salesforce consultant

Salesforce for NonProfits: Products Overview Salesforce offers two solutions for nonprofits: Nonprofit Cloud is a set of tools and technologies that connect nonprofit organizations with their donors and allows them to manage campaigns, monitor volunteers, and all tasks they need to do. Nonprofit Success Pack or NPSP is the foundation of Nonprofit Cloud. NPSP is an app stack that gives nonprofits access to pre-built donor management components in Salesforce and enables them to operate faster and more efficiently in Salesforce. NPSP is founded on a robust, industry standard-data model that allows nonprofits to manage income streams, grants, and programs in a single place. There is also Salesforce.org which is a nonprofit social organization that resells Salesforce licenses to nonprofits at a significantly discounted price. With Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud you can: Significantly boost impact, revenue, and reach. Automate volunteers and staff to launch powerful campaigns at scale. Leverage data intelligence and insights and grow revenue. Expand your community with real-time data. Salesforce Nonprofit Сloud and NPSP allow nonprofits to access various Salesforce apps to seamlessly execute tasks such as obtaining digital signatures, creating web forms, manage projects etc. Other use cases include: Nonprofit Cloud Fundraising. Salesforce comes with tailor made features unique to the fundraising operations. It allows you to launch targeted fundraising campaigns, collaborate with staff and volunteers, and save critical data. Program Management. With NPSP, organizations can manage and monitor their programs easily. With smart tools available within the Salesforce console,  nonprofits can establish which programs are the most successful. Teams can quickly modify the non-performing programs. Engagement. Nonprofits rely on support from all segments of their community such as donors, members and volunteers. They need to communicate their mission to each donor effectively to encourage them to make regular donations. With Nonprofit Cloud, organizations augment awareness, find new donors, and foster long-term relationships. Grant Management. Salesforce is widely used as a grant management solution. Nonprofit Cloud can automate the entire process of giving with pre-built solutions for grants management, donor engagement, and more. However, to get the most out of Salesforce for nonprofits, it may be a wise decision to hire a specialist who could help with the implementation. This is where a Salesforce nonprofit cloud consultant comes in. Why Do You Need a Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant? Salesforce CRM can become a powerful tool for managing all constituents of your operations and fundraising activities if you know how to maximize its potential. Without a planned implementation followed by thorough training of users, Salesforce for Nonprofits could take a heavy toll on your resources, become an impediment to seamless operations, and thereby create a resistance amongst users for proper adoption. Working with a specialist will save you time, money and effort in the long run. Nonprofits have specific needs. That makes it all the more important to know how to use Salesforce correctly to stay on top of your initiatives. A Salesforce nonprofit consultant will help you with that! When you hire a Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant, you’ll get: A dedicated professional who will work diligently to drive adoption. A Salesforce certified partner who will put in the hours to understand the world of nonprofits 360 degree services for Salesforce implementation to drive revenue and engagement A technology implementation and training plan in collaboration with your team at every step; An expert who will train your users to configure the system customised to your needs. Considering the above benefits, it would be a prudent decision to hire a Salesforce consultant. Top 5 Salesforce nonprofit consultant hiring strategies Are you assessing Salesforce to manage your fundraising and outreach initiatives? There is always a temptation to do it yourself thinking once you do it, everything else will fall into place. But without knowing and understanding how to use Salesforce strategically for your nonprofit efforts, you will not be able to drive adoption and significantly limit the utilization of the platform’s capability. Bringing in a Salesforce consultant has several benefits. A Salesforce consultant will guide you on how well you can align Salesforce with your NGO’s overall mission and scale up with your operations. Here are 5 things you should keep in mind when you are looking to hire a nonprofit Salesforce consultant. Create a realistic budget You need to have a clear idea of how much you are willing to spend on a nonprofit Salesforce consultant before you actually set out looking for one. Salesforce consultants are expensive. Many of them have several years of experience in the relevant field and are very good at what they do. While establishing the budget, make sure you have taken into account the following: Salesforce NPSP deployment costs Consultation fees Third party software integration costs Establishing a realistic budget will go a long way in ensuring an effective Salesforce implementation. Establish a clear understanding of How a Salesforce consultant brings value You don’t hire a Salesforce consultant only to implement Salesforce for nonprofit in your NGO. A Salesforce consultant brings value to your organization in many ways outside of your Salesforce project. It is important to understand the potential value in this partnership and what skills, knowledge and experience you are looking for before hiring a consultant. Here are some pointers to establish that understanding. Current technology needs: Is your existing technology framework delivering the desired results? If not, what is the gap and how do you intend to fill that gap with Salesforce? How will this impact the existing systems that you are currently using? Which of those systems don’t bring any value to your efforts and need to be cast aside immediately? Salesforce Goals: