Director of Logistics at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Lightweight with respect to resource usage, and relatively easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "This product is lightweight."
  • "The user interface could be more intuitive. I had some challenges with how to convert from a lead to an opportunity."

What is our primary use case?

I am a salesman with a systems integrator we use Salesforce Sales Cloud as our CRM solution.

What is most valuable?

As a CRM, it's relatively easy to use.

This product is lightweight.

What needs improvement?

The user interface could be more intuitive. I had some challenges with how to convert from a lead to an opportunity. It may have been due to our configuration, rather than the software, but I did not find it was intuitive.

Assigning team members to a deal is something that I found challenging.

It offers some level of integration with LinkedIn, although closer integration with LinkedIn would be good. On top of that, having tighter integration with other tools, like Franklin Covey or Miller Heiman would be good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Salesforce Sales Cloud for approximately five years, on and off.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is super stable.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used a couple of other CRM solutions.

At a recent company, I used Siebel for a couple of years and it was very clunky. Anytime I wanted to use it, it would consume a lot of resources on my computer and it took a long time to load up. I haven't experienced that at all with Salesforce Sales Cloud.

What other advice do I have?

Any of the limitations that I've felt when using this product could be due to our configuration, and not necessarily due to the software itself.

This is a product that I would recommend. The only thing that I would suggest is that if somebody is going to implement it, then what they need to do is collect more feedback and more input from different levels of sales leaders beforehand.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
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MarwanRefaey - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Sales Director at Comviva
Real User
Easy to use, reporting is easy, and helps manage sales processes
Pros and Cons
  • "The reporting is easy and helpful."
  • "The product is not stable when enhancements are done to the cloud."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to manage our sales processes.

What is most valuable?

The reporting is easy and helpful.

What needs improvement?

The product is not stable when enhancements are done to the cloud.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three to four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s scalability a ten out of ten. We have 100 users in our organization. We use the product twice or thrice a week.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Salesforce is a huge competitor of Microsoft and other solution providers. We chose Salesforce Sales Cloud because it is quick to launch. We could start working with it immediately.

What other advice do I have?

I did not face any major issues. I recommend the solution to others. It is easy to use. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Salesforce Sales Cloud
May 2024
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SonuKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at Logic Planet Inc
Real User
Top 10
Excellent for managing campaigns effectively
Pros and Cons
  • "The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable."
  • "Sales Cloud could improve in areas such as AI integration, particularly for templates."

What is our primary use case?

Sales Cloud helps me manage and track my sales pipeline effectively. It is a CRM system that integrates with other systems for comprehensive sales management.

How has it helped my organization?

Sales Cloud has positively impacted lead generation and conversion rates. It enhances lead generation efficiency and tracks lead from various sources and campaigns effectively, ensuring a high level of reliability in lead acquisition and conversion.

What is most valuable?

The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable. The CRM system is excellent for managing campaigns effectively. I also find Salesforce security authentication very good.

What needs improvement?

Sales Cloud could improve in areas such as AI integration, particularly for templates.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability of Sales Cloud as a six out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of Sales Cloud as a five out of ten. My clients who use it are mostly enterprise businesses.

How was the initial setup?

I would rate the easiness of the initial setup as a ten out of ten. It is very easy. The implementation of Sales Cloud took approximately four months.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Salesforce is good value for money, but compared to the market, it is relatively high-priced.

What other advice do I have?

The AI functionality built into Salesforce is good. It was not available when I first started using Salesforce.

Using the Sales mobile app has many benefits. I have used it, and it is great for accessing Salesforce on the go.

Integrating Sales Cloud with other Salesforce products or third-party applications has been good.

I would recommend Salesforce to others, especially for its effectiveness as a CRM system. It stands out compared to other software, particularly in India.

Overall, I would rate Salesforce Sales Cloud as an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Prince Barai - PeerSpot reviewer
Back End Developer at Agnos Inc.
Real User
Top 5
Easy to develop and provides good reliability and security
Pros and Cons
  • "Salesforce Sales Cloud is very reliable and provides good stability and security."
  • "The solution's customer support is not so good."

What is our primary use case?

We used Salesforce Sales Cloud to build a solution in the healthcare industry, where customers can log in and see patient's health data and a couple of related inferences. They can also see the previous encounters we had with their provider.

What is most valuable?

