Category: Updates

Win at The Shelf With Salesforce Retail Execution

Salesforce Retail Execution Drives Profitable Growth

Digitization, rising consumer expectations, and disruptive business models have been challenges in the consumer goods market since COVID-19. Add on the economic rise of inflation, supply chain issues, buying behavior changes, and the great resignation; brands are using Salesforce Retail Execution to operate fast and intelligently across different teams. As the holiday season approaches, Salesforce Retail execution is helping brands drive profitable growth, win at the store, and improve insights across the organization in real time.

Consumer Goods Retail Execution Today

Brands invest millions of dollars into marketing and branding their products to meet client expectations. To see clearer ROI, this requires planning better visits and selling smarter in retail stores. Using offline disconnected systems like spreadsheets to share and engage in sales, promotions, and forecasts is time-consuming, error-prone, and labor-intensive.

Brands need managers and field reps to spend less time on operational tasks and more time creating connections with merchants to increase sales and consumer satisfaction.

Salesforce Retail Execution for Consumer Goods Cloud empowers managers and field reps with key data insights, automated action plans for customer growth, and intelligent scheduling to deliver store execution both online and offline.

How Salesforce Retail Execution Drives Growth

Salesforce Retail Execution allows brands to turn every store into the perfect store with retail planning and execution on a single platform. Online interests and behaviors offer a treasure trove of insights into your customers. Connect your channels, data, and departments to deliver a seamless experience for your consumers and to get the right products with the right promotions on the right shelves at the right time.

The Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App allows reps to record data in real time, whether online or offline. This gives users visibility into their tasks for the day and week, so they can execute them more effectively.

Here’s how Salesforce Retail Execution unlocks profitable growth:

    • Improve Efficiency in Every Visit
      • Design plans, optimize visits, and track teams to work safely and efficiently.
    • Power Productivity to Maximize Selling Time
      • Prioritize and schedule visits, streamline repetitive tasks, and provide a 360 view of the customer.
    • Deliver Perfect Retail Execution Regardless of Connectivity
      • Ensure the right product is on the right shelf, at the right price, with intelligent object detection for planogram and inventory audits.
    • Win at the Shelf with Direct Store Delivery
      • Prioritize deliveries, track and reroute your fleet based on business needs with full visibility into order and fulfillment information.
    • Turn Order Takers into Order Makers
      • Guide reps to the right store, with optimized tasks, utilizing Einstein AI including mobile order capture to maximize sales.
Salesforce Retail Execution Cockpit UI provides a 360 view of a store and visit-related information with live, in store reporting
Cockpit-based UI: The Retail Store cockpit provides a 360° view of a store and visit-related information with live, in-store reporting.

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Corrao Group has been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry with Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce TPM Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources

Salesforce Retail Execution 

How Salesforce Trade Promotion Management Solves These Top 3 TPM Challenges

Top 3 TPM Challenges

Defining Trade Promotion Management and its Immediate Necessity

Trade promotion is a marketing technique aimed at increasing sales of a product by making it more attractive to potential customers. A great example is the ‘Buy One Get One Free’ promotion that we see everywhere in stores. There are multiple departments involved, with many cumbersome processes involved. In today’s fast-paced world, companies are turning to new technology to support these processes. Trade Promotion Management (TPM) is the process of streamlining promotions planning, breaking down silos, and creating a single source of truth that helps maximize trade spend effectiveness. It provides in-depth insight into the volume and profitability of trade promotions to help manufacturers improve their business, and aids in gathering real-time data to produce actionable information.

Even before COVID-19, changes in consumer behavior were driving companies to shift to a digital strategy. The pandemic made it clear that cross-functional collaboration among supply chains, finance, and marketing needs to be more structured than ever before. With companies putting out 20% of annual revenue towards promotions on average (McKinsey), TPM software reduces the possibility of leaving money on the table or overspending. Without TPM software, companies in the US are losing 72% of revenue with promotions, and about 55% don’t even break even (Repsly). Most companies don’t realize these large losses due to not having analytics to easily show this data; one of the main challenges facing TPM. Other harmful challenges include having outdated & unscalable technology and time-consuming manual processes that have become archaic in today’s world.

Outdated and Unscalable Technology

Many companies use ERPs combined with Microsoft Excel to run most of their trade promotions. While effective to start, these systems quickly become outdated. They do not have the required intelligence and planning built within them to manage a company’s promotions. For example, the manually built experiences never capture the entire process and are difficult to scale along with the constantly-growing company. Homegrown technologies aren’t usually the most user-friendly either. With the primary focus on “just making it work”, UI always gets left behind. If users aren’t finding the technology effective to use, user adoption always suffers. Internally built systems also consistently “break” and are costly to fix, requiring constant updates that delay everyday users. If the main architect leaves the company, it’s extremely difficult to pick up where they left off. Hiring a new architect will be costly as they need to review the entire structure, and typically need to make their own updates in order to take control of it.

A TPM software, such as Salesforce TPM, provides world-class technology to help companies control every technological aspect of their trade promotion. Using industry best practices, Salesforce TPM takes the processes and technologies that have helped Retail and Consumer Goods companies plan, execute, and track promotions and provides them to all customers. The system is scalable, sound, and constantly updated with new features to help its customers. The extremely user-friendly TPM system also makes it easier than ever for anyone involved to use the system. Available training is also available for users to understand their system and even suggest new ideas to their Admins to further enhance the customizable solution.

