Outbox Systems is a SaaS consulting and development firm that helps businesses integrate and implement cloud solutions. We spoke with self-proclaimed Salesforce geek Carolyn Adams, VP of Client Services, on delivering knowledge-based customer support and women in tech.

How did you get started in your field? What brought you to Outbox Systems?

I’ve worked for several small and mid-market companies before in administrative roles and at first, I didn’t know what Salesforce was, but figured it was better than the Google Docs and spreadsheets I had used in the past. My manager was very enthusiastic about Salesforce and moving to cloud, and he took the time to mentor me on the system and instill a passion in me for the Force.com platform. Salesforce came easily to me, and I was able to learn a lot in my admin roles and eventually realized that I could do this for other companies and started consulting on the side. I stuck with my consulting initiatives, made a lot of connections in the Salesforce space, and asked a lot of questions. Since starting on this path 6 years ago, I’ve now worked on over 125 different Salesforce instances and gained a lot of valuable experience which enabled me to join Outbox and start the Salesforce services department here.

So your on-the-job training helped you to switch career paths?

Yes, my exposure to Salesforce in the admin role let me see many different use cases of Salesforce and I became more knowledgeable on how it could be leveraged across the company. This translated when I started consulting and made me better at helping my customers. People often ask me, “What is this Salesforce thing?”, and I do my best to make them aware of the opportunities and potential available in the Salesforce ecosystem. Some might think it’s too “code-y” or only for developers, but if I can learn it, anyone can learn it and experience similar growth on a stable career path.

How would you describe Outbox’s company culture?

Outbox Systems is very customer success focused. We take more than a project-based approach to implementations and expect to have a long-term relationship with all of our customers. For us, if the customer has a problem, it’s our problem. We really become an extension of the customer’s Salesforce team, which is very rewarding because in the beginning we just see the implementation and ‘baby steps’, so it’s the future touch points where we see all the amazing things customers have done and the progress they’ve made on their own that show us how successful it had been and how our customer’s baby steps have turned into significant strides within the organization. It all boils down to an enabling relationship; we want to get our customers to love Salesforce as much as we do.

As an implementation company, how does your own company benefit from synchronized data and integrations?

Every single part of our business is connected to Salesforce, even our receptionist. Even though the salespeople use Sales Cloud and the Marketing team uses Pardot, since we’re able to connect seamlessly everyone is always on the same page. We’ve also integrated with other tools to assist our workflow — Cirrus Insights, Conga Composer, DocuSign, and Workfront, so we can use Salesforce as the one go-to place for everything we need to run our business. We also recently purchased a Customer Community in order to more easily support clients and provide even better value. They’ll be able to engage with consultants to get help, get updates on our current projects with them, and self-service in our extensive knowledge base of tips, tricks, and general best practices which supplements the standard Salesforce documentation.

Outbox works with a lot of small businesses. What advice do you think SMB executives could benefit from?

Small businesses often think, “We can do everything!” but it’s important to know your core competencies and be realistic about your limits. As a small business, you may not be able to solve every single need, but you can build relationships with other companies and maintain strategic partnerships that can help. Pick what you’re good at and stick with it and have a clear vision, don’t get stretched too thin trying to do everything.

April is Women In Tech month at Salesforce. Why do you think we need more women working in the technology industry?

In the consulting role in particular, our job is literally to listen to other people’s problems and come up with a solution. I am biased, but I think women are great at doing this for customers because we bring emotion and empathy to the relationship and make it about more than just the job. The good news is that women are primed to break into the Salesforce space - the people being tasked with Salesforce are often entry level positions performing other administrative responsibilities (like Sales Assistants or Operations employees) and since Salesforce is cloud-based, I am seeing more admins being able find a good work/life balance with remote work days or flexible schedules.

Currently, I’m the only woman on our executive team, and the entire company is only 10% women. Diversity within companies makes them stronger and gives them the advantage of seeing issues in different ways so I make it a point to seek out other women I can bring in to the Outbox fold.

How do you balance your work and personal life?

Honestly, work and personal life are never ‘balanced’ for me. There are days when everything at work seems to be behind schedule and it’s all I can do to clear out my emails! There are also days where my kids watch way too much Netflix and eat too many fruit snacks. I think people have to realize that nothing is ever perfect and at the end of the day it’s about prioritizing and focusing on what really matters. You can only go so far, so setting realistic goals will allow you to have measurable success in the area’s that you’ve deemed important.

What’s next for Outbox in 2015?

This past year, we experienced so much growth that we’ve barely been able to hire fast enough to keep up with demand! By the end of 2015, we plan to double our staff and add to all departments. Aside from the Salesforce service practice expanding like crazy, we are also making a push on the Development side to get more Apps on the AppExchange and develop more plug-and-play apps on our integration platform. We’ve worked hard to get this point and have no plans of slowing down.