Case Study: Salesforce.com achieves 60% increase in sales referrals with LinkedIn Talent Solutions

How CEO Marc Benioff Turned salesforce.com Employees into Brand Ambassadors

salesforce.com faced the challenge of rapidly hiring hundreds of account executives and sales engineers and wanted to tap employees as a primary source of strong hires. CEO Marc Benioff emailed the global sales team asking them to "Get Social and Spread the Word," providing ready-made LinkedIn post copy to mobilize employee networks.

Employees shared the posts on LinkedIn, led by Talent Acquisition program manager Kate Israels, and within 24 hours 350 links were shared—more than double the daily average—reaching about 159,000 professionals and a target audience of roughly 38,000 salespeople. The campaign drove a 60% increase in sales employee referral submissions in week one, reinforcing referrals as a highly effective hiring channel (referrals were noted to be 10× more likely to be hired).

Salesforce.com

Kate Israels

Program Manager, Talent Acquisition