The new age of digital focus has resulted in many companies investing in CRM and implementing Salesforce as their primary system for internal operations. After implementation, consulting will only get you so far in your goal of making it a one-stop shop for all things operations.

I believe that making that dream a reality requires an awesome Salesforce team to work with you, and that means dividing the workstream between specialists.

Here we'll explore why you need a Salesforce Business Analyst as part of your Salesforce Team!

Salesforce SME roles tend to be filled by an administrator. Administrators perform a variety of different roles and tasks and are often the backbone of the organization. This can, however, prevent further development depending on the size and complexity of the environment as well as individual strengths as an administrator.

At Steadman Brown we've noted that the most popular Salesforce hire is an administrator, while the least popular is a Salesforce business analyst. 
Often, a business believes a general system Business Analyst will have the right process knowledge to map and identify the gaps within the system, but the Administrator is capable of hosting a requirement gathering workshop, leading to dismissal of the fact that they have no prior experience with analysis.

In the Salesforce Recruitment space, Steadman Brown brought a new concept that had never been done before, the concept of having specific teams for each specific role. This includes recruiting Business Analysts. Personally, I often speak with companies who have realised that a Salesforce Business Analyst is the missing component in their Salesforce team.
 
Here's a few points to see if you could benefit from hiring a business analyst!
Businesses that have rolled out Salesforce, built the system to house their various departments, but are still struggling to see the ROI from their C-level stakeholders, might want to review their roadmaps and plans. It is a Business Analyst's job to discover what is wrong with the current set-up and remap it in a streamlined way that the technical team can work from.

Hiring a BA is in fact a long-term hire and hiring a BA should not be stigmatized as a project-specific hire that will be redundant after the project is complete. By constantly feeding your technical team with information, a BA ensures that your system can continuously be developed to meet everchanging demands.

Finally, I want to emphasize that this isn't their first rodeo. Having seen a lot of companies in your shoes, they can use this experience to understand the challenge and collaborate with the right team - no system is worth over coding when a simple set of flows would have achieved the same result.

Have we raised some questions?
When you're wondering what's wrong with your current team or why you aren't getting the most from your investment, it might be time to consider external help.

We at Steadman Brown have had the opportunity to get an inside look at Salesforce setups for companies in every industry. Our team has spoken to companies in your situation, and we know there is a gap somewhere in the Salesforce team.

Contact us if you are ready to hire. Who knows, you might end up hiring a Salesforce Business Analyst after all.