What are your goals while implementing Salesforce in your organization? Which aspects if your operations do you wish to manage with Salesforce such as fundraising activities, events, marketing and promotional activities, team collaboration etc? Look for a Salesforce consultant with relevant experience. You must keep relevant experience in mind once you start looking for a Salesforce consultant. Most consultants will have details of their work experience on their website, along with case studies and portfolios. That should get you started to identify the relevant ones. Ensure that you have answers to the following: What are their areas of expertise with respect to technology? What nonprofit projects have they worked on, what was the engagement like and for how long, what were the outcomes? What is their project experience on Salesforce apart from nonprofits? Know More About Their Processes Once you have shortlisted potential Salesforce consultants, meet with them in person and understand who they are how they work. Understanding their solution implementation methodology will help you assess whether or not it aligns with your processes and objectives. Ensure that you have clarity on the following points: How do they intend to capture your nonprofit’s current processes and Salesforce requirements? How will they plan the Salesforce implementation? What would be the dependencies and constraints of the implementation? How soon can they start with the implementation after getting done with the planning? How would they define the success metrics? What is their methodology to prevent delays, if any? What would be their training methodology? Make sure they are willing for a long-term relationship It’s very important for you to establish how long is this partnership going to last? Once you have detailed discussions about the project and your expectations, ask them for a project timeline and assess the potential of a long-term relationship with you as your organization grows. Make sure you get answers to these questions: Will they be providing support if there are any additional projects? Will they provide long term support? What is their preferred mode of communication? – phones, emails, text chat or in person meetings? Girikon is a Gold Certified Salesforce Implementation partner with over a decade of Salesforce experience. Our team of experts can help nonprofit organizations implement the right solution that benefits all constituents. We have extensive experience in Salesforce consulting, customization and deployment. Our rich experience across multiple industries allows us to get a deep understanding of your unique project requirements. Our global delivery capability will ensure you get value for the money you spend. We can also assist you with: Grounds up Salesforce implementation Migration from any existing system to Salesforce Re-implementation or optimization of Salesforce Migration to Salesforce Lightning from Salesforce Classic Contact us today.

Customer Relationship Management Software, widely referred to as CRM software, is playing a vital role today across enterprises of various sizes. By aggregating and managing customer data, Salesforce CRM enables enterprises to manage a wide range of key business functions such as lead generation and conversion, sales and marketing, tracking customer engagement and automating workflows. As enterprises are able to streamline their business processes with CRM software, each of these individually separate functions and activities are now better streamlines and integrated, resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction. Implementing a Salesforce CRM within your organization can be a bit of a challenge. Although Salesforce CRM is the world’s most advanced and innovative CRM platform, there are always implementation and migrations challenges associated with working with a new system, as your team migrates key information to the new platform and adapts to work with it. This transition however, can be simplified significantly if you have a dedicated Salesforce Consultant to help your teams adapt to this new system. What is a Salesforce consultant? A Salesforce Consultant can help you overcome limitations, unlock the Salesforce CRM platform’s full potential, and augment Salesforce’s out-of-the-box functionality. A Salesforce consultant is an experienced professional with significant expertise implementing the Salesforce CRM platform. And because this is their area of expertise, they would be more than likely to stay up-to-date with the latest product updates and tools, to enable them to deliver agile implementation and drive productivity. Salesforce Consulting goes beyond the basic implementation of the Salesforce CRM platform. Third party integrations, creating custom apps, and leveraging the platform’s full capabilities and driving adoption of your users are also some of their key responsibilities. Almost any business in any industry can take advantage of these customizations, from nonprofits to manufacturing, financial services to healthcare, and more. Why should you hire a Salesforce consultant? Hiring a Salesforce consultant can help you maximise the potential of the CRM platform. You would be able to connect with and understand your customers better, and deliver personalized experiences for your clients and prospects. As an organization, you’ll also be better prepared to provide agile support to your customers. And you will be able to track the entire customer experience and improve further. Before we go into what are the roles of a Salesforce Consultant, let us understand some of the constraints they have to work with. Salesforce CRM implementation is a resource-dependent process. Therefore, the consultant must address the resource needs associated with is before going ahead with implementing a solution. 1. Workforce Constraints The Salesforce consultant needs to be aware of the workforce constraints that exist in the organization. The organization and the consultant must arrive at a common understanding or how much of the organizational workforce can be used to implement the solution. Conversely, the solution has to be designed keeping the workforce size in mind. The consultant needs to understand the work responsibilities of each staff member so that an optimum solution can be developed. Workforce availability constraints must also be considered during the implementation, training, and go-live processes. 