5 New Sales Cloud Innovations Released: Sales Planning, Activity 360, and More

We’re all aware that it’s a challenging sales landscape out there. Rising customer expectations is one thing, but with budgets being cut, the typical sales team needs to stand out to win business. 

Over the past few months, the world has been talking a lot about the power of generative AI and the potential it has to improve both employee productivity and customer experiences. We can take the Salesforce platform as an example of technology that’s embracing generative AI with Einstein GPT – and (we can speculate that) there’s far more to come in that arena. 

I’ve never come across a sales team, or an individual seller, who doesn’t want to improve how efficiently they can work and accelerate towards their quota. According to Salesforce’s most recent ‘State of Sales’ report, only 28% of sellers actually hit their quota. 

We’ve heard it all before: Leverage AI and data to automate mundane tasks and free sellers up to focus on more meaningful (‘human’) interactions – or, as Salesforce puts it, “make every customer moment count”. Here’s a rundown of what’s new with the ever-evolving Sales Cloud.

1. Sales Cloud (+ Data Cloud + Einstein AI)

Availability: In closed pilot.

You may be familiar with Salesforce Data Cloud (formerly known as Genie, Marketing Cloud CDP). Data Cloud/Genie was the breakthrough innovation unveiled during Salesforce’s 2022 flagship conference, where CDP offered uses outside the classic ‘marketing’ use cases – sales teams being one. 

Now this is being taken to the next level. The combination of Data Cloud and Einstein AI is enabling sellers with:

• Generative AI-powered emails: Auto-generate highly personal, relevant prospect emails based on CRM data (less time writing = more time selling). 
• Qualified leads: Einstein Bots for Sales automates lead conversion, pre-qualifying web visitors so that sellers talk to the right people at the right time.
• Conversational AI-driven sales coaching: Einstein Conversation Insights’ transcription and conversational AI analysis will be available in 14 additional languages, including Japanese, German, Spanish, and Hindi.

2. Activity 360

Availability: Generally available

You may be familiar with Einstein Activity Capture, the Salesforce offering that enables you to capture the right data from Gmail and Outlook and add it to Salesforce. While this was useful for syncing data between these platforms, activity data was not reportable in Salesforce. Activity 360 encompasses everything from Salesforce’s activity auto capture products to the analytics.

With this relaunch, these sales activities from third-party platforms are now fully reportable using standard Salesforce reports through the new unified Activity 360 reporting (currently in closed beta, but scheduled to become GA in Winter’24).

It’s worth noting that since its initial launch a few years ago, several enhancements have been made to the offering that are worth exploring, too.

Read More: 3 Ways to Unlock Reporting with Einstein Activity Capture

3. Sales Planning

Availability: Expected to be generally available in June 2023

With the wealth of data inside your Salesforce org, how do you make planning sales territories easier?  

The all-new Sales Planning is native to Sales Cloud, making it easy to build end-to-end plans fueled by CRM data – fast. Essentially, this is enhanced territory planning, taking shape as a full-blown command center for sales managers and sales ops. Drive new growth by efficiently allocating capacity, territories, quota, compensation, run what/if scenarios, slice and dice data, and more.

4. Pay Now

Availability: Expected to be generally available in June 2023

Pay Now makes buying easy for customers. From within Sales Cloud, reps can send a simple auto-generated reordering portal to customers who can then purchase with ​​their preferred payment methods. Payment capabilities can be embedded in invoices, SMS, or email.

5. Tableau for Sales

Availability: Generally available 

Another ‘string to the seller’s bow’ that combines Tableau, the leading data visualization platform with Data Cloud (formerly Genie) and Einstein GPT. 

Empower sales leaders with self-service data exploration of any data, helping to inform and provide them with actionable strategies to grow revenue.

Summary

With budgets being slashed, salespeople have a real challenge on their hands to meet rising customer expectations; the typical sales team needs to stand out to win business. 

Over the past few months, the Salesforce community (and the world) has discussed the power of generative AI and its potential to improve employee productivity and customer experiences. Sales Cloud continues to evolve to further delight sellers, their managers, and customers alike.

Summary of availability:

• Einstein GPT is currently in closed pilot.
• Tableau for Sales is generally available.
• Activity 360 is generally available.
• Sales Planning is expected to be generally available June 2023.
• Pay Now and Reorder Portal are expected to be generally available June 2023.