Why Do You Need Salesforce In 2022 & Beyond
Introduction
Salesforce is a sales and marketing automation platform used by companies of all sizes to manage their sales, marketing, service, and support. The USP of Salesforce is that it allows businesses to manage the customer relationship from a single platform and hence make the sales process more efficient.
If you have just started out in the world of business, you might find yourself wondering why on earth do companies need Salesforce to begin with? You may ask yourself whether this system is really necessary and if it would be a good idea to introduce one in your company.
Therefore, this blog post covers the following information:
- About Salesforce, the Company
- What is Salesforce?
- What does Salesforce do?
- Example of Salesforce in action
- Top 15 Reasons on Why You Need Salesforce
- Other Reasons to Use Salesforce
- Conclusion
About Salesforce, the Company
Salesforce, a company that develops cloud-based software and services, is an application service provider (ASP) with a customer relationship management (CRM) focus. The company’s products are designed to help businesses manage their sales and marketing functions in a more efficient and effective manner.
Fig.1 shows the key features of Salesforce CRM (source)
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool that allows businesses to organize their sales process and provide the tools for sales reps to manage their leads and contacts.
The tool helps businesses manage sales and customer relationships in the cloud–as the company’s name is a play on words:
“Sales” are the force of business; “force” is what Salesforce does.
Fig.2 shows the objectives of Salesforce (source)
Salesforce offers a variety of configurable applications that are tailored to fit each company’s unique needs. It provides services including email, calendar, social networking, file sharing, customer support, and analytics. Through these services, companies can collect, track, analyze and act upon data all in one place.
Salesforce is an integrated cloud-based platform that focuses on improving productivity with teamwork and collaboration. It increases employee communication and collaboration by making it possible to share information across departments as well as with clients, partners, and customers.
Salesforce has three different plans: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud. The Sales Cloud includes sales leads management and reporting features; Service Cloud includes case management features; the Marketing Cloud includes email marketing features such as drip campaigns, web personalization, and lead scoring.
What does Salesforce do?
Salesforce helps businesses process customer data, automate business activities such as marketing and customer service, and manage complex data.
The company has two core products: Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.
The Sales Cloud helps sales teams do things like close deals faster, track leads and opportunities, identify and create new opportunities, manage products and leads in real-time, and keep up with what’s going on across their companies.
Sales Cloud can also send notifications to users through email/text messages or via mobile push notifications as soon as a lead enters a certain stage in the sales pipeline, so they can get a head start on their next steps.
The Service Cloud helps companies keep track of customer requests by allowing service teams to log requests directly into the system from different channels (e.g. Social media, phone calls), assign those requests to specific team members based on skill sets, and assign the correct priority level (high/medium/low) to each request so they can be resolved quickly.
Fig.3 shows the types of clouds offered by Salesforce (source)
An example of Salesforce in action:
Salesforce isn’t just for high-tech corporations. Take, for example, the automotive industry which shows how this CRM program can benefit businesses of all sizes:
An XYZ showroom is a Detroit-based car manufacturer that has been using Salesforce for the past five years. It started out with a small team and now has grown to include nearly 20,000 employees globally.
➤ Salesforce has given them a way to manage their business that’s simple, intuitive, and scalable as they’ve grown over the years.
➤ They use the Sales Cloud to manage their incoming leads and opportunities, which helps keep all their team members up-to-date on each deal at every stage of the process.
➤ Salesforce’s Service Cloud ensures that XYZ showroom is always on top of their customers’ needs—from booking appointments to keeping records of maintenance history and even managing customer feedback by allowing customers to submit feedback directly into the system.
➤ The tool has also made it easy to track all of that information from the moment someone walks through the door until several years later if they ever decide to trade in their car for another one.
Now XYZ showroom has become one of the largest car manufacturers in North America, and they attribute much of that success to using Salesforce.
Fig.4 shows the primary objectives of Salesforce (source)
Top 15 Reasons On Why You Need Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the most important things you could want to implement in your business. It’s originally a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform and a lot of its features are focused on sales, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of other opportunities it offers. Check out how Salesforce is beneficial for leveraging today’s technology and growing your business.
