Salesforce.com for Dummies

by Liz Kao

Your all-access guide to reaping the benefits of Salesforce.com Salesforce.com has a rapidly expanding influence over the way companies across the globe interact with their clientele. Written by Salesforce.com insiders with years of experience in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, Salesforce.com For Dummies gives you an edge in building relationships and managing your company's sales, marketing, customer service, and support operations. You'll discover how to organize contacts, schedule business appointments, use forecasting tools to predict upcoming sales, create accurate projects based on past performance, and so much more. A customizable, on-demand CRM solution, Salesforce.com allows businesses to organize and manage all of their customer information—leads, opportunities, contacts, accounts, cases, and solutions—in one place. Whether you're a Windows or Mac user, this down-to-earth, friendly guide shows you how to maximize Salesforce.com's capabilities to close deals faster, gain real-time visibility into sales, and collaborate instantly. Customize the new user interface with apps, widgets, and tools Prospect leads, drive sales, and provide outstanding customer service Manage contacts, identify opportunities, and analyze your results Collaborate with colleagues using Chatter If you're new to Salesforce.com or an existing user looking for the latest tips and tricks to maximize its potential, this friendly guide has you covered.

Genres: Business, Reference, Nonfiction, Technology, Technical

593 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 28, 2005

Reviews

[Rick Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read what I think I need to read for now. I might come back to more of it later.

[Alexey · Rating 3 out of 5]

эту книгу мне пришлось прочитать случайно. У меня бывает такое – хочется изучить тему, иду на Амазон и смотрю все, что мне алгоритм подсовывает. Покупать все книги, разумеется, жаба душит, поэтому я обманываю свои побуждения к покупкам и нажимаю «send sample» (отправить бесплатный кусок). А тут случайно ошибся и нажал «купить»… Ну раз купил, почему бы и не прочитать. Одна из моих ролей в Теплице – искать в появляющихся технологиях конкурентные преимущества для гражданского общества. Недавно я понял, что самый системный метод – это последовательное изучение не просто технологий, а конкретных программных экосистем, которые либо уже зарекомендовали себя в других секторах, либо подают надежды.

Salesforce – поразительно успешная сервис-компания, известная, прежде всего, за счет предоставления облачных CRM-услуг. С ее образа (как это принято говорить «inspired by») писались многие более поздние или местные CRM. Недавно я для себя сформулировал, в чем инновационность CRM – если совсем на высоком уровне, то эта технология совмещает адресную книгу и отслеживание процесса продаж. Все остальное уже добавляется на эти две ключевые функции: персонализация, автоматизация, сегментирование, командная работа, управление доступом, интеграции. Процессы (например, продажи) же, как понятие, являются абстракцией, которая появилась относительно недавно (30-40 лет назад). Если тейлоризм (научная организация труда) революционизировал промышленность в начале XX века, то осмысление производственных процессов и создание дигитализированных методологий по контролю качества (Деминг, Kanban / Just-in-Time) по мере развития ИКТ привело к новым методологиям вроде Six Sigma в 90-х, и, в начале 2000-х – к SCRUM и Agile. Каждая из методологий требовала инструментов и отображения осмысленных процессов. Продажи – не исключение.

Знакомство с современными CRM-системами, а точнее понимание их основополагающих концепций – конечно, важно. Конкретно эта книга? Читать ее не нужно. Она слишком базовая – объясняет совершенно базовые подходы (ну понятно же, что для чайников – на обложке ж написано, но я жил надеждой, что «для чайников» – это про стиль объяснения, а не про глубину описываемого функционала).

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liz Kao and Jon Paz did a very effective job at drilling how to get tasks done in Salesforce. I'm currently in the process of learning Salesforce to become certified in Salesforce administration, so this book did a good job at highlighting for me the concepts of what Salesforce offers as well as instructional guides on how to do everything you've got to optimize for your organization. There's only so much that a book can encapsulate in teaching a reader about a new software program, and Kao & Paz did a good job at being effective within their limitations of a book. They were thorough, they were humorous and they made sure to explain how to customize as well as what certain limitations were. My only complaint with the book is some chapters were merely repeats of previous chapters, with new phraseology. Perhaps this was to drill in the readers' heads how to get things done, but other than that it was a great book. I recommend it for people who want to learn concepts before diving into the hands-on approach found on places like Trailhead!

[Jason Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

For real beginners - if you use SF at work, you can basically learn everything in the book from using it. Also, SF.com has great tutorials in their site

[Jason Brinkerhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the information to be somewhat disjointed. Before one has a chance to enter data we are told how to manipulate it. By the tenth chapter I was ready to rewrite half of the book. This perhaps a better reference book for someone already writhing in the system and trying to find answers to certain questions. By that time you will have discovered that the user forums are a much better reference.

[ZaBeth Marsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found that there wasn't anything in this book that I couldn't find in the Salesforce.com online help. In addition, the online help has many more screen shots and references. This might be good for the very beginner but I think getting hands-on with Salesforce is really the way to go.

[Betsy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A terrible book for me to read. But you should probably read it! HAha. No seriously - I already knew this content.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

work stuff...

[R2 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a speed read. Not really a tool I'm looking to use.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read this book, you will totally know how to do basic stuff in salesforce. It doesn't lie. And I am a dummy.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great place to start if you do any salesforce.com administration.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great guide for getting started with Salesforce. Great reference when needing to know something quick.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Save your money and take the free Salesforce Trailhead training, or free Force.com workbook. Both present the material in more detail and are free!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salesforce user manual...

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok overview of the company but a bit repetitive over 400 pages.