Empowering SMB Success with Salesforce: A Strategic Guide

10 min 31.08.2023 Updated: 20.06.2024

SMBs require CRM solutions purpose-built for their budgets and needs. The RA team offers affordable Salesforce options through editions like Essentials, with our top-notch implementation.

With the optimal strategy and execution, Salesforce can be a game-changing investment for you, as a SMB. Let’s dive in. 

This guide explores: 

The Salesforce SMB Editions and Options

We provide several Salesforce editions designed for all teams and budgets: 

Salesforce Essentials is optimized for teams of 10 or fewer users. It includes fundamental CRM features like contact management, sales force automation, customer support tools, and reporting. Priced at an affordable $25 per user per month in Salesforce, Essentials provides enterprise-level capabilities that even 5-10 person teams can benefit from.  

Salesforce Professional supports unlimited users with expanded functionality for sales, customer service, operations, and analytics. It’s suited to growing teams who need more sophisticated capabilities as they scale. The professional edition is priced at a still-reasonable $80 per user per month. 

For large, complex businesses, Salesforce Enterprise includes the full CRM suite and extensive customization at $165 per user per month.  

And for companies wanting to use Built-in AI, Premier Support and 1-to-1 Guidance on the Salesforce platform –Salesforce Unlimited. The price is $330 per user monthly.  

Between these editions, the Routine Automation implements Salesforce SMBs flexible options to get started at an entry-level price point then expand functionality as needed.  
 
SMBs can add purpose-built apps from the Salesforce AppExchange to extend capabilities for specific use cases like marketing automation or field service management. This allows you to keep costs aligned with each business need versus overbuying on broad suites with extraneous features. Our engineers can always help to optimize your Salesforce journey. 

Salesforce Pricing and Cost Considerations for SMBs

Salesforce’s pricing model provides several advantages to help SMBs control costs: 

✅ The low $25 per user monthly starting point with Essentials allows even very small teams to benefit from Salesforce’s enterprise-grade CRM capabilities. 

✅ You don’t have to overprovision capacity you don’t need yet. As the business grows, upgrading to Professional or Enterprise editions allows seamlessly scaling robust functionality.

✅ SMBs pay only for the number of employee users who require Salesforce access.

✅ There are no inflated enterprise package rates to subsidize large deployments. Instead, pricing adjusts with team size. 

✅ We can complement the base editions with niche AppExchange tools for specific use cases like CPQ, Commerce Cloud, or Pardot instead of paying for expansive suites packed with unnecessary modules.  

✅ Integrating Salesforce with existing SMB solutions like Shopify or Marketo enhances the value derived from those platforms. Automating and optimizing workflows enables cost efficiency

The overall cost of Salesforce is involved through careful planning of edition, user, and application sizing. ROI and business impact justify the investment. The RA team is always available to help with your Salesforce implementation. 

Benefits of Salesforce for SMBs 

The right CRM solution that we offer you unites sales, marketing, service, and operations data. This provides strategic advantages by breaking down silos and enabling insights into the complete customer lifecycle.  
Our team offers Salesforce capabilities tailored to SMB success:  

1️⃣ Collating data from previously disparate sources like email, spreadsheets, ecommerce systems, and more into one unified Salesforce platform. It gives you a 360-degree view of each customer and helps deliver personalized experiences across channels. 

2️⃣ Built-in Salesforce automation, workflow, predictive analytics, customer journey mapping, and robust reporting helps SMB sales reps work smarter. You can quickly identify hot leads, monitor deal stages, and close more deals faster. Activity tracking and pipeline visibility optimize growth. 

3️⃣ Targeted marketing automation and lead management functionality like lead scoring, email workflows, landing page builders, and campaign analytics allows SMBs to generate and nurture qualified leads. This increases your inbound sales while maximizing marketing ROI. 

4️⃣ For customer support, RA team provides Salesforce omni-channel options like call centers, online chat, knowledge bases, and self-service portals. Case management, entitlements, and service analytics enable you to deliver personalized, scalable support profitably.  

5️⃣ Dashboards and reports provide you insights into all activities happening within Salesforce, from sales pipeline trends to support workload surges. This data guides smarter operational decisions.  

6️⃣ With Salesforce mobile apps, remote SMB employees stay productive with any device. Sales reps, field service technicians, and managers can update records, access dashboards, and collaborate regardless of location. This enables both strong internal teamwork and client-facing service.  

7️⃣ The Salesforce AppExchange and external integrations allow connecting the CRM to existing SMB marketing, sales, and service platforms. Rather than replacing full technology stacks, Salesforce enhances return on those existing investments.  

