Salesforce for Startups: How Salesforce Can Accelerate Your Startup

The startup field is fiercely competitive. Anything which can be done to better yourself and your startup should be considered to accelerate and advance your business to new heights. With a customized Salesforce approach from Relay, you’ll be able to differentiate your brand when compared to other startups in the field. Throughout this post, we’ll be discussing the various components of a successful, custom Salesforce development and how it can benefit your startup as each milestone is met. As you read along, we will share how Relay can help your startup reach its new heights on a much more efficient and effective basis.

Combining Custom Salesforce Apps & Startups Such as Yours

When Salesforce and startups meet eye-to-eye, there are many benefits to be had. The main benefit we’ve seen is the concise nature of a custom Salesforce development which is custom-catered to every aspect of your startup’s ecosystem. There are many moving  parts with any successful startup, and when there are many moving parts; you may run into issues across the board. With a custom Salesforce app or integration, you’ll not have to worry about the “what ifs” of problems and instead can focus on the “what ifs” of solutions. Within the Salesforce ecosystem, Innovation is the key to progress. Partnering with Relay as you join the ecosystem, you will be immersed within a community that allows you to capture more useful insights, engage in strategic learning and have the support from subject matter experts to tailor your salesforce to  your startups specific needs.

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Diving Deep into Data with Built-In Analytics Tools

Salesforce has many great features from the start with its built-in analytics toolset, yet with a custom build, you’ll be able to have nearly any and all features you need, placed throughout. This can allow you to better focus on the variables which matter most to your startup and have the right data, at the right time, in front of the right members of your team. Customers know you have their data. They know everything you can do with it. And they expect you to use it to provide fast, smart, personalized engagement across every interaction. Think of Data as an iceberg. What you see as a user is just the tip — but beneath the surface lurks a behemoth support system of data scientists and engineers, massive amounts of data, labor-intensive extraction and preparation of that data, and a huge technology infrastructure. It takes a specialized team of data scientists and developers to access the correct data, prepare the data, build the correct models, and then integrate the predictions back into an end-user experience such as CRM. Thats where Relay can come into play.

Focusing On the Customer Experience

Customer experience is everything when it comes to the underlying success of your startup. So many startups invest tons of time, effort, energy, and funds into ensuring their customers are taken care of from day one. We know you’re the same and we want to allow you to see every aspect of the customer experience, before it happens, when it happens, and after it happens. From there, you’ll be able to pivot accordingly and have all of your bases covered through automation, modification, and personalization. Today the customer feels the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. We feel this way as well. At Relay, we pride ourselves on being a customer first company. We work for you!

Managing Small Problems, Before They Become Big Problems

No one makes it to the top without falling down once or twice. Just like in life, startups have high highs and low lows. Thats the name of the game, and if you’re determined enough to ride the wave of success, you’ll most likely be able to come out on top. With Salesforce, you’ll be able to correctly identify small problems before they become big problems. This is all thanks to the ability to bridge every department within your startup to allow clear and concise communication, day in and day out. With Salesforce you are able to create a single source of truth and will be the core enabler on your path to digital transformation and a thriving business. Relay's vision and expertise will allow you to create unified views across multiple business segments, so you can deliver the most optimal experiences at every customer touchpoint and when problems do arise you will have the foundation and support to pivot and act accordingly.

Discovering Solutions with Relay’s Custom Salesforce Apps

We want to learn more about your startup and how we can best align our skills with your skills. With the help of Relay, we strive to improve your customer’s customer’s (no, that’s not a typo) experience! If you are interested in taking your digital transformation strategy to the next level, feel free to contact us using the form below and we’ll be sure to follow up as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you soon and we’re very excited to show you a better future state and partner on the journey towards your startup’s success!

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Now that we discussed the features of Salesforce we don't like, let's talk about the features that we do like — and there are A LOT. At Relay we are not only experts in Salesforce, but we are incredible advocates for the platform as well. There is simply no competition to the breadth of features that Salesforce provides. Let's take a look at the five Salesforce features we are most thankful for.

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1) Can Prototype a Solution Very Quickly

Because Salesforce is such a broad platform and encompasses so many components, you can take an idea from inception to completion incredibly quick. Many Salesforce developers choose to use third party apps such as Avonni Creator or Sketch to prototype their UX ahead of time, but if you already have a sense of what you want your app to be, you can work right in Salesforce. Using Lightning Web Components, you can mock up a rough version of your app in no time, without ever writing a single piece of code.

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2) Free Apps on the AppExchange

It's no secret we are huge fans of the Salesforce AppExchange. Now due to the nature of Salesforce, most of the apps on the AppExchange skew towards the more expensive side. But in fact, there are a ton of great free apps that often go overlooked. Whether it's Ringlead Field Trip, to analyze your org's field usage or S-Docs to supercharge your Salesforce documents, there is no shortage of absolutely free apps that will improve your team's productivity.

