I’m not normally one to rant about things, particularly in a public forum, but I think that these people have been wearing me down and caught me on a day when I was just too frustrated to put up with more. Who are these people, the subject of my tirade? They are the team at Salesforce.com. Many of you know Salesforce – they make an on-line CRM (client relationship management) tool that helps companies aggregate all of their contacts, leads, potential clients and clients into a single sharable database. The technology is great and they have done wonders for making it easier and easier to follow-up with people and keep prospects and suspects moving through your process. But sometimes the ease at which you can automate these contacts can lead to the exact opposite reaction, as so perfectly demonstrated by Salesforce.com’s use of their own tools and processes.

I evaluated their solutions in September and I should have known what I was in for then.  A free 30 day trial – just sign up and start using it. If you like it, then sign up on a contract, if not, no problem. Day one of the trial: call and email from my friendly sales representative. Day three: tricks and tips for how to get the most out of Salesforce. Day five: phone call, “Can we get you signed up for an online Webinar on how to use the system better?” Day ten: phone call, “So how is it going?” And so it went. The system worked well, so I bit the bullet and signed up. Minimum contract is just 12 months. Little did I know that that was simply to ensure that they had enough time to beat you into submitting to calls, seminars, sales pitches on all of the other ways that Salesforce can be your new best friend.

Today was my breaking point. I’m running a business here. I have been nice…then less nice, when I’ve received continued sales calls and emails from these people. “No thanks, I’m just interested in the one license for just the one feature.”  And, “As I’ve said before, I’m not interested in anything more from you guys. Please stop calling me.”   So today, a nice note from Kristen M. from Salesforce, letting me know that she is working with my sales rep, Nicholas F., (which is surprising because that is the one person that I have never heard of, nor from) and she wanted to have an exploratory conversation with me. Now, Kristen has emailed me before and I was very direct about my use of the product at that time. We exchanged several emails about this, which by the nature of this product that they also use internally, have to be attached to my file. My first response today was direct and short, “Thanks for the email, but I don’t think that I am interested at this time.”

Unfortunately for her, she emailed me back to let me know that she appreciates my candor, but that she has been speaking to other people at Insight Professional Services that have indicated their desire to implement more of the features of Salesforce. She wants to learn more about our focus as a corporation so that she can share how their services can bring the most out of our business. blah blah blah…

My next response (and more wasted time) inquired as to whom she is talking to in my company, since no one has heard of her, and explained that we are a small but growing company but that we don’t need any of their products. Further, I let her know that the constant bombardment of sales calls and email campaigns is a huge detriment to a relationship with Salesforce and to please put our company onto their “Do Not Contact” list, pronto. As of the writing of this post, I have not heard a response. I was tempted to cc: Jim Steele, President Worldwide Sales and Chief Customer Officer, but De Ann thought that might be a bit much. It’s probably part of their internal sales requirements, anyway.

So the next time you are tempted to automate the message and the timing of your sales emails, make sure that you consider that they might not be as well received as you might think. No one likes to feel like they are shoved into a database and auto-marketed to…it is a turn-off.

Let me know what you think about Salesforce… And I’ll let you know if I hear back from them!