As the “world’s #1 CRM,” many know Salesforce as just that, a customer relationship management solution. At a fundamental level, many organizations use Salesforce as a CRM tool that allows them to capture inbound leads and move them through the sales funnel until they have reached the point of sales and marketing success – a closed deal.
However, what many don’t realize is that Salesforce is much more than a CRM. When leveraged strategically, Salesforce becomes not only a tool for closing deals but for nurturing your clients throughout their entire lifespan with your organization.
To help you maximize Salesforce for your organization and cater specifically to your organization’s needs, we have put together an overview of the Salesforce product you can take advantage of to scale your organization’s Salesforce.5 Levels of Salesforce MaturitySalesforce offers several different clouds with dynamic features that help you further support your customers along their journey and make operations easier for your internal organization. Whether you’re looking to ramp up your sales pipeline, expand your marketing efforts, or build out your customer service experience, Salesforce has a range of solutions to choose from. Let’s look at each of them briefly.Sales CloudOne of the core product offerings that Salesforce has is Sales Cloud. This is a great place to start ramping up your Salesforce instance. It includes several different features that can help support the growth of your sales funnel and make sales operations and processes easier and more efficient.Contact Management: Gain a full view of your customers and their major touchpoints, including activity history, communications, and internal discussions on each contact. This comprehensive contact view allows for more informed decision-making when engaging with contacts and determining their sales journey.
Opportunity Management: Maintain a clear view of potential opportunities through a competitive lens, as well as see the stage of the deal and how the deal can be won.
Sales Forecasting: See the entirety of the sales pipeline and gain valuable data insights that allow you to make strategic data-driven decisions.
Process Automation: Remove manual, time-consuming tasks by easily building and automating processes that help users work with Salesforce more efficiently.
CPQ: Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software allows you to determine accurate pricing in any product configuration scenario. This allows you to get quotes to potential clients and customers faster and helps you be more competitive.
Service Cloud
Also known as Service Cloud 360, this cloud offering is focused on helping your team achieve industry-leading customer service management through unified channel management. There are two primary parts to Service Cloud 360:Digital service: Digital interactions are critical for your customers considering that digital channels are predominantly where customers are gathering information on potential services and products. Centrally manage all your digital interactions and reach your customers on the channels they use most using Service Cloud 360. Even leverage the power of AI to chat and interact with your customers on these channels.Field service: Sometimes interactions need to go beyond the screen and into the field. Features such as the field service app provide access both online and offline. You can also ensure that the appropriate person is being scheduled for the job that is requested by a customer.Experience CloudSometimes referred to as the “Community Cloud,” the Experience Cloud is an all-in-one cloud experience. With Experience Cloud, you can create digital experiences that are specifically attuned to both your organization’s needs and those of your customers, while also providing a centralized hub for all your data.
Choose the experiences that you want to focus on developing, such as customer service, account portals, a centralized experience for partners, or even build your own customized experience. Given the varying options, Experience Cloud may be best suited for organizations with very specific needs and a strong understanding of what those needs are.Marketing CloudMuch like sales, marketing is a cornerstone of many businesses, since it helps reach customers where they are and introduces them to your brand in a way that accurately speaks to their needs and pain points – if done effectively. With Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you can easily build your marketing experience to cater to the specific needs of your entire audience. Some key features of the Marketing Cloud include:Digital studio experiences: Email Studio, Mobile Studio, and Social Studio are all tools you can use to ensure that your customers are having personalized and distinct experiences via email, mobile, and social platforms. Each of these channels requires a particular approach and form of communication, making back-end customization critical.
Journey Builder: With Journey Builder, you can create one-to-one customer journeys for more personalized and authentic marketing experiences for each of your customers.
Datorama: Not only does this feature have a fun name, but it also allows you to experience your data in a fun new way. Leverage a singular platform to house all your marketing data, investments, KPIs, and decisions.
Salesforce CDP: And get even more clarity into your data with the Salesforce customer data platform (CDP), which allows you to easily segment and analyze all your data.IntegrationsIt’s also important to mention the integration capabilities that come with Salesforce. Integrations are key because users are accessing a multitude of apps and solutions every day in order to get their work done. Just a few common Salesforce integrations include:
- Slack
- DocuSign
- AppExchange
- ERP
This is just a small sampling of the integrations you can set up with Salesforce. The app integrations you choose for your organization’s Salesforce will depend on the apps that are most valuable and utilized within your organization.Go Beyond Traditional CRMAs you can see, Salesforce allows you to create a solution that truly speaks to how your business operates and the needs of both your employees and your customers. No matter which avenue (or avenues) you choose with Salesforce, the value is in the ability to choose your own path. Between sales, marketing, customer service, and data management, Salesforce provides a wide swath of options to choose from.
With such an array of options, it’s helpful to lean on an experienced Salesforce team like the one at Affirma. Learn more about how Affirma can help support your Salesforce maturity progression.
