks will your team be responsible for? Consider the resources, and time that you can dedicate and what your partner might expect from you.
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What part can your team realistically play in this partnership? Consider your team’s expertise, skills, availability, and other projects/priorities that may compete for their attention.
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What criteria will you evaluate your potential partner on? This is determined by the size, risk, and complexity of your project and the existing expertise and resources available to you
You are now ready to meet your potential partner!
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These meetings typically follow this sequence:
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Introductory meeting
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Discovery meetings
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Implementation proposal review
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Especially during the last meeting, it is crucial to be on the same page as your partner — ask as many questions as you need!
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We also encourage learning more about your potential partner outside these meetings via by reading up on:
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This is where you will find info about their level of expertise, certifications by Cloud, rating, projects completed stats, partner tier and more importantly how they’re going to add value to your business
Pop-up: Did you know?
Bubblebox offers a unique approach to understanding your business, including your goals, KPIs, environment, challenges, business needs and desired outcomes, with a strong focus on project management and delivery. We aren’t just an implementation partner — we provide you with the strategic expertise and guidance to get you where you need to be!
Looking closer at the partner selection process
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Who from your organization will be assessing partners? Based on the complexity of your project, you might nominate a single person or create a committee instead
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How will your organization evaluate partners objectively? Determine the criteria and weightage of each aspect before beginning your evaluation
What questions will you ask potential partners? Below, we have outlined some good questions to ask and what you’re looking for
Click here to download a pdf version
What does the completed assessment look like?
As you meet with various potential partners and review the conversations, proposals, references, and other exchanges, you can rate each partner on a scale of 1 to 3 (Low, Medium, or High) for each criteria. You must decide beforehand how much each criteria is weighed from 1 (Low) to 5 (High).
Here's a Partner Assessment Tool that you could easily leverage.
Need help?
Are you currently scoping Salesforce Partners and looking to gain additional information from Bubblebox? We're here to help. Contact us today!
