Salesforce review: a data-backed look

Salesforce overview

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management platform that centralizes sales, marketing, and service functions within a single system. It offers highly customizable modules and extensive integrations, making it suitable for organizations ranging from small teams to large enterprises.

Salesforce helps businesses automate workflows, improve customer engagement, and gain actionable insights through AI-powered analytics.

How much do businesses spend on Salesforce?

The chart below illustrates average spending on Salesforce across different business sizes

Mid-market and enterprise businesses demonstrate the highest spending on Ramp, with quarterly expenditure showing an initial increase followed by a gradual decline through the measured period.

Small and medium-sized businesses maintain moderate spending levels with some fluctuation over time. Micro businesses exhibit the lowest spending levels, remaining relatively stable at the lower end of the spending range.

The data reveals a clear spending hierarchy where larger organizations invest significantly more in Ramp's expense management platform, while smaller businesses maintain more modest usage levels across all quarters.

Who is Salesforce best for?

The chart below breaks down Salesforce’s user base by industry and company size.

Small and medium-sized businesses represent the largest portion of Ramp's user base, making up the dominant segment of platform adoption. Mid-market and enterprise companies constitute a significant portion of users, while micro businesses represent the smallest segment.

Salesforce key features

Customer relationship management

• What it does: Centralizes customer data, sales pipelines, and interactions across marketing, sales, and service departments.
• Key benefit: Provides a unified view of customers to improve engagement and sales efficiency.

Sales automation

• What it does: Automates lead management, scoring, and opportunity tracking with customizable workflows and AI insights.
• Key benefit: Increases sales team productivity by focusing effort on high-priority deals.

Marketing cloud

• What it does: Manages multichannel marketing campaigns, segmentation, and personalized messaging.
• Key benefit: Enhances customer acquisition and retention through targeted marketing efforts.

Service cloud

• What it does: Supports case management, live chat, and knowledge base integration for customer support teams.
• Key benefit: Improves customer satisfaction by streamlining issue resolution workflows.

Analytics and AI

• What it does: Delivers dashboards, predictive analytics, and AI-driven recommendations to optimize sales and service outcomes.
• Key benefit: Enables data-driven decision-making and performance improvements.

AppExchange marketplace

• What it does: Offers thousands of third-party apps and integrations to extend platform functionality.
• Key benefit: Allows businesses to tailor their CRM environment without extensive custom development.

Salesforce pricing

Salesforce pros and cons

Salesforce is a good fit if:

• Your team needs a scalable, customizable CRM for sales, marketing, and service.
• Your team needs automation and AI insights to increase sales efficiency.
• Your team needs access to a large ecosystem of third-party integrations.
• Your team needs enterprise-level security and compliance features.

Consider alternatives if:

• Your team needs a simpler, lower-cost CRM for a smaller business.
• Your team needs a faster setup with less complexity.
• Your team needs only basic workflows and doesn’t require deep customization.
• Your team needs a CRM focused solely on sales or marketing, not a broad platform.