Salesforce Sales Cloud Reviews

Pros

Right out of the box, I really appreciated that entities like account and contact weren't overloaded with hundreds of unnecessary fields. It keeps the forms looking clean and since adding new fields is simple, you can build out only what you actually need instead of spending time hiding a bunch of fields you'll never use.

Cons

The part I liked least was the pricing. When you compare it to Dynamics 365, it usually comes across as quite a bit more expensive.

Pros

One of the best parts is the reporting. Building custom reports is very easy with the drag-and-drop setup and sharing them with the team is really convenient.

Cons

Bringing leads into campaigns and updating existing members still feels tricky every time. I'm also not very satisfied with how duplicate lead management works since it can create duplicates even when the email address is the same which then has to be merged manually.

Pros

Having multiple tabs along with integrated chat, logging and file upload all in one centralized tool is really convenient.

Cons

It isn't very user-friendly for multi-object logging and switching between tabs can be very slow, sometimes taking up to 20 seconds for information to appear. That delay can also force you to re-enter information in the tool.

Pros

Adapting it to the way our company works was almost unbelievable. It lets us track every stage of the sales process and keeps all our information in one place which has been a huge win for the team. Building reports and dashboards is much more enjoyable than expected and a really practical bonus is being able to set up a company knowledge base with quick access to articles and SOPs. It's user-friendly, highly efficient and honestly takes care of so much of the work for you.

Cons

There's definitely a learning curve because it's a complex platform so it takes patience and persistence to really understand how to use it well. That said, once you start seeing what it's capable of, it feels like there's no limit to what you can do with it.

Pros

Using it as both a CRM and a project tracking tool has worked really well for us. Our entire division relies on it now and that covers more than 70 projects. The custom dashboards and lists are very useful and scheduled reports going out automatically saves time. Filtering information is simple and it makes it easy to keep up with project progress and overdue tasks.

Cons

It covers most of the features we need for program and project management. One of the few frustrating parts is that you can't delete a task or milestone you created unless you have admin access.

Pros

One of the biggest wins for us has been how customizable this software is. After re-implementing it in 2017, we've tailored dozens of features so we can track everything exactly the way our team needs. Signing in and entering information is very easy for everyone who has a license, from administrators all the way to engineers. The reporting tools are easily our favorite part. Those reports genuinely save us every month.

Cons

The cost is the toughest part. Even just 10 licenses are quite expensive and while we'd love to get more people using the software, the pricing is high enough that it's just not affordable for us right now.

Pros

From an admin and developer standpoint, this CRM is very user-friendly. The programming language is also easy to pick up and the system itself feels complete, functional and well-rounded.

Cons

One part that takes more effort is understanding how relationships between objects or entities are structured, along with the dependencies tied to them since that can be a bit complex.

Pros

As a general CRM tool, it works really well. It pulls reports together nicely and they're simple to read, create and access. The layout is also easy to follow and navigate when you're managing CRM tasks such as outreach, emails and follow-ups.

Cons

Things get more complicated once you start trying to connect it with other programs, like sales tracking or agreement creation tools especially when Salesforce operations teams start building custom processes into it. It tends to struggle when working alongside other software so that's definitely something to watch out for.

Pros

Having worked as a developer across several commerce cloud platforms, this one stands out as the best among them. It does a really good job of helping you keep all customers in your organization well organized. The interface is user-friendly so there's not a lot of coding needed to get things done. Customizing the system is also easy and adding new products and catalog sections is simple as well.

Cons

There isn't much to complain about but a couple of things do come up. It occasionally freezes when making changes to a contact which can be a little frustrating. Also, page load times could be faster although that might improve with a higher-speed internet connection.

Pros

One thing that really works well here is how much you can tailor it to your needs. It lets you create custom fields, build your own workflows, send pre-written emails and quite a bit more. There's a lot of flexibility in the system and you can do a substantial amount with it.

Cons

That same level of customization can also become a drawback. It's pretty easy to get sidetracked trying to build the perfect CRM and end up losing sight of your actual goals by focusing too much on making the system itself perfect.

Pros

Having everything about an account gathered in one place is what I appreciate most about this software. From a single home screen, I can view the core account details, see which products have been purchased and even check very specific information like whether the business tied to that account has been trained on a particular platform.

Cons

Even though having that much information in one view is useful, it can also make it harder to quickly locate exactly what I need for my role at a given time. I often end up searching the page with keywords instead of being able to simply scroll and find the right section naturally. There are some workarounds for this and pages can be filtered to show only the information relevant to a specific role but using that effectively requires a level of skill I do not currently have. Another frustration comes up when sending emails in the system because there is a character limit. I understand why that may be necessary but it is still annoying when the system throws an error. Instead of a simple message saying "too many characters," it shows a block of red text that is not very readable or simple.

