I’ve been watching an interesting trend lately: Salesforce.com Admins are leaving their current companies and joining some of the top CRM consulting companies instead. In the past couple weeks, a half-dozen of the top “Force.com Enthusiasts” that I follow on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have signed on with companies like Appirio, Mavens Consulting, Accenture and Acumen Solutions. Some recent examples (most on this list flocking to Appirio):
- Alex Sutherland (@apexsutherland)
- Brandy Colmer (@forcedotmom)
- Matthew Lamb (@SFDCMatt)
- Meryl Flynn (@MerylRothman)
- Jennifer Phillips (@crmjen)
- Joshua Hoskins (@jhoskins)
- Kelly Walsh (@thekellywalsh)
- Nick Hamm (@hammnick)
- Ward Geis (@old_nick)
These aren’t just Salesforce.com Admins either … they’re some of the Top Guns in the Force.com community. Many of them are inaugural members of the Salesforce MVP program, all of them are strong Customer Evangelists for the Force.com Platform.
What’s happening here?
This past month, at Cloudforce Boston, I had a chance to chat with several Salesforce Admins who are on that list. Of the individuals I spoke to, each cited a similar motivation: they’re very passionate about Salesforce.com. They know what great things it is capable of doing and they’ve seen some incredible use-cases and ways other companies are using it. Some expressed a little frustration at their own companies, who were not taking the recommendations and advice of these Force.com Gurus: “I just came to the realization that no matter what I tried to do, I just wasn’t going to win them over. I don’t want to fight that hard to make my company brilliant! I want to work with companies who recognize the benefits of Salesforce – who really want to use it – and then help them get the most out of it.”
I have to confess, I occasionally experience these same frustrations. To me, it’s so clear how a well-developed and widely deployed CRM solution can completely transform a company. I’ve seen that transformation at other (smaller) companies where I’ve deployed Salesforce (and sometimes, competing CRM solutions). Partial CRM deployments are great, full CRM deployments (covering all customer-facing teams) are better, but extending the platform deep into the back office is simply #Awesome.
In a small company, I was able to roll out CRM features across the entire company quite easily: I’d just turn features on. Users were eager to see what else the platform to do, and it was easy to roll-out custom apps and services that met their needs. In a large enterprise company, I do far less development / deployment and far more preaching. I need to constantly evangelize cloud-computing in general, basic principles of CRM, and the value of extending our CRM tool beyond Sales. It’s exhausting and I can sympathize with some of those admins who favored the consulting career path.
Another Salesforce.com Top Gun that I correspond with (whenever our cloud paths cross) has been advising her company to avoid splitting their Salesforce.com org into two instances. In some cases, it might make sense, but in their model, she knows that it doesn’t. She’s the lead Salesforce.com Admin, and is being told “do not question this decision (to split the orgs), do not ask any questions.”
When your company no longer allows you to give them appropriate counsel and advice – no longer allows you to even ask questions – it might be time to seek out blue skies and green pastures.
###
Why am I considering leaving? Because I'm tired of fighting the good fight, only to be told, "Just do it or we'll get someone who will." Hence, we have opportunity pages with 400+ fields and only 5% of them with any data and validation rules that only hamper the business.
ReplyDeleteI've been at the same company almost 10 years and for the first time in a long time, I'm considering my options. Many of you know me, but for the sake of paycheck, I'm posting this as Anonymous.
Wow, I was wholly unaware of these changes. I've crossed paths with several of these SFDC's gurus and second your opinion of them as best-in-class Admins.
ReplyDeleteI've actually made a move myself recently but for entirely different reasons (making room for others to come to the Cloud), so I guess it's just a summer for change (first Charlie leaves 2.5 men, and now this! :P)
Thanks for highlighting this for your readers and godspeed to each of the Admins above.
Hey I completely agree with this point
ReplyDelete//When your company no longer allows you to give them appropriate counsel and advice – no longer allows you to even ask questions – it might be time to seek out blue skies and green pastures.//
It is a crying shame that users become passionate about Salesforce.com and grow in their experience and expertise only to be hampered by lethargic and archaic companies who are prone to stagnation as opposed to innovation in their business processes and technology.
ReplyDeletePart of me is sad to see my peers snapped up by the consulting behemoths but I understand their reasoning. I for one am blessed to be working in a company that is making driving decisions to get the entire company on Salesforce and reform our back end processes with Salesforce. While that is still the case I plan to say on the light side of the Force. :)
It can be incredibly frustrating as an admin to see technology and its usefulness within an organization only to be throttled back.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have seen a ton of features from Salesforce that I would love to implement- not because they are new and shiny, but because they could actually make us work more efficiently only to be caught in redtape. So, its easy to see why passionate, driven, knowledgeable Admins and developers are leaving companies.
