The Cloud Trailz Buyers Hub contains a lot of articles about problems.
- Salesforce problems.
- Consultant frustrations.
- Consultant mistakes
- Failed projects.
- Aggressive sales behavior.
- Overbuilt orgs.
- Customer mistakes.
If you’ve read our articles you’re probably thinking “Aren’t these people worried about sounding negative?”
Fair question.
No. Not at all.
Because the dollars people spend on Salesforce are REAL.
Those dollars do not come from a magical bank account.
They come from:
Routing Number: 104578392
Account Number: 8429165071
(Those aren’t yours…relax.)
Businesses buy software with actual money and actual expectations.
Reality matters more than optimism.
That’s why the Buyers Hub exists.
Ecosystem Overview
Salesforce exists at an interesting intersection of needs.
Salesforce AE’s need:
- Quota attainment
- Product adoption
- Contract expansion
Consultants need:
- Revenue
- Customer retention
- Billable work (traditionally)
Admins need:
- Stability
- Job security
- Manageable workloads
Customers need:
- ROI
- Predictable costs
- Systems that help people get work done
None of these incentives intersect cleanly and that creates confusion.
Years ago I did a study at another organization around customer complaints.
The overwhelming majority (~70%) traced back to customer expectation gaps.
Not bad intent or incompetence.
Expectation gaps in what they thought they were getting and what they got.
That means consultants and admins end up living in the grey space between.
When you spend enough time there you see problems repeatedly.
So we write about them.
1. Salesforce AE’s Don’t Know The Product
What It Is
This is not judgment.
It’s math.
Salesforce has:
- Multiple clouds
- Constantly expanding products
- 3 releases annually
- New priorities every year (Agentforce, Data Cloud, etc.)
AE’s also carry enormous books of business.
Their environment is not built for deep product mastery.
At the time of writing there are reportedly 3,700+ Salesforce consulting partners competing in the ecosystem.
That should tell you something about how much external expertise Salesforce itself depends on.
Reference: Salesforce Partner Finder
What’s Actually Happening
Typical AE pressures:
- Quota
- Leadership pressure
- Large account patches (200-300 accounts)
- Limited technical support
- Constant product expansion
Their solution?
Lean on partners.
AE’s asking partners what products do is not the exception it’s the rule.
What This Looks Like In Real Life
A typical AE day based on my interaction is:
8:00 — Internal pipeline review
9:00 — Customer escalation
10:00 — Renewal discussion
11:00 — Product pitch
12:00 — Forecast updates
1:00 — Manager check-in
2:00 — End of quarter scramble
3:00 — “Can someone technical join this call?”
4:00 — Another account
5:00 — Forecast pressure
I’m not shedding tears for them.
But their day is not designed around deep product expertise.
Why It Matters
You should not assume that the person selling Salesforce understands it deeply.
I stopped expecting that years ago.
For more context on ecosystem pressure see why Salesforce reps become aggressive
2. Billable Hours And Mismatched FTE Admins Create Waste
What It Is
This is two sides of the same problem.
Small and Medium sized businesses frequently end up with:
- Full time admins they don’t need
OR
- Hourly consulting arrangements that exceed actual demand
Both create identical outcomes because both parties need to “do something”.
What’s Actually Happening
Healthy orgs tend to need:
- User support
- Enhancements
- Release review
- Cleanup
- Reporting adjustments
- Prioritization for configuration
That’s largely it.
The most absurd mismatch I’ve seen:
A company required 40 minimum consulting hours monthly.
The actual need was 10 hours with an occasional spike to 25.
That 25 hour spike is very predictable to do this day.
It happens near:
- Major releases
- Business shifts
- Seasonal changes
There was no reason at all for 40 “mandatory” hours of configuration.
What This Looks Like In Real Life
When people have excess time allocated they start finding things.
More fields. More automation. More reports. More meetings. More “ideas.”
Eventually the system stops helping workers and starts becoming work itself.
Why It Matters
This drives one of the most chronic issues we see, overbuilt environments.
Feature clutter.
Waste.
Eventually people just don’t trust the system.
