Many businesses that operate online must find convenient yet accessible ways to manage customers and sales. Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms do exactly that.
One CRM platform, in particular, Salesforce, has made an immense impact on business-to-consumer (B2C) models. Through cloud technology, Salesforce offers businesses an easy way to meet consumer demands.
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What Is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that enables businesses to connect with their customers. The Salesforce CRM is hosted on the company server, rather than your own.
SaaS defines any cloud service that delivers software to an entity without that entity having to bother with downloading the software. It can be accessed through an internet browser. Google is a popular company offering many SaaS platforms like Google Meet or Google Drive.
But Salesforce specifically is marketed to enhance B2C relationships. With a simple monthly fee, businesses that use Salesforce can manage their human resources, call centers, and finances among other things.
This is in turn for business developing their own CRMs which can take several months. For businesses who want to focus on growth, Salesforce is a fast and easy way to communicate with customers where your business won’t need to hire a couple of dozen technical experts to build the system infrastructure.
Companies that use Salesforce including large enterprises like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, generally see an increase in sales revenue and customer satisfaction when Salesforce software is deployed.
CRMs like Salesforce have a wide range of uses spanning from marketing to customer service interactions. In essence, Salesforce manages the business side of your business, so you can concentrate on making the product.
What Is a Salesforce Developer?
Salesforce developers have the programming expertise required to help business clients build CRM platforms with Salesforce.
Those who use Salesforce on a deeper level will likely have some former software development experience. But the tools Salesforce developers use are unique to the platform.
Salesforce has created its own language and framework for developers to become familiar with and utilize their platform accordingly.
Apex is the principal language that developers should know in order to classify themselves as Salesforce developers.
Visualforce is a framework allowing developers to build user interfaces (UIs) for clients’ Salesforce platform. HTML and JavaScript can also be useful for Salesforce developers building UIs.
Lightning is a new addition to the Salesforce ecosystem. It is a component-based framework that can simplify the development experience for those who do not have programming experience.
Why Use Salesforce?
The justification for using Salesforce is quite straightforward. It’s not difficult to think of a few scenarios where a CRM would be essential to business operations.
For example, imagine you’re advertising a service or product on your web page and a potential customer is curious to learn more about what exactly you’re offering.
Without providing assistance almost immediately, the potential customer may be prompted to leave your site and search elsewhere or give up on the search altogether. Alternatively, with Salesforce, the customer can instantly be connected via a phone call or live chat, or some other tool.
In another scenario, a customer might be displeased with a product they bought from your business. While this is disappointing, it does happen; at this point, keeping your customers satisfied should be your main priority.
Ideally, you should talk to the dissatisfied customer, apologize for the inconvenience, and organize a return and refund as soon as possible. Salesforce will be your friend along the way, even when it comes to financial processes.
Perhaps just as important – if not more important – is Salesforce’s ability to track customer data. Marketing analysis is key to targeting and attracting more customers down the line and Salesforce can help make that goal a reality.
Advantages of Using Salesforce
Salesforce can streamline business operations in a number of ways. Here are just a few advantages making Salesforce a quintessential tool for business development.
Data-Driven
Again, you can keep tabs on all your customers with Salesforce. Knowing what drives customers to your service or product is the only way to ensure that they’ll keep coming back for more.
Convenient
Cloud services are by nature convenient. Their entire purpose is rooted in freeing businesses of the stress and budget obligations of having in-house infrastructure or heavy-weight computer software.
Salesforce is just another cloud service making things easy for businesses in need. All you need to run Salesforce is internet access. You can even access Salesforce on a smartphone with their mobile app.
Productive
Accessible consumer data and a platform to manage various tasks from customer service to finance guarantees better time management for your business overall. However, the addition of Lightning to Salesforce has boosted productivity even more.
With productivity comes efficiency and growth. Salesforce customers report a 39% percent increase in sales productivity.
Collaborative
Salesforce has a Chatter feature that lets you talk to others who have the same investment in your business whether that be clients or stakeholders. Given that communication and collaboration are at the crux of business development, such a feature is paramount.
