The Fight for Salesforce Talent: Should You Build or Buy?

There are dynamics at work that are making it more difficult to discover and keep exceptional Salesforce talent than ever before. Businesses, on the other hand, may take real and strategic initiatives.

Recruit, Build, and Buy are the three alternatives discussed in this article. Which solution, however, is best for your company?

Salesforce's growth trajectory continues to defy the law of big numbers. The corporation has grown by more than 25% year over year and is on target to reach $26.4 billion this fiscal year. Salesforce forecasts $31.8 billion in revenue in FY23.

That's a lot of software, and software (particularly a platform as comprehensive as Salesforce) need the involvement of humans. To ensure a company's success, people who can design, develop, architect, integrate, implement, test, manage, support, and construct are needed. This is why the Salesforce partner ecosystem is so large — it's five times the size of Salesforce, according to IDC. The ecosystem currently has 1,800 service partners competing for talent.

The gap between supply and demand for Salesforce talent is widening. Global talent demand has surged by 364 percent since last year, according to the 10K Salesforce Talent Ecosystem Report for 2021. However, supply has only increased by 23 percent. It's still expanding, but not quickly enough to keep up with demand, especially as other cloud suppliers follow Salesforce's lead and begin to establish their own partner ecosystems.

This supply and demand imbalance is merging with our post-pandemic world's larger labor issues. The 'Great Resignation,' as many people refer to it, is more accurately referred to as the 'Great Reshuffle.' Salesforce professionals aren't leaving the company; they're simply moving on to new possibilities.

Companies can solve their talent shortage in three ways:

1. Amp up recruiting and retention.

2. Build the talent base.

3. Buy talent through M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) or contracting.

All of these options can work, and in most cases, companies should be at least exploring a combination of all three.