How to choose a Salesforce partner in the GCC: 12 questions to ask

12 November 2026
Omar Mansour

We are a Salesforce partner, so we have an interest in how this decision gets made. What follows are the questions we would ask if we were on your side of the table, and the evidence we think any partner in the region, us included, should be able to put in front of you. They work for a first implementation, a rescue of one that went wrong, or a move to a new partner for support.

First, update your RFP template

Salesforce announced a rebuilt consulting partner programme on 2 March 2026. If your procurement template still asks for a Crest or Ridge partner, or for Partner Navigator distinctions, it is asking for things that no longer exist. Three changes matter to a buyer:

Two tiers. The consulting track now has Select and Summit. Salesforce says recognition is tied to project outcomes, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores and certifications. Firms that join start as Provisional partners, so “Salesforce partner” on its own tells you little.
Competencies replaced Partner Navigator. The 170 Navigator distinctions became 28 competencies, each with two levels, Accredited and Expert. Each competency is measured on certifications, completed projects and customer satisfaction.
The directory has a new name. In April 2026 Salesforce brought AppExchange, Slack Marketplace and its agent ecosystem together as AgentExchange. The consulting partner finder still lives at appexchange.salesforce.com/consulting.

A tier and a set of competencies tell you a firm has delivered before. The twelve questions below are about whether it can deliver your project, in your languages, with the people you will actually get.

Credentials you can check

1. Which tier and which competencies do you hold for the products we are buying?

The tier is a firm-wide signal. Competencies are where depth shows, because each one covers a product or an industry. A firm can be strong in Sales Cloud and new to Experience Cloud, so ask for the competencies that match the clouds in your scope and the level held in each, then find them on the firm’s directory listing. A tier reflects past work, so ask about projects from the last twelve months as well.

A strong answer: the competency and level for each product in scope, a link to the listing, and a plain “we don’t hold that one yet” where it applies.

2. Can we check the certifications of the people you are proposing?

Salesforce runs a credential verification tool on Trailhead. You search by full name, given name first, and updates can take up to a business day to appear. Arabic names are written several ways in English, and a search for one spelling may not find another, so ask each person for the link to their Trailblazer profile too. The profile shows whether each certification is active, due for maintenance or retired. A private profile hides all of this, which proves nothing either way, so ask.

A strong answer: the proposed team by name, each person’s certifications with profile links, and certifications that match the work each person will do on your project.

3. Which customers like us can we speak to?

Reviews on the directory are contributed by community members and published unfiltered, good and bad. Salesforce does not describe them as verified, so read them as a starting point. Half an hour with a customer who has lived through a project with the firm often tells you more than a listing.

A strong answer: two or three customers in the Gulf or a comparable market, in your industry or close to it, live within the last two years, where you can speak to the business owner as well as IT.

The team and the method

4. Who will work on our project, from where, and for how much of their time?

The people who present the proposal are not always the people who deliver it. Ask for names, roles, locations and the share of each person’s time. Ask to meet the solution architect before you sign, and to have those people named in the contract, with an agreed process if one of them has to be replaced.

A strong answer: a named architect and lead consultant, their allocation in writing, and replacement terms you can live with.

5. What will we have in our hands at the end of discovery?

A useful test: could you give the discovery output to a different partner and get a comparable quote for the build? If the answer is no, discovery was a series of workshops. Ask what documents you will own when it ends, and whether there is a point where you can change scope or stop before the build starts.

A strong answer: process maps for the work in scope, a solution design, a data model, an integration design, a prioritized backlog with estimates and a list of risks, followed by a formal decision point.

6. How will you move and clean our data?

In our experience, migration is the line in a proposal that deserves the hardest look. Ask who maps the data, who signs the mapping off, how many trial loads are planned and how results are reconciled. Ask how duplicates will be caught during the move and afterwards, with Salesforce’s duplicate and matching rules. In the Gulf, ask how names and addresses held in Arabic and in English will be stored and matched, because the same customer often exists in both.

A strong answer: your data owners sign the mapping, at least one full trial load runs before cutover, reconciliation reports are written for business readers, and there is a plan for bilingual records.

7. How do you test, and who signs off?

Salesforce will not deploy Apex code to production unless unit tests cover at least 75% of it and every test passes. That is the floor the platform enforces. It says nothing about whether the solution does what your teams need. Ask for the test strategy: what is tested, by whom, in which environment and in which language, and what happens when Salesforce ships each of its three releases a year, in spring, summer and winter. If AI agents are in scope, ask how conversations are tested before launch and again after every change.

A strong answer: a written test strategy, user acceptance testing run by your people in both languages, a regression pack that is rerun for every release, and sign-off criteria agreed before testing starts.

Language, place and paperwork

8. Can you run the project in Arabic?

If your users work in Arabic, the workshops, the user acceptance testing and the training should happen in Arabic too. Delivery in Arabic also means translated labels and picklist values, right-to-left pages in customer portals, Arabic email, SMS and WhatsApp templates, and knowledge articles written by people who write Arabic well. Ask who checks the Arabic before customers see it.

A strong answer: Arabic-speaking consultants named in the plan, bilingual work they can show you, and a named Arabic reviewer for anything a customer will read.

