Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

The Salesforce Summer ’23 Release is packed with new features and updates, and we’re here to highlight the key updates for Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. One exciting addition is the ability to trigger external actions after a prospect engagement, allowing for even more personalized and targeted marketing efforts. Plus, the Optimizer feature is now generally available and includes new tools to help keep your business units running smoothly. Keep reading to learn about additional updates, including the Prospect Change Monitor, the ability to convert dynamic lists to static, and more.

Trigger an External Action After a Prospect Engagement

Now you can trigger an external action on any Account Engagement asset that has a completion action. For example, after a prospect completes a sign-up form, you can register the prospect for a webinar. You can send a text message after a prospect clicks a custom redirect link or send an alert to your sales team when a prospect visits a pricing page.

Keep Your Account Engagement Business Unit Running Smoothly with Optimizer (Generally Available)

Get performance information, recommendations, and required steps on the Optimizer page when you need them. The Optimizer feature, now generally available, also includes some changes since the last release. Diagnose and treat setup problems that are blocking your access to features with the Configuration Issues table. The Performance Improvement Measures table now includes good measures so that you can see what’s working well in your business unit. Plus, the new Prospect Change Monitor helps you understand which features result in the most prospect changes for your business unit.

Monitor the Source of Prospect Changes

Find out which features are creating or updating prospect records in your business unit with the Prospect Change Monitor. Use the monitor to help you adjust your API integrations and automations that could be eating up processing power in your business unit. Access the Prospect Change Monitor from the Optimizer page in Account Engagement.

Convert Unused Dynamic Lists to Static Lists

Save processing power in your business unit by converting your old or unused dynamic lists to static lists. After you convert a dynamic list, you must manually add and remove prospects because the list no longer updates based on rule criteria. Select inactive or unused dynamic lists and use the table action dropdown menu to convert them to static. You can also convert individual lists from the record home.

Use a New Opted Out Field Status

Based on customer feedback, you can now use the most recently updated field value as a source of truth for the prospect Opted Out field. You also choose either Salesforce or Account Engagement to use as the system of record instead. Previously in the Spring ’23 release, selecting a system of record was required. Business units created after October 18, 2023 use the Account Engagement value by default.

Get First-Touch Attribution When Visitors Consent to Tracking

Tracking cookies are now added retroactively after a prospect confirms consent. Previously, tracking cookies were added before a prospect clicked the consent banner and then deleted if they didn’t consent.

Enhanced Builder Columns Are Evenly Spaced

The Enhanced Email Builder now aligns images evenly. Previously, the content in the far right column was wider and taller than the columns to the left. Check to see if images in email templates published before this update need to be adjusted.

Learn More about the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release Notes

If you want to learn more about the exciting new features of the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release for Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll be happy to provide you with all the information you need.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

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Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Consumer Goods Cloud

Exciting news for Consumer Goods Cloud users! The Salesforce Summer ’23 Release has arrived, bringing some great features specifically designed for Consumer Goods Cloud TPM and Retail Execution. With improved customer service, enhanced analytics, and new tools to boost productivity, this release will surely improve the overall user experience for Consumer Goods Cloud users. Let’s dive into some of the key highlights of this release!

Improve Customer Satisfaction with Consumer Goods Cloud for Service

Give your service agents easy access to accounts, visits, orders, and engagement history records so that they have all the information necessary to plan and provide personalized customer service. Service agents can also drive revenue growth by placing orders over calls using Order Management and Penny Perfect Pricing.

Trade Promotion Management

Get Started with Trade Promotion Effectiveness

Use the new Trade Promotion Effectiveness (TPE) Analytics app to measure and monitor the effectiveness of your trade promotions. TPE dashboards help you make better business decisions, which leads to increased sales and revenue and improved customer satisfaction. Use standard CRMA dashboards to analyze data for volumes, assortments, spending, and tactics. Embed customized dashboards or widgets in specific Lightning Experience pages in TPM to provide in-context insights.

View Interactive Dashboards in Promotions

Use the TPM Promotion Analytics Dashboard component to embed dashboards and dashboard components in promotion pages. In edit mode, see interactive visualizations of your data and apply filters to the promotion’s displayed values and related records. Use JSON strings to specify types of filters or dashboard selections that you can’t create using the Filter Builder.

