2024 is the year for companies around the world to keep adjusting to the digital-first and work-from-anywhere environment. If your company is one of the many to go through this transition, then you know how difficult it is to maintain systems and foster collaboration when working remotely.
During the past two years, it’s impossible to ignore the strength and flexibility of Salesforce’s platform, which has become a vital tool for organizations of all sizes as they develop in order to satisfy changing customer and employee expectations. For the year 2024 and beyond, the Salesforce technology continues to develop in new ways. Salesforce introduced many innovative tools and features to help the sales team to improve work efficiency with automation, collaboration, orchestration, and much more.
In this article, we will analyze what has changed in sales, marketing, and other industries over the past year and Salesforce future trends to watch out for in 2024 to keep up with the new global market requirements. So here’s the future of Salesforce and what to expect in 2024 and beyond.
Is Salesforce Growing Today?
Salesforce is currently one of the fastest-growing software-as-a-service companies in the world. According to the latest Salesforce financial reports, Salesforce delivered another record fiscal year in 2023, surpassing $31.4 billion in annual revenue, which is a massive 18% increase from 2022.
The rapid Salesforce growth is being driven by a number of factors, including the increasing popularity of cloud-based CRM platforms and the continued success of Salesforce’s marketing and sales automation tools.
In addition, the increasing popularity of mobile Salesforce apps is driving Salesforce growth as businesses look for ways to increase productivity and efficiency. Salesforce has also been increasingly adopted by small businesses and fast-growing startups. As a result, the Salesforce growth rate is predicted to improve through 2024 and the product is still widely seen as the future of CRM.
What are the Current Top Salesforce Trends?
In the last year, some of the most significant developments of Salesforce can be summarized as the following:
Hyperforce: Accelerating Salesforce’s Expansion
With Hyperforce, Salesforce leverages the flexibility and efficiency of a public cloud, significantly reducing deployment times and enabling rapid expansion. It’s a new architecture that allows users to operate within their public cloud environment, like Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.
This game-changing innovation was released in the summer of 2023 to widespread appeal and is expected to gain more traction in the upcoming years as well.
Enhancing Healthcare Solutions: Salesforce Health Cloud 2.0
Salesforce technology future continues to blossom with Health Cloud, a solution that allows healthcare organizations and professionals to streamline their workflows and design tailored patient journeys.
Following the challenging COVID-19 pandemic, Salesforce has made significant updates to Health Cloud. These enhancements are focused on providing better support to hospitals and patients, optimizing the healthcare experience through the CRM platform.
Salesforce’s Latest Innovations: Slack-First Customer 360
Back in 2020, Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack proved to be a wise strategic move, aiming to elevate the CRM platform’s capabilities. This step was a direct response to the global trend of remote and hybrid work arrangements, setting the stage for the concept of Slack-First Customer 360.
Slack-First Customer 360 is more than just an integration of tools; it’s about fostering seamless collaboration among various departments through multiple channels. This approach is designed to create a unified and intuitive user experience, particularly benefiting your company’s sales, Salesforce marketing, and service divisions.
Evolving Landscape of Augmented and Virtual Reality
Looking ahead, Statista’s forecasts indicate a staggering 1.73 billion users of AR devices expected by 2024. This prediction underscores the rapid adoption of AR and VR technologies across businesses, all with the aim of delivering exceptional experiences to customers.
While the trends of AR and VR are still in their early stages, various companies, including Salesforce, have already embraced these emerging technologies. Their applications extend far beyond gaming, finding relevance in sectors like E-commerce, where they enhance the shopping journey by immersing customers in interactive experiences.
Customized Customer Engagement with Cloud-Based Advertising
Personalization is key in marketing, and Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud is designed to help you put your customers at the center of your efforts. Its features include multi-channel campaign execution, customer journey mapping, in-depth pre- and post-engagement insights, social media interaction tools, and robust data management capabilities.
With Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you can seamlessly manage mobile communications, SMS, push notifications, email campaigns, and more. Understanding your customers’ preferences and behaviors is crucial for effective marketing, and this platform equips you with the tools to do just that, ensuring your marketing efforts are more targeted and impactful.
Fortifying Data Privacy and Security
The alarming reality of cyberattacks getting more frequent stresses the growing importance of data privacy and security in safeguarding an organization’s valuable data. In this climate, clients are actively seeking long-term partnerships with vendors who place a premium on top-tier security.
