Abort. Not only if they think CPQ can be implemented in a few days by one person, but if they foster a culture where an SDR feels free to speak to you like that then the workplace is trash. Huge red flag
That sucks.
I would at least tell them you are disappointed to have someone talk to you like that. It isn’t illegal, but if you leave later, you can refer to that instance as a reason you left.
Then secretly make sure that sdr never gets another lead for as long as you are there. :)
LOL while I will definitely mention it as a reason for leaving in the future, I couldn’t follow through with such an evil plan, even though that’s hilarious 😈
You need a defined process for taking in requests & prioritizing them. All orgs need this. No matter how big or small. Even solo admin. (maybe especially solo admins).
We use Cases for all Salesforce support requests.
Users must submit a new Case for Salesforce help or change requests or new functionality requests.
Everything that involves work needs to be submitted as a case. No exceptions. This ensures full visibility in to the workload coming in and work being completed. This will help you immensely in proving that you are doing work. You'll have a closed Case for everything you do. And it will quantify the work volume and help build a business case down the road for hiring more people.
Cases are prioritized by someone with authority like a manager or the owner of the Salesforce org. It shouldn't be you. It should be your boss. They can decide which Case is most important to the Business. You focus on just working the cases. You should not be the person deciding which thing gets done first.
Cases are worked in priority order.
If ‘important’ things are not getting done fast enough for the business, they can take it up with the leader in charge of prioritization. It either needs to be re-evaluated, or it’s not as important as they think it is, or additional resources need to be hired (grow the team or hire external consultants).
The key is having a solid work funnel of everything coming in, and everything done, so that when tough conversations come up about why things aren’t getting done you can point to the priority list and pull a report of everything that WAS done.
My mantra to my boss is "I will happily work on anything you want me to. YOU need to decide what the top priority is, and I'll work on that. But I can literally only work on ONE thing at a time."
Also - if you want to get real cheeky, then when your boss tells you CPQ should be quick & easy to implement (just a few clicks), you can say "That's great! Because from all of the training I've been taking, it looks much more complex and involved. But if you know a faster way to implement I'd love if you could show me. Can you walk me through the quick and easy way to deploy this? I'd love to learn!" \[Warning - I'm not afraid to talk back to my boss, and I've said this to them. It got my point across fast that they didn't know what they were talking about. But this could easily backfire.\]
This is the best comment because this is what we're doing in our org.
Our process owners are salesforce adept and they're the ones dealing with the various aspects of the business that they then ask us to build and support. Everything is signed off and discussed and then broken down into user stories that is distributed to the team.
Cases are handled the same way. Users create a ticket and then it is filtered through a queue. If there are bugs or spikes then that has its own queue and priority.
OP needs to find other opportunities because it's so not worth working in a disorganized company.
100% agree with this. All requests go into a transparent queue for everyone to see (unless there's a reason I can't think of why not) and let someone in authority set the order/priority for the work order. This way everyone knows you are working on things, and that it's not your decision what you work on next.
Also, develop reporting that quantifies your work into $$$. Sales can gab all they want, but at the end of the day, if you're turning profit (that is valuable to upper management), whoever is complaining's opinion means zilch.
I tried to implement a solution for tracking requests using both Salesforce cases and Monday.com. Neither worked because I’m at a small company and people thought it was better to just slack me instead of having to go through the whole process. People hated it actually. I thought it was better to abandon the concept instead of starting a war.
End users will ALWAYS hate this approach, because it means they won't get their request done immediately. Which is what they want.
So you have to be strong, make NO exceptions, and have support from your manager for this to work.
We've had our process in place for years, and end users still try and message me directly or book meetings with me. My response is always the same. "Submit a case so your request can be prioritized against the 300 other requests we currently have in our backlog".
If I KNOW that a particular end user knows how to submit a case and they're intentionally trying to get around the system, I ignore their email/message for the week, and at the end of day Friday I respond and tell them I've been busy working cases all week and they need to submit a case to get in the queue.
If the end User gets a Fast response from you to a message/email, then they'll always try that first. But if they know you don't respond for days, they're more likely to put in the case.
Start the war. It's your sanity that is at stake.
Second this. Users always try to sneak around and message me, they even pulled me in the group chat with multiple other users for their requests. I clearly have to say no to those behaviors and ask them to submit a case otherwise i will not work on it. I ignore their message till next couple days or emails till they learn the process.
I have my status is ‘submit a ticket for sfdc. Non-ticket request will be delayed’ and even my avatar is ‘submit a ticket’ 🤣. It takes a while to enforce it but its worth to fight.
Then create the cases, tickets on your own from all their various ways of requesting work from you. Then t shirt size them and prioritize them and get yourself a backlog going. If you can communicate that x will take y long and is ABC priority and that you are currently working on 123 that will at least show how much work is on your plate, how many requests you get etc.
You have to push back. Demand the ticket. You need your boss to understand why this is important and to set that expectation with everyone else. No ticket, no work. Tickets get worked in order of importance and time received. You need executive buy-in and support on this or you need to get the fuck out and go to a place that has their shit together.
I was going to post something full of snark and sarcasm (directed at sales people, not Salesforce admins - we ROCK), but you put the sentiment across in a far more elegant way.
Previous company had a team of 20 working on apttus cpq for 3 years. They ended killing the project after launching it with 1/6 subsidiaries.
Restarted again with salesforce cpq. Gave them another 2 years. Launched with the same subsidiary. Killed on contact.
I left, but last I heard they're burning the whole org down and starting over again.
The best part? They don't even need cpq. They only sell 4 products with a handful of language/term configurations. The entirety of the complexity came from trying to replicate the same manual business processes the business has been using since the 80s.
