The Total Economic Impact™ Of The Salesforce Premier Success Plan
Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By The Salesforce Premier Success Plan
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Commissioned By Salesforce, September 2024
When organizations invest in Salesforce, maximizing adoption is crucial to unlocking its capabilities and driving return on investment. However, not all companies have (or can afford) internal experts, resulting in stifled innovation due to lack of Salesforce product knowledge and longer wait times for support. To help businesses achieve their goals and KPIs, the Salesforce Premier Success Plan (Premier) offers comprehensive product education programs, expert guidance, and expedited support to build a strong foundation, boost productivity, and focus on efficient growth.
Premier customers have access to personalized guidance to streamline business processes and best practices to maintain their solution. Through individual coaching, videos, webinars, technical support, and Office Hours, administrators can ensure they understand how to use their Salesforce environment to create business outcomes, grow their personal skill sets, and quickly expand internal operations.
Salesforce commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying the Salesforce Premier Success Plan.1 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Premier on their organizations.
Return on investment (ROI)
115%
Net present value (NPV)
$1.01M
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed five customers from four organizations with experience using Premier. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization: a B2B organization with 6,000 employees and revenue of $3 billion per year.
Prior to the investment in Premier, the previous levels of education and support were insufficient for their business needs given the high volume and complexity of tasks. They felt unable to innovate at their desired speed, resulting in delayed product deployments and a need to outsource to a third-party vendor to support their Salesforce environment. These limitations led to higher administrative costs and delayed deployment timelines.
After the investment in Premier, the interviewees saw improvements in those key areas and streamlined management of mission-critical applications. Key results from the investment include technical health and adoption improvements, as well as savings in both expertise expenditures and issue resolution.
Key Findings
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:
- Improved expertise savings of 60% by having teams complete Salesforce upskilling. The composite organization encourages its staff to complete available Salesforce training and engage individual, video, and webinar Expert Coaching Sessions. By leveraging these offerings, its internal team saves 5 training hours per internal initiative. Similarly, the composite organization supports its developers in earning Salesforce certifications, making them more effective in their roles. These scenarios allow the composite organization to see a three-year, risk-adjusted expertise savings of $88,000.
- Reduced mean time to resolution by 95%. The improvement of the mean time to resolution with Premier Technical Support reduces the number of hours the composite organization needs to resolve issues, allowing it to realize $607,000 in issue resolution savings.
- Improved technical health and adoption, providing increased business impacts worth $1.2 million. Premier education programs include videos and individual Expert Coaching Sessions that help internal teams learn the skills and best practices to create more workflow efficiencies around data deal flows. This saves salespeople more time on data entry and provides efficiencies for business analysts on data aggregation. Over three years, the technical health and adoption improvements are worth more than $1.2 million to the composite organization.
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:
- Increased employee ability to help themselves. Premier offers employees new avenues for self-service that can foster expanded creative thinking when it comes to problem-solving within the Salesforce environment. With self-paced, self-recognition-based training modules, employees can increase their own autonomy without increasing cost burdens on the business for outside training. Employees can manage their own certifications and training while reaching out to support specialists on their own for help solving more difficult problems.
- Increased system uptime. Organizations can streamline operations and maintenance, reducing downtime and increasing time spent on productive work. The composite organization’s administrators with access to Premier experience less downtime between issue and resolution, especially when they take their issues straight to Technical Support. Thanks to streamlined support processes and immediate access to support specialists, users can spend less time searching for the support they need and more time upskilling or focusing on primary work.
- Preserved system agility with a clear deployment strategy. With the expertise and support provided by Premier, business leaders are able to craft a strategy that helps them achieve their business goals. Vision and strategy expertise and reduced wait times for support contribute to more time spent on strategic, forward-looking planning for processes and products.
- Enhanced Technical Support. Premier enables a more holistic approach to problem-solving. With direct access to technical experts and developers, as well as expedited response times, enterprise organizations can now enjoy enterprise-level support for their team.
Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:
- Licensing costs of $859,000. The composite organization purchases Premier to support two Salesforce clouds.
- Ongoing management, onboarding, and training costs of $22,000. All administrators, developers, and business analysts for the composite organization receive 10 hours of training and onboarding initially; they also dedicate 12 hours annually to vision and strategy sessions.
