Ever since Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion in 2021, the business system provider has been deepening the connections between the two tools.

In August 2023, Salesforce released several new features designed to strengthen the collaboration between the CRM producer and the messaging platform.

For manufacturers and other companies looking to quickly get information from their customer database to those who can leverage those opportunities, it’s an exciting advance.

Called Slack Sales Elevate, the new features allow Slack users to complete key sales management functions directly from the communications channel. It allows sales teams to see customer insights and track reminders of deal progress. It also enables Slack users to use configurable account update notifications that can then be sent back to the Salesforce CRM.

How Slack Sales Elevate Works

Slack Sales Elevate is an add-on to a Slack account. It’s designed to centralize information and processes directly from the Slack platform.

Once integrated, users in the Slack app can click on the Sales button and then the Connect to Salesforce button. Users then sign into their Salesforce account.

View and Update Opportunities

To look at opportunities captured in Salesforce while in Slack, you can select an opportunity list or search via a drop-down menu. Once you select an opportunity, you can update fields necessary within Slack. The updates will save automatically to Salesforce.

Create and Manage Notifications

Keeping tabs on deals and setting reminders helps teams stay on track with key steps.

Within Slack, you can now access notifications from the Sales Notification menu. When you click on Create notification, you can choose a template to use and customize the notification as you like. When complete, you can save the notification within Salesforce.

Metrics Management

When you want to manage progress on important sales targets, you can use Slack Sales Elevate. You can use the tool to configure up to three metrics, which will appear in Your insights. Simply click the Add metric button add a Salesforce report link to select a metric and name.

Advantages of New Integrations of Salesforce and Slack

The new tools are available generally now. Slack Sales Elevate costs $60 per month per user, in addition to subscription fees for Salesforce and Slack.

The tools are a powerful way to meet users where they are. Users are frequently in the Slack app. Automated notifications help sales managers who are constantly in Slack to know when a new sales opportunity appears. It can also indicate when an opportunity has been updated.

For CRMs, there’s a crucial need to deliver integrations into collaboration platforms like Slack, Teams, and others. The Salesforce Slack integration provides for scalable integration of technologies that are primed to deepen the value of both technology solutions.

The new integration tools have other major benefits for sales teams. By making notifications configurable, users can create reminders themselves. There’s no need to coordinate the reminders with an administrator, schedule meetings, or have reports run. Notification definitions can be defined directly by the end user and automation is also in the hands of the users themselves.

There’s also tremendous opportunity with the automation, notification, and configuration technologies. The notifications may present patterns of customer behaviors that sales teams can use and may not have seen earlier.

Artificial Intelligence Advances Pending

Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting multiple industries. The transformations of work operations, content, and speed are transformative.

Salesforce has recently announced an upcoming functionality that will let teams build no-code workflows using AI that will not require help from tech support. No release date has been announced for the tool.

The new tools are designed to save time and will be triggered by actions taken in Salesforce. Deal approvals or support requests can trigger the new workflows.

For example, if a Sales Cloud update in Slack prompts a workflow, the updated data could prompt a note sent to a Slack channel asking a work team to follow up with a client. It starts with a link that appears in Slack which creates a form and builds a case in Salesforce based on what’s entered into the form. That new data prompts the message sent back into the channel.

The end result? More team productivity.

Generative AI has already become prevalent on the Slack platform, with multiple third-party apps available to build into the solution. Salesforce expects to release its own native generative AI features for sales in the near future.

Salesforce-Slack Deal Deepens Connections

Salesforce acquired Slack in July 2021. At the time of the sale, the companies touted Slack as the core interface of Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform, giving users a complete view of customer activity across sales, marketing, e-commerce, and customer service.

The deal was Salesforce’s largest at the time, eclipsing the purchase of the data visualization tool Tableau, bought for $15.7 billion in 2019.

Salesforce has gradually added integrations to the tool. Other announced advances include a channel for customers to engage with salespeople. The functionality allows salespeople to access and update Sales Cloud data directly from Slack.

A new workflow orchestration tool, based on Slack Workflow Builder, includes templates for common tasks, such as new staff onboarding or deal approvals.

CloudStreet Enhances Salesforce Investment

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Salesforce continues to push the envelope with its Slack integrations, delivering more opportunities to close sales. With CLOUDSTREET, you can optimize your Salesforce solution to empower salespeople and close more sales.