What Great Clients Actually Do - To set up for Success

Because partnership is a two-way street, and someone had to say it.

Happy Year of the Fire Horse! 🔥🐎

What does that mean?  

Intense energy, passion and creativity... love it! 😍

Sounds like everyone's in for fiery romance in their relationships, no?
Well, I came across a really great newsletter this week from SalesforceChaCha 💃 all about how executives can build Salesforce partnerships that last.

Like all relationships - it takes emotional labour, radical candour and managing expectation to work... in the long term.
In other words, it takes hard graft.

The romance and passion that we find during discoveries where we work on the 'art of the possible' fizzles out after a bit, especially when we encounter technical issues, conflicting agendas, and shifting priorities in a fast moving business environment.

And then we go-live. 🚀 

SalesforceChaCha talks about it from the client's point of view.

But I couldn't help reading it and thinking... what does this look like from our side of the table?

Because the thing is, and I say this with all the love in the world - a lasting Salesforce partnership requires two willing participants.

And us consultants?
We can only do so much with what we're given.

So let me riff on this, consultant to consultant. 👇

The Client You Dream Of vs. The Client You Often Get

The newsletter talks about how executives should treat Salesforce like a living system, not a "set it and forget it" car radio preset. 📻

I love that analogy.
But I'd take it further.

Imagine handing someone the keys to a car you've spent months customising to their exact specifications... and watching them park it in the garage and never drive it. 😐

I've seen this.
More than once.

The clients who get the most from their Salesforce investment are the ones who
🍩show up to every session, prepared
🍩bring their subject matter experts
🍩make decisions in a timely way
🍩understand that our time (and theirs)  has a cost
🍩trust the process even when it feels uncomfortable
🍩understand the value of change management, and makes sure their project sponsor/champion is given every opportunity to succeed

The clients who struggle?
🥦They're waiting for us to hand them a perfect system and disappear quietly.

That's not how this works.

Knowledge Transfer Goes Both Ways

SalesforceChaCha is absolutely right that partners should be obsessed with keeping your admins in the loop, teaching best practices, and making themselves gradually less necessary.

✅ 100% agree.

But here's what I'd add: you have to be willing to learn.

I've been on projects where
- key stakeholders was side-lined from key decisions
- the internal champion was too junior to manage executive relationships
- every training session was treated like an inconvenience rather than an investment. 

The partners who last? We're teachers. But we need engaged students.

If your internal team isn't being brought along for the ride - that's a conversation you need to have.
With us AND with your own leadership.

"Shared Incentives" Sounds Great In Theory

The newsletter advocates for success being defined by business results, not just hours burned.

I believe in this wholeheartedly. But the thing is:

Shared incentives require shared accountability.

That means when the project hits a wall because internal stakeholders can't agree on a process, or because a key decision has been delayed for six weeks waiting for approval - that's not a partner problem.

The most successful projects I've been part of had clients who were as invested in the outcome as we were.

They pushed back on their own teams. 
They escalated internally when needed.
They said yes to the hard conversations.

OMG these clients hold a special place in my heart 🥹❤️

THAT's when the magic works. 🪄

What Great Clients Actually Do

And since we're making lists 📝:

🌟 They appoint an empowered internal champion (not just a note-taker)
🌟 They protect key stakeholders' time for workshops and reviews
🌟 They make decisions (even imperfect ones) so the project can move
🌟 They treat go-live as the beginning of their learning curve, not the end of ours
🌟 They give us feedback when something isn't working - before it becomes a crisis
🌟 They understand that good discovery now saves expensive rework later

(doodle from my book Successful Salesforce Projects 101)

Final Thought

SalesforceChaCha ends with this: "Ending a Salesforce partnership right after go-live is like getting a divorce right after the wedding."

I'd add: some projects feel like the couple never really showed up to their own wedding. 😅 (I bet a few of my loyal readers in the partner ecosystem is nodding their head while reading this post)

The best client relationships was where they were as excited, as invested, and as present as I was.
👉🏻 We celebrated the wins together (oof that Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony go-live cakes, balloons and treats! 😍)
👉🏻We navigated the hard moments together as a team. 
👉🏻And we built something that actually worked.

That's the partnership worth fighting for.
On both sides of the table.

By the way this is a Great time for a Plug -> I talk about this from the client's point of view, building business case, calculating ROI, getting funding, doing the RFPing, finding your partner and then making sure you #DoItRight.

Get a copy of Successful Salesforce Projects 👇🏻

(available at your nearest amazon site)

Anyway I love SalesforceChaCha's newsletter (if you haven't subscribed yet WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! DO IT NOW!!) 
And the memes are too funny! 😂

Yeah well, I needed a break from my 're-factoring' of my ADC course (the drama from last week, if you've been following my news 😢) which allowed it to become fodder for my content!

My upcoming speaking/Dreamin events

Oh yes - some of you have been asking me about my dreamin/conference plans for this year. 

🍩20 March: "The Well-Architected Project Team: Why Everyone Needs Architect Mindset" at Polish Dreamin in Wroclaw, Poland
🍩11 May: "Architecting Your Future-Proof Career in the Age of Agentforce and AI" confirmed with the following on waitlist: "When Strangers Become Lifelines: What Community Really Means" at True North Dreamin in Toronto, Canada (with a Hyrox competition side quest in Ottawa a few days later🤭)

Waiting on: Albania Dreamin, CzechDreamin, London's Calling and Portugal Dreamin.  I am also thinking of submitting for Architect Dreamin even if I'm not a ReAl ArChITeCt 🤭 

So anyway - CTA (Call to Action) for you - Subscribe to SalesforceChaCha!  And tell me what you'd like to hear me speak on (you know I also do zoom appearances for local user groups for karma points? 😉  Hit me up babeh!)

Hit reply and tell me what's on your mind. 💜
x Pei

P.S. The full ADC course relaunch is a little delayed while we do a bit of restructuring... but you can still join the waitlist! 

P.P.S. If this newsletter resonates with you, forward this to a friend and get them to subscribe here and get a whole lot of goodness stright into the inbox 🥰