The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $1.90 million over three years versus costs of $881,000, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $1.01 million and an ROI of 115%.
Key Statistics
-
Return on investment (ROI)
115%
-
Benefits PV
$1.90M
-
Net present value (NPV)
$1.01M
-
Payback
<6 months
Benefits (Three-Year)
Expertise savings Issue resolution savings Technical Health andadoption improvements
TEI Framework And Methodology
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in the Salesforce Premier Success Plan.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that the Salesforce Premier Success Plan can have on an organization.
-
Due Diligence
Interviewed Salesforce stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to the Salesforce Premier Success Plan.
-
Interviews
Interviewed five representatives at four organizations using the Salesforce Premier Success Plan to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.
-
Composite Organization
Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.
-
Financial Model Framework
Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.
-
Case Study
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.
Disclosures
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Salesforce and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in the Salesforce Premier Success Plan.
Salesforce reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.
Salesforce provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Drivers leading to Premier investment
Interviews
| Role | Industry | Region | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manager, CRM email and automation | Hospitals and healthcare | North America | 16,000 |
| Digital product leader | Engineering | Global | 10,000 |
| CRM team lead
Manager, CRM solution and adoption |
Transportation | North America | 2,000 |
| Salesforce architect, admin, and developer | Manufacturing | North America | 80 |
Key Challenges
Prior to adopting Premier, the interviewees had the Salesforce Standard Success Plan and had begun to rely on third-party help for their Salesforce support and maintenance. This limited employee access to support, slowed productivity, increased support costs, and increased system downtime. The interviewees noted how their organizations struggled with common challenges, including:
- Limited access and long wait times for Salesforce support. Interviewees described how they needed to quickly connect with Salesforce support personnel and resolve their cases more efficiently. One interviewee, a digital product leader at an engineering firm, said, “Before we had Premier, whenever we put in a case, it could be a week before someone really helped us out because there were other clients that ended up being a higher priority.”
- Difficulty getting the needed support, both externally and internally. Interviewees shared that they had to rely on external consultants for additional expertise, which was cost-prohibitive, especially with constrained budgets. A manager of CRM email and automation at a hospital and healthcare company said their organization experienced a “sense of limited access to internal support for the [Marketing Cloud] tool,” and the Premier Success Plan was “less expensive than hiring a full-time developer.”
- Delays in deployment. With support tickets piling up and a lack of employee autonomy within the environment, interviewees described how their organizations’ roadmaps and timelines were impacted. Employees struggled to deploy initiatives and products on time and were unable to decide the best strategic path forward. One interviewee, a manager of CRM email and automation from a hospital and healthcare organization, noted that the prior environment created “incredible frustration with delayed deployment and meeting organizational needs.”
Investment Objectives
The interviewees’ organizations searched for a solution that could:
- Provide a cost-effective, expert solution rather than having to hire external consultants or full-time internal employees.
- Provide access to Salesforce support in a timelier manner.
- Meet business needs to quickly expand internal operations.
Composite Organization
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite organization is representative of the five interviewees, and it is used to present the aggregate financial analysis in the next section. The composite organization has the following characteristics:
Description of composite. The composite organization is a global, multibillion-dollar B2B and B2C enterprise with 6,000 employees. Many elements of the business operate on the Salesforce platform, and three business analysts, two administrators, and three developers are Premier users. There are 500 end users, and they have Premier for Sales and Service Cloud.
Deployment characteristics. As the composite organization seeks to optimize its Salesforce environment for its desired outcomes, it purchases Premier for two of its Salesforce Clouds. Once purchased, the eight employees who are dedicated to the Salesforce environment and its maintenance go through 10 hours of initial onboarding and training with the Premier team. Subsequently, these employees meet with the Premier team through Expert Coaching Sessions to discuss their vision and strategy, how to grow their internal Salesforce skills, and the appropriate plan of action for the composite organization’s Salesforce environment.
Quantified benefit data as applied to the composite
Total Benefits
| Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atr | Expertise savings | $30,632 | $35,694 | $40,757 | $107,083 | $87,967 |
| Btr | Issue resolution savings | $244,188 | $244,188 | $244,188 | $732,564 | $607,259 |
| Ctr | Technical health and adoption improvements | $278,525 | $448,688 | $766,958 | $1,494,171 | $1,200,248 |
| Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $553,345 | $728,570 | $1,051,903 | $2,333,818 | $1,895,474 | |
Expertise Savings
Evidence and data. In addition to data quality and support quality, interviewees also saw benefits from increased expertise thanks to Premier. Not only did they benefit from the Technical Support experts, but they also saw an increase in the developer team’s capacity after an increase in regular certifications, which the organization recoups in the form of notable savings per certification.