Make Quicker Decisions While Planning

When you modify promotions and manually adjust editable KPIs in a customer business plan (CBP), you can now quickly save and calculate your CBP. The CBP calculates data for the account and related promotions and displays the latest KPI metrics with the impact of your changes.

Plan Better By Evaluating Customer Business Plan Scenarios (Pilot)

Evaluate different customer business plan (CBP) scenarios to maximize revenue and sales while planning for current and future financial years. Use the active CBP to create multiple scenarios for evaluation. Exclude promotions from a scenario in the CBP to simulate different strategies.

Export More KPI Reports Simultaneously

Now you can export up to 10 KPI reports simultaneously instead of 5. The reports can be exported with KPIs in either columns or rows.

Get Started with Consumer Goods Cloud Faster with MuleSoft Direct

Integrate data seamlessly and connect accounts, products, and their hierarchies from third-party systems to the Consumer Goods Cloud without leaving the Salesforce platform. Use the pre-built APIs to quickly connect to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and get started with Consumer Goods Cloud with just a few clicks.

Retail Execution

Get Accurate Order Prices Online with Penny Perfect Pricing

Penny Perfect Pricing helps sales reps calculate order prices online based on the same pricing conditions and configuration that they use in the Offline Mobile app. Reps can calculate prices for orders with different scales, units of measure, and conditions such as discounts, amount per unit, and flat rates.

Maintain Store Operating Hours Efficiently in Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App

Your reps can now update a store’s open hours and plan store visits efficiently using the Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App. Reps can edit and maintain Operating Hour records only if operating hours aren’t reused across multiple accounts. To avoid overriding operating hours across linked accounts, enable editing only for operating hours that aren’t used across multiple accounts.

Improved User Experience with the Enhanced Product Filter

By using the enhanced product filters in Consumer Goods Cloud Desktop app, users now see only the products associated with their sales org, which saves time and effort. Previously, product searches returned results from other sales orgs too.

Boost Productivity with the New Order Lightning Web Component

Give your sales reps an advanced order creation and management experience by using the new Order Lightning Web Component (Order LWC). Reps can quickly navigate through the editable order fields, such as quantity, discount, and special price. The Order LWC experience is the default setting and supports both Simple Pricing and Penny Perfect Pricing.

Analyze and Track Product Performance Easily

Use the new Analytics for Consumer Goods—Advanced Data Model app to analyze your account performance and make informed decisions to increase revenue and compliance. Sales managers can gain insights into revenue by territory, assess sales executive performance, identify product whitespace opportunities in high-potential stores, and analyze the correlation between store visits, compliance, and revenue. Sales representatives get a quick view of their performance based on sales revenue, team average, most sold product categories, store visits, and compliance to identify areas that need attention.

Learn More about the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release Notes

If you want to learn more about the exciting new features of the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release for Consumer Goods Cloud, don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll be happy to provide you with all the information you need.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

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Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Consumer Goods Cloud

Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Service Cloud

The Salesforce Summer ’23 Release notes have arrived! The latest update for Service Cloud introduces many new features and improvements. From delivering products and services with Service Catalog to sending voice messages in enhanced messaging channels, this release is packed with updates designed to improve your customer service experience. Read on to learn more about the newest additions to Service Cloud and how they can help you better serve your customers.

Deliver Products and Services with Service Catalog (Generally Available)

Use Service Catalog, now generally available, to turn your customers’ requests for products and services into approved and documented orders. For example, automate frequent requests like resetting a password through Service Catalog. Previously, Service Catalog was available only as part of Work.com.

Open Your Service Catalog to Customers and Partners

Create a Service Catalog site that provides your customer and partners a self-service portal for the seamless browsing and requesting of items from your Service Catalog. Build, style, and launch your site effortlessly with point-and-click Aura components built for Service Catalog and with prebuilt Aura site templates from Experience Cloud.

Send Voice Messages in Enhanced Messaging Channels

Voice is the new text, so make sure your agents don’t miss out. Agents can now easily record and send voice messages up to one minute long to customers in enhanced WhatsApp and enhanced Facebook Messenger channels. Previously, agents had to use a separate app to record messages and then send the audio files as attachments.

Create Real-Time Keyword Alerts for Supervisors in Messaging Channels

If a customer or agent sends a high-stakes keyword or phrase, automatically raise the agent’s flag so their supervisor can help if needed.