Time-Consuming Archaic & Manual Processes

An Account Manager’s time is stretched thin between planning, developing, and implementing promotions. These labor-intensive tasks can be extremely time-consuming without TPM software. They also need to coordinate with field reps, drive store initiatives to ensure stock is fulfilled, and analyze if they drove positive ROI. Having to complete all these tasks manually results in high overhead and potential data entry errors, causing headaches, requiring steps to be redone, ultimately slowing processes down, and costing the company money. That’s only the Account Manager. Rinse and repeat for District/Territory Managers, Sales Reps, Merchandisers, and the rest of the team, and the entire process can be extremely costly. Manually copying and pasting promotions without adjustments no longer work in today’s world either. Managers need to make adjustments before and during promotions, and doing so manually is cumbersome.

TPM software completely streamlines the entire trade promotion process, while allowing real-time visibility into the entire process. No more waiting for specific excel sheets from one person. Managers can quickly drill down into the Account or Store level, see promotion performance, and make adjustments on the fly within minutes in order to boost sales. Email notifications are automatically sent out based on these updates, ensuring everyone is kept in the loop without any surprises. Promotions can easily be cloned via drag and drop, where Reps can make adjustments that take effect immediately. Trade budgets and accrued liabilities data are in real-time so Account Managers can verify available funding to support trade plans and match claims with payment once the promotion has finished. TPM software allows teams to spend more time selling, rather than getting stuck in the manual processes. These are just a few ways TPM software is accelerating the industry.

No Easy Access to Analytics

On average, 60% of promotions go unevaluated due to the lack of analytical tools and staffing (Pointstitue). Without TPM software, companies are left in the dark when it comes to easily reporting on the success of their promotions. It can take hours to pull together metrics across multiple systems, and there’s always the chance of incorrect numbers being shown. With 72% of US companies actually losing revenue on promotions, managers need to know which ones were unsuccessful so they don’t repeat them year after year (McKinsey). Success metrics including POS growth, primary vs secondary vs tertiary sales, consumer units, incremental and spend ratios, and ultimately ROI need to be readily available in today’s fast-paced world. Manually gathering these metrics across archaic systems is no longer an option. Managers need this information in real-time, with the ability for others to also have access to the data.

Companies can unlock larger ROI from their trade spend investment if they can spot and scale their most profitable programs immediately. TPM software provides easy-to-use analytics that displays all key promotional stats in real time. Salesforce TPM even allows for the ability to easily create custom reports and dashboards to track custom KPIs from company to company. Dashboards can zoom out to display all KPIs across all promotions run that year with the ability to drill down into states, regions, cities, and specific stores. Filters can display KPIs on how specific promotions performed nationwide as well. Analytics allows teams to replicate the highest-performing promotions, and eliminate promotions that fail to break even.

Trade Promotion Management Exceeds the Standard

Without TPM software to help plan, manage, and track promotions, each one is at risk of causing overspending, stock surplus, and negatively impacting the customer’s perception of your company. The RCG industry has undergone massive changes in the last few years, causing new technology to emerge that streamline processes across the company and boosts ROI. Software like Salesforce TPM for Consumer Goods Cloud provides the ability to maximize employee productivity and maximize ROI on trade promotions.

Dreamforce 2022: Top 5 Announcements

Dreamforce 2022 Takeaways: Innovation and Data

Dreamforce, the world’s largest software conference, had another fantastic event filled with incredible speakers, new features, and lots of customer success stories. The three-day event held the attention of the business world as Salesforce hosted more than 40,000 attendees and millions of online viewers. Dreamforce 2022 brought together thought leaders, industry pioneers, and Trailblazers from all over the world. With over 1,000 sessions, the Corrao Group team was active to ensure we captured the most important announcements and partnerships. Here are our top 5 takeaways from Dreamforce 2022.

1. Salesforce Genie

Salesforce has announced what they describe as its “biggest innovation” to its CRM platform in the last two decades. Salesforce Genie, a real-time hyper-scale data platform, unifies customer data across different applications and channels (mobile, web, APIs) into a single source of truth. With Genie, every company can turn data into customer magic, delivering seamless, highly personalized experiences across sales, service, marketing, and commerce that continuously adapts to changing customer information and needs in real time.

Brett Taylor, Co-CEO of Salesforce, stated in his main keynote, “With Genie, we’ve added a foundational new feature: a real-time hyper-scale data platform. It’s all about the data; you can inject real-time and historical data to create a single source of truth. This changes the game for CRMs. Salesforce Customer 360 is the world’s first real-time CRM.”

Learn how Salesforce Genie Works

How Does Salesforce Genie Work?

As the heart of real-time Customer 360, Salesforce Genie consumes and stores real-time data streams at a massive scale and connects it with Salesforce transactional data. Genie includes built-in connectors that bring in data from every channel, legacy data through MuleSoft, and historical data from proprietary data lakes. Genie transforms and harmonizes the data into a real-time customer graph – a unified customer profile record.