It is very easy to develop things and scale up the solution, saving time and resources. The solution is easy to debug, and everything is in a single interface. Salesforce Sales Cloud is very reliable and provides good stability and security.

What needs improvement?

Sometimes, we are confused about which Salesforce solutions to use for which purpose. The solution's customer support is not so good. It takes a lot of time to reach the support team, get some clarifications, or discuss with the Salesforce team, which is a horrible experience.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Salesforce Sales Cloud for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a stable and reliable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Many teams in our organization are using Salesforce Sales Cloud. Around 10 to 20 people in our team are using the solution. Around 5,000 to 10,000 people are using the solution in our entire organization.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of the solution is intermediate, which is neither difficult nor easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is an expensive solution.

What other advice do I have?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is deployed on the Salesforce cloud. Our company decided to use Salesforce Sales Cloud because they wanted to upgrade their tech stack, and Salesforce was the safer choice. Salesforce Sales Cloud is easy to maintain.

New users should go through the courses Salesforce provides to understand what they can build and cannot do using the solution. Users should be clear about what they want before using the solution. The mobile accessibility of Salesforce Sales Cloud is easy and has improved over the years.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: customer/partner
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Managing Director at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Reliable, has good automation features for reporting and offers knowledgable technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The dashboards and dashboard customization are great."
  • "The reporting formats could be better."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for opportunity identification, pipeline management, and forecasting. Those are primarily the areas.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has provided our company with a common platform, a common process, and has created a common skill set, and institutional awareness of major transactions. It's provided easier audit for opportunities, deal reviews, and automation features for reporting. 

What is most valuable?

The dashboards and dashboard customization are great.

The solution is stable and reliable.

You can scale the solution easily.

The setup is pretty fast.

Technical support is helpful and knowledgeable. 

What needs improvement?

The reporting formats could be better. We'd like to be able to graphically, optically, change what the selections are that we can choose to put a report or format in, just in how they appear, the aesthetics. There could be more presentation formats that are incorporated that would make them easier to transfer over to a PowerPoint or something. We should be able to export documentation capabilities that are more presentation-friendly outside of the system.

II want to be specific about what it looks like, what the actual report actually looks like. For example, the optics of the report, the colors that are used, the format that it's in. That's the main comment. The data is fine. It's how the report actually looks that's an issue.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for more than 12 months at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. It's reliable. It's a good solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales well. A lot of people need to own that the solution will only work as well as its design, and how people apply it. The more information that can be given upfront about what the outcome requirements are, the better.

That's a conditional situation. It really depends on how engaged the client is in providing their requirements and then giving that stuff over so that it can be executed. It's a pretty well-thought-out solution that performs and scales well.

We have more than 5,000 users at this point. That's across departments in the services division. The solution is extensively used. 

How are customer service and support?

I've dealt with technical support. They were good. They were on the better side. Nobody's perfect, however, they were pretty knowledgeable.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used multiple CRMs and NetSuite by Oracle in the past. In this organization, we had a homegrown solution that would not have been commercially marketed.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex, however, it was well planned. There was a good approach. It was very formulaic. It allowed for customer feedback to help customize the solution. I thought it was a very interactive process.

The configuration part was relatively quick. It was the planning that took longer as it required a lot of internal reviews to discern what was important information and what wasn't. It's hard. I would say that the process was six months, however, the actual flipping the switch wasn't that long - maybe a couple of weeks.

That's why it's hard for me to discern where the breakpoint is. It was a lot of reviews, communication, et cetera. However, the enabling of the technology did not take very long. It was more or less deciding on how to enable the technology that took long.

There is a team that handles maintenance for the product. I don't deal with that directly.

What about the implementation team?

I've done it probably two ways. One was an internal engagement. The other one was external. I know that Accenture was involved in that. I myself actually had to go to Chicago to train at one of the Accenture facilities to be a champion for their transition.

What other advice do I have?

I'm an end-user. I'm using the most recent version of the solution.

I'd advise potential new users to make sure you're good by researching what's best for your organization and make sure that once you choose to go down that path, that you've put the right steps in for adoption. This or any other CRM will fail if the organization doesn't agree on the value or use of the tool.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. It is highly available, handles the majority of our business needs, and the consistency of its function is pretty strong. The capacity of capability is good.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Freelancer at Freelancer
Real User
Top 5
Provides good business accuracy and monitors customers, projects, and sales
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are increased productivity and business accuracy."
  • "The solution's design could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for CRM and to monitor customers, projects, and sales. We are using Salesforce Sales Cloud as a forecast platform. The solution forecasts the current data, current project stages, and the probability of it happening or not happening.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are increased productivity and business accuracy.