Message Customers More Intuitively with the Redesigned Agent Conversation Window

You asked, and Salesforce listened. The Send-and-End Chat buttons are now separated in the agent conversation window. Additionally, the toolbar now lives above the message field. These subtle changes help agents click the correct button and find the tools they need during messaging sessions.

Resolve Setup Issues More Quickly with Self-Service Checks (Beta)

Get your contact center users up and running more quickly with on-demand diagnostics. No need to troubleshoot or contact Salesforce Customer Support. Run the Single Sign-On service checks to verify that Service Cloud Voice can authenticate all agents and supervisors in your contact center. Run the Contact Center User service checks to verify that every contact center agent and supervisor is assigned the right permission set license and permission set. Without them, the user can’t use Service Cloud Voice.

Check Voice Channel Performance with More Metrics (Pilot)

Evaluate the performance of your voice channel by adding two new Voice objects to your custom report types. Spot trends on disconnected calls, missed calls by agents, call error rates, and other call actions. Some metrics are only available for Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect. All data for the new Voice objects are deleted after 30 days.

Get the Enhanced Slack Conversations Experience

Collaborate on a Slack swarm from Lightning Experience with the enhanced Slack Conversations component that looks and feels more like Slack. To keep the experience consistent between Slack and Salesforce, Slack profile pictures now appear alongside the message, messages are left-aligned and timestamped, and users can see and send custom Slack emojis. Slack Conversations users can also view advanced Slack formats such as code and code blocks, easily identify attachments by a file emoji, send messages through Slack Connect, and even use the component on the go from a tablet.

Extend Swarming to Field Service Workers

Bring the power of Swarming and Expert Finder to Field Service with Service Appointments, now supported for Swarming. Field service workers can bring together cross-functional experts to quickly resolve tricky customer issues, even when onsite with a customer, helping reduce your cost to serve.

Monitor Contact Center Health in the Omni Supervisor Wallboard (Pilot)

Show supervisors real-time metrics to help them identify and resolve issues quickly. In this continuing pilot, the wallboard includes more charts. On the Omni Supervisor tab, supervisors can select a queue of interest to filter the metrics shown.

Get Supervisors Involved Fast with Conversation Intelligence

When conversation intelligence detects a key phrase in calls or messages, it raises a flag on the Agents tab in Omni Supervisor. Supervisors can then jump in and help agents resolve the issue quickly.

Surface Knowledge Articles Quickly

Help users self-serve and find solutions quickly with the new Knowledge Article page for LWR sites. Now you can add knowledge articles to your Self-Service portal’s Knowledge Article Details page.

Get a Quick Timeline View of Survey Responses

Use Timeline to monitor survey responses. View information related to responses and understand respondents’ interaction. You can enable a Timeline for both standard objects and custom objects.

Customize Knowledge Articles with the Knowledge Article Component

Site visitors can now view knowledge articles in LWR. Administrators can toggle between field labels and field sections and adjust the style of the knowledge article title. Mandatory field labels, such as URL Name, that your site visitors don’t need are also hidden. And employees can customize knowledge articles in an unauthenticated help center and via an authenticated portal. Previously, the Knowledge Article component was available only in Aura, making it inaccessible to LWR users.

Learn More about the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release Notes

If you want to learn more about the exciting new features of the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release for Service Cloud, don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll be happy to provide you with all the information you need.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

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Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Service Cloud

Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Sales Cloud

The Salesforce Summer ’23 Release notes have arrived! The latest update for Sales Cloud introduces a plethora of new features and improvements that aim to streamline sales processes and enhance team collaboration. Among the highlights of this release, users can now split revenue by product mix with Opportunity Product Splits, create quotes without an opportunity, and quickly find specific items in the To-Do List with the new search field. Furthermore, the Revenue Intelligence Command Center and Sales Stage Analysis Dashboard offer deeper insights into sales performance and pipeline management. Let’s dive into the details and explore Salesforce’s new features for sales teams.

Split Revenue by Product Mix with Opportunity Product Splits (Generally Available)

Use opportunity product splits to allocate revenue at a more granular level to team members who collaborate on complex opportunities. Without leaving the opportunity record, teams can see how multiple products and each team member fit into a sales motion. And with opportunity product splits reports, team members can track all of the opportunities they contribute to.

Create Reports for Opportunities with Opportunity Product Splits

Sales teams can track product splits and rollups to opportunity split revenue with standard reports, giving them visibility to the contribution team members make to the deals they support. The reports also show how product splits’ data reflect on compensation for reps and on individual and team forecasts.

