Salesforce is the backbone of many sales organizations, but it’s also a constant source of frustration. Reps drown in admin work, managers struggle with incomplete data, and operations teams spend their days chasing CRM compliance.

To fix problems, companies often layer on more tools, configure endless automations, or enforce stricter processes. Instead of solving issues, these "fixes" often add complexity—slowing down reps, increasing administrative overhead, and making workflows more cumbersome.

In this article, we’ll break down the core issues sales teams face with Salesforce, why common solutions often create new problems, and what a better approach looks like.

This Article Contains

• Brief Intro of Salesforce Issues for Sales Teams
• Common Symptoms from Salesforce Issues
• The Core Root of Salesforce Issues
• Misguided Solutions... That Hurt More Than Help
• Why AI-Powered Sales Execution Is Essential Now
• FAQs About Salesforce Issues

Common Symptoms from Salesforce Issues

Salesforce issues don’t just create frustration—they directly impact revenue. When pipeline data is unreliable, sales capacity shrinks, and meetings turn into guesswork, teams lose deals they should’ve won.

Inaccurate Forecasting

Sales forecasts are only as good as the data in Salesforce. Incomplete, outdated, or manually adjusted data leads to missed targets, last-minute surprises, and reactive decision-making.

• Stale Close Dates: Deals remain in "Commit" with no updates, giving leaders a false sense of pipeline health.
• Missing Next Steps: Managers can’t identify stalled deals or coach effectively when next steps aren’t logged.
• Manual Adjustments: Reps modify deal values or close dates to avoid scrutiny, making forecasts unreliable.
• Fragmented Data: Account details scattered across tools prevent leaders from seeing the full picture.

Without clean data, forecasting becomes guesswork, and leadership cannot rely on their pipeline.

Reduced Selling Capacity

When Salesforce requires constant manual updates, reps spend less time selling. Instead, they juggle admin work and fragmented workflows that slow them down.

• Too Many Manual Updates: Logging calls, updating fields, and filling out methodology requirements consumes valuable selling time.
• Context Switching: Moving between Salesforce, spreadsheets, Slack, and other tools disrupts focus and adds inefficiency.
• Delayed CRM Updates: Reps often postpone updates until end-of-quarter, resulting in stale or incomplete data.

As selling time drops, pipeline coverage suffers, deal quality decreases, and reps miss revenue opportunities.

Inefficient Meetings and Sales Cycles

When Salesforce data is incomplete, sales meetings shift from strategy to status checks. This wastes time and slows deal progression.

• Forecast Calls: Managers spend meetings chasing updates instead of discussing deal strategy.
• Pipeline Reviews: Leaders focus on identifying pipeline gaps instead of guiding reps to move deals forward.
• Messy Handoffs: Missing opportunity notes create confusion between AEs, CSMs, and SDRs, delaying deal cycles.

Inefficient meetings and handoffs increase deal friction, making it harder for teams to meet targets.

The Core Root of Salesforce Issues

Salesforce isn’t failing sales teams because it lacks functionality—it’s failing because it wasn’t built for how reps actually work. The core issues aren’t about missing features but about friction: reps struggling with usability, pipeline data scattered across tools, and leaders making decisions based on incomplete information.

Poor Usability for Frontline Sales Reps

Sales reps don’t wake up excited to update Salesforce. They spend their days in back-to-back calls, emails, and meetings, yet Salesforce demands constant manual input. Instead of working with reps, it slows them down.

• Too many clicks: Updating an opportunity requires navigating multiple tabs, editing fields one by one, and saving changes manually. Compare that to a spreadsheet, where reps can edit everything in seconds.
• Rigid UI and slow workflows: Salesforce’s interface prioritizes data management over speed. Many reps rely on shadow spreadsheets because it’s a faster way to handle updates.
• Context switching overload: Reps toggle between Salesforce, Gong, Slack, and spreadsheets to manage deals, making workflows fragmented and inefficient.

Salesforce doesn’t adapt to how reps sell. Instead, reps have to adapt to how Salesforce works, and that’s a losing battle.

Shadow CRM Data

Reps don’t trust Salesforce as their primary workspace, so they store deal-critical information in other tools. This creates shadow CRM data—a scattered mess of notes, spreadsheets, and Slack threads that leadership can’t see.

• Pipeline managed outside Salesforce: Reps use Google Sheets for speed and flexibility, but updates rarely sync back into the CRM.
• Notes hidden in personal apps: Deal insights live in Evernote or Notion instead of Salesforce, leaving pipelines incomplete.
• Delayed updates: Reps batch updates at the end-of-week, leaving leaders to work with stale data during critical decision windows.

When data lives outside of Salesforce, pipeline accuracy suffers, and leaders rely on incomplete information for forecasting and strategy.

Lack of Visibility for Sales Leaders

A CRM is only as reliable as the data inside it. But when reps avoid Salesforce or update it inconsistently, sales leaders are left with an incomplete picture.

