Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Salesforce product showcase event. Today, we are excited to not only present our solutions to you, but also showcase live how our solutions can help you grow your business efficiently. But before we begin, let me introduce you myself. I'm Trishla Gupta, and I'm from the sales development team, and I will be your host for the event. So in today's webinar, we'll be covering our flagship solution Sales Cloud, and we will showcase how you can sell faster, smarter and more efficiently with the amalgamation of AI, data and CRM. We would not want this to be just a one-way conversation. Hence, our chat and Q&A sections are open for all your comments and questions throughout this webinar. We also have a bunch of poll questions that will pop up on your screen, so please submit your answers. Now introducing you to Sushmitha, who's our very experienced solution engineer. Sushmitha, over to you.

Thanks a lot, Trishla. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the webinar today. I'm Sushmitha Vijayaraghavan from the Salesforce team. And today, we are pretty much going to be talking about how do you become a customer company with the world's #1 CRM. Some forward-looking statements here which pretty much states for all of us to make our evaluation as well as buying decisions based on the current portfolio of products and solutions available. Now before we actually deep dive into how Salesforce started and the gamut of solutions that we have, we have a quick poll question for you. Over to you, Trishla.

Yes, Thank you, Sushmitha. So before we begin and get started with the demo, I have a question for all of you. So how do you currently manage and view your sales productivity? So the first option is that you are already using a CRM, but that's not Salesforce; option B is you're using a homegrown CRM; option C is that you're currently using Excel or any other solutions in the market; and option D that you're managing internally within the team. [Voting]

Quite a few of you have already answered the poll, so let's look at the results. So we see that 22% of the team has mentioned that they're already using a CRM, but that's not Salesforce; 11% are using a homegrown CRM; and 44%, which is quite a lot, they're using Excel or any other solution; and it's 22% again for an internal team. So let's see how we can leverage Salesforce and our solutions for your company. Over to you, Sushmitha.

So thanks for answering the poll, everyone. Now quickly taking a look at what Salesforce's journey has been over the last 23, 24 years, right. Salesforce is nothing but 1 of the world's fastest growing top 5 enterprise software companies in the world. And we just didn't do this with hyper growth and hyper competitors, right? So we literally do follow some of the core values that are very, very important to us. Some of them being trust, customer success, innovation, equality, and the latest one being sustainability. And during the course of our journey, we are not just leaders in hyper growth, but also leaders when it comes to philanthropy, leaders in innovation quoted by Forbes, and leaders when it comes to culture as well. And by actually following some of our core values during the course of our way and journey, we've been able to touch $31.4 billion in revenue in FY '23 as well. So during the last 23, 24 years, we've constantly been evolving and growing as a company, trying to really cope up to customer expectations as well as paradigm shift. One of the latest ones that's phenomenally rising is that of customer expectations, right? And we are also able to see a stack here, which mentions 62% of customers really expect companies to anticipate their needs and provide very, very relevant and personalized experiences. But one of the biggest challenges that actually exists today is that companies are not able to keep up to this expectation, right? And some of the important points that we are able to see right here in between are some of the challenges that companies are actually facing, right? A lot of the companies have inefficient siloed systems today where data is really sort of arranged in a fragmented manner. There are a lot of manual processes today that are yet to be automated. There's a large backlog of data, which isn't really helping us or amounting us to make the right analysis and best future decisions. And there is also a gap when it comes to skills. So let's quickly take a look at how do we really bridge the gap and where Salesforce can really come in, in terms of adding value in this entire cycle and journey. So this screen that we are actually able to see right in front of us is a cycle of how an unknown prospect really becomes a known customer, and what are the exact customer touch points that Salesforce could really help us with? Here, we are actually able to see 5 different phases where Salesforce actually helps in the whole awareness and consider phase in terms of actually educating and making the customer aware and consider what your solution and products that you offer to the mass. It also adds value in terms of the entire lead to cash process, where in terms of automating from the time an inquiry comes in or from the time a prospect reaches out you till the time they actually get onboarded and become a customer of yours. It doesn't just end there, right? It also moves on to actually help your teams in sort of providing world-class customer support and service, and sort of increasing the customer stickiness in terms of the retention rates, which would further enhance the upsell and cross-sell opportunities. So these customer touch points really enhance the entire customer life cycle in sort of bringing the entire unknown prospect and making them sort of a known customer that sticks out with your company's brand and also sort of becomes a brand ambassador. So now that we've actually seen how this entire cycle in bridging the gap works, let's quickly take a look at some of the personas that are involved for the demo today before we quickly deep dive into the demo. So Salesforce works across industries as well as segments, right? And for the sake of an example today, we would be considering IT industry as an example. So let's quickly take a look at the personas here. So this is Raj, who is the Director of IT at Bezen Technologies Private Limited, and he is looking for a billing solution for Bezen Technologies. Let's meet Ria, who is the sales representative at Sirus IT, who has actually been crushing her quota over the last 2 to 3 years and has been helping customers with their entire buying process very, very consultatively. So the entire customer journey that we're going to be able to see today is going to be very similar to this, where Raj, who is our customer, is looking for a billing solution for Bezen Technologies. He does a Google search, comes on to Sirus IT's website and actually submits his contact details, so that the Sirus IT team can actually reach out to him. Ria, the sales representative at Sirus IT gets Raj's details, reaches out to Raj, gets an understanding of the requirements, challenges as well as aspirations that Bezen Technologies has. Does all the due diligence, the negotiations, and in the end, also onboards Bezen Technologies as a customer. We also have a final persona here who is Alex, our sales manager. He actually has a team of multiple sales reps like Ria in his team, right? And he tracks his team's engagements, helps them run complex engagements and deals, and also reviews their important metrics using reports and dashboards in a very, very timely manner. So let's quickly see this all working in a demo format. Before we go there, we have a quick question for you again. Over to you, Trishla.

