Software has become a hidden “tax” in many Salesforce contracts. Enterprises often overpay for unused or underutilized licenses, draining budgets without delivering value. The root cause is usually poor license alignment – buying more seats or higher-tier licenses than your workforce actually needs.
The good news is that Salesforce license optimization is one of the fastest ways to reduce spend.
By identifying and eliminating shelfware, organizations can save money without impacting productivity.
This article offers tactical steps for CIOs, CFOs, procurement leaders, and IT managers to audit license usage, right-size their licenses, and implement governance to effectively manage shelfware in the long term.
Read our guide to cutting Salesforce costs.
What Is Salesforce Shelfware?
Salesforce shelfware refers to paid licenses that sit unused or underutilized. These are seats you’ve bought but which employees rarely or never activate.
Shelfware accumulates for a variety of reasons, including rapid hiring projections that didn’t pan out, overestimation of needs during contract negotiations, and lack of visibility into actual user activity. In large enterprises, it’s not uncommon to find that only ~60% of purchased Salesforce licenses are actively used — meaning up to 40% are wasted.
This unused capacity translates to millions of dollars in value left on the table. Shelfware is essentially pure waste: you’re paying Salesforce for permissions and features no one is leveraging. Identifying and reducing this shelfware is a quick win to immediately cut costs.
Conducting a Salesforce License Audit
The first step in optimizing Salesforce licenses is to conduct a thorough license audit. This process shines a light on where your licenses are going and who (if anyone) is using them.
Here’s how to perform a Salesforce license audit:
- Gather Usage Data: Pull Salesforce usage reports and login history across all your orgs. Salesforce administrators can export lists of all active user licenses, last login dates, and feature usage. Tools like Salesforce’s built-in Optimizer or License Management App (LMA) can help automate this data collection.
- Identify Inactive Users: Look for users who haven’t logged in for an extended period (e.g. 30, 60, or 90 days). These inactive accounts often indicate shelfware. Also flag users with very infrequent activity (such as less than one login per month) – they may not need a full license or any license at all.
- Cross-Check with HR Records: Align your audit with HR data to catch departed employees or role changes. Often, licenses remain allocated to users who left the company or moved to a role that doesn’t require Salesforce. Ensure that there’s a process in place to reclaim those licenses immediately during offboarding.
- Analyze Feature Adoption: Beyond logins, examine which Salesforce features and products are being used. For example, suppose you purchased add-ons or premium features that few teams are actually adopting. In that case, this is an opportunity to scale back to a lower edition or remove that add-on later.
Perform these audit steps at least quarterly. Regular license audits provide visibility into license utilization and prevent months of accumulated waste. With concrete data on who is (and isn’t) using Salesforce, you can take action to eliminate excess licenses before renewal time.
Many organizations are shocked to discover the gap between what they’re paying for and what’s actually used – but armed with audit data, you can begin to close that gap immediately.
Right-Sizing Licenses for Your Workforce
Not every Salesforce user needs the most expensive, feature-rich license. Right-sizing means matching each employee with the appropriate license type and edition that best meets their actual needs.
This prevents the common scenario of a one-size-fits-all license policy where everyone gets a premium license by default.
Start by reviewing the roles and usage patterns of your Salesforce users:
- Heavy vs. Light Users: Identify power users (sales reps, support agents, managers who live in Salesforce daily) versus occasional or read-only users. Power users likely need a full Sales Cloud or Service Cloud license to access all CRM features. Light users might only need a platform license or even just a Salesforce read-only or Chatter Free access.
- Downgrade Premium Licenses: If someone is assigned a high-cost Enterprise or Unlimited Edition license but only uses basic functions, consider downgrading them to a cheaper license tier. For example, a team member who only logs in to run reports or update a few fields might do fine with a Salesforce Platform license (which has limited functionality at a fraction of the cost of a full license).