Create Quotes Without an Opportunity

Sales reps no longer have to follow the opportunity-to-quote flow. They can fast-track deals by creating quotes without first creating an opportunity, speeding up delivering quotes to their customers for review. Quotes must be related to an account when they’re converted to orders.

See Prospect Engagements for the Month at a Glance

Easily identify your most engaged prospects with the new Engagement History field. The field contains a chart showing all outbound activities and inbound engagement for the past 30 days. Reps can instantly see when and how often each lead, contact, or person account has been engaged so they can reach out at the right moment. Previously, users could see the number of recent engagements on prospect records, but not the timing.

Find Items Quickly in the To Do List with Search

Users can use the new search field to quickly find the specific items they’re looking for in the To-Do List. Users can act on the tasks that matter most, wherever those items are in the list. Previously, users could tag items and create lists, but not search.

Empower Sales Reps with the Revenue Intelligence Command Center

Get all the details you need for sales success from the Sales Rep Command Center. You can see whether you’re aligned to meet your quotas, which opportunities are stuck, and overdue activities. You can also see step progression and amount changes.

Understand Your Sales Pipeline with the Sales Stage Analysis Dashboard

Get a high-level view of the stages of your sales, identify bottlenecks and at-risk opportunities, and understand if deals are progressing smoothly. The new Sales Stage Analysis tab in Revenue Insights shows how long deals remain in each stage. You can see which deals are stalled, and which opportunities had amount changes or had deadlines pushed back.

Find Your Untapped Opportunities Using Product Whitespace

Identify potential sales in Einstein Account Management. In the Product Whitespace view, see which products your accounts purchased and identify gaps for upsell opportunities.

View Einstein Predictions in a Full-Length Panel

See more Einstein Prediction details at one time in a full, slide-out panel on the forecasts page. Previously, Einstein predictions were shown in a shortened panel with the introduction of forecast pages in the Lightning App Builder.

Simplify Reps’ Schedules by Eliminating Repeat Visits During Shifts

Help reps adhere to visit spacing requirements by ensuring they visit customers one time during their shift in Salesforce Maps Advanced. Preventing same-shift visits is especially helpful for large volumes of accounts that require frequent visits. For example, a customer requires daily visits, but the rep travels 2 days a week. This option schedules the rep to visit one time on each of those 2 days instead of scheduling multiple visits to that same customer on each of those 2 days.

Nail Your Meetings with Salesforce Meeting Digest

Meeting Digest is now available for all users automatically. And, it’s the default tab in Event record details for users with Einstein Activity Capture. Enable an activity sync solution, such as Einstein Activity Capture, to get the most out of Meeting Digest, including RSVPs, insights, and recommended actions.

Send a Meeting Request Quickly from the Dynamic Activity Composer

Are your reps in a hurry to set up meetings? Now they can start the process with one click. Previously, reps had to open an email and click twice to insert proposed meeting times.

Propose Three Future Meeting Times in Lightning Experience

Sales reps often have to email back and forth with customers to set up a meeting. Now reps can quickly add three upcoming meeting times as a suggestion and avoid negotiating. Previously, this feature was available only with Outlook and Gmail integrations.

Learn More about the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release Notes

If you want to learn more about the exciting new features of the Salesforce Summer ’23 Release for Sales Cloud, don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll be happy to provide you with all the information you need.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

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Salesforce Summer ’23 Release: Sales Cloud 

Improving Forecasting Accuracy and Collaboration in Consumer Goods Companies with Salesforce CPF

In the world of consumer goods, companies are constantly striving to improve their forecasting accuracy, collaborate more effectively, and streamline their workflows. That’s where Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF) comes in – an all-in-one solution that helps consumer goods companies achieve these goals and more.

Benefits of Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting

One of the primary reasons that consumer goods companies are turning to Salesforce CPF is because of its advanced planning and forecasting capabilities. With Salesforce CPF, companies can create accurate sales forecasts based on historical data, current trends, and market analysis easier than ever before. These forecasts allow companies to anticipate demand more accurately, adjust inventory levels, and optimize their supply chain operations. This can help companies lower costs, reduce waste, and improve customer satisfaction.

Another key benefit of Salesforce CPF is its ability to improve team collaboration. Sales, marketing, and supply chain teams can collaborate in a single source of truth, sharing data and insights in real time. This breaks down silos and enables teams to make more informed decisions based on a comprehensive business view.

