• To attain CRM certification, applicants must pass an exam. Hours of training are usually required to do so.
• CRM certifications and training allow companies to increase their digital presence, have a competitive edge and increase engagement.
• The need for CRM specialists continues to grow year after year. Getting certified can help secure job placements and increase career advancement opportunities.
• This article is for business owners and individuals who want to Excellerate their business and career path by completing CRM certifications and training.

Customer relationship management (CRM) takes customer service to a whole new level. Modern CRM software uses technology and automation to find and interact with leads and customers. Leveraging CRM software can help a company engage with its customers to build trust and provide necessary products and services.

Editor’s note: Looking for the right CRM solution for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs.

Current CRM certification courses are available through academic institutions, professional affiliates and massive open online courses. courses can include CRM optimization, automation, marketing strategies, product management, business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and networking. According to certification course provider Simplilearn, IT professionals with one Salesforce certification on their resume can expect as much as a 40% pay increase.

What are CRM certifications and training?

CRM certifications can enhance your skills by requiring you to complete advanced CRM software training. Some certifications are built with courses and require you to pass exams; others are for status only. Completing CRM certifications and training can demonstrate commitment, present new job opportunities and increase pay.

Why are CRM certifications and training necessary?

To compete globally, companies benefit from increasing their digital presence. Utilizing a CRM tool improves the B2C and B2B relationship and allows companies to engage and thrive. Because companies are encouraged to focus on detailed digital strategies in which CRM is vital, businesses are looking for CRM-certified employees to help them move forward in the e-commerce space.

Key takeaway: Companies look to CRM software to automate daily tasks, deepen engagement with customers, and consistently promote products and services.

Who should get CRM certified?

While all departments can benefit from CRM training, it is especially relevant for sales, marketing and IT team members. In addition, recent high school graduates and college students can stay competitive in the job market by becoming CRM certified.

Recent high school graduates and college students

Want to score a higher-paying job quickly? As CRM specialization jobs are in high demand, high school graduates and college students can get a competitive edge by learning CRM before entering the professional workforce.

Sales professionals

Sales teams work with a CRM platform for lead tracking and follow-up. Detailed customer data gathered and stored by a CRM improves lead scoring and speeds up conversions.

Marketing professionals

Because marketing requires quality leads to drive a return on investment, a robust CRM is crucial to a marketing team’s success. The CRM can help marketing professionals quickly visualize data, as well as identify lead patterns, potential customers and pain points that your business’s products or services may solve.

IT professionals

IT can work with sales and marketing to customize the CRM to specific needs, industries or internal policies. Using a CRM, IT teams can onboard, maintain and provide professional support to employees. CRM certification is often required for IT professionals, as the training is standard for the industry.

Did you know? CRM certification can deliver recent high school graduates and college students a competitive edge when they enter the job market.

CRM certificate vs. certification

Though a CRM certificate and a CRM certification sound like they may be the same, there is a difference. A CRM certificate is earned in a school setting, whether in person or remote, and resembles an academic degree. A CRM certification, by contrast, is earned through industry-based performance tests, regardless of where you learn the information.

7 best CRM certifications

The following CRM certifications are found regularly in job listings and are globally recognized and easily accessible for most people:

Microsoft Dynamics 365

As a top competitor to Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers certification levels ranging from fundamental to advanced. The platform can provide courses on sales, finance, operations and customer service. Professionals can choose to complete a CRM certification or an overall fundamentals course. For CRM certification, IT professionals must pass test MB-910: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals (CRM).

Who is it for?

Dynamics 365 is for IT consultants who specialize in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and material requirements planning (MRP).

Skills needed

• Describe Dynamics 365 Marketing (10% to 15%)
• Describe Dynamics 365 Sales (15% to 20%)
• Describe Dynamics 365 Customer Service (15% to 20%)
• Describe Dynamics 365 Field Service (15% to 20%)
• Describe Project Operations (15% to 20%)
• Describe Shared Features (15% to 20%)

Pricing

Pricing starts at $99.

Length of certification

Microsoft certifications don’t have a hard expiration date. Instead, the certification is valid as long as the product is available on the market.