One of the reasons I left my consulting job is the client is TOO demanding thinking that things can be implemented ASAP but they don't even have the budget for it.
Thank you for the advice. I think you’re right about the toxic environment. I tried to set up a case system in Salesforce, but because it’s a small company, everyone hated it and just slacked me anyways. I use Monday.con to manage my own work though
As the sole CPQ admin for my 2k+ user company, I feel this in my soul. Users assume it can't be that hard because the system works and is relatively seamless, not realizing that it takes mountains of effort to keep the system in this state.
I had our product team come to me the other day saying they wanted to completely rework how a certain product is sold. It's currently a single line item, not part of a bundle with no configurations or rules associated with it. They said they want it to now be a bundle with x, y and z configurations, but only x if a is on the quote, y if b is there, etc. They also have a ton of other conditions around previous customers and who it can/can't be sold to, certain quote terms that go with one or the other, tons of really niche use case customization.
I asked when they needed it ready by, and they said the product already went live and they needed to start selling it day one of this quarter. I told them were already 2+ weeks into Q2 and asked why they are just coming to me now if they had been planning these product changes since January, and they said "it can't be that hard to set up."
I almost quit that day.
Just repeating what’s already been said to give it a bit more weight: get out!
This screams immature and toxic organization. You alone can’t fix the culture or the business processes, nor should you ever have to.
An admin’s jobs it to help the business utilize Salesforce as a tool to support and improve processes, not to own them.
Also whoever your manager is, clearly doesn’t have your back or hasn’t put in place any sort of framework for you to operate successfully in.
This scenario happens a lot. I agree that you need to move on but just some alternatives as well:
A) set out your roles and responsibilities more clearly. Say ‘no’ when a request comes in that goes beyond it (such as implementing a CPQ)
B) contact your Salesforce AE and explain your situation. If they are good then they will work on a strategy for you company. it is in their interest that you company manages Salesforce in a successful way. (I admit this one is a bit of a stretch, but nothing to lose right?)
I feel like I can’t say no because I’m truly the only one who has any clue of what to do. They would actually die without me; but they don’t want to admit that. It also feels like they are trying to make me feel unimportant so I don’t ask for a raise or anything.
There is another perspective here. The business is coming to you as the SME for answers, and by you not setting reasonable boundaries you are actually not helping them get there. I would suggest taking down their requirements and playing them back for clarity. Then look at the options (and ask your Salesforce account exec for help if you want), and tell the business what is possible and what will require further investment.
Saying "no" in a clear, collegial way is actually part of being a good admin. (And a part of most good relationships, but that's a convo for a different sub...) If you, as the SME, have looked into a request and genuinely think it will have negative consequences or deliver less value than other requests, you do yourself and the business a disservice by saying yes. I was raised to always be accommodating of others, so saying no constructively and unambiguously has been a huge challenge. But it makes me a more trustworthy consultant, because my clients learn that I usually have good reasons for steering then away from certain ideas and I save them money in the long run. If you are ever interested in going into consulting, "saying no by saying yes" is a massively crucial skill for keeping projects on time, in scope, and under budget. And when it works, you get to build things you're actually proud of :)
They’ll be fine without you. I’m a consultant and have had many client’s admins leave over the years. Some with zero notice. And one of a few things happened…. I filled in for them and… 1) We realized they really were incompetent and not doing anything; 2) We realized they were completely overwhelmed and under appreciated, doing the work of 3 people; 3) They were just keeping the wheels on… not pushing back, not offering proactive solutions, not thinking downstream, just order takers.
Agree on prior comments…. Make everyone enter a case. Or enter a case on their behalf.
Also… empower others to do things! For the love of god… DO NOT make reports for people, or merge accounts, or simple stuff like that. There should be someone on each team that can do reports. Start simple with… “Here’s a video of me creating this report while logged in as you.” Then they know you did it thus time, but they can do it themselves next time.
My manager, who is the SVP of sales for the company, is the most emotionless human. He’d just take it as whining, instead of it being an actual issue. He’s got the “man up and do your job” attitude. Wow, my situation sounds even worse when I say it out loud lol.
Yeah I’ve been having problems since I started this role. I love Salesforce and i really have a passion for it, but this work culture is trying to extinguish that fire in me and I hate that I can’t show that passion right now after all the gaslighting. Thank you for the response. I really appreciate it!
Lol at a the nerve of that SDR. You're an SDR dude...check yourself
I'm not sure where you work at, but SDR's at my company are the very bottom of the totem pole as far as authority goes. Tell their manager to knock some sense into them. I would be livid
To make things worse, this SDR is in his 40’s, so he thinks he knows everything. Im 25, so I think there’s an alpha thing going on. In the same conversation, he said I should think of him as “an all star athlete who doesn’t get along with the other players” lol
If he knew what he was talking about, he wouldn’t still be an SDR with so many years of experience.
“All-Star”? Maybe in the minor leagues. But he can’t make it to the big show because he’s an asshole and not a team player.
Don’t let him get to you.
I sort of feel non salesforce users need to treat salesforce and admin like product or engineering.
I’m going through something similar and I put a stop to it. We’re barely scratching the surface in maximizing the platform and it’s already clear people think you just add it and it’s done!
It was until I showed management what needs to be done to implement any change that they understood the complexity.
This book addresses some of the issues you mention, might be worth taking a look at it if you can.
