Today, Salesforce debuted Slack Sales Elevate, a platform for improving sales agent productivity by allowing them to leverage real-time data natively via the workplace collaboration platform Slack.
Slack Sales Elevate centralizes customer information to simplify sales processes and admin requirements, allowing sales agents to update their workplace pipeline and react to notifications without leaving the application.
Salesforce is introducing the new service ready for general availability today.
Moreover, via the new service, Salesforce end-users can leverage the latest features via Slack, such as sales home, account updates, automation opportunities, and pre-built templates.
Rob Seaman, SVP of Product at Slack, added:
Bringing Sales Cloud into Slack and providing new sales productivity tools and automations in Slack helps sellers save time and access the right people and information to make better decisions. A Slack-based approach to selling will make it easier than ever for Sales Cloud customers to focus on the work that matters: working with customers and closing deals.
Salesforce notes that Slack Sales Elevate leverages the firm’s rich data assets to boost the operational effectiveness of sales teams at all levels – “from reps to managers,” remarks the firm.
Additionally, CX teams who use Slack Sales Elevate can drive revenue and meet customer expectations. The platform offers “State of Sales Reports,” which displays agent data and resources which reduce “cumbersome” sales processes.
According to Salesforce, more than 70 percent of agents spend time on non-sales-related tasks, a problem that Slack Sales Elevate can solve.
Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst, explained:
Metrigy research shows that the vast majority of companies with the highest ROI for their team collaboration spend view their team collaboration apps as a hub for work. Integrating data and collaboration, as Slack Sales Elevate does for sales management, offers tremendous opportunity to improve productivity and increase sales rates by allowing sales people and their managers to integrate their activities in a single location, across desktop and mobile devices, without the need to move between apps to manage opportunities.
New Features, New Opportunities
As expected, Salesforce is greatly empowering its clients with various features that continue to assist sales teams in completing tasks.
The service introduces a new personalized sales home feature to Salesforce’s customers, centralizing customer data and business insights on the Slack application.
Currently, firms such as Roku are leveraging Slack Sales Elevate to enhance the efficiency of sales operations via deep business insights.
Lauren Farber, Director of Business Operations, Roku, also added:
I am thrilled for the future of Salesforce, housed in Slack. Sales Slack Elevate brings CRM to a system Sales already knows and loves. It weaves all their work within a user-friendly platform, making pipeline management and actionable business insights infinitely more accessible and efficient! Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Additionally, Slack Sales Elevate comes with KPIs that track company-wide goal progress with a synchronized hub that distributes real-time data across a team.
Slack Sales Elevate also offers instant account updates that send Slack-native notifications allowing agents to stay up-to-date with mission-critical information such as deals won, new opportunities, and pipeline updates.
The instant account updates also allow firms to be better informed regarding forecasts and coaching opportunities. Moreover, Slack Sales Elevate automatically distributes account update information via a record-mapped Slack channel accessible to an entire sales team.
Automation and AI Are Coming to Slack
Moreover, Salesforce is including AI and deep automation features into its Slack-based service – notable as the company, like others, is driving AI integration across its entire product portfolio.
The platform’s automation processes enable improved collaboration between peers, partners, and customers using Slack.
Slack Sales Elevate also leverages AI-powered workflows, allowing teams to close sales deals faster.
The AI integration includes a no-code developer pipeline which allows clients to design bespoke Salesforce-triggered notifications such as support requests, deal approvals, and Sales Cloud updates. Again, all agents can access the AI tools and features without leaving the Slack application.
Slack Sales Elevate also adds sales templates into the Slack platform, allowing teams to integrate their customized Salesforce data into easily accessible Slack pipelines.
Sofie Peedu, Head of Commercial Sales, Box – a Slack Sales Elevate client – also noted that the service allows a cross-pollination between Slack and Salesforce, helping the firm run productive sales processes.
Peedu also added:
By adding Sales Cloud directly into Slack, you get an unbeatable combination resulting in shorter sales cycles with higher customer satisfaction.
The firm is making Slack Sales Elevate available to customers for $60 per user per month.
Moreover, Salesforce is introducing Slack Sales Elevate to customers under the Slack Business+ plan and above. Sales Cloud Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited customers can also access the service.
