Jacob Grenz

As a lead Solution Architect at Forefront, I have successfully designed and guided the implementation of complex Salesforce and system integration projects across various industries. Key engagements include:

• Large Manufacturing Client: Served as lead architect across three business entities, consulting on overall system design and collaborating with Solution Architects within each entity to ensure cohesive architecture and strategy.
• Large Value-Added Reseller (VAR): Developed a holistic organization-wide solution involving Salesforce CRM/Sales Cloud, integrating marketing, product and service sales, operations, finance, legal, and technical teams.
• Service Cloud Voice Implementation: Directed the integration of Service Cloud Voice and Amazon Connect for two acquired business entities, ensuring seamless post-merger functionality.
• Manufacturing Sector Solutions: Delivered robust Sales Cloud and CPQ implementations integrated with PLM and ERP systems, addressing intricate business needs and enabling scalable growth.
• Multi-System Integration with Dell Boomi: Led a cohesive project integrating Salesforce CPQ with multiple systems, streamlining workflows and enhancing data management.

Through these engagements, I have demonstrated a strong ability to bridge technical strategy with actionable solutions, driving measurable results for clients and fostering innovation within complex organizational ecosystems

• Pre-Sales Solution Architect - collaboration with OpFocus sales and technical teams to facilitate scoping for prospects and customers around my areas of expertise i.e. Sales Cloud, Org Consolidations, and Salesforce CPQ
• Pre-Sales Solution Architect - collaboration around sales artifacts (estimates, proposals, SOWs, and COs) with ownership of level of effort, resource estimates/allocations, in scope/out of scope documentation, assumptions, and estimated timelines
• Post-Sales Solution Architect - Ownership of knowledge transfers to delivery team, facilitation of discovery and design workshops with clients, completion of business requirements documentation and technical requirements for Sales Cloud, Org Consolidations, and Salesforce CPQ engagements
• Management of key strategic initiatives: owner of several key strategic initiatives, including standardization of estimating process, SOW templates, discovery & design standards, and delivery standards
• Management of a team of specialized Solution Architects across the Salesforce eco-system along with

Pre-Sales Solution Architect

• Collaboration with Cloudforia sales and technical teams to facilitate scoping calls to understand the core business objectives of our prospects and customers
• Serve as a trusted advisor around lead to cash process
• Recommend high level lead to cash solutions that solve for the core business objectives
• Present solutions that keep in mind best practice design principles, such as optimal user interface, system performance, and admin maintenance
• Provide level of effort, scope language, assumptions, resourcing requests and timeline estimates for proposed solutions

Post-Sales Solution Architect

• Facilitation of discovery and design workshops with clients and internal project teams
• Completion of business requirements documentation, technical requirements, process flows, and any other written or visual artifacts needed to fully communicate the solution
• Project coordination, sprint planning, and requirements grooming
• Build of initial demos/proof of concepts (POCs)
• Collaboration with CPQ Engineers and Developers around completion of functional build
• Management and delivery of ongoing functional demos to customers
• Validation of user stories against build
• Go-live coordination/deployment planning
• Strategic planning with customers around Salesforce roadmap, ongoing maintenance, and future phases

Objective: to lead, coach, and drive vision/strategy for a team of highly skilled Salesforce Solution Architects who cover the ecosystem from Sales Cloud & CPQ to Service Cloud, Field Service, and Integration. My main objective is to use my personal and professional experiences to mentor my team, help them live their most fulfilled careers and lives, and brainstorm creative solutions for their client's problems

• Weekly 1:1 meetings with each team member to provide coaching support around their MBOs, career trajectory, and personal development
• Report to CEO around MBOs for full team and individual performance plans
• Attend weekly personal coaching and monthly group coaching sessions around leadership development, coaching practice, psychological safety, stress management and resilience
• Provide annual/mid-annual reviews around each team member's MBOs - pipeline management, project enablement/support, technical aptitude/solutioning, and strategic thinking/contingency planning
• Developed long term career development goals for entire Solutions team ensuring team members have a pathway towards promotions and achieving their desired career objectives
• Develop training plans which include internal shadowing and external development with a goal of ensuring the Solutions team is exceeding company vision/values and feeling progress in their own lives and careers
• Assist Sales Ops in monthly team enablement and drive vision and content for bi-annual Solutions training
• Participate and drive cross-functional strategic initiatives to provide a voice and advocate for the Solutions team
• Serve as a sponsor on large deals
• Drive strategic partnerships for new professional service solutions based on Salesforce market need. Example: Salesforce acquisitions
• Develop new professional service solutions/strategic plays and work on cross-functional committees to improve existing offerings and process

Objective: To manage a team of specialty Salesforce Solution Architects (Field Service, Data/Integrations, Manufacturing, CPQ) and to drive vision and strategy for a suite of professional services related to to the quote to cash lifecycle - Solutions through project delivery. This included - Salesforce CPQ, B2B Commerce, Conga Contracts, DocuSign and payment applications. This was achieved by:

Management

• Weekly 1:1 meetings with each team member to provide coaching around their MBOs, deals, and project support
• Report to VP, Solutions around MBOs for my team and individual performance plans
• Provide annual/mid-annual reviews around each team member's MBOs - pipeline management, project enablement/support, technical aptitude/solutioning, and strategic thinking/contingency planning
• Develop long term career development goals for my team ensuring team members have a pathway towards promotions and achieving their desired career objectives
• Participated in cross-functional strategic initiative committee to provide a voice and advocate for the Solutions team and specialty architects