1). Easy-to-Use CRM System
Sales reps can use Salesforce’s intuitive layout to keep track of customer details and orders without having to step away from their desk to look at a different screen. They’re able to see task details and collaboration opportunities on the same screen.
Sales reps can be more effective because they can track their progress in real-time, making sure they’re meeting goals laid out by their supervisors. The program also offers a unique view of customer data that allows sales reps to better understand individual clients and how best to service them.
This simple design allows sales reps to collaborate with teams on the same platform, making sure that everyone is aware of the most current update at all times. This also makes updating data much easier because there is no need for double-checking information.
2). Easy Customization
The biggest benefit of Salesforce is its ability to be customized. This means that salespeople and business owners alike are able to adjust or change any part of their business process, from the workflow to the way data is managed, to what information is accessible and how it is displayed.
Fig.5 shows Salesforce customization and configuration options (source)
Apex Code and Visualforce expertise might be needed for advanced customization, but point-and-click tools can be used for basic tasks like adding modules, shifting workflows, and creating sales strategies. And with customization capabilities from AppExchange, you can easily integrate apps into your system without breaking or losing data in one click.
With just a few clicks, you can:
- Search for modules on the AppExchange.
- Use point-and-click tools for easy integration.
- Create sales strategies with simple workflows.
- Connect apps with a single click.
- Develop a custom app with ease.
Not only can easy customization help you save time by avoiding manual work, but it can also reduce overhead costs, improve client retention rate, and grow your company’s growth rate.
3). It’s Multi-Tenant
Multi-tenancy is the benefit of Salesforce that allows multiple customers to use the same platform. With multi-tenancy, companies don’t have to worry about upgrades or changes within the platform and infrastructure. All of these things are handled by Salesforce, so businesses can focus on their core competency. The system is designed to be automated and seamless, allowing businesses to reap all of the benefits without having to adapt or change anything.
What’s so great about this?
Multi-tenancy allows small businesses to take advantage of Salesforce’s latest technology without being concerned about how it will affect their business or their budget. Businesses can focus on getting work done instead of worrying about how to manage data, perform upgrades, and handle new releases.
Because of multi-tenancy, businesses are able to receive higher security and better performance from their CRM software. They don’t have to worry about issues caused by not having enough space in the database or by resource imbalance. And because these issues are managed for them by Salesforce, businesses can get faster and more reliable service from their CRM software.
4). Fully-Functional Custom Cloud Solutions for Every Business
Salesforce’s amazing functionalities ensure you can cover every angle of your business and make sure that every step of your customer’s experience is smooth and efficient.
If you’re wondering what kind of organization can benefit from Salesforce’s functionality depth, we’d say there’s no right answer—it depends on your industry.
For example, Health Cloud is cool for doctors’ offices. Financial Cloud is great for banks. The Education Cloud is just as important for colleges. And the point-and-click alterations are ideal for non-profits.
Once you get going with Salesforce and start making changes to your configuration through their Force.com builder, it’s easy to see how customizable the platform is—you don’t have to settle for something that doesn’t fit your business. Instead, with ease and simplicity, you can make your own solutions for business!
The depth, breadth, and flexibility of its functionalities do not end here.
Say you’re running a business in the Education industry. You might have certain needs that are specific to your industry; for example, if you’re using Salesforce to keep track of your school’s student body, you might want specific fields related to high school diplomas and degrees to be separate from your college students’ data. Or if you happen to be a restaurant owner, you might need better-looking reporting capabilities than what other businesses could use in order to see how well each dish is selling.
The Force.com cloud was built with all these specifics in mind from the ground up, so it offers an incredible depth of functionality that can be tailored specifically for each specific business. This means that Salesforce can be used by any type of organization—and even for specific industries—without having to sacrifice the functionality that each business needs. This way, businesses can take full advantage of their specialized needs and further their success.
5). Real-Time Reporting
The Real-Time Reporting feature of Salesforce Lightning shows you what’s selling and what’s not. You can even watch your sales in real-time as they happen—it’s like a never-ending stream of revenue that you can tune into whenever you want.
