How Much Does Salesforce Cost For A Small Business?

It is a common misconception that Salesforce is limited to large enterprises that undertake complicated business processes. Several businesses hesitate to implement the CRM platform thinking that it would cost them a fortune.

However, that is not true. Salesforce is designed to cater to the needs of small businesses as well as large enterprises. Even if you have a small business or a startup, you can implement Salesforce to manage your customer database and provide personalized services to your customers. The Salesforce license pricing varies according to the needs of an organization. While a bigger enterprise can select a more expensive Salesforce license, a small business can opt for a cheaper one.

Salesforce Editions Ideal For Small Businesses

Based on the Salesforce cost to be incurred by an organization, here are some of the best Salesforce editions that can be implemented by small businesses:

Salesforce Essentials ($25/user/month)

This Salesforce edition is a favorite of small businesses and startups. It provides users with an ideal combination of sales and support features, helping them cater to their customers in the best way possible. At a price of $25/user/month (billed annually), the Salesforce pricing here is affordable for organizations with fewer salesforce users and simpler business processes.

Salesforce Essentials provides users with all basic CRM tools for streamlining sales processes. It allows your sales reps to manage your Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Opportunities on a centralized platform. Right from reaching out to a prospect to making the sale, the platform guides you every step of the way.

When it comes to providing customer support features, the Salesforce edition helps users in streamlined and automated case management and provides them with Service Console application(s). It also allows users in optimizing knowledge management through Salesforce Knowledge.

Also, small businesses can operate on the CRM platform by installing a mobile application of the same. This helps employees without a desktop/laptop or the ones working on the go.

Salesforce Professional Sales Cloud ($75/user/month)

If a small business needs to leverage its sales processes at a slight premium, it can subscribe to Salesforce Professional Cloud at the rate of $75/user/month (billed annually). It provides users with all the features of Salesforce Essentials, along with a tool for collaborative forecasting. This allows an organization to forecast their sales and obtain valuable insights regarding the same.

At an affordable Salesforce cost, the edition also helps users in scoring their leads based on their behavior. Once acquired and added to the pipeline, it helps you in prioritizing the leads to be nurtured based on their response and behavior. This helps small businesses in leveraging their lead management processes to get the desired traction.

Salesforce Professional Service Cloud ($75/user/month)

The Professional edition of Salesforce Service Cloud helps users in taking their client support services a notch higher. Along with all the features offered by Salesforce Essentials, the edition helps users in engaging in service contracts and entitlements.

This allows businesses in entering into service contracts with clients for a specific period of time. This helps you in building healthy and lasting relationships with your clients by providing them with personalized support.

Why Is Salesforce Good For Small Businesses?

Paying Only For What You Need

Cost is often a decisive factor for small businesses while making any investment. Salesforce allows users to choose specific tools and editions based on their needs and preferences. Instead of charging a high price for offering a wide range of tools (most of which are not required by the users), Salesforce allows users to pay for the tools as and when they need them.

Monthly And Annual Payments

Although the annual charges are cheaper than the monthly payments, Salesforce offers users an option to make payments on a monthly basis. This allows businesses to make changes in their plans and add/remove tools without facing many hassles.

Engaging Platform For Getting Trained

Owing to a plethora of tools and features provided by the CRM platform, some users may find Salesforce a bit difficult to start with. In such cases, Salesforce provides them with an extensive training platform called Trailhead. It is a free training platform that can be accessed by new and experienced Salesforce users.

Trailhead makes use of engaging content to help users get well-versed with Salesforce from scratch. As the platform is free for all, small businesses need not spend money on getting their employees trained in Salesforce.

Scope For Growth

Salesforce aims at helping small businesses grow by optimizing their customer database and provide personalized services to their customers. As a business expands on using the basic Salesforce editions, the CRM platform allows them to scale up their processes and avail of more advanced features by paying a premium price.

This allows small businesses to leverage their services, increase their productivity, and grow by implementing Salesforce.

Seamless Support To Developers Through AppExchange

Salesforce provides extensive support to small-scale developers through Salesforce Exchange, a portal with a wide range of Salesforce applications. It provides developers with much-needed encouragement and support by helping them associate with Salesforce partners.

The platform allows developers to launch their applications and introduce the same to the huge Salesforce marketplace. This opens several doors to opportunities that can be tapped by developers if their applications click with the audiences.

High Flexibility

Small businesses are likely to have a limited number of Salesforce users. This often requires a single employee to accomplish multiple tasks using Salesforce. Being a fully cloud-based application, Salesforce provides businesses with the utmost flexibility in operation.

Whether the employees are working remotely or on-premise, the CRM platform can be used on any device and from any location. Your employees will never have an issue operating on the platform as long as they have a compatible device and a stable internet connection.

The Final Word

Salesforce is highly suitable for small businesses and has a dedicated edition (Salesforce Essentials) for the same. Based on their limited needs and preferences, small businesses can avail themselves of Salesforce services without spending a fortune.

Also read : The Importance Of Using Google My Business For Small Business Owners