The Salesforce Dilemma: Why their all-in-one platform falls short

Let's face it... Salesforce isn't the easiest platform to use.

But, Salesforce is the all-in-one platform, right? Well, yes and no. It really just depends on your definition.

Do you define an all-in-one CRM software as software where its features and tools reside under the same name but don't communicate with each other effortlessly?

Or, how about, the all-in-one CRM where your data, teams, and tools have the same source of truth?

The former is what Salesforce offers—an all-in-one platform in the sense that its various features and tools live under the same umbrella. The latter, however, is what most businesses are looking for in a customer relationship management solution, and it's something Salesforce falls short on.

Now, this isn't to say Salesforce doesn't have its strengths. So, before we dive deeper, let's explore what some of those are.

Salesforce's Strengths as an "All-In-One" Platform

Security

Being cloud-based, Salesforce comes with a high level of security to ensure your key data remains safe.

Customisation

Cost aside, Salesforce is highly customisable and has one of, if not, the biggest marketplace for apps and integrations. This means, provided you’re happy with the complexity of the software, you can customise it pretty much any way you want around your company.

While Salesforce is very customisable, each new application or integration comes with additional expense, meaning as you scale the ability and size of your Salesforce CRM your costs can increase quickly. A developer is often needed to obtain the truly customisable solutions a business needs to achieve.

👉 Want to dive deeper into Salesforce Vs. HubSpot? Get your free guide.

Why you should look for an all-in-one CRM platform.

An all-in-one CRM platform should provide your business with a 360-degree view of your customers. It should take data from every touchpoint and interaction to create a complete customer profile.

It should also be able to track the journey each customer takes, so you can see what works and what doesn’t, and make changes to how you target, interact, and work with customers.

The most powerful CRM platforms should offer tools that power your marketing, sales, customer success, and operations teams with a single view of the customer.

The Man. The Myth. The... Villain?

Salesforce was built through acquisition. This means that the user experiences and functionality can differ from tool to tool.

Typically, most organisations will choose the route of hiring a Salesforce administrator to configure and maintain the CRM. Your administrator will be able to offer a helping hand and in some capacity, flatten the learning curve. But, when it's time for your employees to navigate the platform in their day-to-day work lives, that's where the real challenge can come in.

The average user is not going to have the same level of technical know-how as your administrator. This can create friction and inefficiencies when users are trying to complete tasks that should be relatively simple.

All-in-one Platform functionality.

Like we mentioned, Salesforce has scaled its functionality quickly through acquisition. They offer a wide breadth of different tools, features, integrations, and customisable elements.

They offer tools for your sales, marketing, content management, and service teams. With access to AppExchange, you can find integrations for a huge range of other software programs.

The sheer number of features and options available can be overwhelming for new users. It can be tough to determine which tool is the best fit for your specific needs.

Even if you do manage to find the right tool, there's no guarantee that it will play nicely with the rest of your Salesforce products.

Incompatibility issues are common, and they can cause major headaches for users and administrators alike.

It's not uncommon for an organisation to have one team using Salesforce successfully while another team struggles with it.

The bottom line is this: Yes, Salesforce is an all-in-one platform, but it's important to consider your use case.

Define your use case

We can't iterate enough how important it is to review your use case and long-term growth plans. Too often, as a CRM Implementation partner, we see two common use cases:

An organisation switches to HubSpot from Salesforce because they initially thought they wanted complex customisation capabilities, but later realise that a more intuitive platform can do the trick and will also result in higher team adoption.

An organisation adopts both Salesforce and HubSpot because they initially believed Salesforce could only achieve a specific use case, but later realised they could achieve that goal with an equally powerful tool, that has stronger UX.

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform can be a valuable tool for any business, large or small. And, with the rapid pace of development, assumptions about a platform from one year ago can differ from the platform's functionality today. We’ve seen this with HubSpot. 

While Salesforce offers a robust and powerful platform, innovators have entered and are disrupting the market.

If you want to learn more about HubSpot, or other CRM platforms, schedule a consultation with one of our experts. We’d be happy to chat!

Resources to evaluate CRM Solutions:

Choosing a CRM is no easy task. There are plenty of enterprise solutions in the market. So, here are a few resources to help you get started:

1. HubSpot Vs. Salesforce Comparison (video format) 
2. What does it mean to work with a HubSpot Partner?
3. HubSpot pricing 
4. HubSpot vs. Salesforce for mid-market enterprises
5. CRM Integrations