• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Everpeak Partners

Salesforce Optimization & Development Consulting based in Portland, OR

  • Home
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Our Team
  • Careers
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Oliver Sholder

Zeal acquires Everpeak Partners

April 24, 2023 By Oliver Sholder


Portland, OR | Chicago, IL – Zeal, a people-first holding company based in Chicago, has announced the acquisition of Everpeak Partners, a revenue operations firm specializing in custom Salesforce integrations and support. This acquisition is the first in Zeal’s larger roll-up strategy of Salesforce systems integrators.

Founded in 2017, Everpeak’s skilled team consists of Salesforce solution architects, data architects, and industry consultants, with extensive expertise in Salesforce Sales Cloud, Pardot, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, CPQ, and Marketing Cloud. The company has successfully assisted over 150 clients across the SaaS, healthcare, professional services, and non-profit sectors. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Everpeak serves businesses throughout North America.

See Everpeak Services


Everpeak will maintain its focus on the Salesforce product suite, utilizing Zeal’s investment to expand its team and develop client-facing solutions. “Salesforce provides companies with incredibly powerful tools, but their complexity can be challenging. Everpeak excels at designing simple, effective solutions that enable clients to maximize their Salesforce products’ potential,” stated Randy Stocklin, Founding Partner at Zeal.

Oliver Sholder, Founder and CEO of Everpeak, shared his thoughts on the investment: “We’ve considered investments before, but Zeal’s emphasis on people – both our employees and clients – coupled with the partners’ proven track record in scaling innovative businesses, truly set them apart.”

About Zeal:  

Zeal is a holding company with the mission of using small business as a platform for improving the lives of team members, customers, and the communities it serves. The company accomplishes this by acquiring small businesses and helping them accelerate their growth with operational expertise, capital, and a differentiated network. To learn more about Zeal, please visit workwithzeal.com.

Filed Under: Resources

How to Use Salesforce Campaigns to Generate More Qualified Leads

February 24, 2023 By Oliver Sholder

Salesforce, as a Customer Relationship Management platform provides businesses with a variety of tools to manage their sales, marketing, customer service, and more. One of the key features of Salesforce is the Campaigns object, which allows organizations to track and measure the success of their marketing campaigns.

In this blog post, we will explore the Salesforce Campaigns object in detail, including what it is, how it works, and how to use it to improve your marketing efforts.

What is the Salesforce Campaigns Object?

The Campaigns object is a standard object in Salesforce that allows businesses to track and manage their marketing campaigns. This object is used to organize, track, and measure the success of marketing initiatives across various channels, including email, social media, events, webinars, and more.

By using the Campaigns object, businesses can gain a better understanding of which marketing channels are most effective in generating leads and driving conversions. Additionally, the Campaigns object provides a centralized location for all campaign-related data, making it easier for businesses to analyze and report on their marketing efforts.

How Does the Salesforce Campaigns Object Work?

The Salesforce Campaigns object works by allowing businesses to create and track marketing campaigns from start to finish. To get started, businesses must create a new campaign record in Salesforce and fill in the relevant information, such as the campaign name, start and end dates, and campaign type.

Once the campaign record is created, businesses can begin adding campaign members. Campaign members are individuals or companies who are being targeted as part of the marketing campaign. This can include prospects, customers, or any other target audience that the business is trying to reach.

To add campaign members, businesses can either import a list of contacts or leads into Salesforce or manually add them to the campaign. Once added, the campaign member records will be linked to the campaign record, allowing businesses to track their interactions and engagement with the campaign.

As the marketing campaign progresses, businesses can track the success of their efforts by monitoring key metrics such as the number of leads generated, the number of conversions, and the return on investment (ROI). This data can be visualized using Salesforce’s reporting and analytics tools, allowing businesses to gain insights into the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

How to Use the Salesforce Campaigns Object to Improve Your Marketing Efforts

Now that we’ve explored what the Salesforce Campaigns object is and how it works, let’s take a look at some practical ways that businesses can use this tool to improve their marketing efforts.

  1. Plan and Execute Targeted Campaigns

The Campaigns object in Salesforce allows businesses to create and execute targeted marketing campaigns across multiple channels. By segmenting their target audience based on criteria such as demographics, behavior, and interests, businesses can create personalized campaigns that resonate with their target audience and increase the likelihood of conversion.

For example, a business might create a targeted email campaign to promote a new product launch to a specific segment of their customer base. By using the Campaigns object to track the success of this campaign, the business can gain insights into which customers were most engaged with the campaign and adjust their messaging and targeting accordingly.

