Item: Salesforce Sales Cloud
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Salesforce is being used by our entire company. We use it for Accounting, Sales, Account Management, Production, and Support. We use it in ways it wasn't intended but we've developed it so much over the years that it does what we need it to do for the most part. Obviously, it's meant for the Accounting, Sales, and Support side but I don't believe it was intended to be a project management tool for production, but we've made it work for us with some help from an outside developer.

Pros and Cons

Shows the Sales pipeline, which is important to know what has closed and what is expected to close…or what was lost.
Allows us to manage clients by setting activities for follow-ups or to copy emails directly to Salesforce from email. This way we know what communication is happening with clients.
We're able to use Cases for the support side and allows our support members to communicate with the development team around issues that need resolving from a technical standpoint.
We use it for project management to track projects in the pipeline. We have reports that show where the project is at in the process, and other reports to show what is forecasted or have been completed.

We're a small team without a dedicated Salesforce admin. We try to get by where we can but Salesforce is truly a developers tool. The front end is great and easy to use, but the back end can be confusing if you don't know what you're doing.
I believe more guided tutorials to help set up new fields or features would be nice. Meaning, you don't need to have a developer to build Salesforce the way you want or need it to work.
Because Salesforce is so large, there are many ways to do things. Simplifying this would be helpful so it's more straightforward for basic users.

Return on Investment

Salesforce has allowed us to keep our eye on the ball and make sure we're staying in contact with our clients in a timely manner.
Reporting is a big positive for us. We probably have too many reports but we rely on them heavily to know what's going on with Sales, Customer Service and Production.
After working with an outside developer, we were able to build the perfect production object that allowed us to track projects and create a better pipeline/forecast, which helps us stay on top of projects better.
The only negative impact is the price for a small team.

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM and Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshsales)

HubSpot, Zoho, and Freshworks are options that we have considered in the past over Salesforce. The reason we haven't pulled the trigger on another CRM is due to the time investment to really know how a different system could work for us and because of how much information and money we currently have wrapped up in Salesforce. Again, Salesforce does what we need it to do but there's a higher price tag over the competition.

Key Insights

Do you think Salesforce Sales Cloud delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Salesforce Sales Cloud's feature set?

Yes

Did Salesforce Sales Cloud live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Salesforce Sales Cloud go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Salesforce Sales Cloud again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Slack, ClickUp, Google Drive, Adobe InDesign

Usability

Salesforce isn't too bad to use, as long as you know how to navigate the system. Once you get into a flow and know the process for a specific business function, it's straightforward. Setting up reports can be a little confusing if you don't know exactly what you need to look for, but once the report is set up, you're good to go. Also, dashboards can be overwhelming too but when they're set up too they're nice to have on hand.

Support Rating

As mentioned, we're always getting a new account rep so that can be frustrating learning there's a new person and then having a conversation with them about your business, only to get another rep in 6-12 months. It's great for them to be promoted, but for the client, it can be annoying. We typically use the Salesforce Community to get answers as you need to pay additional to get a live person.

Likelihood to Recommend

Salesforce does what we need it to do. However, we have considered looking into alternatives. Mainly due to price. Salesforce can be expensive for a small team. We purchased it when we were larger so I think we've really just grown out of it for our current size. Also, I feel we always have a new account rep. There's lots of movement with personnel at Salesforce so we don't feel like we always get the best support.

May the Salesforce be with you.

Software Version

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Salesforce.com