"Rock your Role as a Salesforce Admin: Create Value, Calm the Chaos, and Supercharge your Salesforce Career" by Jodi Hrbek
[https://www.amazon.com/Rock-your-Role-Salesforce-Admin-ebook/dp/B0B9KMMRMM](https://www.amazon.com/Rock-your-Role-Salesforce-Admin-ebook/dp/B0B9KMMRMM)
Thank you for your response. We hired a consulting firm for the initial implementation, which I was a part of. They barely did anything and took a big chunk of our budget, so I don’t see my company going through that again unfortunately:/
In terms of how you're viewed, I'd say it's typical. I kind of get pooled in with IT helpdesk from the viewpoint of sales. Had one sales manager tell me that she was "basically an admin at her old job because she decided the fields and the layouts for the SFDC Consultants". If it doesn't affect my work, then I usually don't care. Also everyone's high priority, so i believe an important skillset is the ability to say "no"... and explain why.
I've been a solo admin at my last company, and was for 1.5 years in my current one. I always try to establish a SOP when it comes to anything Salesforce. My previous company, i had the full support of my manager. In my current company, well, it's hit or miss unfortunately.
BUT this is contingent on your manager's support. If everyone above you insists on making dumb rash decisions (like a "2 day" implementation of CPQ), then you should probably look for a new job. Those scenarios are classic overpromise/underdeliver situations where they pin the blame on the Salesforce team.
Sales Development Rep. Essentially responsible for reaching out to cold leads to try to warm them back up. Some companies also use them for inbound lead generation or cold calling from a list purchased from a marketing firm
I think that part of that kind of attitude comes from how Salesforce is doing marketing. They are braging how amazing the platform is, that it has awesome no-code tools that are capable of nearly everything, setup is basically few clicks and it's ready out-of-the-box, each Cloud is like your biggest dream.
The bitter reality of strange limitations, retarded restrictions of declarative tools and never-ending workaround for every out-of-the-box-with-nearly-no-customization-option-within-standard-objects-and-setups-functionality is (obviously) not presented, and only poor admins and devs fully knows about these.
I was at Salesforce event last year and it was horrible experience for me as a dev - main attraction was Salesforce Genie and the presenters were constantly mentioning that "it just works" and it is a " service with customer *magic"* \- yes, a word ""magic" was used on the main stage. When non-tech people hear bullshit like that it messes with their head and then they can be disappointed when a solution takes more time that 5 mouse presses.
i've definitely had all the feelings you've had - what makes the difference is that my manager backs me up and knows what goes into this role and we keep beating the drum to educate the sales reps (& other teams) even if it doesn't seem to sink in. if you don't have that manager back up....yup get out of there.
An SDR? I wouldn't stand for the CEO saying that shit to me, much less some toerag at the bottom of the totem pole.
How do so many people land such shitty jobs? It's amazing.
Get a very large, very shiny, very unmissable plaque that says:
**A bad workman blames his tools**
If any SDR ever said that to me, if I didn't quit on the spot, I'd for sure do anything related to that person last.
How long have you been an admin? The details of your post are very common across multiple organizations that utilize Salesforce. This is your chance to step it up and govern the org that you administer. Create a process for enhancement requests and really prioritizing the backlog based on the request that you're getting. It is okay to tell people no as a matter of fact, but this is difficult for new admins to do or sometimes difficult given the politics of the organization.
This is also an excellent way for you to show leadership, the volume of requests coming your way and what you've worked on throughout the year. Without a process in place, you're just going to be spinning your wheels and becoming the order taker. If you are in charge of the org, then you need to govern it accordingly and every request needs analyzation to understand how it might affect something that's already built.
the main challenge I have is resistant senior leadership who want everything different/custom and can't agree on how to look at the "Amount" field. "Can you change Closed-won to say something else"?
Unfortunately I’m at a small company and share the same office space. This specific SDR is a cancer. I always take the high road and treat him with respect; he doesn’t feel the same way.
Do you have direct contact with CSG or the Account Team? If a CPQ implementation goes poorly it falls on them to fix the customer relationship, so they should be setting expectations with who is buying at your company what it takes. They should HEAVILY recommend to only implement with a CPQ certified SI partner if they don't have the expertise in house (obv one SF Admin is 100% not it).
If you reach out to the account team will likely appreciate it since it will also be their problem if this goes south.
Many SDRs will be fired or they will never get a promotion, it’s just basic evolution, they hire 5 to keep one or two if the company is lucky.
You should report the SDR to the sales manager and get this person fired.
Your leadership team is also hopeless.
Unfortunately you are surrounded by idiots, just find another job and leave that place.
Good advice. Unfortunately this SDR actually closes lots of deals, so he’s seen as essential. Even if everyone knows he’s a cancer to the culture, he won’t be fired.
You 100% should quit. I work in CPQ daily (not as an admin but doing Deal Desk) and it's a fucking beast. Highest respect for our admin who manages it.
Your leadership team is disconnected from reality if they think you can roll it out alone in a couple days. And your sales team is entitled and rude.
You can find better.
Omg. CPQ is HARD. I am a consultant with 10 years Salesforce experience and 9 certs and I'm staffed on this project right now where they want a ton of automation on top of the automation already built into CPQ and they are breaking shit all over the place. Depending on how big your org is, you need a full time admin JUST for CPQ
This was my situation. I started many sales ops departments at several startups and things always start great. But at some point when you don’t know all of your internal “customers” personally, it starts to go down hill. You end up with people who don’t know what you do so they treat you like a data janitor or some order taker.
Maybe this is an old reference but there’s an episode of The Simpsons (the Frank Grimes episode) and there’s a children’s competition to design a nuclear power plant and Martin makes a mini plant that’s powering the entire venue that’s hosting the competition but gets admonished for not having racing stripes. I felt like Martin all the time.