- Use Lower-Cost Alternatives: Salesforce offers options such as Chatter Free (for collaboration-only users) and Identity or External licenses (for users who only need SSO or community access). Leverage these free or low-cost licenses for employees or external partners that don’t need core CRM access. This frees up your paid licenses for those who truly require them.
The cost difference can be substantial. A full Sales Cloud user license can cost several times more annually than a basic platform or read-only license.
By aligning each user with the lowest-cost license that meets their needs, enterprises can significantly reduce licensing costs without compromising productivity.
In short, avoid issuing $1,500/year licenses to someone who would be perfectly productive with a $300/year option. Right-sizing licenses eliminates overspending on capabilities that go unused.
Reassigning and Recycling Licenses
Another fast way to eliminate shelfware is to reassign and recycle unused licenses within your organization. Rather than automatically buying new licenses for every new project or hire, establish processes to reclaim and reuse what you already have:
- Implement a Reclamation Policy: Whenever an employee leaves the company or a contractor’s term ends, immediately deactivate their Salesforce user account and reclaim the associated license for the central pool. The same applies to internal transfers—if someone moves to a role that no longer requires Salesforce, don’t let their old license remain unused.
- Centralize License Redistribution: Maintain an internal inventory of available (unassigned) licenses. When a department requests a new Salesforce seat, check the pool of reclaimed licenses first. Often, you can transfer a license from one user or team to another, rather than purchasing an additional one. This “recycling” approach ensures you make full use of licenses already paid for.
- Quarterly License Health Checks: Conduct a license usage review every quarter (or even monthly) to catch emerging shelfware. Identify any assigned licenses with minimal or no activity in the last 1–3 months. Reach out to those users’ managers to determine if the license is truly needed. If not, free it up. Regular health checks ingrain a culture of continuous optimization, rather than a one-time cleanup.
By reassigning dormant licenses to new users, you delay or avoid new purchases.
For example, if one business unit downsizes or finishes a project, its surplus licenses can support another unit’s expansion. This strategy reduces costs by ensuring you fully utilize all the capacity you’ve paid for. It also prevents teams from “hoarding” extra licenses just in case – if everyone knows licenses will be reclaimed when idle, there’s less temptation to over-request.
Preventing Shelfware at Renewal
The true test of license optimization comes at contract renewal time. If you’re not careful, Salesforce’s sales team may encourage you to simply renew all existing licenses (or even purchase more), which can perpetuate any existing shelfware problem.
Instead, take control of the renewal process to align your contract with actual usage and secure flexibility for the future.
Key strategies to prevent shelfware during Salesforce renewals include:
- Align Counts with Real Usage: Before renewal discussions, use your audit data to determine the number of licenses you genuinely need going forward. Don’t blindly renew the same quantity you initially bought if your utilization data shows you only use, say, 70% of them. Insist on renewing based on your current active user count, not Salesforce’s growth projections or past overestimates.
- Negotiate a Ramp Clause: If you expect the user count to grow over the contract period, negotiate a ramp-up schedule instead of paying for all future users from day one. For example, commit to 1,000 users in year one, 1,200 in year two, rather than 1,200 for all years. This way, you’re only paying for additional licenses when you actually need them. A ramp clause can save significant costs in the early part of a term.
- Seek Downgrade or True-Down Rights: Typically, you cannot reduce license quantities mid-contract under standard terms. However, for large deals, you can attempt to include a true-down clause or flex provision that allows reducing a certain percentage of licenses at anniversaries if they’re not being used. Even if Salesforce is reluctant, asking for the right to adjust downward at renewal (with notice) can set the expectation that you won’t pay for shelfware indefinitely.
- Include a Re-Opener Clause: If you’re forced to make big up-front commitments (perhaps to secure a discount), try to include a re-opener provision. This provision states that if the actual adoption is significantly below the contracted amount after one year, you and Salesforce will revisit and adjust the contract. It provides an escape hatch so you’re not locked into excessive shelfware for multiple years.
