Salesforce CEO wants to team up with financial advisors. A great plan, no doubt. (NYSE: CRM). I was on reading on RIABIZ some Keith Block quotes: “You’re also going to see our industry strategy come into greater focus this summer when we introduce our first industry solution in wealth management.”
“So this is really, as you can see, a pretty incredible list of brands, and it shows the continued traction we’re getting in our industry strategy,” Block said.
“You’re also going to see our industry strategy come into greater focus this summer when we introduce our first industry solution in wealth management.”I guess it’s been rumored that Salesforce has been developing such a product for at least 18 months now. “How is it a big deal if a self-professed marketing firm treats it as a throwaway line on a conference call?” says Friedman. “Since when have they become Northwestern Mutual, the quiet company?” “I’m not hearing anything new,” says Greg Friedman
“The biggest area they’re going after is the ability to connect much more closely with the social domain,” he says. “A lot of firms are saying, ‘we understand the value of LinkedIn, but how do we ensure that all the activity is kept track of?’”
But Ted Tsung thinks that “Salesforce is the only company doing it the right way.” maybe he’s right.
“The upgrade is healthy from my perspective because it once again reaffirms their value in the marketplace. We can say ‘forget the rumor about Salesforce getting bought, we have the best technology for the next 10 years,” says Tsung. “Salesforce is the only company doing it the right way.” “I would expect to see some functionality change to make Salesforce more usable right out of the gate for advisors,” he says.
“Probably the biggest thing advisors will say about working with Salesforce is there is not a great out-of-the-box software solution that works well for their practices.”
Mary Ferguson: Salesforce as a platform is the best thing around…but the best thing about it is also the worst thing about it: it’s flexibility. “I think it’s going to be a beefed up product and its probably going to include a lot of their features,” she says. “But it still comes down to who’s going to support it. Are they going to support it themselves or have other partner’s support it?”
My opinion is that most Advisors will not want to pay the steep price of this software. Also, since I’m an avid user of SalesForce, I know for a fact most advisors don’t have the time or patience to learn this. It will take a while to fully understand the system.