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Partner Interview Series: Jessica Langelaan of Traction on Demand

Zak Pines
November 7, 2019
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Min Read

Our VP of Partnerships Zak Pines recently sat down with Jessica Langelaan, VP of Nonprofit Solutions at Traction on Demand, as part of our ongoing Partner Interview Series. Zak and Jessica had a far-ranging conversation that touched on nonprofit technology trends, how nonprofits can best engage their constituents, and making nonprofit program applications more dynamic. Here’s an abridged transcript of the chat.

Background on Traction on Demand

Zak: Can you start by telling me about Traction on Demand?

Jessica: Traction on Demand is a Salesforce implementation firm with over 700 people across North America, a growing team in India, and a small outpost in Australia. We’re one of North America’s largest dedicated Salesforce consulting and application development firms, and we’re an incredible partner to organizations looking to make the move from their current system to Salesforce.

Zak: What is your role, Jessica?

Jessica: I lead our nonprofit practice. Typically, nonprofits are moving from point systems to Salesforce as their platform to manage their constituent relationships, fundraising, communication, and mission execution.

Zak: How is Traction on Demand organized into teams?

Jessica: We have vertical practices within our commercial team, in addition to the nonprofit team. We also have teams focused on specific areas of Salesforce—for example, Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, and Field Services.

We marry the industry expertise found in our vertical practices with the Salesforce technology expertise to help our customers.

Personalizing the Experience When Engaging With Nonprofits

Zak: Do you recall when you first started working with Formstack?

Jessica: It’s been several years. As I learned about what the product does, I saw an opportunity for the impact it could have for our customers.

I could collect information into a Google Sheet, but then what do I do with it?

It’s far better to use Salesforce as that single view of your customer and use Formstack to continually collect data into Salesforce. And by doing that, you have a view of your constituents, and you can put constituents through experiences where they feel like you know them. We can meet them where they are and build around that.

Zak: So it sounds like Formstack helps you create more value in Salesforce by using it to first capture data into Salesforce, and then ensuring that data is remembered for future interactions?

Jessica: Correct. We don’t want to create more data silos. We want to use Salesforce as the home for all of the data for that customer. By having the data there, and the ability to easily prefill data or make data-driven forms, we help our customers create a more personalized experience for their constituents.

Zak: How do you think about using Formstack for Salesforce for nonprofit forms vs. other ways to do it?

Jessica: It helps customers in multiple ways. It’s simple enough, because it’s a Salesforce app, that a customer who is wearing multiple hats can manage it and make changes. They can own their own tech stack. It’s the right balance between capabilities and ease of use.

Jessica Langelaan of Traction on Demand discusses Formstack Salesforce App ease of use for nonprofits.


Zak: You probably know a whole bunch of use cases for how nonprofits are collecting data into their Salesforce. Can you share some examples?

Jessica: There’s application forms. There’s the whole programmatic side of the business, where you are engaging with people. Do you qualify to be part of this program?

So maybe you start by expressing interest and learn a little bit about someone. Then you direct them to the right program, but you don’t need to ask them to re-supply information you already know about them. Then as they are qualified for a program, you may want to steer them in one direction or the other, based on rules.

It may or may not be the right program for them, or maybe there’s a different program that’s a better fit. So now as they fill out a form and you learn about them, you can guide them correctly around what is most appropriate based on who they are.

You can help people in a more real-time manner vs. having them have to fill out information and then wait to hear back from you after you review what they have submitted. With Formstack for Salesforce, it’s a much more dynamic, engaged experience for the program participant. So there’s a lot of value there in saving people time and being respectful.

Zak: I love that picture you painted in terms of making it a much more dynamic back-and-forth with an applicant for a program—that you are serving up the right options for them. We also hear about recurring data collection use cases, where there’s some automation to follow up on a regular cadence. Are you seeing opportunity there as well with the nonprofits you’re working with?

Jessica: Absolutely. It could be monthly surveys to understand how a program is going for the participants. There are a lot of mentorship programs where we want to learn how it’s progressing for the mentor and mentee on a monthly basis. And that could be through email, or it could be the form goes to a case manager to guide them and they are filling it in themselves—we also see that happening.

Lightning Round

Zak: Alright, Jessica, we made it to the lightning round. I’ll ask you a few quick questions to wrap up. What are some of your favorite hobbies or personal interests?

Jessica: Anything outdoors. Hiking. Biking. Swimming.

Zak: What’s your favorite productivity tip?

Jessica: I’m a big fan of turning off all notifications. You don’t need the little bubble that shows every new message. Don’t let the tools dictate your workflow for how you get work done.

Zak: What’s your favorite TV show?

Jessica: I tend to be late to the game on shows. We just started watching “Game of Thrones.” We did the same thing with “Lost.” We’re out of the loop by about eight years [laughs].

Zak: Do you have a go-to lunch during the workday?

Jessica: Gyro pita is my favorite.

Zak: A bit of a debate within Formstack: Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Jessica: No. I’ve never thought about it as a sandwich.

Zak: OK, this has been great. Thanks so much, Jessica.

Looking for your next step? Check out Formstack’s partner program for consultants, agencies, and tech partners.

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Zak Pines
Zak is the VP of Partnerships at Formstack, where he focuses on growing agency, consultant, and technology partnerships for the company. He's been creating, marketing, and selling SaaS products for two decades.
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