Thank you so much, Sushmitha. I hope the audience got a glimpse about the various personas. So before we begin with the demo video, so I have a quick poll question for all of you. So what do you look for while implementing a CRM? First is the option A, that is scalability that you want to add more users on the go; option B is customizations that you want to build a solution catering to your needs and requirement; option C is integrating with the existing tools; and option D is that you're looking for all of the above. So you can take 20, 30 seconds and you can click on the screen and you can answer the poll question. [Voting]

So we have quite a few answers coming in. So let's quickly look at the results. So 89% of all of you are saying that you're looking for scalability, customizations and integrations in your CRM. So let's see how Salesforce can help you with that, and let's move on to the demo video.

Good morning, everyone. Now let me quickly deep dive into the solution and quickly showcase a demonstration of what it is like to all of our users. So this is the back end of the Salesforce instance. And during the course of the demo, I would be wearing the hat of the different personas that we just got introduced to during our presentation. So let me quickly wear the hat of Ria, the sales rep in Sirus IT, and talk you through how she starts off with her day at Salesforce, how it's really going to add value to people like Ria and her colleagues, other sales reps. So as I quickly start my day's work and log into the Sirus IT's Salesforce instance, I'm able to get a quick perspective of what I need to start doing for the day, what are some of my priority tasks, and how I need to really plan my day in a very, very optimal manner. So the home page really helps me get a quick perspective of what are some of the important tasks and activities that I have been doing. What are some of the important deals that I've won and some of them that have lost and the reasons behind it. What are some important events, meetings and follow-ups that I have for the day. And how do I need to really go about prioritizing each one of them and completing them. Here, on the left-hand side, I'm also able to see a quick dashboard that gives me a perspective of the important metrics that I'm measured on. So I'm able to see how much business have I brought on to the table, the pipeline that I have for the rest of the month and the quarter, some of the activities that I've been really focusing on and doing, as well as how do I fair with respect to my team leaderboard, right? And how can I really improve and sort of become better at these metrics as well. So this sort of a homepage is very, very relevant for me and other sales reps. At the same time, this could be very, very different and optimal for someone like my manager, Alex, as well, right? Alex might really want to see things like the entire metrics pertaining to his team, right? What is the overall quota like? How much have we closed as a team? What is the deficit that exists as of today, and the open pipe that we have to really match up and meet the deficit. On the same hand, right, by getting a complete perspective, he also wants to do a quick deep dive into the accounts as well as the white space that exists. Here, from an account perspective, he is able to see all the important accounts as well as white spacing that has been done with respect to these accounts. And how is it that the teams are really prioritizing and progressing on these important installed base accounts as well. He's also able to get a quick perspective of how they are segregated in the funnel and where are we with respect to the engagements as well as progressing in the discussions. Here, Alex also gets a quick breakdown of the deals, the product, the activities and other metrics. Quickly, he moves on to really see where the white spaces exist, what are the products that are being sold, what other solutions and products can be upsold or cross-sold, in which city, and many other aspects of how can we go about planning in attaining the numbers that have been prescribed for our team as a whole. So this really helps give Alex a complete perspective of how is it that he needs to really plan and prioritize his week and month in the oncoming days. And Alex also is able to see a few items that he needs to approve for his team here such as discount metrics, their time offs and so on. And he also gets a quick perspective of some of the major high-ticket deals that his team is running currently that are likely to close this quarter? So we were able to really see how this dashboard and home page, as we call it, can be very, very relevant to who is really using the system and who is really sort of starting their day and what their role entails them to do. Now as an individual sales rep, as I have already taken a look and taken a take of what I need to get started and how I need to prioritize my day, I also see that some of the new leads have come into my individual bucket, and I quickly move on to start addressing them. This is nothing but an all-leads workspace wherein leads across multiple sources, be it website, be it calls, be it social media, referrals and other sources that come in, all flow into a singular workspace, so that none of us, be it me or my other sales reps colleagues, are not really missing out on these lead. We are doing our timely reach-outs, follow-ups and due diligence. By this manner, it really ensures that none of these leads are slipping through the cracks and we are not missing out on some of the important business and conversations that we can have with any of these prospects, right, that could ideally become our customers. So now I actually go ahead, quickly go on to my particular view, so that I can prioritize on what are the needs that I need to start calling and quickly go and start dialing out each of these leads. I see that Raj, the Director of IT in Bezen Technologies has really reached out to Sirus IT. I'm also able to see Raj's phone number and e-mail address here, and I quickly go ahead and do a check of what are the details I'm able to get from this entire lead. I go ahead and give Raj a call to really understand what is it that Bezen Technologies is looking for? During the course of conversation, I quickly make sure I gather and capture all the important notes right here in the CRM itself. And after the call, I can also go ahead and shoot out Raj an e-mail of all the imported offerings that Sirus IT has to offer right from the CRM with the native integration that we have with the IT client. So here, this entire activity management panel is nothing but a complete chronological sort of record of all the discussions and engagements that a sales rep has had with this particular prospect or lead, be it in terms of calls, your follow-ups, your meetings, and so on. So this just makes sure that probably 6 months or a year down the line, if anyone has to come back to this lead or the record for that matter and really see what are the engagements that one has had, all of it is pretty much going to be here, right? The information is not going to be lost. There doesn't have to be any sort of a manual knowledge transfer. And it's going to be a complete source of truth, be it with respect to your discussions, engagements or any sort of progress that has happened with respect to this company or the lead. As a rep, on a day-to-day basis, I get multiple leads, right? So it makes it very, very important for me to really classify and progress the leads, so that I know which stage I am in aspect of really sort of progressing that lead? So I now have had multiple conversations with Raj. And I definitely do think that Bezen Technologies can make use of Sirus IT's billing solution. They definitely do have a great need, right? And I