Do SaaS companies need Salesforce? Here’s the truth you need to know

Salesforce is rated the best CRM in the world, but to realize its full potential, businesses must properly manage it. While each organization is unique, many universal best practices can help businesses in all industries. Salesforce should be a part of any SaaS platform. It’s the only way to make sure your users have access to the mission-critical data they need when they need it.  SaaS companies need Salesforce CRM as the foundation for managing complex sales cycles, decreasing churn, and allowing the Sales team to complete deals faster. The fact that so much work is done online is a distinguishing feature of SaaS businesses. Salesforce is cloud-based, which makes it simple to integrate with current company systems using APIs and integration mechanisms.

Does your SaaS company need Salesforce CRM?

Is it possible to buy your product in an offline store? Is your product on a longer-than-weekly sales cycle? Do you have a sales crew that works exclusively for you? Is your service based on a monthly subscription? Is customer service necessary for your product? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself when evaluating whether SaaS companies need Salesforce.  

Is it possible to buy your product in an offline store?

Consider your sales process when determining whether or not your business needs a CRM. If you’re selling a B2B enterprise tool that costs tens of thousands of dollars, you will need a CRM at several points during the sales process. It’s very likely that some of your consumers will buy based on conversations you’ve had with them, signing a contract, and receiving an invoice.  Salesforce CRM will help you monitor your initial contact with a customer through to the day the sale is closed.

Is your product on a longer-than-weekly sales cycle and if so how dedicated is your sales team

The customer lifecycle is far more sophisticated than we previously imagined to be true. Customers research items for months before they are spotted in the typical lifecycle. It could take over a year to close a deal, and there could be dozens of phone calls and emails between various personnel from both companies during that time. Your sales team can observe potential customers from the first point of contact, establish a connection with them, and get an all-around view of their company using Salesforce CRM. The CRM will also preserve all of those conversations as part of a unified system of record to ensure that the opportunity progresses smoothly through the sales funnel, client demands aren’t overlooked, and the contract accurately reflects what was agreed upon verbally. Customer Success can use that information to put what Sales agreed on into action after they become paying customers.

Is your service based on a monthly subscription?

Many SaaS businesses are killed by churn. Renewals cannot be taken for granted, especially for SaaS businesses. If your product is based on a subscription model, making sure renewals happen should always be a priority. Many businesses believe a five percent monthly churn rate is acceptable, despite the fact that they are losing over forty of their customers each year. Not only is this a major revenue opportunity missed, but it’s also a waste of money invested in acquisition. Churn is the beginning of the end for many SaaS businesses. Your business will fail if clients don’t stick around, even if you have a fantastic product and a wonderful team marketing it.  Renewals can be ensured by having a customer success team that is actively onboarding and training new customers, as well as reviewing their use and success with the product.

Is customer service necessary for your product?

Salesforce CRM can link with your SaaS product, guaranteeing that data about your users, such as how frequently they log in, which features they use, and who is in danger of churning, is available in real-time for your Customer Success team. Your Customer Success team can use a CRM to proactively discover which accounts are at risk of desertion via workflows, notifications, and automated actions. All of this data may be used by the Customer Success team to increase upsells and guarantee that renewals happen. Now that we have established that SaaS companies need Salesforce, let us look at how we can take full advantage of salesforce using SaaS management practices