With Genie, Einstein AI and Flow automation services can harness the power of hyper-scale real-time data to enable more dynamic and responsive actions and engagement. Einstein, which generates over 175 billion predictions every day, can now deliver personalization and predictions based on real-time data. Flow automation, which saves customers over 100 billion hours every month, can now use real-time data to trigger actions automatically.

Salesforce Genie

2. Consumer Goods Cloud Innovation Continues

The Consumer Goods Cloud Keynote, Drive Profitable Growth, focused on industry challenges today and how Salesforce is being utilized by brands to operate faster across different teams with profitable growth. Industry and economic challenges mentioned included inflation, supply chain, changing consumer behaviors, the war for talent (Great Resignation), connected modern tools, disconnected systems, and lack of real-time data. During the keynote, Salesforce brought out Mondelēz Global LLC to demonstrate how they are using Consumer Goods Cloud to become more customer-centric and data-driven to drive more insights across the organization. Innovations in Retail Execution and Trade Promotion Management have allowed them to execute and grow, and deliver a consistent consumer experience on the shelf.

Retail Execution

One connected offline and online view has helped Mondelēz unlock productivity and empower their field teams. With one single source of truth, Salesforce Retail Execution is helping Mondelēz prioritize and schedule store visits with the key tasks needed to complete in the field to optimize every visit. KPIs in real-time provide insights into how to make their shelf performance better. Learn more about Salesforce Retail Execution.

Trade Promotion Management

Originally running their trade promotion management on spreadsheets, Mondelēz was able to utilize Salesforce TPM to optimize their trade activity. With one single view truth, Mondelēz was able to invest in the right activations at the right time to build more effective promotions. Salesforce TPM helped Mondelēz improve revenue growth, maximize trade spend effectiveness, deepen trade promotion analytics, manage funds and claims, and more. FYI, we were honored to be selected as the exclusive US-based launch partner for Salesforce TPM. Learn more about Salesforce TPM.

Trade Calendar in Salesforce TPM

3. New Slack Innovations

Salesforce and Slack announced some major product innovations that will make it even more productive for teams to work together in Slack, pull actionable data from Salesforce, and get more out of their Digital HQ. The major announcement was Slack Canvas, a surface in slack that transforms how teams can organize and share important resources in real-time. Ali Rayl, SVP of Product at Slack, said “The new Slack canvas will complement the real-time collaboration experience in Slack today by offering a persistent, customizable place for files, multimedia, powerful integrations, and more. It will better empower teams to say organized, aligned, and productive in their digital HQ.”

Here are the new product innovations from Dreamforce and Salesforce:

    • Slack canvas is a new surface in the digital HQ that will transform how teams can share, curate, and organize essential resources. Paired with the Slack platform, anyone can customize a canvas with time-saving automation, plus pull in data from systems of record, like Customer 360. Canvas will be available next year.
    • Slack huddles now builds on its audio-first experience by offering teams lightweight video, multi-person screen sharing, message threads, and more to power live coworking sessions in their digital HQ. These features will be generally available to all users in the coming weeks.
    • The new Slack platform is available to developers. With a new set of developer tools and modular, reusable building blocks, it’s now faster and easier for them to create, customize, and share workflows that automate work for their teams. Developers can get started today.
    • Slack Partner Industry Solutions helps customers across industries navigate this new era of digital transformation. Slack-certified consulting partners — including Accenture, Atrium, Capgemini, Deloitte, Globant, IBM, KPMG, NeuraFlash, PwC, Silverline and Slalom — are launching the first wave of solutions for industries such as financial services, manufacturing, communications, retail, media, and technology.

4. WhatsApp Partnership

According to Salesforce, messaging is the next customer frontier and preferred customer engagement channel as 90% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services, with 66% of online adults globally preferring messaging as a way of communicating with a business. WhatsApp’s first business messaging brings the company’s in-class capabilities to deliver a convenient, integrated, personalized, and modern experience between businesses and people worldwide. Salesforce says the integration will transform how businesses connect with consumers through conversational engagement, marketing, service, and commerce interactions.

5. Net Zero Marketplace

Salesforce announced Net Zero Marketplace, a trusted platform that makes carbon credit purchases simple and transparent, allowing organizations to accelerate climate impact at scale. “The uptick in extreme weather events shows that no one is spared from climate change — we need smart climate solutions now,” said Suzanne DiBianca, EVP and Chief Impact Officer, Salesforce. “Businesses aiming to achieve long-term emission reductions can complement their efforts with high-quality carbon credits. Net Zero Marketplace brings together Salesforce’s values, technology, and commitment to ecopreneurs to accelerate climate action.”

Net Zero Marketplace, built on Salesforce’s Commerce Cloud, connects buyers and ecopreneurs by offering a catalog of third-party-rated carbon credits and a seamless eCommerce experience for purchasing them. Net Zero Marketplace also features a climate action hub where anyone can learn about climate issues.

Dreamforce 2022 Conclusion

Mark it down as another successful Dreamforce event by Salesforce. We want to give a big shout and thank you to Salesforce as they put on an extraordinary event that featured some incredible guest speakers like Matthew McConaughey, Bono, Al Gore, and Jennifer Hudson. The energy around the city of San Francisco was electric, as more than 40,000 attendees gathered to witness and learn what new features Salesforce will release next. We are already getting excited for Dreamforce 2023!

