Your goal is to create helpful and informative customer journeys. Each step of the customer journey can be improved with data-driven communications. Yet, it is a challenge to find the tools and the resources to make those steps smooth and helpful.
- 52% of surveyed technology leaders say their marketing technology stack isn’t integrated, resulting in siloed data.
- 45% say their organization isn’t using their marketing technology tools to their full potential.
- The majority of surveyed technology leaders say they would definitely or probably prefer to have their marketing technology stack on just one platform or software.
It makes sense: with less platforms to toggle between, the likelihood of data getting lost or misinterpreted drops. A unified environment is Salesforce’s main value proposition.
We’ve all heard of the Salesforce CRM but what about Salesforce B2B Commerce for manufacturers and distributors?
Salesforce is consistently ranked as the top CRM provider on the market. It’s a mainstay of the enterprise marketing world.
Salesforce B2B Commerce is part of the Salesforce customer success offering. It is a highly scalable, cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce solution. (See the bottom of the article for a quick guide on the Salesforce ecosystem).
Here is the key functionality Salesforce B2B Commerce offers for manufacturers and distributors:
- Quick launch digital ordering.
- Optimized self-service purchasing.
- Customer portal with fast search and easy re-orders.
- Mobile optimized site and mobile app.
- Personalized product set and negotiable pricing.
- Send shipments to multiple locations.
- Variety of payment options.
- Unified view: account managers and service agents can see commerce, CRM, service, and marketing data in one place.
- Smooth onboarding for merchants who are comfortable with the Salesforce CRM, as all of the objects and relationships connect.
- Easy extensions: merchants have the option to include a request for quote extension with Salesforce CPQ. They can also benefit from personalized integrations with shipping solutions.
From your sales representatives to the call center to the marketing campaign to the commerce experience, one centralized view of customers means you have more accurate data, and are more likely to make profitable, data-informed decisions.
Why consider Salesforce for CRM and CMS?
Here are 4 benefits of a unified environment:
- Less time for adoption: If you are already using Salesforce CRM, this will be an obvious consideration. Commerce will connect directly to your existing data in Salesforce. This reduces your investment in onboarding users as they are already familiar with the cloud-based software.
- Speed: Salesforce Commerce is a modern system that allows you to quickly create transactional experiences. The Lightning framework has drag and drop functionality that reduces your dependency on developer time. Absolunet’s most recent client to go live on Salesforce is leveraging Lightning’s framework for fast customization. The go-live happened in under 3 months.
- Total cost of ownership: Integration costs go down with everything on a shared platform.
- Unified view: Perhaps the biggest benefit is that account managers and service agents can see commerce, CRM, service, and marketing data in one place.
What B2B companies use Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
It runs the gamut. Salesforce B2B Commerce users hail from a wide range of industries, from HVAC to auto parts to chemicals. Company sizes vary too, with manufacturers with as little as 200 employees to over 10,000.
The Salesforce Ecosystem - quick guide
- Sales - Sales Cloud 360
- Service - CRM Service Cloud
- Marketing - Marketing Cloud
- Commerce - SFCC, Lightning
- Engagement - Heroku
- CRM - Salesforce
- Analytics - Tableau
Want some guidance on your marketing technology stack?
Written with guidance from Pierre-Alexandre Lessard, Absolunet Salesforce developer.