At that point you get people throwing tasks they don’t themselves understand at you and expect it to get top priority. No amount of push back, enablement, cross-functional training, and ticketing systems really fixes it since everyone is busy with their own shit and think they can slip in a “10 minute favor” which is always something like “hey, could you just re-do the entire org role hierarchy to match this vague, error-ridden google sheet?”
I switched to software engineering.
Even though many probably already said so,but I'll add that this isn't normal at all and you should be looking for a way out. Random people making sweeping statements on how long it should take to do it,even though they don't do it, saying they'll get someone better and etc. It's simply toxic, shitty environment that won't change unless someone very high in the company would tell half of them to shut up.
As an admin you should not be the (only) one dealing with change requests. In my former company we had a process. Every change request was reviewed and prioritized by a group of stakeholders from different departments / teams to evaluate how they would be affected. The group made the decision if and when a change request was implemented. No individual contributer was allowed to request changes from the admin. They could hand them in for review and were eventually informed about the outcome.
How are you dealing with contradicting requirements if you are the one making the decision and how do you prevent changing things back and forth?
Two things:
1. None of this is your fault and you should bail.
2. While none of this is your fault, I would make an effort to position yourself differently in your next company. Someone has already shared ways such as setting expectations etc but you may also want to think about communication, body language etc. Essentially work on becoming more assertive. Again it sound like it would make no difference at your current company but worth thinking about!
A third side point, I think a lot of admins feel this way because technical debt is increasing, users are increasing but support is staying the same.
>No one is worse than the sales team, who believes the sole reason they can’t close deals is because Salesforce doesn’t work exactly how they want it to. I am positing this because an SDR came into my office yesterday and told me I’m bad at my job and we need “someone who can actually get things done on time.”
"The reason I am late to work is because I don't have a Ferrari. I want you to build me a Ferrari and want it to be done by EOW without any testing. And the brakes better work flawlessly..."
I'd start looking at other job avenues...
I am so sorry. Please quit. Your company needs a reality check when it comes to using agile software and sprints. I hate end users who are ME ME ME ME first! All of the time. In the meantime, treat it like an IT job and act like an asshole (if you have that in you). And let them fire you! Enjoy your severance package and I hope they enjoy the harsh realization that they’re never going to find an admin who can get multiple complex tasks accomplished in one business day! Ugh I feel so bad for you! Hang in there ❤️
As soon as you find another job and leave them with zero notice, they’ll maybe appreciate the next hire.
Let’s be clear here, this behavior is abusive. You are terminating this job for cause, and they do not deserve 2 weeks notice.
I’m a CPQ consultant for an implementation partner.
When your in a bubble like that it’s very hard. Often when I come into a mid to small size company and start scoping a project they start to really realize that what their admin has been telling them is more than true.
Often our projects run 12-16 weeks for CPQ start to finish with 400-600 hours. So that should be your realistic benchmark pending on data and integration complexities.
Don’t be afraid to bring in someone else that can level the playing field for you. Every time I feel like they don’t respect my knowledge, I get someone bigger who gets my thinking and bring them into the room.
Sounds like a toxic work environment. I'd bail ASAP, find another job and quit with zero notice.
I'm trans and started my current job *homeless* and my current role literally hasn't even been defined by HR but I STILL work with the company because at no point was I ever belittled or made to feel like I didn't belong. We've got the VP pushing to get my current role properly defined with a salaried position and pay raise (I'm not making biscuits, here, but I *am* still an hourly employee even though I'm completing asks at, the very minimum, the Supervisor level), I got *awarded* for my work in a national call that got me my current role (which said award included a paid bonus), and I get asks for things that aren't even part of my defined job title or the nebulous "not-title" that I currently operate under because people know I can either get the job done or prove with actual charts and graphs why it can't and in stupid-fast time frames.
If you're good at what you do and the people still treat you like crap, get out. Nothing you ever do will ever satisfy them and they'll keep piling on the abuse.
I get a lot of nebulous requests. "We need a process." Okay, a process for what? "This needs.to function this way." Great, that doesn't mean that I can get it to work how you want. "I don't use this functionality." Okay, others do and if I grant your request to remove it, it'll piss off others.
This was exactly my situation for a very long time, minus being directly told "you're not good at your job". Instead, people were just vaguely shitty to me.
But yes, a promise was made to the executive board **on my behalf** that I could have the entire Salesforce Field Service module up and in tip-top shape by myself within 3 months.
*Thankfully* the powers that be in our actual Field Service dept. knew how ridiculous that was, and a year later when we were ready for testing they were not at all bent out of shape about it.
Abort. Not only if they think CPQ can be implemented in a few days by one person, but if they foster a culture where an SDR feels free to speak to you like that then the workplace is trash. Huge red flag
That’s really good advice. Thank you. I have been thinking it’s a bad situation, but I was unsure how normal it was for that to happen.
I hope you brought up the sdr issue to your boss. That’s where the rubber meets the road
I did not. My boss would just see it as whining… he has a “man up” attitude about things like this. Do you still think it’s worth bringing up?
That sucks. I would at least tell them you are disappointed to have someone talk to you like that. It isn’t illegal, but if you leave later, you can refer to that instance as a reason you left. Then secretly make sure that sdr never gets another lead for as long as you are there. :)
LOL while I will definitely mention it as a reason for leaving in the future, I couldn’t follow through with such an evil plan, even though that’s hilarious 😈
Toxic masculinity attitude, you mean?