If you would like to learn more about any of the new features from Dreamforce 2022 and how it can relate to your business, please contact us.

Dreamforce 2022 Ultimate Pump-Up Spotify Playlist

Music has always been one of the key parts of Dreamforce. In 2016, our marketing team teamed up with our music expert Tyler Keil (AKA Ty Tunes) to help come up with the Ultimate Playlist for Dreamforce blog. It was so successful that we’ve decided to bring back our pump-up playlist for Dreamforce 2022!

This playlist is designed for you to conquer and keep your energy levels up throughout Dreamforce. Whether you are walking to your next session, about to attend a networking event, going to give a presentation, or heading over to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Dreamfest, this playlist will give you the boost you need to enjoy the events to the fullest. Combine this playlist with your personal choice of caffeine for maximum potential!

We hope you enjoy this playlist and your time at Dreamforce 2022!

10 Dreamforce 2022 Sessions We Can’t Wait to Attend

Dreamforce 2022 is less than a week away! We are getting ready to attend as many sessions as we can and learn about the best upcoming features. We’ve gone through every session and found the 10 that we can’t wait to attend!

Consumer Goods Keynote: Drive Profitable Growth

    • Driving profitable growth is the number one priority in CPG. Hear how Trailblazers are navigating economic headwinds with Salesforce Customer 360.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 4:00 PM – 4:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West. Keynote Room (Level 3)

Manufacturing & Auto Keynote: Connect the Value Chain

    • A digital-first future demands personalized and unified experiences. Learn how leaders are driving the future of work by transforming the way they connect with customers, partners, and one another.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 2:00 PM – 2:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West. Keynote Room (Level 3)

IT Keynote: Deliver the Future of IT, Today

    • Save time, reduce cost, and do more with less. Join us to see how IT trailblazers are unlocking data across the Customer 360, automating with low code, and scaling securely.
      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 9:00 AM – 9:40 AM PDT
      • Where: Moscone North. Keynote Room (Hall F)

Admin Preview: Winter ’23 Release Readiness Live

    • Release Readiness Live is here at Dreamforce. Learn the top features for admins from the Winter ’23 release. Watch live demos and ask your Flow, Permissions, and DevOps Center questions in a live Q&A.
      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West. Keynote Room (Level 2)

Digital Transformation for an Evolving Future

    • Move fast, pivot accordingly, and leverage the right technology to develop new products to meet demands. Hear from CEOs who have figured out how to accelerate constant reinvention and drive success.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 12:00 PM – 12:45 PM PDT
      • Where: Yerba Buena Theater & Center for the Arts

Circles of Success: Boost Productivity with Pardot

    • Join this small group discussion on enriching the customer experience with data-driven marketing and Account Engagement’s (Pardot) automation tools. Learn best practices on segmentation, automation, and personalization.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 2:30 PM – 3:10 PM PDT
      • Where: Marriot Marquis, Yerba Buena Level, Customer Success Lodge. Salon 1

Circle of Success: Boost Service Cloud Agent Productivity

    • Join this small group discussion on how productivity tools allow users to work faster and more efficiently. Learn best practices on using tools like macros, shortcuts, and mass quick actions.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 12:30 PM – 1:10 PM PDT
      • Where: Marriot Marquis, Yerba Buena Level, Customer Success Lodge. Salon 1

Get Hands-on with B2B and B2B2C Commerce

    • Run commerce with one team by unlocking shared data and opening new revenue streams. Get hands-on to see how frictionless Salesforce makes connecting pivotal commerce moments across B2B, D2C, and OMS.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 2. Room 2005

Retail Keynote: Thrive in an Inflationary World

    • Hear from leading industry Trailblazers and learn three strategies retailers can use to thrive in today’s economy using data, automation, and efficiency.
      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 11:30 AM – 12:10 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West. Keynote Room (Level 3)

MuleSoft Keynote: Connect and Automate Your Business

    • See how MuleSoft empowers you to connect and automate your business to drive efficiency and cost savings. Integrate all your apps and data, automate processes, and deliver better experiences, faster.
      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 3:00 PM – 3:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West. Keynote Room (Level 2)

If you would like to learn more about the Dreamforce 2022 Sessions, please contact us.

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Dreamforce 2022: Consumer Goods Cloud Sessions

Dreamforce 2022 is a week away! With over 1,000+ sessions and workshops, we can’t wait to learn and connect with fellow trailblazers. As our main industry focus, we are excited to learn more about the future of Salesforce and Consumer Goods. Right now, there are a total of 19 Consumer Goods Cloud Sessions. Review the 19 sessions below and create a plan ahead for which sessions you’ll attend.

Reminder, if you are not attending Dreamforce in person this year, you can catch all the magic online at Salesforce+!

Activate First-Party Data and Create Loyal Consumers

In today’s world, consumers are looking for unique and tailor-made experiences. Hear from top consumer goods brands on how the new ways they are utilizing first-party data to improve marketing ROI and retain key consumers.

      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 9:00 AM – 9:40 AM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 3. Room 3016

Building a Sales Center of Excellence for Key Account Growth

Managing today’s customer landscapes and balancing multiple routes to market can be daunting. Listen in for best practices on implementing a sales center of excellence to deliver sustainable growth.

