Salesforce.com is further enhancing its customer relationship management offerings through deeper integration with Work.com. Announced at the Dreamforce customer conference, the move will enable companies to take advantage of additional features and allow sales managers to focus on core areas, such as coaching, recognition and goal setting.

Salesforce.com's Sales Cloud already comes with a variety of features that allow companies to monitor and manage accounts, leads and contacts while identifying potential leadscustomers? through social integrations. The arrangement with Work.com adds further functionality, enables users to create, drive and track sales performance initiatives. The tool also comes with built-in gamification elements to create a more competitive sales environment.

"Here's how it works: A sales manager logs into Sales Cloud to check his dashboard and metrics such as closed business, activity by rep or group movement. When the manager opens his Chatter social collaboration feed, he sees that a sales rep closed a competitive deal. Using Work.com, a new 'Thanks' button allows him to acknowledge the deal and select from a custom set of badges like 'Competitive Negotiator' or 'Dealmaker,'" Destination CRM explains.

Sales teams across the United States frequently run into a number of challenges on a daily basis, one of which is encouraging agents to align their sales goals with greater company objectives. Through gamification and effective performance management, companies have found they are better able to reward favorable best-selling behaviors and punish unproductive ones, ultimately helping reps to achieve personal objectives and organization-wide goals.

Using sales performance management software, managers gain more insight into the activity of their agents. This enables them to stay on top of agents day after day, month after month, quarter after quarter and year after year. Depending on the performance of individual reps and departments as a whole, managers can make the appropriate adjustments to their department's plans.

"Sales managers that have the highest results are actually the ones who are thinking about the qualitative side, the human side of, 'What kind of coaching, learning, career development, or recognition do my salespeople need?'" Daniel Debow, vice president of strategy for Salesforce Work.com, told the news source.

If businesses have yet to integrate an SPM solution, third-party experts and consultants can help them determine which software is best for their agency or sales department.