There is no doubt that the current business world is competitive, with companies competing fiercely to offer superior consumer experiences in the digital era.
Salesforce can deliver this by transforming the vast volumes of client data that is readily available into intelligent, practical solutions for unmatched digital customer experiences.
Although they seek to achieve the above objectives, clients have different selection criteria when it comes to picking a Salesforce partner to work with.
For example, we recently met with a prospective client, and what they said had a real impact on us.
When asked which factors they consider when choosing a Salesforce partner, the prospect mentioned "commitment" and "understanding our business-specific demands"; not delivering the best Salesforce solution you possibly can.
A customer needs a partner to properly grasp their business and internal procedures, as well as guarantee that the same team will be in place throughout the end-to-end implementation journey.
Trust also plays an important role, and for prospects who may be risk-averse, providing a pre-implementation discovery phase with minimal investment can be the perfect solution.
What’s involved in a Discovery?
In this post, we want to provide an outline of the steps we take to understand your unique business requirements within a short time frame.
Despite the fact that every project is different, we always begin by conducting an exploration phase called "Discovery." In this initial step, we thoroughly examine the client's business and learn about their goals for using Salesforce. We also investigate their current issues, their workflows, their particular technological requirements, and the ultimate user experience they desire.
Merkle arranges on-site workshops with you, generally over a 2-week period, in order to fully understand all of your requirements and expectations.
During this discovery session, we meet with the many departments and stakeholders who will be impacted by the implementation. By asking questions and having conversations, we can start to define the ideal user experience, confirm the requirements, and develop potential implementation options.
As a result, we have developed our ‘CORE’ approach for engaging with you. "CORE" stands for: COLLABORATE, OPTIMISE, RESOLVE, and EXECUTE. We focus on digitising, automating, and optimising processes and workflows. This allows us to create Salesforce solutions that are flexible, scalable, and deliver the desired outcomes for your business.
Furthermore, using the detailed requirements captured during this stage, we create a clickable prototype to allow your stakeholders to explore, experience, and test the usability of the solution before implementation begins.
What do I get at the end of the Discovery?
At the conclusion of the Discovery phase, the requirements log will be published to all project stakeholders. The requirements will include a bundle of deliverables for assessment and be used to prioritize the requirements that will be implemented as part of Phase 1.
We also provide an implementation statement of work that details the project's timeframes, scope, and commercials while also taking into account the requirements that were confirmed during the planning stage. This provides you with certainty on project scope, timelines, costs, and dependencies.
As a Salesforce partner, it’s important for us to listen to our customers and make sure they’re happy and satisfied. In the end, we succeed when our client succeeds.