Salesforce.com For Dummies [Paperback]

Tom Wong (Author), Liz Kao (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470318120 | ISBN-13: 978-0470318126 | Publication Date: August 4, 2008 | Edition: 3

Ready to start solving business challenges with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software? Interested in the latest enhancements and updates to Salesforce.com? Salesforce.com For Dummies, 3rd Edition, has just what you need!

Salesforce.com is like an assistant for your sales, customer service, and marketing efforts — one that never takes a day off and never asks for a raise. Because it’s an Internet service, you sign up and log in through a browser, and it’s immediately available. Salesforce.com For Dummies, 3rd Edition shows you how to choose the right edition of Salesforce.com, and then how to use it to:

• Prospect, manage accounts, develop contacts, and calculate forecasts
• Manage your customers and your teams, and close more business
• Analyze, migrate, and maintain your data
• Track and resolve customer service issues
• Generate and pursue more sales leads and boost your revenue
• Use Salesforce with Google AdWords and manage your Internet marketing
• Integrate Salesforce.com with ERP applications for greater value
• Make sales data available to sales reps, managers, and executives
• Follow the sales process from lead to close and see how to maximize your productivity

You already know how competitive business is today, so there’s no time to lose! Salesforce.com For Dummies, 3rd Edition gets you going with this all-important CRM technology right away.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Manage your customers and your teams, and close more business with salesforce.com!

Salesforce.com is like an assistant for your sales, customer service, and marketing efforts — one that never takes a day off and never asks for a raise. Grab this book to learn how to make the most of it! From navigating salesforce.com to performing common tasks that relate to your accounts and contacts, this guide will get you going in no time.

• Understand your customer — track important data so that you can develop solutions that deliver value to your customers

• Improve customer service — track and resolve customer service issues

• Track your sales — follow the process from lead to close and see how to maximize your productivity

• Expand the funnel — generate and pursue more sales leads and boost your revenue

• Maximize marketing efforts — use Salesforce with Google AdWords and manage your Internet marketing

• Measure your performance — make the data available to sales reps, managers, and executives

• Strengthen partner relationships — track and associate partners' deals for better insight into your top partners

• Integrate with other applications — Salesforce can work with financial and ERP applications for greater value

Open the book and find:

• Expert advice on accessing and navigating salesforce.com

• Tips for creating, updating, and organizing your accounts

• How to track opportunities

• Options for building product catalogs and managing price books

• Secrets for improving marketing campaigns

• Solutions to better support your sales team

About the Author

Tom Wong claims he is the number one fan of Salesforce. He keeps a picture of the Web site on his desktop and a Team Edition football in his car. He sends his wife Salesforce meeting invitations. His friends say he can’t talk about anything else.
Prior to writing the fi rst edition, Tom was vice president in charge of CRM solutions for Theikos, a leading salesforce.com partner. And before then, he held several senior management positions at Gomez, another satisfi ed salesforce.com customer. He is a certifi ed salesforce.com partner and has been involved in over thirty implementations impacting thousand of users.
Tom currently works for salesforce.com as Vice President, Dreamforce, where he gets to travel the world to bring together Salesforce customers, partners, employees, and other fans, to learn about the amazing new Saleforce features popping up to help you be successful with your business. He has an amazing and highly patient wife; a son who is a talented drummer; and a daughter aspiring to be a ballerina. They try not to discuss salesforce.com.

Liz Kao was an enthusiastic early adopter of the software-as-service (SaaS) model and has been a Salesforce user since 1999. Through the years, she has played both in-house and consultant roles at salesforce.com.
As a salesforce.com consultant and a member of salesforce.com’s Professional Services team, Liz implemented dozens of CRM solutions for companies of all sizes across a variety of industries, including a Salesforce-native purchase requisition system used by salesforce.com’s own Global Marketing division. She developed more than a third of the applications created by salesforce.com for the debut of its AppExchange directory, the fi rst online service for sharing on-demand applications.
Her insights for new administrators are shared with thousands of visitors to salesforce.com’s best practices Web site, successforce.com.
A veteran of the enterprise software industry, Liz lives in San Francisco and has worked at Oracle, NetSuite, and salesforce.com in marketing, product marketing, product management, sales, and professional services. In addition to writing about Salesforce and the AppExchange, she advises non-profi ts and SaaS startups on a variety of product needs. In her spare time, she searches for undiscovered culinary delights, and enjoys the natural surroundings of the Bay Area.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 3 edition (August 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470318120
• ISBN-13: 978-0470318126
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great help for the new user., September 22, 2005

By 

John Brooke (Tucker, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salesforce.com For Dummies (Paperback)

I purchased several copies of the book for my sales team whose technical proficiency was across the board. While all of the material is covered in the online help available from Salesforce.com, several team members felt much more comfortable with a book that they could hold. It is a great help in getting all of the team members to use the same nomenclature which is the first step in any sales "methodology" becoming effective.

Those wishing a deeper dive, should look at the author's other books targeted towards a more advanced and technical audience.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wouldn't recommend the Kindle Edition, February 8, 2008

By 

Leland Sainty (San Francisco, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salesforce.com For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)) (Kindle Edition)

If you're considering this title in the Kindle edition - think twice. There are numerous screenshots which are simply too small to read. Text can be enlarged on the Kindle, but images cannot. Stick with the paper edition.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Like Having a Tiny Consultant in Your Hand, October 22, 2008

By 

N. Berkowitz (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Salesforce.com For Dummies (Paperback)

I'm relatively new to Salesforce.com and I've found this book to be a huge help. At my organization, we did not hire any consultants to assist us in customizing Salesforce.com for our needs. This book has been by my side as a handy resource to the questions that I've had as I get comfortable with Salesforce.com Regardless of your technical proficiency, this book is a good resource to those look to become more comfortable with Salesforce.com.