In today's digital economy using CRM software has become a must. CRM software is more available than ever and there is one provider, namely Salesforce who is widely regarded as the most popular solution, especially in the enterprise space.
Salesforce was founded in 1999 in San Francisco and has grown from a small startup to a giant multi-billion dollars company.
Is Salesforce the right CRM for you?
Is Salesforce only suited for enterprise-grade companies?
Why should anyone use Salesforce?
Let's find out together.
First of all there is a huge myth around CRM solutions. People wrongly classify them "for enterprise", "for SMB", "for startups" mainly based on the provider's company size.
In my opinion this doesn't make too much sense. The best classification would be based on use-case. We have implemented Salesforce in Romania for very small clients and we implemented solutions that some consider "for SMB'' within huge multinational companies. And the other way around.
A good consultant will always recommend a solution based on client needs, not on client budget or license sales commissions.
Coming back to Salesforce platform specifications, its benefits include:
a) Customisation to a level unmatched by other solutions; when heavy customization is needed, Salesforce does not have a true rival
b) Scalability
c) Powerful hosting architecture
d) Great app store and partner ecosystem
e) Data security, especially when we are referring to differentiated access rights to various fields (e.g. salary information)
f) Periodic upgrades, free of charge
In a nutshell, Salesforce is a great, mature and super-powerful solution. But it's not the easiest to learn or implement. For a client with very specific needs, other solutions might be much more suitable.
But what is Salesforce's "golden" use case? Here are our 3 main criteria used in “fit or not fit” evaluation:
a) complex data model with a lot of custom, relational data
b) complex business processes that need to be automatized via custom configurations and implementations
c) complex needs concerning different data visibility for various roles within the company
If you find yourself in at least one of the 3 criteria above, then Salesforce is the right solution for you. But, as said above, Salesforce isn't that easy to implement or learn. One Salesforce partner in the US once said: "There’s no sense in sugarcoating it: If you can’t afford Salesforce expertise, you can’t afford Salesforce. You need both to be successful.".
Salesforce may seem simple when looking at demo clips, but in reality it's a huge platform and even a very simple task may have different solutions, each one with different long-term impact. Although all these solutions may seem viable, making the wrong choice will definitely have a negative long-term impact on your system.
It's valid here too - it's exponentially more expensive to fix than doing it right the first time.
At Mediapost Martech, we have developed a complete offering around Salesforce covering not only the technical implementation (which in most cases is less than 40% of the overall project) but the entire lifecycle:
Interested in discussing more about Salesforce? Then get in touch with us!