Salesforce: Information System for Improving Sales and Collection

such as Recurring Billings

Reliable connections between customers and sales officers are key to a successful
business. The most powerful driver allowing salespeople to increase client loyalty is a CRM
(customer relationship management) system. For the 12th consecutive year, Gartner names
Salesforce a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation.

Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation

Salesforce
has also been
dominating
the market in
other categories,
such as the CRM
Customer Engagement
Center and
Enterprise
Application
Platform as a Service, for many years in a row.

What Is Salesforce?

Salesforce offers a variety of tools and services not only for relationship management but
also for custom app development, targeting both small businesses and large industries. With
Salesforce, you can discover insights into customers, better understand their needs and treat them
as if you are personally acquainted.

The range of Salesforce products includes:

1. Sales Cloud — helps find more customers, accelerate sales productivity and close deals
faster.
2. Service Cloud — helps support customers from anywhere and hold a seamless
conversation.
 3. Marketing Cloud — includes tools to unite marketing and sales on one platform and to
engage with clients via different channels.
4. Commerce Cloud — helps create a personalized shopping experience.
5. Community Cloud — builds communities for employees, partners or vendors to improve
engagement.
6. Quip — a collaboration platform to organize your team’s work.
7. Salesforce Platform — a unified platform that allows you to customize solutions, build
your own apps, add security levels, etc.

Salesforce software products are used by thousands of enterprises of all sizes, covering
multiple industries and various geographic locations. The company’s key areas are financial
services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, consumer goods, communications and media, and
automotive. Among the most prominent clients are Aston Martin, American Express, Canon,
Puma, L’Oreal and more.

Why Use Salesforce CRM?

Businesses can develop at a rapid pace with the help of Salesforce.

The following benefits of this excellent CRM will make your work experience more pleasant:
Ease of Use. You don’t have to be an IT expert to set up and manage apps — you just
need to log in and start blazing trails to your customers in a completely new way.
Salesforce provides a complete view of the client, so you can make decisions easier. The
intuitive interface, clear navigation and collaboration options make the work process
smooth and seamless.
Rich functionality. The platform is replete with default features and templates suitable
for most business and organizational needs.
Customization. One of the main benefits of the service is the ability to configure any
solution according to the company’s needs. You can integrate your own apps, make
necessary alterations, delete or add functions and extend them. To perform customization,
technical expertise is needed.
Scalability. The platform is able to grow as the business expands, adapting to all new
specifications and providing enough storage space.
Analytics. Sales representatives have the possibility to track customer activities, analyze
them and anticipate customer needs. The system creates reports, graphics and dashboards
that help measure performance, find the critical points and improve upon them.
AppExchange. This is a special marketplace where you can find thousands of apps for
integration with Salesforce. Such practice enhances client engagement and improves
performance.
Community. Salesforce undergoes continuous improvements and takes advantage of
innovations. Its dedicated team and large-scale community always take user feedback
into consideration and release new features three times a year, building up a good
reputation for the product.

How to Salesforce improve Sales of a Business

1. Sales Automation
 Source: 
Salesfo rce

The first
thing you
should do for

improving sales using Salesforce is automating your sales pipeline. Sales Cloud is designated for
this very purpose and includes a wide array of features.
1. Account and Contact Management. These tools are able to draw a 360-degree picture of
each client by tracking their activities, contacts, communications and discussions. You
will also gain insights from the most popular social networks — LinkedIn, Facebook,
Twitter.
2. Opportunity Management. This tool helps control all of your deals, tracking products,
payment, delivery terms and other details. Team members stay informed about updates in
real-time mode and can help if needed.
3. Lead Management. More leads can convert into actual sales if you route and assign them
to the right sales reps.
4. Sales Data. You can get the latest and most accurate data easily with Lighting Data and
Data.com solutions. They automatically update crucial information about contacts, leads
and accounts, helping you drive processes. Two free tools — Data Loader and Excel
Connector — import and synchronize information from various sources.
5. Mobile. You can upload Salesforce to your mobile device and work from any place as if
from an actual office.
6. Workflow and Approvals. Use the Visual Workflow tool to design and visualize any
business process. Approve requests directly via Chatter or email without delaying deals.
7. Files Sync and Share. Work with files as a team from anywhere, synchronize and share
them quickly and securely, search for information, track content, publish news and correct
mistakes.
8. Reports and Dashboards. Detailed reports are created automatically to show the real
picture of your business at a glance.
9. Sales Forecasting. AI-driven algorithms make accurate forecasts on the basis of all the
available information. This helps provide timely updates and necessary adjustments, set
reasonable goals and track your team members’ performance.