That’s why we abandoned hourly billing entirely.
3. Customer Expectations Vary Wildly
What It Is
Customers expect wildly different things.
Examples:
- Some think AI will save their business.
- Some think demos equal out-of-box functionality.
- Some want long term support while buying projects.
Some expect Salesforce to automate workflows that:
- Have no baseline process
- Have no usable data
- Have no patience for implementation
What’s Actually Happening
These are not felonies, but they do have to managed and moved into reality.
Consultants have to bridge expectation and reality.
That times time, energy, and patience.
What This Looks Like In Real Life
Salesforce used to push something called:
The Art of the Possible in their sales process (maybe they still do).
I started calling it the Art of Giving Me A Massive Headache
Customers leave demos believing CRM will shoot donkeys into outer space.
Then reality and invoices hit at the same time.
Why It Matters
Customers often underestimate (or are unaware of) their role in failure.
While it’s uncomfortable it’s still very true.
4. There Is No Universal Version Of “Right”
What It Is
Two consultants can solve identical problems differently.
Neither may be wrong, but again it creates grey space and problems.
What’s Actually Happening
Cloud Trailz overwhelmingly favors standard functionality.
Why?
- Peace.
- Continuity.
- Lower maintenance.
- Sanity.
A developer-led firm may optimize for:
- Creativity
- Flexibility
- Elegant code
- Technical possibility
Neither is evil.
Different incentives.
What This Looks Like In Real Life
Years ago we had a customer with custom opportunity naming logic.
Multiple dependencies, formulas, etc.
One problem. The data needed to make this masterpiece work was very inconsistent.
It created downstream errors that wreaked havoc on order fulfillment.
Eventually we recommended reverting back to standard naming.
They unwound roughly $15K in custom work, while restoring sanity to what mattered most (the order process).
The developer was optimizing for creativity (and honestly doing what the customer asked).
We were optimizing for continuity and not interrupting cash flow.
Why It Matters
The ecosystem has many versions of “Right.”
That creates problems.
5. Incentives Don’t Align
What It Is
This may be the biggest contributor.
Everyone needs different things.
AE. Consultant. Admin. Customer. Salesforce Board and Stakeholders.
What’s Actually Happening
People behave rationally inside their incentive structures.
That’s the pattern.
Problems emerge where incentives collide.
What This Looks Like In Real Life
We used to step into deals late in fiscal years (think late December/Early January).
This is when things get heavy and Salesforce starts discounting to get projects across the finish line and customers into the system.
We did it 3 separate times and the process was always the same.
Pattern:
- Original price from another vendor too high
- AE is scrambling to make it work.
- We provide a cheaper alternative
- The customer expectations from the previous more expensive vendor was unchanged
- Everyone (Cloud Trailz, Salesforce AE, and the Customer) all frustrated.
Every time. Different products. Different teams.
Same result.
I later realized we were compressing 1-2 months of work into 1-2 weeks to get deals across the goal line.
So we stopped doing it.
Why It Matters
The ecosystem often pulls in opposite directions.
That creates persistent problems.
The Pattern Behind It
Everyone Is Rational Inside Their Incentive Structure
This is the whole thing.
AE’s (I’ve only met a handful of true Super Villains at Salesforce).
Consultants. Admins. Customers.
Most are behaving logically, they just need different things.
The friction creates constant misalignment, waste, and frustration.
Why This Shapes The Cloud Trailz Buyers Hub
The Buyers Hub exists because hidden problems are expensive.
Reality beats optimism.
Customers spend actual money.
We’d rather lose prospects by telling uncomfortable truths than gain customers through underhanded tricks.
Closing Thought
We created the Buyers Hub to tell SMBs the truth about Salesforce and Salesforce Consulting.
I don’t expect to receive any Partner of the Year awards anytime soon. That’s fine.
I’d much rather educate customers with the truth.
Problems persist because Salesforce sits at the center of a huge ecosystem with competing incentives.
As long as the ecosystem exists problems will too.
We decided to write about them instead of pretending they don’t happen.
If that sounds like the kind of Salesforce partner you want, let’s get started.