Salesforce.com 2006 Annual Report Download - page 15

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Table of Contents
Referral and Indirect Sales
We have a network of partners who refer customer prospects to us and assist us in selling to them. These include consulting firms, other technology
vendors and systems integrators. In return, we typically pay these partners a fee based on the first-year subscription revenue generated by the customers they
refer. We also continued to develop distribution channels for our service.
Marketing
Our marketing strategy is to continually elevate our brand and generate significant demand for our offerings. We use a variety of marketing programs to
target our prospective and current customers, partners, and developers.
Our primary marketing activities include:
• press and industry analyst relations to garner third-party validation and generate positive coverage for our company and product strategy
• user conferences and launch events, as well as participation in trade shows and industry events, to create awareness and excitement
• search engine marketing and online and print advertising to drive traffic to our Web properties
• web site development to engage and educate prospects and generate interest through product information and demonstrations, free trials, case
studies, white papers, and marketing collateral
• email, direct mail, and phone campaigns to capture leads that can be funneled into our sales organization
• sales tools and field marketing events to enable our sales organization to more effectively convert pipeline into completed transactions
Customer Service and Support
We believe that superior customer support is critical to retaining and expanding our customer base. Our customer support groups respond to general
customer inquiries, such as technical questions or questions relating to how to use our service, and are available to customers by telephone or email or over
the Web.
We have a comprehensive technical support program to assist our customers in the use of our service and to identify, analyze and solve any problems or
issues with our service. The support program includes email support, an online repository of helpful information about our service, shared best practices for
implementation and use, and telephone support. Telephone support is provided by technical support specialists on our staff, who are extensively trained in the
use of our service. In addition, we have supplemented our support specialists with other technical support specialists who work for us on a contract basis.
Basic customer support during business hours is available at no charge to customers that purchase any of our paying editions. Premium customer support that
includes additional customer support is available for an additional charge or is included as part of Unlimited Edition.
International Sales
In fiscal 2007, 2006 and 2005, we generated approximately 22 percent, 20 percent and 20 percent of our total revenues, respectively, from customers in
Europe and Asia Pacific, including Japan. We expect international markets to provide increased opportunities for our applications and services in the future.
Our current international efforts are focused on strengthening our direct sales and marketing presence outside of the Americas, and generating more revenues
from these regions.
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