Salesforce Implementation Cost Revealed. Should you rob a bank?

Salesforce implementation cost ranges from 7,500$ to 60,000$ for initial implementation. Average cost salesforce implementation is around 15,000$ to 26,000$. There should be, however, added costs of internal resources. It means internal employees should look after Salesforce. At least during the initial implementation stage.

I have seen numerous discussions on what Salesforce implementation cost should be. It depends on how you calculate them. It also depends on what you recognize as Salesforce implementation costs. There are internal company processes that have to be aligned. There should be someone looking after your Salesforce setup. You will hire consultants. You will buy licenses. There are many things you will have to do after you made a decision to go with the CRM from Salesforce. Just like with any other product on the market. But let’s take a closer look how your costs structure is going to look like.

Just to start with, I’ve drawn an overview diagram for you. It will give you a rough impression of how costs are structured. As a result, you will have a better picture of what to expect. But don’t rush to conclusions too quickly. After reading this article you will have a detailed look at salesforce implementation costs.

Salesforce licence pricing

The first thing you should care about is licenses. Picking the right product is key to your CRM success. Salesforce has multiple solutions for different industries and uses cases. Your costs will also depend on your ambitions. Is it just a sales tracking tool you are looking for? Or do you want to automate your business? Or you are looking to align your team across different departments?

Salesforce has plenty of different solutions. Slack and Chatter, for internal communications. Sales Cloud for tracking and automating sales. Service Cloud for support teams and after-sales. Marketing Cloud for marketing. The list goes on and on. So think of a product you are looking for first. The good news is, if you are just starting with CRM most likely you will start with basics. Chances are you will be looking at Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. They often come hand in hand.

Why core products are import

Highly likely you will be looking at so-called Salesforce Core products. Core products are starting point for any Salesforce setup. And they are important to get a clue on salesforce implementation cost. They are used by apps available in the AppExchange marketplace. These are based solutions that are used as starting points. They are customized. They say “No two Salesforce org are the same”. And that’s true.

Oh, and did I mention? Core products are also used for add-ons from Salesforce. Did you know Salesforce has add-ons?

Salesforce add-ons

Add-ons are Salesforce’s core product extensions. There are plenty of functionality extensions available for Salesforce. One of them is CPQ. That’s configure, price and quote functionality. It’s used for complex quotes and bundled products. I’ve written a detailed article on this topic.

Further reading: What is Salesforce CPQ? Boosting Sales with Configuring, Pricing and Quoting

But let’s get back to Salesforce add-ons. They could dramatically increase salesforce implementation costs. Here’s a complete list of Salesforce add-ons. Let me highlight some of them. I haven’t listed all of them. I’m giving only Sales Cloud add-ons as I believe this is a great starting point. It should be enough to understand diversity of digitalization opportunities Salesforce

There are plenty of Salesforce Sales Cloud add-ons available

Sales Cloud Pricing

It’s time to reveal Sales Cloud pricing. It will help better understand salesforce implementation cost structure. Thankfully it’s pretty straightforward in terms of pricing. But it’s definitely not that easy when it comes to chosen the right plan.

Salesforce has four pricing plans for it’s sales solution:

Here’s the question of the day. Which plan do you have to go with? Let me ease you the decision. Go with Enterprise. You can’t go wrong with that plan. The problem with Professional and Essentials plans are their limits. You won’t be able to build fully pledged corporate CRM with those plans. Salesforce clearly puts limitations on those tariffs to promote higher plans.

Recently we had our first and the only project on the Professional plan. Honestly, it was a big mistake for us. Despite the project, itself being a huge success. Both from salesforce implementation cost and user success perspective. BUT. We have reached all plan limitation in the first two weeks. We spend another two weeks figuring out how to overcome the limits and building workarounds. That’s not good. So I definitely recommend looking at the Enterprise plan. In case you are not looking to use an out-of-the-box solution without further customization.

This could be a great starting point for your project estimation. But hold on. I’ll get back to maths later.

Service Cloud Pricing

Service Cloud pricing model is similar to what you can expect with Sales Cloud. The only remark here is that it has much more functionality. I believe this is because service teams are more process oriented than Sales Teams. So if you evaluate after-sales solutions. And you do not have strictly defined process. Try looking at Sales Cloud first. It has case functionality. It allows you to track customer inquiries. And there is plenty of features that allow you to automate the process.

Nevertheless, let me shed some light on the Service Cloud Pricing plans

Salesforce implementation cost for Service cloud is similar to Sales Cloud. Service Cloud plans are built with exactly same logics in minds. There are much feather cases when a company goes with Service Cloud first. And then implements Sales Cloud. Usually it happens just the opposite. But hold on. Salesforce is aware of that. So it has an option for both products. And you won’t have to rob a bank to afford them.

Sales + Service Cloud Pricing

Just as I mentioned before. Sales and Service cloud products come hand in hand each with the other. Thankfully Salesforce has developed a plan where they come in bundles. Hooray! That’s are great news! Right? Or there are some “Terms & Conditions”? Generally speaking – no. There are no pitfalls with this option. It has slightly higher price, but it’s not twice the price you would be paying if going with those products separately.

