FOUR WINNING STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE SALESFORCE PROJECT SUCCESS - 2021 SALESFORCE CUSTOMER SURVEY RESULTS -

Sep 12, 2026

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A 2021 survey of more than 100 Salesforce customers in the US and Canada identifies repeatable patterns behind successful Salesforce implementation projects. Participants provide quantitative and qualitative insights spanning project planning, requirements validation, agile incremental rollouts, and continuous stakeholder involvement. The findings emphasize that managed services providers often deliver the highest levels of project success, while common 2022 development plans focus on hiring permanent staff and upskilling existing teams. The report translates results into actionable guidance for optimizing Salesforce ecosystems.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages28

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Executive Summary

Participants

Projects

Four Winning Strategies for Salesforce Project Success

1. First Validate Business and User Needs and Plan Extensively

2. Be Agile: Roll Out New Functionality Incrementally

3. Keep Users and Stakeholders Continuously Involved

4. Be Flexible About Creating the Best Team for the Project

Resource Considerations for 2022 and Beyond

Securing the Best Salesforce Support for Your Organization

Closing Thoughts

About TEC and Spinnaker Support

FOUR WINNING STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE SALESFORCE PROJECT SUCCESS RESULTS FROM TEC ’S 2 021 SALESFORCE CUSTOMER SURVEY Sarah Gibson, Senior Director, Analyst Services, TEC Sponsored by CONTENTS Introduction 3 Executive Summary4 Participants 6 Projects 8 Four Winning Strategies for Salesforce Project Success 10 1. First Validate Business and User Needs and Plan Extensively 11 2. Be Agile: Roll Out New Functionality Incrementally 13 3. Keep Users and Stakeholders Continuously Involved 15 4. Be Flexible About Creating the Best Team for the Project 17 Resource Considerations for 2022 and Beyond 21 Securing the Best Salesforce Support for Your Organization 24 Closing Thoughts 26 About TEC and Spinnaker Support 27 INTRODUCTION Salesforce is one of the most popular customer relationship management (CRM), sales, and all-around business management systems on the market. The Salesforce ecosystem now includes many core offerings based on application areas, more than a dozen industry-specific solutions, and a robust universe of add-on apps and skilled service providers. But customer hurdles with Salesforce development and management are common. In 2020, we partnered with Spinnaker Support to survey Salesforce (SF) customers on their challenges, finding that up to 60% were struggling with the administration and maintenance of their Salesforce systems. Even more organizations reported challenges with implementing new functionality, and 62% said their SF expansion plans were compromised due to a lack of Salesforce experts—in-house or otherwise. Learn more about 2020’s market report here. Building on that foundation, we set out this year to learn about approaches that are working for organizations as they look to optimize their Salesforce ecosystems. We wanted to identify winning strategies for clearing the Salesforce backlog and achieving efficient, successful implementations. Working with a great group of participants, we drilled down into specific Salesforce projects that their companies recently completed, gathering both quantitative and qualitative data. We also asked how their companies planto continue innovating their Salesforce environment in 2022. This report begins with a brief summary of the findings, followed by a deeper dive into the survey design and results. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A 2021 survey of more than 100 Salesforce (SF) customers in the US and Canada uncovered common patterns and challenges with SF implementation projects. Our participants also offered direct reflections on what’s worked well for their organizations, covering everything from project planning and requirements validation to resource assessment and team composition. Taken as a whole, the results form a valuable, crowdsourced guide to achieving Salesforce project success. Here we outline four winning strategies that emerged from the data, and highlight the survey’s other key findings. FOUR WINNING STRATEGIES 1 2 3 4 FIRST VALIDATE BUSINESS AND USER NEEDS AND PLAN EXTENSIVELY BE AGILE : ROLL OUT NEW FUNCTIONALITY INCREMENTALLY KEEP USERS AND STAKEHOLDERS CONTINUOUSLY INVOLVED BE FLEXIBLE TO CREATE THE BES T TE AM F OR THE PROJECT 4 FOUR WINNING STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE SALESFORCE PROJECT SUCCESS OTHER IMPORTANT FINDINGS: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • The greatest levels of overall project success, user satisfaction, and customer experience improvement were reported when managed services providers (MSPs) did the bulk of the technical work on Salesforce projects. See pages 17 and 18. • The second-best results were seen when other third parties (contractors, implementation providers, or consultants) performed most of the technical work, followed by when internal Salesforce teams did the majority of the technical work. See pages 17 and 18. • However, the most common plans that respondents reported for enabling further Salesforce development work in 2022 were hiring more permanent staff and upskilling c

FAQs

What survey results indicate the highest levels of Salesforce project success?

The report finds the greatest levels of overall project success, user satisfaction, and customer experience improvement when managed services providers (MSPs) handle most of the technical work.

What are the four winning strategies for Salesforce project success identified in the report?

They include validating business and user needs with extensive planning, rolling out new functionality incrementally in an agile way, continuously involving users and stakeholders, and being flexible in how the best project team is created.

What common actions did respondents plan for enabling further Salesforce development work in 2022?

Respondents most commonly planned to hire more permanent staff and to upskill current staff to support further Salesforce development.

Sep 12, 2026

Upload by Aditya