It will be very important in the next few months/years for companies to understand, recognize, and promote these passionate admins or the exodus to greener pastures will continue.
Thanks for the interesting post JP. Just to be clear we didn't just "hire" Nick Hamm, Appirio actually acquired InfoWelders of which he was a founder. Everyone at InfoWelders is incredibly smart, talented and enthusiastic. They fit in well at Appirio.
ReplyDeleteBTW... we are always hiring ! See you at DF11.
Very cool post. I totally agree that Salesforce admins are usually at their core tech junkies. They love features and doing stuff and playing with fun technology. When you can't do that, you get restless and frustrated. Then a consulting company comes along, usually offers a better salary than what your current place does, and it seems like a pretty sweet package. I know was I swayed, but it turns out consulting just wasn't for me. Oh well, if companies don't want to listen to their admins when they are in house, they will have to listen to them later as outside consultants and likely have to pay dearly for the privilege.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, and comments. I too dev/admin at a large company that moves far, far slower than the platform does. Instead of fighting and preaching best practices, my approach to quenching my thirst for cutting edge technology and creative output is to post AppExchange apps.
ReplyDeleteI think in the current Salesforce hiring eco system there are two groups that people see: the inside admin/support group and the consultants. Either you are building it for your own company or you are building it for someone else's company.
ReplyDeleteOf course there are other opportunities too but many of those involve working for Salesforce.
There's a new wrinkle I work with that I see growing quite a bit: the software vendor. Now you're no longer the guy who "Gets our Salesforce cases solved." Now you're the guy who is "Building and supporting one of our products." You're still working for your company but now you're in a group that is maintaining a public facing customer application.
In these positions you have to grow because you have to compete. For you personally there's more at stake too. You get the fun of being a consultant at a big company like Appirio or Model Metrics but lose the burn that can come from constantly context switching. Growth and advancement comes with the territory of Force.com product development.
ISV world is growing very quickly. Don't be surprised if you start to see "Force.com Product Manager" coming up more often in job listings. Not Project, Product. Always a fun distinction to make.
Not Gone - just sharing the love (of Salesforce)?
ReplyDeleteSure it can be frustrating not being able to implement the changes that you know would benefit your company when you're working as an Admin at an end-user (before joining consulting firms I worked at end-users too).
However at the end of the day change costs money.
With a smaller, leaner company the costs and return on investment usually stack up but in large enterprises it carries a big risk and in a time of restricted budgets it's all about prioritization.
Also in today's economic climate there are likely to be more companies adopting Salesforce that are less willing to take on permanent staff to build and develop which obviously increases the demand for staff at external consultancies.
I see the move from end-user to consultancy as not only a progressive journey by Admins (where they can share their enormous experience and knowledge) but also both as a indicator of salesforce usage and adoption by ever more organizations and in general a reflection of the current economy.
I think it boils down to the overlap between "what you're about" and "what your company's about." If there's not much intersection there, eventually you will have to follow your passion or you'll be miserable.
ReplyDeleteIf you've been bitten by the Salesforce bug, and your company is focused on selling widgets, you may have to part ways (even if those widgets are awesome).
As Shoby alluded to, you'll grow your Salesforce skills much faster. It's like being caught in a clump of runners, then finally finding an opening and racing ahead. Years later, you'll realize you lapped a bunch of people.
For those of you looking to venture out from your Admin jobs into something else, I'd encourage you to think about being independent or starting your own small firm instead of joining an existing large firm. Opportunities abound in the Force.com space and there is a good community of independent/very small consulting firms that are doing very well and some help each other find work. It only takes a client or two to get you started. It's also a very good time to find a niche in the ISV space if you are so inclined.
ReplyDeleteThis decision obviously depends on what you are looking for and has a lot of factors to weigh, but if you are considering it, I'd be happy to chat about my experiences.
I personally think the Force.com world will be most appealing if there are lots of stories of people doing it on their own and growing something from nothing. Now's the time!
I've found that many of the larger companies are now tending to push work out to Salesforce consultancies instead of in house. I talked to a CIO who had Salesforce talent inside the company. In his eyes getting an external consultancy in to do the work transferred the project risk to the consultancy, which was better for him. They could then focus on putting a good business case together and defining the new processes when they could get the time.