The ability to add new products to your sales forecast is critical for companies to remain competitive and stay ahead of market trends. Accurately forecasting the potential sales volume of a new product is essential to planning production, allocating resources, and making informed business decisions. Salesforce CPF allows companies to track new product launches, collect customer feedback, and add new products to their sales pipeline efficiently, delivering a comprehensive view of your sales strategy. Proper collaboration between the brand team and buyers is essential to anticipate sales ramp, and it requires close attention to customer business plans to accurately forecast and add new products to the sales pipeline.

Overall, Salesforce CPF provides consumer goods companies with advanced planning and forecasting capabilities, improved team collaboration, and the ability to add new products to their sales pipeline, enabling them to optimize their supply chain operations and remain competitive in the market.

Get Started with Salesforce CPF Today

Salesforce CPF is a powerful tool for consumer goods companies looking to improve their forecasting accuracy, collaborate more effectively, and streamline their workflows. By leveraging advanced analytics, real-time collaboration, and automation, Salesforce CPF can help companies drive revenue growth, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. As competition in the consumer goods industry continues to intensify, companies that adopt Salesforce CPF are poised to gain a competitive advantage and thrive in the future. Learn more about Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Challenges for Maintaining Accurate Forecasts for Consumer Goods

Forecasting for consumer goods firms can be incredibly challenging to manage throughout the year due to various factors impacting demand, production, and supply chain operations. These challenges can lead to significant losses and inefficiencies if not managed effectively. With the help of Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF), consumer goods companies can optimize their planning and forecasting activities to stay competitive and meet their business objectives.

Challenges with Forecasting for Consumer Goods Companies

One of the main challenges of forecasting for consumer goods firms is the unpredictable nature of consumer demand. Consumers’ purchasing behavior can be influenced by various factors, such as cultural trends, seasonal changes, economic conditions, and unanticipated events (COVID-19). These factors can lead to sudden shifts in demand that can be difficult to predict, resulting in overstocked or understocked inventory levels, leading to substantial inventory and monetary losses for the company.

In addition to demand volatility, forecasting can also be impacted by production challenges, such as unexpected delays, supply chain disruptions, or manufacturing issues. These challenges can lead to unexpected inventory shortages, production delays, and increased costs, all impacting the company’s bottom line.

Another challenge with forecasting for consumer goods firms is the limitations of traditional forecasting methods, such as using Excel spreadsheets. Excel spreadsheets are time-consuming and inefficient to manage, especially for large-scale operations, and can also be prone to errors and inaccuracies. Learn more issues around forecasting and planning by visiting our recent blog: Overcoming the Obstacles of Consumer Goods Planning with Salesforce CPF

Overcome Planning & Forecasting Challenges with Salesforce CPF

To overcome these challenges, consumer goods firms can adopt advanced forecasting and planning tools that utilize machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. Salesforce CPF is one of these tools that help companies make more accurately forecasted demands, optimize production and inventory levels, and reduce the risk of stock-outs or overstocking. By leveraging Salesforce CPF, consumer goods firms can improve their forecasting accuracy, reduce inefficiencies, and minimize the risk of losses, ultimately leading to a more profitable and efficient business operation.

Learn more about Salesforce CPF.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

 

Overcoming the Obstacles of Consumer Goods Planning with Salesforce CPF

For years, Excel spreadsheets have been the go-to tool for many consumer goods businesses for customer planning and forecasting. As the consumer goods market becomes more complicated and dynamic, the limitations of using Excel are becoming increasingly evident.

Excel spreadsheets can be prone to errors and inaccuracies, which can have significant consequences for forecasting success. Additionally, Excel lacks the visibility and analytics capabilities that Consumer goods companies need to make informed decisions about sales strategies, production planning, and inventory levels. Siloed departments, ongoing forecast accuracy issues, and problems with tracking are also common challenges that companies face when using Excel for forecasting.

As such, the days of relying solely on Excel as a forecasting tool are over, and companies in the consumer goods industry must explore more comprehensive solutions to stay competitive. In this blog, we will discuss why the consumer goods industry needs to shift away from Excel spreadsheets and towards more sophisticated solutions, such as Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting (Salesforce CPF), to drive growth and success.

