In the financial services sector, Salesforce stands head and shoulders above the other customer relationship management (CRM) and cloud computing platforms out there. That’s because the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud was designed with financial services in mind, allowing you to connect with your clients more personally than ever before.

As Regional Vice President, I’ve worked with many financial services companies to support their digital transformation and business process improvements. I’ve seen firsthand how Salesforce makes a difference in this industry for three main reasons:

• The security and trust features
• Their investment in understanding the financial services industry
• The degree of customizability to suit unique company needs

Below, I dive into each of these three points to show how Salesforce can help take your financial services company to the next level.

SECURITY AND TRUST FEATURES

Salesforce is known as the most secure CRM platform available. It’s not only the system the Department of Defense uses, but also the platform chosen by U.S. Bank, Transamerica, Western Union, and numerous other financial institutions for its robust features and reliable data security.

Financial services companies don’t just need to be vigilant against external hacks — they also have to ensure that client information isn’t shared across business lines. These special security needs are well served by Salesforce’s security and trust features. Salesforce features provide advanced configurations for top security, boosting trust among your clients as they share their most sensitive data with you.

DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF THE INDUSTRY

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud was created with the input of wealth management companies and independent software vendors. This is representative of the time Salesforce has invested in understanding the financial services industry.

Through consultations with industry experts and ongoing events for financial services professionals, Salesforce has come to truly understand the financial industry — and it shows in their products. You can be confident that your Salesforce solution will be able to meet your specific needs, especially with the customizations available.

HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMIZABILITY

Financial service companies vary widely; from banking and insurance to wealth management and investing, each sector of financial services operates very differently.

Salesforce has the customizability to support them all. Financial advisors, for instance, can leverage Salesforce to deliver personalized relationships to each of their clients. Bankers can use the platform to gain more insight about their customers and identify opportunities to convert and cross-sell their target market. All sectors can benefit from the technology’s ability to streamline client communications, increase data security, and integrate omni-channel efforts.

In fact, Salesforce has so many options that our clients can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the possibilities — that’s where we come in to help.

We encourage our clients to avoid trying to boil the ocean. Instead, as you implement Salesforce, focus on the key areas and problems that need to be addressed. For your organization, the focus may be on risk management, financial reporting timeliness, or regulatory compliance. Identify the top challenges you need your technology solution to help solve. This allows you and your implementation partner to develop a minimum viable product that will address your key needs, and then build and expand on that solution.

As a starting point, aside from using Salesforce Financial Cloud, we have found that many financial services companies benefit from customizing and using:

• Sales Cloud: to find clients and grow accounts to improve the lead-to-loyalty cycle
• Marketing Cloud: for help with (GDPR-compliant) marketing automation
• Service Cloud: to increase client satisfaction and improve customer support
• Community Cloud: to provide clients with excellent self-service options and account portals
• Einstein AI: to leverage AI-powered predictions and recommendations to improve internal decision making, increase productivity, and create a better customer experience