What’s more, it’s easy on the eyes: Lightning displays your data in a sleek, intuitive interface that lets you do everything from filtering to sorting to highlighting with just a few clicks. That means no more clicking on the next page and then refreshing—it all happens LIVE.
Fig.6 shows real-time report by Salesforce for a call-center (source)
You’ll be able to use this new feature with any metric or combination of metrics that takes your fancy. You can create custom reports by just dragging and dropping fields into your view, or you can pick from standard reports like sales by territory, or even create your own alerts and notifications for when something big happens.
Let’s say your business has a sales team of 10 people who work with 75 companies. Each day, you have a report that tells you how many calls were made to each company, how many emails were sent to each company, and how much revenue was generated from each company. It sounds like a lot of data—but the problem is that you can’t see it all at once. You have to wait for the next day for your report. Then you have to wait for new data.
If you use Salesforce Lightning, though, you’d be able to see all of this information in real-time—which is so much easier than having to wait for page refreshing and for new data!
Fig.7 shows another real-time report example by Salesforce Lightning (source)
6). Scalable CRM
First, let’s talk about what scalability means. It refers to a company’s ability to grow and adapt as its business changes, while still providing its customers with the same high-quality service they’ve come to expect. In the world of CRM, this translates to being able to easily add both clients and staff members, as well as new offices or warehouses—all without affecting the customer experience.
Salesforce is known for being scalable and adaptable; it can grow with your company as you expand into new markets and bring in new clients. You’ll also be able to customize Salesforce for your unique business needs; there is a wide range of options in terms of modules and apps. And as your business continues to grow, you’ll be able to add new employees or new offices easily—you won’t have to worry about the performance of Salesforce slowing down or whether it will be able to keep up with future expansions.
From small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, Salesforce has been helping businesses better serve their customers by providing an adaptable and scalable platform for CRM (customer relationship management).
7). Mobile-Friendly
Salesforce is a pioneer in the mobile CRM space, and the platform is developed to be just as easy to use on a smartphone as it is on a desktop. They offer sales reps stable environments for managing all of their client info, contacts, and schedules. Sales reps can view reports, create documents, and send emails from their phone.
The mobile aspect of Salesforce is particularly beneficial to businesses because it ensures that sales reps have quick access to a wealth of information while they’re out in the field. If they need information about a client or an upcoming meeting, they can find it quickly and efficiently without having to go back to HQ if they’re on the road. This makes them more productive and efficient overall.
8). Open Integration with other Apps
Salesforce gives you the power to integrate its technology with other apps, services, and devices.
For example, you can integrate Salesforce with Google. On your website or app, you can automatically pull in customer data from Google and use it to set up custom reports. You could also integrate Salesforce’s reporting tools with Google Analytics to create customized dashboards for reporting on your website’s traffic or on your app’s user engagement.
Fig. 8 shows the Salesforce Integration structure (source)
Plus, there’s a marketplace for business apps called AppExchange. It has over 2,800 apps in it—and it includes Salesforce integrations with MailChimp, Xero, Quickbooks, and more. There are integrations for small businesses and enterprise companies too!
When it comes to integration, Salesforce has an API (application programming interface) that allows you to integrate apps like G-Connector and Klipfolio. With these tools integrated into Salesforce, you’ll have a one-stop shop for pulling in data from different sources into charts and graphs in order to provide better insights into your business.
9). Advanced Artificial Intelligence System
AI is the next big thing, and Salesforce is embracing it.
Salesforce has an AI called Einstein Analytics that can help businesses use their collected data to find insightful patterns and uncover hidden opportunities. It’s the key to extracting maximum value from Salesforce data. It’s also constantly improving: Einstein Analytics gets smarter as it analyzes more data, and Salesforce releases new versions with new features on a regular basis. A great example is the predictive analytics feature that lets you see how likely it is that a lead will convert into a closed deal.
The AI uses machine learning algorithms to find patterns in your data and then puts those insights right at your fingertips so you can make smarter business decisions faster than ever before. The new version even predicts how long certain sales processes will take so you can be prepared for any delays that might pop up.