Pros

One thing I really appreciated was how it brought many different teams and company functions together within a single system.

Cons

It offers a broad set of features but quite a few of them felt beyond our reach. Getting the software up and running took a LOT of development work so our support team often ended up waiting on that process.

Pros

It comes with the ability to handle just about anything you might need it to do.

Cons

Price is far too high for a company our size and managing it feels very tough. Unless you invest a lot more money in third-party integrators, it really is not a good fit for a non-enterprise business which usually cannot afford that anyway. From a helpdesk standpoint which is how we used it even basic tasks take way too many clicks to complete.

Pros

Right from the start, the platform offers a really polished UX and UI even before tailoring it to fit our company's specific needs. Once you start customizing it and adding the SFDC add-ons, it becomes a huge advantage because it lets users dig very deeply into the analytics and see exactly how the business is performing. Another big plus is that almost every company seems to have an integration or plugin for SFDC which makes connecting other tools incredibly convenient.

Cons

One challenge with using such an all-in-one platform like SFDC is that as you continue building on top of it, things can become increasingly complex. You can still pull out highly relevant insights but sorting through the less useful information can take more effort and make the process a bit harder.

Pros

There's a lot you can do with it and it really feels like the possibilities are almost endless. I've noticed that how much people enjoy SF depends a lot on how their company has it configured. With new version though, it's much simpler to move through all the important data you need.

Cons

Like most powerful software, it does take some time to learn at first. But once you understand the basics, you're able to view and report on just about any data you've entered.

Pros

Its biggest strengths are the flexibility and the way it connects with other systems. Whether you're working with lead data, development platforms, accounting software or ERPs, it fits into most environments without much trouble. It also offers a high level of customization and configuration. This platform really makes the most sense in larger organizations where there's a person or even a team dedicated to setting it up and continuously optimizing it. Smaller companies may not get the full value from it if they're not able to put time and resources into the configuration.

Cons

In a smaller business setting, that level of complexity usually isn't as necessary. The initial setup can feel heavy and somewhat tough and there are other tools that offer more built-in features at a lower price for companies that don't need deep customization. Larger organizations tend to look for powerful solutions across email marketing, lead generation and social media management and this software integrates very well with those separate tools. For smaller teams though, it's often possible to choose a CRM that already includes those features right out of the box.

Pros

It's been really useful for project management especially when it comes to improving visibility across different teams.

Cons

There's definitely a steep learning curve for employees coming in without prior experience. The online training resources helped but once the platform was customized for a specific use case, the training usually became more difficult.

Pros

This platform is an absolute powerhouse. Between its many modules and the AppEx packages, it can handle nearly anything you'd expect from enterprise software and it connects very well with almost any other system. On top of that, the Apex programming language gives you tons of room to extend and customize it however you want. There's really a huge amount of flexibility in what you can build with it.

Cons

That same level of power definitely comes with trade-offs. AppEx is excellent but adding extra functionality usually means paying for it and those costs can climb fast during implementation. The built-in modules and features are impressive yet they can also feel overwhelming and it's very possible to set things up incorrectly in ways that only cause problems months later. You can bring in a consultant to avoid that but naturally that adds even more to the implementation and ongoing maintenance costs. In the end, it's a very strong enterprise platform and it's priced like one too.

Pros

Almost any tool can be connected to it which makes it the single source of truth for all customer data. It's excellent for setting up the right integrations in your other tools and then more or less leaving them alone while still benefiting from all the information being sent over. On top of that, the detailed dashboards and reporting make everyday work much easier to manage.

Cons

Support could absolutely be stronger especially when technical help is needed. A lot of the time, you end up speaking with an account manager who doesn't really have the answers and there isn't much direct backup available from someone more technical. Luckily, the platform is so widely used that it's usually possible to do your own research online and find solutions without having to go through a frustrating support process.

Pros

Setting up reports is easy and the filtering, cross-referencing and sorting tools are incredibly powerful. It makes building highly practical reports very manageable and being able to automate them afterward adds a lot of value.

Cons

One thing that has been frustrating is that each new version of the UI feels more and more minimal and it seems like efficiency has been traded for looks. At the beginning of every week I run and export 10 reports and since the release of new version, that process now takes two to three times more clicks. On top of that, the exported reports no longer come with useful file names so I have to download them one by one and place them into my worksheet manually to avoid mixing them up. At a conference in the IT Tower in Bishopsgate, I was told that the exported report names were going to be fixed in an upcoming update so I'm hoping that happens soon.