• Unreliable forecasting: Stale close dates, missing next steps, and outdated deal values make forecasting inaccurate and reactive.
• Blind spots in deal execution: Without notes on objections or next steps, leaders can’t coach reps effectively or identify risks in the pipeline.
• Slow deal inspection: Salesforce lacks intuitive tools for tracking pipeline changes, leaving leaders to piece together deal movement manually.

Salesforce should be a source of truth, but when reps struggle with usability and store data elsewhere, it becomes a liability. Leaders are left making decisions based on what’s missing, rather than what’s actually happening in deals.

Misguided Solutions... That Hurt More Than Help

When Salesforce becomes a bottleneck, companies scramble for fixes. Many solutions, however, lead to more complexity, frustrating sales teams and reducing productivity.

Reconfiguring Salesforce

Operations teams often try to fix Salesforce with overhauls to fields, automations, and page layouts. These changes aim to improve data quality, but they unintentionally make Salesforce harder to use.

• More required fields: Requiring additional fields forces reps to fill placeholders or avoid updates altogether.
• Validation rules: Strict rules prevent reps from saving updates, leading to delays or avoidance.
• Complex layouts: Custom objects and cluttered pages bury critical information, making simple actions time-consuming.

These fixes don’t address the fundamental reason reps avoid Salesforce: its poor usability. Perhaps more importantly, they can take months or years to implement and often times, sales process changes and those updates are outdated.

Brute Force and Excessive Training

Leadership often enforces compliance through training and increased accountability. This approach assumes reps lack knowledge, rather than recognizing the workflow barriers caused by Salesforce.

• Mandatory training: Lengthy sessions don’t make Salesforce faster or easier to use, leaving reps frustrated.
• Pipeline reviews: Reps rush updates to avoid scrutiny, leading to incomplete or inaccurate data.
• CRM policing: Managers spend hours chasing updates instead of coaching or strategizing.

Improving adoption requires reducing admin burden, not forcing reps to adapt to inefficient systems.

Disconnected Apps that Crowd the Tech Stack

Companies frequently introduce third-party tools to fix Salesforce gaps. While each tool addresses specific needs, their combined use fragments workflows and increases complexity.

• Shadow systems: Reps manage pipeline in spreadsheets or apps like Notion, bypassing Salesforce entirely.
• Fragmented workflows: Notes, tasks, and deal insights scatter across tools, worsening data hygiene.
• Tech fatigue: Managing multiple tools with different logins, notifications, and interfaces drains productivity.

A streamlined solution ensures reps can manage pipeline, tasks, and updates without leaving their primary workspace.

Why AI-Powered Sales Execution Is Essential Now

Salesforce issues persist because traditional fixes add complexity rather than solve root problems. AI-driven tools now enable sales teams to reduce admin burdens, maintain CRM hygiene, and focus on execution without disrupting workflows.

Applied AI from Scratchpad

Applied AI transforms disconnected data into a CRM that your organization can trust. Scratchpad removes manual input from sales workflows. This improves accuracy and increases selling capacity for sales reps while giving leaders predictability.

• AI-Native Sheets & Notes replace shadow spreadsheets disconnected from CRM.
• Instant CRM access and updates from any web app.
• Collaborative workspace fully integrated with AI suggestions, update input grading, notes, tasks, summaries, and more.Scratchpad leverages this structured intelligence to keep data accurate and workflows seamless for reps and leaders.

Agents for Frontline Reps and Sales Leaders

Sales teams need tools that actively reduce admin work and improve visibility. Scratchpad’s Sales Agents automate tasks, enforce process adherence, and surface actionable insights in real time.

• Rep Agents: Automate CRM updates, ensuring deal data remains accurate without manual input.
• Deal Agents: Provide instant visibility for sales leaders by answering any question about any deal and surfacing risks.

The agents minimize busy work for reps and allow leaders to get answers quickly without chasing down reps or navigating fragmented tools.

Hygiene Monitoring System

Poor CRM hygiene creates unreliable forecasts and inefficiencies in pipeline management. Scratchpad’s Hygiene Monitoring System continuously ensures Salesforce data remains complete and aligned with sales processes.

• Zero Boards: Reps see a daily list of actions needed for deals with missing next steps or expired close dates.
• Process Compliance: Automated checks enforce adherence to frameworks like MEDDPICC or SPICED, flagging incomplete fields.
• Team Visibility: Leaders access dashboards to identify hygiene gaps across teams and address them proactively.

By automating hygiene and compliance, Scratchpad ensures Salesforce remains a reliable resource without requiring additional manual effort.

FAQs About Salesforce Issues

Why is my Salesforce data often inaccurate?

Salesforce data is often inaccurate because reps delay updates, add placeholders to required fields, or rely on shadow systems like spreadsheets. Manual updates create stale and incomplete data that undermines pipeline health and forecasting accuracy.

Can third-party tools fix Salesforce limitations?

Third-party tools can address gaps, but they often scatter data across disconnected platforms. This complicates workflows and introduces inefficiencies instead of truly solving Salesforce limitations.

Is Salesforce too complex for small teams?

Salesforce often overwhelms small teams with unnecessary complexity, requiring extensive setup and admin resources. Simplifying workflows with integrated solutions helps teams manage deals without abandoning the platform.

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