HubSpot Academy

HubSpot offers multiple certification courses, including in CRM, CMS, sales and reporting. Lessons can take approximately one hour to over six hours to complete.

Who is it for?

HubSpot has a proprietary CRM certification program in which you watch online course videos with periodic quizzes. Most certification exams also require you to complete additional practical marketing exercises.

Skills needed

• HubSpot CRM-specific training
• Practical marketing experience

Pricing

Certifications are free, but some advanced options require a HubSpot Professional or HubSpot Enterprise account. A HubSpot Professional account starts at $800 per month.

Length of certification

Certification length varies from 13 to 25 months.

Marketo Engage by Adobe

Marketo Engage is a tool designed to help marketers create and implement personalized emails and media. The platform is part of the Adobe Experience Cloud.

Who is it for?

Marketo Engage is a good fit for professionals who work in marketing automation, such as email marketing professionals, media managers and marketing managers.

Skills needed

The required skills depend on the level of certification you are seeking.

Entry level:

• Basic knowledge of marketing automation
• Three to six months of marketing experience
• Three months of experience using Marketo software

Advanced level:

• One to two years of marketing experience
• One year of hands-on experience with Marketo
• Completion of the Marketo MCE Prep Course

Pricing

The entry-level certification is $95, and the advanced level costs $225.

Length of certification

The test is valid for two years.

NetSuite Administrator

As a customizable CRM, Oracle’s NetSuite is geared toward large businesses and includes multiple tools, such as ERP, financial management and inventory management capabilities.

Who is it for?

NetSuite certification is for professionals who routinely work with Oracle’s customer database. NetSuite’s consultants can gain additional clients with the NetSuite Administrator certification, especially those who help customize enterprise CRM and ERP. IT professionals can also benefit from a NetSuite certification.

Skills needed

• CRM customization
• ERP customization
• Financial management
• Inventory management

Pricing

This certification costs $250.

Length of certification

Individuals who complete the NetSuite certification will need to get recertified by passing an test every three years.

Salesforce Administrator

A Salesforce certification is a globally accepted credential. You can use the certification to compete for jobs and promotions as a Salesforce expert, stay informed about Salesforce feature updates and climb the corporate ladder.

Who is it for?

Any business professional who uses a CRM regularly can benefit from a Salesforce Administrator certification. These roles may include benefits administrators, developers, architects, marketers and consultants.

Skills needed

Salesforce Certified Administrators:

• Administrator (six to 12 months’ experience recommended)
• Advanced Administrator (12 to 24 months’ experience recommended)
• Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder (three to six months’ experience recommended)

Salesforce Certified Architects (more than five years’ experience recommended):

• Application Architect
• Data Architecture and Management Designer
• Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer
• Identity and Access Management Designer
• Integration Architecture Designer
• Mobile Solutions Architecture Designer
• Sharing and Visibility Designer
• System Architect
• Technical Architect

Salesforce Certified Consultants:

• Community Cloud Consultant (two to five years)
• Field Service Lightning Consultant (two to five years)
• Marketing Cloud Consultant (12 months)
• Pardot Consultant (12 months)
• Sales Cloud Consultant (two to five years)
• Service Cloud Consultant (two to five years)

Salesforce Certified Developers:

• Commerce Cloud Digital Developer (three to six months)
• Platform Developer I (three to six months)
• Platform Developer II (two to four years)

Salesforce Certified Specialists:

• CPQ Specialist (six to 12 months)
• Marketing Cloud Email Specialist (six to 12 months)
• Marketing Cloud Social Specialist (six to 12 months)
• Pardot Specialist (three to six months)

Pricing

Pricing ranges from $100 to $6,000.

Length of certification

Professionals must maintain Salesforce certifications annually to keep up with the software’s new feature releases (three updates per year). You must complete a Trailhead maintenance module every year to maintain your certification.

Zendesk

Zendesk provides certifications for CRM and available support tools. Certification options include Zendesk Support Administrator, App Developer I, Guide Specialist, Explore CX Analyst, Chat Specialist and Talk Specialist.

Who is it for?

