Paul Higgins Podcast

Paul Higgins

If you’re a SaaS Consulting Partner earning low to mid six figures—and wearing every hat from sales to delivery—this podcast is your shortcut to scaling smarter. Each week, I talk to successful Partners of Salesforce, Zoho, NetSuite, Monday.com, and HubSpot partners who’ve cracked the code to bigger deals, better systems, and more freedom. No fluff. Just sharp lessons from the field. Subscribe and join 600+ episodes of real, raw, and proven advice for SaaS Consulting Partners ready to scale 7 figures and beyond.

  1. FEB 26

    668 - Stop Waiting for Salesforce Leads with Doug Pelletier

    Why you should listen Doug Pelletier has spent 35 years winning enterprise accounts (Disney, Pfizer, Xerox) as a small Salesforce partner, proving that company size is irrelevant when your positioning and sales approach are right.Learn why Doug hired a General Manager at just six employees, and how that single WHO decision helped him scale to 130 people without burning out on tasks outside his strengths.Get Doug's approach to managing cash flow daily (a discipline he's maintained for 17 years) and why he says cash flow matters more than profitability for consulting firm owners. About Doug Pelletier Doug Pelletier is the Founder and CEO of Trifecta Technologies, a technology consulting firm he launched in 1991 that has grown into a trusted Salesforce and enterprise solutions partner for leading organizations. A sales- and strategy-led founder, Doug focuses on identifying real business problems, building executive relationships, and hiring strong operational leadership early – allowing him to concentrate on growth, client strategy, and selling. His leadership is shaped by decades of experience and a strong emphasis on financial discipline and long-term stability. Having gone through multiple industry shifts, Doug views AI as a major inflection point and leads Trifecta in helping organizations move beyond the hype to apply data, architecture and AI in practical ways that drive meaningful business outcomes. Resources and Links Trifecta.comDoug’s LinkedIn profileSnowflakeDatabricksApolloZoominfoPrevious episode: 667 - The Land-and-Expand PlayCheck out more episodes of the Paul Higgins PodcastSubscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoringJoin our newsletterSuggested resources

    33 min
  2. FEB 12

    665 - AI Does 70% of the Work and Here’s What a Salesforce Partner Does With the Other 30 with Ferny Bengali

    Why you should listen Ferny reveals how Sherpaneer uses AI across operations, from capacity planning models to proposal development, giving you a practical blueprint for integrating AI into your own consulting workflows.Learn how Ferny and her partner built a fully self-sourced pipeline through reciprocal partnerships with adjacent vendors like Gong, Clari, and FinancialForce, without relying on Salesforce for leads.Get Ferny's approach to managing AI tools across a team, including shared projects in Claude, an internal AI use policy, and a quarterly review cycle to keep everything current. You know you should be using AI in your consulting practice, but where do you actually start without compromising client data or wasting time on tools that don't stick? In this episode, I talk with Ferny Bengali from Sherpaneer, a boutique Salesforce consultancy that works with enterprise clients across high-tech, financial services, manufacturing, and healthcare. Ferny walks me through exactly how her team of 12 uses AI day to day, from feeding anonymized staffing data into models for capacity planning, to using voice notes and LLMs to prep for pitches. We also get into how she structures client knowledge across projects, her approach to AI-optimized content for SEO, and why she hired a part-time BD person instead of going full-time. If you've been experimenting with AI but haven't operationalized it across your practice yet, this conversation will show you what that looks like in action. About Ferny Bengali Farnaz (Ferny) Bengali is Co-President of Sherpaneer, a women-owned, diverse Salesforce consulting partner that helps mid-to-large organizations implement the right way, the first time. With 20+ years of industry experience—including leadership roles at MicroStrategy, Accenture, and The Carlyle Group—Ferny chose the boutique path over big consulting, building a practice that delivers senior-level expertise without the agency bloat. She's also a board member of WISE (Women in Salesforce Entrepreneurship), co-invests in hospitality through Dogwood Hospitality, and is passionate about using AI as an operating layer to scale consulting without scaling headcount. Resources and Links Sherpaneer.comFerny's LinkedIn profileRead.aiNotebook LMScribeChatGPTClaudeGoogle GeminiMicrosoft CopilotCoachHubCloverleafResearch RabbitZetyGrammarlyQuickBooksGongClariCertiniaAzureGoogle WorkspacePrevious episode: 664 - Stop celebrating your referralsCheck out more episodes of The Paul Higgins PodcastJoin our newsletterSuggested resourcesFind out more about Paul and how he can help you

    31 min
  3. JAN 29

    662 - How to Build an AI Strategy That Actually Works with Christine Duque

    Why you should listen Christine Duque, former Big Four consultant and CEO of Alonsera, shares why only 10% of global companies are seeing real impact from AI, and what separates the successful ones from the rest.Learn Christine's "Three A's" framework for making AI consumable: Automated, Anticipatory, and Augmented intelligence, plus how to progress toward autonomous operations.Get practical guidance on structuring AI transformation committees and coaching executive sponsors to drive cross-organizational buy-in. Feeling pressure to "do something with AI" but unsure where to start without wasting budget or burning out your team? In this episode, I talk with Christine Duque, CEO of Alonsera and former Big Four consultant who now helps mid-market companies in highly regulated industries navigate AI implementation. We dig into why most AI initiatives fail before they even launch, and it's not the technology. Christine explains why treating AI like a silver bullet creates more chaos than progress, and what the 10% of companies getting real results are doing differently. If you're tired of the hype and want a grounded perspective on what AI adoption actually requires, this conversation cuts through the noise. About Christine Duque Christine Duque is CEO of Alonsera, a global AI consultancy helping organizations deploy AI solutions that actually scale. With executive experience at Accenture, Deloitte, and IBM, she's overseen $2B+ in AI and digital transformation projects for Fortune 50/100/500 companies—delivering results like 70% faster data ingestion and 30-50% customer engagement efficiency gains. A sought-after speaker on ethical AI and digital transformation, Christine is actively shaping international AI standards through partnerships with Oxford University and UC Irvine. She authored the Amazon best-seller Walking in My Shoes: Shattering Glass Ceilings in Corporate America and co-founded the Women's Empowerment AI Network. An accomplished operatic soprano, she debuted at Carnegie Hall. Resources and Links Duquesacd.comAlonsera.comChristine's LinkedIn profileChristine on Instagram: @christineduqueChristine on Facebook: Christine DuqueChristine on TikTok: @duquesacdYoutube Channel: Christine DuqueChristine’s book: Walking In My Shoes: Shattering Glass Ceilings in Corporate AmericaPrevious episode: 661 - How Long Should You Stick With Your Consulting Niche?Check out more episodes of The Paul Higgins PodcastJoin our newsletterSuggested resourcesFind out more about Paul and how he can help you

    39 min
5
out of 5
36 Ratings

About

If you’re a SaaS Consulting Partner earning low to mid six figures—and wearing every hat from sales to delivery—this podcast is your shortcut to scaling smarter. Each week, I talk to successful Partners of Salesforce, Zoho, NetSuite, Monday.com, and HubSpot partners who’ve cracked the code to bigger deals, better systems, and more freedom. No fluff. Just sharp lessons from the field. Subscribe and join 600+ episodes of real, raw, and proven advice for SaaS Consulting Partners ready to scale 7 figures and beyond.

You Might Also Like