You have been in the Salesforce sphere for a while, you have honed your craft and development areas of expertise. You want to branch out on your own and take on more clients; or maybe, you want to develop an app to address a business need you have identified. You want to put your business out there, build your brand, and gain recognition for your work. Have you considered the Salesforce Partner Program?
What are Salesforce Partners? The Salesforce Partner Program is consulting program based in and out of Salesforce. Whether it is via an app in AppExchange, or working directly with experts found in the AppExchange, 91 per cent of Salesforce customers have used a partner app or expert. According to Salesforce, for every $1 Salesforce makes, the partner ecosystem will make $6.19 by 2026.
Why become a Salesforce Partner?
Salesforce has over 100 million customers worldwide and is considered the leading CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software provider. The company offers cloud-based solutions that enable businesses to manage their sales, marketing, customer service, and other processes.
The Salesforce Partner program is designed for companies who provide services related to Salesforce.com products and solutions. Being a Salesforce Partner means having expertise in one or more areas of Salesforce.com. This could be in implementation and support, development, specific subject areas such as CPQ, Marketing Cloud, Sales and Service Cloud, process automation, MuleSoft and so on. There are four types of Salesforce partnerships, the most common two are: Consulting Partners and AppExchange ISV Partners.
What are the benefits of Salesforce Partnership?
There are many potential benefits of being a partner. Whether you are in it for the access to the Partner Learning Camp and partner-accessible accreditations, or the partner community; Salesforce offers its partners resources to grow.
The Salesforce Partner program has benefits for all partners ranging from demos orgs, access to Partner Learning Camp and professional accreditations, and certificate vouchers. The benefits you receive do vary based on your Partner Tier. The tier your partnership is based on how many points have.
Base: 0 to 249 points
Ridge: 250 to 499 points
Crest: 500 to 749 points
Summit: 750 to 1000 points
The points are calculated based on a variety of factors, the four overarching categories are: Customer Success, Innovation, Growth, Impact. This a big overhaul for Spring 2023. Here is the latest breakdown.
This all sounds great, but how do you become a Salesforce Partner?
To become a Salesforce partner, you'll need at least 2 qualifying Salesforce certifications. These certificates can include Certified Salesforce Platform Developer II, Sales Cloud Consultant, Slack Certified Admin, etc.
Here is the current list of qualifying certifications.
Salesforce has made its partner program more accessible, starting in 2023, it has removed the $1000 annual fee. For existing partners, renewal confirmations need to submitted by April 20 to avoid deactivation. For new partners, there is now only an once-off $100 enrollment fee.
Step 1: Submit your application form
For your application to become a Salesforce partner, you first need a Salesforce login. Please note that the email address linked to your Webassessor account can be tied to only one partnership at a time. After which signing up/choosing your Salesforce login, the first step is to sign up and fill in your application form. Outside of the standard Salesforce signup forms, you will need to provide your company name, website, legal entity name, address, and the type of partner you want to become.
Step 2: Due Diligence & Compliance Certification questionnaire
Following the reception of your application, you will receive an invitation to complete the Due Diligence & Compliance Certification. This will inquire again for your full legal entity name, so you will need a registered legal entity.
Step 3: Partner Operations Review
After you have submitted your documentation, your application will undergo the Partner Operations Review.
Step 4: Legal Review
After your application has passed the Partner Operations Review, it will be processed by Salesforce's legal team.
Step 5: Partnership Activated
After you have passed the Partner Operations Review and Legal Review, your partnership will be activated in the Provisional Partner Status. See additional resources for more information.
What do you think? Would you consider becoming a Salesforce Partner? Or, would you like to join an existing partnership to seize the opportunity to be further accredited? Share your thoughts with us at SalesforceZen.com and join us for a live Q&A. Go to https://www.SuperUserAcademy.com/liveQAcall to register!
Additional Resources
Do you know that we have a YouTube channel where we have Salesforce study sessions. Come check us out!
New to Salesforce? If you haven’t checked out our SuperUser Salesforce Administrator Certification Training yet, might as well do that now.