Salesforce is a valuable tool for IT companies because it gives them an easy way to provide their customers with their needed solutions. 

Salesforce has many features that make it more convenient and efficient for your company to sell your products and services.  

This blog post will explore some of those features in detail, as well as how you can get started using Salesforce today. It’s never been easier!

In the current era of cloud computing, CRM has largely been taken over by Salesforce. Salesforce once operated out of a small flat in San Francisco and is now a community of over 10 million innovators.

IT companies work with a lot of data, which makes hosting CRM within their servers highly impractical. It also means an added expenditure of time, money, and other resources. Salesforce solves this issue as it simply uses cloud computing instead of requiring local resources.

T-Mobile is a brilliant example of how Salesforce can help firms stay ahead of their competition. T-Mobile CEO, John Legere, has credited their recent successes to the enhanced interaction with their customer base. This helps them understand the requirements of their consumers better and incorporates this into their solutions.

In this blog, we will explain the benefits of Salesforce and how the IT sector can take advantage of this.

What is CRM?

A company can derive profitability if it can build a strong relationship with its customer base. CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a strategy that helps in making interaction with customers easier. It is a viable tool for building a potential audience as well.

The term CRM usually refers to a CRM system that is useful in terms of sales management, workflow processes, contact management, and a lot more. 

Building strong relationships is integral for every company, regardless of whether it is with its workforce, suppliers, or customers. With CRM, you can build your connections with individuals, which can be highly profitable for the business.

It is wrong to limit an indispensable asset like CRM to a sales and marketing tool. While it is used to build targeted business strategies, it also takes care of the tricky part here: getting reliable information. 

Means of receiving data are many, but only a CRM system gives you a clear picture of what a customer wants. There are many different CRMs in the market, such as HubSpot, Zoho, Freshsales, and Pipedrive.

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a cloud-based software company that provides solutions to companies and organizations around the world. 

It started as a CRM platform but quickly transformed into a cloud computing system to track information. Accessing it is as easy as logging on to a website. 

Right now, it is the most renowned integrated platform that brings customers and companies together. 

Corporations favor the Salesforce platform primarily because their customers get to enjoy a personalized experience, leading to better relationships and increased revenue. 

Be it commerce, sales, or IT, this service can radically improve the operations of any sector. 

Despite other CRMs, such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, have entered the market earlier and created their niches, Salesforce dominates the market.

One of the biggest advantages that Salesforce offers is customizable reports which are useful for sales managers and executives. 

This means they have easy access to real-time data. 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has report-generating features backed by a rigid SQL. SAP CRM also gives its users the benefit of interactive reporting, and so does Oracle CRM. 

In addition to the features in Salesforce such as multiple ready-to-use analyses, win-loss analysis, and historical trend analysis help complete sales and market reports instantaneously. 

Why are IT companies switching to Salesforce?

While CRM caters to the need of many sectors and can be used by businesses of various kinds, its usefulness in the IT sector is indispensable. 

From meeting deadlines to adhering to a certain budget, it serves many needs. The IT sector deals with a vast amount of information, and CRM can help analyze the data, follow leads, and manage customers.

There are advantages that the IT industry can gain in terms of integrating with core systems and reducing security concerns. In addition, CRM is also useful for them to scale the business.

All the advantages that Salesforce comes with have caught the eye of corporations. Here are some other benefits of Salesforce in the IT industry: 

Better access to information

For a sector that runs on data, retrieving information with accuracy is vital. Salesforce is an excellent way to collect customer information in terms of both quantity and quality. 

Every minute detail of importance is collected and stored by the platform and can be accessed easily. 

All in one place, this accumulated data helps you network well as you can target leads effortlessly. 

Switch from manual to digital

Cloud computing means digital freedom as it doesn’t require local resources. 

Files, spreadsheets, and excel sheets are replaced by a convenient data storage system that can be used easily.

An additional plus is that work can be delegated to associates without the hassle of data exchange.

Account planning

A single place where you can access all information makes it possible for all representatives to connect with clients and work on accounts independently. 

Salesforce for IT provides an interactive approach to all tasks, leading to better workflow and efficient client management. 

Effective management of time

With all customer data in one place, ready for use, the company can use all the saved time on other important things.

Salesforce also has other useful organizational features, such as a built-in calendar to help you keep up with your daily schedule.

Strengthening teamwork

Sharing data across various sections within IT departments is a complicated and tedious task. 

Yet, team collaboration is required for many projects, and certain information must be made available to each group. 

A feature of Salesforce called “Chatter” allows you to add your team members to groups so you can all access the same information and share ideas. 

Easy access

Cloud computing provides access to information easily, which means business owners can keep track of their teams and communicate with them easily. The software also keeps you up-to-date with client needs. The flexibility of Salesforce is what makes it so popular.  

What gives Salesforce an edge over traditional CRM software?

In today’s era of fast-paced technology, traditional CRM may not be suitable for the IT industry.

