Salesforce CRM Review

Overview

Salesforce has established itself as a leading CRM, often serving as the benchmark against which competitors are measured. As a comprehensive solution, it allows you to manage leads, contacts, customers, and more, helping you optimize your efforts to close more opportunities. For businesses seeking an all-in-one CRM, Salesforce offers a robust set of features and an extensive range of capabilities to meet diverse needs.

Salesforce provides extensive customization and integration options. Although setting it up can be complex, the platform offers substantial support to help with the process. You can achieve almost any desired customization for your CRM needs. Additionally, Salesforce integrates with over 1,000 other platforms, giving you a wide range of possibilities for connecting it with other software solutions you may be using.

How it works?

Salesforce emphasizes customizing your sales pipeline to fit your exact needs or vision, allowing the platform to adapt to your processes rather than requiring you to adjust to it. While this flexibility can be a great asset for sales teams, it can also be challenging for those responsible for setting it up.

The true strength of Salesforce lies in its ability to align the CRM precisely with your unique sales pipelines. This allows you to go beyond individual touchpoints, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the entire sales cycle and overall process, while also tracking performance at any given moment.

Salesforce leverages both its power and the complexity of its setup by offering numerous “add-ons” that can significantly raise your overall costs. Most businesses require assistance with CRM customization when opting for Salesforce, and if you need extra functionality from other Salesforce products, your expenses can escalate quickly.

The sales process for these add-ons can also be time-consuming, as you’ll need to obtain a personalized quote. Similarly, implementing the software and ensuring the customizations are properly set up can take a considerable amount of time. It’s ideal to have an internal implementation team that can manage a significant portion of the customization work.

Unlike many other CRM options, Salesforce doesn’t provide a free version. It’s designed for businesses prepared to advance and enhance their sales teams. However, the company does offer a trial version where you can explore the platform using preloaded data or data you upload yourself.

Features and Capabilities

Salesforce provides a range of features from basic lead management to sophisticated workflows and sales pipeline customizations. Though it may not be the easiest CRM to use, it can be one of the most intuitive, especially if you utilize the full suite of tools available. Let’s explore how the major features compare and how each functions.

Once Salesforce is properly configured, training users to navigate the software is relatively straightforward. However, the customization process can be challenging, and the platform is not always the most user-friendly. The complexity of the sales pipeline can further complicate the software’s usability. As a result, Salesforce does not rank highly on our list of easy-to-use CRMs.

Customization

A major advantage of Salesforce is its extensive customization capabilities for your sales pipeline. While many CRMs struggle with adapting to specific pipelines, Salesforce stands out as one of the most customizable options available, allowing for tailored adjustments to meet your needs.

Automation

Salesforce provides a wide array of automation options beyond just automatic lead assignment. The workflows are highly customizable and can be tailored to meet your specific requirements. To support continuous improvement, Salesforce offers a developer sandbox for your tech team to test and refine these features.

Integrations

Salesforce’s extensive range of third-party integration options makes it an ideal choice for those who need to combine multiple solutions. With over 3,000 integrations available, you can easily search for add-ons or platforms to enhance your processes and seamlessly integrate them into your Salesforce environment.

Salesforce integrates with a wide range of leading platforms, from marketing automation tools to scheduling software. Popular integrations include Slack, Calendly, DocuSign, QuickBooks, LinkedIn, HubSpot, and many others. For more details on available integrations, you can explore the Salesforce AppExchange.

Other Tools

Salesforce provides basic lead management tools similar to other CRMs, but its capabilities extend far beyond that. It’s one of the most comprehensive tools available today, boasting a range of standout features:

• Quoting
• Contracting
• Customized reports
• Customized dashboard
• Forecast management
• Advanced permissions
• Pipeline management
• Lead auto-assignment
• Mass emailing
• Marketing campaign management

If a specific feature is not available, there’s a strong possibility that it can be developed to integrate seamlessly with the existing toolset.

Salesforce provides a variety of products that integrate seamlessly with its CRM, including a marketing tool that automates customer journeys and email campaigns, and a fully customizable customer support solution. If you’re seeking an all-in-one platform for your software needs, Salesforce may be an ideal choice due to its comprehensive suite of offerings.

A popular use of Salesforce is lead capture from the marketing pipeline. The platform includes web-to-lead capture with every pricing plan, allows for mass emailing, and enables you to manage and track marketing campaigns across all channels.

Pricing

Let’s review the pricing and features for each of the current Salesforce plans available. While we’ll focus on the benefits of Sales Cloud, it’s worth noting that Salesforce offers other products as well.

Starter

Starting Price (per User per Month): $25

Number of Users: Unlimited

The Starter plan provides access to many valuable features at the lowest price point. However, it lacks some of the advanced analytics reporting, team collaboration, and automation features available in higher-tier plans. This plan is ideal for those who want to test the platform and assess whether it meets their needs.

Professional

Starting Price (per User per Month): $80

Number of Users: Unlimited

The Professional plan does not include lead scoring, a significant omission. However, it builds on the Starter plan by adding team collaboration features and forecast management tools, which enhance the accuracy of your forecasts and allow for customizable KPIs.

Enterprise

Starting Price (per User per Month): $165

Number of Users: Unlimited

The Enterprise plan represents a substantial upgrade in features. It allows you to assign specific collaborators to each individual deal and enhances pipeline management with tools such as pipeline inspection, opportunity scoring, deal insights, and waterfall charts.

Unlimited

Starting Price (per User per Month): $330

Number of Users: Unlimited

The Unlimited plan includes all features offered by Salesforce, with lead scoring being a standout addition that contributes to its popularity. This plan also provides access to the developer pro sandbox for your tech team, as well as Salesforce Meetings, which gives sales reps a comprehensive view of all aspects related to a single meeting.

Unlimited+

The Unlimited+ plan includes all the features of the Unlimited plan, along with additional capabilities such as performance management, enablement, and team collaboration via Slack. It also offers the ability to connect Salesforce with external data through Data Cloud and Revenue Intelligence.

Help and Support

Salesforce provides 24/7 customer service through telephone and live chat. You can also submit a ticket or contact request via a web form and expect a response within 48 hours. For support, you can chat with an expert or call:

• Singapore: 800 1301 448
• Hong Kong: 800 967 655
• International: +65 6302 5700

For Spanish or Portuguese support, please reach out between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

Bottomline

Salesforce CRM is a top-tier platform known for its versatility in addressing a wide range of sales automation needs across various industries. It’s particularly suited for large or growing businesses and sales teams that require a highly customizable solution. With over 20 years in the industry, Salesforce also offers an extensive range of integrations.

As a leading industry standard, many businesses experiment with Salesforce CRM at different stages of their development, often returning to it after trying other solutions. In this review, we will explore the reasons behind its widespread use, highlighting both its strengths and potential drawbacks that might influence your decision to use it for your sales team.