Pain Points of Excel Spreadsheet Planning & Forecasting

Excel is a powerful tool for managing and analyzing data, and it has been widely used for planning and forecasting for many years. As the market and business environment become more complicated, Excel may not be the best tool for planning and forecasting for several reasons:

Limited scalability: Excel has limitations in terms of handling large data sets, complex calculations, and multiple scenarios. As businesses grow and become more complex, Excel can’t keep up with the demands of planning and forecasting.

Lack of collaboration: Excel files are typically stored on local computers or shared drives, making it difficult for multiple people to work on the same document simultaneously. This can lead to version control issues and errors in data entry, which can impact the accuracy of the forecasts.

Difficulty in data integration: Excel can import and export data from various sources, but it may not be able to handle data from different systems or sources with different formats. This can make it difficult to integrate data from multiple sources and can impact the accuracy of the forecasts.

Limited automation: Excel requires manual input and updating of data, formulas, and charts. This can be time-consuming and can lead to errors if not managed carefully. In contrast, modern planning and forecasting tools have built-in automation capabilities that can reduce manual effort and improve accuracy.

Lack of advanced analytics: Excel has limitations regarding advanced analytics capabilities, such as machine learning and predictive modeling. These techniques are becoming increasingly important in forecasting and planning, particularly in today’s market, where businesses must adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

Lack of collaboration on new Products: Excel does not support collaboration with sales staff and buyers related to new item introduction into the forecast. Having to manage this process with alternative solutions tends to result in manual updates to forecasts that are prone to user errors and inaccurate forecasts.

Streamlining Forecasting and Planning with Salesforce CPF

Salesforce CPF is an advanced solution that enables consumer goods companies to move beyond Excel spreadsheets and achieve accurate forecasting and planning. Salesforce CPF can help companies leverage real-time data to make informed decisions about inventory levels, production planning, and sales strategies. It offers a range of benefits, including improved accuracy, access to real-time data from across the organization, streamlined workflows, better collaboration, and increased efficiency.

With Salesforce CPF, companies can monitor progress against key performance indicators, plan for future sales and inventory needs, and adjust their strategies based on historical data and trends. Overall, Salesforce CPF is a powerful tool that can help consumer goods companies stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly complex and competitive market.

Learn More about Salesforce CPF

In summary, while Excel is a powerful tool for data management and analysis, it may not be the best option for planning and forecasting in today’s market due to its limitations in scalability, collaboration, data integration, automation, and advanced analytics. As such, businesses may need to consider a more modern planning and forecasting tool, such as Salesforce CPF, that can better support their needs in today’s market. Learn more about Salesforce CPF.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Introducing Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting

As the consumer goods industry continues to grow and evolve, so does the complexity of customer planning and forecasting. Excel spreadsheets have been the go-to tool for many companies. Still, they come with several obstacles to planning success, including inaccuracies, lack of visibility and analytics, siloed departments, ongoing forecast accuracy, and problems with tracking. These challenges often result in reduced profitability, missed sales targets, and suboptimal decision-making.

Did you know?

    • 55% don’t trust their forecast (Gartner)
    • 53% Don’t believe they have the right details (Salesforce)
    • 75% Believe their data is too siloed (Gartner)
    • 80% lack analytics to identify issues and trends (McKinsey)

To address these challenges, Salesforce offers a comprehensive solution called Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF), which is part of the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud.

Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting Benefits

Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting enables companies to make accurate sales forecasts, improve collaboration, and streamline workflows. It offers a range of benefits, including:

Improved Accuracy: With Salesforce CPF, companies can leverage real-time data to make informed decisions about inventory levels, production planning, and sales strategies. The platform’s algorithms can help identify trends and patterns that may have been missed using traditional forecasting methods.

Real-time Data: Access to data from across the organization, enabling teams to work together seamlessly and make informed decisions. Sales teams can quickly update the platform with the latest information on customer orders, inventory levels, and promotions, allowing everyone to stay on the same page.

Streamlined Workflows: Salesforce CPF offers a range of features that help streamline workflows and improve collaboration. Teams can share information easily, reduce manual data entry, and automate routine tasks, freeing up time for more strategic work.

Better Collaboration: Enables teams to work together more effectively by providing a centralized platform for data sharing, collaboration, and communication. Sales teams can work closely with supply chain, marketing, and finance teams to ensure that everyone is aligned and working towards the same goals.

