Upgraded Salesforce Sales Cloud features boost productivity

Salesforce released several upgrades to its Sales Cloud software that promise to improve productivity and allow more time for sales. The new Salesforce Sales Cloud features -- developed from analyzing the flow of incoming and outgoing information -- offer personalized and intelligent tools that Salesforce claims will reduce administrative and time-consuming tasks.

According to Salesforce's 2018 State of Sales Report, sales reps spend 66% of their time on administrative duties, like prioritizing leads or manually entering customer information. The new features for Salesforce's Sales Cloud -- a cloud-based customer relationship management platform -- aim to reduce this kind of busywork and simplify the ways sales reps access information and collaborate with their team.

Ted Travis, vice president analyst at Gartner, said a challenge to productivity in the sales industry is finding tools that will tell sellers what to do next, as well as tell them something about their business that they don't already know.

To reduce effort managing incoming client information without leaving the app, new Sales Cloud features utilize Salesforce's Einstein AI technology:

• Inbox Now, with Einstein Insights, automatically compiles account details, contact information and meeting opportunities within the corresponding calendar event; automates meeting recaps with note prompts, action items or follow-up meetings; and alerts sales reps to important client events or updates.
• Einstein Campaign Insights identifies engagements between specific prospective clients and assets, allowing reps to target the prospects with materials that will resonate with them.

• The Social Intelligence Module uses AI to compile business-related social media posts into a feed within Sales Cloud.

Additionally, Salesforce introduced features that manage outgoing information and collaboration:

• Sales Cadences, within High Velocity Sales, tell reps how to reach out to prospective clients given previously successful sales strategies.
• Work Queues, within High Velocity Sales, prioritizes tasks and automatically surfaces the most important details or prospects.
• Quip for Sales now supports embedded live documents that any team member can access without disrupting their workflow.

"This is a meaningful set of capabilities, important and useful for companies with highly transactional sales," Travis said. "[Salesforce's Einstein] artificial intelligence features represent a strong improvement in efficiency, because sellers don't have to spend as much time guessing who to call next, or what to pitch next."

All features will be generally available and automatically included in their respective products by Salesforce's summer 2019 release on June 17. Salesforce offers four Sales Cloud packages ranging from $25 to $300 per user, per month, and the Social Intelligence Module -- which is a separate product -- priced at $25 per person, per month.