2. Time Constraint Every technology solution is designed for under a specified timeline and for a specific purpose that must be fulfilled at the earliest. The CRM solution has to be designed based on the established timeline with all checks and balances in place to address any schedule deviations at key milestones. One of the key challenges for the consultant is to stick to the timelines so that the implementation is relevant and useful. The implementation should not add delays to the existing schedules. In fact, it should optimize the existing schedules to augment efficiency. 3. Skill Constraints The Salesforce Consultant needs to have a good understanding of the gap between the desired skill set and the existing skill set of the workforce. Not only should the CRM solution be usable by the workforce, but it should also trim the gaps in sills for better productivity. Th user experience should be such that it is easy and effective. Roles of a Salesforce Consultant The Salesforce CRM platform is a suite of complex tools and features and tools if properly implemented can maximum profits. It comes with a high degree of flexibility to ensure alignment with almost any business requirement. It is the prerogative of a Salesforce Consultant to be aware of the scope of customization so that the implementation is smooth and effective. Having said that, the organization needs to first identify which of its business processes it wants to customise and/or optimize in Salesforce. Here are some of the key roles and responsibilities of a Salesforce Consultant for an effective CRM implementation. 1. Relationship Management The Salesforce Consultant has a key role to play in the client company equation. The Salesforce consultant brings a certain value to the organization that can potentially be extended to their clients. Salesforce Consulting can help evolve the sales process and affect the clients for the better. Clients are the key touchpoints for an organization since they generate revenues. The relationship between the organization and its clients is a make-or-break deal. It is vital to create and maintain a relationship of mutual trust and business ethics for long term growth. A Salesforce Consultant can utilise specific features of the Salesforce CRM platform to generate more sales opportunities. One of the key responsibilities of the Salesforce consultant is to develop a deep understanding of the client-company relationships and advise the company on how to augment that relationship further. With the powerful Salesforce CRM platform, the Salesforce consultant creates more efficient business process to drive productivity. It allows the client to feel that he is an equal partner in the process of change. In fact, in several cases, the Salesforce consultant is the first point of contact for customers. 2. Organize meetings and keeping the teams updated The Salesforce consulting partner is a key contact point for clients and client companies. Even though organizations prefer automation and intelligent, innovative, feature-rich systems, they want to meet and discuss with someone who has a good understanding of what all the CRM platform can do and how those features can be extended to its users. The Salesforce Consultant should organize meetings with clients and share status updates of how the implementation and adoption is going. While it is easy to provide status updates on multiple projects in a single dashboard, a consultant ensures accurate, consistent and periodic sharing of updates with the users. 3. Building and deploying Salesforce The primary role of a Salesforce consultant is to build and deploy a Salesforce CRM solution that is customized for the company and its clients.  The Salesforce Consultant has to ensure that all business processes that have been discussed and agreed upon by the company have been implemented. 4. Providing training and support Like any other enterprise platform, Salesforce updates its platform thrice a year to make it more available to its users. However, most businesses find it a daunting task to keep up with these upgrades, or they don’t know which upgrades will have deliver the greatest benefits to them. A Salesforce Consultant will help you with that. They will help you in understanding which updates will benefit your organization the most and boost productivity based on your unique needs. This assistance also needs to extend to your staff. Not only do you need a user friendly and efficient system, but you also want your staff to know how to access the information they need to fulfil their work responsibilities. They should feel fully capable to navigate and use the CRM platform. Your consultant will provide the necessary training to boost user adoption and productivity on the platform, empowering them to close deals faster and also acquire more customers. A thorough Salesforce implementation, training and adoption program across your organization is the foundation of a customer-centric business. Finally, you will discover that greater the support you get from your consultant, the lesser the number of queries you have about the platform. The consultant can provide you with the necessary help and support, which means having to submit lesser help tickets. You have your own in-house expert who can all answer your questions related to the CRM platform and provide the necessary training as and when problems arise. Hiring a qualified Salesforce consultant creates a more seamless experience for everyone in your organization. If your business could do with more customers, working with a Certified Salesforce consultant might be the key to tapping into that potential market. Turn to Girikon to implement a solution that can help you drive growth for you. With a large pool of certified professionals, and a global delivery model, Girikon makes it easy for you to focus on what you want to do – deliver customer delight.

