Jim Cramer sat down with the CEOs of Salesforce and Slack this week — here are our takeaways

Published Fri, Sep 23 20223:57 PM EDT

Salesforce 's (CRM) annual Dreamforce conference took center stage in the tech world this week. And Jim Cramer was on site in San Francisco to talk with leading tech CEOs , including the heads of Salesforce and its subsidiary Slack. Here's are our recap and takeaways from each interview. Salesforce Co-CEO Marc Benioff Benioff said Salesforce is integrating Slack into Customer 360, the company's customer relationship management platform, so that it becomes the primary messaging system for users. Quip, the word processing app Salesforce acquired in 2016, will also be integrated into Slack. Salesforce completed its acquisition of Slack in July 2021. Stressing the importance of attracting new customers, the co-CEO said that it's important for Salesforce to both meet customers face-to-face and then see them reinforce the value of the company's products to others. "The second part has not been as easy," he said. The Club take: Salesforce became the largest enterprise application software company in the world by focusing on the needs of customers. We do not anticipate it losing its edge given the strength of the Customer 360 platform. Salesforce Co-CEO Bret Taylor Taylor highlighted Salesforce's shift towards profitability -- it's aiming for a 25% operating margin in 2026 by limiting spending — and commitment to returning cash to shareholders. The Co-CEO acknowledged the volatile state of the economy but said he remained bullish on digitization's ability to drive growth on the top and bottom lines. "We can't predict the future of the economy, but what I can tell you is the digitization of the economy that accelerated [in] the pandemic...permanently changed the way we work, the way we engage with customers." The Club take: Salesforce's emphasis on growing profits and returning cash to shareholders was one of the most important takeaways of the event. It shows the company is committed to expanding margins and managing dilutions, all of which we, as shareholders, wanted to hear. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield When Jim asked how Slack competes with competitors like Microsoft, Butterfield said the messaging application acts as a digital headquarters that complements other enterprise applications. The chief executive added that almost 100% of Slack's large enterprise customers are also Microsoft customers — using Office 365 and Teams — and use its applications alongside Slack. Salesforce, for example, uses Google Meet, WebEx and Zoom in addition to Slack, he said. The Club take: We've been pleased with the early success of Slack and how it has been integrated into Customer 360. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long CRM. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Bret Taylor, co-chief executive officer of Salesforce.com Inc., right, and Marc Benioff, co-chief executive officer of Salesforce.com Inc., wear rabbit ears during a keynote at the 2022 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.

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