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reviewer1784448 - PeerSpot reviewer
Prysmian Group at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good reporting, easy to customize, and provides multiple ways to view the information
Pros and Cons
  • "There is a ton of information on the dashboard. Reports are also there for us. We can analyze information across the team and across a period, such as quarterly or annually."
  • "It is a bit pricey."

What is our primary use case?

I'm using it for the selection of sale pipelines, project opportunities, and sales analysis.

I'm using its latest version.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to customize, and it is also easy to view the summary of a project opportunity. 

There is a ton of information on the dashboard. Reports are also there for us. We can analyze information across the team and across a period, such as quarterly or annually.

There are multiple views to display information. You can display information as a table, and you can also split the views.

What needs improvement?

It is a bit pricey.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for about a year.

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January 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not tried to scale it. We have five to seven people in my team who are using this solution.

I'm working in a global company, and in my business unit, for the local region, we have five to seven people using this. We also have a group of people abroad who view this information.

How are customer service and support?

I have not interacted with their technical support.

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

I used another one about three years ago, but I prefer Salesforce.

How was the initial setup?

It might be a bit complex the first time, but it is not very hard to understand.

What about the implementation team?

It was done inside the organization. We have a team for this.

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

Its license is expensive. It is probably a lot more than smaller solutions. It is around £500 a month, but I don't know how many licenses we have.

What other advice do I have?

So far, everything has been good. I would advise others to go for it if they can afford it. It is very good.

I would rate it a nine out of 10 because nothing is perfect.

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.
PeerSpot user
Sarthak Swain - PeerSpot reviewer
Salesforce Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Plenty of functionality, user-friendly, and highly customizable
Pros and Cons
  • "We can also customize Salesforce Sales Cloud to our customer's company requirements. As for your demand, you can customize it. There are so many configurations we can do with the application. There is a lot of functionality that you can implement. It's an easy-to-use, user-friendly, and secure platform."
  • "The solution is secure. However, they could always improve on security."

What is our primary use case?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a CRM-based platform, it is used for customer relationship management.

In Salesforce we store the customers' data and we are managing those customers' data. You can connect with your customer easily and you can securely store your customer data in the best environment. Salesforce Sales Cloud is one of the best companies that is providing CRM applications.

What is most valuable?

We can also customize Salesforce Sales Cloud to our customer's company requirements. As for your demand, you can customize it. There are so many configurations we can do with the application. There is a lot of functionality that you can implement. It's an easy-to-use, user-friendly, and secure platform.

The solution updates frequently, approximately every three months. It stays updated.

What needs improvement?

The solution is secure. However, they could always improve on security.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

We have approximately 150 users using this solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

I have used the support from Salesforce and I am satisfied.

I am a Salesforce certified administrator and Salesforce Certified Developer.

How was the initial setup?


There are two implementations. You can either install it on your mobile on iOS, or Android platforms and on the desktop in the web-based platform. In the web platform, you can easily log into your organization and you can see your customers' data. Additionally, this can be done on mobile platforms. You can receive all those notifications.

It takes time to set up the organization as per your requirement. However, using the application does not take a lot of time. It is easy to use.

What about the implementation team?

I do the implementation of the solution.

We have 50 users who work on the deployment process of this solution.

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

There is a license required to use this solution and the price is expensive. It could be reduced.

What other advice do I have?

I would highly recommend this solution to others.

I rate Salesforce Sales Cloud a nine 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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Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Sales Cloud
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Sales Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Business Development Manager at Fraser Valley Office Systems
Real User
Fast, accurate, easy to use, and accessible from anywhere
Pros and Cons
  • "I can see activity per customer. I can find out quickly and easily who was the last person I talked to, when it was, and what we were talking about."
  • "Sometimes, it is difficult to integrate it with my emails. I've had trouble integrating it with my emails. There were a couple of things I did try as well, but I wasn't able to do so. I've had difficulty in other areas too with integration. It was related to syncing my calendars. I want the tasks that I put in to automatically sync to my calendars and update my calendars, but I couldn't figure out how to do it."

What is our primary use case?

I'm using it to track opportunities and keep track of customer relations.

How has it helped my organization?