      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 2:00 PM – 2:20 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone South, Campground. Theater Four

CIO Panel: Leading Women Navigating Change in Consumer Goods

Calling all Trailblazers! It’s time to hear from innovators who are championing digital transformation. Learn how they manage the impactful change across their organizations.

      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 1:30 PM – 2:10 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 3. Room 3014

Consumer Goods Keynote: Drive Profitable Growth

Driving profitable growth is the number one priority in CPG. See how Trailblazers are navigating economic headwinds with Salesforce Customer 360.

      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 4:00 PM – 4:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 3. Keynote Room

Five Strategies for Holiday Success

We’ll dive into our top five retail predictions for the 2022 holiday shopping season and how you can adjust your strategy for a profitable year.

      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 2:00 PM – 2:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Metreon, City View. Presidio

How Automation Increases Marketing Promotion Profitability

Automate processes to obtain real-time visibility into your trade promotion spend and retail execution. Integrate systems to calculate ROI faster using MuleSoft Accelerator for Consumer Goods.

      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 3:00 PM – 3:20 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 2, MuleSoft Lodge/Theater.

How Conair Created a Connected Ecommerce Experience

More than ever, businesses need customized solutions to solve business challenges and enhance their commerce and customer experiences. Learn how to stay ahead of competitors with apps and experts.

      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 4:00 PM – 4:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Marriot Marquis, Golden Gate Level, Ballroom A

How Consumer Goods Companies Can Grow Distribution Channels

Join this Table Talk discussion to hear from brands and industry leaders on how to quickly launch new direct-to-consumer channels, build one-on-one relationships, and streamline B2B buying. This session will have 15 seats. Seating is not guaranteed and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please arrive early.

      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 10:15 AM – 11:00 AM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 2, Commerce Lodge

Improve Margins to Deliver Profitable Growth with CG Cloud

Evolving your brand to meet consumer needs requires consumer-centricity and the right systems. Hear how a leading consumer goods company is leveraging digital excellence to grow with CG Cloud.

      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 12:30PM – 1:10 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 2. Room 2024

Improve Trade Promotion Effectiveness and Profitability

Learn how a leading Trailblazer maximized promotion efficiency and spend control during its entire trade planning cycle in one of its largest markets: the United States.

      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 4:30 PM – 4:50 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone South, Campground. Theater One

Supercharge Growth with Quick Direct-to-Consumer Commerce

Effective direct-to-consumer strategies build awareness, capture first-party data, and unify marketing and service processes. See how CG brands are launching connected commerce experiences, fast.

      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 9:30 AM – 9:50 AM PDT
      • Where: Metreon, City View, Embarcadero. Summit Lookout Theater

Tackle Today’s Industry Challenges with Consumer Goods Cloud

Learn how CG Cloud can help brands tackle the latest industry challenges and market demands. Discuss business priorities with your peers and provide input on future CG functionality.

      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone South, Level 3. Room 312

The Elephant in the Room: Ecommerce Profitability

Thin margins, fierce competition & expensive processes make eCommerce profitability a challenge. Gain insight into the playbooks of top eCommerce companies using data & AI to win customers profitably.

      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 10:00 AM – 10:20 AM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 2, Commerce Lodge/Theater

The Future of Consumer Goods Cloud: Roadmap and Innovation

CG Cloud helps consumer goods companies accelerate growth from planning to execution. Learn about the future of CG Cloud and the latest innovations in retail execution and trade promotion management.

      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 12:00 PM – 12:20 PM PDT
      • Where: Metreon. City View. Industry Innovation Theater East

The Future of Retail: High-Tech + High Touch

Personal, high-touch experiences are the future of retail. Our session will help leaders reinvent their store processes by using technology to improve sales techniques — and watch revenues skyrocket.

      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 3:00 PM – 3:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 3. Room 3020

The Savvy Approach to Innovation

How Pepsi and PwC pushed the boundaries of Consumer Goods Cloud to transform the frontline human experience.

      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 4:00 PM – 4:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Level 2. Keynote Room (Level 2)

Unlock Perfect Retail Execution

Out-of-stocks are out of control. Learn how you can deliver commercial excellence and perfect retail execution with Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution.

      • When: Thursday, September 22
      • Time: 1:00 PM – 1:20 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone South, Level 3, Sales & Service Lodge/Theater

Using Enhanced Analytics to Power Intelligent CGC

Join AllCloud for insights to take your journey with Consumer Goods Cloud to the next level. Get the latest innovation to automate, capture, analysis, and recommended actions with enhanced analytics.

      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 4:30 PM – 4:50 PM PDT
      • Where: Metreon, City View. Industry Innovation Theater East

What Back-to-School Shopping Results Mean for Retail in 2022

In this session, we will dive into the latest insights from the back-to-school shopping season and what they mean for the future of retail and commerce in 2022 and beyond.

      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 1:00 PM – 1:20 PM PDT
      • Where: Moscone West, Commerce Theater (Level 2)

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce TPM Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Dreamforce 2022: Your Complete Guide

Dreamforce 2022 Survival Guide

Are you ready? Dreamforce is back in person this year and it is less than 2 weeks away! We created a complete survival guide with everything you need to know to conquer Dreamforce 2022. This complete guide includes 5 survival tips, must-see events, Dreamfest information, and of course, the nightlife parties/events!