In today’s business landscape, a successful enterprise must adopt a system that seamlessly integrates all departments and their respective business processes to enable them to interact and collaborate effortlessly. This is where Salesforce has established itself as the market leader in the CRM space.  Salesforce CRM sometimes popularly referred to as the Customer 360 platform, is a user-friendly solution with virtually limitless flexibility that connects teams across departments in an organization and drives growth. As a result, companies that use Salesforce see improvements in growth and efficiency. But to get the most out of what Salesforce CRM has to you need professional expertise. While most of the Salesforce products are centred around sales and customer service, Salesforce can be used for almost anything. And while the key Salesforce functions haven’t changed much – consultant, administrator, architect and developer, the specializations required based on the unique business needs of an organization have become quite apparent. One needs to have specialization on some of the key aspects of Salesforce to make the implementation count. Consultants don’t just bring in the necessary skills and experience for implementing the CRM platform. They also add significant value in being able to understand the customer. Not only in terms of business processes within the organization but also outside of that realm, such as the people who drive those processes. And they are an intrinsic part of the customer’s growth journey onwards of implementation. While businesses can provide the Salesforce implementation team with data and insight, certain things can only be understood by a specialist. This is where the Salesforce consultant role becomes important. They are trained with skills like attention to detail, analytical thinking and problem-solving along with hands on expertise on the platform. Why Is Salesforce so Popular? Salesforce upgrades its product offering three times a year. Which means every year they add new features and functionality to help existing and new business innovate rapidly. Salesforce is founded on a Customer-360 vision and promotes a collaborative work culture that brings people together and promotes productivity. The Salesforce online community provides help and support to the entire developer community to solve any business challenge The Salesforce platform has virtually limitless flexibility and businesses can create any number and kind of custom apps and integrations to support their business Salesforce allows you to automate routine business processes which frees up employee time to focus on core tasks. Salesforce is powered by an advanced AI engine which delivers qualified analytics on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of your business. Here's where Salesforce Consultants add value across various phases As Part of an Implementation Team CRM implementation is a time-consuming effort and requires coordinated team effort. It would be a wise decision for a business to hire a specialist with extensive experience in Salesforce implementation since the Salesforce platform is complex and offers virtually limitless customization possibilities. Consequently, Salesforce consultants are in high demand across businesses that need the Salesforce CRM implementation. Here are the phases that require the services of a Salesforce Consultant: The Pre-Implementation Phase Before preparing a draft of the Salesforce implementation plan, a Salesforce consultant needs valuable insight from within the company. Information on the type and number of employees, the working structure of the company, regular business processes and workflows, are all important to understand how the organization works and what are its vital parts. The consultant needs to work closely with the business leaders within the organization to understand goals and expectations and current challenges and workflow bottlenecks During the Implementation Consultants play a vital role during the implementation phase as well. They are the link between the technical team – architects, administrators and developers who install and configure the platform and build and deploy custom apps, and the company. Their role is to maintain good communication between the two groups and ensure everything is well captured. After the Implementation The implementation is not over until the customer starts seeing results. After all, the technical implementation is just side of it. Once the technical tasks are completed, the implementation team also needs to train the users on the platform. Typically, this is another key responsibility area of a Salesforce consultant. It requires good communication skills, teamwork and leadership skills. Businesses are evolving continuously. And the software that they use needs to keep pace with it. Businesses need to add and upgrade their apps and workflows on an ongoing basis to stay ahead of the curve. If you are already using Salesforce in your organization, the presence of a Salesforce Consultant will help you to upgrade rapidly by building and deploying apps in an agile framework. And do to that you need a strong team of specialists. Moreover, just like every other complex platform, Salesforce also requires maintenance time to time. This is another key responsibility area of a consultant. As part of the organization Salesforce consultants also work in organizations that don’t do implementation for others. They just have enough in house needs. These are regular businesses that use the Salesforce platform and a small team of consultants to oversee the implementation, upgrades and maintenance activities. In this context, a Salesforce Consultant’s function is to make sure system performs perfectly and the users are