Salesforce's Differentiation Strategy

Differentiation relies on a firm achieving competitive advantage by increasing a consumer’s willingness to pay a premium for products and services through the firm’s manipulation of the product's objective properties. What sets Salesforce apart from its competitors are:
Cloud-based Platform - Salesforce works in the cloud as opposed to on-premises software.

• Force.com - A repository of third-party developer apps and modules built for the Salesforce platform 
• Chatter - An enterprise-wide social network for collaboration, which is incredibly popular and even used as a separate product outside of Salesforce's CRM software. 
• Mobile - Because it is cloud-based, it is accessible from any mobile device. 
• Plays well with others - Works well with Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes, and Google Apps. 

Salesforce markets itself as a friendlier, more user-friendly, and scalable alternative to SAP and Microsoft.