Top 10 Reasons Why Wealthbox CRM Wants Salesforce CRM to Remain Independent.

With the recent rumors about Salesforce being for sale, our team reflected on what it would mean for Wealthbox CRM if that happened. Our conclusion: Say it ain’t so, Salesforce. Please don’t go! Here are 10 reasons…

1. The best showman and CEO of CRM would move on. …Not good.

To Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, we say: Say it ain’t so and don’t go.

We’ve said it before in previous CRM ventures over the years and we’ll say it again: Were it not for Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, we wouldn’t be here offering an alternative CRM product to customers, creating jobs for employees, and providing returns to investors. Marc Benioff and the Salesforce team have paved the way for the adoption of web-based CRM. In charting this path, he and his company have created tremendous value for everyone along the way, including philanthropic institutions. In a buyout of his company, his absence on the Salesforce CRM stage would be felt.

2. Salesforce’s “CRM” ticker symbol would cease to exist. Ouch.

3. The best pure-play “comp” in CRM would disappear. Oh no!

Thanks for the lift, Salesforce. Let’s keep climbing!

The reported 70 billion dollar sale price for Salesforce would be 13 times its fiscal 2015 revenue of $5.37 billion. Sweet. New entrants with modern CRMs like Wealthbox and other CRM SaaS startups look to Salesforce as a “comp” – meaning a comparable company to analyze – to help investors evaluate in early stage funding rounds. The rising tide of Salesforce CRM’s success floats many startup boats, including competitors like Wealthbox.

4. The CRM world order would be in disarray.

Salesforce is now the 800 pound gorilla in the CRM zoo.

Siebel, acquired by Oracle, used to be the 800 pound CRM gorilla; now Salesforce is the domineering incumbent. Around Salesforce there’s an orbit of vendor clones that ape Salesforce, like SugarCRM and the like. They all share the old-school digital lineage of Siebel CRM Systems in their product DNA. This dominance amid similar products motivates a new generation of modern, nimble competitors like Wealthbox and others that have come to the market with innovation in product design. There’s a stable order in all of this and it works to our advantage. As one prominent VC has pointed out, the new CRM upstarts may well do 10 – 20 CRM IPOs in the next few years as the big gorilla leaves huge markets open with “room at the bottom.”

5. Marketing playbooks wouldn’t be as fun and inspirational.

Salesforce mock protest at a Siebel CRM customer event.

“We went after the largest competitor in the industry or the industry itself. We made our story about change. We were about something new and different that was good for customers…” Marc Benioff to BusinessWeek

Salesforce’s promotional stunts and its “outrageous marketing schemes” are legendary. It beat Siebel through aggressive, spirited gorilla marketing like staging mock protests outside of Siebel’s customer events. We’ve been inspired by and even co-opted some of that spirit in a past CRM venture. From Apple vs. Microsoft commercial TV parodies and spoofs of Ellen Feiss ads (article) we produced in a previous CRM company that we sold, Salesforce has been a guiding force for fun, low-cost gorilla marketing. We learned from their playbook. It just wouldn’t be the same without them!

6. Everyone would wonder if Dreamforce was just a weird dream.

“Cloud Walkers,” designed by Christian Louboutin and worn by Marc Benioff at Dreamforce. Or was that just a weird dream?

Did Huey Lewis & The News actually play at 9am in the morning at Dreamforce? Did Salesforce execs actually say things like “the internet of customers” and the “speed of now” and “get to the future first”? …Wait, what? We’ll all wonder if it ever happened. Nothing like a recurring weird dream. Don’t go, Dreamforce!

7. We would need more cowbell!

We frequently ring a cowbell when Salesforce CRM users switch to Wealthbox CRM, and we ring it more loudly than for the other defectors switching from 25 CRM apps for financial advisors. Why? When you’re a 20-person company competing against a company with 16,000 employees who’ve created what the business media and industry pundits perceive as the gold standard in CRM, well, it’s a bit of a fevered rush and the only prescription is even more cowbell!

8. Old Ossified Odd business logic in Salesforce CRM might get fixed. …Aww, hopefully not!

If Salesforce gets sold, the acquirer might fix this. Bad for us!

In a free trial of any CRM, one of the first things a new user does to kick the tires is the simple action of entering a new contact name. In Salesforce, if you try this it’ll result in two red error messages, as shown above. We entered “Bill” and “Winterberg” and clicked “save” which results in this error. What the system expects that we should have done, as Siebel CRM probably required 15 years ago in its desktop software for which Salesforce webified, is to first create an “account.”  A new acquirer just might fix this. We’d prefer this were left alone and Salesforce customers explore customizations and training for CRM to help “fix” this problem to keep that cowbell ringing!

9. Our forthcoming “Salesforce CRM vs. Wealthbox CRM” switch campaign wouldn’t be as effective and fun.

“Wealthbox CRM proved a better fit for his firm (Retirement Wealth Advisors) than either Redtail or Salesforce.”RIABiz

Were Salesforce to lose its high profile, unique brand identity by being acquired by a larger company, our marketing efforts to crystallize the differences between Salesforce CRM and Wealthbox CRM could be hindered.

10. No more trade show mints. Bummer.

What would we do without those tin boxes of refreshing mints that Salesforce dispenses at trade show booths? If Salesforce were to be acquired, the entire swag industry could collapse! Fewer promo toys, fewer jobs, more bad breath. Not good!

Say it ain’t so, Salesforce. Please don’t go!