able to use it easily. On top of that, they also discover methods to further enhance the customer experience through the use of the platform and make sure teams continue to communicate with each other. Shortage of Salesforce Professionals Currently, there just aren’t enough people trained in Salesforce to meet growing demands of this ecosystem. One of the key reasons is that Salesforce isn’t your run-of-the-mill software. It’s a specialised and complex product and unless you're a service provider or you are a part of an organization that uses Salesforce, it’s unlikely that you know much about it. Many of the Fortune 100 companies use Salesforce. IDC published an article in October 2017 saying that over 3 million jobs are expected to be there in the Salesforce ecosystem by end of 2022 through its network of partners. Salesforce has been growing at a brisk pace year on year, and so are their customers, consequently driving up the demand for Salesforce professionals to support that growth. And the skills one acquires as a Salesforce professional are highly transferable in case one wants to switch over to another industry. Developing Salesforce Skills Irrespective of your available budget, there are multiple options available to help one get familiar with Salesforce and develop skills in a certain are: Developer organisations— Sign up immediately for a free developer licence and start practising Trailhead, which is a Salesforce powered only community where one can get hands-on exposure to Salesforce and learn the technical and business skills one needs to succeed from anywhere for free. Girikon is a dedicated Gold Certified Salesforce Partner. Our relentless focus on understanding the unique needs of our customers combined with our rich expertise and experience on the Salesforce platform allows us to deliver value driven solutions to our clients. Contact us today to know more.

At the peak of COVID-19, merchants were making decisions in haste to provide the products and services that customers needed. Today, when the world is far more at ease, these makeshift solutions are now intensifying as shoppers have a plethora of options driving expectations to an all new high. Additionally, their patience is very limited now. In fact, research data across over 2000 retailers suggests that 80% of shoppers are very likely to abandon them after three bad experiences. Merchants need deeper the insights into customer behaviour to scale up their business. Here are top 4 trends that have been observed across the world on how the retail landscape is changing. Trend 1: Shopping journeys get more complex During the 2 years of COVID, three types of digital channels grew their transaction share by almost 40%: brand websites, retailer websites and apps, and online marketplaces. This of course includes transactions through their apps as well. In the process, associated channels like delivery apps, social media, and messaging platforms have also become prominent players in the digital commerce eco system, with a growth of over 20%. As the range of shopping channels continues to expand, shopping journeys have got more and more complex. The purchasing journey has become fragmented and complex. It is imperative for brands and merchants to develop a one-on-one relationship with customers across platforms namely social media, messaging platforms, and video to stay relevant. Social media, influencers, and messaging apps have become hugely popular today for product discovery. For making a purchase, social media, digital wallets and email are the leading digital destinations. And when buyers need customer support, they mostly turn to chatbots and social media. Trend 2: The store goes digital Although transactions through brick-and-mortar stores decreased significantly during the pandemic, the physical store still plays an important role in the shopping journey. In fact, reports indicate that over 80% of the global merchandise sales happened at physical stores in 2020. The primary reasons shoppers prefer to visit a physical store are firstly, to touch and feel the product, secondly one gets immediate delivery of the merchandise and finally to avoid logistics costs. However, shoppers today are blurring the lines between digital and physical channels while they are in the store. Many shoppers today research about a product on the retailer’s app while still being in the sore before making a purchase. To compliment this trend, brands and retailers are connecting the in-store experience with an increasing number of digital touchpoints. The role of the store associate is growing as well. At the peak of COVID, store associates evolved from the routine scanning and bagging to becoming customer service reps, product recommenders, and brand influencers. And these roles are more than likely to stay, which makes the role of the store associate in the customer journey far more intriguing. Trend 3: The loyalty game has gone a few notches up Loyalty programs are continuously evolving based on shopper expectations. Although a points-based loyalty program is still the most preferred method today, data indicates that younger generations are seeking a more experience-based journey that establishes a deeper connection with the brand. Millennials today value exclusive access to limited products and richer experiences far more than ever when it comes to loyalty programs. Shoppers are also seeking rewards for their transactions. They are willing to take a further step such as downloading an app or writing an online review and sharing personal information like their birthday or phone number for a more personalized experience and loyalty benefits. Trend 4: Brands and Retailers and brands fast track unified shopping experiences Most customers expect brands and