Salesforce CRM Review

It is important that a business can collect as much information as they can about their leads. Salesforce CRM is hyped to be the best cloud solution to achieve that and much more. With features such as real-time analytics, cloud storage, and a wide array of integrations, it is impossible for a business to ignore it.

The CRM Salesforce statistics are impressive. The website reports that businesses that have used their product have seen a 37% increase in revenue on average. Areas of lead generation and customer satisfaction have also improved for businesses that use the CRM.

What is Salesforce CRM?

With over 150,000 businesses around the world using this platform, we can say that it is the most popular customer relationship management platform.

Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM system that provides standalone applications that accommodate sales, marketing, and customer service products within the same suite. These products are suitable for both large and small businesses that need a trouble-free way to store and manage customer data within a secure environment.

Businesses use Salesforce to generate leads, manage marketing campaigns as well as connect with their customers at different stages of the customer journey.

You can now connect Windward Hub to the Salesforce CRM to start generating documents automatically. Learn more about this integration here.

How Does Salesforce Work?

Think of Salesforce CRM as a tree with several branches, now because of the complexity of modern businesses, there are several aspects of customer relationships and so Salesforce provides different products which you can compare to branches that cater to the different needs of various businesses.

These products can also be flawlessly integrated with external apps that enhance communication and management of customers for example email accounts, social media channels as well as document automation software among others.

Because Salesforce cannot predict what a business may prefer, they have made their products customizable so that a user can build their own solution to address the needs of their business without having to worry about unnecessary applications wasting space.

Something else that you need to know about how Salesforce CRM works is that it is cloud-based. This means you will need an internet connection to get full access to the different tools. The CRM is also restricted to four internet browsers. They are:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari

Since these are the most common browsers, there shouldn’t be much of a fuss about it. Almost every business has at least one of them. At the same time, even though you need connectivity to have full access, this doesn’t stop a user from working offline. Using cache data, some files can be available offline so that you can edit data and once you have a connection, files will sync. For people who may worry about running out of internet data, it is a relief knowing that you can continue working on that important document and once you regain connection, it will sync.

Salesforce CRM Pricing

A business considering Salesforce CRM pricing will be looking at a range from $25 to $300 per month. Pricing typically depends on your business requirements as well as the size of your business. There is a marked difference between the price tiers and it might be best if the business sought a quote particularly for the business.

As a business owner, you naturally will be looking for a CRM that fits your needs and you would want to get it at the best price. Here we shall discuss the options you have and what comes along for that price.

Basically, you need to understand that Salesforce CRM divides its services into “clouds” you can choose the cloud that suits your business or take on all of them and that will determine the price you will pay. The Clouds are:

• Sales Cloud
• Service Cloud
• Marketing Cloud

Sales Cloud

This cloud oversees all facets of the sales process right from generating leads to nurturing the lead to a sale and after the sale. It offers a 360 view of the customer journey giving the user full control of the process of selling to each customer.

With the information provided by this cloud, the user can make informed decisions based on information like past purchases, email history, and internal documents shared between team members. Data stretches as far as social media statistics.

Salesforce incorporates Artificial intelligence to track where a lead came from and that information can guide what product to offer the customer as well as determine the best time to approach an existing customer with new offers.

This cloud begins at $25 for Essential tier, $75 for professional, $150 for Enterprise, and Unlimited costs $300.

Service Cloud

For a business looking for quick solutions, the Service cloud is an appropriate choice. It gives users the ability to build customized service portals. This makes it possible for a customer to perform self-service. Questions, complaints, and feedback from clients can be responded to as soon as possible.

If you are seeking to automate some responses to client inquiries, this is the Salesforce cloud that will enable you to do that. The software even offers the user suggestions to set up workflows that will effect automated responses.

Even when it comes to responding to comments on social network, this cloud gives you a bird’s eye view of what is being said about your business so you can respond whenever it is necessary. Huge enterprises with many customer service centers can benefit the most from this.

Just like the Sales Cloud, this one offers Essential, Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited tiers with the same pricing from $25 to $300.

Marketing Cloud

This Salesforce CRM solution provides just about all the tools you need to carry out marketing activities. Whether you are trying to turn a request for information into a sale or you need to automate email marketing campaigns and organize posts on social media, this solution will take care of that.

It will combine sales and marketing information in an easy to interpret way so that a user can make marketing decisions based on analytical data. Within the Marketing Cloud are several creation studios that can be used to customize marketing information.

Some of the studios available in this cloud are Email studio, advertising studio, and Social studio. You can also integrate third-party apps to make the process of marketing even more effective.

Marketing Cloud is the more expensive Cloud starting at $400. It is however worth the spend per month considering the insight it provides and tools to perform different marketing tasks.

Commercial Cloud

One other cloud that a business may be interested in is the Commercial Cloud which supports online shopping. A business can create a seamless online shopping experience for its customers. You would have to request for pricing of this cloud.  

How to Use Salesforce CRM?

Once you get to know what Salesforce is and the different Clouds, it becomes much easier to figure out how to use Salesforce CRM. Obviously, you will have to first sign up for an account and choose your preferred pricing plan. With that done, here are some of the ways in which you can use it.

Sales Automation:  Your sales pipeline is a very vital part of your sales success. Automating the sales pipeline will create a smooth e-Commerce process. The sales Cloud can enable a user to automate tasks like contact management, lead management, sales information, mobile interactions as well as approvals among so many other sales tasks.

Marketing Automation: Whatever marketing activity you may want to perform using Salesforce can be automated using the different studios within the Marketing Cloud. Social media interactions, advertising, email campaigns, and collecting analytical data are some of the tasks you can automate.

Service Automation: The after-sales services you provide can also be automated. Use Salesforce CRM to Automate responses to customer inquiries and to manage assistance in different situations.

As you use this cloud-based CRM, you will discover many more ways to use it to improve your sales processes. Also, when you integrate it with other applications, you will discover a whole new world of possibilities.

Summary

Salesforce CRM is a cloud-based solution for daily sales tasks. It may not go out and make cold calls, but it is almost as if it does with its different features. It will make the process so much easier especially with its automation functions. Small-medium and large enterprises can find it helpful in different aspects of their business.  

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