Is Salesforce Essentials Really for Small Businesses?

Although Fortune 500 companies receive all the media attention, it is small businesses that run the economy. Small businesses account for 99.7 percent of all employer firms and 98 percent of all goods exporters in the U.S. Without them, the country’s economy will lose 46 percent of its private-sector output and 33 percent of its exports value. This is a huge, but often-overlooked contribution.

Salesforce, Microsoft, and other giants primarily develop advanced CRM and support software solutions for enterprises whose needs are different from those of small and midsize businesses. Even though many advanced CRM and support software plans exist for SMEs, their popularity fades in comparison to alternatives. Small businesses are wasting as much as 23 percent of a their productive time manually entering data, and it isn’t helping them grow.

Small Businesses Aren’t Using Advanced CRM and Support Solutions Because

1. Subscription Costs Are High. Microsoft’s best value Dynamics 365 Plan costs $210 per user/month and Salesforce’s most popular Lighting Enterprise software is available to you if you agree to shell out $150 per user/month. For a small business those numbers can add up pretty quickly. Many decide to run their CRM and support through Excel, email, sticky notes, or any tool that can save them $10,000 a year.
2. Training Time and Expenses Are Unacceptable. When you are a multinational and have a few million dollars to spare, you can spend it on your employees’ training. Salesforce and Microsoft have created powerful solutions, but few large firms will allow you to use them if you are not certified. Few small businesses have the time, money, and inclination to invest in a new solution.
3. Fear of Complexity Trumps Perceived Benefits. A software designed to cater to the needs of a company raking in a few billion dollars in revenues each year cannot be simple to deploy and use for an average mom-and-pop shop. Any smart business will not want throw complexity into its processes.
4. Temporary Fixes Are Easily Available. Although not as powerful as Dynamics 365 and Lightning Enterprise, there do exist CRM and support software solutions catering exclusively to small businesses. The solutions tend to be priced below $81 per user/month—a price that small businesses are willing to pay for a CRM—and are simple-to-use. Unsurprisingly, many businesses gravitate towards them.

Salesforce Essentials is created to convince small businesses to give up their spreadsheets and migrate to a powerful platform that is used by 83 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Small businesses should no longer be at a disadvantage.

Salesforce Essentials Brings Advanced CRM Capabilities to Small Businesses

“We’ve taken the full power of Salesforce and tailored it for the unique needs of small businesses,” said Mike Rosenbaum, EVP, CRM Applications, Salesforce. The essential solves the four primary roadblocks preventing small businesses from switching to a modern CRM.

• Salesforce Essentials Is Affordable. Companies with five or fewer employees can subscribe to Salesforce Essentials CRM for only $25 per user/month. More employees can be moved to SF CRM for $75 per user/month, a price that many small businesses are willing to pay for a CRM.
• Salesforce Essentials’ Training Is Fast and Free. You can learn almost everything you need for a fast and easy set-up and effective use through Trailhead, an interactive, online training environment from Salesforce. Trailhead is free and touches on several skills a small business would need; including public speaking and CRM training.
• Salesforce Essentials Is Intuitive. Instead of stripping their enterprise versions of all its major features and giving it a cutesy name, Salesforce has reconceptualized its CRM and support platform for small businesses. The result is an intuitive interface that small business owners find easy to work with.
• Salesforce Essentials Is Powerful. Unlike many similarly-priced alternatives, Salesforce Essentials brings the power of enterprise-cloud to small businesses who can benefit from the latest advanced in artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, and many other technologies whose use until was limited to organizations with deep pockets.

Verdict

Salesforce Essentials is for small businesses if high subscription costs, lack of time and money for training, and complex interfaces were preventing them from abandoning their spreadsheets for a more powerful platform.

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