In an increasingly competitive business world, effective revenue management is crucial for success. Data from our recent CRO Survey shows that price sensitivity and long sales cycles remain major concerns for sales leaders, harming profitability and cash flows for companies that can’t quickly develop and close profitable deals.
As organizations navigate more complex sales processes and customer interactions, revenue management functions must evolve. Fortunately, Salesforce has recently introduced Revenue Cloud, a multi-functional system that can address the functionality that a system should possess. This new tool has the potential to transform lead-to-cash processes for enterprises. Let’s dive in.
Revenue Cloud is a complete reimagining of Salesforce’s CPQ and billing offerings, built on Core. All Salesforce customers can now use Revenue Cloud to handle their entire order-to-cash process on a single revenue platform. The system’s composability facilitates omni-channel selling, now enabling deployment across various channels. It covers the entire product-to-cash lifecycle, including capabilities such as:
Quoting, contracts, fulfillment, and billing are all handled under one umbrella, providing a more coherent interface for users. Starting with just a lead, sellers can use Revenue Cloud to immediately create a quote anywhere within the system. As sellers and commerce teams complain of disconnected systems and processes stretching sales cycles, a faster solution provides significant value.
Businesses that can get their revenue engines running will have significant advantages as the market improves. To do so, they’ll need several important capabilities that Revenue Cloud can provide:
A robust revenue management function requires consistent data and integrated processes across all departments. Revenue Cloud ensures that core features and functionalities are shared throughout the entire revenue lifecycle, breaking down silos between different teams and processes. Examples include unified product catalogs, standardized pricing models, and centralized customer information. By being more consistent in offerings across the business, companies can be confident that they’re offering optimal prices.
Revenue management capabilities should be accessible across different stages of the revenue lifecycle, from lead generation to customer retention. This accessibility must extend to various channels, including online, mobile, and in-person interactions. Salesforce Revenue Cloud provides this accessibility—and as a customizable system, it’s flexible enough to accommodate industry-specific needs while maintaining core functionalities.
An effective revenue management function should integrate seamlessly with existing enterprise platforms. Revenue Cloud provides a common language and data structure, facilitating easy communication between different applications and modules. It allows for a unified view of data across the enterprise, regardless of the original data sources or structures. Users get all the benefits of a cross-platform solution without actually having to leave their Salesforce platform for anything—the best of both worlds. Revenue Cloud being on Salesforce’s core platform also means it has a healthy API suite—and is vastly more extensible than Salesforce CPQ.
The ability to unify and map data from diverse sources is crucial to really knowing your prospects. A universal framework for translating and integrating data from disparate systems, like the one Revenue Cloud provides, creates a cohesive and comprehensive view of the revenue lifecycle. This capability enables real-time data synchronization and updates across all connected systems. Leveraging components from Salesforce OmniStudio, Revenue Cloud facilitates powerful data and context mapping services that facilitate enterprise connectivity.
As businesses grow and evolve, revenue management functions must be able to scale efficiently. This includes handling increasing amounts of work and data without compromising performance. Additionally, the system should be flexible enough to adapt to changing business models and market conditions. Revenue Cloud delivers all of the flexibility Salesforce users expect, so the system that works for you this year can grow into the one you need five years from now without any major overhauls.
Both B2C and B2B organizations need to be able to sell through multiple channels while providing a unified customer experience—and that means the underlying systems they use should be synchronized. Revenue Cloud supports omni-channel selling, providing a consistent experience across direct sale and commerce customer touchpoints. Pricing, product information, and customer data are synchronized across all channels, from e-commerce platforms to in-store point-of-sale systems.
Organizations are increasingly adopting AI into their sales infrastructure in a wide range of ways—from lead scoring to contract analysis to self-sufficient sales agents. Any new system should be compatible with AI-powered analytics to ensure you can keep up. Revenue Cloud delivers, enabling predictive analytics, personalization, and automation of routine tasks. It also provides AI-driven insights that can help optimize pricing strategies, identify cross-selling opportunities, and improve customer retention. Given Revenue Cloud is built on Salesforce’s core platform – it is inherently integrated with Einstein1, Data Cloud, and soon Agentforce enabling all sorts of AI functionality!
Robust security features and compliance capabilities are non-negotiable for a modern enterprise, especially where customer data is involved. Revenue Cloud is based the Salesforce platform’s industry-leading security capabilities to keep your customer information protected, allowing you to align with all regulations applicable to your business. By keeping data within a single system, you open up fewer points of unauthorized access, minimizing risk. You can read more about Salesforce platform security & trust here.
No matter what specific challenges your business faces, sales ultimately comes down to managing your customer relationships smoothly. As your revenue generation processes grow more complex, you’ll need a comprehensive and integrated approach to revenue management. Revenue Cloud is a great way to address these needs. Built on Salesforce’s platform, Revenue Cloud’s suite of tools can provide the unified solution sales leaders need to streamline operations, improve collaboration, and drive growth in today’s competitive business environment. Read more about Revenue Cloud’s recent release detail here.
As a Summit Salesforce partner, Spaulding Ridge is a trusted implementer of numerous technologies for the modern sales leader. Whether you’re an existing Salesforce CPQ customer evaluating a Revenue Cloud migration, or evaluating a new product to cash tool, we’d be happy to talk about how your organization can enhance its revenue capabilities. If you think Revenue Cloud might fit your needs, reach out for a free consultation!