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3) Paid Apps on the AppExchange

While we do love free apps on the AppExchange, it's only once you delve into paid apps that you can truly transform your Salesforce workspace. Looking to revolutionize your sales operations? Take a look at SalesPath+ that will give you full control of your sales lifecycle. Need advanced contract management? Docusign is the absolute king of that space. What if you need to build complex forms for data intake? Formstack will allow you to create forms natively right within Salesforce.

Whatever challenge you are trying to solve, the AppExchange will have an app that can provide a solution.

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4) Salesforce Community

Behind the entire Salesforce ecosystem, lies the community that has made Salesforce what it is today. Chances are that if you have an issue within Salesforce, there are hundreds of trailblazers and community members who are having the same issue. Join groups, ask questions, make connections and attend events — it's what makes the community extremely powerful.

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5) It's as Complex as You Want

What really makes Salesforce such a special platform is the adjusting learning curves based on what you are looking to do for a given task. If you are brand new and just learning, you can design page layouts in Lightning Experience or add fields using drag and drop without an ounce of code. If you're a more advanced user, you can use Apex to create very complex applications that do exactly what you need. Both users on the same platform, working in concert.

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These are only a few of the hundreds of reasons we love and are thankful for Salesforce. It's the world's most powerful platform and it's growth is only beginning.

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Tahoe Dreamin' 2021 is upon us and although Relay won't physically be able to be there in person, it's so great to see in-person community events back. Tahoe Dreamin' never disappoints and this year is sure to be no different. So let's take a look at a few of the sessions we are most looking to at this year's conference.

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October 28th - Day 1

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You're Right - You Can't Do It All: Practical Tools and Perspectives to Manage Both Rapid Response Work AND Project Work with Rich Nevin (Co-Founder of HiFi Consulting Group)

At Relay we know that project work and supporting that project work go hand-in-hand. While it's always a challenge to juggle both, it's never impossible. We're excited to see what Rich Nevin has in store for this presentation.

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Work Smarter Not Harder in the NEW Success from Anywhere World with Ella Marks (Marketing Manager at Salesforce) and Rebecca Saar (Sr. Director Admin Relations at Salesforce)

We now live in the work anywhere world and Salesforce is leading the charge in changing how we operate. Whether it's automation, data insight or communication transparency — Salesforce is making our lives easier and more refined instead of more difficult. We can't wait to hear more tips straight from Salesforce themselves.

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Designing the Future of Work with Adam Doti (VP & Principle Design Architect, Salesforce) and Daniel Peter (Salesforce Practice Lead at Robots and Pencils)

Crafted design is now more crucial to a project's success than it has ever been. Customers expect for their applications to not only be functional but be designed and crafted with a purpose. Adam and Daniel will look at how we all need to be more design-minded when working in Salesforce and the role Slack will play in helping us get there.

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Turn Customer Feedback into Action - Lessons from Salesforce with Scott Allan (Sr. Manager, Product Strategy at Salesforce)

Gathering feedback is crucial to a project's long-term success. The more you scale, the harder it is to gather actionable feedback that your team can take to craft a more cohesive project. We're really looking forward to hearing from Scott and his willingness to let attendees provide feedback directly to team in charge of IdeaExchange and Known Issues.

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October 29th - Day 2

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Second place is First Loser: Automating Speed to Lead to Win the Customer with Stephanie Thornton (Director of Alliances at LeanData)

Automation could be the difference between closing that sale and losing it due to a time-delay. Every time your sales reps have to input data or resolve tasks manually, it not only leaves them open to errors but also delays their speed to lead timing. We're a firm believer in automation and we're looking forward to see how others are using it to their advantage.

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The Future of Salesforce Development with Stephan Chandler-Garcia (Lead Developer Advocate at Salesforce)

Salesforce Functions and Lightning Web Runtime have introduced two new powerful components for developers, but it also requires them to adapt to the changing platform. While these components will allow developers to work more closely with others in various languages, it absolutely provides some challenges. We  are interested in hearing the new features of both Salesforce Functions and Lightning Web Runtime.

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Salesforce Devops: Build versus Buy with Vernon Keenan (Senior Industry Analyst at SalesforceDevops.net)

If you're looking to understand and implement Salesforce devops, you will definitely want to attend this session with Vernon. Not only will he trace the origins of devops and how it works within Salesforce, but he will provide a framework for integrating solutions into repository management, Salesforce Release Management and more. Vernon is a titan of the industry so we are really looking forward to this one.

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We can't wait to see how Tahoe Dreamin 2021 turns out, the connections made from it and how it will shape the community going forward. In-person community events are back and we are looking forward to interacting with everyone in the very near future!

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