Zendesk certification is for sales professionals, customer support staff and small business administrators. Zendesk also encourages its users, partners and employees to complete certification.

Skills needed

For the most common certification, Zendesk Support Administrator, you need to have at least three months of experience as a Zendesk Support Administrator and complete the relevant practice exam. Zendesk lists the specific skills and training needed for other Zendesk certifications on its website.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $350.

Length of certification

A Zendesk CRM certification lasts one to two years. After that, Zendesk will notify you when you need to recertify. For every recertification, you must take a new test and pay an additional fee.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM offers a Certified Consultant certification; Zoho offers this free designation for users who exemplify excellence with clients while working within Zoho’s CRM. While the certification does not have the same recognition as Microsoft, HubSpot or Salesforce, it can be an avenue for Zoho users to generate revenue by providing CRM consulting.

Who is it for?

Zoho CRM certification is best for Zoho users who are interested in providing CRM consulting services for small businesses.

Skills needed

You should have proof of expertise in consulting with small business clients and hands-on experience with the Zoho CRM platform. You need at least three consulting clients that pay for Zoho CRM and pay you for Zoho CRM consulting. Once you have met this requirement, you can fill out this online form. When Zoho approves your business, Zoho’s website will list your business as a Zoho CRM Certified Consultant.

Pricing

Zoho CRM certification is free.

Length of certification

Once you are approved as a Zoho partner, your certification lasts as long as you are in good standing with Zoho.

Key takeaway: Although some CRM certifications are free, expect to spend a few hundred dollars for training and exams. CRM certifications are available for all experience levels.

Is CRM certification right for you?

Although the seven certifications above are great options, you will ultimately need to align your credentials with the career and promotion opportunities that interest you. Ask yourself these questions to determine whether CRM certification is right for you:

• Will a CRM certification benefit you? If you are investing your own time and money, weigh the pros and cons of a CRM Will the accreditation make you more competitive in the job market? Is a promotion available after you become certified?
• Which CRM platform would you be using? First, choose a CRM if you have not done so already. If you are already using a CRM, start with a certification for that specific platform. Not sure where to start? The top certificate is Salesforce Administrator. You will also have multiple job opportunities by getting certified with HubSpot, Zendesk CRM or Dynamics 365.
• How much time and money are you willing to spend? Make sure you can invest both money and time in a CRM certification. If you are already working with a CRM, will your employer help with the cost as a business expense? Before starting a CRM certification program, you should research the requirements and prepare for additional expenses, such as training, study guides and recertifications.

• Are you in need of new, marketable skills? If you become certified, you can seek out opportunities that allow you to use your advanced CRM knowledge. Increasingly, CRM skills are becoming a requirement among relevant job listings, so getting certified helps vet your expertise to recruiters. If you are in a dead-end career or haven’t been successful in the job market, certification in a popular CRM can provide lucrative opportunities.

• Do you already have hands-on experience? Although CRM certification is becoming an increasingly valuable credential, remember that companies still prefer to hire employees with hands-on CRM experience. Therefore, rather than being just a line on your resume, CRM certification should supplement your real-world experience.

I've been looking for a driver who is qualified, reader. I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and I'm a little rusty at driving after taking public transportation for so long. Driving at night is especially nerve-racking, because I keep getting blinded by the lights.

It's happening much more frequently, and I thought my eyesight was for sure getting worse (it is). But the actual culprit is more complex: light hues, misaligned headlights, and other vehicle quirks. My colleague Madison Hall illuminates the problem here.

Before we drive off into the night, let's jump into today's tech.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. obtain Insider's app here.

1. Salesforce performance pressure is on. Employees told Insider that the cloud company is about to drop new performance metrics for engineers. It's also trying to lower the headcount. Some salespeople had to choose between a "Prompt Exit Package" severance option or a 30-day performance improvement plan.

This is all part of a sprint to cut 10% of the workforce after going on a two-year hiring spree. Plus, multiple investors are believed to be pressuring Salesforce to cut additional costs to become more profitable.

More on the heightened tension at Salesforce here.