2. Marketing Automation
Source: S alesforce

A specialized
tool, Mark eting
Cloud, helps
manage marketing
processes and
promote your
company products
through various
channels. Its main
features are:

1. Journey
Builder to
make
connections across all channels and power 1-to-1 relationships with clients.
2. Email Studio to build personalized email campaigns.
3. Salesforce DMP to capture and activate data from any source.
4. Data Studio to acquire high-quality data and activate it for finding new audiences.
5. Social Studio to engage with clients via social media channels.
6. Advertising Studio to create target ads.
7. Mobile Studio to facilitate mobile interactions including SMS, push notifications and
group messaging.
8. Interaction Studio to visualize user activities in a real-time mode on all channels and
drive valuable engagement at the right moment.
9. Pardot — a service to support the B2B segment, coordinating the actions of the
marketing and sales departments when working with corporate clients.
3. Service Automation

Source: Sales force

A
personalized S ervice
Cloud manage s the
support
(technical,
information, service,
etc.) of customers
at the after- sales
stage. It focuses
on solving
maintenance tasks and
automates the key
functions of this
process, optimizing cooperation with clients and increasing their satisfaction. The customer can
get assistance over the preferred digital channels (social networks, live chats, mobile messaging
or in-app). AI-powered chatbots provide instant answers, eliminating the long wait. There’s also
a possibility to build self-service portals where users can find information on their own.
4. Collaboration Automation

Source: Sales force

The C ommunity
Cloud solutio n provides
an
opportunity for
companies to organize
interactions between
customers, partners
and
employees. The
functionality of the
service facilitates
the exchange of
information in a real-
time mode, the transfer of any files, data or records on stationary or mobile devices. You can use
out-of-the-box templates, themes and branding to create a personalized forum or portal matching
your business needs. This will help you engage the audience and streamline the communication
with each member.
5. Analytics Automation

Source: Sale sforce

Analyze data
faster, reveal hidden
insights and opportunities
and turn data into
revenues with the
business tool Einstein
Analytics. The AI-
driven tool is able to
consolidate data from all
sources, analyze all
possible

combinations, make predictions and give recommendations.

As a result, you’ll be able to make business decisions much faster. You can integrate the tool into
existing apps or build your own applications for data analysis with the help of Einstein Analytics
Platform.
 Salesforce Billing Overview

Salesforce Billing can help businesses create and automate invoices, payments, and
revenues. Salesforce Billing is part of Quote-to-Cash solution. It automates billing, manages
orders, generates invoices, manages payments and recognizes revenue.
Integrating Salesforce CPQ and Salesforce Billing
Salesforce Billing is an add-on package that inherits key records and information from
Salesforce CPQ. After a sales representative finalizes a quote and orders it within Salesforce
CPQ, Salesforce Billing picks up the order record for invoicing, payment, and revenue
recognition. Before you integrate Salesforce Billing with Salesforce CPQ, review important
features and differences between the packages.
Order Management in Salesforce Billing
The order object lives in the CPQ package and acts as the intersection between Salesforce
CPQ and Salesforce Billing. Before you get started with Salesforce Billing, review key
guidelines about the order's use in CPQ and billing workflows.
Revenue Recognition Reporting
Create and manage reports for how and when your customers recognize revenue for a
product or service.
ERP Integration: Complementing Accounting Systems
Salesforce Billing complements enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms by
converting Salesforce CPQ’s lead-to-order data into transactional data. The conversion allows
ERP systems to inherit matching data, which they can use for accounting functions like general
ledger and financial reporting. This process lets Salesforce CPQ and Salesforce Billing manage
financial customer touchpoints and upholds the ERP as the system of record for GL and financial
reporting.
Benefits of Using Salesforce Billing
Sending error-free bills to customers and having them paid quickly is crucial to a healthy
business process and to smooth and seamless workflow. However, setting up an efficient
invoicing system brings more benefits to your business, not just minimizing the errors. Here are
5 most important ones:
► Minimizing Errors - the chance of human error is reduced considerably by compiling
automatically costs and quotes and generating the corresponding invoices. This consequently
saves time, which you know - is money.
► Managing Subscription Billing - Salesforce Billing supports services that are billed on a
recurring basis, as well as discounts, free trials, renewals and refunds.
► Reducing Administration - by automating and standardizing the invoicing process and by
connecting a set of complex systems, the administration is effectively reduced. Faster invoicing
means less errors, which means more time and that can be used more efficiently in other areas of
the business.
► Creating Transparency - with an efficient invoicing system it is very simple to find the
necessary information and to provide in to a client or customer who has a query about the billing
process.
► Simplifying Records - creating reports by using one single integrated solution is very
straightforward. Business profitability can be improved with the help of automated reports and
custom dashboards which allow to quickly identify most the most important information, most
profitable customers and buying patterns.
Thus, these are just some of the benefits that Salesforce Billing has in store. By pairing CPQ and
billing functionality on the same platform the benefits are boundless.