The Question
What are the universal problems that all Salesforce customers need to be aware of?
No matter who you are or what industry you’re in, these are things you will have to manage in some way.
The Short Answer
Salesforce is an awesome platform, but it comes with a handful of hard Salesforce drawbacks.
You don’t really become aware of them until you’re live, paying, and trying to make things happen.
Here they are:
- Einstein Activity Tracker is all or nothing
- Leads are people, not companies
- As-is reporting is not native
These are not bugs.
These are features you’re expected to live with.
Why This Happens
At the core, these are architectural decisions.
You don’t notice these Salesforce drawbacks in demos.
You notice them when:
- You’re live
- You’re paying
- You’re stuck with them
Salesforce has had years to address these.
They haven’t.
Not because they can’t.
Because it’s not a priority.
1. Einstein Activity Tracker Is All Or Nothing
What it is
Einstein Activity Capture allows you to sync emails and calendar activity into Salesforce.
On paper, it sounds great. All communication, automatically tracked.
In reality?
It’s all or nothing.
What’s actually happening
Once enabled:
- Emails sync automatically
- Users don’t control what gets logged
- Visibility expands whether you want it or not
That sounds efficient until you realize you might not want every email in Salesforce.
What this looks like in real life
A sales leader is working a complex deal with multiple stakeholders.
Some conversations involve:
- Pricing strategy
- Internal negotiation
- Legal considerations
- Sensitive positioning
They send an email thinking it’s private.
It shows up in Salesforce now other team members see it, context gets misinterpreted, and sensitive discussions become visible.
What started as “helpful tracking” becomes a visibility problem.
Why it matters
Business relationships are not clean.
They are nuanced.
Einstein Activity Capture forces a level of exposure that doesn’t always align with reality.
That’s why many companies disable it, limit usage, or avoid it altogether.
2. Leads Cannot Be Companies
What it is
In Salesforce is a person.
- Not a company.
- Not a small gathering.
- Not a group
Just a person.
Yes, there’s a company field.
No, that does not change the structure.
What’s actually happening
This is one of the most stubborn Salesforce drawbacks.
You can add fields, create record types, and build workarounds.
Underneath all that a lead is still a person.
What this looks like in real life
A company runs an account-based marketing campaign targeting a mid-sized business.
They engage VP of Sales, Director of Ops, and a Finance Manager.
All from the same company.
In Salesforce, they now have 3 separate leads, no real company-level aggregation, and no unified pre-opportunity conversion view.
So what do they do?
- Manually track relationships
- Duplicate notes
- Bypass leads entirely and jump to accounts
Now the system isn’t supporting the strategy.
The strategy is working around the system.
Why it matters
Account-Based Marketing is real.
Salesforce’s lead model largely ignores it.
So companies end up skipping leads entirely, creating complex workarounds, or accepting friction as part of the system.
This is also where people start asking when to involve a Salesforce developer to try and “fix” it.
Spoiler: you’re not fixing it.
You’re just building around it.
3. Point In Time Reporting Is Not Native
What it is
Salesforce does not natively support true point-in-time reporting.
Meaning:
You can’t easily answer questions like:
- What did pipeline look like 6 months ago?
- What was revenue as of a specific date?
- How did forecasts change over time?
Without help.
What’s actually happening
Salesforce reporting is current state focused.
So things like historical pipeline comparisons, time-based revenue snapshots, and stage progressions over time are largely out the window without external tools or an incredible amount of wrestling with the system.
Examples that don’t work natively
- Pipeline as it existed on January 1st last year
- Forecast accuracy over time
- Historical conversion rates at specific moments
To do that properly, you need business intelligence tools like Tableau
What this looks like in real life
A CEO asks something that sounds simple enough. “What did our pipeline look like on this day last year?”
The team pulls a report and realizes that its not right.
Now confidence drops and everyone’s hair is on fire.
The question wasn’t unreasonable.
The system just wasn’t built for it.
Why it matters
If your business relies on:
- Financial forecasting
- Historical point in time analysis
- Specific seasonal rend tracking
You will need a BI layer.
This is one of those Salesforce drawbacks where you either accept it or pay to solve it.
The Pattern Behind It
The real pattern here is simple. Stubborn architecture.
These Salesforce drawbacks are well known, widely discussed, and frequently complained about.
And yet they don’t change.
This is not neglect.
This is prioritization.
Salesforce has decided that these tradeoffs are acceptable.
The Common Mistake
People spend way too much time fighting this stuff.
Trying to redesign, outsmart, or customize around the Great Wall.
You’d be better off trying to vacuum all the water of the Pacific Ocean.
Accept it:
- Activity Capture is all or nothing.
- Leads will be people.
- Reporting is not point in time natively.
These are not deal killers.
But they are there.
Closing Thought
These are the kinds of Salesforce drawbacks that sit in the same category as death and taxes.
Inevitable.
Unlikely to change.
Understanding them upfront saves you time, money, and frustration.
I’ve seen countless hours spent building workarounds, submitting feature requests, and escalating issues for people to essentially be told it is what it is by Salesforce.
The goal isn’t to fix these.
The goal is to understand them, plan around them, and move forward.
If you’re stuck dealing with one of these (or something else entirely), let’s talk.
We can help you get to a better spot without wasting time fighting things that aren’t moving.