Salesforce Unveils New Feature to Boost Sales Productivity

The San Francisco-based sales software company announced on Wednesday the official launch of the Salesblazer Community, a hub for sales professionals in Slack, a common communication platform for business people--or as my friend dubbed it last night, "corporate group chat." 

Salesblazer, which already has thousands of members, and which you can join here, allows salespeople to connect with experts and one another for day-to-day questions, events, job postings, industry-specific networking, and related news. It mimics Slack's other community groups that have proved to be helpful for working professionals, like Trailblazer, a hub for broad Salesforce users.

And Salesblazer could not roll out at a more perfect time, says Ketan Karkhanis, executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce Sales Cloud. "Salespeople learn the best from each other ... [they] really want this ability to seamlessly be part of a community where there's input," Karkhanis says, noting that traditional instruction like books or classes can only go so far, whereas some of the best teachings come from casual conversations and exchanging knowledge, tips, or advice. "What we're doing this week is giving this community a digital home."

Karkhanis also believes Salesblazer will further sales excellence--an umbrella term for improving any operation related to sales, and a popular topic of conversation among  salespeople as of late. Sales excellence, per his definition, includes everything from training salespeople to structuring operations, preparing for forecast calls, and tracking important metrics.

With AI's rapid adoption and evolution, Karkhanis believes these conversations have become more pressing than ever. Being able to ask a question in a group chat and glean insight from anyone in the world is what salespeople can accomplish with Salesblazer, Karkhanis says. 

The community has dedicated channels for specific topics in addition to general chats that any salesperson or interested member can participate in. It also employs its Einstein AI feature that can round up summaries of discussions upon request, for users who didn't read a whole thread. "It's a community for salespeople that is kind of managed by salespeople. So that's the exciting part," he adds.