Salesforce for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Flexibility and Growth

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When talking about Salesforce, many associate the tool with large corporations due to its robustness and wide range of features. However, Salesforce also offers remarkable flexibility for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), adapting to their needs and enabling scalable growth without the need for complex migrations. According to Lincoln, a Salesforce specialist, this feature makes Salesforce an ideal choice for companies that want to start simple but have the possibility to expand as their business grows.

“There is a common fear among smaller companies that Salesforce is an inaccessible, expensive, or overly complex tool. But Salesforce is a system that can be as simple as needed. You can start with just a few licenses and gradually expand as the company grows, without needing to re-implement a new system,” says Lincoln.

One example is iFood, which, when it began using Salesforce, purchased only three licenses. “They spent around R$ 400 per license, which was a modest investment. Today, iFood is the largest Salesforce client in Brazil, with more than 6,000 licenses,” he explains. For more details, access the iFood case study at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0eD8_84YzY.

The great advantage of Salesforce, according to Lincoln, is that it allows companies to grow without needing to change systems. “Other tools often require migrations as the company grows. With Salesforce, you start with a small number of licenses, but as the company expands, you can continue using the same platform, avoiding additional costs and complex migration projects,” he adds.

The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence in Salesforce

In addition to scalability, another highlight of Salesforce is its integration with artificial intelligence (AI) through Einstein, a tool that has revolutionized the use of CRM. Initially, Einstein was more restricted, being mainly used for chatbots and customer service. “It was like the ‘little paperclip’ in Word, a basic AI for interacting with customers,” Lincoln recalls.

However, over time, Einstein has evolved and started to operate more broadly within Salesforce, helping various departments, especially the sales team.

Today, Einstein is embedded in various Salesforce features, such as sales opportunity forecasting, helping commercial teams identify the best business opportunities. “Einstein has become an additional layer within Salesforce, integrating with almost all modules. From loyalty programs to e-commerce solutions, it acts as a great facilitator, providing valuable AI-based insights,” explains Lincoln.

Einstein is also integrated into more recent modules, such as Loyalty Cloud and Commerce B2C, which are being adopted in major projects in Brazil. Lincoln highlights Salesforce’s partnership with Vibra, one of the largest energy companies in Brazil, which is implementing loyalty solutions with Salesforce in a project that promises to be one of Salesforce’s biggest success stories in the country.

The adoption of Einstein in Brazil is still in its early stages, especially among SMBs, due to some barriers, such as language limitations — Einstein primarily operates in English. “In the past six months, Salesforce has promised to release a Portuguese version of Einstein, but we’re still waiting. This has been a barrier for smaller companies, especially those whose teams don’t speak English,” Lincoln notes. However, in markets like the United States, Einstein is already well-established, being an integral part of the operations of many companies.

Success Stories: The iFood Example

iFood is one of the best-known success stories in Brazil when it comes to Salesforce. When they started using the tool, the company was still small, and the initial investment was modest. “They purchased three Salesforce licenses, each costing around R$ 400. At the time, it was a significant investment for the size of the company, but they saw the growth potential. Today, iFood is Salesforce’s largest account in Brazil, with over 6,000 licenses,” Lincoln highlights.

The case of iFood demonstrates how a company can grow using Salesforce from the early stages to becoming a market giant. The system’s scalability allows companies to start small but continue using the same platform as they expand their operations. “Unlike other systems, where you might need to change platforms as the company grows, Salesforce allows you to stay on the same platform. It’s the same system, you just increase the number of licenses and features as needed,” Lincoln explains.

Conclusion

Salesforce, with its flexibility and AI integration, is becoming one of the leading CRM platforms for both large companies and SMBs. “What sets Salesforce apart is the ability to grow with the company, without the need for complex system changes, while integrating AI to improve internal and sales processes,” Lincoln concludes. With success stories like iFood and major projects underway such as Vibra, Salesforce continues to demonstrate its ability to adapt and lead the enterprise technology market.

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