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I kind of built my career on it. While reading some forums, including some threads on HN, I see a lot of misconceptions about Salesforce. When it started,it use

I kind of built my career on it. While reading some forums, including some threads on HN, I see a lot of misconceptions about Salesforce. When it started,it used to be purely software for sales and how to manage leads,deals and contacts. However it's been around for 20 years and now it covers much more. For instance,I work for a company that delivers training to thousands of people every year.The entire business runs on Salesforce.The sales manage their leads(tens of thousands) and interactions with them(calls,emails,sms), while operations book the courses, customer service manage complaints, finance team tracks products, invoicing,and vendor manager tracks their performance, contracts and etc. At any given time I can go on Salesforce and see how much money the company made,what are the issues, how's marketing doing and etc. Alternatively to this kind of unified system is a mish mash of number of applications, endless Excel spreadsheets and bottomless email server. Since I joined, the company tripled revenues,yet we have same number of people managing training and customer service...The sales reps pulling in twice as much of revenue. I know there are a lot of developers here on HN: even if you don't want to use Salesforce platform,you can leverage free developer edition for rapid prototyping.You could literally mock up things within hours,including interface,database and sometimes even automations. For those who are planning to hire sales people: the absolute majority of decent ones( especially in the US and to some degree in the UK) most likely used it in their previous jobs and it is very likely they will expect it in your company as well. What companies use it? All of them,including Google,Amazon,Coke, Shell, Barclay's and etc..

DaveWalk 7y ago
+1 to developers on HN: if your dream is to have a company with a sales team, it's great practice to get to know CRM softwares early and in-depth. Every seasoned salesperson will need a functioning CRM to do good work...and the best salespeople will get held back by a malfunctioning/nonexistent CRM.
- trisomy21 7y ago
  Do you have any recommendations on where to get a solid introduction to the most popular/prominent CRM tools? I’m really curious to dive deeper.
  - cosmodisk 7y ago
    There are zillions of all sorts of vendors, however it will most likely boil down into these: Oracle,Salesforce,Adobe,Microsoft,Zoho,Hubspot,etc. Some interesting resource on CRM in general: https://beagleresearch.com https://beagleresearch.com As for specific products,I'm mainly familiar with Salesforce,so: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/home https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/home
    - trisomy21 7y ago
      Thank you. I didn't know there was an analyst firm dedicated to CRM tools! Great resource.
  - DaveWalk 7y ago
    As mentioned there are dozens, and Wikipedia will show you[0]. Since CRMs can be bolted onto just about every business, use cases vary extremely. If I'm being honest, every sales manager starts with an internet search to find the latest rundown [1]. My recommendation is to set aside time to play with a lightweight (pipedrive) + heavyweight (Salesforce) options to see how you might use them one day. I would treat CRMs like a regular piece of software. Many offer totally free trials for 1-3 users. So I would bet they agree with this approach :) [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CRM_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CRM_systems [1]:https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/253275/the-best-crm-software https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/253275/the-best-crm-software
    - trisomy21 7y ago
      Great recommendation. Thanks!
heavenlyblue 7y ago
Do you make punctuation mistakes specifically for your marketing text to stand out of others?
- cosmodisk 7y ago
  Punctuation was never my strongest trait,nor was English,as a foreign language. The fact that I typed it all while watching a film didn't help either to the quality of the punctuation.I'm happy to advocate for a product I believe in, however I doubt that could pass as marketing.

DaveWalk 7y ago

+1 to developers on HN: if your dream is to have a company with a sales team, it's great practice to get to know CRM softwares early and in-depth. Every seasoned salesperson will need a functioning CRM to do good work...and the best salespeople will get held back by a malfunctioning/nonexistent CRM.

trisomy21 7y ago
Do you have any recommendations on where to get a solid introduction to the most popular/prominent CRM tools? I’m really curious to dive deeper.
- cosmodisk 7y ago
  There are zillions of all sorts of vendors, however it will most likely boil down into these: Oracle,Salesforce,Adobe,Microsoft,Zoho,Hubspot,etc. Some interesting resource on CRM in general: https://beagleresearch.com https://beagleresearch.com As for specific products,I'm mainly familiar with Salesforce,so: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/home https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/home
  - trisomy21 7y ago
    Thank you. I didn't know there was an analyst firm dedicated to CRM tools! Great resource.
- DaveWalk 7y ago
  As mentioned there are dozens, and Wikipedia will show you[0]. Since CRMs can be bolted onto just about every business, use cases vary extremely. If I'm being honest, every sales manager starts with an internet search to find the latest rundown [1]. My recommendation is to set aside time to play with a lightweight (pipedrive) + heavyweight (Salesforce) options to see how you might use them one day. I would treat CRMs like a regular piece of software. Many offer totally free trials for 1-3 users. So I would bet they agree with this approach :) [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CRM_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CRM_systems [1]:https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/253275/the-best-crm-software https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/253275/the-best-crm-software
  - trisomy21 7y ago
    Great recommendation. Thanks!

heavenlyblue 7y ago

Do you make punctuation mistakes specifically for your marketing text to stand out of others?

cosmodisk 7y ago
Punctuation was never my strongest trait,nor was English,as a foreign language. The fact that I typed it all while watching a film didn't help either to the quality of the punctuation.I'm happy to advocate for a product I believe in, however I doubt that could pass as marketing.