Why Salesforce as an Investment Banking CRM: Pros and Cons

Investment bankers face a fast-paced, high-stakes world where managing complex client relationships, staying on top of compliance, and cutting costs are just the tip of the iceberg. Add in the challenge of pulling together scattered data, securely handling sensitive information, and making quick, informed decisions, and it’s clear the pressure is on.

But too often, outdated systems hold firms back—leaving them with fragmented data and no AI to help drive smarter decisions.

That’s where Salesforce steps in. Known for its game-changing CRM, Salesforce is trusted by major players like Evercore, TD Securities, and Moelis & Co. It offers a secure, all-in-one platform that boosts client engagement, streamlines workflows, and delivers the critical insights banks need to stay ahead.

For investment banking, it’s a game-changer, offering the tools to stay competitive and make data-backed decisions that matter.

At Ascendix, we’re convinced Salesforce can be the backbone of your investment banking CRM. This blog post will delve into the assessment of Salesforce for investment banking, examining the pros and cons of its standard functionalities versus customized solutions.

Join us as we explore how Salesforce can revolutionize the investment banking landscape.

Why Businesses Prefer Salesforce for Investment Banking

Salesforce, the leading CRM platform for over two decades, has established itself as the preferred choice for financial services firms due to its expansive ecosystem and diverse product offerings. Salesforce’s comprehensive suite—including Sales, Service, Financial Services, and Experience Clouds, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot), and CRM Analytics is designed to streamline operations and provide top-notch customer service, always keeping the client at the forefront.

Investment bankers particularly favor Salesforce Sales Cloud for its exceptional customization, robust security, and seamless integration with over 7,000 pre-built and customizable applications.

This powerful, code-free, and user-friendly platform centralizes client data, deal history, and communications for rapid access. It also automates the tracking of deal stages and tasks, significantly reducing the risk of missed opportunities.

Why Salesforce as an Investment Banking CRM | Ascendix

Centralized Data Management

Salesforce Sales Cloud provides a unified view of business data, including historical information, streamlining deal structuring, financial modeling, valuation, and presentations for mergers, acquisitions, and capital raising without the need to switch between multiple applications.

This enables financial professionals to personalize their offerings, build and maintain client relationships, and enhance collaboration across dispersed departments, thereby gaining a competitive edge.

Salesforce also enables building client segmentation filters to create actionable lists for meaningful, timely communication and personalize outreach and automated follow-ups to maintain relationships.

Interaction Tracking

Salesforce empowers investment bankers to capture meeting notes and action items, swiftly filter and review past client interactions for comprehensive visibility, and automatically sync attendees’ company details from calendars for seamless event tracking.

Additionally, users can schedule tasks, set reminders, add relationships to marketing campaigns, and visualize market data for potential transactions, all within the Salesforce platform.

Relationship Visualization

Salesforce enables viewing weighted relationships to identify strong and weak client connections and assess team relationships to identify the best contacts for key opportunities.

This solution offers visualization of relationships within a company’s hierarchy, including interactions, pitches, and transactions.

Platform Flexibility

Salesforce offers exceptional flexibility, enabling feature and workflow customization for investment banking and other financial sectors, simplifying system scaling without extensive coding.

For instance, with minor adjustments, Salesforce can automate and track commercial lending operations, monitor sales incentives to gauge standings and motivate the banking team, identify internal client relationships, and calculate relationship scores.

Einstein Scoring in Salesforce | Source: Trailhead

Security & Compliance

Salesforce prioritizes security and regulatory compliance, adhering to over 40 international security regulations, making it the top choice for those seeking the highest IT security standards.

This CRM for investment bankers offers role-based access to activities, deals, information, task tracking, and document collection, ensuring that sensitive information is accessed, shared, and protected among stakeholders at the appropriate times and in the proper formats.

Additionally, features like health checks and multi-factor authentication further safeguard corporate and client data.

Data Analysis and Reporting

Real-time analytics within Salesforce products assist financial professionals in gaining valuable client insights and market trends and identify new opportunities and trigger events.

AI-powered tools like CRM Analytics (formerly Tableau CRM) and Einstein Relationship Insights (ERI) provide insights into customer journeys, revenue, retention, and churn in customizable formats.

Salesforce also offers customizable reports that help present data in easily understandable formats, tailored to specific needs.

An Example of Einstein Relationship Insights (ERI) Interface | Source: Trailhead

Precise Forecasts & Planning

Salesforce provides access to timely client data, enabling informed financial decisions and precise budget forecasting, helping executives predict income, assess risks, and take corrective actions.

It also helps in creating and updating personalized financial plans.

Forecast Changes in Salesforce | Source: Trailhead

Integration with Third-Party Tools

Salesforce users can access over 7,000 add-on products through AppExchange and extend functionality without extensive coding so agents can seamlessly sync solutions for virtual document signing like Docusign, email services like Gmail or Outlook, Ascendix Search for advanced Salesforce search capabilities, Office 365, or Google Drive.

