Selling has moved beyond just a sales pitch and a contract to be signed. Nowadays, CRM technology proposes many opportunities for sales and marketing alignment; selling itself has become increasingly data-driven and intelligent, and so has marketing. This week’s post focuses a little bit on how Salesforce can help Marketing and Sales reps improve their campaigns/pitches and sell better and create more value.
1) Community Cloud Named Leader by Gartner Magic Quadrant
Community Cloud has earned recognition as a leader in 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portals. A horizontal portal defined by Gartner is a software application or service that can be used to create and manage portals for a wide range of purposes.
Gartner analysts carefully evaluate providers in the rapidly expanding portal market, rank them based on their ability to execute, and their completeness of vision. That’s when Gartner noted a few advantages enjoyed by Salesforce Community Cloud customers that other companies might not be offering of.
Some examples are: Salesforce cloud delivery model that includes a development platform and fully integrated business applications; the integration across channels (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud); as well as, the new e-commerce capabilities.
http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-2N553HV&ct=150915&st=sb
2) Salesforce Now Integrates with Facebook
In a recent study by Facebook and Salesforce, a leading online retailer combined email and Facebook advertising to reach 77% more of their audience than with email alone. We see that we are moving more and more from a mass marketing world to a targeted and personalized marketing world. This new Facebook feature allows companies to get the most out of their marketing campaigns.
Facebook has introduced a feature that allows advertisers to send sales data into customer relationship management (CRM) software like Salesforce.
“Lead Ads” automatically fills in user information for them when they sign up for businesses through Facebook.
Facebook and Salesforce partnerships allows the data to be fed back into the system in real time, making it readily available for marketers who can then better target promotional efforts and content at potential customers.
Facebook Lead Ads simplifies the process of signing up to business information, such as newsletters, offers and events, through a mobile, tablet or any device.
“When someone clicks on your lead ad, a form opens with the person’s contact information automatically populated, based on the information they share with Facebook, like their name and email address,” the company explained. Businesses can also customize the forms and are no longer stuck with using the ones Facebook offers as default.
This integration with Facebook Lead Ads deepens the connection between CRM, digital marketing and advertising, providing a set of tools and solutions to better target marketing campaigns.
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2015/10/salesforce-facebook-lead-ads-crm.html?d=70130000000tP4L
3) Data Intelligence is Now in the Hands of Every Government Worker
Salesforce Analytics Cloud is now included in FedRAMP authorization for the Salesforce Government Cloud. This FedRAMP authorization means that Analytics Cloud has met the strict security standards required by the federal government. Now, government agencies across the country will have one location for all their cloud products and services.
The new Government Cloud (a government-focused version of Salesforce’s services) is designed specifically for federal, state, and local governments; as well as federally funded research centers and government contractors. The new authorization lets the employees on the front lines make better and more informed decisions, helps them manage billions of dollars of taxpayer money in a smart and effective way, and provides a level of transparency that improves citizen trust.
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2015/10/data-intelligence-salesforce-analytics-cloud-fedramp.html?d=70130000000tP4L
4) Salesforce Lightning for Sales Sneak Peek
We all know Salesforce recently released their Lightning Experience, and we can’t get enough of it, we are all talking about it and we all want to try it. In the meantime, Salesforce released this e-book so you can get a sneak peek of this Lightning Experience for Sales reps.
Get the e-book here https://www.salesforce.com/form/pdf/lightning.jsp?d=70130000002DpwG&nc=70130000002Dpw1
5) App of the Week
It seems only appropriate to recommend a Sales Productivity App to Speed Up the Sales Process, since we talked so much about sales.
Yesware syncs email, calls and calendar appointments with Salesforce customer records, allowing your sales reps to track email engagement and update leads and opportunities from their inboxes.
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Sales Acceleration: Automated Salesforce CRM Sync logs your tracked emails (sent emails, replies, opens), calendar events, and calls (logged as completed tasks) to leads, contacts and accounts directly to Salesforce CRM from your Gmail or Outlook inbox.
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Update and view Salesforce CRM records from inside your inbox with Yesware’s Salesforce Sidebar. Get detailed insights on everything that is in your Salesforce instance, including integrated third party applications.
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Click-to-Call (click to call) prospects from your inbox and sync prospect engagement to Salesforce as a completed task. Automatically Sync calendar invites to Salesforce to gain full visibility into prospect engagement.
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2015/10/3-sales-productivity-apps.html