Practice Director

• Drive the go to market strategy for the company around our quote to cash practice
• Attend networking events with strategic partners, account executives, and regional/industry-specific teams to establish Gears as a trusted partner for professional services in this space
• Provide content and work with Gears marketing around specific topics related to the quote to cash lifecycle - preparation and delivery of webinars, blog posts, lunch and learns, etc.
• Learn new products in an effort to enable the solution and execution teams and make recommendations to leadership around which products Gears should invest in enablement and execution
• Serve as subject matter expert for pipeline of deals with new logos/existing customers - report out to VP, Solutions booking goals against actuals

Objective: to understand needs of prospects and customers through the lens of 4 guiding principles: process, system, data, and people. Through understanding of business outcomes and in collaboration with other SMEs, recommend leading practice solutions that solve for desired business outcomes and set internal execution teams up for hightest level of success. This is achieved by:

Pre-Sales Activities

• Establishing new relationships and maintaining existing relationships with sales teams at external partners, such as Salesforce, Dell Boomi, Conga, and DocuSign
• Partnering in joint sales cycle to provide scope, timeline and budget for professional services engagements in conjunction with licensing sales
• Facilitating discovery with prospects and clients around their desired business outcomes in my areas of expertise - sales, marketing, quote to cash, service process and technologies
• Formulating proposals including potential scope, timeline, budget, resourcing proposals, object architecture diagrams, process flows, and build strategies
• Composing SOWs for professional service engagements including scope, timeline, budget, build strategy, and assumptions/exclusions

Post-Sales Activities

• Completion of knowledge transfer activities to execution teams
• Facilitate/co-facilitate deeper discovery sessions with the goal of formulating build strategy, further identify in scope and out of scope activities
• Maintain customer executive sponsor relationship and partner relationship throughout the project lifecycle
• Execute Change Orders around changes to project that impact scope and timeline
• Mentor execution teams around out of scope requests and management of scope creep
• Seek customer surveys and potential prospect referrals and write customer success stories/case studies post implementation
• Hand off to Customer Success team

Objective: to serve as a Salesforce platform expert in order to advance the leadership and business development efforts of the client by enabling them to reach their goals throughout the lifecycle of the Salesforce product. This is accomplished by the following:

• Actively work with cross-functional teams, executive stakeholders, and other SMEs to elicit business and system requirements, conceptualize and develop Salesforce solutions, and deliver those solutions based on client priorities
• Execute the configuration of solutions to meet design requirements by researching design elements, building prototypes within Salesforce environments, testing configurations, and providing meaningful design documentation
• Ongoing research, recommendations, and management of projects and requirements with a goal of customizing Salesforce to improve systems, workflows, and processes
• Develop curriculum and lead workshops that provide end user training and support with the goal of increasing user engagement, strengthening users’ core skills and knowledge of the Salesforce interface, and empowering users to adopt client specific processes and workflows

Objective: Advance leadership & business development efforts of the Organization through these core areas:

• Serve as Salesforce platform expert in order to recommend solutions to complex business needs and lead implementation efforts
• Develop curriculum and lead workshops that provide end user training and support with the goal of increasing staff engagement and strengthening all users’ core skills and knowledge of the Salesforce interface
• Ongoing research, recommendations, management of vendor relationships, and project management with a goal of customizing Salesforce to improve systems, workflows, and processes
• Actively work with cross-functional teams and executive stakeholders to improve and streamline the complete sales cycle from prospect through fulfillment

Day-to-day
o Provide accurate forecasting as well as meaningful reports and dashboards
o Scope external facing documents for automation of send and signature
o Create custom fields/objects and workflows with the goal of increasing sales productivity
o Serve as platform expert for market research projects and integrations with marketing automation/email partners
o Maintain, clean, and supplement database using validation rules and partner applications (Hoover’s, Data.com, StrikeIron, DemandTools, InsideView, etc)
o Train users to implement the Campaign object to manage marketing campaigns, track analytics, and report ROI
o Help users to maintain a successful lead generation process, and manage trade show lists
o Help users to manage and gain business intelligence around a suite of products using the Products and Product Schedule objects
o Implement and maintain Ideas and Cases to help PMs to better maintain product enhancement & support requests
o Research, make recommendations, and train users to gain improved business intelligence of customers and employees by analyzing data trends and creating meaningful reports/dashboards around sales cycle, pipeline, fulfillment processes, and employee productivity

Objective: To support the sales/marketing efforts of the company through the following:

• Campaign management, mass-data imports, hygiene, and maintenance
• Complex data analysis and reporting to provide Director of Marketing and General Manager views of sales pipeline and revenue, client interaction, ROI on marketing events, email, direct mail, telemarketing, and promotional campaigns
• Proficiency with data management tools: DemandTools, PeopleImport, and Excel Connector
• Daily data analysis, hygiene, and generation of new marketing lists for email and direct mail campaigns
• Assisted in growth of Central Region lead/contact database from 350,000 to projected 1,000,000 by August, 2013
• Management of InsideView, Hoover’s, Data.com, and NetProspex accounts
• Management of Central Region email marketing strategy
• Assist in Management of Marketing Events Strategy
• Marketing Team Project Manager
• Serve as the primary contact in the Central Region for all things Salesforce.com
• On-boarding and ongoing training of new Salesforce users
• Creation of complex reports and dashboards
• Work with International partners in Dubai, Zambia, and The Netherlands to generate reports/dashboards and share best practices in implementation and user adoption
• Weekly meetings with Corporate Salesfore Administrator to discuss new company initiatives, and brainstorm ideas to streamline systems and increase sales team’s adoption of Salesforce.com
• Creation of scoreboards to monitor success of regional initiatives related to Inside Sales Partners and Outbound Marketing teams