It doesn't turn your pie making company into a SaaS product. All of the back-office, sales, marketing, relations can be kept in SFDC (cloud SaaS) though.

The reason I don't call it a sales lead tool is that is about 10% of their use case now. They've expanded significantly and companies use them for just about everything.

I see what you mean. I understood the parent comment to mean that Salesforce can be used to basically build a bespoke saas app that you use at the heart of your operations, but I’d agree that doesn’t change the nature of your business as a commercial baker in this example.

Salesforce is a CRM. If you want to call that “sales lead tool” instead then go for it. Doesn’t change why people buy it.

Salesforce is a SaaS because it’s in the cloud. The first company to take a big het on the Cloud, in fact.

If you’re still confused, then spend an hour or so reading their marketing literature and kicking the tires in their free Developer Orgs. Simple as.