Say hello to happier customers: Meet Salesforce Essentials at QuickBooks Connect 2019

QuickBooks® Connect is your moment to step back from the day-to-day demands of running a business to get the learnings and skills to help blueprint your future. It’s two days of inspirational speakers, small group and one-one-one learnings, and support from some of the savviest experts in the industry. It’s also an opportunity to connect with over 100 solutions and third-party apps that are integral to QuickBooks and small business success, like our platinum sponsor Salesforce Essentials.

We sat down with Vice President of SMB and Essentials Product Marketing, Eric Bensley, to hear why Salesforce is excited to be a part of this year’s QuickBooks Connect and what you can expect from their team.

Salesforce Snapshot:

• Twitter: @Essentials
• Instagram: @SalesforceEssentials
• Headquarters location: San Francisco
• Number of employees: 45,000
• Fun Fact about company: Salesforce started out in a small San Francisco apartment.
• # of QBCs attended: 2
• Favorite memory from a QBC event: Meeting small businesses and hearing their inspirational stories about using their businesses to make the world a better place

Tell us a little bit about Salesforce.

Every company is built on customer relationships, and we’re proud to help companies of all sizes make those relationships the best they can be. As the leader in customer relationship management (CRM), we’re inspired by our customers who are building the path to their best business every day.

With Salesforce, you can centralize customer data so you don’t have to search through spreadsheets and emails to find what you need. For $25 a month per user, our CRM built for small business, Salesforce Essentials, makes it easy to:

• Deliver support across email, phone, chat, and social channels.
• Manage contacts, accounts, and support cases.
• Track emails and meetings automatically.
• Create custom dashboards and reports.

You can learn more about how we support small businesses here.

How does Salesforce work with QuickBooks?

When your small business pairs QuickBooks with Salesforce, it’s easier to share financial data and get a 360-degree view of your business. Working together, the two products create a lens that lets businesses of any size track expenses, create customer reports, and gain insights for better forecasting. Learn more about how to connect our platforms together here.

You’ll be exhibiting at QuickBooks Connect in San Jose on Nov. 6-7. Tell us what attendees can expect to see from your team.

At QuickBooks Connect, we’ll share how small businesses can better serve their customers with the help of a scalable and powerful small business CRM solution. We’ll show how Salesforce Essentials can help you find customers, win their business, and keep them happy. We’ll host live product demonstrations along with 1:1 consulting opportunities to get you started on Essentials instantly.

Don’t forget to come by our booth and join our raffle for a chance to win an exciting prize.

Your team has joined us at previous QuickBooks Connect around the world. What keeps you coming back?

We’re honored to have the opportunity to meet with small business leaders and owners at QuickBooks Connect again this year. Hearing their stories of growth, innovation, and how passionately they lead their business inspires us to keep coming back.

What advice do you have for small businesses?

The best advice for small businesses actually comes from our very own small business customers. At one of our own events, Dreamforce 2018, we asked them to share the most essential advice they had for fellow small business leaders. Out of the 1,000 notes we received, here are some of my personal favorites:

• “Every journey starts with one step — make sure you have the right shoes to go far.” 
• The choices you make today can affect you and your business in the long run. For example, investing in business-scaling technology can help your team stay organized and keep up with customer expectations from the very beginning.
• “Be open to the journey without being too rigid on the outcome.” 
• Being flexible and open-minded is one of the best tools to help entrepreneurs’ overcome adversity.
• “Know your numbers, but know your customers better!”
• Your customer is everything to your business. Make sure you’re putting them first and treating them right.

This year’s event theme is Own the Future. What makes your team excited about the opportunities ahead in the new world of work? How does Salesforce help small businesses grow and fuel their success?

Owning the future of your business starts with taking care of your customers today. We’re excited about the opportunities technology gives small businesses in this new world of work. Whether it’s about meeting customers where they are on modern communication channels, or selling to them smarter and faster, it’s easier now than ever for small companies to grow their customer relationships and gain new business.

With Salesforce Essentials, small businesses can see all their customer info in one place, spend less time in spreadsheets and more time selling, and automatically connects multiple support channels. We’re proud of how our CRM can help businesses of every size achieve tremendous growth and build great customer relationships.

What are you most excited about for this year’s event?

We’re excited to meet the faces behind small businesses. We want to know what inspires entrepreneurs to work so hard, how they manage their growth, what’s top of mind for them as they build their business, and more. We’re here as a resource to help small businesses succeed, and we always want to learn about the passion and people behind these inspiring organizations.

Meet Salesforce Essentials and other key partners by joining us at QuickBooks Connect 2019.