  1. Measure and Report on Campaign Success

One of the key benefits of using the Campaigns object in Salesforce is the ability to measure and report on the success of marketing campaigns. By tracking metrics such as leads generated, conversions, and ROI, businesses can gain insights into which campaigns are most effective and adjust their marketing strategy accordingly.

Salesforce’s reporting and analytics tools allow businesses to visualize this data in a variety of ways, including dashboards, charts, and graphs. This makes it easy for businesses to quickly understand how their marketing campaigns are performing and make data-driven decisions to improve their marketing efforts.

  1. Optimize Marketing Spend

By tracking the ROI of marketing campaigns using the Campaign

 

Example: The screenshot below shows a campaign we ran for Everpeak Partners, our company, via Salesforce Campaigns. We targeted an audience of SaaS companies via email with 1044 messages. We got 23 qualified responded and thus far have generated one opportunity. Over time, as deals progress, you can see the ROI of your campaigns in Salesforce. This is very valuable insight so your business can understand which campaigns have high ROI and which campsi

 

Filed Under: Resources

The Advantage of Salesforce Dynamic Fields

February 24, 2023 By Oliver Sholder

Dynamic fields take this a step further by allowing users to create fields that are only visible and accessible based on certain criteria. In other words, dynamic fields can be customized to show up only when certain conditions are met, making them a powerful tool for streamlining data entry and improving data quality.

There are a number of use cases for dynamic fields in Salesforce. Here are a few examples:

  1. Hide fields that aren’t relevant: Let’s say you have a custom object for tracking customer support cases. Some cases might be related to a specific product, while others might not. In this case, you could create a dynamic field that only appears when the product field is populated. This would prevent users from entering data into a field that doesn’t apply to the case they’re working on.
  2. Display fields based on user role: If you have a sales team and a support team that both use Salesforce, you might want to create different layouts for each team. With dynamic fields, you could create a layout that only displays certain fields to users with the “Sales” role, and a different layout that only displays certain fields to users with the “Support” role.
  3. Collect additional data based on user input: Let’s say you have a custom object for tracking event attendees. You might want to collect different information depending on whether the attendee is an individual or a company. With dynamic fields, you could create a field that only appears when the “Attendee Type” field is set to “Company,” allowing you to collect additional information like company size or industry.

Creating dynamic fields in Salesforce is relatively straightforward. Here’s a high-level overview of the process:

  1. Create a custom field on the object where you want to use the dynamic field.
  2. Click the “Set Field-Level Security” button to specify which profiles or permission sets should have access to the field.
  3. Under “Field Dependencies,” click the “New” button to create a new dependency.
  4. Select the controlling field (i.e. the field that the dynamic field will depend on).
  5. Choose the criteria that will determine when the dynamic field should appear (e.g. when a certain value is selected in the controlling field).
  6. Choose which fields should appear when the criteria are met.

Dynamic fields are a powerful tool for customizing Salesforce to meet your business’s specific needs. By allowing you to control when certain fields are visible and accessible, they can help streamline data entry and improve data quality. If you’re not already using dynamic fields in Salesforce, it’s definitely worth exploring this feature to see how it can benefit your organization.

Filed Under: Resources

Why should you upgrade from Salesforce Classic to Lightning?

March 17, 2022 By Oliver Sholder

Salesforce Lightning. It’s the word on the streets. We’ve all probably heard it at some point. Like the new iPhone or a new car we might not know the fine details behind it, but we probably know it’s an upgrade of some kind. And like most upgrades we’re probably thinking we can do without it. Your current car is still getting you from point A to point B and your phone is still taking calls. Additionally you’re probably thinking your Salesforce Classic is still managing your customers fine too. No need to upgrade.

However, in this case the differences between Classic and Lightning can’t be compared to minor upgrades like that of a phone or a car. Salesforce Lighting isn’t a minor upgrade like more RPMs in a car or a better camera in a phone. Lightning is a fundamental shift in how Salesforce is structured and how the system is coded. The differences between the two would be like comparing a horse drawn carriage to that of a new Audi.

So exactly what sets Salesforce Lightning apart from Classic?

 

For starters, it’s the future. 

CRM Software for any business is an investment. And like any investment a business makes, it should take care of your current present day needs and your future needs. Salesforce Lightning is an investment in the future. While Salesforce isn’t going to be turning out the lights at the offices of Classic next week, you do want to set up your business for future enhancements and the capacity for improving your user’s experience. The level of scalability and customizations that are available in Lightning have the engine to grow in tandem with your business that Classic simply doesn’t.

