With CEO Marc Benioff proclaiming Salesforce swatted aside the dreaded SaaSpocalypse with “one of the best software performances ever,” CRO Miguel Milano went inside the Q4 numbers to explain the reasons behind what he called Salesforce’s “best Q4 ever.”
As you think about those claims, it’s important to recognize that Benioff typically uses earnings calls to fervently evangelize his current top priority and that he’s prone to toss around the term “incredible” rather freely — in the Q4 earnings call, he used it 24 times.
But in today’s wild times, it’s even more important to bear in mind that just a couple of years ago Benioff and his 26-year-old company had all but forsaken growth as a strategic priority and were instead hunkered down on an intense mission to boost margins and cash flow to appease institutional investors.
But then came the AI Revolution, and Benioff, having led a companywide effort to slash expenses and optimize operations, has now recommitted his iconic company to the high-value priority that marked most of its first quarter-century: growth. A few highlights from Benioff’s top-level remarks on Q4, and then I’ll share CRO Milano’s insights on why Salesforce believes it turned the re-acceleration corner into FY27, which began Feb. 1.
For the full year, Salesforce revenue was up 10% to $41.5 billion, and for Q4 it was up 12% to $11.2 billion, Benioff said before switching to a number — RPO — that I believe has become in the Cloud Wars as vital as quarterly revenue growth.
“We passed an incredible milestone with $72 billion in total RPO, which is up 14% year-over-year,” Benioff said with great relish and confidence.
“Now, that is $72 billion in total RPO, up 14% year-over-year, in case you missed that point. I did read a tweet that RPO does not matter, but evidently, we have it if it does matter.”
I take Benioff’s wisecrack about some bozo tweeting the nonsensical idea that RPO doesn’t matter as a clear indication of his rising confidence that his company is fully committed and fully equipped to deliver on the growth prospects that are so essential in the Cloud Wars, in which customers have a wide range of world-class competitors from which to choose.
Back in the cost-cutting and margin-fixated days, Marc Benioff was making very few jokes. But those more-sober days now seem to be behind Salesforce — and that’s good for not only Benioff’s sense of humor but also for Salesforce’s customers.
CRO Milano then dug into the numbers with some compelling explanations that reveal how Salesforce’s customers are comfortable with and are committing to the company’s new highest-value offerings: Agentforce and Data 360.
AI Agent & Copilot Summit is an AI-first event to define opportunities, impact, and outcomes with Microsoft Copilot and agents. Building on its 2025 success, the 2026 event takes place March 17-19 in San Diego. Get more details.
Milano began by noting three key promises he and COO/CFO Robin Washington made at the Salesforce Investors Day in October.
- Revenue re-acceleration is now a reality. Back then, Milano said on the recent Q4 earnings call, “We were seeing the very likely possibility of revenue re-acceleration in 12 to 18 months — but that was four months ago. Today, we are saying that the revenue re-acceleration, organic revenue acceleration of subscription and support, is gonna happen in H2, and we are very committed to that, and we are certain now because we’ve seen the net new AOV [Average Order Value] growth outpacing the AOV growth in H2 last year…. Now, four quarters of net AOV pulling up the AOV growth is gonna finally translate in H2 into a revenue re-acceleration.”
- Reach $63 billion by fiscal 2030. As proof of Salesforce’s confidence and commitment to rejuvenated “long-term durable growth,” Milano said, the company has “increased that long-range target from $60 billion to $63 billion.” While the Informatica acquisition is definitely a driver of that boost, it is certainly not the only factor, Milano said. “It’s because we are more and more certain that we are gonna hit the numbers.”
- Turning AI into revenue. “We have found the formula to monetize AI,” Milano then promised.
And it turns out that’s a three-part formula for Salesforce.
- Selling to existing customers. Salesforce will look to upgrade its large installed base of 100 million seats “to our premium SKUs that contain already embedded AI and unlimited access to agentic for employee use cases. “Agentforce 1 Edition and Agentforce for Sales and Service has tripled quarter-on-quarter, and last quarter it doubled — so it’s pretty monster,” Milano gushed.
- The profound shift to Agentic AI. “Now our apps are Agentforce Sales, Agentforce Service —all of them are agentic,” Milano said “And the ROI that companies generate by implementing our apps has increased. So now we have access to new seats, whereas before companies couldn’t afford to roll out Salesforce or any of our apps.”
- Big deals are pouring in. Citing strong customer acceptance of Salesforce Flex Credits, Milano said that while Salesforce had never done 10 deals of $10 million or more in a single quarter, the company closed 12 in Q4 ended Jan. 31. Of those 12, three topped $20 million and one was for more than $50 million, Milano said. Also, six of the top 10 deals were upgrades of existing SKUs; in seven of the top 10, customers added seats; in five of the top 10, customers used credits for agentic customer-facing use cases; and three of the top 10 “included everything,” Milano said.
Final Thought
While the specific numbers Salesforce posted for Q4 are important, what I found even more vital was the company’s sense of confidence, of innovation, and of deep connection with what it’s customers want and need in these times of relentless and do-or-die disruption.
Marc Benioff is back. After spending several quarters in “time out” as he met the reasonable demands of some key investors to not only generate significant growth but also boost margins and profits on a regular basis, he is back to his iconic role as a destroyer of the status quo and as a creator of futures that seemed, only a handful of quarters ago, utterly out of reach.
For that reason alone, I’ll accept his claim that Salesforce’s Q4 was “one of the best software performances ever.”
Ask Cloud Wars AI Agent about this analysis
