Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

I think we really started to see that in the middle of ’22, maybe August, September, October, November. Certainly, as we’ve exited Dreamforce, we were like, I think that we can execute our playbook. We have a recession playbook. We know how to transform the company. Well, you just saw it in the last 90 days where the things we’re doing are launching on our — really launched a profitable growth strategy. This is a key part of what we’re doing, really making sure that every executive in this company knows that profitability is our highest priority and making sure that we keep in the very forefront of our mind that Salesforce is not just one of the largest and fastest growing. You can see that I think that we gained — we probably added or created more ACV than all the other SaaS companies combine.

Like our ACV numbers are massive, but also the most profitable software company in the world, the most — the highest cash flow. That’s what’s on our mind. And to do that, we are really focusing on making sure we have the expertise in the company. And I’ll tell you, Dreamforce, you are all sitting in the audience. You know Mason Morfit was there, sitting next to his founder, Jeff Ubben. And we had been working with Mason, and he started bringing us these incredible ideas on distribution, on pricing, on efficiency. It was these incredible strategic decks. I have never seen the level of quality of work from anyone outside the company before. I was just so inspired with what Mason came up with that, and I’m like, you know what, we should put him on the board and he has added just incredible value.

I mean probably a lot from the Microsoft experience, obviously, being on the Microsoft Board was awesome for him. And the expertise that we’re getting as a Board member is incredible. I think he starts today, but he has really been working with us now and has been really cool. And a huge call out to Jeff, too, because Jeff has been a friend for many years and great thoughts. I’ll tell you — and all of these guys, I’ll tell you — there’s a lot of them. We all know that. I’ve learned from everybody. I really appreciate all of their feedback. It’s been fantastic. And we’re also adding 2 more great Board members today, I mentioned already. But you might now know, Sachin, the CFO of Mastercard, incredible financial expertise. And also Arnold Donald, who I’ve known for so many years, is probably one of the greatest Fortune 100 CEOs of our time, incredible executive.

Looking forward to everyone getting to know him. And again, a huge thank you to Sandy and Alan, all of you — I know many of you work for Sandy in your careers. And it’s hard to see Sandy leave the Board because we love him, but it’s been 20 years so it’s probably the right moment. We’re having dinner next week, and it’s going to be a lot of gratitude there. And I think that those points, combined with — by the way, we’re going to repurchase so much stock, $20 billion, I think it’s real right time. We’ve already did $4 billion and that’s obviously critical for us, and we even created this new Business Transformation Committee. So the Board can really keep their eye on these KPIs that we’re talking about. But yes, performance, productivity, the fundamental profitability of the company, the prioritization of our products, leading with growth like with our new Data Cloud, with our verticals that was very enlightened that question and our services organization as well.

We have a lot of growth things. So when you look at — the buying environment gets back online in some huge way, and it doesn’t become measured, I think we are very well positioned for the future, and we have these great customer relationships. And I don’t think there’s any other evidence of that than the — that we just hit a record low on customer attrition.