CRM software is an essential tool for most sales reps.
Once you and your team are set up with the right platform, you’ll be able to pinpoint prospect details, track pipeline, facilitate communication with potential customers, and otherwise manage your list of contacts.
The biggest name in CRM is Salesforce. The company has been around the longest and offers an extensive set of features. That said, it’s not an ideal tool for every sales department.
In this article, we’ll cover the app’s key features, look at the pros and cons of Salesforce for sales reps, and explain why it’s NOT the best option for certain sellers—especially those in field sales.
The Role of Salesforce in Sales Teams
At its core, Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM platform. With it, users can track customer interactions, view sales data, and project future revenue numbers. You know, all the stuff that sales teams need to do.
In recent years, Salesforce has expanded its offering. Now users can plan and implement marketing campaigns, handle customer service tasks, build digital storefronts, and access powerful AI tech. Salesforce even purchased Slack a while back, so work chat is part of the product suite, too.
(This article will focus on Salesforce’s sales features. But it helps to understand the full extent of the tool.)
Also worth mentioning, Salesforce integrates with a ton of other popular tools, including SPOTIO. This enables Salesforce to be the central hub of your sales department, if you choose to go that route.
Key Features of Salesforce for Sales Reps
Okay, let’s talk about features…
As mentioned above, Salesforce can do a bunch of different things. To stay on point, we’re only going to talk about its best sales-related features, which include automation, customer views, and analytics:
Sales Automation Tools
You hired your sales reps to close deals, not to input data into your company’s CRM platform.
Salesforce helps sellers focus on their core objectives by automating many sales processes. For example, Salesforce will automatically capture and sync sales data, draft personalized emails, and rank deals.
All of these things save sales reps time and increase job satisfaction. After all, no sales rep wants to spend hours a day on admin tasks. Those activities are boring and don’t directly drive revenue.
Comprehensive Customer View
Salesforce will also give you a detailed (and customizable!) look at your customer base.
Where is Prospect ABC in the pipeline? When was the last time Company XYZ made a purchase? And how many deals can you realistically expect to close in the next month, quarter, or year? Get the details you need. Then view them in ways that work for your sales department, thanks to customization options.
Plus, Salesforce will give you this kind of in-depth information for marketing and services teams. That way you always know how to reach your ideal customers, then keep them happy after they make a purchase.
Data Management and Analytics
You won’t succeed in sales if you don’t have access to extensive analytics and reporting features.
You and your reps need to know which prospecting strategies work best, which deals in your pipeline are most likely to close, and the amount of revenue each will produce for your organization. Salesforce will tell you all of this and more, enabling you to track sales and generate more accurate forecasts.
And because Salesforce is equipped with impressive AI technology, most of these insights will be surfaced for you. So, you won’t have to search for them, and can instead focus on other business-building tasks.
Pros of Salesforce for Sales Reps
Salesforce is a powerful platform with high-end features. But is it the right CRM software for your sales department? It might be, if you value these pros—and can handle the cons we talk about next.
Popular Tool With Many Integrations
First, Salesforce is incredibly popular, with more than 150,000 customers worldwide.
Why does this matter to you? It proves that Salesforce is widely known and trusted. You won’t have to worry about the company going under and leaving you and your sales reps in the lurch.
There are also tons of resources to help you learn the tool. From blog posts to YouTube videos to paid courses, quality tutorials are abundant. (This is good because you’ll almost certainly need to invest time and money into your Salesforce education. We’ll talk about the steep learning curve in the cons section.)
Lastly, Salesforce’s popularity means you’ll have plenty of integration options. Connect all of your favorite sales tools to the Salesforce platform and create a cohesive sales suite for your team.
Robust Sales Tracking and Analytics
Salesforce also offers a ton of sales tracking and analytics tools.
Create detailed dashboards to track rep activities, team performance, future revenue projections, and more. Then customize each dashboard to meet your department’s exact needs.
When you can access information in this way, you can hold your reps accountable and give them the coaching they need. You can also monitor your sales strategies and adjust them when necessary. Updating company leadership on department performance will also be a piece of cake.
Enhanced Productivity and Collaboration
Finally, Salesforce has the potential to increase productivity and collaboration for your sales department.
Like we already talked about, Salesforce is equipped with powerful AI technology, which will allow you and your reps to eliminate admin tasks, streamline data collection, and otherwise get more done.
Salesforce can also facilitate team-wide collaboration. Want to strengthen the bonds between marketing and sales? Encourage both to use the platform and share information. Want reps to share effective sales tactics with each other? Have them join Slack and post about their successes on a regular basis.
Cons of Salesforce for Sales Reps
Salesforce isn’t the right CRM software for every organization. The platform has a notoriously steep learning curve and subpar mobile capabilities. It can also be extremely expensive to implement. Consider these cons before you invest in Salesforce—especially if you manage a field sales team.
Complexity and Learning Curve
Fair warning: Salesforce is NOT the easiest software in the world to use. If you decide to purchase this tool for your team, expect a steep learning curve. Then give your reps time to get to know the platform.
