Top 9 Pardot Partners

FoundHQ vs Consulting Partners

Companies are told that Salesforce Partners are the only place to go for quality guidance or reliable execution. But that’s simply not true. At least anymore.

There is absolutely a time and place to leverage Consulting Partners but that is primarily limited to projects that will require a Delivery team of 10+ Consultants engaged simultaneously. More often than not, stakeholders turn to Firms when a better option is hiring a small team of Independent Consultants.

FoundHQ was born out of a very real need: a way to engage the same Salesforce Consultants you get from a Partner at a fraction of the cost.

How Consulting Partners Work

There are a few key aspects to the way Salesforce Partners work with you to get the work done. This is a simple reality of their business model.

Deliver the Work and Leave

Their business runs on delivering projects efficiently so they can manage their workload and move on to the next project. Obviously, you're looking to get the work delivered quickly as well but you want to make sure it's done right before they leave - and if the Partner has another project lined up for their Consultants, the final stages can get rushed.

Not to mention, most Partners simply don't have a cost-effective model to support you after go-live. They will either charge astronomical rates for access to an individual Consultant or they will hand everything over and wish you luck.

All Deliverables are Scoped Upfront

In order to achieve the fastest possible deployment, the start of an engagement with a Partner involves scoping the entire project from start to finish and solidifying a timeline for when everything is scheduled to be completed.

Again, project planning is critical for success but it leaves very little room to maneuver. As you learn new things along the way, you might want to change some of the original plans and Partners make it very difficult to do so.

Partners Execute 100% of the Work

Perhaps you have a capable Salesforce Administrator or Developer in-house that would love to get their hands on this new project. It would give them experience and bring the cost of the project down but Consulting Partners don't want to do things that way.

They want to staff an entire team on the project and get as many Consultants billable as possible in order to maintain control. It means means that regardless of what expertise you have within your company - or who on your team you'd like to get some Salesforce exposure - the Partner will be push as many of their Consultants as possible, increasing the overall cost of the project and making knowledge transfer harder during go-live.

Partners are Very Expensive

The typical bill rate per Consultant from a Partner is $200/hour to $350/hour.

They will justify it by saying quality comes at a cost but it's really because Consulting Partners have a lot of overhead, which needs to accounted for in their price. In contrast, Independent Salesforce Consultants charge a significantly lower hourly rate - typically in the range of $100/hour to $175/hour.

And don't be fooled, their experience is identical to the Consultants you get from a Consulting Partner since many Independent Salesforce Consultants used to work for a Partner!

When To Hire Who: FoundHQ vs Consulting Partners

The Partner approach is ideal for larger transformation projects where the team being engaged across strategy, business process optimization, and systems work exceeds 10+ Consultants engaged simultaneously.

At this scale, it's beneficial to have a single vendor accountable for managing the all workstreams and keeping things organized.

But you should strongly consider engaging Independent Consultants for any initiative that requires fewer than 10 Consultants - and especially those that only need a team of 2-3.

In these scenarios, you can take a surgical approach to hiring only the experience needed, while also partnering with someone that remains available to you long after the project is delivered.

Why FoundHQ

Our approach gives you the best of both worlds.

The expertise of a Consulting Firm. The collaboration of an FTE.
And cost savings only a Freelancer can offer.

FoundHQ brings 10+ years of experience building Salesforce teams, including work with some of the top Partners globally. By partnering with us, you get access to a network of 8,000+ pre-vetted Salesforce Consultants, including talent from Slalom, Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Kicksaw, Coastal Cloud, Salesforce, and hundreds of other Consulting Firms.

We possess the single largest Salesforce knowledge base and the ability to help you identify the right team needed to deliver any scope of work.