- Premier enables internal employees to upskill and learn to solve their own problems, reducing the overall number of support tickets. A CRM team lead at a transportation organization expounded: “They’re knowledgeable enough that they will lead you towards the correct technical response. … But I think [of using the Salesforce] Premier Success Plan to plan out the next products, and we know that they want [us] to have our success, so I fully trust them when they’re making recommendations.”
- Technical Support experts were able to step in and handle some of the more difficult-to-solve support issues. A digital product leader at an engineering firm said: “They had the knowledge. They were equipped. They just came and hit the ground running. And I appreciate that.”
- While the Salesforce-based experts are still technically third-party, that same digital product leader explained how the Premier team feels like an embedded part of their organization, increasing internal confidence. They shared: “I feel like Salesforce knows my organization better than I do, and I love that. They’re the experts, and we had a [coaching] session on how to use our campaigns. After I had the session [with the coach], I was like, it makes sense!”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite has eight internal Salesforce users working in its environment: two administrators, three business analysts, and three developers.
- The composite organization has 12 upskilling initiatives per internal Salesforce user.
- The composite organization had 8 training hours per upskilling initiative in the prior environment.
- To simplify the equation, Forrester calculated the average hourly rate of a Salesforce administrator, business analyst, and developer. The average fully burdened hourly rate of the three roles is $68.
- As developers are upskilled and trained through Premier resources and programs, their capacity to work in the Salesforce environment increases in tandem with their knowledge. In Year 1, this capacity increases to 120%; in Year 2, it increases again to 125%; and finally, in Year 3, developer capacity increases to 130%.
- The average fully burdened salary of a Salesforce developer is $150,000.
- A developer achieves one certification each year.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on:
- The number of Salesforce administrators, analysts, and developers being trained in the new environment as well as their respective salaries.
- The attribution of capacity to Premier for the organization.
- The level of enthusiasm for upskilling by the developer team to engage in the Premier education programs.
- The number of certifications available to different roles within the organization.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $88,000.
Expertise Savings
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Salesforce administrators, analysts, and developers | Composite | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| A2 | Upskilling initiatives per person | Composite | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| A3 | Training hours per upskilling initiative in the prior environment | Composite | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| A4 | Training efficiency gained with Premier | Interviews | 60% | 60% | 60% |
| A5 | Training hours avoided per initiative with Premier | A3*A4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| A6 | Average fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce administrators, business analysts and developers | Composite | $68 | $68 | $68 |
| A7 | Subtotal: Upskilling and training savings | A1*A2*A5*A6 | $32,640 | $32,640 | $32,640 |
| A8 | Developers | Composite | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| A9 | Capacity of developers in the prior environment | Interviews | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| A10 | Capacity of developer team after becoming certified | Interviews | 120% | 125% | 130% |
| A11 | Average fully burdened salary of a Salesforce developers | Composite | $150,000 | $150,000 | $150,000 |
| A12 | Certifications achieved each year by developer team | Composite | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| A13 | Savings per technical certification with Premier | Salesforce pricing with discount | $4,500 | $4,500 | $4,500 |
| A14 | Subtotal: Developer efficiency and certification savings | A8*((A10-A9) *A11)+(A12*A13) | $103,500 | $126,000 | $148,500 |
| A15 | Attribution of capacity to Premier | Assumption | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| At | Expertise savings | (A7+A14)*A15 | $34,035 | $39,660 | $45,285 |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | ||||
| Atr | Expertise savings (risk-adjusted) | $30,632 | $35,694 | $40,757 | |
| Three-year total: $107,083 | Three-year present value: $87,967 | ||||
Issue Resolution Savings
Evidence and data. While Premier improved data quality and process adoption within their organizations, interviewees shared that their organizations also benefited from reduced mean time to resolution for their support tickets, while also keeping the number of tickets submitted in check. This reduced time spent on support of individual tickets, leaving more time open for primary work.