Moreover, the platform’s flexibility allows custom integration with other front-office, back-office, and middle-office functions to stay competitive and efficient as well as real-time API-driven integrations with multiple trading systems, forming the data backbone for institutional customers and content management systems, offering clients direct access to pre-trade market insights and post-trade portfolio data.

Regular Platform Updates

Salesforce consistently innovates by providing regular updates that introduce new features, enhance existing functionalities, and bolster security measures.

These updates ensure that businesses have access to cutting-edge tools and technologies to remain competitive.

Trailblazer Community

Salesforce users benefit from the robust Trailblazer community, which includes a large and active network of partners, developers, and experts. This community offers support, shares best practices, and provides a wealth of knowledge and resources.

Salesforce Trailblazer Groups, tailored by role, product, and location, regularly host webinars, meetups, and conferences both online and offline to facilitate continuous learning and networking.

Extensive Educational Resources

Salesforce provides comprehensive educational resources, including the free gamified learning platform, Trailhead.

It offers numerous tutorials and guides to help users of all levels—from beginners to advanced—maximize their Salesforce skills and platform utilization.

Moreover, if you need professional guidance on Salesforce implementation and further support, Salesforce offers a vast ecosystem of partners that can optimize platform capabilities.

Additionally, Salesforce products offer the following capabilities:

• Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) helps streamline and personalize email communication with partners, customers, and investors through automated email campaigns.

Email Templates in Pardot (MC Account Engagement) | Ascendix

• Salesforce Marketing Cloud enables growing financial institutions by delivering personalized experiences across multiple channels using advanced marketing automation.
• Salesforce Service Cloud enhances investor relations by providing superior customer service, efficiently managing inquiries and requests, and maintaining detailed interaction histories for tailored communications and services.
• CRM Analytics helps analyze vast amounts of due diligence data to make more informed investment decisions.
• Experience Cloud ensures operational transparency and trust by providing investors with a dedicated portal for direct access to their investment information, enhancing the relationship through transparency.
• Salesforce Financial Services Cloud is a specialized CRM platform tailored for the financial services industry. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help enterprise-level banks, insurance companies, and wealth management firms manage customer relationships, streamline operations, and ensure regulatory compliance.

Salesforce Experience Cloud Analytics Dashboard| Source: Trailhead

To fully leverage Salesforce for investment banking, customization is essential. While the platform’s standard setup is tailored to typical sales tasks such as lead and account management, it must be adapted to meet the unique processes of investment banking organizations.

A Standard Salesforce CRM vs. Custom Salesforce Solution for Investment Banking

Investment bankers deal with a dynamic environment that includes mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and managing client relationships.

As a result, they need technology solutions that streamline workflows, ensure data accuracy, and maintain client engagement.

Salesforce provides an effective foundation for this, but the choice between a standard solution and a custom-built platform can have significant implications.

Here’s a comparison of how these different Salesforce iterations meet the specific needs of investment bankers.

Standard Salesforce Solution Pros & Cons for Investment Bankers

Standard Salesforce Solution Pros:

• Contact and Deal Management: Standard Salesforce CRM provides a solid foundation for managing client and deal data. It helps bankers organize client profiles, maintain communication logs, and track deal progress.

Activity Tracking in Salesforce | Source: Trailhead

• Mobility and 24/7 Access: Salesforce ensures that investment bankers can access critical information anytime, from any internet-connected device. This mobility is crucial when bankers are traveling or in client meetings.
• Collaboration Tools: Teams can collaborate seamlessly by logging notes, tracking interactions, and sharing deal-related data. Salesforce’s transparency ensures that bankers can keep up-to-date with ongoing deals and client communications.

Salesforce Chatter | Source: Trailhead

• Real-Time Reporting: Salesforce enables real-time reporting on deals, client interactions, and key account status. For bankers, this means quicker access to performance metrics and deal progress, fostering accountability within teams.
• Integration with Marketing Tools: Integration with email tools like Pardot (Account Engagement) allows bankers to send personalized deal updates and other relevant communications to clients, improving client engagement and retention.

Salesforce Standard Solution Cons:

• Generic Configuration: Investment banking requires specialized workflows for deal tracking, valuations, and client engagements. Standard Salesforce is built for broader CRM functions and lacks industry-specific tools, making it less suitable for managing complex deals and transactions.
• Overloaded with Unnecessary Features: Standard Salesforce CRM has features geared toward sales teams, which may be insufficient for investment bankers. This can lead to more complex implementation and reduce usability.
• Limited Deal Flow Customization: Standard Salesforce CRM does not cater to the unique nuances of deal flow tracking in investment banking. The deal stages in Salesforce may not map cleanly to the multi-step process that bankers follow, requiring more customization to make it work.
• Limited Client Relationship Tracking: While Salesforce offers contact management, it lacks the sophistication needed to track the intricate and long-term relationships between bankers and institutional clients.
• Overdependence on the Salesforce Ecosystem: Being tied to the Salesforce ecosystem can limit flexibility, making you dependent on their updates and changes. However, Salesforce partners like Ascendix can create a strategic plan that allows for flexibility and minimizes overdependence on Salesforce-specific features and design the architecture in a way that could be adapted to other platforms if necessary.

