In October 2020 Salesforce published the fourth edition of its State of the Connected Customer research report, an “annual study of how customer expectations and behaviors are changing as businesses, technology and society at large evolve.” This was Salesforce's largest survey yet, gathering over 15,000 responses across 27 countries and six continents.
The survey revealed that 81% of customers around the world expect to conduct more business online after the pandemic than they did before. With that, 51% of salespeople say they’ll travel less for work after the pandemic than they did before, with only 16% disagreeing with the statement. In addition, 47% of surveyors predict that most selling will be done virtually moving forward.
With these staggering results of a shift to a larger online presence in sales, Salesforce did what Salesforce does and revamped Sales Cloud. A few key features of the reimagined Sales Cloud include:
Salesforce Meetings allows virtual conversations to be more engaging, with a 360 view of all attendees’ account history, service cases and bios on a single screen during the meeting, and automated action items for salespeople after the call.
AI-powered predictions, insights and automated explanations with Tableau Business Science lets sales teams analyze data and make smart decisions, faster, without relying on a data scientist — for example, when updating quotas, looking at forecast accuracy or reassessing selling strategies — all using clicks, not code.
MuleSoft Composer for Salesforce connects data and apps without writing code so sales operations teams can connect apps and systems to Salesforce, automate sales processes, and unlock richer sales insights without waiting on development resources.
Customers can find ready-to-install apps integrated with Sales Cloud on the Salesforce AppExchange — the world’s leading enterprise cloud marketplace. In addition, customers can connect to the right consulting partner to implement scalable Sales Cloud solutions for their specific business needs through the Consultant Finder on AppExchange.
As always, Salesforce released a trailhead highlighting what’s new with Sales Cloud that you can find here. This trailhead shows you how to:
Access your forecasting from anywhere.
Leverage sales cadences on any top sales object, at any stage of the sales cycle or deal.
Leverage even more field safety capabilities within the Salesforce Maps Field Safety Kit.
What new feature are you most excited to utilize in your business?