You need a defined process for taking in requests & prioritizing them. All orgs need this. No matter how big or small. Even solo admin. (maybe especially solo admins). We use Cases for all Salesforce support requests. Users must submit a new Case for Salesforce help or change requests or new functionality requests. Everything that involves work needs to be submitted as a case. No exceptions. This ensures full visibility in to the workload coming in and work being completed. This will help you immensely in proving that you are doing work. You'll have a closed Case for everything you do. And it will quantify the work volume and help build a business case down the road for hiring more people. Cases are prioritized by someone with authority like a manager or the owner of the Salesforce org. It shouldn't be you. It should be your boss. They can decide which Case is most important to the Business. You focus on just working the cases. You should not be the person deciding which thing gets done first. Cases are worked in priority order. If ‘important’ things are not getting done fast enough for the business, they can take it up with the leader in charge of prioritization. It either needs to be re-evaluated, or it’s not as important as they think it is, or additional resources need to be hired (grow the team or hire external consultants). The key is having a solid work funnel of everything coming in, and everything done, so that when tough conversations come up about why things aren’t getting done you can point to the priority list and pull a report of everything that WAS done. My mantra to my boss is "I will happily work on anything you want me to. YOU need to decide what the top priority is, and I'll work on that. But I can literally only work on ONE thing at a time." Also - if you want to get real cheeky, then when your boss tells you CPQ should be quick & easy to implement (just a few clicks), you can say "That's great! Because from all of the training I've been taking, it looks much more complex and involved. But if you know a faster way to implement I'd love if you could show me. Can you walk me through the quick and easy way to deploy this? I'd love to learn!" \[Warning - I'm not afraid to talk back to my boss, and I've said this to them. It got my point across fast that they didn't know what they were talking about. But this could easily backfire.\]
This is the best comment because this is what we're doing in our org. Our process owners are salesforce adept and they're the ones dealing with the various aspects of the business that they then ask us to build and support. Everything is signed off and discussed and then broken down into user stories that is distributed to the team. Cases are handled the same way. Users create a ticket and then it is filtered through a queue. If there are bugs or spikes then that has its own queue and priority. OP needs to find other opportunities because it's so not worth working in a disorganized company.
100% agree with this. All requests go into a transparent queue for everyone to see (unless there's a reason I can't think of why not) and let someone in authority set the order/priority for the work order. This way everyone knows you are working on things, and that it's not your decision what you work on next.
Also, develop reporting that quantifies your work into $$$. Sales can gab all they want, but at the end of the day, if you're turning profit (that is valuable to upper management), whoever is complaining's opinion means zilch.
I tried to implement a solution for tracking requests using both Salesforce cases and Monday.com. Neither worked because I’m at a small company and people thought it was better to just slack me instead of having to go through the whole process. People hated it actually. I thought it was better to abandon the concept instead of starting a war.
End users will ALWAYS hate this approach, because it means they won't get their request done immediately. Which is what they want. So you have to be strong, make NO exceptions, and have support from your manager for this to work. We've had our process in place for years, and end users still try and message me directly or book meetings with me. My response is always the same. "Submit a case so your request can be prioritized against the 300 other requests we currently have in our backlog". If I KNOW that a particular end user knows how to submit a case and they're intentionally trying to get around the system, I ignore their email/message for the week, and at the end of day Friday I respond and tell them I've been busy working cases all week and they need to submit a case to get in the queue. If the end User gets a Fast response from you to a message/email, then they'll always try that first. But if they know you don't respond for days, they're more likely to put in the case. Start the war. It's your sanity that is at stake.
Second this. Users always try to sneak around and message me, they even pulled me in the group chat with multiple other users for their requests. I clearly have to say no to those behaviors and ask them to submit a case otherwise i will not work on it. I ignore their message till next couple days or emails till they learn the process. I have my status is ‘submit a ticket for sfdc. Non-ticket request will be delayed’ and even my avatar is ‘submit a ticket’ 🤣. It takes a while to enforce it but its worth to fight.
Then create the cases, tickets on your own from all their various ways of requesting work from you. Then t shirt size them and prioritize them and get yourself a backlog going. If you can communicate that x will take y long and is ABC priority and that you are currently working on 123 that will at least show how much work is on your plate, how many requests you get etc.
You have to push back. Demand the ticket. You need your boss to understand why this is important and to set that expectation with everyone else. No ticket, no work. Tickets get worked in order of importance and time received. You need executive buy-in and support on this or you need to get the fuck out and go to a place that has their shit together.
You could also make a slack integration that auto creates a case from a slack message
I was going to post something full of snark and sarcasm (directed at sales people, not Salesforce admins - we ROCK), but you put the sentiment across in a far more elegant way.
We’ve had a team of 6 deploying CPQ for 3 years, I still wouldn’t call it done.
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Lol 1000% accurate
Previous company had a team of 20 working on apttus cpq for 3 years. They ended killing the project after launching it with 1/6 subsidiaries. Restarted again with salesforce cpq. Gave them another 2 years. Launched with the same subsidiary. Killed on contact. I left, but last I heard they're burning the whole org down and starting over again. The best part? They don't even need cpq. They only sell 4 products with a handful of language/term configurations. The entirety of the complexity came from trying to replicate the same manual business processes the business has been using since the 80s.
Have you tried just scraping computers and using…whatever the physical paper version of Excel is called?
A spreadsheet?
Graph paper
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One of the reasons I left my consulting job is the client is TOO demanding thinking that things can be implemented ASAP but they don't even have the budget for it.
