Salesforce’s vast number of choices across its product lines can feel overwhelming. It is helpful that Salesforce has products that range from general to customized across various industries and needs. Still, companies often don’t know where to start or have a true understanding of which products will fit their particular needs.  

We see this sense of uncertainty happening a lot when it comes to choosing between Salesforce Media Cloud and Salesforce Sales Cloud. These two Clouds are similar in that they will broadly help you with your client relationships and to generate more sales. 

But deciding which of them is suitable for your company will come down to a few differentiating factors based on where your company is in its journey and the technology needed for your path to future growth. 

How Media Cloud and Sales Cloud compare and contrast

Think of Sales Cloud as the chicken before the Media Cloud egg. Sales Cloud came first and laid the original groundwork for Media Cloud to be built upon.  

Sales Cloud is designed to help your salespeople sell smarter and faster by centralizing customer information, logging their interactions with your company, and automating many salespeople’s tasks. Media Cloud has all the bells and whistles of Sales Cloud, but is specifically built to support the media industry’s needs. 

Media Cloud is intended to build personalized experiences for every stage of the media buying journey, whether for ad sales, subscriber management, or intellectual property and content licensing. Media Cloud drives revenue and growth using the same tools as Sales Cloud, such as lead generation, pipeline management, forecasting, data, and analytics, but it layers on features that are necessary for success in the media world. 

The best way to differentiate between the two is to think about configuration versus customization. Sales Cloud requires a lot of customization out of the box to fit with your business’s specific processes. Whereas with Media Cloud, you can focus more on configuration because the customization is already baked in for the media industry. You may still need some customization, but it won’t be as much as with Sales Cloud. 

4 factors to consider before choosing your Cloud

Think about all the cars you’ve owned over your lifetime. Maybe you started with a piece of junk bought with paychecks from your summer job. You had kids, and suddenly there was the minivan in the driveway. That big promotion at work led to the high-end sports car.  

The cars you’ve owned tend to align with your life journey. They were the right fit for certain time periods and changed as you aged. It’s the same thing at a company as it evolves – its needs change, and the systems and processes it invests in change with it. 

Before you invest in Salesforce’s products, you need to start with evaluating your company’s needs. Ask yourself these four questions to narrow down if Media Cloud or Sales Cloud is the right choice for your business:

1. How mature is my business?

A younger company just starting out is still figuring out its processes, products, and marketing and may not be ready for the complexities of Media Cloud. For example, a less mature business may think Media Cloud’s Google Ad Manager technology is too advanced for them when they just need a way to get their pipeline in order.

But it would help if you also kept in mind that your company will continue to mature, and you do not want to be stuck with a platform that doesn’t scale with you. Don’t make the mistake of implementing Sales Cloud when you’ll just have to upgrade it in a few years.

2. Where are the gaps in my business?

Think of where the pain points are in your organization, such as difficulties with prospecting or closing a deal, and then see if the solutions to those problems are best solved with either Media Cloud or Sales Cloud.

Determine how you intend to use Salesforce. For example, look at your product model. Media Cloud has a product catalog that is media-specific, but if that area is not where you have gaps, then you may want to consider Sales Cloud instead since it is less customized to a particular product.

3. What’s my budget?

It is essential to get started with the proper baseline of a Salesforce platform, so you don’t have to make additional investments in the future. In most scenarios, if you start with Sales Cloud, you will likely be making an investment in Media Cloud in the future. So, when you’re trying to future-proof your business, Media Cloud may be the better choice.

Think about this, do you want to have ongoing investments in making Sales Cloud better and better with customizations, or do you want to let Salesforce do this for you with Media Cloud? Remember, you are investing in a platform that Salesforce is continually investing in as well, so you’re going to get the ongoing benefits of features and upgrades for years to come.

4. How advanced do my tools and technology need to be?

Start with considering your organization’s data and analytics needs. If you continuously harness the power of data as part of your process flows and to drive your decision-making, then Media Cloud is your platform. It is more dynamic versus Sales Cloud, which is more static.

Media Cloud has the advanced capabilities to present your data in a more customized format than Sales Cloud. It uses a wizard-based process flow that provides your team with a guided journey that ensures the right data is spelled out in the right way. The flow is efficient and results in a better experience for your team.

Make the right choice with Silverline

Whether it’s Media Cloud, Sales Cloud, or another Salesforce solution, Silverline is here to guide you in making the right choice that will best enable your company to grow and scale. We can tailor a Salesforce platform to your specific needs by leveraging insights acquired through our thousands of engagements along with real-world expertise in the Media and Entertainment industry. We show you how to get the highest return on your Salesforce investment by matching your business with the perfect system your organization needs for success. Find out how more about how our team of experts can help.