ReplyDeleteThere is such a lack of Salesforce talent at the moment its very easy to join a consultancy that is going to pay you more money to work on more diverse and interesting projects.
Great post, JP! As with Matt, I'm lucky to be at a company (non-profit) that's moving heavily onto Force.com and to be driving the strategy. It doesn't mean that we're not fighting organizational inertia, but at least I feel like I've for some control. When that changes, well then I'll have to reevaluate, but I'm solidly committed to the platform whatever may come :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I talk to CIOs and IT managers who have intellectually, if not financially, made up their minds to adopt Force.com within their company the first thing they want to know is where to find the Force.com talent. As Shobi said also, we see the same questions from newly minted ISV partners.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, demand is out-stripping supply for Force.com gurus. If you are feeling your innovation and contributions being throttled, don't worry, there are lots of opportunities and they are increasing week to week.
There's a sweet spot somewhere (optimist gills showing here) where a fast-moving company has enough new projects to keep an adept admin busy, with sufficient change to keep things interesting. If you find that company, join it (and let me know, too!)
ReplyDeleteI work for one of the smaller consulting companies working with Salesforce, and the interesting projects keep coming, fast and furious. Our implementation doesn't change all that much, but we get plenty of exposure to others' to keep us on our toes.
Congratulations to all those who have found their sweet spot, and best of luck to those of you who are still searching!
Thanks for the shoutout JP! It's a bummer that you couldn't join the MVPs for dinner in Boston, we were discussing this very phenomenon there...
ReplyDeleteFor me, the decision to return to consulting was two-fold. My primary reason was a yearning to return to a vibrant corporate culture. Too many organizations (large, medium, or small) have a dead or frustrating culture. My career journey has taught me that no compensation or position can be satisfying enough to overcome a frustrating corporate culture. Mavens Consulting has an incredibly rich and positive internal culture, and that culture produces amazing results for our clients. My secondary reason for returning to consulting was to maximize my impact with users of the technologies that I am passionate about. When you are an internal admin/analyst for a company, they can choose to marginalize and control you because you are a fixed cost to them, and they generally believe that they've got you by the throat with your paycheck. When you are a consultant, every hour you spend with clients is additional cost to them, so they SHOULD be vitally interested in maximizing your expertise and advice. At the end of the day, if they choose to ignore your advice, then it's their problem and at least you (or your firm) got paid for your time being consumed.
I do hope that end users/customers of Salesforce.com will begin to wake up and highly value their Salesforce admins/analysts/developers and give them a "seat at the table". However if they don't do that, then I'm a big fan of breaking the grip of your stale paycheck and finding better opportunities elsewhere.
Alex Sutherland
Mavens Consulting (yes, we're hiring too!!)
http://mavensconsulting.com/
I'd love to see these large consulting firm kick off programs to train and shepherd new talent in addition to just snatching people up. Demand for Force.com expertise is far outstripping the pool of available talent. The lack of qualified Salesforce.com Admins not only hurts the companies where they work but also puts consulting projects at risk over the intermediate and long term.
ReplyDeleteWithout the appropriate organizational capacity, technology implementations have a much greater risk of failure, or at least marginalized success. It seems to me that a solid internship program at top consultancies is not only an interesting idea and a fantastic professional development opportunity, but also a sound investment.
To the previous poster, many consulting firms do focus on training and bringing up fresh new talent. Mentoring junior resources in Salesforce is one my favorite tasks as a senior resource. I am there to educate junior resources on everything from SDLC fundamentals, to the tips and tricks of the platform to the business value our clients expect.
ReplyDeleteI left my prior company due to their lack of embracing Salesforce. In my case, my company finally made the big move, but that decision took too long for my comfort. I enjoy consulting as it gives me the opportunity to work with so many companies, federal agencies, etc. to provide them the Salesforce skills and business transformation I used to provide within the confines of a slow moving business.
I'm right there with these admins. I'm working for a medium sized organization in the Northwest and we have had great success with Salesforce at such a small cost. Nevertheless we have a new-ish IT director that only trusts internally hosted systems and keeps saying "We are a Microsoft shop." I have honestly heard him float in more than one meeting that we should consider migrating to Microsoft CRM for tighter integration. It's insane. We have a small IT team with a limited skill set that is almost solely focused on desktop/laptop/mobile support, Exchange, and trying to figure out what the hell they are going to do with Sharepoint. They can't even handle the work they have. Over the past four years we (myself, the Sales Ops manager, and our DBA) have done some amazing things with SF. It is truly amazing the role that politics plays in organizational IT decisions.
ReplyDelete