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ASaasguy

AE

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Personal Narrative

Horror stories of implementations gone wrong

Was an AE at SFDC and man did I have some unhappy customers with bad implementations locked into contracts hence can't back out of contract obligations. Unfortunately most implementation partners are selected based on relationships and its kinda difficult diving into who has alot of issues unless you speak to fellow AEs. Wondering if this is a trend across several companies that rely on implementation partners. Also curious to hear how other AEs made sure customers got the best implementation partner

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8 comments

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Filth
Politicker
5
Live Filthy or Die Clean
I deal with a lot of implementation pain as an AM that gets attached to an account after contract execution. It's very convenient for the AE to disappear for their sake but I generally end up being an expectation manager and sticking my voodoo doll that resembles my AEs while cleaning up the pieces of them over promising/selling.

Implementations sucks so much...so so much, almost as much as AEs who completely talk out their ass.
ThatNewAE
Big Shot
4
Account Executive - Mid enterprise
The company I am working with does not entertain opt-out clause at all. The issue is - the implementation team does not support whatever the sales team promises and there's a huge gap that way!

That's a very big headache that AEs have to endure in making sure each and every customer is going live as soon as they can - with the optimal experience as well. A headache, honestly.

Raised a lot of times to the management to upskill implementation team, make the implementation partners affordable - nothing has happened yet. So we underpromise these days, something that doesn't come naturally to an AE.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
๐ŸฆŠ
What a pain in the ass friend โค
Pachacuti
Politicker
4
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
You know how you solve this?

Work for the implementation partner.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
The way to get the best implementation partner is to learn from your colleagues - who did a good job, who fell short - then bring that partner in early and include them in services discovery calls.

Honestly, get to know your partners. I hope you have a partner manager you can involve as well. They should be riding herd on these partners too and ensuring that they are performing.

The very best partners will also be recommending you as they go along.
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
Yes it is, especially if they go with the cheapest partner who outsources everything
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
I believe in this case that some or most of the contract terms were unclear for the customers who committed initially, particularly that part relevant to the contract penalties upon quitting.
If I were you, I would definitely raise that concern to the upper mgmt against those IPs that received most of these complaints to put a red flag on em, as most of those customers who experienced that before will barely ever come back again, which leads to a massive business loss, and that will surely get the owners unhappy too ,so they'll make sure to do everything needed to get things back to track again!
Justatitle
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
Bad implementations are the reason why prospects refuse to switch software despite all the compelling reasons you provide to switch. Sucks but don't see a better way

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