Salesforce Predictions for 2020: What this year might hold for the Salesforce Ecosystem
Decisions! Decisions!
The new decade is upon us, and what success looks like as changed radically, especially over the second half of the previous one.
Instincts for buying and selling are changing, and new strategies have taken shape. As organizations grow older, selling has become more social than ever.
Even so, other things stay the same. Organizational size and age are still important considerations. So for this decade’s first thought-piece, we take a stab at an age-old tradition with Salesforce– gazing into the future, just more vividly.
Unrolling a Lengthy Enterprise Wishlist
The On-ramp to cloud will still be important
Capabilities that enable real-time updates will occupy more prominence as operations become more integrated, and more companies switch from perpetual licenses to subscription models.
It’ll probably be more important for the next 5 years, though the interest could taper-off in the super-long-term as more business gets done on the Salesforce cloud.
More Pre-integrated Funnels
This already holds to some extent for sales and marketing, which are joined at the hip and act as one funnel.
Field sales maybe nearly replaced by Inside Sales entirely, even for decent-sized companies – changing the technology stack and product relevance for this space. Further, distilling data will still reign supreme for activities, results, campaigns, and dashboards for meaningful insights.
We’re probably looking at even more evolved marketing stacks with more real-time response capabilities.
Products and Operations will affect one another more closely than ever
More than anything, seeing what strategies calcify quicker and which ones die out will be pivotal. It’ll be a concern as marketing avenues evolve and take newer forms.
Tracing user availability data and agent performance will hold the keys to a more optimized demarcation of marketing territories. The could be based off both leading and trailing indicators.
As customer bases are increasingly seen as channels, platform empowerments may simultaneously help channels and internal processes to drive word-of-mouth organically, driving pre-integration even further.
Lastly, it shouldn’t be surprising to see infrastructure to Keep up with growth numbers.
People-centric Processes
Efforts toward making agent-life easier, as well as drawing greater performance from sales expertise, may become a concern. Also, automation and task prioritization could give back time to agents for resource expansion.
As more agents and consumers look for stories to latch onto, culture-building, excellence, accountability, and alliances will come to the fore.
Engaging with customers for authentic stories could be significant. Besides, using stories to relate to prospects effectively, and compelling plugs from account interactions might also take center-stage.
Stories could help accounts self-identify with more off-beat product-lines, helping them take off and compete with older counterparts.
Show ‘Em The Money
Salesforce will now begin work on Salesforce integrating platforms and start Putting Tableau through its paces. It’s easily the biggest bet yet, with sizable payoffs anticipated.
Tableau will be an essential chunk of their analytics stack in subsequent years and releases going forward. A lot is riding on this as investors pin hopes on the acquisition. But things shouldn’t be any different this time around as Salesforce has a very steady acquisition past behind it.
We might also finally see crypto and blockchain acquisitions to fuel new age payment transactions. Salesforce could springboard any transactional processes by anchoring trust in already primed databases on organizational
Bret Taylor to assume charge?
It could also be the year when Marc finally steps away from the Co-CEO role to take on human-issues in the international space.
Given Quip founder Bret’s rise and rise, there’s speculation that he may indeed be the one to fill Marc’s shoes. It’s too early to say though. Moreover, Marc’s recent takes on the state-of-affairs in the world could signal an even-more philanthropic rise in stance.
Developer Staples
Trailhead 2020
Kicking off its first must-attend calendar event, Trailhead can probably expect even more direction-specific additions to itineraries. Architects, product leaders, and innovators will probably have more enhanced note-sharing capabilities at these events.
Like always, networking opportunities, pro-sessions, community givebacks, and workshops can expect to highlight Trailhead for developer folk.
Connections
Salesforce’s ‘Connections’ in Windy City is a two-day exposition showcasing the very best out there in optimizing platform-productivity.
Here, refined talents and industry experts zero in on the pragmatic application areas of the Salesforce platform. Representatives from all over retail, eCommerce, Fintech services segments, healthcare, and manufacturing throng the event.
In all, there are three tracks at the Connections expo – Marketing, Commerce, and Service. The first stop is for touchpoint connectivity enthusiasts and the second for applied commerce applications The third is for customer engagement, follow-up, and retention-relevant solutions.
Like every other time, proceedings draw to a close with an exciting ‘Salesforce Concert’.
Dreamforce 2020
This is it. Salesforce’s big flagship developer-affair.
A fun, exploratory opportunity to meet diverse tech companies, find what others are up to, network, and indulge unapologetic-ally. It’s the best way to end 2020 with a Sch-bang!
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