9. Where is your team, and who will be on site?

Salesforce’s own guidance for buyers asks if you want a local company to work side by side with you, or help across offices in several countries. Both are reasonable. What matters is that the answer fits how you work: workshops in person, go-live support in your time zone, and people who can be in the room when a steering committee needs them. Ask which legal entity will sign the contract.

A strong answer: a contracting entity that meets your procurement rules, a clear split of on-site and remote work, and support hours that match your working week.

10. Are you registered as a supplier where we buy?

Government and many semi-government buyers contract through a procurement platform, and suppliers have to be registered on it to bid. In Saudi Arabia that platform is Etimad, which the Ministry of Finance launched in 2018 to bring government tenders and procurement onto one platform. Abu Dhabi Government entities share one centralized supplier registration on SAP Ariba. In Dubai, bidders register on the designated eProcurement system, such as eSupply. Private companies run their own vendor onboarding, which can take time.

A strong answer: registration evidence for the entity that will sign, checked before the shortlist so it does not surface at contract stage.

After go-live

11. What happens after go-live?

Go-live is when users start to find what the design missed. Ask how long hypercare lasts, who answers support requests, in which language and during which hours, and how each Salesforce release will be tested in your org before it arrives. Salesforce’s new programme rewards partners across the whole lifecycle, with payouts linked to what customers actually use, so it is fair to ask how a partner will drive adoption and how it will report on it.

A strong answer: a defined hypercare period, a support model with response times, a release calendar and adoption measures agreed at the start.

12. How will you make us independent of you?

Good partners plan their own exit. Ask how knowledge moves to your team: documentation, admin training, recorded sessions, code in your own repository, and the access you need to run the org without them. Ask when your administrators will start doing the work while the partner watches.

A strong answer: a handover plan with dates and owners, documentation your team can maintain, and your administrators running a release before the partner steps back.

How to check what you are told

What the partner tells you	Where to check it
Tier (Select or Summit)	Ask the firm to confirm its current tier in writing, and check its directory listing if a tier appears there.
Competencies and level	The listing’s Competencies tab, which gives the level (Accredited or Expert), eligible projects, average CSAT and certifications for each competency
Projects delivered	The listing’s project count, and the eligible projects shown for each competency
Individual certifications	Trailhead credential verification and each person’s Trailblazer profile
Customer satisfaction	Average CSAT on the Competencies tab, listing reviews (unfiltered community input) and your own reference calls
Supplier registration	Evidence from Etimad, the Abu Dhabi supplier registration on SAP Ariba, Dubai eSupply or your own vendor system
Local presence	The commercial registration or trade licence of the entity that will sign

Signs to slow down

Any one of these can have an innocent explanation, so ask about it directly before you sign.

A proposal that names no one.
A discovery phase with no deliverables listed.
A fixed commitment on an open scope, or a proposal resting on a long list of assumptions.
No questions about your data during the sales process.
References that are all on different products, or all in markets unlike yours.
A team that cannot run a workshop in Arabic when your users work in Arabic.

Scoring the answers

Score each answer from 0 to 3, where 0 means no answer and 3 means an answer with evidence you have checked. Agree before the first meeting which questions carry the most weight for your project. For a portal for citizens, that might be Arabic delivery and supplier registration. For a contact centre rollout, the team and the testing. Writing the weights down first keeps the scoring honest when one presentation is more polished than the others.

About Arcsen. We are a Salesforce Summit partner with teams in Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha and Cairo, and we will answer all twelve questions in writing. Get in touch, or start with the free Salesforce Health Check if you want a written view of your org before you brief anyone.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Salesforce partner tiers in 2026?

Under the programme Salesforce announced on 2 March 2026, the consulting track has two tiers, Select and Summit. They replace the earlier Base, Ridge, Crest and Summit tiers. Summit kept its name, so confirm a firm’s tier is current.

What replaced Salesforce Partner Navigator?

Competencies. Salesforce turned 170 Navigator distinctions into 28 competencies, each with two levels, Accredited and Expert, measured on certifications, completed projects and customer satisfaction.

How do I verify a Salesforce consultant’s certifications?

Use the credential verification tool on Trailhead and search by full name, given name first. Ask for the person’s Trailblazer profile link as well, because Arabic names are spelled several ways in English and the profile shows whether each certification is active.

Do we need a Summit partner?

Not always. For most projects the competencies for your products, the named team and recent, comparable references matter more than the tier. Scale counts most on large, multi-cloud or multi-country programmes.

Where do we find Salesforce consulting partners now?

In the partner directory on AgentExchange, which since April 2026 combines AppExchange, Slack Marketplace and Salesforce’s agent marketplace. The consulting partner finder is at appexchange.salesforce.com/consulting.

Should we choose a local or a global Salesforce partner?

It depends on how you work. A partner with people in your country helps with in-person workshops, Arabic delivery, support hours and government supplier registration. A partner with offices in several countries helps with multi-country rollouts. Many Gulf organizations need both, so ask where each named person sits.

Free Salesforce health check

A scored report on your whole Salesforce org in ten working days, with no change to your live site. It is yours to keep, whichever partner you choose.

Request the health check →or talk to the team

Sources

Omar Mansour

Omar leads consulting at Arcsen and works with executive sponsors on business cases, roadmaps and multi-year programmes on Salesforce and Sitecore. 11x Salesforce certified, with an MBA.