Increased Efficiency: With Salesforce CPF, companies can streamline their forecasting and planning processes, reducing the time and effort required to make decisions. This allows teams to focus on more strategic work and helps to increase efficiency across the organization.

Get Started With Salesforce CPF

Corrao Group, a leading Salesforce implementation partner for Consumer Goods Cloud, offers a comprehensive CPF package for companies looking to improve their customer planning and forecasting processes. The package includes a Salesforce CPF license, a 2-3 month implementation timeline, and a range of features designed to help companies maximize their Salesforce CPF investment. Some of the key features of our CPF package include:

Customer Hierarchy: The CPF package includes a customer hierarchy feature that enables companies to view customer data at different levels, such as by region, store, or product category.

Product Hierarchy: The product hierarchy feature allows companies to view product data at different levels, such as by category, brand, or SKU.

Real-time Business Reporting: Configuration of real-time business reporting features that provide insights into sales performance, inventory levels, and other key metrics.

KPI Tracking: The package also includes KPI tracking features that enable companies to monitor progress against key performance indicators and adjust their strategies as needed.

Customer Planning Time Frames: The CPF package includes customer planning time frames (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly), which help companies plan for future sales and inventory needs based on historical data and trends.

Walkthrough & Handoff: A comprehensive walkthrough and handoff process, ensuring that teams are fully trained and prepared to use the platform effectively.

In summary, the consumer goods industry faces many challenges regarding customer planning & forecasting. However, the Salesforce CPF package offers a comprehensive solution to help companies overcome these challenges and make more informed data-driven decisions. Our CPF package is an excellent option for companies looking to implement this solution quickly and effectively, with a range of features designed to improve accuracy, streamline workflows, and increase efficiency. Learn more by visiting our Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting page.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Boost Customer Satisfaction With Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is a robust customer service platform that helps organizations improve customer satisfaction. Service Cloud provides businesses with a centralized platform to manage customer interactions, case management, support operations, and more. Key features like a knowledge base, case management, and omnichannel routing help your service agents provide quick and efficient personalized support for every customer. Additionally, Service Cloud allows organizations to gain valuable insights into customers’ problems, preferences, and support needs to deliver fast and personalized service.

Here’s how Salesforce Service Cloud can boost customer satisfaction to achieve long-lasting customer relationships:

    • Case Management: Service Cloud provides a single source of truth for managing customer support cases in a more organized fashion. This help ensures that all customer interactions are tracked and resolved efficiently, improving response times and overall customer satisfaction.
    • Advanced Case Management: Make your service agents more productive and increase first-visit resolution by automating processes that assign the right agent and resolve support cases faster.
    • Fleet Management Logistics: Improve onsite job management using Salesforce Maps to optimize your fleet management logistics. Deliver real-time collaboration with access to job schedules, van inventory, vehicle location, mileage driven, knowledge articles, and more.
    • Knowledge Base (Self-Service Portal): Save time by maximizing agent productivity and first-visit resolution by letting your customers help themselves, so your agents don’t have to answer frequently asked questions. The Service Cloud knowledge base helps reduce customers’ need to contact support teams, improving their overall experience and satisfaction with the company.
    • Telephony & AI Voice: Telephony is a cloud-based contact center that allows businesses to communicate with their customers over email, chat, the phone, and other important channels. AI Voice is a feature of Service Cloud Telephony that uses AI to enhance customer interactions over the phone. With AI Voice, businesses can automate routine tasks and responses, such as scheduling appointments and verifying customer information. It can also give agents real-time insights into the customer, allowing them to tailor their responses better and improve the overall customer experience.
    • Customer Service Analytics: Create smarter managers, more productive agents, and happier customers through predictive CSAT technology to stay ahead of business concerns and drive service success. Service Cloud provides organizations with valuable insights into customer behavior and support needs. This helps businesses make informed decisions about improving customer satisfaction and support operations.
    • Customization and Integration: Service Cloud can be customized or integrated to meet the specific needs of each business. Integration of a company’s business processes and additional customization help ensure that operations are tailored to the unique process of each organization.
    • Mobile Access: Respond to customer inquiries and resolve issues quickly from anywhere. With mobile access, your service agents can always be available.
    • Collaboration Tools: Resolve customer issues more efficiently by working together and using Salesforce’s collaboration tools like Slack, Chatter, or Quip.
    • Web2Case & Email2Case: Respond to customers faster and improve your support team’s productivity by gathering support cases directly from your company’s website and customer emails.
    • Multi-channel support: Offer support through various channels, including email, chat, phone, and social media. Offering a range of varieties enables customers to choose the channel that best fits their needs.
    • Personalization: Service Cloud offers a variety of personalization features that allow businesses to deliver customized, relevant experiences to their customers. Utilize tools like segmentation lists or customer profiles to help understand your customer’s needs and preferences, enabling you to deliver personalized help and recommendations.