In response to these pressing concerns, the latest trends in the Salesforce industry revolve around implementing robust and highly preventative measures to combat Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Salesforce has made substantial investments in data privacy and security, aligning its practices with respected industry standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2. To ensure data protection, Salesforce employs a three-tiered storage structure that covers objects, fields, and records. Additionally, customers can enjoy an elevated level of security through features like two-factor authentication, encryption, and comprehensive security analysis.
The Future of Salesforce
The future of Salesforce in 2024 is mainly focused on the development and improvements of its significant features, partnering up with other tech giants, and reshaping their pricing policy:
The Emergence of the AI Cloud
Salesforce had previously entered the AI market with Einstein, integrating AI-powered predictive tools into its sales, service, and marketing clouds. However, the recent introduction of the AI Cloud, with Einstein’s new “GPT Trust Layer,” is a significant leap forward. This layer enables the auto-generation of personalized emails, chat responses, case summaries, and even code for sales representatives, marketers, and developers, putting Salesforce in the same generative AI market as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Salesforce intends to seamlessly integrate these generative AI tools into its customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Already the largest CRM company globally, these AI enhancements could help it maintain a competitive edge over smaller CRM rivals like Adobe, Microsoft, and Oracle. The introduction of Salesforce’s AI Cloud might not lead to immediate revenue growth, but it positions the company as an attractive prospect in the recent AI stock buying frenzy.
Deepening Ties with Google
While Salesforce is the leader in the cloud CRM sector, it lacks its own cloud infrastructure platform, which Google possesses. On the other hand, Google, while having a leading cloud infrastructure platform, doesn’t develop its own native CRM services. Consequently, Google offers ample opportunities for its Workspace users to seamlessly integrate Salesforce’s CRM tools into their applications.
This collaboration expansion between Salesforce and Google also brought about new native integrations. These integrations link Salesforce’s Data Cloud with Google’s BigQuery (for creating comprehensive customer profiles) and Vertex AI (for predicting purchasing patterns, churn probabilities, and other business-specific trends).
By fortifying its alliance with Google, the future of Salesforce looks bright when it comes to fighting against competitors like Microsoft, which has both its cloud platform (Azure) and CRM platform (Dynamics, and Adobe, which bundles its CRM solutions with its suite of cloud-based services.
The First Price Increase in Seven Years
On a sadder note, Salesforce recently announced its intention to increase list prices by approximately 9% for its Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Industries, and Tableau divisions in August. This marks Salesforce’s first price increase in seven years.
While raising prices in the current challenging economic environment may seem bold, it also reflects Salesforce’s confidence in its pricing power. If successful, this strategy has the potential to substantially elevate its revenue per customer.
Does Salesforce Have a Future? – FAQ
Will Salesforce continue to dominate the CRM market?
Most likely, yes. Salesforce is a CRM of the future – it has built a robust and sustainable position in the CRM market by continually investing in research and development. On top of that, it doesn’t cease to expand – it’s currently one of the fastest-growing software-as-a-service companies in the world, surpassing $31.4 billion in annual revenue in 2023, which is a massive 18% increase from 2022.
What is Salesforce’s strategy to compete with Microsoft and AWS?
Salesforce competes with other giants by leveraging its strengths in CRM, cloud services, and AI as well as smart partnering and acquiring. The acquisition of Slack has bolstered its capabilities, allowing them to offer a more comprehensive cloud ecosystem while deepening its ties with Google also helps fill in the functionality gaps.
What are Salesforce’s most recent innovations?
Salesforce has integrated AI and machine learning through Einstein, enhancing their sales, service, and marketing clouds. Their recent launch of the AI Cloud, featuring the “GPT Trust Layer,” also extends their AI capabilities, enabling generative AI applications. These AI enhancements empower businesses with advanced AI features for personalized email responses, chat interactions, case summaries, and even code generation, staying ahead of CRM competitors.
Does Salesforce plan to change their pricing?
Salesforce recently announced its first price increase in seven years. This indicates their confidence in their pricing power and their commitment to providing value for customers. While price increases may appear risky, they can enhance revenue per customer, allowing Salesforce to maintain the quality of their services and support.
If you are looking for an opportunity to introduce Salesforce solutions to your business, contact OMI to discuss your project and business goals in more detail. Our team will be glad to assist you with any questions and provide services to cover your needs.