2021 saw a record number of new business applications in the US. After the pandemic wiped out countless businesses, more than 5 million Americans felt the urge to pursue their own American dream.
If you’re getting into a new venture, you need to ensure you’re equipped with all of the right tools before getting started. Having access to the right software can streamline your business, provide a better experience for your customers, and help you grow faster.
And when it comes to business software, Salesforce is near the top of the list. What is Salesforce used for?
This program is designed to streamline your sales process, tracking new users as they become leads and eventually customers and clients.
Wondering how Salesforce works, and who benefits the most from it? Keep reading below to find out.
What Is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a big company, which got started back in the 90s. It was one of the first cloud computing companies.
So it was one of the first software providers that focused on making its software available through the web browser, rather than requiring an intensive download.
While the Salesforce product suite is quite large today, its main product offering is the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. It operates as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company so that you can pay as you go, rather than purchase the software upfront.
Today there are countless options when it comes to CRM software, but none have the reputation of Salesforce. The product is powerful, easy to use, and highly customizable.
What Is Salesforce Used for?
The act of selling products or services, especially those with recurring monthly payments (like SaaS), or big-ticket items, is a process. Most people aren’t going to show up to your website, pull out their credit card, and blindly make a purchase.
They need to be taken through the sales process. And for most people, it has many steps, with multiple touchpoints from your team.
So what is the Salesforce tool used for? It’s used to track individuals as they progress through your sales process.
Each individual lead gets added to your Salesforce system. When this happens, a set of automatic tasks is associated with the lead, encouraging you to call, email, and support this lead on a regular basis.
Depending on which products or services they are interested in, they can take different, predetermined paths through your sales cycle.
Within the Salesforce dashboard, you can always see how many leads you have, and at what stage they’re in. They might be close to making a purchase, or they may still be in the product discovery phase.
All your communication with each lead can be tracked in the Salesforce app, so nothing is lost. You can manage thousands of leads and always provide personalized service with ease.
The main goal of Salesforce is to grow your business by gaining more sales, consistently.
Who Uses Salesforce?
Salesforce is trusted by the biggest companies in the world as well as the smallest. With a flexible pricing structure, it can scale up or down as needed.
Ever heard of Sony, American Express, or Coca-Cola? They are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of customers that Salesforce supports. Spotify, T-Mobile, Canon, Macy’s, and the New York Post are a few others.
But what types of businesses get the most benefit from Salesforce? Salesforce B2B commerce was the original use case. B2B companies needed a way to track the progress of their leads since B2B transactions tend to be large and recurring.
But even smaller companies, as well as B2C companies, can utilize the software to make it easier to manage the sales process, handle incoming leads, and ensure a consistent number of sales each week and month.
Salesforce Features
Today, Salesforce is a bundle of software products that can streamline and automate many processes within your business, not just support your sales team.
One of the most popular features is Salesforce Service Cloud. What is the Salesforce service cloud used for?
It helps you get a full and complete picture of your customers, helping you to provide high levels of service at every point of contact, long after the initial sale takes place.
You can use it to track customer milestones, and communication, and provide outstanding customer service.
Another feature that businesses love is Salesforce Chatter. What is Salesforce Chatter used for? Salesforce Chatter is an internal communication and collaboration tool. It’s the glue that can hold different people in your business together.
Your team can use it to talk in real-time, share work and files, and collaborate as if they were sitting right next to each other, even if they are halfway across the globe.
Lastly, businesses love Salesforce Heroku. It’s a separate product completely but is owned by Salesforce.
What is Heroku used for in Salesforce?
It’s a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that allows developers to build custom apps for organizations with ease. It’s fully managed, so users don’t have to deal with keeping servers online or managing hardware and infrastructure.
Its main goal is to allow organizations to create custom workflows for their business, related to Salesforce or other tools that they use on a daily basis.
Salesforce Tips
One of the main benefits of Salesforce is that it can be customized to fit the needs of your business. There are many built-in features that will allow this.
But those looking for high-level changes can program their own version of Salesforce.
What programming language is used for Salesforce? It uses its own proprietary language called Apex.
Businesses looking to program their own solutions in Salesforce can hire individuals with Apex experience. Or, since the language is Java-like, experienced developers can easily pick up this new programming language.
Customer-Centric Tools
So what is Salesforce used for? It’s a company and a range of products aimed at making it easier to manage incoming leads and customers. You can use the various software products to store customer information and provide a high level of service at every touchpoint.
This in turn leads to increased sales and increased customer satisfaction at every turn.
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