As we covered in the previous section, Salesforce is a very powerful app. Users can complete a wide variety of tasks with the tool, while customizing it to suit their exact needs. The tradeoff is complexity. Your team will need to invest hours to learn and personalize Salesforce to their individual workflows.
If you want a simpler CRM—one that your reps will actually use—consider a different piece of software.
Limited Mobile Capabilities
Salesforce wasn’t really designed for field sales teams.
Yes, Salesforce provides a mobile app, but it’s not very intuitive. For example, many users have difficulty logging activities and customer notes. Because of this, field reps often abandon the tool.
If you’re really set on Salesforce as your company’s CRM, consider investing in a second app that field reps can use in the field. Something like SPOTIO would be a good option, as it was made for field sales use and integrates with Salesforce. This will allow your field reps to succeed and ensure data sync.
Costly Implementation
Last but not least, Salesforce requires a hefty budget.
While prices start at just $25 a month, per user, you won’t get access to many important features such as forecast management and quote creation. Most bigger organizations—especially those that require extensive customization options—will need to go with a more expensive plan.
How expensive? For full offline mobile functionality, you’ll pay $100+ a month, per user. To create and manage sales territories, you’ll pay $165+ a month, per user. And for lead scoring and email insights, you’ll pay $330+ a month, per user. For medium to large sales teams, these costs really add up.
Why SPOTIO Is a Superior Alternative
Salesforce might not be the right CRM for your sales team. Thankfully, there are plenty of alternative options on the market. One of the best alternatives for field sellers is SPOTIO. Here’s why:
Ease of Use
SPOTIO has an extremely user-friendly interface.
Your reps will probably figure out how to use the tool in a few minutes. But even if they have trouble, SPOTIO offers a full university and knowledge base for customers. Our service team is also top level.
If you get stuck, you just have to watch one of our free training videos, read an in-depth article, or contact a customer service rep. Doing so will get you the answer you need in a timely manner. That way you can focus on meeting prospects and closing deals. Not finagling another software program.
Cost-Effectiveness
SPOTIO is also more cost-effective than many other CRM solutions.
Why pay hundreds of dollars a month for features you don’t need? SPOTIO tailors every plan to the customer. Basically, you’ll only pay us for the features you want and need—nothing more.
We also offer an engagement bundle. For a reduced fee, you can add dedicated phone numbers, embedded calling and text messages, phone activity tracking, email and SMS templates, and automated one-click follow-up sequences. Supercharge your team’s productivity and effectiveness on the cheap!
To see how much you can save with SPOTIO, check out our ROI calculator. We use proven results from actual customers to predict the return your company will enjoy from its SPOTIO investment.
Targeted Features
Ease of use and a low monthly price point are great! But they don’t mean much if the software won’t do what you want it to do. Fortunately, SPOTIO is jam packed with top features for field sellers:
- Lead Generation: Use our smart filtering system to pinpoint quality prospects based on business type, revenue, number of locations, homeownership status, age, credit capacity, and more.
- Territory Mapping: Cut territories based on geographic boundaries or by drawing on a digital map. Then assign each one to the most qualified rep and monitor performance.
- Route Planning: Type in the addresses you need to travel to; then let SPOTIO design the most efficient path between them. SPOTIO has automatic mileage tracking too, for peak productivity.
- Sales Tracking: Monitor sales activities and the success of each. That way you can properly evaluate your sales strategies and forecast future deals with greater accuracy.
- Automation: Capture prospect information on autopilot and use it in your outreach efforts. Use SPOTIO to email and/or text potential customers and communicate via multiple channels.
- Sales Reports: Create custom sales reports that only include the metrics you care about. Then save the reports so that you can generate them again in the future with a single click.
Customer Success
SPOTIO is a game changer for field sales teams. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Many companies have used SPOTIO to boost productivity, close more deals, and achieve more success.
Take Nerd Power, for example. This clean power technology provider was founded in Phoenix, AZ in 2015. It now employs 50 field sales reps, who engage customers in 7 different states. Nerd Power uses SPOTIO to map territories, manage follow-ups, and ensure process accountability.
Since implementing our tool, Nerd Power has boosted qualified leads by 10%, reduced rep turnover by 30%, and now enjoys 10% to 30% more wins per territory. All in all, Nerd Power has achieved a 3-5x ROI!
SPOTIO has also won numerous awards, including the “Most Implementable” and “Best Results for Mid Market” awards from G2 in 2024. Plus, SPOTIO scores high ratings on sites like Capterra.
SPOTIO Is Your Field Sales Alternative
So, is Salesforce for sales reps right for your organization?
It’s a powerful platform with a huge customer base. That said, Salesforce isn’t the easiest platform to use and it can get pretty expensive. Its mobile app underperforms for most users too.
Good news: SPOTIO was specifically designed for field sales teams. Because of this, it has all the features you need to boost productivity and close more deals in the field.
Schedule your free SPOTIO demo today to experience our industry-leading platform for yourself!
