At Candybox, one of the things we are most proud of is the team we’ve built. Great work requires great people, and we think ours are some of the best in the industry.
We’re a smart, friendly and diverse group who are passionate about what we do and the people we work with. Our expertise and team spirit helps us create solutions that go far beyond the basics.
In this post, we’re highlighting one of our EMEA team, based out of the lovely Amsterdam – Laurent Pompairac!
How’d you get into Salesforce in the first place?
Once upon a time, I was working in Sales at a company that had a very basic CRM. Most of our partners and customers were using Salesforce, so I’d definitely heard of it, but I hadn’t really used it myself.
At a certain point, our company raised funds and decided they wanted to rework their lead-to-cash process. After evaluating a few different tools, we landed on Salesforce, since it was obviously the best 😀 At this time, I was also making a move into Sales Operations, and I was chosen to represent Sales for this project.
By the time the project ended, I’d become interested in pursuing a new career with Salesforce and was able to move into an admin role, maintaining our newly-implemented Salesforce instance. I would get up and cram Trailhead every morning for the longest time! Eventually I moved into Salesforce Program Management, and from there moved to a company with a bigger org to manage their entire instance.
What interested you about Salesforce?
At first, I wasn’t interested in CRM at all because to me CRM was just a boring piece of software you checked to see if your colleagues were inputting the correct data. However, as I started learning about Salesforce, I realized all the possibilities that existed to automate business processes. I also learned that I could build these processes myself without needing to rely on a developer, which was really exciting to me. I’d always thought that, because I didn’t have a technical background, I couldn’t go into a technical role, and Salesforce changed all of that for me.
As for what keeps me interested, Salesforce is so vast. There’s so many different types of work and varied types of projects that you can do. Working in Salesforce, I’m never afraid of becoming bored in my career, because all I need to do is learn a new tool, a new cloud, or a new vertical. In addition to that, although it can be easy to build something in Salesforce, it’s challenging to do it the best possible way.
Other than that, I like the variety of work in consulting: we talk to customers, we scope out work, we design things, we develop and test things, we do project management. You never get bored!
How did you get into consulting?
The first time I worked with Salesforce, I was working alongside a consultant that I really respected. At the time, it seemed like work I could like, but I didn’t have the opportunity to really explore it.
After my first role within the Salesforce ecosystem, I moved on to another opportunity as a Salesforce admin, but after a while, I’d outgrown it and wanted to do more technical work. I started looking for a new position and saw a position shared by Candybox on LinkedIn.
At the time, I remember being afraid that I wouldn’t have enough experience to be a consultant, but I applied anyway. My first call was with Candybox’s founder, Kathryn, and I felt we had a really good conversation. It was also reassuring to hear that Candybox does the majority of their development work using flow – I’d been worried I’d have to know Apex!
What attracted you to Candybox?
I’m keenly aware of the fact that a lot of what makes a job pleasant versus stressful is your manager. Based on the conversations I had throughout the interview process, I felt confident that the management style at Candybox would be positive.
In addition to that, my background is in SaaS and Candybox works primarily with SaaS companies. This meant that, although I was new to consulting, I’d worked with all the tools that Candybox uses alongside Salesforce, and I understood a lot of the use cases common to SaaS businesses.
I also really appreciated the flexibility that Candybox tries to offer. Since joining the company, I’ve been able to work a four-day remote workweek, which has been life-changing.
What is some of the work you’ve done at Candybox that you are most proud of?
Something that I really like about Candybox is that the whole team makes each other feel confident to share our opinions on what could be done better.
I think I have good organizational skills and that I’m good with people, and from very early on in my tenure here, I’ve been able to use these skills to take relationships with the accounts I’m on the next level. I remember coming on to an account that was struggling with prioritizing their work effectively, and I was able to work with the customer team to make things a lot clearer and more streamlined.
Within a few weeks, things were already moving more smoothly, and the customer was really happy with the direction. From there, we’ve gone from strength to strength. I feel really proud to think of the progress we’ve made together.
What advice do you have for people who are thinking about working with a Salesforce consulting partner?
Consultants are a bit like therapists for companies. If there’s something that you’re struggling to solve, the best thing to do is to ask competent people to help you solve it. So, open up to your consultant, and don’t be afraid to seek help. And, just like therapists, you can always switch to another one if the first one you try turns out not to be the best fit 😉
What advice do you have for getting people who are new to consulting?
For me, the most important skill is managing expectations with your clients. Always try to underpromise, then overdeliver if possible. Also, you can never over communicate – both with your customers and your team.
Think you’re communicating too much? No, communicate even more!
Enough Salesforce! What do you like doing outside of work?
Outside of work, I really like sports – especially running and cycling. I also like hiking, although there aren’t so many great hiking spots in the Netherlands.
I also really enjoy cooking and improving my cooking techniques. Right now, I am studying pasta making, and I want to master making ravioli, because it’s clearly the best type of pasta. The tricky part about ravioli is that you have to make both a filling and a sauce, but you need to make sure they align with one another, so that’s a nice challenge. I’ll let you know when I crack the ravioli code!
