With a Myriad of CRM Tools Available, Why Considering a More “Hands On” CRM Software Provider is Best

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There are many customer relationship management (CRM) tools available across industries so deciding which one makes the most sense for your business can be daunting.

Popular CRM options include HubSpot, Zoho, Salesforce and others. What really stands out among the crowd given its functionality, configurability, security, and price point is Salesforce made available through independent partners like CloudArc.

Salesforce licensed through independent partners like CloudArc is unique…

…because of our hands-on approach to create a Salesforce org for you that is specific to your business needs making it a highly accessible and valuable CRM tool for your users. Our method for learning about your needs and creating a Salesforce org specifically for you makes you more efficient and also reduces your business costs. “Hands-on” might connote a high price tag but our approach at CloudArc is one where we learn about your business and then make recommendations about what makes the most sense given your CRM tool objectives. In our blog “Why Clients Are Choosing Salesforce As The Best CRM For Small Business” we go into greater detail about the processes we use to help customers realize the value they can unlock with Salesforce. For existing Salesforce users, we start with a Health check and for new users we start with what we call the “6Ds” for implementation of Salesforce. The bottom line is that both techniques are “hands-on” and very affordable. The steps in each translate into optimized return on investment for you based on realizing alignment of your People, your Process, and your Technology.

Salesforce is a powerful CRM tool

Salesforce is a powerful CRM tool but subject matter experts taking time to understand your business’s needs is what makes the CloudArc approach a game-changing measure to positively impact your bottom line and drive your organization’s productivity by ensuring you capitalize on the foundational elements of Salesforce. Our approach through the Salesforce Health check and the “6Ds” takes Salesforce from being a good CRM to making it the best CRM on the market for your business. This robust foundation will translate into a significant return on investment that will grow with your business.

Once we understand more about the problem you need to solve using a CRM tool, we make recommendations to you about what is best suited for you in the Salesforce license catalog. Most people are familiar with Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, but there are other license options available that can be much less expensive and do all the things you need to derive value from the Salesforce platform. At CloudArc, we firmly believe that you should pay for only what you need and NOT for all the extras you might otherwise be pressured to purchase from account executives who may not fully understand the nuances of your business or your industry.

At CloudArc, our approach of “crawl, walk, run” starts with understanding the basic things you need to accomplish in Salesforce using objects such as accounts, contacts, reports and dashboards. If you find that you need objects like leads and opportunities, we can work with you to identify ways to accomplish similar functionality within Salesforce Platform. You may not require Sales Cloud or Service Cloud to accomplish your objectives and Salesforce Platform comes at a reduced cost to users because objects like leads and opportunities are not included. Many users pay $2000 per user per year for Sales Cloud.

With Salesforce Platform, you can pay as little as $1200 per user per year and accomplish virtually the same thing because you have a company like CloudArc learning about your specific needs and helping you develop an appropriate solution within the framework of Salesforce Platform. As your business demands grow, you can always revisit your license package in the Salesforce catalog to add features. But in the beginning, keep it simple and start with the basics. This is the key to getting the most out of CRM tools and making the most prudent investment that will yield insight into your business and boost productivity.

Buying licenses directly from Salesforce

When buying licenses directly from Salesforce, you won’t be working with someone who is a subject matter expert in your industry. Account executives are sales oriented. While they will be able to describe how Salesforce can generally support your business, they aren’t trained in how to help prospective customers understand how optimizing People, Process, AND Technology can produce a more efficient and less costly solution. Most often, account executives will offer you powerful technology solutions available through Salesforce but they won’t understand enough about your People and your Process to see where adjustments to either may help increase your users’ adoption of Salesforce while also decreasing your annual cost per user in Technology license fees.

In addition to our hands-on approach around aligning People, Process and Technology through our Salesforce Health check and use of the “6Ds,” our video training for users truly makes Salesforce implemented through CloudArc the best CRM tool. We make training videos for your users that explain concepts and functionality based on your Salesforce data. These videos are accessible to all of your users whenever they need to view them through the Salesforce training tab. Whether they are veteran users and need a “refresh” or they have recently onboarded with you and need a detailed explanation of how you use Salesforce, the content will be available at any time. This personalized training customized to your business and your Salesforce setup differentiate Salesforce and CloudArc from all of the other CRM tools and consultants.

Not only will the training videos encourage your users to more readily embrace adoption of Salesforce but also the reports and dashboards we create for you will give you keen insight into how your users are doing as well as how your business is trending with concrete metrics you can check regularly.

The power of Salesforce reports and dashboards is well known across industries but the approach we take at CloudArc for creating dashboards to measure specific activities around user adoption truly makes Salesforce stand out as a powerful CRM tool.

At CloudArc we can help you see how users are doing in their adoption of Salesforce as well as track overall business performance trends. These data enable you to see trends, drive behavior, and reinforce expectations for users. What’s more, you can always point back to the training content available to you users for those who are hesitant or slow to engage in using Salesforce. You are also able to pinpoint where additional training may be needed based on the data you see in your reports. We can then work with you to create the additional training content to target a specific issue that is challenging for users. This combination of training content along with reports and dashboards makes a huge difference for eliciting behavior change and increasing adoption of your Salesforce CRM tool.

At CloudArc, we strive to deliver that value in a meaningful way that optimizes all the functionality available in Salesforce to make it the best CRM tool for your business.

With most Salesforce consultants you won’t get the custom dashboards and training that CloudArc delivers as part of our commitment to helping you align People, Process, and Technology. Many consultants are eager to sell you a full Salesforce suite but they may not understand the details of your business and where they can save you money by putting you into a basic Salesforce license from the very beginning. Using a fundamental license like Salesforce Platform combined with working with subject matter experts designing the most appropriate configuration to maximize the intersections of your People, Process, and Technology is what delivers significant value for your business. At CloudArc, we strive to deliver that value in a meaningful way that optimizes all the functionality available in Salesforce to make it the best CRM tool for your business.