- In our interviews, decision-makers indicated a 95% improvement in mean time to resolution of support tickets, thanks to their adoption of Premier.
- Interviewees noted the time savings and ease of receiving help from Technical Support experts. A digital product leader at an engineering firm explained, “I appreciate that if they can’t give you an answer immediately, you grant them access, they go and figure it out, and they come back to you. So it’s not like you’re spending a lot of time with them on the phone while they’re trying to figure it out. It’s like the time savings are realized there as well, where they figure it out, and then they come back to you with a solution.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite organization submits 20 Salesforce support tickets per month.
- In the prior environment, the composite organization needed 40 hours to resolve a Salesforce case from the time the case was submitted.
- The composite organization sees a 95% improvement to mean time to resolution with Premier.
- Not all Salesforce tickets are easily resolved. Forrester assumes that 50% of tickets submitted need to be resolved or employees will be unable to move forward with their work and tasks.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce administrator is $63.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on:
- The number of Salesforce support tickets submitted each month.
- The average number of hours needed to resolve a Salesforce ticket in the prior environment.
- The percentage of work unable to move forward without a resolution.
- The fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce administrator.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $607,000.
Issue Resolution Savings
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Salesforce support tickets submitted per month | Composite | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| B2 | Elapsed hours needed to resolve a Salesforce ticket in the prior environment | Composite | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| B3 | Improvement to mean time to resolution with Premier | Interviews | 95% | 95% | 95% |
| B4 | Elapsed hours to resolve a Salesforce ticket avoided with Premier | B2*B3 | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| B5 | Percentage of work unable to move forward without a resolution | Composite | 50% | 50% | 50% |
| B6 | Average fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce administrator | Composite | $63 | $63 | $63 |
| Bt | Issue resolution savings | B1*B4*B5*B6*12 | $287,280 | $287,280 | $287,280 |
| Risk adjustment | ↓15% | ||||
| Btr | Issue resolution savings (risk-adjusted) | $244,188 | $244,188 | $244,188 | |
| Three-year total: $732,564 | Three-year present value: $607,259 | ||||
Technical Health And Adoption Improvements
Evidence and data. The interviewees shared that once they adopted Premier, they were able to create better workflows in the Salesforce environment. As a result, they saw increased process adoption of Salesforce by their salespeople, which increased efficiency in sales deal data flows, as well as an increase in the quality of sales and customer data.
-
With the resources included in Premier, interviewees shared an
increased rate of general Salesforce process adoption by salespeople.
According to one interview with a digital product leader at an engineering
firm, their administrators would spend countless hours trying to internally
figure out a workflow issue. Now, instead of spinning on the hamster wheel,
they pause as they know they have support.
- They gained efficiency in sales deal data flows. One interviewee, a digital product leader from an engineering firm, expounded on their use of the tool within streamlined workflows: “We’re now utilizing more of the reports and dashboards. We used to pull the data out and use [a data visualization tool]. Now we know how we can use all our reports and dashboards directly inside the tool. We know we now have the case management that comes with our tool. … I would say that because we’re now integrating with other systems and learning the features that we have, we’re using everything, which is exciting.”
- Interviewees noted the marked increase in data accuracy because process flows were better aligned to what the sellers needed, which had downstream effects on productivity and employee satisfaction. The digital product leader from an engineering firm continued: “It’s a huge difference. It’s 95%. And that’s a huge jump from [only 20% of the data we needed in there] to being 95%. Our teams now mandate that sales data needs to be in Salesforce. [Before], I could pick and choose what I want in there, and I’m just going to just throw in some numbers so people could say, ‘Hey, I have some opportunities.’ Now it’s tied to your bonus, and we’re helping you with adding these automations, this workflow, and reminders to let you know that you have 90 days before your final notice-to-proceed date is reached.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite organization employs 500 salespeople.
- The rate of Salesforce adoption is 65% in Year 1. When salespeople experience the process improvements provided by Premier, they are more likely to adopt process improvements, and this increases to 75% in Year 2 and 90% in Year 3.
- In the prior environment, salespeople spent 2 hours per day on manual data input.
- With guidance from Premier experts, sales deal data flows are cleaner and easier to follow, and salespeople gain 5% efficiency in Year 1, 7% in Year 2, and 10% in Year 3.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a salesperson is $38.
- The composite organization employs three business analysts, who in the prior environment spent 3.5 hours per day on data aggregation and cleanup.