It's fast. It's accurate. I can access it anywhere. I can log calls live, keeping the information fresh in my mind. It has really helped expand our customer base.

What is most valuable?

I can see activity per customer. I can find out quickly and easily who was the last person I talked to, when it was, and what we were talking about.

I like its reporting.

What needs improvement?

Sometimes, it is difficult to integrate it with my emails. I've had trouble integrating it with my emails. There were a couple of things I did try as well, but I wasn't able to do so. 

I've had difficulty in other areas too with integration. It was related to syncing my calendars. I want the tasks that I put in to automatically sync to my calendars and update my calendars, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for three years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't had any issues so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm only using a small portion of it. You can do a lot more than I'm using it for, but I haven't gone into that yet.

There are 10 people in our organization who are using this solution. It is currently not being used extensively in the organization. It could be used more. Right now, we're just scratching the surface.

How are customer service and support?

They were good, and they helped me through my issues.

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

I used Sage CRM for a while, and it's not very much fun to use. I switched because every time I had to do something, I had to contact our company IT support. It was too cumbersome. They had to get involved every time I wanted to do something, and I needed to be able to do things quickly and without having to go through someone else.

How was the initial setup?

I had to set it up myself. There were some parts of it that took a little bit of learning, but I found the videos and other resources helpful.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others would be that they should talk to a consultant and tell them everything they want to do beforehand. They should make sure that they have a plan in place to get it set up the way they want to right away.

I would rate it at least a nine because it is really easy to use, and it has helped me a lot.

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.
PeerSpot user
Director at ABN PRO LTD
Real User
Excellent for knowing who your customers are and their buying habits; great reporting feature
Pros and Cons
  • "You can capture all the contacts that relate to an account or business, including personal details."
  • "The built-in functionality is a little dated."

What is our primary use case?

I am a consultant and deliver the build for Salesforce to our customers. The company has a partnership with Salesforce and I'm the director. 

How has it helped my organization?

There are many benefits to Salesforce. It allows companies to know who their customers are, how much they spend, then relate that to earlier purchases so that a company can focus their efforts where necessary. You can also determine how sales staff are working against their targets and whether they need assistance.

What is most valuable?

I think Salesforce as a whole is all about understanding your customers and the pipeline with customers. Through an account, you can capture all the contacts that relate to that account or business, including personal details. It's highly configurable so you can completely adjust it to whatever business requirements you have. Once you've understood who your customers are, you can decide what you might want to sell them. It can all be captured and put into reporting. As a result, you can forecast against the reporting and figure out where you want to go on quotas for your sales team. You can also see how long it might take for a sale to go through and whether any sales opportunities get stuck.

You can track any issues with Sales Cloud functionality once a customer purchases by capturing your phone calls and storing them in Salesforce, along with any emails. Everything can be stored and tracked. The company brings out new features three times a year. I haven't used all the features because there are so many of them and the solution is now very large. They've changed their custom UI and it's now more configurable so that you can change it to suit your needs. I might only want to see certain fields at certain times throughout my journey and it can do that. There's a ton of functionality that I haven't even started to really explore.

What needs improvement?

Salesforce has a built-in functionality called changesets to move functionality from the sandbox and into production. That's a little dated now, and it's not very good for version control or backups. There are third party apps that can provide a slicker service to manage version control and deployments between environments.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Salesforce since 2007. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is highly stable and they have serious backups. If there are any glitches you can go to their site, trust.salesforce.com, and check on any problems. In terms of maintenance, once you've implemented it, it's important to get a team onboard internally to maintain things; users come and go so you're constantly canceling or adding users. Some will need help with reporting and once they understand the benefits and power, they'll want more teams to use it which will require more functionality. Our customers are always wanting to increase use. Salesforce is in major demand and most clients have continuous new project ideas and as a result, an expanded functionality. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is easy to scale and our customers range from small to enterprise size organizations. 

How are customer service and support?

We sometimes need to contact support and for most customers, it's beneficial for them to have premise support because you do get a quicker response for resolution. You do have to ring them sometimes in order to get features enabled but once you're part of a consulting firm, you rarely need to contact them because you can generally resolve the problems with internal expertise.

How was the initial setup?