retailers to recognise their unique needs and expectations, but only a portion of them have the capability to turn data into personalized offerings in real time across channels and touchpoints. To address this customer expectation, and to address the challenges associated with delivering that expectation, retailers and brands are adopting a threefold approach: HIRING MORE DATA SCIENTISTS Retailers are actively working to hire more data scientists. And this trend is expected to grow further into 2023. This trend that brands and retailers have the opportunity to overhaul their loyalty programs to meet the rising customer expectations and their openness to share personal data. ADOPTING A UNIFIED ENGAGEMENT PLATFORM Many retailers and brands today are already in the planning stage for such a platform, which allows them to access and monetise customer data by engaging with them at a deeper level. UPGRADING POINT-OF-SALE TECHNOLOGY Going forward, the pint of sale (POS) will become a critical part of a unified customer engagement platform. In fact, new retailers are already adopting this approach and are moving to a cloud solution. The in-store digital experience is key for engaging with customers and driving sales. Here are some tips on now to enhance customer experience. Empower associates with the tools that drive sales As we mentioned before, store associates are adopting extended functional roles such as customer service, ecommerce, and social media experts to engage with shoppers. To be able to wear multiple hats successfully, store associates need access to customer data along with user friendly digital tools. This is where a CRM platform like Salesforce comes into play. Associates can access complete customer profile with information on purchase history, buying preferences, demographic data, customer satisfaction score, and more. To get associates up to speed quickly, Salesforce provides digital learning platforms like myTrailhead that bring associates up to speed on how to handle every aspect of digital and physical transactions. Brands and retailers can reskill associates for routine store tasks such as picking, sorting, packing, and shipping to support the fulfilment journey. Store managers can learn to use digital tools to analyze data, access insights and act on them faster than ever. Maintain real time inventory levels The greatest enemy of customer satisfaction is out-of-stock inventory.  Most shoppers are interested in pre-ordering new or out-of-stock items. This is especially true for fast moving items. Stores can manage inventory levels with a flexible and robust order management system. The order management system connects data across your warehouses and stores to give associates the most accurate status of current inventory. That translates to happy customers. Offer multiple digital payment options Customers need more payment options, period. Having just a credit card machine won’t do. In the era of digital, stores need payment types that are minimally invasive and streamline checkout for customers. Level up store fulfilment During the peak of the pandemic, there was a scramble to buy online or pick up in store. In fact, some retailers even turned some of their stores to micro-fulfilment centers. Make sure to: Clearly communicate important details to customers, such as where to pick up their items from and when. Clearly communicate to customers what identification they need to provide to pick up their orders  Establish a seamless connect with customer service channels so that shoppers can easily chat with an agent to resolve any issues Offer personalized product recommendations to customers based on their purchase Augment customer service across channels with a personal touch Customers love the physical experience, personal touch and immediacy that is intrinsic to in-store shopping. It will be wise extend that experience to your customer service channels. And one of the best ways to achieve this is to train associates by having them help out customer service agents during peak season. Another important consideration is to encourage self-service for customers. Keep your help centre up to date for customers to find their way around. Integrate workflows that guide customers through tasks like how to initiate a return to a nearby store. Use AI-powered chatbots to scale support during sales or holiday seasons. Lastly, adopt asynchronous modes of communication like messaging apps. They keep the conversation going and provide a history of past interactions. Train associates and empower them to resolve customer issues over digital channels and incorporate customer feedback to evolve the experience. Develop a loyal customer base, especially in the era of vibrant social media. Girikon is a Gold Certified Salesforce Consultant and can help you set up a strategy to connect with your customers like never before. Questions? We’ll guide you to the right path CONTACT AN EXPERT

