RevenueThe pipeline lives outside Salesforce
Signal: Most won deals jump two or more stages in a single edit, with no activity logged in between. Stage history and activity data tell the same story across teams.
What it drains: Forecasts built in spreadsheets, coaching blind spots, and an AI that has nothing real to learn from.
Fix: Stage-exit criteria captured in the flow of work, plus automated activity capture.
ProductivitySwivel-chair loops between systems
Signal: Records written by an integration user are re-edited by people within minutes, on the same fields, again and again.
What it drains: Hours a week of re-keying per rep, and two sources of truth nobody trusts.
Fix: Fix the integration mapping and ownership rules so the record is right the first time.
VelocityApprovals that delay but don’t control
Signal: Discount approvals wait days, yet almost all are approved unchanged.
What it drains: Slower deal cycles and frustrated buyers, with no real margin protection gained.
Fix: Threshold-based auto-approval with exceptions routed to the right approver.
Service costCases that bounce before they’re solved
Signal: A large share of cases change owner or queue three or more times, and many resolutions match an existing knowledge article.
What it drains: Longer resolution times, higher cost per case, and questions customers could have answered themselves.
Fix: Skills-based routing, plus self-service and Agentforce grounded on the knowledge you already have.
ProductivityAutomation that fights the people using it
Signal: One user edit sets off a chain of flows and triggers that re-save the same record several times, and validation rules are routinely bypassed to get work done.
What it drains: Slow saves, cryptic errors and users who avoid Salesforce — then fill the gaps in spreadsheets.
Fix: Consolidate automation per object with a clear order of execution and rules users can actually follow.
DecisionsNumbers nobody trusts
Signal: Many near-identical reports built by different teams, heavy export to spreadsheets, and dashboards that leadership never opens.
What it drains: Meetings spent reconciling numbers instead of acting on them, and decisions made on offline copies.
Fix: One governed set of metrics and dashboards, built on fields the process actually fills.
SpendPaying for capability, working around it
Signal: Feature licences assigned and paid for, while the objects behind them are barely used and the same work happens in email and attachments.
What it drains: Paying twice: once for Salesforce, once in people’s time doing it by hand.
Fix: Switch on the capability you already own, wired into the process people follow.
AI readinessAI with nothing to learn from
Signal: Close reasons and resolution notes are empty or boilerplate, and knowledge articles have not been touched in months.
What it drains: Agentforce pilots that demo well and then stall, because the data they need was never captured.
Fix: Capture the right data in the flow of work first, then deploy agents on a foundation that holds.