Now that you’ve implemented Salesforce and your team is reaping its benefits, it’s time to step up your game. You’re already rocking the CRM, streamlining the sales process, and using rich reports as feedback to keep on fine-tuning your sales machine. What’s next? Your business processes. Here are some ways you can use Salesforce automation to improve business processes.
Manage documents and e-signatures
Are you using a document generation tool in your Salesforce org yet? If not, what are you waiting for?
You can use these versatile apps to create and merge documents in their native formats like Word and PDF. Incorporate your logos and branding to put your best foot forward, and use the tools to generate these prefilled documents automatically.
Better yet, use e-signatures along with these automated documents. Several App Exchange packages, such as Adobe eSign and Conga, include e-signature capabilities. You can realize a lot of efficiency by using these document and signature automation tools to improve business processes.
Use Salesforce approval processes for quotes and contracts
When was the last time a team member sent a quote or contract with a mistake? Maybe it exceeded approved limits; maybe it lacked a required signature before it was issued. This doesn’t have to happen.
Salesforce includes configurable, automated approval processes. Use them to make sure that the documents are correct the first time.
Automate project handoffs and task assignments
What happens after Sales wins an opportunity and Operations takes over? Chances are, there are at least some predictable, repetitive chores to complete the handoff. If your team is handling these chores manually, this is another business process you can improve with Salesforce automation.
Think about the predictable tasks and define some workflow rules or Process Builder flows. For example, you might:
- send a welcome email to the new client
- create onboarding tasks and assign them to project team members
- notify operations leadership of the new project or closed opportunity
- notify users of assigned tasks
- track task completion and notify managers when tasks are overdue
Send SMS from Salesforce
Phone calls with prospects and customers are good. Text messages are better. Most people now prefer to communicate via SMS unless there’s a lot to discuss.
Both the App Exchange and Salesforce itself offer many ways to integrate SMS into Salesforce and include text messages in activity logs. Pricing ranges from free on up.
Incorporate texting into your Salesforce org. Your sales team AND your customers will thank you.
Integrate Salesforce with inventory management
Another way to improve business processes is to integrate Salesforce with your inventory management software. Manual data integration takes a lot of time and can raise your risk of errors and bad data. Use the App Exchange – Are you noticing a pattern here? Good! – to find the right middleware at the right price.
…and with accounting software
Wouldn’t it be great if you could automate invoicing and invoice tracking from Salesforce to your accounting software? You could see all those great reports, save tons of time for your staff, and increase accuracy.
Yes! This is another avenue for Salesforce automation to streamline and improve business processes. There are App Exchange packages to integrate Salesforce with popular accounting and ERP software.
TL;DR
Many people still think of Salesforce strictly as a CRM tool. Sure, it started out that way, but for many years now it has also been a richly customizable web application platform. Look at your team’s manual processes, check the App Exchange, and dive in. Your team can gain a lot of efficiency by leveraging the power of Salesforce automation to improve business processes.
You can learn more about Salesforce here.