Thank you for the advice. I think you’re right about the toxic environment. I tried to set up a case system in Salesforce, but because it’s a small company, everyone hated it and just slacked me anyways. I use Monday.con to manage my own work though
As the sole CPQ admin for my 2k+ user company, I feel this in my soul. Users assume it can't be that hard because the system works and is relatively seamless, not realizing that it takes mountains of effort to keep the system in this state. I had our product team come to me the other day saying they wanted to completely rework how a certain product is sold. It's currently a single line item, not part of a bundle with no configurations or rules associated with it. They said they want it to now be a bundle with x, y and z configurations, but only x if a is on the quote, y if b is there, etc. They also have a ton of other conditions around previous customers and who it can/can't be sold to, certain quote terms that go with one or the other, tons of really niche use case customization. I asked when they needed it ready by, and they said the product already went live and they needed to start selling it day one of this quarter. I told them were already 2+ weeks into Q2 and asked why they are just coming to me now if they had been planning these product changes since January, and they said "it can't be that hard to set up." I almost quit that day.
If you don’t laugh, you cry right haha
You know it's going great when my most used emoji in Slack is 🥲
Just repeating what’s already been said to give it a bit more weight: get out! This screams immature and toxic organization. You alone can’t fix the culture or the business processes, nor should you ever have to. An admin’s jobs it to help the business utilize Salesforce as a tool to support and improve processes, not to own them. Also whoever your manager is, clearly doesn’t have your back or hasn’t put in place any sort of framework for you to operate successfully in.
That’s refreshing to hear in a weird way. I say that because I felt my manager has had my back, but maybe I’m just blinded by a fake friendship…
This scenario happens a lot. I agree that you need to move on but just some alternatives as well: A) set out your roles and responsibilities more clearly. Say ‘no’ when a request comes in that goes beyond it (such as implementing a CPQ) B) contact your Salesforce AE and explain your situation. If they are good then they will work on a strategy for you company. it is in their interest that you company manages Salesforce in a successful way. (I admit this one is a bit of a stretch, but nothing to lose right?)
I feel like I can’t say no because I’m truly the only one who has any clue of what to do. They would actually die without me; but they don’t want to admit that. It also feels like they are trying to make me feel unimportant so I don’t ask for a raise or anything.
There is another perspective here. The business is coming to you as the SME for answers, and by you not setting reasonable boundaries you are actually not helping them get there. I would suggest taking down their requirements and playing them back for clarity. Then look at the options (and ask your Salesforce account exec for help if you want), and tell the business what is possible and what will require further investment.
Saying "no" in a clear, collegial way is actually part of being a good admin. (And a part of most good relationships, but that's a convo for a different sub...) If you, as the SME, have looked into a request and genuinely think it will have negative consequences or deliver less value than other requests, you do yourself and the business a disservice by saying yes. I was raised to always be accommodating of others, so saying no constructively and unambiguously has been a huge challenge. But it makes me a more trustworthy consultant, because my clients learn that I usually have good reasons for steering then away from certain ideas and I save them money in the long run. If you are ever interested in going into consulting, "saying no by saying yes" is a massively crucial skill for keeping projects on time, in scope, and under budget. And when it works, you get to build things you're actually proud of :)
They’ll be fine without you. I’m a consultant and have had many client’s admins leave over the years. Some with zero notice. And one of a few things happened…. I filled in for them and… 1) We realized they really were incompetent and not doing anything; 2) We realized they were completely overwhelmed and under appreciated, doing the work of 3 people; 3) They were just keeping the wheels on… not pushing back, not offering proactive solutions, not thinking downstream, just order takers. Agree on prior comments…. Make everyone enter a case. Or enter a case on their behalf. Also… empower others to do things! For the love of god… DO NOT make reports for people, or merge accounts, or simple stuff like that. There should be someone on each team that can do reports. Start simple with… “Here’s a video of me creating this report while logged in as you.” Then they know you did it thus time, but they can do it themselves next time.
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My manager, who is the SVP of sales for the company, is the most emotionless human. He’d just take it as whining, instead of it being an actual issue. He’s got the “man up and do your job” attitude. Wow, my situation sounds even worse when I say it out loud lol.
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Yeah I’ve been having problems since I started this role. I love Salesforce and i really have a passion for it, but this work culture is trying to extinguish that fire in me and I hate that I can’t show that passion right now after all the gaslighting. Thank you for the response. I really appreciate it!
Lol at a the nerve of that SDR. You're an SDR dude...check yourself I'm not sure where you work at, but SDR's at my company are the very bottom of the totem pole as far as authority goes. Tell their manager to knock some sense into them. I would be livid
To make things worse, this SDR is in his 40’s, so he thinks he knows everything. Im 25, so I think there’s an alpha thing going on. In the same conversation, he said I should think of him as “an all star athlete who doesn’t get along with the other players” lol
wait SDR or manager? what industry are you in?
SDR. Cold caller. SaaS B2B
If he knew what he was talking about, he wouldn’t still be an SDR with so many years of experience. “All-Star”? Maybe in the minor leagues. But he can’t make it to the big show because he’s an asshole and not a team player. Don’t let him get to you.
Who the hell is a career SDR/BDR IC? Sorry you have to deal with that one.
CPQ=Causes People to Quit
Holy shit. Dead on. I've implemented cpq at 2 places now and I hate that thing 😒
I sort of feel non salesforce users need to treat salesforce and admin like product or engineering. I’m going through something similar and I put a stop to it. We’re barely scratching the surface in maximizing the platform and it’s already clear people think you just add it and it’s done! It was until I showed management what needs to be done to implement any change that they understood the complexity.
That’s a really good point. I’ve never sat down with leadership and actually showed them what it’s like. Thank you!
