Salesforce Essentials is a comprehensive CRM tool designed specifically for small businesses. It provides all the basic functionality required to manage leads, customers, and transactions. This software eliminates the need for complex sales software configuration, offering a simple yet effective solution. Salesforce Essentials is perfect for businesses seeking a straightforward approach to managing their customer relationships and sales processes.

  • 01Pros and cons from reviewers
  • 02Main features
  • 03What is Salesforce?
  • 04How Salesforce compare to similar software?
  • 05Who is Salesforce best for according to our reviewers?
  • 06Salesforce Reviews

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce Essentials is a powerful tool designed specifically for small businesses. It serves as a comprehensive solution for tracking and managing relationships with leads and customers by centralizing all essential data in one place. The software not only organizes data but also provides a visual representation of your sales pipeline, offering meaningful insights into sales performance. Salesforce Essentials acts as an operational dashboard, providing real-time insights. It also plays a crucial role in managing customer relationships, simplifying communication and ensuring consistency across all touchpoints. This tool helps to strengthen the bond between businesses and their clients. Deals on Salesforce Essentials and other top SaaS can be found at Secret to help drive business growth.

Pros from reviewers

  • Highly customizable: Salesforce Essentials offers a high level of customization, allowing users to tailor the platform to their specific needs. This feature makes it incredibly powerful in terms of automations and user interface, enhancing its functionality and usability

  • Cloud-based services: Salesforce Essentials operates on a cloud-based platform, allowing users to access their data from anywhere, anytime. This feature also ensures quick responses and real-time updates, enhancing the speed and efficiency of sales operations

  • Salesforce Essentials offers all-in-one solution: Salesforce Essentials provides a comprehensive solution for sales, offering all the necessary tools in one place. This feature enhances efficiency and productivity by eliminating the need to switch between different platforms for various tasks

  • Easy documentation and tracking: Salesforce Essentials allows users to document and track all their interactions with clients. This feature is particularly beneficial for grant managers and writers, as it enables them to record every interaction with a funder, including the proposal and any other documentation received

  • Global leading CRM: Salesforce Essentials is globally recognized as a leading CRM software. Its broad array of features and functionalities, combined with its high level of customization, make it a powerful tool for managing customer relationships.

Cons from reviewers

  • Complex backend management: Managing the backend of Salesforce Essentials can be quite complex, requiring a dedicated individual to handle the platform. This can be a disadvantage for smaller teams or businesses without the resources to dedicate to this task

  • Poor mobile app: Users have reported that the mobile app lacks crucial features, such as the ability to include notes. This can make it difficult for users to work effectively while on the go.

  • Limited customization options: Salesforce Essentials does not allow for much customization, particularly in task tracking. Users have reported difficulty in adjusting the system to fit their specific needs, such as being unable to customize due dates for tasks

  • Slow verification process: Users have reported that the verification process can be slow, causing delays in their work

  • Limited functionality: Despite its wide array of features, Salesforce Essentials lacks some basic functionalities that users expect from a modern CRM tool. For example, users cannot sort by most fields, add custom fields to list views, or modify the number of records per page

Main features

Starting Price

$26

/ user / month

Free Plan

No

Transaction tracking

Lead and opportunity management

Customer service

Email templates

Integrations

One of the key differences between the two solutions is their pricing. Salesforce is the more expensive. While Zoho CRM plans start at $14/month/user, Salesforce starts at $25/month/user. Zoho’s plans max out at $52/month/user for its Ultimate plan. Salesforce’s Unlimited plan is priced at $330/user/month. Zoho also offers a free version with solid CRM features, including contact management, email marketing, sales automation, and more. Ultimately, Salesforce is a premium product. You pay a higher price for it, but you get increased functionality in return. 


Zoho and Salesforce’s AI features also diverge. Zoho’s AI work assistant, Zia, is designed to make your CRM more efficient. It can make workflow automation suggestions, run analytics for personalized customer recommendations, and perform data enrichment to find missing lead data. It also suggests basic writing improvements. Zia is only available with Zoho’s top-tier plans. Salesforce’s AI assistant, Einstein, is generative...

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Salesforce

CRM software for SMEs

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All-in-one customer relationship management software

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When it comes to choosing between Freshsales and Salesforce for your customer relationship management (CRM) and sales automation needs, several key differences can help you determine which platform is the right fit for your business.


Firstly, these two products target different segments of the market. Freshsales is specifically designed to cater to the needs of small to medium-sized businesses and startups. Its user-friendly interface and streamlined features make it a practical choice for organizations looking for simplicity and ease of use. In contrast, Salesforce positions itself as a comprehensive CRM solution suitable for businesses of all sizes, including large enterprises. It offers an extensive range of features, customizable workflows, and the ability to handle complex sales processes.


Another significant distinction between Freshsales and Salesforce lies in their approach to customization and scalability. Freshsales provides a more straightforward and out-of-the-box...

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CRM software for SMEs

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Both HubSpot and Salesforce are highly relevant SaaS solutions if you’re looking for reliable, reputable and comprehensive CRM software. However, their biggest difference lies in their target market. HubSpot is a more attractive choice for startups and SMEs. Salesforce, on the other hand, is an ideal choice for large enterprises. This difference in focus is the source of many of the differences we see when we compare these two software tools.


HubSpot is an all-in-one suite with integrated CRM functionalities. It's less expensive than its competitor Salesforce, but its functionalities mean it's primarily intended for use in marketing and sales. It's perfect for smaller companies or start-ups that don't necessarily have a great deal of experience in CRM deployment and operation. It's also easier to use and customize to your specific business needs. HubSpot's ease-of-use and attractive interface are major advantages. What's more, by centralizing sales, marketing, customer service and...

