Why Salesforce is more than just a “sales” tool

Salesforce might have the word “sales” in it’s name but there is more to it than that. From sales and marketing to service and employee collaboration, it can help improve your business in many ways.

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a cloud-based platform that focuses on the customer. In slightly more technical terms, it’s a software  platform often referred to as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. It provides you a set of tools to manage your business more effectively, interact with your customers, collaborate with your team, automate business processes, and so much more.

If you have a business challenge, odds are good that the Salesforce Platform, along with a good consultant, can help you better manage it.

With access to the platform anytime, from anywhere, through your smartphone, tablet or computer, you always have access to key information needed to effectively manage the customer experience. Yes, that includes not just your sales processes but also your service and marketing processes, revenue stream, and employee performance. And if that doesn’t cover it, the platform can be customized to address any other area of your business such as finance, human capital, and scheduling.

One of Salesforce’s key features is its group of business applications which makes it easier and more convenient to conduct business and manage your relationship with customers. Here are some examples of what you can do with Salesforce:

• Create a 360 degree view of everything happening with your customer
• Identify and nurture prospective customers
• Interact with your customers in real time
• Manage your key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Solve customer issues easily and effectively
• Enhance your employees’ efficiency
• Gain efficiency by automating business processes

This list is just the tip of the iceberg. There is something for every type of business at Salesforce; even non-profits can leverage the tools to keep up with members, volunteers, contributors and other constituents.

Increase satisfaction

Gaining your customers’ trust and loyalty is not an easy feat. It is not enough to have high-quality products or services, your ability to promote and support them must also be top-notch.

With the Marketing Cloud or Pardot, you can effectively segment and target your prospects.  Engage them on a customer journey both before, during and after the sale. These are great tools to build your brand and increase loyalty.

With Service Cloud or Desk.com, its customer service apps, you will be able to provide quick, helpful support. Think: 24/7 customer service support and seamless transactions. Provide your customer self-service tools like Knowledge, and the ability interact with your team or other customers using the Community Cloud.

By presenting what your prospects want, at the right time, and continuing the customer first focus through ongoing high quality service, you will develop life-long customer satisfaction.

Work smarter

Technology has made our lives more convenient and that’s a third of what the CRM business strategy is all about; the other two are people and process. The range of tools and services that Salesforce offers target productivity and efficiency for your business. With Salesforce, even the most complex business processes, such as these, can be customized:

• • Identifying leads and tracking them from inception to the closing of the deal
  • Tracking everything from ordering parts, manufacturing to order fulfilment
  • Track quality and compliance results
  • Manage the complexity of scheduling service calls

CRM solutions based on your business needs

No matter how small or large, young or mature your company is, Salesforce can have a profound impact on your business.

Every business situation is unique and an effective design can help insure successful Salesforce deployment.

One of my small business customers once told me: “You and Salesforce saved our business.” Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration but I’ve seen it happen over and over. The impact of a good implementation cannot be over stated. Start with a small project and test it out.

That’s the impact these award-winning tools can have. If you’re ready to see positive change in your organization, then take a serious look at the Salesforce Platform of products. And if you’re already using Salesforce and only managing your sales data, then I hope I’ve shown you how you can more fully leverage your investment.

If you want to learn more about how to effectively use Salesforce, sign up for a free consultation and we can talk about your specific needs. Let’s begin solving your business challenges today.