What needs improvement?

The solution's design could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Salesforce Sales Cloud for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution ten out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a scalable solution.

What was our ROI?

With Salesforce Sales Cloud, you have visibility and competency and see all the information you need from the sales side on one page.

What other advice do I have?

We chose Salesforce Sales Cloud because we need everything in one place to have one forecasting platform, one sales platform, and one customer management platform. The solution's forecasting feature gives us visibility on one page to give us better guidance and understanding of what's going on and what could happen. Since the solution is an appliance, there's nothing to deploy.

I would recommend the solution to other users. From my perspective, it's a tool that should be used for every purpose because it could be scalable from a small number of users to huge ones. Usually, it's flexible enough to implement all the features that customers could need. Salesforce Sales Cloud is a native integrated solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Managing Director with 51-200 employees
Real User
Integrates with other systems, scalable, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are ease of use. It is very simple for the sales team to use. You can integrate it with a lot of other systems."
  • "The setup of Salesforce Sales Cloud is complex. You need specialists in that area to be able to have a good setup. Once it's set up properly, running it is seamless. That's the most beautiful thing about Salesforce Sales Cloud."

What is our primary use case?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is used to track and manage businesses sales. The solution can manage the sales team and evaluate how effective their tools have been. It can determine if they are delivering value. 

The sales team populates all their activities on the Salesforce Sales Cloud. We have been given the number of calls to make to new customers that have come in, to track the prospective customers, and many other aspects will be captured. You are able to make direct calls to the customer from inside Salesforce Sales Cloud. We are able to link Salesforce Sales Cloud with a voice-over IP that can make direct calls to customers. The solution is highly versatile and it's integrated with our ERP solution of the company. When the potential customer becomes a customer, it does populate instead of having to start putting new things in the ERP system. It has good compatibility between the CRM, the Salesforce Sale Cloud, and our ERP system.

We try as much as possible to look at how loyal has the customer been. We have some of those KPIs that are coming out from the use of Salesforce Sales Cloud. It's a very great tool that the organization is using to track their business, sales team, sales, and effective management of the customers.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are ease of use. It is very simple for the sales team to use. You can integrate it with a lot of other systems.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Salesforce Sales Cloud for approximately eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Salesforce Sales Cloud is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is scalable. However, it depends on the licenses and what modules you require. For example, if you want voice integration, they have it. The ability for you to make your call to the customer directly from the system instead of picking up a phone.

In Nigeria, we have approximately 60. In some other countries, it depends on the number of staff that they have because all the systems have a user license. All the finance team is part of it. We have the marketing team and there are some others, such as the customer loyalty score users. Some of the service users that are rendering technical services, such as customer service staff are also part of using this solution.

The number of users can be quite large. It depends on your operations and the area that you want it to cover. Overall the solution is scalable.

Whether we expand or not depends on the business and how it grows. For example, if the sales teams increase, as a result of the business opportunities that are available in the country, we will increase usage of this solution. However, I am not sure because of the COVID-19 situation. It has impacted a lot of business. The possibility of an increase this year and next year is very slim because most organizations are only getting their sales goals.

How are customer service and support?

Our teams in the head office that manages the entire system may need to escalate an issue based on the request of a country. In this case, they will contact Salesforce Sales Cloud who will advise on what to do.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used other solutions in this category, such as SAP. Salesforce Sales Cloud and SAP, are very similar solutions.

How was the initial setup?

The setup of Salesforce Sales Cloud is complex. You need specialists in that area to be able to have a good setup. Once it's set up properly, running it is seamless. That's the most beautiful thing about Salesforce Sales Cloud.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a big system, it stretches across to approximately eight countries for the entire group. The full implementation took approximately six months. It was not done country by country. In my country of Nigeria, it took them close to two months to do the implementation. After it is complete there is a process of improvement. It was approximately two months before everything was finalized and in operation.

What about the implementation team?

We are consultants directly from Salesforce and we have some other consultants from different regions of the country. We have consultants that manage each of the countries' rollout. We did the implementation.

The deployment stretches across different countries and the maintenance is centralized. They have a centralized team at the head office. There are approximately 10 people covering the entire country. We call them the Effectiveness Managers. Each country has what we call the Effectiveness Manager that whose major role is to maintain and look at what is going on in the processes and address any gaps. When they identify something, they report to the central team in the head office.