Overall, Salesforce Service Cloud is a powerful platform that helps businesses deliver personalized, seamless customer service experiences, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Investing in Salesforce Service Cloud can also help companies stay ahead of the competition by leveraging 3 Salesforce releases per year to drive growth and achieve new goals. Contact us today to learn more about the difference a robust service platform like Salesforce can make for your business.

Investment Protection With Salesforce Service Cloud

Right now is the perfect time to make a digital transformation from homegrown systems or spreadsheets to Salesforce Service Cloud. Investing in the right technology can save your company time and money in the short and long term. According to MuleSoft, the average enterprise company uses 976 applications. Consolidating numerous systems into one single source of truth will help simplify, streamline, and automate complex processes to become more efficient.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you want to learn more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sell Smarter and Faster with Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud is the world’s leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, designed to help companies sell smarter and faster by optimizing their business and sales process. When implemented correctly, Sales Cloud can put you in control of your sales process to boost productivity, increase efficiency, speed up timelines, and streamline your entire business. Additionally, Sales Cloud provides a centralized database for sales information, allowing sales teams to collaborate and engage with their customers. With Salesforce’s cloud-based technology, your team can access key data and information to be productive and effective in the field.

Here’s how Salesforce Sales Cloud can help your business today:

    • Lead & Opportunity Management: Sales Cloud helps businesses manage and track their leads and opportunities, enabling them to prioritize and follow up on the most promising opportunities. With features like lead routing, lead scoring, and forecasting, Sales Cloud helps sales teams stay organized and focused on the right deals.
    • Task Automation: Speed up your sales process by having Salesforce automatically create tasks required for the next stage in your business process/sales cycle.
    • Workflow Development: Simplify and speed up your business processes through automation technology. Set up repeat task reminders or alerts when certain thresholds are reached and when deals progress down the pipeline.
    • Project Tracking: Collaborate in real-time, all the time. Immediately check into the live status of a project, email interactions, customers’ company info, and next steps from one single source of truth.
    • Advanced Quote Generation: Eliminate manual input and expensive errors to accelerate deal velocity, speed up payment collection, and improve cash flow with Salesforce CPQ.
    • Sales Pipeline Analytics: Ensure sales reach their goals via a real-time analytics dashboard of pipeline reports per team, service, conversion rate, average sales cycle, and more. These tools include performance metrics, pipeline analysis, and forecasting, enabling sales teams to make data-driven decisions and optimize their selling strategies.
    • Collaboration & Communication: Sales Cloud offers a range of tools for improving collaboration and communication within sales teams, including chat, email, and document sharing. These tools help teams work together more efficiently and effectively, enabling them to close deals faster.
    • Customization and Integration: Sales Cloud offers a range of customization and integration options, enabling businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs and goals. With integrations to other Salesforce products, such as MCAE (Pardot) and Service Cloud, businesses can get a complete view of the customer journey and deliver personalized, seamless experiences.

Salesforce Sales Cloud Experience by Corrao Group

Whether you’re looking to understand your customers better or automate manual tasks, Sales Cloud has everything you need to boost productivity and increase efficiency. Investing in Salesforce Sales Cloud can also help companies stay ahead of the competition by leveraging 3 Salesforce releases per year to drive growth and achieve their goals. Make the switch today and see the difference that a powerful sales platform like Salesforce can make for your business. Learn more about Salesforce’s Sales Cloud.

Investment Protection With Salesforce Sales Cloud

Right now is the perfect time to make a digital transformation from homegrown systems or spreadsheets to Salesforce Sales Cloud. Investing in the right technology can save your company time and money in the short and long term. According to MuleSoft, the average enterprise company uses 976 applications. Consolidating numerous systems into one single source of truth will help simplify, streamline, and automate complex processes to become more efficient.

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 1,100+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. We are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board and Salesforce Managed Service Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot. If you are interested in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!