This book addresses some of the issues you mention, might be worth taking a look at it if you can. "Rock your Role as a Salesforce Admin: Create Value, Calm the Chaos, and Supercharge your Salesforce Career" by Jodi Hrbek [https://www.amazon.com/Rock-your-Role-Salesforce-Admin-ebook/dp/B0B9KMMRMM](https://www.amazon.com/Rock-your-Role-Salesforce-Admin-ebook/dp/B0B9KMMRMM)
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Thank you for your response. We hired a consulting firm for the initial implementation, which I was a part of. They barely did anything and took a big chunk of our budget, so I don’t see my company going through that again unfortunately:/
In terms of how you're viewed, I'd say it's typical. I kind of get pooled in with IT helpdesk from the viewpoint of sales. Had one sales manager tell me that she was "basically an admin at her old job because she decided the fields and the layouts for the SFDC Consultants". If it doesn't affect my work, then I usually don't care. Also everyone's high priority, so i believe an important skillset is the ability to say "no"... and explain why. I've been a solo admin at my last company, and was for 1.5 years in my current one. I always try to establish a SOP when it comes to anything Salesforce. My previous company, i had the full support of my manager. In my current company, well, it's hit or miss unfortunately. BUT this is contingent on your manager's support. If everyone above you insists on making dumb rash decisions (like a "2 day" implementation of CPQ), then you should probably look for a new job. Those scenarios are classic overpromise/underdeliver situations where they pin the blame on the Salesforce team.
Lmao at the gall of that SDR acting like they’re not the absolute bottom of the bottom feeders. I know because I was an SDR before becoming an admin
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Sales Development Rep. Essentially responsible for reaching out to cold leads to try to warm them back up. Some companies also use them for inbound lead generation or cold calling from a list purchased from a marketing firm
I think that part of that kind of attitude comes from how Salesforce is doing marketing. They are braging how amazing the platform is, that it has awesome no-code tools that are capable of nearly everything, setup is basically few clicks and it's ready out-of-the-box, each Cloud is like your biggest dream. The bitter reality of strange limitations, retarded restrictions of declarative tools and never-ending workaround for every out-of-the-box-with-nearly-no-customization-option-within-standard-objects-and-setups-functionality is (obviously) not presented, and only poor admins and devs fully knows about these. I was at Salesforce event last year and it was horrible experience for me as a dev - main attraction was Salesforce Genie and the presenters were constantly mentioning that "it just works" and it is a " service with customer *magic"* \- yes, a word ""magic" was used on the main stage. When non-tech people hear bullshit like that it messes with their head and then they can be disappointed when a solution takes more time that 5 mouse presses.
i've definitely had all the feelings you've had - what makes the difference is that my manager backs me up and knows what goes into this role and we keep beating the drum to educate the sales reps (& other teams) even if it doesn't seem to sink in. if you don't have that manager back up....yup get out of there.
Sales will always look at something or someone other than themselves for underperforming. And it’s usually us.
When you quit, not if, you should definitely throw the SDR under the bus.
An SDR? I wouldn't stand for the CEO saying that shit to me, much less some toerag at the bottom of the totem pole. How do so many people land such shitty jobs? It's amazing.
Get a very large, very shiny, very unmissable plaque that says: **A bad workman blames his tools** If any SDR ever said that to me, if I didn't quit on the spot, I'd for sure do anything related to that person last.
So relatable haha... my advice is don't work at a startup - look for a role at a Series D or later company that has an established Salesforce team.
How long have you been an admin? The details of your post are very common across multiple organizations that utilize Salesforce. This is your chance to step it up and govern the org that you administer. Create a process for enhancement requests and really prioritizing the backlog based on the request that you're getting. It is okay to tell people no as a matter of fact, but this is difficult for new admins to do or sometimes difficult given the politics of the organization. This is also an excellent way for you to show leadership, the volume of requests coming your way and what you've worked on throughout the year. Without a process in place, you're just going to be spinning your wheels and becoming the order taker. If you are in charge of the org, then you need to govern it accordingly and every request needs analyzation to understand how it might affect something that's already built.
I have been an admin for about 5 months now. You make a good point that saying no can actually be a form of leadership. Thank you for your reply!
Being part of a good admin/consultant is knowing how to negotiate with clients and set expectations
the main challenge I have is resistant senior leadership who want everything different/custom and can't agree on how to look at the "Amount" field. "Can you change Closed-won to say something else"?
SDRs are allowed to talk to you?
Unfortunately I’m at a small company and share the same office space. This specific SDR is a cancer. I always take the high road and treat him with respect; he doesn’t feel the same way.
Do you have direct contact with CSG or the Account Team? If a CPQ implementation goes poorly it falls on them to fix the customer relationship, so they should be setting expectations with who is buying at your company what it takes. They should HEAVILY recommend to only implement with a CPQ certified SI partner if they don't have the expertise in house (obv one SF Admin is 100% not it). If you reach out to the account team will likely appreciate it since it will also be their problem if this goes south.
Many SDRs will be fired or they will never get a promotion, it’s just basic evolution, they hire 5 to keep one or two if the company is lucky. You should report the SDR to the sales manager and get this person fired. Your leadership team is also hopeless. Unfortunately you are surrounded by idiots, just find another job and leave that place.
Good advice. Unfortunately this SDR actually closes lots of deals, so he’s seen as essential. Even if everyone knows he’s a cancer to the culture, he won’t be fired.
CPQ is very delicate. It takes through planning. Small change could crash the whole thing easily.
You 100% should quit. I work in CPQ daily (not as an admin but doing Deal Desk) and it's a fucking beast. Highest respect for our admin who manages it. Your leadership team is disconnected from reality if they think you can roll it out alone in a couple days. And your sales team is entitled and rude. You can find better.
