The best investment you'll make in your organization.
March 05, 2015

The best investment you'll make in your organization.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Enterprise

Overall Satisfaction with Salesforce.com

Salesforce is used to store client communication, tasks, and track progress on prospective clients. It is being used across the whole organization. It allows us to look in a central location whenever we have questions for one another regarding clients/prospects. All emails, phone calls, and meeting notes are kept in Salesforce for this reason.

Pros

  • Salesforce can help you keep track of to-do items. Every time you login, a separate window opens with your assigned tasks for the day.
  • Salesforce allows you to enter as much information as you like about a client or prospect, including interests/addresses/contact info.
  • It is easy to run reports on Salesforce so you can track progress being made on several fronts, including work efficiency and sales pipeline.
  • Salesforce features plug ins for Outlook and other applications so as not to double your efforts during the workday.

Cons

  • Salesforce is very customizable and for that reason I would recommend you hire a consultant to design Salesforce in a way that's most effective for your organization. It is less expensive if you do this in the beginning compared to a few years down the road when it is full of content.
  • It is not easy for the typical user to make changes to the layout of Salesforce or add/remove features and functionalities.
  • The dashboard feature (home page with current data), while very useful, isn't intuitive and requires extra training.
  • Easier to track sales pipeline with the sales team. One click brings up progress reports on all activities.
  • Easier to track productivity with service team.
  • Much better customer service by referencing previous calls or emails to the same people.
My experience with other programs is limited. I have used a few other programs, such as Asana and PipelineDeals. This is far more comprehensive and gives the user the ability to customize it exactly to how they envision.
It is important that everyone in the organization use Salesforce to be truly effective. Key questions to ask - Are you currently using Excel spreadsheets and external hard drives to track all your progress and communication? Salesforce is the best next step. Are you a smaller organization and really only need a few of the features offered by Salesforce? Then I would recommend skipping it and coming back to it once you've grown or added the need for more features.

Salesforce Sales Cloud Feature Ratings

Customer data management / contact management
8
Workflow management
6
Territory management
5
Opportunity management
9
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)
9
Contract management
6
Quote & order management
Not Rated
Interaction tracking
Not Rated
Channel / partner relationship management
Not Rated
Case management
8
Call center management
8
Help desk management
8
Lead management
6
Email marketing
6
Task management
8
Billing and invoicing management
7
Reporting
7
Forecasting
7
Pipeline visualization
6
Customizable reports
6
Custom fields
8
Custom objects
8
Scripting environment
Not Rated
API for custom integration
Not Rated
Role-based user permissions
6
Single sign-on capability
8
Not Rated
Social data
Not Rated
Social engagement
Not Rated
Marketing automation
Not Rated
Compensation management
Not Rated
Mobile access
8

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