There's no simple answer regarding complexity of deployment. It actually depends on the size of your implementation. If you're on a huge project, deployment can take months, if not years. These days, Salesforce has better version control using external tools which speeds up the setup because you keep a version in control and you move it through the different processes in order to push it through. You can deploy something within an hour of building and testing, and capture all the requirements. It's highly configurable.

The minimum time for deployment is generally a couple of months but it is absolutely dependent on how much you want to tweak it and make it your own. It can be a very quick turnaround.

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

Every finance director I've spoken to will say that Salesforce is expensive and that's mainly because it is a per-user license. The more you use it, the more it will cost. There are licensing costs and implementation costs in configuring the system to your needs. It's expensive but also one of the largest business systems you'll have in your company because it'll integrate absolutely anything you need it to. It should be viewed as an investment.

What other advice do I have?

The solution needs to be considered as a long-term investment, and I suggest engaging a partner to implement it. Salesforce will tell you it's possible to implement in-house, particularly for smaller organizations, but I would recommend a certified expert with experience and knowledge.

I rate this solution 10 out of 10. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
MarwanRefaey - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Sales Director at Comviva
Real User
Top 20
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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Managing Director at Aprika Business Solutions Pty Ltd
Consultant
We find the email to case functionality helps simplify the process for our clients when submitting support requests.

Valuable Features

I personally find the Opportunities to be the most valuable aspect of the tool. It helps me keep a close eye on the business' pipeline. We've also developed a native project management solution on the Salesforce platform called Mission Control. We use this to track the scheduling and performance of all implementation projects. This is of great importance to our business in understanding our bandwidth and efficiencies. We also find the Case object to be of great value, including the email to case functionality that helps simplify the process for our clients when submitting support requests.

Improvements to My Organization

We run our entire business in the cloud and Salesforce.com sits at the heart of our solution stack. We have a subscription based model for our products, such as Mission Control, Mercury SMS and InteliMail. We've integrated Salesforce.com with eWay, an online payment gateway to automate our monthly billing process.

Room for Improvement

The main area that I feel could be improved is the performance of the Salesforce1 mobile application. I find it to be too slow to be of any real value whilst out on the road.

Use of Solution

I have been using the Salesforce.com CRM system for over 12 years. I first used it as a Marketing Manager for the company I was working for at the time. In the last six years, I've been running Aprika, a Salesforce.com Consulting Partner helping to implement the solution for clients in Australia.

Deployment Issues

We've implemented Salesforce.com for over 200 clients and we've never come across a requirement that could not be delivered on the platform.

Stability Issues

We've implemented Salesforce.com for over 200 clients and we've never come across a requirement that could not be delivered on the platform.

Scalability Issues

We've implemented Salesforce.com for over 200 clients and we've never come across a requirement that could not be delivered on the platform.

Customer Service and Technical Support

The standard Salesforce.com support process is very good. They also have a premier support option which provides a very quick response time. In addition to this, the community of users are extremely helpful and supportive to one another and using the success.salesforce.com website, you're always guaranteed someone will be able to help you out.

Initial Setup

We are a Salesforce.com Consulting Partner, so we're the team helping the client implement their required solution. Salesforce.com conducts regular, independent research which states a client that works with a consulting partner to implement the solution is 65% more likely to be successful.

Implementation Team

We have implemented Salesforce.com for over 200 clients, as you can imaging, there's been varying scales of complexity in the requirements ranging from a simple out of the box configuration through to solutions requiring a lot of customisation using Apex and Visualforce as well as integration with third party systems.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

I do hear that Salesforce.com licensing is expensive, but once clients start using the system and the light goes on in relation to understanding the power of the platform, they realise it's well worth the investment.

From a personal perspective, one of the key things Salesforce.com provides us is insight into our business that would be difficult to achieve otherwise. We're able to easily track conversion rates, budget performance, staff efficiency rates and many other key metrics that are important to our business.

Other Solutions Considered

12 years ago, I initially compared it to a number of other solutions through a tender process. We conducted our due diligence and Salesforce.com came out top by a long way. As a Consulting Partner, we typically see prospects comparing Salesforce.com and MS Dynamics. Generally, we see them evaluate the two products and in most cases, they'll establish Salesforce.com is the more powerful, flexible and scalable solution.