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CRM software for SMEs

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CRM, marketing automation & customer service software suite

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Who is Salesforce best for according to our reviewers?

  • Grant Managers: As a CRM, Salesforce Essentials is beneficial for grant managers, allowing them to document all interactions with funders and potential funders, and keep track of all related documentation in one place

  • Disgruntled Users: Some users have found Salesforce Essentials to be user-unfriendly, with a sensitive interface that can lead to errors and a need for extensive phone support.

  • Sales Representatives: Salesforce Essentials is a highly efficient tool for sales representatives, offering all necessary tools in one place and boosting daily sales with quick responses and cloud services

  • Backend Managers: Despite its complexity, Salesforce Essentials is a powerful tool for backend managers due to its high customizability and broad array of features and functionalities

  • Small Business Owners: Salesforce Essentials may not be the best fit for small business owners due to its high cost, complex interface, and the need for extensive training to fully utilize the software

  • Salesforce Reviews

    3.9

    Salesforce rating

    4.0

    Ease of use

    4.0

    Customer service

    3.9

    Value for money

    3.8

    Likelihood to recommend

    4.1

    Features

    24 Salesforce Reviews

    3.9 (24 reviews)
    Leave a review
    • Wynne

      Efficient Customer Correspondence Tracking and Affordable Pricing: A Salesforce Essentials Review

      it allows us to track all customer correspondence within the platform. Lastly, the affordability of Salesforce Essentials is worth mentioning

      September 17, 2024

    • Carolyn M

      Five-Star Review: Unleashing the Full Potential of Salesforce Essentials

      I'm absolutely thrilled to give Salesforce Essentials a five-star rating! Initially, I was impressed by the company's professionalism, the software's potential, and the team's friendliness. Once I signed up, I discovered that the software's full potential could be unlocked with a reasonable investment in additional services and some comprehensive training for my team. They were very enthusiastic about their support services, and indeed, the support team was a learning experience. I was introduced to various team members, each offering a different perspective and approach. It might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but it's all part of the learning curve. This system could be a game-changer for a large company with ample resources. Overall, I found it to be an exciting challenge!

      September 10, 2024

    • Julie C

      Enhanced Workflow Efficiency with Salesforce Essentials' Task Management

      it helps us keep track of all customer interactions, ensuring no detail is missed. Salesforce Essentials' task management feature has greatly improved our workflow

      September 1, 2024

    • Patricia A

      Salesforce Essentials: A Comprehensive and Rewarding CRM Experience

      Salesforce Essentials, in my opinion, should be hailed as the Salesforce Extraordinaire due to its unique interface. The process of adding new accounts and contacts is a thorough one, ensuring that all necessary information is captured. This might seem like a bit of a task, but it's a great way to ensure that no detail is overlooked. While the software doesn't have an autopilot feature, it does offer a hands-on experience that allows you to fully understand and control your CRM. The basic functions might require a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's a breeze. Plus, the written support, though limited, is concise and to the point. What I absolutely love about Salesforce Essentials is the robust phone support. Whenever I encounter an error, I know I can rely on their team to guide me through it. The software is sensitive, yes, but that's because it's designed to be precise and accurate. Sometimes, it might feel like you're going down a rabbit hole, but that's just because there's so much to explore and learn. I would highly recommend Salesforce Essentials to anyone looking for a CRM program that offers a rewarding and enriching experience for both you and your employees.

      August 25, 2024

    • Denise F

      Exceptional Support and Excellent Contact Management: A Review

      their team is always ready to assist with any issues or queries. The contact management feature is excellent

      August 17, 2024

    • Aislinn D

      Commendable Customer Support and Insightful Data: Salesforce Essentials Review

      it provides insightful data that helps us make informed business decisions. The customer support provided by Salesforce Essentials is commendable

      August 11, 2024

    • York M

      Never Take Anything for Granted

      As a user, my top recommendation for any company considering Salesforce's Desk.com is to thoroughly document every expectation and need for a CRM tool. I suggest not assuming any functionality exists, no matter how basic it may seem. I found that there are features and functionalities that one might expect from a modern system that it simply does not offer. For instance, I couldn't sort by most fields, add custom fields to list views, or modify the number of records per page. I also found the reporting feature to be limited - I couldn't modify fields displayed in a report, edit criteria for metrics, include custom fields in reports aside from picklists, or export more than 2500 records at a time. The email function lacked standard modern features like underlining, highlighting, modifying font color, or pasting images/tables.Although I could build more complex workflows and automation in Salesforce to update fields which are then passed back to Desk via Desk Connect, I strongly advise against relying on Desk Connect for any business processes. I learned that it can be turned off by Desk.

      August 6, 2024

    • Ruth

      Efficient Automation: The Power Behind Salesforce Essentials

      I feel like Salesforce Essentials is powered by incredibly efficient automation! It's as if there's a team of super-intelligent bots working tirelessly behind the scenes, ensuring everything runs smoothly. It's truly impressive!

      July 29, 2024

    • Nicole B

      Streamlining CRM with Salesforce Essentials

      Salesforce Essentials has been instrumental in streamlining our customer relationship management

      July 22, 2024

    • Doris Rodriguez

      Efficient Task Assignment and Monitoring with Email Integration

      it allows us to assign and monitor tasks effectively. The email integration feature is very beneficial

      July 16, 2024

    1 to 10 of 24 results

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