It’s better for the users. And that’s how a CRM should be. 

While there are many benefits of Salesforce Lightning for admins, at the end of the day the features and upgrades have to make sense for your users and the people who will be using it day in and day out to close deals. Starting with the home page; it’s a clear night and day difference for your users. The customizable dashboards and assistant features to clearly manage tasks and track leads takes Classic from a simple menu to a detailed cookbook. The modernized user interface itself will have your users being thankful for the upgrade. In Lightning, it’s more than just a more appealing color scheme or layout. It’s about what’s under the hood too. Leads, Contacts, Accounts and Opportunities are still the bedrock in Lightning but it’s not just a new skin, but a fundamental overhaul of the entire platform.

Salesforce Lightning is a powerful tool that can benefit a business of any size. The scalability and customizations really make it the perfect tool for companies the size of Amazon and your local ten person, family owned business.

Filed Under: Resources

How to Build Sales Stage Best Practices in Salesforce Lightning

July 10, 2020 By Oliver Sholder

 
Intro: It’s more important than ever to have clarity in your sales process with today’s hectic & constantly evolving business environment where key details can get lost in the shuffle. Many small and mid-size businesses that I’ve advised have sales process in Salesforce don’t have clear definitions for what qualifies a lead or opportunity to move to the next stage. I am writing this blog post to share fundamental best practices I’ve learned from consulting with 200+ businesses to streamline and enhance their sales process in Salesforce.
 
 
1: Define Clear Stages using Salesforce’s “Guidance for Success”
 
Problem: Definitions for Lead Status and Opportunity Stage in Salesforce are not being used with consistency between reps. To one sales development rep (SDR), the status, “Nurturing” status means that the prospect is activity engaged in the sales process. To another SDR the term “Nurturing” means the prospect is disengaged and should be placed into series of automated emails. This creates a lack of process cohesion and causes issues with Salesforce reports and dashboards.

Solution: Use “Guidance for Success,” a feature in Salesforce Lightning that allows each stage to have text below it. In “Guidance for Success”, write out clear definitions for your stages.  It’s a collapsable element so it can be hidden when it’s not needed but it’s always available as a reminder of the true company-wide definition of the stage. Of course, you need to make sure you have good practices, definitions stages to begin with. But having a definition that everyone agrees on makes your sales process more consistent, reporting more accurate and ensures that pipeline forecasting from Salesforce can be trusted.

 
 
2: Define a standard to convert leads
 
Problem: Sales reps are converting leads differently. Similar to when there is a lack of definition with stages, lacking a clear definition with the Lead Conversion point causes many similar problems with reporting. In addition, with most sales processes, it also results in some records stuck as leads while other records are in the contact / account / opportunity objects.

Solution: Here is the way I like to explain my approach to defining a lead conversion point. Sales is like dating; if there is not interest on both sides, it’s not going to happen. When both sides agree there is a potential opportunity to do business together, that is when the lead should be converted. It doesn’t mean all the details are hashed out and it doesn’t even mean that all the decision makers are onboard. It just means that the lead has been qualified internally and has expressed interest in moving forward with the sales process.
 Every business is different so the conversion point can be earlier or later in the process. The element of having some degree of qualification and agreement from the buyer and seller is key to converting the lead, that’s the main takeaway.
 
 

3: Implement Key Fields with an Exit Criteria   
 
Problem: As a salesperson moves through the sales process, new additional data points should be tracked and different data points become relevant at that part of the sales cycle. For example, a budget might not be defined until the 5th sales conversation. However, Salesforce could lacks data validation to remind the rep to collect the data before moving on. In addition, the ‘Budget’ or ‘Amount’ field could be buried in a huge list of other fields.

Solution: First, implement Key Fields in Salesforce. Key fields are dynamically shown based off the stage. For example, in the “Nurturing” stage, you might show a field called “Follow-up Date” and a reason why they were set in the “Nurturing” stage while in the “New” Stage, you might show basics like “Name,” “Job Title” and “Lead Source.” By using the key fields, you can define fields that should be either captured or referenced at a particular stage.
Second, implement validation rules to enforce exit criteria. For example, you can’t move to the proposal stage until there is a budget defined. This is a gentle reminder for reps to enter in the data they are supposed to be inputting. Sometimes people forget and automating a reminder is a great way to ensure data gets up to date and management gets the reporting they need to make important decisions.