5 Survival Tips

Bring a Portable Phone Charger

The last thing you want is your phone or tablet dying in crucial parts of the day at Dreamforce. If you have a portable charger, pack one and if you don’t, buy one. Your devices will die faster than you think due to the venues and presence of other attendees’ devices. One tip could be to put your phone on Airplane Mode and use as much Wifi as you can. With tons of attendees trying to access cell phone networks, your phone will die quick!

Stay Hydrated and Pack a Snack

Hydration will be key. You are going to be talking, walking, and networking all day. Pack a good snack for the event as it’s possible to lose track of time and forget to eat. You do not want to lose energy during Dreamforce so pack something to keep your energy levels at high capacity.

Leave Earlier Than Usual

Whether you walking, taking a Lyft/Uber, the Bart, a bicycle, or any mode of transportation, LEAVE EARLY. Traffic is going to be crazy during Dreamforce and you don’t want to miss crucial sessions or meetings because you are LATE.

Wear Comfortable Shoes

The last thing you need is your feet killing you. Do not wear uncomfortable shoes or new shoes you have not worn yet. If you do, your feet will hate you and you will be in pain. Don’t let your feet be the reason you miss out on important sessions.

Map and Plan Your Events!

Do not underestimate the size of Dreamforce. For you to successfully attend all desired sessions, you will need to MAP and PLAN every event on the schedule and map.

5 Must SEE Dreamforce 2022 Events

Dreamforce Main Keynote

    • Join Co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor along with special guests!
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT
      • Where: Keynote Room (Hall F)

The Automation Revolution: Building the New Future of Work

    • Automation will transform our world. How can CEOs contribute to a shift in automation that is democratic? Prepare and adequately equip your people now.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 1:30 PM – 2:15 PM PDT
      • Where: Yerba Buena Theater

Leading in a Flexible Work World

    • The Digital HQ is now as important as the physical HQ. Discover what challenges CEOs face as they navigate an evolving reality where their people need and want to be successful from anywhere.
      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM PDT
      • Where: Keynote Room (Level 2)

Future of the Economy

    • Inflation and economic pressures are hitting every industry. Hear Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers share his perspectives on how the economy got here and what to expect moving forward.
      • When: Wednesday, September 21
      • Time: 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM PDT
      • Where: Yerba Buena Theater

Accelerate value through industry-led transformation

    • Hear from a leading CPG company who is driving industry-led transformation by harnessing the power of platform diversification across Salesforce Clouds and creating omni channel customer experiences.
      • When: Tuesday, September 20
      • Time: 2:00 PM – 2:40 PM PDT
      • Where: Keynote Room (Level 2)

Dreamforce 2022: Dreamfest!

Dreamfest is the official celebration of Dreamforce, an epic live concert benefiting the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Join us for an opening DJ and our headliner Red Hot Chili Peppers. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m., and the party will go until 9:00 p.m. PT.

Heavy snacks and ballpark fare, as well as beer, wine, and nonalcoholic beverages, will be provided, so come hungry and ready to rock.

Dreamfest general admission entry is included with Dreamforce registration, and VIP experiences are available via the UCSF benefit at theconcertforkids.org.

When: Wednesday, September 21, 6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m PT

Where: Oracle Park

Dreamforce 2022 Nightlife/Events

Monday 19th

Marketers Welcome Bash

The Home for Marketers is where marketers on the Salesforce platform come and hang out, take a break and relax, network with other marketers, participate in fun events, refuel with some amazing food and drinks, and get to learn more about resources and tools to level-up their MOPs.

    • When: 4-8 PM
    • Where: Pink Elephant Alibi

Ice, Ice Breaker Happy Hour

After a busy travel day, break the Dreamforce ice with the teams from Introhive and Uncommon Purpose. Join us on Monday, September 19 at the Bottle Club Pub, as we bring together our closest friends from across the Salesforce ecosystem to start your Dreamforce experience off right.

    • When: 5-7:30 PM
    • Where: Bottle Club Pub

Tuesday 20th

Salesforce & FinancialForce: Transformation for the Long Run

Join Salesforce & FinancialForce at Fogo de Chão, just across the street from the Dreamforce campus, on Tuesday September 20th from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM for drinks and light appetizers and hear FinancialForce leaders discuss what it takes to succeed in an era of digital transformation.

    • When: 5-7 PM
    • Where: Fogo De Chao
    • Registration

Cocktail Chillout – Meet & Mingle

Meet and mingle with fellow trailblazers! There will be a free T-shirt for the first 100 people to register and attend!

    • When: 5:30 PM
    • Where: Bookbinders Museum

A Night of Enchantment

This epic bash includes a live DJ, memorable activities and prizes, and exclusive VIP experiences. Regardless of your vibe, there’s something for you — a dance floor to go a little crazy, a quiet art gallery bar to network and have a glass of wine, and exclusive VIP rooftop access to take in the views.

    • When: 7-11 PM
    • Where: Temple Night Club

Third Republic & Salesforce Ben Present: Dreamforce Paradise

Starting at 7pm, we’ve managed to secure one of the most unique destinations in the city – the tiki-inspired Zombie Village – for a night like no other. They’ll be an open bar and DJ all night, a Salesforce Tarot Reader, a media team to capture the night and exclusive Salesforce Ben and Third Republic cocktails! We will also be hosting a silent auction to raise money for causes close to our heart.