do see promise here. And so I quickly go ahead and convert this lead into a qualified opportunity. And as a part of the opportunity, I'm able to really capture a tentative close date, a tentative value for this opportunity and business as a whole, as well as a few other important metrics as well. I'm also able to push in some of the next steps, some important pointers, as well as what is the forecast and probability of closure that I see for this opportunity. Here, as a part of opportunity management as well, it makes it very, very important for me to move the stages of the opportunity in a very timely as well as efficient manner. And right here, as a sales rep, I also have the availability to really add in my products and sort of do my entire quotation management from the Salesforce CRM right here as well, right? So by actually uploading the entire price book, which really gives me, as a sales rep, the opportunity to select the products and send out quotations from the CRM itself. Now that I've done all the due diligence with respect to opportunity management, sending out a quotation, and so on, I also get signatures from Bezen Technologies and now I'm able to actually market as a closed one deal. So here, we've actually been able to really take a complete look of how a lead comes into the system, how reps from Sirus IT have been able to engage with the lead, progress them forward, till they actually become a customer of Sirus IT. So this could be just one example opportunity that I have been working on. But at the same time, I might be working on multiple such opportunities where I'm able to really see all the opportunities in a Kanban fashion here, right, which really helps me depict and really get a visual representation of where my opportunities are at this particular point of time and in which stage. Just like this view can be very, very helpful for sales reps like me, sales pipeline inspection can be very, very important and helpful for managers like Alex as well, right? So here, a lot of times, managers who have come across this scenario where we have a commit -- the entire team has given us a commit for the month. And during the last week of the month, we see that the commit has significantly dropped, right? We don't know which rep has pushed out which deal, by how many months, and so on. So pipeline inspection does exactly that, right? It helps my manager, Alex, really gets a perspective of which sales rep really dropped which deal, sort of what is the value of the deal, and how many months has it been really pushed by, right? All these aspects are really going to be captured and pipeline inspection is going to give even a pictorial representation of this to my manager. And this is going to really help him get a complete picture of what is the right discussion that I can have with each and every sales rep, so that we are able to really capture the deficit and sort of also pull back the right opportunities in time, so that we're actually able to meet the target that has been set for a particular month. Having said that, it becomes very, very important that when the customer comes back to us for any sort of questions, queries, additional opportunities, the right person servicing the customer or talking to the customer has a complete picture of who the customer is and what is their history with us. So this is one of Salesforce's biggest USP, which is Customer 360, which provides a complete 360 degree holistic view of the customer, which is Bezen Technologies in this particular case. So here, as a rep, I'm able to get a complete holistic understanding of who Bezen Technologies is as a customer. I'm able to see what are the different products we've sold them? what is the discount that they have been provided for the different solutions? Do we have any open opportunities with them? And what is it worth? What is the LTV and the total sales that they have with us today? As well as are there any sort of queries and complaints that they raised with us in terms of cases. So I'm able to actually see a lot of different metrics and a lot of different details with respect to my customer here, right? I'm also able to see things like who are the SPOCs from the different teams that we are engaged with. What are some of the important opportunities that we are driving today? And are there any invoices that have not been paid for and so on? And we are also able to pull in the right set of details from other external systems as well as in-house systems as well, so that the entire picture of what's happening with respect to this customer can actually be seen under a single roof itself. I don't have to toggle between multiple systems and gather different pieces of information in a very siloed manner. So this completely gives me a picture of what's happening between sales and service. And if I want to really extrapolate it even to marketing and post-sales support, I can do that as a part of Customer 360 as well. So this really is the power of the system in providing a wow experience to Bezen Technologies in terms of really increasing their credibility and the wow factor that they get from Sirus IT as a provider. This is not only going to sort of increase the stickiness, but of course the word is going to spread and sort of the name of the company is going to get better and company is going to move forward. So having spoken about the power of the entire Customer 360, I would quickly want to move and divert us to sort of the last portion of the demo, which is very, very important, that is reports and dashboards. This is nothing but a very, very pictorial and powerful representation of the metrics. So when we started off with the demonstration while I showcased the home page to all of you, we were able to see how it is very, very relevant and very, very specific to an individual sales rep or an individual service rep or a manager that is managing a team of probably 10 people and so on. Dashboards, you can build dashboards for even the management to view. Here, we are able to really see a dashboard, which is very, very relevant for someone in the management, right? So let's say, I am somebody from the management who wants to see what's happening across my marketing, sales and service team. I'm just able to do that here, right? I'm able to see what has the marketing spend been, and what is the ROI that I'm completely getting out of this? And how can I really optimize my spends? And here, I'm also able to see what is the overall sales that has happened within the company. And what is the pipeline like to really meet the deficit that exists today. Plus, I'm also able to see how happy are my customers. Are we really being SLA compliant today? Or does there have to be a slight change in sort of meeting up to those compliance metrics? What is my month-on-month or my annual growth that I'm able to see, right? So these are just some example metrics that exist that I wanted to sort of flash on the dashboard today. But of course, we would be able to really pull in each and every metric that pertains and is important to each of you because, of course, we understand and we do work with multiple sort of companies across industries and segments and understand that the KPIs and metrics that you would want to track could completely differ, right? So this was just an example and a very high-level demo of Salesforce. And ladies and gentlemen, we'll be more than happy to really have a one-on-one discussion with you to really see how Salesforce can add value to your business individually. Probably, of course, we'd be happy to connect after this webinar, so that we can schedule some time for the same. But thanks a lot to each and every one of you to really sort of sit through this webinar and demo patiently, and we look forward to connecting with you guys. Have a great day.