Fig.9 shows an infographic displaying the features of Einstein Analytics AI (source)
10). Helps Track Customer Lifecycle
Businesses track all kinds of things, from the number of sales to the number of new customers they gain in a year. But guess what? Sometimes they don’t know where their customers fall in the customer lifecycle. And that’s why Salesforce has created a tool to help businesses track their customers’ progress throughout their journey with the company.
When you have a few key places for information on your customers—like Salesforce, for example—you can easily keep track of what stage your customer is at and make sure you’re communicating effectively with them. This means that you can use tools like social media and email campaigns to cater specifically to their needs and make sure you’re addressing them as soon as possible.
You can even build one-to-one customer journeys that target certain individuals based on what you know about them and what they’ve done on your website or at other touchpoints. And when it comes time for the sales team to close? You’ll be able to communicate clearly with the right people at the right time and use data to help guide your pitches.
For example, if one of your target markets has been showing interest in products X and Y, but not Z, then you can make sure that Z is brought up in their next sales interaction with you. Each step in this process is tracked by Salesforce, so you can see what exactly leads to a sale or customer loyalty.
Other Reasons to Use Salesforce
11). Continuous Improvements
Through the use of Salesforce, businesses are able to continually make changes and improve upon their business practices on a daily basis. Changes that would otherwise take weeks or months can now be made in a matter of minutes—or even seconds, depending on the update! This allows businesses to find new ways of improving and streamlining processes, which leads to higher customer retention rates and more sales opportunities.
12). Very Much Organized
Once you set up your Salesforce account, you will be able to keep track of all your vital information in one place—information like client data, contact lists, task updates, meeting notes, contracts, and more. And because it’s digital, you can access that information from anywhere at any time! That means no more lost information or miscommunication between team members as they fumble through stacks of files or notebooks in search of important missing details.
13). Productive Teamwork
Using Salesforce Chatter makes teamwork easier because it helps you to stay in touch with the people who matter most. Not only can you share files and documents with others in your company, but you also get notified when someone shares something with you, which allows you to stay in constant contact without cutting into valuable working hours.
Fig.10 shows how Salesforce Chatter enhances teamwork for better productivity (source)
14). 100% Security Guaranteed
Maybe you’ve been told that SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) is not secure, but this couldn’t be further from the truth! With Salesforce, you can rest easy knowing that your data is safe and sound.
Salesforce is a SaaS system. That means you don’t have to install any software on your computer. Your data is stored in the cloud—that means thousands of servers are backing up your stuff every second! Not only that, but each server has its own security team looking out for anyone who tries to get into your account without permission. Did we mention how flexible Salesforce is? Not only does it come with pre-installed security tools, but it’s also fully customizable and scalable for any size business. As a bonus, Salesforce keeps all of your data automatically backed up in case anything wrong happens to your online data.
15). Certification Program
Big data can be a pain to manage:
- It can be difficult to sort through all of it.
- You might not know where to start.
- You might feel overwhelmed.
But don’t worry! Salesforce has the perfect solution for you. With their Trailhead Program, you’ll learn how to sort through your big data and make sense of it all. It’s like an interactive choose-your-own-adventure story that lets you discover Salesforce’s features through fun and engaging learning content that’s been tailored to your needs, interests, and goals. When you’re done with the program, you’ll have several certifications under your belt—and some new friends in your community who are just as excited about Salesforce as you are!
Fig.11 shows the different certification levels of Trailhead Program (source)
Conclusion
There are plenty of reasons you need Salesforce, ranging from the time-saving automation to the built-in sales analytics that provides insights into your sales efforts. Whatever your needs may be, Salesforce offers a solution. And if you are not using it yet, it’s high time you started.
At BlueSkysol, we’ve been providing Salesforce service solutions for years, and we’re the best at it. Our company has been built from the ground up to provide optimal Salesforce services, and you can count on us to deliver every time. We provide everything that you need for your Salesforce platform—and we’ll even help you plan and implement it. We’re dedicated to ensuring that your company is able to leverage all of the features and benefits of your Salesforce solution so that you can run a smooth business without any hiccups or downtime.
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