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💃 2023 Salesforce Wrap Up 🕺

💃 2023 Salesforce Wrap Up 🕺

I Hate to See You Go, But I Love to Watch You Leave

Salesforce ChaCha
December 28, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! 2023 is nearly behind us and its time for a look back at all of it’s fortune and glory! And hiccups. And everything in between!

A LOOK BACK

Salesforce 2023 Review

20230103 | CRM @ $134.78/share | Layoffs

In 2021, Salesforce peaked at $307.25/share. Then in 2022, it took a trip down back-to-reality lane, hitting a 5-yr low of $128.27/share 📉💥.

Needless to say, Salesforce started 2023 in a rough spot. So rough that the CRM-leader cut 10% of their workforce in January 😳. Marc admitted to over-hiring during the exceptional growth of 2020-2022 (all of tech suffered this same folly).

The Street loved the move and the stage was set for the rest of 2023.

Salesforce professionals were thankful for salaries that had risen significantly the previous 2 years, but could see the writing on the wall that the glory days were over in 2023.

20230301 | CRM @ $186.43/share | Marc Shows Off His Chin 🥊

On the first earnings call of 2023, arguably the most important earnings call in Salesforce’s history, Marc delivered, and was rewarded with a big ol’ scoop of stock price increase 🍨📈.

But it’s not all warm and fuzzy….

Internally (and externally) the sentiment of “Ohana Culture” was (and is) dying a bloody death. Matthew McConaughey is collecting millions of dollars making lame Salesforce commercials. Activist investors made waves by pressuring the board into fiscally-focused decisions.

It’s also around this time that AI 🤖, led by Open AI’s ChatGPT 3 success, became a household talking point. Its generative abilities had all of Tech on their heels. Marc decided to make AI an underlying feature of their core offerings.

Salesforce professionals were not impressed….

20230531 | CRM @ $223.38/share | Salesforce is Rebounding, But….

Salesforce’s next earnings call was a huge success 🎉! (called it!)

But Salesforce professionals were not feeling the love 💔. The job market was brutal. Salaries dropped and there was an increase in supply, primarily newly-minted admins who’d heard stories of instant glory as an enterprise SaaS technologist.

The Mothership 🛸 was thriving, but the people implementing, maintaining, supporting, and enhancing it saw a downgrade in opportunity 😢.

20230907 | CRM @ $222.53/share | Proserv

By this point, Salesforce had another solid earnings call 😯!

Professional services, on the other hand, was suffering 🤕. There had been hiring freezes at most Salesforce consultancies. Then, one of the larger shops, Slalom, laid off 900 employees.

Meanwhile, Salesforce was (and is) ramping up their own professional services teams. A wise 🦉 strategy by Salesforce, and a very tough competitor for their partners in an already-stalled implementation market.

Oh, and AI is king among kings at Salesforce, even getting a seat at the table in the new company tagline Data + AI + CRM.

20231201 | CRM @ $260/share | Eek

The final earnings call in 2023 was, you guessed it, another winner 🎉.

That’s 4 for 4 winners if you’re counting 👀.

Salesforce doubled their stock price from the beginning of the year to the end. Very impressive 👏.

The Salesforce professional job market is…stabilizing? After massive and unsustainable growth of 2020-2022, Newton’s Law of Gravity takes over and what went up is coming down.

20231227 | CRM @ $265.94/share | 3 Quick 2024 Predictions

🔮 A Big Tech company will have an enterprise AI 🤖 solution breakthrough, blazing a trail for others to follow, including Salesforce.

🔮 The Salesforce professional job market will further stabilize. The newly-minted admins of 2023 will continue to struggle finding penetration into a competitive market, full of more experienced resources. Any veteran Salesforce professional who is on the sideline will find more opportunities in 2024 😃!

🔮 Salesforce will release an amazing Quality of Life feature for Salesforce professionals. Do you think it’ll be updated Admin UI, devops tools, data management tools, Flow 2.0 (simpler, less powerful!), or something else? Let us know your thoughts!

🔮 Bonus prediction - a Marc-succession plan will be announced. It’ll be as ironclad as swiss cheese 🧀 🤷.

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