To add, Salesforce is community-driven with more than 2.3 million community members to help your business get adjusted via feedback and advice.
Companies That Use Salesforce
- Spotify
- T-Mobile
- Macy’s
- Toyota
- American Express
- The Hershey Company
Reasons to Hire a Salesforce Developer
There are many good reasons to employ a Salesforce developer. The most obvious reasons have to do with the pure intentions of any CRM’s which is to build a relationship between businesses and their customers. But there are other usage cases as well.
First and foremost, you can optimize a Salesforce platform you already have set up by hiring a professional to make sure everything is in its place.
With the customer data you gather using Salesforce, you can also start a marketing campaign to get more leads and eventually increase sales.
Whatever you decide to do, you’ll need a Salesforce developer on your side to make sure it’s done right.
Hire a Salesforce Developer
The sooner you hire a Salesforce developer the sooner you can start working towards your business growth. Lightning might make Salesforce a bit easier to navigate, but as a professional business, you have a responsibility to meet customers with your best efforts.
This means making sure that your CRM is capable of handling the needs of your business and customers. While Salesforce is definitely able, not everyone has the skills to use the platform proficiently.
If you’re concerned about how to hire a proficient Salesforce developer you can browse through many job boards and freelance marketplaces. You can also look to outsourcing agencies like Trio for Salesforce developers.
How do you hire a Salesforce developer?
For those who wish to take the high road and hire Salesforce developers on your own, we’re here to help.
Hiring a developer on your own is a very focused and hands-on process that requires considerable knowledge about software development in general.
The last thing you want to do is trust your hiring process to someone with no technical ability. If you are a non-technical manager looking to learn a thing or two, we have a great resource here for you to learn more about the hiring process in detail.
Otherwise, we’d recommend you contact Trio for consulting and developer allocation.
What should you look for in a Salesforce developer?
Proficient Salesforce developers should have the following skills and abilities:
- Expertise in Apex and Visualforce
- Up-to-date with Lightning Experience standards
- Professional experience in data modeling, management, and security
- Demonstrated background in object-oriented programming (OOP)
- Familiarity with the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern
How much do developers cost in the U.S.?
ZipRecruiter data shows that Salesforce developers make an annual salary of $115,403. Across the board, Salesforce developer salaries in the United States can range from $48,000 to $174,500.
How much do developers cost in South America?
Due to economic differences between the United States and South America as a whole, the cost of offshoring software development is significantly lower than hiring full-time with U.S talent. For Senior Salesforce Developers in South America, the average salary is currently around $100,000 whereas a mid-level developer costs around $76,000.
How much do developers cost in Ukraine / Eastern Europe?
Eastern Europe shares very similar rates to South America, again due to the economic differences. When looking at salaries in Eastern Europe, data shows that a Senior Salesforce Developer costs around $100,000 on average.
Hourly Rates for Developers
Another way to look at developer costs is through hourly rates. While salaries are good to understand for hiring developers for full-time and long-term, you might just need a developer for a period of 3-6 months or 6-12 months. In these types of situations, it’s best to calculate your costs based on the hourly rates of a developer.
Below is a table that lists the various hourly rates of developers in different locations based on their job title.
Why Hire a Salesforce Developer?
Trio Salesforce developers are pre-vetted, interviewed, and then trained further to become true software professionals, capable of adapting to situations that are both within and outside of the scope of their general expertise.
At Trio, we hold our developers to a higher standard. Much like how elite special forces units recruit only the best from main branches of the military, we recruit developers who either show amazing potential or demonstrate exceptional skill. We then take their talents and sharpen them even further.
Another benefit of hiring a Trio developer is that you won’t incur the costs of hiring, which can add up to be around 30% of a developer’s salary on average, as well as overhead costs associated with full-time employment.
By working with Trio, you can enjoy a highly experienced full-time developer for a fraction of the cost, along with the added project management assistance.
To learn more, tell us about your project and we’ll get you started.