    • When: 8 PM – 12 AM
    • Where: Zombie Village

Wednesday 21st

Dreamfest Happy Hour

Celebrate the return of the in-person Dreamforce conference with Odaseva, WithSecure & AppOmni at the San Francisco hot spot: Local Edition. Visit with new and old friends in the historic Hearst building which features the ambience of California’s famous printing and newspaper legacy.

    • Time: 5:00-7:00 PM
    • Where: Local Edition

Californication Cocktail Party

Pump up for the Peppers with us!

    • Time: 5:00-8:00 PM
    • Where: Thriller Social Club

Dreamfest

Dreamfest is the official celebration of Dreamforce, an epic live concert benefiting the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Join us for an opening DJ and our headliner Red Hot Chili Peppers. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m., and the party will go until 9:00 p.m. PT.

    • When: Wednesday, September 21, 6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m PT
    • Where: Oracle Park

Thursday 22nd

Wine-Down

Dreamforce is over. But not quite. Come and enjoy a glass of wine (or equivalent) and chat about the best bits of Dreamforce and network with your peer.

    • When: 4-7 PM
    • Where: Elements Spaces

10th Annual Cigar Shindig

Salesforce Saturday and Boba Blazers are joining forces to host Michalforce’s Cigar Shindig!! This is the 10yr Anniversary and we are going ALL out to make Michael Farrington proud!

    • When: 4:00-7:00 PM
    • Where: Cigar Bar and Grill

Dreamforce 2022 Ultimate Pump-Up Spotify Playlist

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce TPM Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Is Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Right for You?

Trade Promotion Management Today

As we are midway through the year, the Consumer Goods industry continues to confront economic challenges. Supply chain and customer demand continue to be volatile as consumers are making buying decisions based on what they can afford versus what they want. As these issues extend, competition in the industry will only increase. Digital Transformation is now no longer seen as an option but as a necessity. As Salesforce recently stated, customers expect fast, digital, and on-demand experiences or they will take their business elsewhere. Leaders across the country are focusing on efficient growth, cost savings, and increased productivity. In our last blog, we mentioned that Trade Promotion Management was one of three investments that were prioritized for CG leaders during 2020. Managing and optimizing trade spending is vital to driving profitable growth in today’s economy.

What is your ROI from Trade Promotions?

One of the most relevant issues facing brands right now is how they are managing and optimizing trade promotions. According to Mckinsey, CPG companies worldwide invest about 20% of their revenue annually in trade promotions. Stunningly, 59% lost money (72% in the US). Clearly, there is a huge opportunity for both CPG manufacturers and retailers to improve ROI on their TPM investment. If CPG leaders want to focus on growth, cost savings, and increased productivity, the current systems being utilized are not working just to break even.

Some companies are managing their Trade Promotion on homegrown systems, which is associated with risks such as limited knowledge, internal integration problems, and future enhancements. At the end of the day, whether you use a homegrown system or not, can you accurately measure ROI from trade promotions? If you can’t, then it’s time to start thinking about moving to a digital and unified platform.

Salesforce Trade Promotion Management

Salesforce recently released its Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution solution, Trade Promotion Management, to help the consumer goods industry drive revenue growth and collaborate across teams on one connected platform. Having a centralized system that supports integrations with ERP, POS, and other data sources is critical. Salesforce TPM helps accelerate the monitoring of key metrics and improve ROI and forecasting in real time. Salesforce Post-event analysis allows brands to conduct an analysis to determine the ROI achieved for individual activities, contracts, programs, and account plans. If you are managing more than $30 million in TPM funds, you should be looking into Salesforce’s TPM solution.

If you would like to learn more about Salesforce TPM or Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud please contact us.

Learn More about Salesforce Trade Promotion Management

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Salesforce Winter ’23 Release: Service Cloud

The Salesforce Winter ’23 Release Notes are here! We’ve gone through every page and highlighted new features and enhancements for Salesforce’s Service Cloud.

Swarming

    • Swarming with the power of Service Cloud gives Service organizations the tools they require to collaborate at scale with experts, solve customer issues, and report on Swarming participation and impact. Tackle customer issues as a team directly from Slack with the Service Cloud for Slack app, now generally available. Reduce your time-to-swarm with an enhanced Swarming setup page. To save time, agents can now add multiple swarm members at the same time, more easily understand field names, automatically close swarms, and update swarm record names.

Swarm on Customer Issues in Slack (GA)

    • Swarming with the power of Service Cloud gives Service organizations the tools they require to collaborate at scale with experts, solve customer issues, and report on Swarming participation and impact. Swarming gives agents the necessary tools to involve other experts and seamlessly log collaboration, participation, and ownership. So, your service team can collaborate with others to turn a new or complex issue into a closed case or incident. Agents save time and increase customer satisfaction by eliminating the need for a tiered and inefficient service model. The Service Cloud for Slack app, now generally available, includes some enhancements since the beta release.

