{"id":75959,"date":"2024-03-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=75959"},"modified":"2025-03-27T13:10:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T20:10:39","slug":"25-years-of-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/stories\/25-years-of-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Years of Innovation: Sales Cloud EVP Reflects on Waves of Change and Looks Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s note: Einstein 1 Platform is now the Salesforce Platform. For the latest, go <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Ketan Karkhanis\u2019<\/a> face still lights up when he talks about sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An engineer by trade and a sales enthusiast by choice, Karkhanis, Salesforce\u2019s EVP & General Manager of Sales Cloud<\/a>, is just as fired up about his team\u2019s product innovations as he is about the art of selling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, as Salesforce rounds the corner on 25 years in business<\/a>, Karkhanis reflects on the evolution of the industry. He looks back at when Salesforce pioneered the cloud-based CRM model to help salespeople from businesses of all sizes track and manage leads \u2014 and at the newly announced AI capabilities of Einstein Copilot for Sales<\/a>, which are included in the Einstein 1 Sales Edition<\/a>, and available in the Enterprise Edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. Salesforce recently celebrated its 25th anniversary<\/a>. How has sales evolved since those early days?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The sales landscape has undergone a complete transformation over the past three decades, and it\u2019s been characterized by three distinct waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first wave was the age of the Rolodex, spreadsheets, and client server-based apps. Selling was disconnected, clunky, and painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 1999, Salesforce introduced the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. This innovation, moving applications and customer data to the cloud, ushered in the second wave of sales \u2014 the digital acceleration wave. At the core of this transformative wave was bringing together data from across the business\u2019s entire business, from sales and service to marketing and commerce, to create an accessible and holistic view of customers. Since that time, customers worldwide have embraced the cloud and Sales Cloud has become the market leader, generating more than $7.5 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Now, we are on the cusp of Wave 3: The artificial intelligence (AI) Imperative<\/a>, where AI and data have become indispensable tools for boosting productivity, deepening customer relationships, and achieving better margins.<\/p>\nKetan Karkhanis, Salesforce\u2019s EVP & General Manager of Sales <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now, we are on the cusp of Wave 3: The artificial intelligence (AI) Imperative<\/a>, where AI and data have become indispensable tools for boosting productivity, deepening customer relationships, and achieving better margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the reasons we developed Einstein 1 Sales Edition<\/a>, which bundles the best data and AI capabilities Salesforce has to offer in one streamlined package. This edition includes Einstein Copilot for Sales<\/a> \u2014 a customizable, conversational, generative AI assistant that utilizes an organization\u2019s unique data and metadata to produce powerful customer insights and recommendations directly within Sales Cloud to help sellers close more deals, faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n