- Similar to the sales team, business analysts gain efficiency with Premier, with 5% in Year 1, 7% in Year 2, and 10% in Year 3.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a business analyst is $48.
-
One year comprises 260 working days.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on:
- The total number of salespeople and business analysts.
- The number of hours per day spent on manual data input in the prior environment by salespeople.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a salesperson.
- The number of hours per day spent on data aggregation and cleanup by business analysts in the prior environment.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a business analyst.
- Salespeople’s and business analysts’ expertise and comfort level using the Salesforce platform.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.2 million.
Technical Health And Adoption Improvements
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Salespeople | Composite | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| C2 | Rate of Salesforce process adoption by salespeople | Assumption | 65% | 75% | 90% |
| C3 | Hours per day spent on manual data input in the prior environment | Composite | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| C4 | Efficiency gained in sales deal data flows with Premier | Interviews | 5% | 7% | 10% |
| C5 | Hours of manual data entry avoided with Premier | C1*C2*C3*C4*260 | 8,450 | 13,650 | 23,400 |
| C6 | Average fully burdened hourly rate of a salesperson | Composite | $38 | $38 | $38 |
| C7 | Subtotal: Salespeople efficiency and adoption savings with Premier | C5*C6 | $321,100 | $518,700 | $889,200 |
| C8 | Business analysts | Composite | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| C9 | Hours per day spent by business analyst on data aggregation and cleanup in the prior environment | Interviews | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| C10 | Efficiency gained in sales data flow and data accuracy with Premier | C4 | 5% | 7% | 10% |
| C11 | Hours of data aggregation and cleanup avoided with Premier (rounded) | C8*C9*C10*260 | 137 | 191 | 273 |
| C12 | Average fully burdened hourly rate of a business analyst | Composite | $48 | $48 | $48 |
| C13 | Subtotal: Business analysts efficiency and adoption savings with Premier | C11*C12 | $6,576 | $9,168 | $13,104 |
| Ct | Technical health and adoption improvements | C7+C13 | $327,676 | $527,868 | $902,304 |
| Risk adjustment | ↓15% | ||||
| Ctr | Technical health and adoption improvements (risk-adjusted) | $278,525 | $448,688 | $766,958 | |
| Three-year total: $1,494,171 | Three-year present value: $1,200,248 | ||||
Unquantified Benefits
Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:
- Increased employee ability and confidence to help themselves. Through Expert Coaching videos, webinars, and individual sessions, employees can choose their preferred style of learning for upskilling. The tools provided via Premier offer employees the autonomy to think creatively about problem-solving. Employees can be in charge of their own certifications and training, while reaching out to support specialists on their own for more difficult problem-solving. A manager of CRM email and automation at a hospital and healthcare organization cited, “Leaving [employees] autonomous a little bit forced [them] to start researching things on [their] own and engaging with support on [their] own, which gave [them] a level of confidence that [they] didn’t have before.”
- Increased system uptime. Users experience less downtime between issue detection and resolution, especially when they reach out to the Technical Support team with their issues. Thanks to streamlined support processes and immediate access to support specialists, administrators and developers can reduce support times, spending more time on primary work. A digital product leader at an engineering firm explained: “Now, I’m not spending any downtime on learning a technical [skill] or anything unplanned. I literally go straight to Premier. If my developers don’t have the time or they can’t do it, we just go straight to our [Premier Success Plan] team.”
- Preserved system agility with a clear deployment strategy. With the expertise and support provided by Premier, users are able to craft a comprehensive strategy that helps them achieve their business goals. Administrators spend more time on forward-looking planning, designing holistic roadmaps for the business. A manager of CRM email and automation at a hospital and healthcare organization graded Premier a 9 (on a scale of 1 to 10) when asked how they would grade Premier’s guidance on strategy. They shared, “We were able to have more engagement around our internal strategy and hit our goals with Premier’s help.”
- Enhanced Technical Support. The approach to Technical Support allows a more holistic approach to problem-solving, considering expectations around time to resolution and providing best practice recommendations with the customer’s Salesforce environment in mind. With large numbers of users consistently operating within the Salesforce environment, enterprises must look at the best plans to support their whole team. A CRM team lead from a transportation organization explained the impetus for investing in Premier: “The main reason that the Salesforce Premier Success Plan was chosen is because Salesforce would become the main software being used by customer service and therefore, since day-in/day- out, 200 people would be working full-time, all day in Salesforce. They needed to have the best type of support plan that they could purchase. So that was the decision because enterprise-level applications needs enterprise-level types of support.”
