Why would you need a strategy to hire a consultant right?
Like go on an XYZ review website and hire the best one? Simple? No?
Of course, not.
Hiring a consultant, especially a consultant for Salesforce NPSP, can be tricky. Finding is easy, choosing is hard. Well, choosing the right one is.
So, you need some heads up as to how to hire Salesforce nonprofit consultants.
In this article, we are going to talk about 8 things that might seem obvious but are difficult to execute as well as remember while conducting the process of hiring Salesforce nonprofit consultants.
So, let’s walk you through all the considerations one by one.
1. Create a budget
Salesforce nonprofit consultants come at a hefty price. Before hiring, you have to ask a few questions to yourself. How much does your company need one, and how much of the budget can you spend on it to get optimal ROI.
You need to include factors while calculating this budget: Salesforce NPSP deployment costs, third-party software for integration, and consultation charges.
You cannot go into such an expense lightly. Think it through and plan it out.
The right estimation of the budget will help you make the most of your Salesforce nonprofit consultants. Also, you will be able to save yourself from overflow or unavailability of funds due to improper budget planning in the future.
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2. What will your Salesforce nonprofit consultants do for your organization?
Gauging the impact of Salesforce nonprofit consultants is important. The Salesforce nonprofit consultants you hire can affect your organization in various ways, so what are your partnership goals before starting the hiring process. Before you start looking for a perfect team of Salesforce nonprofit consultants for your nonprofit organization, be sure of how you will utilize their skills. Decide on the elements you want your consultant to help you with.
Make it a point to have a clear understanding of your current technology for your organization. If you are using any other software solution besides Salesforce, find out how they impact your nonprofit organization. You can also figure out the platforms you can let go of without any significant impact on your organization. You can also find out how many users depend on your current technology and what they have to say about that.
Besides, there is also a need to find out the aspects you want to manage – fundraising, marketing, events, daily operations, etc. with Salesforce.
Once you are clear with your goals, you can better understand how your team of Salesforce nonprofit consultants can benefit your organization.
You are an NGO, and you have your ethics and morals with which you operate. So, you need to be upfront about that while talking to potential Salesforce nonprofit consultants.
Tell them about your vision, operations, and what you are trying to accomplish with your NGO. And more importantly, ask questions. About their operations, ethics, morals, and how they work in general. Try and understand what kind of skillset and people they will be bringing to this deal.
What can they do for your organization that a random consultant or a consultancy firm can’t?
Try and analyze their uniqueness, understand their technology stack, their expertise in the said task, their execution excellence.
3. Check the portfolios of the Salesforce nonprofit consultants
With any kind of hiring comes a background check. Whether you hire freelancers or a Salesforce consulting company, look into their portfolios. How many companies have they worked with? What was the scale of these projects? This is especially important since you are a non-profit. If your consultant is used to working only with for-profit companies, their work might not align with yours.
So, find a consultant that has experience and expertise working with nonprofits.
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4. Create a shortlist with pros and cons
You would have already made a mental list of the consultants with the most impressive work and people by this step.
So, why not make it official?
Simply create a Google Sheet and add the names of the consultants or consultancy firms that stood out to you, add their work, their contact details, work experience, pros, cons, skills, recommendations, etc.
This will give you an overview of the potential consultants you are rapping.
Moreover, you can also create a grading system for the same to keep all the stakeholders on the same page, which makes future communication smoother.
Pro Tip: Add a remarks column to add your views about them from when you’ll get in touch with them. You can also add a column mentioning the time and date of the meeting with a particular consultant.
5. Fix a consultation timeline
The thing about consultation is that it’s not a forever kind of partnership. You don’t want them to overstay their welcome and make you an invoice you didn’t plan for. However, this does not mean you won’t need them after the initial level. So, fix a timeline for the project. And plan for contingencies. Once that is done, let them work their magic. Over the years, as you scale, you will need them again, or you might even need regular guidelines. Establish your preferences and plan for the long term with them. This way, neither of you will be caught off guard.
6. What process will they follow to on-board your organization?
Best of the consultants always have a process in-tact to onboard their customers, no matter their size. They are very particular about the team they have for you, the tools they use to manage their projects, the platforms they use to communicate with clients, and the coding and QA practices they follow for the best outcome.
Their proposal will be a reflection of their onboarding process and how they work internally. You don’t want a cluttered team that’s still trying to figure out how to work the works.
So, keep an eye out for the details they provide about the technology stack, platforms, tools, team, skillset, etc. and ask them if they’ll be flexible in terms of the collaboration platform. And if not, how are they going to educate you about their current set of tools?
This will give you a pretty good idea of the kind of experience you will have working with them during the timeline you agreed on for consultation work.
7. Find your match
While yes, you have to find a consultant that can get the job done, that’s not all. You also need them to play well with your team. Only then will the process be frictionless and can be taken forward easily. That’s a big checklist to follow:
- Portfolio
- Non-profit expertise
- Team chemistry
If any of these three are missing, it will not work out for you.
8. Integrate their work into your long term goal and with your in house team
Your work relationships need to help you get better at your work, sure. But they also need to help you stay there once their job is done. Just like that, your salesforce consultants should also integrate with your team and train them to a certain extent. They should be able to help you strategize for a longer term, keeping in mind your bigger goals and get your in-house development team to be self-reliant regarding updates and changes from Salesforce.
All these points will help you find the perfect tech partner you need as your Salesforce Nonprofit consultants.
Two more things that you might like to consider:
- See if your Salesforce nonprofit consultants are philanthropic themselves. Their contribution to the community and society will tell you a lot about them.
- Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant certification. Salesforce is very particular that way. So, make sure the consultant you choose has that certification and is up to date with all the updates to provide you with the proper consultation you require to bring change in the community.
About us:
CRMJetty is a hub of innovative customer relationship solutions. Our tools ensure that you can render enhanced interactions at each stage of your customer lifecycle. So, if you are searching for the right technology partner to help you deploy your Salesforce NPSP, then you are in the right space. We have served in this industry for a decade and have helped many NGOs deploy NPSP along with a good portal solution. Get in touch with us, and we’ll help you kick start your journey towards making this world a better place.
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