What does Salesforce Gold Consulting partner mean? What is the Difference of Gold Partner Tiers Versus Other Partner Tiers?

What does salesforce gold consulting partners mean? What is the Difference between Gold Partner Tiers Versus Other Partner Tiers?

Salesforce has multiple consulting tiers. In the past, salesforce had different names Registered, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Global Strategic. Now salesforce has updated the naming of partner tiers, and they are called Base, Ridge, Crest, and Summit. The only one left without change is the Global strategic partner.

In this article, I would like to explain what gold partner from salesforce means and the difference between gold partner tiers versus other partner tiers.

Salesforce partner tiers

There are four Salesforce consulting program tiers at the moment. Base, Ridge, Crest, and Summit.

Base partners are new salesforce consulting companies that have met 100 points.

Ridge, Crest, and Summit partners receive the following benefits:

• increased opportunities for working with salesforce
• access to a vast majority of resources from the SF partner community.

Before we begin, you should know that Salesforce has a point system to define partner tiers. Points are assigned based on the performance of the partner. More performance equals more points.

Partners are scored on the following criteria:

• Number of Salesforce Customers
• Annual Contract Value per customer
• # of Certified employees in Consultant, Advanced Developer, and App Builder roles

The more points partner has, the higher tier he is assigned.

Provisional partner

When a company decides to become a Salesforce partner, they get assigned a provisional partner status. It means that the company is still in the process of becoming a full-fledged partner. Provisional partners have to meet 100 points, and they can work on their score with time by performing all listed activities above. Points will be added to a partner, and once criteria are met, the partner gets Base Consulting level (or higher if the partner manages to get more points).

Recently Salesforce has updated their partner program, and the new partner has to get two consultant-level certificates to gain Base Consulting Partner status. Base Consulting partner status is the first level of Salesforce consulting partner.

Base Consulting partner (former Registered partner)

Just as I mentioned above, Base Consulting partners are the first in the list of partner tiers. Every new partner gets this tier once he complies with minimum requirements.

Companies have to meet 100 points and $500k annual contract value to be recognized as Base Consulting partners. In terms of benefits, this tier offers limited opportunities for partnership with salesforce. However, they do get access to a vast majority of resources from the SF partner community

Ridge Consulting partner (former Silver partner)

Ridge consulting partner status is assigned once a company gains a minimum of 250 points and stays in this tier until they exceed 499 points. If you see Ridge Consulting partner next to the company name, it means this is a small or medium company with a proven track record.

To gain Ridge status, companies have to meet 500 points and $750k in annual contract value. In terms of benefits, this tier offers access to additional Salesforce resources and events and a 20% discount on training exams (including certification exams).

Crest Consulting partner (former Gold partner)

Salesforce gold consulting partners Crest consulting partners are top-end Salesforce consultancy partners. To become a Crest consultancy partner, a company must get 750 points and meet $500k in annual contract value. For this tier, benefits include:

• Access to the majority of Salesforce resources (65%)
• Training discount
• Increased opportunities for working with salesforce (up to 40% more contracts)

Also, once a company has met crest consulting partner status, it has at least 12 employees with at least one certified consultant, advanced developer, or app builder.

Summit Consulting partner (former Platinum partner)

This is the top tier of Salesforce consultancy partners. To become Summit consulting partners, a company has to get 750 points and more than $500k in annual contract value AND meet 100% on all requirements from Ridge level (so this includes getting at least 750 points and more than $500k in annual contract value).

Summit consulting partners have the most significant benefits package. These are:

• Exclusive access to Salesforce resources (100%)
• More opportunities for working with salesforce (up to 50% of contracts)
• Training discount up to 45% off or more depending on the training

Also, once a company has met summit consulting partner status, it has at least 12 employees, with 100 percent of them being certified Salesforce consultants.

I hope this article has helped you. If you have any questions or would like to share your personal experience with different Salesforce partner tiers, please let me know.

Have a great day/night, whatever it is now when you are reading this.

Jeff