In other news:

2. Tech layoffs tell one story. Company headcount tells another. These six charts show how tech giants like Meta and Google have still grown, despite layoffs. Check them out here.

3. A woman doesn't want to prosecute her husband who is accused of purposely driving their family off a cliff. He is suspected of driving off a 250-foot cliff with his wife and two children inside a Tesla. The California doctor faces three attempted murder charges. More on the situation.

4. Microsoft really wants you to use Bing and ChatGPT. The company is throwing it back to the 90s. It's pushing people to set Bing as their default search engine. And it's trying to trade access to its augmented search engine for market share. Here's a breakdown of its desperation.

Story continues

5. Hundreds of influencers revealed their rates for sponsored posts. New data revealed that the average rate for TikTok fell from $3,108 in 2021 to $2,947 a year later. Meanwhile, the costs of Instagram sponsored posts are rising. Get more insights on sponsored post rates.

6. The danger of putting computer chips in your brain. Elon Musk's neurotech startup has been working toward putting chips in people's brains since 2016. Other startups have been eager to do so, too. But experts warn there are real dangers and unique ethical pitfalls. Dive into them here.

7. Leaked Amazon all-hands recording reveals CEO pep talk. On Tuesday, Andy Jassy urged employees to band together to get through this challenging time. He encouraged them to "redefine" the company and laid out how they can be successful. Get the full meeting breakdown.

8. Walmart forces employees to relocate or bounce. The retailer is cracking down on remote work. It closed tech hubs in California, Texas, and Oregon, and gave impacted employees two options: relocate or take severance. More on the employment ultimatum.

Odds and ends:

9. Beep Beep: Road trip with this couple in an EV. Axios reporter Joann Muller joined her husband on a 1,500-mile road trip in a Kia EV6. They didn't use heat — and stopped 12 times due to "range anxiety." Come along for the ride here.

10. Stop doing these things at Chinese takeout restaurants. Su-Jit Lin grew up working in her parents' American Chinese restaurant. She witnessed her parents facing racism and aggression while running their business. Here are nine things she wishes customers knew.

What we're watching today:

Curated by Diamond Naga Siu in San Diego. (Feedback or tips? Email dsiu@insider.com or tweet @diamondnagasiu) Edited by Dave Smith (tweet @redletterdave) in Toronto and Nathan Rennolds (tweet @ncrennolds) in London.

Read the original article on Business Insider

February 08, 2023, 07:08 PM EST

Third Point joins other activist investors with stakes in Salesforce – potentially threatening co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff’s position with the vendor.

A fifth activist investor, Third Point, has taken a stake in enterprise applications vendor Salesforce, potentially threatening co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff’s position with the vendor.

New York-based Third Point, led by CEO and founder Dan Loeb, joins Starboard Value, ValueAct Capital Partners, Elliott Investment Management and Jeff Ubben’s Inclusive Capital as an activist investor taking share of the San Francisco-based vendor, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Third Point has taken stakes in Campbell Soup, Walt Disney Co. and Shell before pushing for changes, according to the Journal.

Notably, Third Point took a stake in Intel in 2020 before the chipmaker’s CEO Bob Swan stepped down and was replaced by VMware leader Pat Gelsinger.

[RELATED: Salesforce Board Of Directors: Who’s In, Who’s Out, Who Stays After Elliott Stake] 

CRN has reached out to Third Point and Salesforce for comment.

Although the end goals of the activist investors aren’t publicly known yet, along with Third Point’s history of CEO changes, Elliott Management has a history of taking publicly traded companies private.

Elliott Management recently made headlines for its role in Citrix going private and merging with data applications vendor Tibco. The activist investors could potentially push Salesforce to make more job cuts or divest one or multiple subsidiaries – which include Slack, MuleSoft and Tableau.

Gerry Szatvanyi, CEO of OSF Digital, a Québec-based Salesforce partner, told CRN in an interview that he has been happy with the company’s leadership.

“I’m pretty confident in the leadership with Salesforce,” Szatvanyi said. “I’m very confident that they are going to drive through this transformation quite well. So they still have my vote of confidence, hands down.”