Other Advice

Don't hesitate - if you're looking at using Salesforce.com, you're on the right track. After a few months, you'll wonder how you managed without it. In terms of implementation, I would strongly recommend engaging a consulting partner, it doesn't have to be Aprika. They can bring real value add to the project and ensure the system is set up to support user adoption. Engaging staff from various parts of the business in the initial implementation is also a key ingredient to successful adoption.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Aprika holds three different partner accreditations with Salesforce.com. Cloud Alliance Partner - we work with clients to ensure they successfully implement Salesforce.com within their own business ISV Partner - we build our own applications on the Salesforce.com App Cloud, such as Mission Control, Mercury SMS and IntelliMail, which are available from the AppExchange PDO Partner - we work with other ISV Partners who do not have the technicals skills to develop their business concepts. We provide the support these clients need to develop a solution on the App Cloud.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1866744 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. software integration engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Comprehensive CRM used to customize order management and tracking
Pros and Cons
  • "This solution offers a good user experience. It is easy to learn and use, even for those who are using it for the first time."
  • "Compared to other CRM solutions, Salesforce is expensive. It is more affordable for enterprise users than for small businesses."

What is our primary use case?

I use Salesforce Sales Cloud to customise order management and tracking. We also use it for revenue recognition, billing and analytics. Salesforce is our primary CRM.

What is most valuable?

This solution offers a good user experience. It is easy to learn and use, even for those who are using it for the first time.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Salesforce Sales Cloud since 2008.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution. When any issues are anticipated from Salesforce, we are notified. We have experienced a 99.9% stability rate. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is definitely a scalable solution. They have different types of licensing based on your needs. You can increase and decrease the number of users and access it from anywhere. The users are in business functions including the case management team, revenue team, analytics team, development, and QE. 

How are customer service and support?

The support for this solution is good. If you have an enterprise account, you get access to really good support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

The company I work for used to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM and they switched to Salesforce because Salesforce was skyrocketing during that period of time.

How was the initial setup?

We generally deploy through packages constructed within Salesforce and we use our own local deployments. We have ANT scripts and we were trying to come up with some CI/CD implementations. Currently, our deployment on Salesforce is out of the box. 

Our engineering team completed deployment. Every release cycle took one to three months. We take at least one day to deploy, because we have other integrations and components closely linked to Salesforce. Salesforce have their own release cycle. If they have any changes or new features they want to implement, they have push notifications to the customers on the features utilize.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment from this solution is from case management and the way billing information is captured. We have Tableau dashboards to pull up how many orders are created for a particular month. This information is supplied to the business to understand how we can streamline, improvise and improve marketing activities. 

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

Compared to other CRM solutions, Salesforce is expensive. It is more affordable for enterprise users than for small businesses. 

What other advice do I have?

I would advise those considering Salesforce to first understand their business model and how a CRM would fit in. They should understand their use cases and how their business functions can be changed from a technological perspective. 

The Salesforce Lightning feature is a new concept and we need to understand how it could help our business. We need to understand the usability and user experience for customization and to provide solutions for specific industries.

I would rate this solution 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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reviewer2395704 - PeerSpot reviewer
SF Pardot admin at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
Provides good reporting and helps improve sales
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of the solution are reporting and dashboards."
  • "The solution's scalability has some limitations."

What is our primary use case?

We can store our leads and track the sales. We can store objects like contacts, opportunities, and accounts in our Salesforce database. It will help to close deals faster. Suppose a contact is interested in purchasing something. That information is stored in the Salesforce database, and you can track the current level of contact.

For example, before they sign the deal, the contact wants some discount. You can see this data, know the sales process, and close the deal easily. One advantage of the solution is that it helps to improve our sales.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of the solution are reporting and dashboards. You can easily compare how many products were sold last year and this year.

What needs improvement?

The solution's scalability has some limitations.

For how long have I used the solution?


What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution's scalability has some limitations. If you want to add more users, you need to purchase or subscribe to the advanced version. Some big organizations purchase an unlimited edition, which allows more than 1,000 users. Only a few people can use the basic version.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support team is available 24/7, and I am satisfied with the technical support for the solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to other users.

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

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: customer/partner
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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: January 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Sales Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.