What’s New in Sales Cloud: Key Announcements at Dreamforce 2024

Salesforce Release

Oct 3

Dreamforce 2024 has come to a close, and wow—what an event! It was packed with thrilling keynotes from industry leaders, all about how AI is transforming the future of business. We saw mind-blowing innovations across Salesforce’s various clouds, proving once again that Salesforce is pushing boundaries and redefining how businesses operate.

Just like other Salesforce Clouds, Sales Cloud too got a major boost with an exciting set of new features. Whether it’s autonomous AI, smarter prospecting tools, or next-level coaching for sales reps, all the new functionalities are designed to make selling not just faster and more efficient, but smarter and more personalized.

Let’s have a closer look at some of these announcements and how they will revolutionize the way businesses sell!

AI Was the Core of the Sales Cloud Keynote

Ketan Karkhanis, EVP and GM of Sales Cloud kicked off the Dreamforce Sales Cloud keynote, emphasizing the pivotal role of AI in driving business growth, from pipeline to paycheck. He highlighted that after generative AI and predictive analytics, the next step is for teams to embrace autonomous AI.

“Autonomous AI aims to automate more processes from start to finish, enabling sales teams to work smarter and more efficiently, ultimately driving growth from “pipeline to paycheck.”

— Ketan Karkhanis

AI Agents in Sales Cloud

Connie Dea, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce, introduced two groundbreaking Sales Cloud features: SDR Agents and Sales Coach, which promise to revolutionize the way sales teams operate.

SDR Agents

With SDR agents, teams can automate lead generation and qualification with personalized prospecting at scale. Pick an agent avatar and customize it in Agent Builder so it understands your rules of engagement, tone, and language.

Want to build AI agents or recommendation models in Salesforce? 🤖 Let our experts know about it! 👨‍💻

Sales Coach

The new Sales Coach feature offers personalized coaching to sales representatives, allowing them to practice and refine their core selling skills. This tool acts as a virtual coach, providing real-time suggestions and feedback during sales calls. Imagine receiving negotiation tips or follow-up reminders as you interact with prospects—Sales Coach makes this possible, offering valuable guidance during and after calls to enhance performance.

Smarter Prospecting with Data Cloud’s New App

Salesforce also unveiled Prospecting Center, the first Data Cloud app dedicated to improving lead generation and qualification. It leverages Salesforce CRM data, third-party data, and AI to score prospects based on engagement, fit, and intent.

With this app, building and managing complex prospect segments will be quite easy. By using cross-entity identity resolution, sales teams can connect contacts and leads to a single account, giving them a holistic view of their prospects and allowing them to prioritize the most promising opportunities.

New Revenue Cloud Unveiled

Another exciting announcement came from Meredith Schmidt, EVP and GM of Revenue Cloud, who introduced the all-new Revenue Cloud. This API-first platform is built to streamline the creation of quotes and orders from any channel, enhancing flexibility and reducing complexity.

Here are the standout features of Revenue Cloud:

API-First Design: It allows businesses to create quotes and orders across multiple channels, providing greater adaptability and integration capabilities.

AI Integration: The platform’s modern UI harnesses AI to automate repetitive tasks, improving efficiency and reducing manual data entry.

Dynamic Revenue Orchestration: This feature automates order management, ensuring accurate delivery of products and services.

Unified Data Insights: By combining revenue and customer data, businesses can gain actionable insights to make better decisions and optimize their sales strategies.

Sales Performance Management Suite

TJ Wynn, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce, presented the latest in Sales Performance Management (SPM), describing it as the only fully integrated solution available in the market. Unified within Salesforce CRM, the SPM suite delivers critical planning and performance data to improve sales operations.

Here’s what’s new in the SPM suite:

Sales Planning Tools: The suite includes intuitive sales planning tools that allow users to import data and segment their organization for effective territory and quota planning.

Salesforce Spiff for Commissions: Salesforce Spiff provides real-time commission management, allowing sales reps to see immediate updates to their commissions based on deal changes.

Mobile App Features: The SPM suite offers mobile app functionality, allowing reps to access commission data and insights on the go. This improves transparency and helps motivate sales reps by providing real-time updates on their earnings.

Summary

Dreamforce 2024 brought exciting updates to Sales Cloud, with AI-driven features like SDR Agents, Sales Coach, and the new Prospecting Center, all aimed at making sales smarter and more efficient. These innovations, along with the launch of Revenue Cloud and Sales Performance Management Suite, will empower sales teams to work faster and more effectively, driving better results.

Ready to embrace these Sales Cloud innovations in your Salesforce environment? Our expert team is here to help—get in touch with us today!

Nitish Sharma

Nitish Sharma is a seasoned technical writer with over 5 years of experience in the IT industry. His expertise lies in Salesforce, AI, and Blockchain technologies. Nitish loves writing user-friendly documentation that simplifies complex technical concepts, making them accessible to both novice users and seasoned professionals.