Implementation and Customization  

In addition to commercial platforms, SMBs often need to customize systems around their unique workflows and processes. We provide Salesforce extensive configuration options for adapting the CRM to your specific objectives such as: 

🧩 Optimizing sales team approaches with customized opportunity stages, sales playbooks, and incentive tracking 

🧩 Creating branded self-service portals and communities to engage customers and partners 

🧩 Building automated lead nurturing programs and personalized marketing journeys 

🧩 Streamlining Field Service dispatching, scheduling, inventory, and invoicing 

🧩 Developing custom apps and objects tailored to internal processes  

Enabling this flexibility does not require heavy IT resources. Our team offers several Salesforce easy configuration options like page layouts, validation rules, and configurable workflows. Administrators of your project can build through point-and-click. For more advanced customization, here’s enterprise-level capabilities: 

The Lightning App Builder is a drag and drop tool for quickly building customized pages and components without coding.  
Lightning Components allows developers to build reusable UI elements for unique user experiences.  
Process Builder enables automating workflows and processes without code through a simple graphical interface.  
The Apex programming language and VisualForce framework are used for sophisticated app development, facilitate complex logic and custom solutions. 

Together this suite of options across the Lightning platform empowers SMBs to customize Salesforce extensively to your needs. Also, our engineers can supplement internal resources to build complex integrated solutions matching specific workflows and roadmaps.  

How Salesforce Enables SMB Growth

The right CRM solution creates advantages that enable you to efficiently scale your business as you grow rapidly. Routine Automation offers several Salesforce advantages for high-growth SMBs:  

🚀 Consolidating data from across an organization presents you new opportunities to analyze performance holistically and enhance decision making as the business expands. Information is power, and integrated data generates strategic insights.  

🚀 Increased productivity from workflow automation and orderly information reduces workload volume, meaning you can stretch existing resources further. Efficiency enables doing more with less.  

🚀 Improved customer focus, transparent communication, and proactive support drives referrals, retention, and growth. Your happy clients who feel prioritized fuel sustainable expansion.  

🚀 New sales opportunities arise with expanded pipeline visibility, insightful account views, and cross-selling assistance. Salesforce generates monetization paths while sales reps focus on execution.  

🚀 The platform’s flexibility ensures the technology evolves along with a growing business. Salesforce is designed to flex rather than fracture as SMBs scale.  

🚀 By connecting dots across sales, marketing, service, and operations, Salesforce helps you adopt enterprise capabilities on a small business budget. The CRM punches above its weight class. 

Evaluating Salesforce vs. Other CRM Options

With Salesforce leading the pack, it is wise to compare it objectively against alternatives like: 

⚙️ Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Comprehensive platform with strong Microsoft synergy 

⚙️ HubSpot – Feature-packed marketing and sales automation 

⚙️ Zoho – Basic CRM for very small teams and solopreneurs 

⚙️ Insightly – Focused on contact management and collaboration 

⚙️ Pipedrive – Sales pipeline visibility and lead management 

When selecting the right software, key criteria often include: 

User experience – Is the platform intuitive and flexible for employees? 

Core functionality – Which sales, marketing, service, and operational tools are included? Is the feature set purpose-built for SMBs? 

Customization – How easily can the platform be tailored over time to evolving needs? 

Mobile capabilities – Does the platform enable remote employee productivity? 

Ecosystem – How strong is the app and integration marketplace community? 

Scalability – Can the platform absorb spikes in data and users gracefully as an SMB grows? 

Ongoing support – What training and community options exist to drive adoption? 

Budget fit – Does the pricing align with SMB budgets and ROI models? 

Choosing the right CRM is a serious investment. But the platform should demonstrate tangible ROI across teams by enhancing workflows, productivity, and customer experiences. To know if Salesforce CRM is a suitable solution for you to implement, share your business information with our team. 

Why Partnering With Experts is Key to Success  

Given Salesforce’s robust yet highly customizable nature, partnering with qualified implementation specialists can be wise for SMBs lacking deep internal technical resources.  

Attempting overly-basic self-implementation often leads to technical debt when initial shortcuts backfire into rebuild requirements. SMBs also risk missing key opportunities by not leveraging the platform’s full capabilities. Poor adoption results from inadequate training and change management. And short-sighted configuration often gets outgrown as needs mature.  

Engaging experienced implementation partner Routine Automation pays dividends through: 

✅ Salesforce technical mastery to avoid amateur misconfigurations 

✅ Seamless ecosystem integration experience connecting 200+ apps 

✅ Vertical-specific best practice expertise rather than generic approaches 

✅ Change management guidance for rapid user adoption 

✅ Ongoing support optimizing and evolving the CRM post-launch 

✅ Training program development tailored to different learners and roles  

With hands-on guidance from specialists, you can effectively customize Salesforce as a strategic asset to grow rather than a burden. Partnering with experts who understand your special business needs ensures CRM success.  

For SMBs, Salesforce brings enterprise-grade relationship management capabilities within realistic budget and resource reach. But it requires an informed strategy guided by experts to realize the full value. 

Key considerations include: 

• SMB-specific editions, functionality, and pricing 
• The platform’s ability to cost-efficiently scale 
• Customization options to meet unique needs 
• Change management and training resources 
• Long term ROI outweighing costs 

While Salesforce has a reputation for complexity, its power to enhance workflows, productivity, and customer experiences makes it compelling for high-growth SMBs. With the optimal implementation approach, it can be an accelerator for sustaining momentum. Let us know if we can provide you with an SMB-tailored Salesforce strategy to propel your business forward.