And there more good news to come. You can choose to buy Sales + Service cloud only to dedicated users. And keep licenses separately for others. This also saves some money. But requires more careful licensing planning. Anyway, let’s deep dive a bit into the costs of this option.

Implementation Services Costs

This is where things are getting interesting. Right? Not much consulting companies would reveal their pricing. I guess for an obvious reason. Before we jump into salesforce implementation cost details. Please note. Everything in this article is indicative. Your salesforce implementation cost could differ in both directions. It could be higher. It could be lower. If you are just starting, however, this indications might help you.

So now when we are clear with Salesforce licence cost. It’s time to jump into services you will have to source. What I have excluded from here are internal company costs. The reason is – I don’t know. I have never tried to estimate them. My customers either have ever shared this data with me. I guess this is something often not tracked. But let’s get back to the implementation services costs. After you finish this part of the article you are going to have pretty much everything you should know. About salesforce implementation cost I mean.

Salesforce implementation cost in terms of Services most often consist of

• Consulting
• Data migration, clean up etc.
• Customization services
• User training, onboarding etc.
• After launch support. We call it HyperCare.

Consulting

Consulting services are pretty often undervalued. Very few companies on the market are happy to pay for consultants time spent on discussions. Fortunately or not – this is extremely valuable time. Even though consulting services are not cheap, they could save you much more time and money later. Just one fact – almost 75% of the CRM projects fail.

 …the Gartner Group reports that 75% of ERP projects fail.  Others report that CRM projects fail at nearly the same rate…

forbes.com

While reasons for failure are different here are three of the most “popular”

• Projects are too big. Are failed due to complexity.
• Insufficient competence.
• Lack of involvement from key stakeholder.

While I can not do much about stakeholders being involved in the project. I can definetely tell you that the first two can and should be mitigate. With proper consulting services – they could be mitigated. But what are costs of these services. Well, the answer is difficult. Depending on your organization’s maturity level a scope of works for consultants could change.

These are typical rates of Salesforce Certified Consultants. But beware – these rates are indicative and they often do not represent the qualification of a consultant. More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Now you might wonder. How much of the would I need. If you are a medium-sized company with, say 50 users. Your org chart looks tidy and business processes seem clear. Good news – you can use functional consultants to help you draw requirements. It will take around 80 to 120 hours and you’ll be good. Just make sure to hire an experience project manager. Ideally, if someone from your team would be capable of doing so.

Alternatively, you might look at a technical consultant to advice you on your setup. He would be able to draw you and the architecture of your systems. Also, he will help you pick the right products for the requirements drawn. This will take another 40 to 60 hours of labor.

If you are a larger organisation with complex business processes and complicated existing setup. Well, most likely you will need business consultants. They’ll prepare a blueprint for your CRM MVP and could pass this to architects. For future investigation and development. I can’t tell you how much it would take as this field is not typical. There are simply no “average” cases on the market worth mentioning.

Customization

Once you are done with your planning job, you can go with your Salesforce customization. Don’t expect this process to be that linear. Just for the sake of this article I have put them in this order. Often you will have to hire consultants in the process. Nonetheless. Customization is where your Salesforce is getting aligned with your business. At a glance, it will include the following

• Customizing objects and creating new ones
• Adding fields
• Creating reports
• Building dashboards
• Creating process with apex or Flow tools
• Adding validation rules
• Adjusting permissions

And these are just a few. Now the question is. What issalesforce implementation cost for customizing salesforce. The answer is simple. And not. At the same time. Here are some default rates.

Again, rates are strongly dependent on the area you live in. Also current market demand plays a significant role. We have seen a drammatic growth in the market demand over the course of the COVID19 pandemic. Even the ability to pay extra does not guarantee that you would be able to hire high-quality labor. Go with companies who have proven track record instead. This would minimise your risks, but would not 100% mitigate them. Don’t forget that companies are built of people. And even well-known and reputable brands have a weaker and stronger team in their possession.

Data management

What’s included with data management:

• Data clean-up
• Data normalisation (preparing data for import)
• Importing data with realation (so you have Account and Contacts separately, yet linked each to other)

More or less data services are not that complicated. I would say a rate of 40$ per hour is fair. Salesforce implementation cost for data migration depends on the amount of data you have in the company. And it’s complexity of course. I will try to estimate average cost salesforce implementation for data migration and everything in between in the end of this article.

User training

Another thing you have to consider is your user onboarding. Plan to hire consultants and their teams to training your employess. This is one of, if not the most essential part of every implementation. You are bulding your CRM for your users. To arm them with the most advanced solution on the market. Investing tens of thousands of dollars. Plan user training costs in advance, otherwise you’ll end up with useless high-tech toys.

User training depends on the number of users you have and the overall complexity of the system. Also, depending on how advanced your users are with the computers learning curve could be different.

On average we estimate user training as 10% of the overall implementation budget minus licence costs. This is a rough estimation but gives you a better picture of what to plan in the budget.

After-launch support

Do not expect your CRM to be on-time investment. That should become an ongoing cost. Because CRM can gain you, on average 33% in revenue growth, these costs are the costs that extra revenue. Put that budget into one of the Care programs of your vendors.

After lounch support could range from 1,500$ to 10,000$ monthly. Depending on the number of users and system complexity.

Hope this article helped you.

Have a great day/night whatever it is now when you are reading this.

Jeff.