Salesforce asserts its position in CDP space, reports another record quarter

Closing out another quarter with record earnings, Salesforce reported revenue growth of 22%, bringing its quarterly revenue up to $4 billion — 22% year-over-year growth for the San Francisco-based software giant. The company cited organic and inorganic growth with its acquisitions of Tableau, Salesforce.org and ClickSoftware.

“Following an outstanding quarter, we’re raising our FY20 revenue guidance to $16.9 billion at the high-end range,” said co-CEO Marc Benioff during an analyst call.” With our Customer 360 vision, Einstein AI and the millions of Trailblazers innovating on our platform, Salesforce has never been better positioned for the future.”

Following the earnings release, Salesforce shares climbed nearly 7% in extended trading on Thursday.

“There is good reason why analysts are bullish on Salesforce, given the company’s strong organic growth, fueled by loyal and passionate customer advocates, as well as its recent strategic acquisitions of Tableau, ClickSoftware and MuleSoft,” said Dustin Grosse, chief marketing and strategy officer at Nintex. “What will be interesting to watch is how Salesforce continues to scale its business in pursuing its goal of doubling revenues by 2023. Given Salesforce’s consistent performance, Marc Benioff and Keith Block are positioning the company well to achieve this huge goal, possibly even ahead of their timetable.”

Revenue growth in the clouds

Salesforce’s four primary clouds all saw growth, notably its Marketing and Commerce Cloud which reportedly grew 36%. Its flagship product, Sales Cloud, generated $1.13 billion in revenue, jumping 13% from the previous quarter.

Service Cloud, which for its first time surpassed $1 billion in revenue last quarter, grew 22% to $1.09 billion. Its Salesforce Platform and other category also grew 28%.

Salesforce asserts a strong position among CDPs

Benioff asserted Salesforce’s position in the customer data platform (CDP) space, as he and co-CEO Keith Block referenced its Customer 360 platform several times during Thursday’s analyst call. While the list of CDP vendors grows to help marketers pull together their data, Benioff said that’s something Salesforce has been working on for “the past twenty years.” We can expect to hear more about Customer 360 at Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference in November.

“Now, we have really been very strategic in building out our Customer 360 platform. This is our vision that really is at the heart of what’s happening at the fourth industrial revolution,” Benioff said during Thursday’s call. “Everybody knows, the fourth industrial revolution is under way. Everyone and everything is getting connected. But behind all of those things is the customer.”

Benioff expects Customer 360 will be a “huge growth engine” for the company over the next decade.

About The Author

Jennifer Cannon

Jennifer Videtta Cannon serves as Third Door Media's Senior Editor, covering topics from email marketing and analytics to CRM and project management. With over a decade of organizational digital marketing experience, she has overseen digital marketing operations for NHL franchises and held roles at tech companies including Salesforce, advising enterprise marketers on maximizing their martech capabilities. Jennifer formerly organized the Inbound Marketing Summit and holds a certificate in Digital Marketing Analytics from MIT Sloan School of Management.