How to choose a Salesforce consultant: 10 questions to ask first

The right Salesforce consultant saves you months; the wrong one leaves you with an org that works for the demo and breaks under real use. A lot of our projects start as clean-ups after someone else's build, so here are the questions we would ask if we were hiring, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. "Can you show me a project like mine?"

Look for the same cloud, a similar company size and a similar problem. A consultant who has set up Sales Cloud for a ten-person team is not automatically right for a Service Cloud rollout with SLAs, or a B2B store that pulls prices from an ERP.

Good answer: a specific example, what went wrong along the way and what they changed because of it.

2. "Who will actually do the work?"

Agencies often sell with a senior person and deliver with someone else. That can be fine, but you should know who builds, who reviews, and who you talk to day to day.

3. "How will you find out what we need?"

A consultant who quotes a fixed price after a 20-minute call is guessing. Expect a discovery step: workshops or interviews, a look at your current data and a written summary of requirements you can correct.

4. "Will you tell us what not to build?"

The most valuable advice is often "you don't need that". Good consultants push back on customisation that a standard feature already covers, because every custom piece is something you maintain later.

5. "Do you build in a sandbox and how do you deploy?"

Changes should be built and tested in a sandbox and deployed to production in a controlled way, with change sets, the Salesforce CLI or a DevOps tool. "We make changes directly in production" is a warning sign for anything beyond small admin tweaks.

6. "When do you use Flow and when do you write code?"

Flow handles most automation today. Apex is right for complex logic, high volumes and integrations. A good consultant can explain the trade-off for your case instead of always reaching for the same tool.

7. "How do you handle data migration?"

Ask about cleaning, deduplication, the order of imports, test loads and how they check that the numbers match the source. Data migration is where projects slip most often.

8. "What does the handover look like?"

You should receive documentation of what was built, admin training, and access to everything: no consultant-owned accounts, packages or integrations you cannot see.

9. "What happens after go-live?"

Adoption problems show up in the first month. Ask whether support is included, how quickly they respond and how changes are priced afterwards.

10. "Can we speak to a client?"

Reviews help, and a short call with a past client helps more. Ask that client what they would do differently.

Warning signs

• A long list of certifications but no relevant examples.
• No questions about your process, only about your budget.
• Everything is "easy" and nothing is "not recommended".
• Custom code for things Salesforce does out of the box.
• No plan for testing, training or support.

Freelancer, agency or Salesforce partner?

A freelancer suits a well-defined task with a clear scope. A small consultancy suits ongoing work where you need several skills (admin, development, integration) without a large overhead. A large partner suits multi-cloud, multi-country programs. What matters most is relevant experience and a clear way of working.

Summary

Ask for similar work, find out who builds it, insist on discovery, sandboxes and documentation, and talk to a past client. If you want to see how we answer these questions, read about our Salesforce consulting, check our client reviews, or book a free call.