Flexibility
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might begin using Premier and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:
- Increased ability to learn and implement the latest product features. Customers appreciate the ability to use new product features as soon as they are available. Premier customers have access to timely education and support for the latest features available in their environment.
- Enhanced guidance on Salesforce product strategy. With all the data in front of them, Premier provides transparency and visibility of Salesforce product information to inform decision-making.
- Added personalization and best practices. Premier customers enjoy access to educational programs that focus on achieving their specific goals and aspirations, like personalized dashboard creation and leveling up their basic CRM functionality.
- Enhanced experience by purchasing the Signature Success Plan. In addition to the features and benefits of Premier, the Salesforce Signature Success Plan offers a designated customer success manager (CSM), direct access to proactive monitoring capabilities, various architecture reviews, strategic key event management, faster response times, and updates for business-critical needs. The CSM deeply understands their customer’s goals, advocates for their customer, and proactively conducts weekly touchpoints and quarterly Success Reviews to stay on track.
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).
Quantified cost data as applied to the composite
Total Costs
| Ref. | Cost | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dtr | Premier licensing cost | $0 | $329,762 | $346,250 | $363,563 | $1,039,575 | $859,091 |
| Etr | Ongoing management, onboarding, and training costs | $5,589 | $6,707 | $6,707 | $6,707 | $25,709 | $22,268 |
| Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $5,589 | $336,469 | $352,957 | $370,269 | $1,065,284 | $881,359 | |
Salesforce Premier Success Plan Licensing Cost
Evidence and data. While adopting a new tool always puts an initial strain on a budget, the functionality and options for the future can provide new avenues of savings and cost reduction. Adoptees of Premier experience benefits that provide a valuable return on that initial licensing investment.
-
While the initial investment in Premier is fixed (30% of net
license cost), the business growth opportunities available are not. Premier
customers have access to product education, expert guidance, and technical
support to help them get more value from their investment and can
leverage:
- Onboarding. New Premier customers will partner with Onboarding Specialists to map their business objectives to their Salesforce strategy.
- Admin Fundamentals Series. Administrators learn hands-on skills through a multiweek series on how to implement Salesforce product functionality.
- Expert Coaching Sessions. Customers learn directly from Salesforce experts through more than 240 programs including videos, webinars, and individual sessions.
- Office Hours. Customers connect directly with Salesforce experts and collaborate together and with other customers to learn best practices and answer questions from one another.
- Training and certification discounts. Customers receive a 25% discount on instructor-led training and bulk certifications.
- Health Checks and Assessments. Customers get access to technical guidance with evaluations of their Salesforce solution, performance, and technical challenges and will receive tailored improvement recommendations.
- Developer Code Reviews. Salesforce developers can help solve coding challenges by analyzing, debugging, and troubleshooting customers’ existing code.
- Expedited Technical Support. Customers get answers quickly through chat, phone, and case submission and quick response time with the 24/7/365 support for business-stopping issues.
- Pricing may vary. Contact Salesforce for additional details.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
- A 5% increase in cost year over year for Premier. This means that in Year 1, Premier costs $314,059, with costs rising to $329,762 in Year 2 and $346,250 in Year 3.
Risks. The cost of Premier will vary based on:
- Uncertainty around if and when to adopt Premier with a new Salesforce Cloud or add additional products for functionality.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $859,000.
Salesforce Premier Success Plan Licensing Cost
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | Premier licensing cost | Composite | $0 | $314,059 | $329,762 | $346,250 | |
| Dt | Premier licensing cost | D1 | $0 | $314,059 | $329,762 | $346,250 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
| Dtr | Premier licensing cost (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $329,762 | $346,250 | $363,563 | ||
| Three-year total: $1,039,575 | Three-year present value: $859,091 | ||||||
Ongoing Management, Onboarding, And Training Costs
Evidence and data. Initially, many employees at interviewees’ organizations spent costly hours on product onboarding and training. But organizations have seen that number drop year over year. They have also seen increased time spent on strategic endeavors, taking time back from administrative/educational tasks. This helped increase the agility and resiliency of the Salesforce system, ensuring that the system could consume the new releases and changes that Salesforce rolls out at least three times a year.
