The Salesforce playbook for agriculture.
Agriculture runs on relationships, seasons, and margins set by weather and commodity markets rather than by anything a CRM can influence. What technology can influence is everything around the sale: which grower bought what last season, whether the agronomy recommendation was actually followed, whether the dealer network has current inventory, and whether the person standing in the field can see any of it without driving back to the office.
- 13 chapters
- 5 Salesforce products in depth
- 14-point readiness checklist
- 10,085 words
What's inside.
Written by our Salesforce consultants for agriculture. Read it start to finish or go straight to the chapter you need.
Salesforce in agriculture: where it pays off
6 patterns that work, and the stack we typically deploy.
The challenges Salesforce has to solve
The 6 problems a design has to solve, plus 4 methods we use on them.
Which Salesforce products fit, and how
Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Tableau, Salesforce Service Cloud, Salesforce Field Service: use cases, data model and buyer questions for each.
How to implement it
Who needs to be in the room, what the first release includes, and the questions to settle before kickoff.
Moving from your current system
What moves from your current system, how to plan it, and the decisions to make early.
The systems to connect
10 systems to connect and what flows between them.
Regulation and compliance
6 rules and obligations the design has to account for.
Readiness checklist
14 decisions to make before you sign a statement of work.
What to measure
6 metrics to baseline before the build, with a worksheet.
After go-live: support and health checks
What ongoing support covers and when to run a health check.
If a project has stalled
How stalled projects get back on track, and how to get more from the org you have.
Where the industry is concentrated, and local guides
local guides for 11 metros.
Next steps
Free assessments and how to reach a consultant.
From the readiness checklist.
Three of the 14 decisions the playbook asks you to make before you sign a statement of work. The full checklist, with the rest of the playbook, is in the PDF.
Get the full playbook →- Respect the crop calendarGo-live dates, training sessions and data cleanup requests all compete with fieldwork. Agree blackout periods with sales leadership at kickoff and plan releases around them. A launch that slips into planting season rarely recovers adoption, because reps fall back to notebooks and phone contacts until things slow down.
- Decide who owns grower dataWhen dealers, a manufacturer and a cooperative all touch the same farm, ownership of the record and consent to share information need clear rules. Settle which party maintains contact details and what dealers can see before sharing settings are built, not after the first complaints arrive.
- Plan for weak connectivityTest the mobile experience in rural locations, not only in the office. Offline access, image compression and compact page layouts matter more here than in most sectors. If a visit form cannot be completed without a signal, reps postpone logging until evening and much of the detail is lost.
The Salesforce products it covers.
Each product chapter covers use cases, how the data is modeled and the questions buyers ask. Shorter versions are on our site.
- Salesforce Sales Cloud for AgricultureSales Cloud helps agricultural sellers manage the full buying year for each farm operation: the winter booking conversation, early order and prepay deadlines, in-season replants and the post-harvest review.
- Salesforce Experience Cloud for AgricultureExperience Cloud lets agribusinesses, cooperatives, seed and crop input suppliers, and equipment makers give growers and dealers secure access to information they currently request by phone.
- Tableau for AgricultureTableau helps input suppliers, equipment dealers, cooperatives, grain handlers and food processors analyze data that is heavily seasonal and geographic.
- Salesforce Service Cloud for AgricultureService Cloud gives agricultural businesses a structured way to support growers, dealers and cooperative members.
- Salesforce Field Service for AgricultureSalesforce Field Service helps agricultural equipment dealers, irrigation companies, grain system installers and custom application providers schedule and complete work on farms.
Who wrote it.
Abstrakt Solutions is a Salesforce Select partner based in St. Louis, with 108 Salesforce certifications, 7 Salesforce accreditations and a 4.95 out of 5 rating from 92 reviews on Salesforce AgentExchange (formerly AppExchange).
The playbook draws on the guidance we publish for agriculture.