Then you are talking close to approximately 20 people in the maintenance department. It's a big system for us as far as the capabilities are concerned. It's a big business the team cannot be compared to smaller or medium-size organizations.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of the Salesforce Sales Cloud is expensive. We pay monthly for the solution but we are billed quarterly.

The price of the solution could be less expensive.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others wanting to implement Salesforce Sales Cloud is you have to make sure that you are ready to absorb the price of the solution, it is very expensive. I normally recommend a lower version, such as an open-source CRM.

They have to judge the capability of the financial department of their organization before. The organization has to know their business information well, such as sales, turnovers, the visions, the strategy of the management, and what are they trying to achieve overall.

The business is what will enable me to know whether Salesforce Sales Cloud will be a good fit for them because if they don't have financial strength, the licenses are expensive and they might not be able to afford it. 

I rate Salesforce Sales Cloud an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Independent Security Consultant/ Virtual CISO at Galbraith & Associates Inc.
Real User
Easy to use with insightful conversion rates and good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution can scale massively. I've been quite impressed."
  • "If they could have convenient APIs into the other parts of the corporation that I wish to share data with, that would be helpful."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use the solution for persuing sales. You can follow up on opportunities very easily when you use it. I also use it for case tracking.

How has it helped my organization?

The product offers sales best practices. If I establish a funnel and I've got four salespeople, and the average conversion rate of new leads is 18% and one person's at 30%, I could ask them what they're doing and I could get them to show me their pitch. Then I could teach the other salespeople to imitate them. I could quickly look at that in the forecast year and go, okay, I don't know what that person's doing, however, they're converting to the stages at a higher rate so let's ask them what they're doing and then orient all the other salespeople to follow that best practice. That way, all numbers could go up as well.

What is most valuable?

The aspect I found most valuable was the conversion rates. As a new business, we figured out by filling out the funnel that we can convert 18% of stage one. Therefore, if you could use that math, you can say "if I want to make a million dollars in sales this year, and I make $20,000 a sale, I will need X number of people." You can work backward and project, for example, this is how many people you better have on the file. It's helpful sales forecasting.

What needs improvement?

While they've done a really good job of being a CRM tool and being, in my case, a sales forecasting tool, if they could integrate with other enterprises' IT aspects - like SAP and ERP - it would be great. A little bit of integration across the corporation would be helpful. If they could have convenient APIs into the other parts of the corporation that I wish to share data with, that would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for around ten years or so. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very, very good. There are no bugs or glitches. The performance is great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution can scale massively. I've been quite impressed.

In my one organization, we went from ten to 40 people with no issues. 

The solution is being extensively used. I haven't looked back at the competition and had to make a new purchase evaluation, however, my perception is Salesforce took over the space.

It's one of those solutions where you can just start using the product immediately. You don't really need to do any setup or any thinking. You just start using it. After using it for three months, you probably will never go back.

How are customer service and support?

I did use technical support in the past. They walked the talk on CRM. They're one of the companies that eats their own dog food. They're super knowledgeable with the support that was clearly ahead of the game. Whoever I called could quickly pull up my account and know who I was and what my company was. They were using a lot of their own business intelligence and things in the back end.

Overall, I was impressed with the level of support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I mostly use Excel, however, for clients, I tend to use Salesforce and ZenDesk as well.

The move to Salesforce was mostly due to the fact that it was super easy to use. The best sales guys also recommended it. They liked it as they were always selling and always making money and always on the road. The sales team hated the idea of coming back into the office and doing their stats. The fact that they could update it on the road, and I could just go in and look at it every week and talk to everybody from their phones and say, here's the story was ideal for their sales process. They hated pushing their money to this big enterprise product that seemed not to create any great insight and forced them to have a meeting on site. Everyone preferred Salesforce's ease of use and remote updates.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very simple and straightforward. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not sure of the exact pricing. My understanding is that it was super cheap on RAM - a lot like Jira. If you're at a really small startup and you have 10 people, the licenses are practically free. Their theory is, as you grow, you're going to scale and hit 50 pretty soon and then they'll start charging more.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. It's mostly set up by the client.

I'm familiar with the cloud and on-premises deployment models. Most clients are on the cloud now. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. They have an excellent reputation and live up to it. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Sales Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Sales Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.