Customer relationship management (CRM) software is being adopted by companies and organizations across all spaces, large and small. In many cases, Salesforce serves as an introductory point for those who are new to the world of CRM and other services the company provides. While the company has branched out significantly from the days in which it only offered CRM solutions, there are still plenty of myths about Salesforce that have somehow stuck around throughout the years.
New to Salesforce and not sure what to believe? Here are five myths you need to ignore if you come across them.
Salesforce Can Only Be Used to Track Sales
Given its name, it stands to reason why one might assume that Salesforce is used specifically to track sales and for nothing else. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Today, Salesforce is extremely robust, capable of streamlining business practices across departments and managing just about any aspect of day-to-day activity. The platform has come a long way since it first hit the market in 1999, and it’s only going to continue integrating new functionality as the industry progresses.
There’s Just One Instance of Salesforce to Choose From
When many people hear about Salesforce, they’re led to believe that it’s a one-size-fits-all software instance embraced by companies across a wide swathe of industries – not the case. Salesforce has partnered with a number of different vendors, many of whom have built incredibly versatile enterprise resource planning (ERP) software based on the Salesforce platform itself. In other words, companies and organizations looking to integrate a Salesforce ERP have plenty of different options to choose from, each of which comes along with its own unique set of features.
Salesforce is Confusing and “Tech-Heavy”
If there’s one thing that tends to scare people away from using CRM and ERP software suites, its learning curve. This is especially true for those who don’t consider themselves to be particularly tech-savvy, in which case anxiety can set in quite easily whenever a new application comes down the road. One of the key things to understand about Salesforce and ERP software based on the platform is that user experience takes priority above all else – you don’t have to be a “techie” in order for integrating Salesforce to be worthwhile.
Salesforce is Too Expensive
Your budget matters, and paying close attention to how costs end up getting distributed is extremely important. At the same time, you need to know when it’s okay to spend money and when it isn’t. Because enterprise resource planning can help to cut costs and boost productivity to noticeable degrees, whatever you end up spending to integrate Salesforce will be money put to good use. Chances are, integration will also end up costing less than you think.
Salesforce Cannot be Customized
If customization is important to the success of your business, you’re wise to be leery of rigid platforms – Salesforce is not one of them. Aside from the many different third-party tools that are based on the platform, the Salesforce AppExchange offers over 2,000 applications and add-ons to choose from, many of which are designed to fit specific niches. Note that the majority of these apps work with the “out of the box” model of Salesforce, so you may want to check with the vendor you decide to work with to see if these add-ons can be used to customize your ERP.
Almost 20 years later, Salesforce continues to be one of the most effective platforms for managing customer relationships and daily business practices available – don’t let any myths steer you away from Salesforce integration.