OSF has experienced some of the slowdown in business discussed by Salesforce and other vendors, Szatvanyi said. But he still expects north of 20 percent growth in business from 2022 to 2023.

In January, OSF even announced the purchase of U.S.-based Salesforce partner Original Shift as part of OSF’s growth strategy.

“I would say demand, it’s still pretty healthy,” Szatvanyi said. “We see a lot of desire, on our customers’ side, to better use the technology that they already have. (To) better integrate between different (Salesforce) clouds, gain more efficiencies, drive higher return on the technology that they already have.”

He continued: “Salesforce is at the center of everything that we are doing.”

The activist investors come as Salesforce – and other tech vendors – contend with moderated customer demand for digital tools after a surge at the height of the pandemic. In January, Salesforce announced layoffs for about 7,000 employees.

The company also seen the departure of key leaders Bret Taylor, Benioff’s former co-CEO, and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.

Salesforce’s total market value in 2022 went from $250.3 billion at the start of the year to $132.6 billion by year’s end.

The activists appear to have had a hand in changes coming to Salesforce’s board of directors. Salesforce will have three new board of directors members come March 1 – and lose two longtime members.

Salesforce (CRM) shares rose as much as 3.4% Thursday after activist shareholder Third Point LLC reportedly took a stake in the embattled business software giant.

Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC is at least the fifth activist firm to make a significant investment in the company recently, joining Elliott Investment Management, Starboard Value, ValueAct Capital Partners, and Inclusive Capital. The size of Third Point's investment and its intentions could not be confirmed.

Shares of Salesforce plunged 48% last year, mirroring investors' broader distaste for technology stocks but also reflecting the company's financial challenges and concerns about its leadership.

Salesforce in November reported its fiscal 2023 third-quarter profit fell 55% from the same period the prior year, with rising expenses outpacing a 14% revenue increase.

In January, the company announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, totaling about 8,000 jobs, and reduce office space in a large restructuring—the company's first in its 23 years of existence—that could cost as much as $2 billion. The company will announce its full-year earnings results March 1.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Feb 14, 2023 (The Expresswire) -- "Salesforce AppExchange Tools Market" report [122 Pages Report] is divided into types, applications, and geographic regions. To acquire a more thorough insight into the Salesforce AppExchange Tools market, these classes are further divided into segments. For the competitive landscape, the report also introduces players in the industry from the perspective of the market share, concentration ratio, etc., and describes the leading companies in detail. Further, mergers and acquisitions, emerging market trends, the impact of COVID-19, and regional conflicts will all be considered.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Suspended 70 feet above ground, Salesforce Park is a lush green oasis amid sky-high buildings in downtown San Francisco. The verdant 5.4-acre park that crowns the Salesforce Transit Center is an interesting case study for how to build green spaces in dense urban centers. (Despite the name, the park does not top the Salesforce Tower itself.) Where else can you take a gondola to a rooftop park, stroll botanic gardens or see a performance before catching your bus?

The public park features a living roof with a trail that follows a wave-like pattern along the exterior of the space. Benches, grassy lawns, a fountain that "dances," a children’s play area and even an amphitheater make up the park's landscape. 

Next up for Salesforce Park: Shō, a 5,000 square-foot Japanese-inspired public restaurant and private club is expected to open in the fall of 2023. It will feature a sunken irori-style grill and offer Japanese farmhouse fare on its main floor and sushi rolls and more modern dishes upstairs. An NFT-based club membership will unlock special menus and other perks (costs are expected to range from $7,500 to $300,000).

Here are nine more fascinating things to know about Salesforce Park, an urban park built in the sky. 

1. Buses power a fountain

The park's 1,200-foot long white and gray granite "Bus Fountain" is equipped with 247 water jets that are completely dependent on the transit park's bus schedule. That’s because motion sensors are embedded in the ceiling of the space the buses pass through, triggering the frequency, motion and height of the fountain’s water. So, unlike standard computer-controlled fountains, the buses are the choreographers of this public art piece.

At 1,200 feet, Salesforce Park claims the Bus Fountain is one of the world's longest water artworks.