As your Salesforce consulting partner with deep expertise in financial services domains such as capital markets, venture capital, and private equity, Ascendix will help you overcome the limitations of the standard Salesforce solution.

We will customize Salesforce for investment banking needs to efficiently manage large volumes of data and documentation, analyze market trends and company performance for investment recommendations, create accurate financial reports, and integrate CRM with third-party platforms.

Our professionals can set up custom approvals, reminders, notifications, and reports to streamline operations.

Moreover, we specialize in creating fully customized web portals powered by Salesforce Experience Cloud, ensuring cost-effectiveness by avoiding unnecessary functionality.

Our secure, custom-built, self-service portals for investors, lenders, and partners will have meticulously designed hierarchies, sharing protocols, permissions, and access controls.

Additionally, we focus on refining the portal’s design to enhance the digital experience, making it intuitive and user-friendly for all users.

Custom-Built Salesforce CRM for Investment Bankers Pros & Cons

A custom-built Salesforce CRM for investment banking can be designed specifically to meet the complex demands of investment bankers, providing tools and features that enhance productivity and streamline operations.

Custom-Built Salesforce CRM Pros:

• Tailored Deal Flow Management: Customizing Salesforce allows bankers to design a deal-tracking system that reflects their actual processes, ensuring more efficient workflow management, from due diligence to closing.
• High Industry Fit: Allows for a fully tailored CRM for investment banking specific to the business model and operations of the fund.
• Advanced Client Profiling: Custom fields and layouts can capture the full complexity of client profiles, including investment history, risk preferences, and past interactions. This allows bankers to offer personalized advice and build stronger relationships.
• Real-Time Valuation Tools: A custom solution can integrate with financial modeling software to provide real-time valuations and deal analytics. This improves decision-making and allows for quicker responses to market changes.
• Integration with Industry-Specific Tools: A customized CRM for investment bankers can integrate with tools commonly used in investment banking, such as financial data platforms, ensuring seamless access to market data and financial metrics.
• Scalability for Growing Deal Pipelines: As the bank grows, a custom Salesforce solution can scale to accommodate more deals and more complex transactions, without overwhelming users or requiring constant manual adjustments.

Custom-Built Salesforce CRM Cons:

• Higher Initial Costs: Customizing Salesforce to fit investment banking needs can be expensive, requiring specialized developers, consultants, and potentially extra licensing fees. However, the long-term ROI typically justifies these costs due to efficiency gains and enhanced client service.
• Maintenance and Updates: Custom-built solutions require ongoing maintenance, especially when Salesforce releases platform updates. This can increase overhead costs but can be mitigated by partnering with a reliable Salesforce consultancy.
• Longer Implementation Time: Custom CRM implementations take time. For investment bankers, this means that while the long-term benefits are substantial, the immediate gains may be delayed during the build-out process.
• Risk of Over-Customization: Excessive customization of Salesforce CRM for investment management can lead to a rigid system that struggles to adapt to new business processes or market conditions. To mitigate these risks, it is advisable to hire a professional team of experts who can provide valuable insights and assess previously implemented features for better scalability and flexibility
• Complex Training Needs: A highly customized CRM system may be complex, necessitating extensive training for users. However, with proper onboarding and support, user adoption can be high once they see how the system simplifies their day-to-day tasks.

How Ascendix Can Help Investment Bankers with Salesforce Customization

We have 20+ years of practical experience in turning clients’ ideas into effective Salesforce-based solutions. Since we’ve worked closely with key Salesforce Clouds almost since their inception, we know all platform intricacies inside out and their evolution capabilities.

Ascendix is among the top-rated Crest (Gold) Salesforce Consulting Partners with 70+ certified Salesforce consultants, developers, solution architects, business analysts, and QA professionals on board that will ensure the seamless operation of your platform.

With an international presence and headquarters in Dallas, TX, we provide flexible onshore/offshore engagement models to suit our clients’ needs, ensuring convenience and cost-efficiency.

Our industry expertise in Salesforce development for capital markets, investment banking, venture capital, and private equity sectors is reflected in the success stories of our clients.

By leveraging Salesforce and Ascendix’s capabilities, investment bankers can transform their customer experience, focus more on revenue-generation activities and less on manual data entry, and unlock new growth opportunities.

Also, Ascendix will customize Salesforce for investment banking so that professionals can easily:

• Automate capturing data from emails, calendar invites, and meetings automatically to ensure complete and accurate records and analysis of network data and identify the best connections for closing deals and who are likely to co-invest or reinvest.
• Track investors, related accounts, key contacts, distribution lists, and third-party consultant affiliations within one platform – Salesforce.
• Replace manual Excel reporting with Salesforce’s robust reports and dashboards. Set up built-in analytics and reporting tools for insights into sales and marketing performance.

Want to adapt the Salesforce organization to the growing needs of your investment banking organization? Book a free CRM consulting call and we’ll help you create a truly personalized solution powered by Salesforce.