Speed Up Your Time-to-swarm with Guided Swarming Setup

    • Get your team up and swarming with the enhanced setup page. Now you can turn on swarming, give users access to objects, set up your Service Console, and configure flows, all from one place. If you use Slack as your collaboration tool, the setup takes you to the new unified Salesforce for Slack Apps setup.

Add Multiple Users to your Swarms

    • Save time adding swarm members one by one as you create a swarm or after the swarm is created. Now you can add multiple users when you manually select users by name and add them all at once.

Boost Agent Productivity with Einstein Search for Knowledge

    • Now your service agents can find relevant articles faster and respond to customers more accurately for expedited case resolution. Einstein Search for Knowledge is now generally available.

Resolve Cases Quickly with Interactive Einstein Search Answers (Pilot)

    • Your agents can take immediate action by using Einstein Search Answers to extract the most relevant information from a knowledge article. The returned answers are just three lines so that agents can copy the answer and its internal link to their clipboard and then share it without leaving the page. Previously, agents opened the record page and then copied the URL and section of an article.

Set and Track After Conversation Work Time

    • Give agents a set amount of time after a customer call or messaging session to wrap up their work before they start a new one. Agents can use this time to send follow-up emails, update a case, or finalize their notes. Supervisors can use Omni Supervisor and reports to track the amount of time agents spend on wrap-up work.

Play back Voicemails

    • Route voicemails to agents so they can follow up with customers. Agents can play voicemail recordings and read voicemail transcriptions for all voicemails routed to them.

Share Incident Updates with Customers at Scale with Broadcast Communications 

    • Send mass communications to customers to keep them informed during an incident with broadcast communications. Help your incident teams send timely progress reports to impacted customers with broadcast emails available right from the incident record. Broadcast site banners help deflect customer cases by alerting authenticated or guest users of your Experience Builder sites about an ongoing incident. This saves your contact center time and maintains customer trust.

Route Work Faster with Estimated Wait Time for Customers 

    • To improve the customer experience, notify customers how long they must wait to speak to an agent. By knowing the estimated wait time, customers can make informed decisions about whether to contact your organization at a different time or use a different service channel. For example, if the wait time for a call is too long and the issue isn’t urgent, the customer can send an email instead.

If you would like to learn more about the Salesforce Winter ’23 Release and Service Cloud, please contact us.

Learn the latest features for Sales Cloud, Account Engagement, the Salesforce experience, and Reports and Dashboards.

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce TPM Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources/Photos

Salesforce Winter ’23 Release Notes

salesforce_winter23_release_notes

Top 8 Salesforce Winter ’23 Release Features

The Salesforce Winter ’23 Release is here! We’ve gone through every page and highlighted key features our top 8 features!

Boost Agent Productivity With Einstein Search for Knowledge (Generally Available)

    • Now your service agents can find relevant articles faster and respond to customers more accurately for expedited case resolution. Einstein Search for Knowledge is now generally available.

Resolve Cases Quickly With Interactive Einstein Search Answers (Pilot)

    • Your agents can take immediate action by using Einstein Search Answers to extract the most relevant information from a knowledge article. The returned answers are just three lines so that agents can copy the answer and its internal link to their clipboard and then share it without leaving the page. Previously, agents opened the record page and then copied the URL and section of an article.

Track and Sort All Your Tasks With the To Do List

    • Now your users can see all the tasks assigned to them in one component that’s available throughout Salesforce. With the To Do List docked in the Utility Bar, users can see, sort, and organize all their tasks in a single actionable view. Users can apply labels to tasks in the To Do List to customize how they organize and prioritize them. Sales Engagement users can also see tasks from cadences.

Enhance More Object Record Pages With Dynamic Forms

    • You can make your account, including person account, contact, and opportunity record pages more robust by configuring them with Dynamic Forms.

Create Custom Address Fields (Generally Available)

    • To improve address data accuracy and your users’ experience, create custom fields that mimic the behavior of standard address fields.

Access CRM Analytics with One Click

    • Explore and analyze your Customer Data Platform data in CRM Analytics with a single click. You can augment your analysis without moving the data from Customer Data Platform. In Customer Data Platform, select a data object, and click the new Explore in Analytics button to use the CRM Analytics dashboards.

Collaborate around data with Lightning Reports and Dashboards in Slack

    • Slack isn’t just for CRM Analytics anymore. Now all Salesforce users can browse, search, view, share, and subscribe to Lightning reports and dashboards using the CRM Analytics for Slack app. Teams can easily share reports and dashboards through scheduled subscriptions or posting to the team anytime. You can also run Einstein Discovery on Lightning reports and share the predictions and recommendations.

Work Smoothly with Improved Usability of Salesforce Desktop Site Forecasts

    • Sales reps and other forecast users can benefit from improved visualization and navigation on the forecasts page. Quota attainment percentages are shown as progress bars in the summary view. If a forecast value was adjusted and changed recently, you can see more information in a single popup, rather than two. To keep your time frame as a point of reference, the time period column is frozen as you scroll horizontally in summary view.

If you would like to learn more about the Salesforce Winter ’23 Release, please contact us.

Learn the latest Features:

Sales Cloud

Account Engagement

Salesforce experience

Reports and Dashboards

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce TPM Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources/Photos

Salesforce Winter ’23 Release Notes

salesforce_winter23_release_notes