2. The living green roof has a bamboo forest (and more)

More than 600 trees and 16,000 plants live in Salesforce Park. Thirteen different gardens encircle the park with flora that thrives in an array of landscapes, from deserts to Mediterranean climates. The living green roof cools the surrounding environment, filters exhaust and improves air quality. 

There's a Wetland Garden, which has a bamboo grove and an oak meadow. There's also Chilean, South African and Australian gardens, and a redwood forest. In the Mediterranean Basin, find olive trees and cork oak trees, which are traditionally harvested to produce wine corks. 

Gingko trees, one of the oldest living tree species, are growing in the Prehistoric Garden alongside ferns and monkey puzzle trees. Over in the Fog Garden, plants like pineapple and guava grow. The sprawling rooftop park is also home to California, Palm and Desert gardens. 

3. There’s a beer garden 

Bare Bottle Brew Co. runs a beer garden in the main plaza of Salesforce Park. It has roughly 20 beers on tap, plus a few California wine options and empanadas served with chimichurri. The beer list includes creative brews like an Acai-C-U-Later fruited sour ale, a hot mango pepper beer and a Mexican hot chocolate stout. They also have a solid selection of IPAs. 

4. You can read poetry and prose on an LED screen 

Among the public art installations at the Salesforce Transit Center is a nearly 180-foot-long double-sided LED screen that wraps the Grand Hall’s giant Light Column. Jenny Holzer's "White Light" installation displays excerpts of 40-plus texts from writers who spent time in the Bay Area, including Maya Angelou, Joan Didion and Harvey Milk. Those paying close attention might pick up on a recurring theme, with many of the texts pertaining to fog. The texts are best viewed in low light. 

5. A mammoth tooth was discovered during construction 

A crane operator working at the Salesforce Transit Center site in 2012 unearthed a fossil of a mammoth tooth that had been lodged 100 feet below sea level. The 10-inch-long brown, black and beige chomper was broken into two pieces, but otherwise was in remarkable condition, with the enamel still intact. The tooth is now displayed at the California Academy of Sciences, and scientists have confirmed it belonged to a Columbian mammoth. 

Both Columbian and Wooly mammoths roamed North and Central America 8,000 to 150,000 years ago. These now-extinct, elephant-like creatures had massive tusks and six sets of four molars in their jaws. Fun fact: when old teeth fell out, new ones could grow in. 

6. You can take a gondola to the park 

Forget your run-of-the-mill escalator, elevator or stairs. For a scenic (and free) ride to the park, you can choose to board the glass-encased Salesforce gondola from the plaza and glide to the park, getting an aerial view of the cityscape (it's a short view — the ride is only about a minute long). Unlike ski gondolas, which you sit in, passengers stand in the Salesforce Park gondola.

The gondola’s hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 1 to Oct. 31 and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 1 to April 30. The gondola is privately operated by Boston Properties, owner of adjacent Salesforce Tower.

7. Salesforce Park spans four city blocks

The length of Salesforce Park is equivalent to four and a half football fields. The total building area is more than one million square feet. To put things in perspective, the park is longer than the Salesforce Tower is tall — and that's saying a lot given that the tower is the tallest skyscraper in San Francisco and the twelfth tallest in the United States, clocking in at 1,070 feet. A whopping 25,000 tons of steel were used in the construction of the transit center and park, which translates to the approximate weight of 5,000 elephants.

8. The rooftop park hosts lots of free events

Salesforce Park keeps a busy calendar of free events, including fitness classes, live entertainment, children’s activities and more. On the west end of the park, the amphitheater can hold up to 1,000 people. The park hosts yoga classes, concerts and movie nights under the stars. 

The park also has a children's play area with climbing ropes, spongy protective flooring and recess carts stocked with art supplies, books and games available to borrow while in the park. There are also children storytimes.

More park-hosted classes and events include HIIT workouts, Zumba classes, birding walks, garden tours and drum circles. And the Midday Music free concert series happens from noon to 2 p.m. every Thursday on the park’s Main Plaza.