Customer relationships are the cornerstone of an organisation's growth, and you need to nurture and manage them efficiently and smartly. Salesforce is the world’s No1 CRM platform for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce provides out-of-the-box solutions that let growing businesses implement cutting-edge technology with minimum effort and connect all of the systems that are important to them. And has been recognised by leading user review organisations and industry analysts and as the market leader in CRM technology, Before we go deeper into what CRM technology can do for you, let us answer the basic question – Does my business need a CRM solution? If any of these is true for you, then the right CRM solution could make your job a whole lot easier. 1.You don’t have a single source of customer information. Does your company have customer and order information in multiple locations? If yes, then that's one glaring reason why you need a CRM. A CRM brings together all of your customer data from sales, marketing, service and support into one place allowing you to access, track, analyse, and act on it straightaway, from anywhere. If you store customer data in spreadsheets, then not just your sales reps but anyone who interacts with your customers is at a disadvantage. When information is modified in one system, other systems do not update automatically. There is no holistic, unified view of all of your customer data such as contact information, purchase info, and communication logs. 2. You have very limited visibility of customer interactions. Do you have a complete, single view of all customer information? If not, then you don’t have insight into what your salespeople and customer support teams are doing. It’s hard to help your sales and service teams be successful and accountable if you’re not sure what they are doing. 3. Reports are tedious and painful. Does your team go through the arduous process of creating reports manually? If that is true, your performance-tracking capabilities are extremely limited. You should be generating reports automatically and view real time analytics of your sales team’s progress versus their targets. 4. You’re losing valuable customer data. IF you are not sure what you’re following up on, it is going to be very hard for you to schedule follow-up interactions with customers and prospects. If your interactions across touchpoints aren’t being tracked, important details get lost through the cracks, especially if a key staff member leaves your organization. 5. It’s challenging to stay in touch on the go. Can you sales reps quickly and easily find the information they need to close a deal when they are in the field? When they are meet prospects and come across valuable information, does the rest of your organization have access to it? Information captured in handwritten notes and on PCs is a potential gold mine.  6. Every customer is treated the same. Are your customers and prospects getting similar types of messages and offers from you? If that is true, you’re missing out on potential opportunities. You want the to be able to target prospects based on their industry, geography, and the value they can bring to your business to make the most of every interaction. 7. Can you scale fast? If you company grows rapidly, can your business processes scale just as quickly as the demand? You cannot afford to let your own processes be the impediment to your success.

Customer-centric experiences are the cornerstone of business, and to be truly customer-centric, you have to know your customers’ preferences and the context in which they engage with your organization. Today’s CRM tools are stacked with features that foster collaboration and accessible data to drive smart decision-making. The right tool should enable companies to target diverse audiences, design intelligent automation based on a prospect’s activity, and proactively manage relationships. The advantages of CRM software are evident: It keeps all historical data in one place, making it easier to manage customer relationships. A CRM software should offer limitless possibilities to organizations to proactively engage teams, collaborate on goals and deliver powerful customer-centric experiences. Salesforce does all that for you, and much more. The Salesforce platform is a framework with amazing capabilities and virtually endless possibilities. It truly has the power and flexibility to do exactly what you want it to do. And on most occasions, effortlessly. It is only normal to be intimidated by the technology and its possibilities offered by the World’s No 1 CRM platform. Hence, it is imperative that you find the right Salesforce Consulting Partner to walk guide you on your stairway to success. Here are a few areas where the best Salesforce Consulting Partner can help you: Improve Business Performance Salesforce CRM is designed with the customer in mind, empowering organizations to break new ground with customers, address concerns, resolve problems, and provide value. Your Salesforce Consulting Partner will help you to put customer success first, and in the process, focus on your own business performance improvement. Improved customer visibility Salesforce provides a user-friendly platform for managing all of your customer-related information, thereby enabling you to prioritize every customer as though it were the only one. By understanding your customers better, you'll be empowered to better forecast their future actions. Superior time management Salesforce combines all of your agents' activities, calendars, schedules and helps make those engagements better serve customers. This means less downtime and significantly lesser deadline-related stress. More efficient sales pipeline Salesforce allows you to track individual prospects effortlessly, including their pain points, their expectations, and any other information that might be useful in working with a potential customer. You will always be able to see exactly where a lead is in your pipeline, as well as know what their next step should be. The end result is improvement in your overall sales.  