Salesforce Inc at Bank of America Global Technology Conference Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>Wonderful. Great. And Q1 results, fresh off the results last week. Do you want to just touch on some of the key highlights from the earnings?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. You're certainly not alone in the software industry. We're experiencing some macro pressure. I think you also talked about some execution changes that also had some impact, so if you could elaborate on that as well.

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. And back to the macro commentary, I think if I'm reading this properly, it sounded like the environment reverted back to what you had seen in Q3. Q4 might have been a situation where sales reps rose to the occasion, you executed really well, but the underlying demand environment might have been kind of pretty similar to what you've been seeing. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 06, 2024 / 2:50PM, CRM.N - Salesforce Inc at Bank of America Global Technology Conference I know it's been challenging really for the last couple of years, in general, across the industry. So how would you describe it? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but --

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Understood, understood. Well, before we move on from Q1 results, there was a lot of discussion on pipeline from the earnings call. So I wanted to double click on that. If we could please, just, where is the focus there? You mentioned that there was a bit of a shortfall this quarter. And I know that's initiative to kind of approve upon that. So what is the focus?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : That makes sense, that makes sense. Are there any bright spots within the pipeline build effort? Clouds or offerings as you would call out?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. Great to hear. Thank you. Why don't we shift to some of the key areas of focus in your role as COO? Operational efficiency has been a big focus for the organization. Last year was a big step forward in that, obviously, and you made some tough choices on some reduction in force. So just, I think it'd be helpful if you could comment on where you are with that effort. Where's the focus incrementally from here on driving operational efficiency?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Okay, great, thank you for that. Why don't we shift to the core business, sales and service? You mentioned earlier that it's been resilient, and we certainly see that in the results. I think 10% to 12% growth consistently over the last couple of years. So I think it would be helpful to understand kind of where are you in terms of penetration of that market? It's one of the largest markets in software. You're the largest vendor in it. So where is the incremental seed coming from, and where are you seeing the continued strength in that business?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Okay. Wonderful, great to hear. So maybe if we just take a step back here and just look at the kind of broader tech stack that Salesforce offers. What are the key pillars to growth in your mind going forward?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. Great to hear. Thank you for that. You mentioned Data Cloud. Before we go to Data Cloud, why don't we just start kind of higher level on AI, the AI question. Where does AI sit in the Salesforce stack? And how are you addressing the opportunity? And then how does Data Cloud fit into that?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : It seems like at this point, you're in that stage where customers are kind of getting data ready for AI. Get the data into Data Cloud, manipulate the data, integrate the data, and then the applications will come later. Are there any key themes emerging with some of this early traction you're seeing in terms of those applications? Einstein Copilot is one. CDP seems like another huge opportunity here.

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : That's great. Any metrics you could share on that in terms of where the ROI is? What are some of the benefits that you're generating here?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. Industry clouds, why don't we go back to that? I know it's a key focus here, and you've seen real traction there. Can you just give us a sense for how does Sales Cloud, Service Cloud -- how does it vary from industry to industry? How specialized is it? And so maybe just a question on just at the product level, how differentiated is the platform? How unique is the Salesforce platform

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful, great. Why don't we shift to SMB? We think of Salesforce as a large enterprise vendor, but Salesforce got started in SMB and then moved up market over time. Now it seems you're kind of focusing back on the down market segment of the industry. So maybe you want to talk a little about the effort there, how you're addressing the SMB.

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. Why don't we shift to some of the offerings outside of the core clouds? Tableau, MuleSoft, Slack. If you want to just touch on each one, and where's the focus on driving incremental growth and what are some of the initiatives?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Yes.

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful, thank you. You mentioned a comment that struck me, putting Slack in the hands of more sellers. And I think that's an initiative that's kind of more broad based across the sales organization, and that's part of the key to this effort to drive.

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Sure, wonderful. Great. Let's talk about multi-cloud deals. That's been at an area where you've seen some uptick in recent quarters. What's behind that? I know it's a big focus. You mentioned selling bundled solutions and offerings that fit together and have natural synergies. What's behind the strength you've seen over the last several quarters in multi-cloud deals?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. And why don't we shift to the partner channel? How do they fit into all these efforts here with AI and all the go-to-markets here with some of the bundled solutions that you're talking about? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 06, 2024 / 2:50PM, CRM.N - Salesforce Inc at Bank of America Global Technology Conference

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. Maybe back to multi-cloud deals, it's hard to do multi-cloud deals when the product isn't integrated. And I know that's a big effort, commerce and marketing in particular. I know, over the last couple of years, it's been a big focus of getting those integrated with the core sales and service. So how does that play into this? Where are we on that effort? And how do you feel about that?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. Maybe on that same topic, are there any key trends or clouds that you're seeing more momentum in these multi-cloud deals? Any common --

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Wonderful. Why don't we just end with one last one on one of the key focus areas for Salesforce, which again is operational efficiency? I think it would be helpful just to provide a little bit of color on where you are with the go-to-market effort in rationalizing the organization, putting the product -- more products in more hands of sellers, maybe where are you today? And going forward, just from a qualitative standpoint, where do you see opportunities for improvement?

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Makes a lot of sense. Brian, this is great conversation. Learned a lot here. Thank you so much.

Question: Brad Sills - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Thanks again.