9. The park has some unique rules

While you’re free to unfurl a yoga mat and strike some poses at the Salesforce rooftop park, other athletic activities are mostly prohibited — it would be bad news if a baseball went flying through an adjacent office window. With the exception of service animals, pets also aren't allowed in the park.

Salesforce Park hours are 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. May 1 to Oct. 31 and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 1 to April 30. While Salesforce Tower parking is available on an hourly or daily basis in a lot, there’s no parking lot at Salesforce Transit Center, which has an emphasis on public transportation. For those looking for public transportation options, visit 511.org.

This story was edited by Hearst National Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at kristina.moy@hearst.com.

InVisory is the first data-driven advisory marketplace that matches customer requirements to Salesforce AppExchange offerings  

NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- InVisory, the cloud advisory marketplace for Salesforce AppExchange, today announced it has acquired GTM Guides, a Salesforce ecosystem success company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition enhances InVisory's ability to help Salesforce Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and certified consulting firms increase their lead generation, strategic partnerships, brand awareness, and better align with target customers. InVisory has more than 4,000 monthly active users and more than 20 ISVs and consulting firm customers since its product launched 120 days ago. Patrick Cronan founded InVisory in January 2022, with a $2 million dollar personal investment. He hired co-founder Nish Mishra in June 2022, and the team has grown to 13 members since the company began. InVisory projects revenue to exceed $7 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2023.

Learn more about InVisory: https://home.invisory.co/

And, sign up for a free profile to see how the top apps and services firms score with the InVisory algorithm: app.invisory.co/register/salesforce-user

"With thousands of ISV and consulting firms in AppExchange, we've built the first centralized hub where Salesforce customers can quickly and confidently find the best partner based on mission-critical priorities," said Cronan, CEO of InVisory. "With GTM Guides, we're addressing the need to help AppExchange vendors connect with customers based on buyer intent and specific requirements."

InVisory has built an entirely data-driven algorithm for scoring ISVs and consulting firms from the Salesforce ecosystem and is the only cloud advisory marketplace that is 100% objective. It differs from traditional SaaS and services vendor research, which is cumbersome and prone to commercial influence or technology showcase portals that offer a scoring system based solely on reviews.

Story continues

InVisory eliminates time-consuming and inaccurate vendor searches forever. Salesforce end-users simply provide InVisory with exactly what they need -- apps or services. The platform analyzes structured data on feature and capability parameters and acts as a customer-to-vendor matchmaking guide to speed up the RFP short-list process. For vendors, it provides the most granular buyer intent data on the market to increase lead generation with highly relevant target customers.

Today, AppExchange vendors invest considerable time, money, and resources to list solutions and hope that once there, the channel will dramatically increase growth. The reality is it's not that simple. GTM Guides addresses this by helping Salesforce ecosystem vendors better engage and represent themselves by highlighting strengths and expertise that align with the needs of potential customers. InVisory will integrate and automate the GTM Guides deliverables to help existing and new customers achieve higher ROI for the business.

Mike Davis, founder of GTM Guides, will join InVisory as chief revenue officer (CRO), and Sienna Quirk will serve as VP of Marketing. "GTM Guides is a perfect fit for InVisory as we bring more than 70 customer-facing and partner-facing templates to help product marketing and alliance teams drive top-line growth more effectively and efficiently," said Davis. "Coming together with InVisory enables us to serve more clients and continue to innovate to help ISVs become great companies in the Salesforce ecosystem."

About InVisory

InVisory is a cloud advisory marketplace for the Salesforce AppExchange. It harnesses data analytics to quickly and objectively identify the best ISVs and consulting firms for Salesforce end-users based on precise requirements. For AppExchange vendors, it increases business value by improving lead generation, brand awareness, competitive intelligence, and go-to-market strategies. InVisory plans to expand its data-driven advisory marketplace model to other ecosystems in the future. For more information, please visit www.invisory.co.

PR Contact 
Olivia Heel
oheel@catapultpr-ir.com 
303-581-7760

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/invisory-acquires-gtm-guides-to-help-salesforces-7-000-isv-and-certified-consulting-firms-better-connect-with-appexchange-customers-301735823.html

SOURCE InVisory