Thank you so much, everyone, for patiently waiting and going through the demo video. So before we move on to like a section of Q&A, let's have one last poll for you guys. So the question is, are you considering to switch to Salesforce solution? Option A is, yes, I'm interested; option B, yes, but I need more information; option C, not at the moment, but maybe in the next 3 to 6 months; and option D, not interested. So yes, quickly sign in your options, and then we'll move into the Q&A round. [Voting]

Let's quickly see the answers. So we have 29%, close to around 30% of you all saying that they are interested; 23% said yes, but they need more information. So hold tight, we'll be coming up with more such webinars and we'll be reaching out you directly. And then again, 29% say that not at the moment, but in the next 3 to 6 months. We'll, of course, reach out to you, again, at the same time. And 17% of you all say that they are currently not looking at a solution.

So guys, now we'll be opening the Q&A round. You can post your questions in the chat box and we'll be answering it individually. So starting with, so we have Dua, Arjun. Sushmitha, the question is, is the Salesforce CRM customizable or not?

Thanks for the question, Trishla, and Dua, right? So just to give a quick answer to that. So Salesforce -- because Salesforce is actually utilized and implemented across industries and segments, it is a very, very highly customizable and configurable solution. So the best way to put it would be, it is a very low code, no code solution when it comes to configurability of the solution. And it's as easy as creating different workflows, different processes, different custom fields, and so on, as and when you have new processes coming into your workforce and implementing it for your teams. So a quick answer to that is, highly customizable and configurable.

Thank you, Sushmitha. I hope that answers, Dua? So next, we have a question from Mr. Arun. He's asking how to integrate the existing tool to Salesforce which has sound APIs.