David A. Fields Consulting Group Salesforce is the major player in CRMs. Yet, I don’t use Salesforce, and in all likelihood, you don’t either.
Reflecting on why neither of us pay for the market leader will help your consulting firm gain and retain clients.
According to Salesforce, they’re the undisputed leader in CRM software.
And while it’s true that their platform powers millions of companies worldwide, remarkably few small consulting firms deploy Salesforce.
For good reason.
Their licensing model is convoluted and using the platform is a hassle.
Unless you’re ready to hire a full time CRM administrator to wrangle all the configuration options, the complexity of Salesforce quickly outweighs the benefits.
Customer support? Count on wandering through endless loops of documentation before accessing any real help.
Salesforce has steadily lost customers to simpler, lower cost alternatives. My prediction is that small consulting firms will continue to avoid the CRM giant.
Here’s the problem in a nutshell: Salesforce overestimates their offering’s value to customers and underestimates the importance of being Easy to Do Business With (ETDBW).
ETDBW = Easy to Do Business With
ETDBW can outweigh virtually everything else a buyer considers.
For instance, you might think the average Josephine chooses which supermarket to shop in based on cleanliness, freshness of produce, selection or price. You’d think wrong.
Studies show the #1 driver of choice of supermarkets, by far, is location.
As a consultant, low scores on ETDBW will knock your consulting firm out of the consideration set regardless of your impressively smart team and your dynamite case studies.
I have witnessed brilliant, well-known consulting firms lose lucrative engagements because they gave the impression that they’d be less responsive and cooperative than the local cable company. (That’s bad!)
Fortunately, you’re not a supermarket locked into a location or (I assume) unduly internally focused.
You determine how ETDBW your consulting firm is.
Are you over-complicating your messaging, your approach or your deliverables?
Are you making it frustrating to engage, or is partnering with your firm as easy as stealing candy from a baby.
Challenge yourself and your team. You’ll probably find your consulting firm isn’t quite as ETDBW as you think.
A handful of practices you can adopt:
- Offer a range of services at widely varied fees.
- Be easy to reach. (Make your contact form obvious and easy to navigate)
- Respond quickly to every prospect and client.
- Communicate clearly, directly and professionally.
- Don’t fight small battles with your clients.
- Make your information easily accessible.
Those are just the tiniest tip of the iceberg of practices that make consulting firms ETDBW.
What else do you to do make it clear that you’ll be a great consulting firm to work with?
Text and images are © 2025 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
Good stuff, David,
Reminds me of Dockery’s Increasing Entropy law (DIE), which states that the complexity of a plan is directly and inversely related to the probability that anything at all will get done. Therefore, build a complex plan and watch it DIE, eh?
Very cute, Doc! Doc’s DIE is catchy. And yes, also, Keep it Simple.
Very good point though I do have a different take on Salesforce.
Salesforce is simply not designed for small business. They’re sort of like going to a buffet when what you need is just a little snack. Or like using the space shuttle when what you need is a few bottle rockets.
But your core point is a very good one. And I definitely see plenty of small businesses failing one or more of your recommended practices …. especially around timely and clear communication.
There is a highly effective bookkeeping group, for example, that I’m reluctant to refer people to anymore because they just don’t have timely communication with prospects (even though once you become a client their services is an A+).
Your take on Salesforce not being designed for small businesses is fair. Of course, Salesforce is also starting to lose large customers to simpler platforms that don’t have labyrinthine licensing policies. Excellent example with that bookkeeping group, Sean. Maybe you can point out how they’re losing customers.
Thank you for adding your POV this morning, Sean. Much appreciated!
Very encouraging! Thanks David.
Encouraged sounds like a good way to start the day, Aaron! Thanks for sharing your reaction.
Another great word, David. There’s another (obvious) lesson here. Salesforce isn’t *wrong* for being HTDBW; it’s their strategy … and it’s a winning one. But it leaves behind an even larger market of clients who don’t have the need, resources, or appetite for pricey, complex products and services. For that market, addition by subtraction is a key strategy.
That’s a great reframe, Aaron. From the perspective of prospects who aren’t qualified, any consulting firm should be HTDBW. For instance, it’s useful to have a minimum project size you’ll take on. For prospects who are too small, that minimum may make you appear difficult to work with.
Thank you for that excellent shift in point of view, Aaron!
As a Salesforce Partner focusing on CRM and GTM, I agree with your synthesis. Unless your team is 100+, I recommend other solutions. In the same sense as HTDBW, they are also HTL (Hard to Leave). Once you are in, you are in—another part of their business model.
Not to belabor the Salesforce argument (as they were just the example used), but I see Salesforce as a Workflow Operations Platform, rather than a traditional CRM. It’s a powerful platform, but you must have bigger ambitions than just managing your pipeline. Plenty of more straightforward options can manage that.
Good points, Jason, and whew! I was worried when I posted this article that some Salesforce integrator would take me to task.
HTL is another lesson for consulting firms entirely–and one worth exploring. Software platforms, whether CRMs, project managements systems, knowledge management systems or others, tend to be difficult to leave. Switching costs are high. That’s much less the case for consulting firms, which is yet another reason we need to be ETDBW.
Thank you for adding your insights to the conversation, Jason!