With Salesforce, you get five great advantages that are crucial to progressing and beating competitors: 

• The platform is very easy to incorporate and use, unlike CRM software that can take an entire year just to be installed;
• You can easily integrate Salesforce with third-party apps such as Gmail – this is harder to do with CRM software;
• Salesforce is far more affordable than traditional CRM software;
• Salesforce is simpler to use and easier to understand; and
• Salesforce can be easily customized to the needs of a business. 

What Are the Benefits of Salesforce?

Customer information

One of the biggest advantages of using Salesforce is the information it retrieves — quality and quantity. 

When you use Salesforce, you can look at every individual account, contact, task, event, and opportunity tied to a lead, which gives your company a lot of information before approaching potential customers.

There are a couple of reasons why this is so important.

First, it lets you easily track all of the information you need to keep your customer profiles organized. You have all the information you need in one convenient location, and you can look up any lead or client you want — even if they’re assigned to other representatives! 

This offers a more complete, holistic approach to managing your growing business.

In addition, shared customer information also lets you and your employees enjoy your leisure time and vacation days without worrying about personally accommodating clients, leads, or prospects. Any of your reps can easily cover for another out of the office, eliminating gaps that you could have in your customer support model.

This digital design is a direct upgrade from physical resources and even Excel sheets. Salesforce is comprehensive, responsive, and convenient to use, so you no longer need manila folders or digital files full of spreadsheets.

Account planning

With all of the customer information you need right at your fingertips, you — and all of the reps at your company — can make plans for accounts independently. 

That gives you the hands-on approach you need to connect with clients, and it also lets your reps modify their plans to achieve better results. There’s even an option in Salesforce to create to-do items in the form of tasks so you and your reps can stay organized throughout the day.

Along with that, you can also create tasks as reminders so you can tell anyone to follow up with your customers, account managers, or upper management about important details. Essentially, you make sure nothing falls through the cracks. 

In addition to the organizational tools, you can see the amount of time that you or anyone else in the company has spent on each specific account. This is especially helpful for service-based businesses with lots of clients who subscribe to different packages or plans. If you notice that you’ve spent too much time on a client for what that client spends, your company can adjust accordingly.

With these account planning options, managing clients becomes a much simpler process.

Time management

With comprehensive customer information and a wealth of planning resources at your disposal, you naturally benefit from outstanding time management. You have all the information you need to prioritize work for your clients, and that means you can also organize tasks for different accounts according to that same criteria.

Along with that, you can use the built-in calendar tools to visualize better your schedule for the day, week, month, or year. That means you can constantly stay on the ball through all of the steps in nurturing a potential lead.

Team collaboration

Salesforce lets you easily communicate with the other members of your team. For example, the “Chatter” feature lets you coordinate with individuals or groups about work-related information, like clients, territory, and other essential details.

Chatter also lets you add different team members to accounts or opportunities that need special attention. This, in turn, makes it easier for your team to prioritize and schedule their tasks so you can work with more leads and finalize more sales.

Where the previous features all kept you focused, Chatter lets you keep your whole team focused on what they need to be doing each day. That means you get better results and productivity from your team every day. 

Accessibility

Salesforce is a cloud product, and that means it’s available wherever you have Internet access. This also includes mobile — Salesforce has a mobile app that you can use to stay in touch with your business and your team at all hours. 

This makes it a perfect match for the hands-on business owner or the marketing manager who constantly wants to communicate with their team.

This is such a huge advantage because it means you have a centralized location for your data. There’s no filing cabinet, local server, or anything else — it’s all kept safe and sound in the cloud where you can always access it.

In addition to the security advantages, your team can also use it to stay up-to-date on accounts and clients, regardless of where they are. That’s some of the best customer service that any client could want.

Flexibility

One of the most significant USP’s (Unique Selling Points) of the Salesforce platform is its high degree of adaptability. 

The objects to be found in Salesforce can be set entirely in line with your business needs at any time. As a user, you are not tied into certain set page layouts, workflows, and processes, making Salesforce’s ecosystem more flexible than other similar systems on the market.

Standard API links

In addition to the countless apps in the AppExchange, which you can integrate into your Salesforce environment immediately, there are also separate applications to which you could link up. 

The major benefit of Salesforce as the largest web-based platform is that many suppliers offer standard API links on Salesforce. 

For example, suppose Pardot (Salesforce’s standard marketing automation) does not fit your needs. In that case, you are free to approach other suppliers for a tried-and-tested alternative, e.g., Hubspot, Act-On, Eloqua, and Marketo. These are good tools that have proven themselves in the market and can easily be linked to without being charged for extra hours.

Martin Gessner

Martin Gessner is the Founder of Focus on Force.

He has spent over 10 years working in various Salesforce roles including business analyst, project manager, consultant and solutions architect. Along the way he has earned twelve certifications, published "The Salesforce Career Playbook", and helps Salesforce professionals learn more about Salesforce, develop their career and prepare for certifications.