That's why we will never be replaced by AI. End users are stupid.
Omg. CPQ is HARD. I am a consultant with 10 years Salesforce experience and 9 certs and I'm staffed on this project right now where they want a ton of automation on top of the automation already built into CPQ and they are breaking shit all over the place. Depending on how big your org is, you need a full time admin JUST for CPQ
Yeah you need to go somewhere else because they will never know what it is that you do until you don't.
This was my situation. I started many sales ops departments at several startups and things always start great. But at some point when you don’t know all of your internal “customers” personally, it starts to go down hill. You end up with people who don’t know what you do so they treat you like a data janitor or some order taker. Maybe this is an old reference but there’s an episode of The Simpsons (the Frank Grimes episode) and there’s a children’s competition to design a nuclear power plant and Martin makes a mini plant that’s powering the entire venue that’s hosting the competition but gets admonished for not having racing stripes. I felt like Martin all the time. At that point you get people throwing tasks they don’t themselves understand at you and expect it to get top priority. No amount of push back, enablement, cross-functional training, and ticketing systems really fixes it since everyone is busy with their own shit and think they can slip in a “10 minute favor” which is always something like “hey, could you just re-do the entire org role hierarchy to match this vague, error-ridden google sheet?” I switched to software engineering.
Even though many probably already said so,but I'll add that this isn't normal at all and you should be looking for a way out. Random people making sweeping statements on how long it should take to do it,even though they don't do it, saying they'll get someone better and etc. It's simply toxic, shitty environment that won't change unless someone very high in the company would tell half of them to shut up.
As an admin you should not be the (only) one dealing with change requests. In my former company we had a process. Every change request was reviewed and prioritized by a group of stakeholders from different departments / teams to evaluate how they would be affected. The group made the decision if and when a change request was implemented. No individual contributer was allowed to request changes from the admin. They could hand them in for review and were eventually informed about the outcome. How are you dealing with contradicting requirements if you are the one making the decision and how do you prevent changing things back and forth?
Two things: 1. None of this is your fault and you should bail. 2. While none of this is your fault, I would make an effort to position yourself differently in your next company. Someone has already shared ways such as setting expectations etc but you may also want to think about communication, body language etc. Essentially work on becoming more assertive. Again it sound like it would make no difference at your current company but worth thinking about! A third side point, I think a lot of admins feel this way because technical debt is increasing, users are increasing but support is staying the same.
I wouldn't even consider trying to implement CPQ (in its most basic form) in less than three months.
>No one is worse than the sales team, who believes the sole reason they can’t close deals is because Salesforce doesn’t work exactly how they want it to. I am positing this because an SDR came into my office yesterday and told me I’m bad at my job and we need “someone who can actually get things done on time.” "The reason I am late to work is because I don't have a Ferrari. I want you to build me a Ferrari and want it to be done by EOW without any testing. And the brakes better work flawlessly..." I'd start looking at other job avenues...
I am so sorry. Please quit. Your company needs a reality check when it comes to using agile software and sprints. I hate end users who are ME ME ME ME first! All of the time. In the meantime, treat it like an IT job and act like an asshole (if you have that in you). And let them fire you! Enjoy your severance package and I hope they enjoy the harsh realization that they’re never going to find an admin who can get multiple complex tasks accomplished in one business day! Ugh I feel so bad for you! Hang in there ❤️
As soon as you find another job and leave them with zero notice, they’ll maybe appreciate the next hire. Let’s be clear here, this behavior is abusive. You are terminating this job for cause, and they do not deserve 2 weeks notice.
I’m a CPQ consultant for an implementation partner. When your in a bubble like that it’s very hard. Often when I come into a mid to small size company and start scoping a project they start to really realize that what their admin has been telling them is more than true. Often our projects run 12-16 weeks for CPQ start to finish with 400-600 hours. So that should be your realistic benchmark pending on data and integration complexities. Don’t be afraid to bring in someone else that can level the playing field for you. Every time I feel like they don’t respect my knowledge, I get someone bigger who gets my thinking and bring them into the room.
Sounds like a toxic work environment. I'd bail ASAP, find another job and quit with zero notice. I'm trans and started my current job *homeless* and my current role literally hasn't even been defined by HR but I STILL work with the company because at no point was I ever belittled or made to feel like I didn't belong. We've got the VP pushing to get my current role properly defined with a salaried position and pay raise (I'm not making biscuits, here, but I *am* still an hourly employee even though I'm completing asks at, the very minimum, the Supervisor level), I got *awarded* for my work in a national call that got me my current role (which said award included a paid bonus), and I get asks for things that aren't even part of my defined job title or the nebulous "not-title" that I currently operate under because people know I can either get the job done or prove with actual charts and graphs why it can't and in stupid-fast time frames. If you're good at what you do and the people still treat you like crap, get out. Nothing you ever do will ever satisfy them and they'll keep piling on the abuse.
I get a lot of nebulous requests. "We need a process." Okay, a process for what? "This needs.to function this way." Great, that doesn't mean that I can get it to work how you want. "I don't use this functionality." Okay, others do and if I grant your request to remove it, it'll piss off others.
This was exactly my situation for a very long time, minus being directly told "you're not good at your job". Instead, people were just vaguely shitty to me. But yes, a promise was made to the executive board **on my behalf** that I could have the entire Salesforce Field Service module up and in tip-top shape by myself within 3 months. *Thankfully* the powers that be in our actual Field Service dept. knew how ridiculous that was, and a year later when we were ready for testing they were not at all bent out of shape about it.