- Interviewees indicated that Premier made the onboarding process more self-paced and satisfactory for end users and technical teams, giving them simultaneous increases in autonomy and efficiency. A manager of CRM email and automation at a hospital and healthcare company shared: “There would be this list of options to account for any kind of training modalities that work best for our individuals. So it’s really nice to be able to have the options to choose from. Do we feel like we need one-on-one [training]? Do we feel like we could watch a video? What’s the best way? And just talking amongst ourselves, we would make that decision based on what the challenge is or what the new learning is.”
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
- All administrators, developers, and business analysts at the composite organization dedicate 12 hours to strategic business meetings annually by Year 3, while this number sits at 0 for Year 1.
- All administrators, developers, and business analysts initially receive 10 hours of training and onboarding, with that number dropping to 0 by Year 3.
- The composite organization has two Salesforce administrators.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce administrator is $63.
- The composite organization has three business analysts.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a business analyst is $48.
- The composite organization has three Salesforce developers.
- The average fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce developer is $72.
Risks. The ongoing management, onboarding, and training costs of Premier will vary based on:
- The number of administrators, business analysts, and developers that need to be onboarded to the product for any given year.
- The fully burdened hourly rate for Salesforce administrators, business analysts, and developers.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $22,000.
Ongoing Management, Onboarding, And Training Costs
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | Salesforce administrators | Composite | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| E2 | Average fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce administrator | B6 | $63 | $63 | $63 | $63 |
| E3 | Business analysts | Composite | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| E4 | Average fully burdened hourly rate of a business analyst | C12 | $48 | $48 | $48 | $48 |
| E5 | Salesforce developers | Composite | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| E6 | Average fully burdened hourly rate of a Salesforce developer | Composite | $72 | $72 | $72 | $72 |
| E7 | Hours dedicated to initial onboarding and training with Premier team | Composite | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| E8 | Hours dedicated to strategy sessions with Premier team | Composite | 0 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Et | Ongoing management, onboarding, and training costs | (E1*E2*(E7+E8))+((E3*E4*(E7+E8))+((E5*E6*(E7+E8)) | $4,860 | $5,832 | $5,832 | $5,832 |
| Risk adjustment | ↑15% | |||||
| Etr | Ongoing management, onboarding, and training costs (risk-adjusted) | $5,589 | $6,707 | $6,707 | $6,707 | |
| Three-year total: $25,709 | Three-year present value: $22,268 | |||||
Consolidated Three-Year Risk-Adjusted Metrics
Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)
Total costs Total benefits Cumulative net benefits-
The financial results calculated in the Benefits and Costs sections can be used to determine the ROI, NPV, and payback period for the composite organization’s investment. Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis.
These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
Cash Flow Analysis (Risk-Adjusted Estimates)
| Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total costs | ($5,589) | ($336,469) | ($352,957) | ($370,269) | ($1,065,284) | ($881,359) |
| Total benefits | $0 | $553,345 | $728,570 | $1,051,903 | $2,333,818 | $1,895,474 |
| Net benefits | ($5,589) | $216,875 | $375,613 | $681,634 | $1,268,533 | $1,014,115 |
| ROI | 115% | |||||
| Payback | <6 months | |||||
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists vendors in communicating the value proposition of their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT initiatives to both senior management and other key business stakeholders.
Total Economic Impact Approach
-
Benefits represent the value delivered to the business by the product. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and the measure of costs, allowing for a full examination of the effect of the technology on the entire organization.
-
Costs consider all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the product. The cost category within TEI captures incremental costs over the existing environment for ongoing costs associated with the solution.
-
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. Having the ability to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
-
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular distribution.”
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year. Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.
Appendix B: Supplemental Material
Related Forrester Research
The Impact Of Generative AI On Customer Success, Forrester Research, Inc., August 11, 2023.
Case Study: How Salesforce Built A Highly Effective Customer Success Organization, Forrester Research, Inc., January 4, 2019.
Five Practices That Accelerate Your Customer Success Team’s Journey, April 12, 2023.
Appendix C: Endnotes
1 Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists vendors in communicating the value proposition of their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT initiatives to both senior management and other key business stakeholders.
PDF