Enhanced collaboration Having a cloud-based, cross-department platform means that any and every authorized user can work together to ensure customer success. With multi-device access capability, Salesforce allows your teams to access relevant data across departments, communicate efficiently, and collaborate together to provide a seamless customer-centric experience. Better support Salesforce provides excellent support, and with the entire platform based on the cloud, maintenance can be done remotely, avoiding the expensive costs associated with in-person maintenance visits. Increased efficiency and productivity Between automating time-consuming tasks, enabling collaboration, and eliminating the need for micro-management by line managers, Salesforce trims away at unnecessary processes and wasteful effort, setting up a supremely efficient system that will deliver real value to your organization and your customers, consequently driving up organizational productivity. Faster Decision Making  With Salesforce’s powerful data modeling and visualization tools like Einstein Analytics and Lightning, teams can have access to sales and service KPIs. Your Salesforce Implementation Partner can empower you with a deeper insight into market trends and opportunities. Customer analytics can help you blend science with data to make decisions that enable you to stay ahead of the curve. There are way too many features in Salesforce and it's just not possible to list them all. However, with a top Salesforce Consultant, you can maximize the use of its power and flexibility and send your organizational productivity into overdrive. Get a distinct advantage over your competition with the World’s most complete CRM platform. Take advantage of the best security, the most-effective customization options, the highest-quality apps, and the most innovative business solution, all at a cost that will delight you. Looking for more details? Contact our reps to discuss your needs today. CONTACT AN EXPERT

BI has been around for many years and uses techniques such as data warehousing, data mining, and predictive analytics to provide users with the insights to make informed business decisions. Business Intelligence software bridges the gap between an extensive collection of unstructured data and meaningful insights. One such popular business intelligence software is the Salesforce Analytics Cloud that can be leveraged by medium and large-scale companies to explore, analyze and manage customer data gathered from different sources quickly and efficiently. It is essential to get in touch with one of the best Salesforce consultants to implement and make the most of this software. This robust cloud-based program is powered by Einstein Analytics and Tableau. Using the Salesforce Analytics Cloud, it is possible to explore data rapidly, the outcomes of which will be displayed through several layers of dynamic visualization over underlying data sets. With Salesforce Analytics Cloud, data representations can be viewed from all devices, including smartphones, PC and tablets. Besides revealing the current trends and decline in productivity, this comprehensive tool also shows why and why they took place. Designed and developed to bring the CRM data together, the platform allows managers to alleviate issues while augmenting overall business performance.  Features of Salesforce Analytics Cloud: Some of the prominent features of Salesforce analytics cloud include the following: Mobile-Friendly: Salesforce Analytics Cloud is highly mobile-friendly as it allows users to view, screen, arrange, measure, and share data from their mobile devices. It is easy to connect, modify, and deploy data anytime and from anywhere. This feature is helpful for the field workers, such as the customer service representatives who are commonly on the field. Dynamic Visualization Engine: Designed especially for business users and data builders, Salesforce analytics cloud provides a rapid visualization engine that showcases how charts affect each other. Besides providing users with interactive visuals and quick searches, the App provides users with critical business knowledge, which helps them make informed decisions.  Multiple Dashboards: A business will have various data sources depending on its business type. Data of all forms, i.e., structured or unstructured, and sources, i.e., ERP, website, CRM, social media, RFID sensors, etc., can be gathered and explored by Salesforce Analytics Cloud. Apart from this, for different datasets, different dashboards can be created.  Native Salesforce Integration: Since the App is built natively on Salesforce, there will be no synchronization issues as the complete data is placed on Salesforce. By using pre-existing tools, workflow rules, data fields etc., the data can be customized and tailored. Data gets stored securely in the Salesforce servers, and it’s simple to roll out updates. Benefits of Salesforce Analytics Cloud: Explore data Anywhere & Anytime: Salesforce Analytics cloud provides users to view and easily access data from multiple sources by utilizing the visualization capabilities of Tableau. Users can use the pre-built apps and in-built dashboards to explore the data.  AI-powered recommendations: Users can get AI-powered suggestions and explanations with the Einstein Analytics module of the Salesforce Analytics Cloud. The App will analyze millions of data combinations to provide data-driven insights, trends, and events, which will allow users to make informed decisions.  Access Integrated Solutions: Data exploration will be simplified for users if they leverage the Salesforce Analytics cloud-integrated natively with Salesforce sales and service cloud. Besides recognizing trends, they will be able to check KPIs. The availability of Tableau and Einstein Analytics at various levels for matching different industry verticals ensures that users find the right App to make the most CRM data.   Quick Wrap-up: Salesforce analytics cloud is an excellent tool for drawing insights from business data to help organizations make informed decisions. To meet the unique needs of their business, organizations should get in touch with a reliable Salesforce consultant who can empower them to make the most of their data by leveraging Salesforce analytics solutions.