In a world where it can sometimes feel like only big businesses get the big benefits, operating a small or medium-sized business can feel pretty daunting. Customers are choosier now, and there are more software options than ever. So, how do you make sure you’re tracking everything, keeping people happy, and getting good ROI?
Enter Salesforce for small businesses. Salesforce is a leading cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that helps businesses manage and understand all their customer interactions and data in one place to improve sales, service, and marketing.
Let’s break down this beginner’s guide to Salesforce for small businesses so you can answer all these questions. Let’s get into it.
Of Course, Cost Can Be a Major Turnoff!
Salesforce is not just for big businesses. It’s a platform for all. And a lot of customers choose the platform for its power, scalability, and ability to tailor every inch of the platform to their specific business processes.
But we won’t sugarcoat this. Salesforce can be very expensive. The SalesCloud Enterprise Edition, which is often the go-to option, starts at $165 per user per month. If you would like to choose their top Salescloud package, which includes a bunch of add-ons as well as the latest AI tech, including Agent Force One sales, you’re looking at $550 per user per month. And this is even before you’ve started to explore Marketing Cloud, MuleSoft, Slack, or the many other products in the Salesforce family.
The Starter Pack: A Good Option for Small Businesses
Before, it used to be common for businesses to start with a smaller, cheaper CRM and then move to Salesforce later on. But that doesn’t have to be the case anymore.
In 2023, Salesforce unveiled Salesforce Starter, formerly Salesforce Easy, a CRM package that provides enough functionality for a small business to get started with simple sales, service, and marketing.
With onboarding tools built in, it has been designed for customers to get up and running with the world’s most powerful CRM faster than ever. It’s competitively priced for SMBs and also now has Slack included at no extra cost. So, companywide messaging is handled in the deal, too.
Guided Onboarding and Preconfigured Settings
As we mentioned, one of the most helpful features of Salesforce starter is the guided onboarding. From a revamped homepage, select your focus, like sales or service, from a drop-down menu.
Heavy customization is a benefit for larger businesses, but for your small business, you might just want somewhere simple to get the ball rolling.
That’s why the starter suite has preconfigured settings that reflect the most common requirements for businesses, reducing time to value.
Email Integration and Einstein Activity Capture
You’ll also get a handy email integration feature, meaning that email outreach templates can be sent from a record with a click of a button, with 2,000 outbound emails per month included. Plus, it comes with Einstein activity capture, enabling you to capture the right data from Gmail and Outlook and add it to Salesforce.
Included Sales, Service, and Marketing Features
Sales, customer service, and marketing functionality are included as standard. So you can make use of
lead and opportunity management, case management, knowledge management, email-to-case capabilities, campaign templates, audience creation and email builder, content personalization, and campaign analytics.
There are also reporting templates and pre-built dashboards so you can monitor key performance indicators that reflect the most common requirements from businesses.
AI Capabilities with Salesforce Foundations
If you’ve been hearing about Salesforce’s AI functionality and want to know if you can make the most of it, you absolutely can.
Salesforce offers Salesforce Foundations, which you can add to your contract for free. It includes the use of an agent force.
Pricing and Free Trial
You’ll be glad to know that Salesforce doesn’t expect small businesses to fork out $100 plus on user licenses, which is why the Starter Suite pricing sits at $25 per user per month. You can also try it free for 30 days, giving you time to work out whether you mesh with the interface or not.
Recommended Salesforce Integrations
Salesforce’s starter suite has the potential to be a big part of your business configuration, but it definitely doesn’t have to stop there. Salesforce may not have everything you need in one handy package. It is important to know about available Salesforce integrations so you can scale according to your business needs.
1. Zapia
While Salesforce offers plenty of direct integrations, many others are powered by integration platforms like Zapier, which handle the heavy lifting of syncing data between Salesforce and third-party tools. With Zapia, you can easily automate repetitive tasks. No coding required. In just a few clicks, you can connect Salesforce to apps like Google Sheets, Mailchimp, and more.
2. Flare
Flare transforms Salesforce into a powerful HR platform. From time tracking and OKRs to recruiting and talent management, it all runs within the familiar Salesforce interface. Every plan includes an employee hub for shift planning, absence requests, goal tracking, and more. If you’re already using Salesforce, adding Flare is easy, and both HR and finance teams will likely thank you.
3. Paper Form
For SMBs, lead generation needs to be simple and low maintenance. Paperform brings it all together. Contact forms, lead magnets, and landing pages into one streamlined process. With more than 3,000 integrations, including Salesforce, and 650-plus ready-made templates, it’s easy to capture lead data and send it straight to your CRM. No headaches, just automation that works.
How to Use Salesforce
Salesforce is easy to get started with. First, set clear objectives. Determine whether you require improved sales tracking, faster response to service, or understandable marketing data. Select the Starter Suite edition. It is made for small teams. Do not buy features that you do not require at the moment.
Planning, Setup, and Management
- Next, prepare your data. This step is critical.
- Collect all customer information in spreadsheets.
- Erase duplications and rectify errors.
- Clean Accounts, Contacts, and Leads can be loaded using the Data Import Wizard. Then, configure the basics.
- Make your sales pipeline stages (e.g., Prospecting, Proposal) business-specific. Create basic dashboards to monitor the most important objectives, such as “Total Leads.”
Tracking Progress
- Make Accounts and Contacts your customer center.
- Record all calls and emails as an Activity. This forms a 360-degree customer perspective.
- Monitor your sales using the Opportunity record. Pass it through the pipeline phases.
- Modify the close date and amount to have accurate forecasts.
- Record every case
Final Thoughts
So, if you’ve heard all that and are still not sure whether Salesforce would be best for your business, that’s totally fine. There are definitely other options to explore. Do your research, work out what is best for your company, and then hopefully you can get the strongest results from the one you choose.
However, if you do want to get started with Starter Suite, then why not try the 30-day trial and see if you like it? Go start your small business journey with Salesforce today.