- Separate Product Negotiations: Be cautious of bundled deals that combine multiple Salesforce products or clouds. Sales reps may offer an attractive overall discount but require overcommitting to a specific product (e.g., a bundle of Sales Cloud and an unused add-on). Negotiate each product’s license volume based on its own usage merits. It’s perfectly acceptable to renew core products at a high volume while shrinking or dropping secondary products that aren’t delivering value. Unbundle the negotiations so you don’t end up overpaying for one product to get a deal on another.
In all cases, back your requests with data. Show Salesforce representatives the login and usage figures, and make it clear you will not renew what isn’t being utilized. When Salesforce sees that you’re an informed customer prepared to cut excess, they’re more likely to concede to flexible terms.
By aligning your contract to reality and building in room to adjust, you ensure that shelfware doesn’t creep back in right after a renewal.
Governance Framework for License Optimization
Short-term fixes are great, but lasting license optimization requires a governance framework.
This involves establishing policies, assigning ownership, and implementing accountability measures to manage Salesforce licenses effectively and proactively.
Without governance, companies often experience uncontrolled “license creep” – where individual departments go directly to Salesforce to add users or managers hold onto extra licenses “just in case,” all outside of central oversight.
A strong governance framework can prevent those scenarios.
Key components of an effective Salesforce license governance model include:
- Centralized Ownership: Assign a central team or manager (often in IT asset management or procurement) to oversee all Salesforce licensing. The owner should have visibility into the total license inventory and the authority to approve or deny license changes. Central ownership prevents fragmented buying and ensures one consistent strategy.
- Formal License Request Process: Require that any new license purchase or activation goes through an approval workflow. Managers requesting additional licenses should justify the business need and confirm that no existing unused licenses are available. A simple internal form or ticket system can enforce this check, stopping ad-hoc additions.
- Offboarding Integration: Tie your Salesforce license management to HR offboarding processes. Whenever an employee leaves, the license owner team gets an alert to remove or reassign that user’s license immediately. This policy makes license reclamation automatic so shelfware doesn’t accumulate from former staff.
- Regular Audits & Reporting: Make ongoing audits a policy, not a one-time event. For example, have IT generate a quarterly Salesforce usage report for each business unit. Share these reports with department leaders, highlighting any unused licenses in their area. When stakeholders see the unused licenses (and the dollar value of that waste), they are more likely to support cleanup efforts and avoid treating licenses as “free” resources.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Optimize licensing at the intersection of IT, Finance, and Procurement. IT administrators can provide usage data and execute changes, while Finance monitors the spend and budget impact. Procurement handles vendor negotiations and contract terms. A collaborative approach ensures all angles (technical, financial, contractual) are covered in your license strategy. Consider establishing a governance committee or holding regular meetings to bring these teams together and review Salesforce utilization, as well as identify upcoming needs.
- Educate and Empower Users: Ultimately, foster a culture of cost-consciousness around Salesforce usage. Educate managers and end-users that licenses carry a significant cost. When teams understand that every unused login is wasteful spending, they’ll be more mindful. For example, a department lead will think twice about “hoarding” 10 extra licenses for contingency if they know unused licenses will be flagged in the next audit and reclaimed.
With a governance framework in place, license management becomes a continuous and disciplined process.
You’ll prevent random license sprawl and make sure every addition or change is intentional and justified. In the long run, this governance is what keeps your Salesforce environment lean, efficient, and aligned with actual business needs – rather than bloated with shelfware.
Quick Wins for License Optimization
Looking for immediate ways to trim your Salesforce costs? Here are some quick-win actions that can start yielding savings today:
- Deactivate Dormant Accounts: Quickly identify and deactivate any user accounts that have been inactive for over 30 or 60 days. Freeing up these licenses stops the bleeding instantly – you can reassign those seats or reduce them at renewal.
- Target Low-Activity Users: Identify users with extremely low usage (e.g., less than one login per month). Have managers review whether these individuals truly need Salesforce access. In many cases, their license can be revoked or downgraded to a less severe type. This is low-hanging fruit for shelfware reduction.
- Consolidate Organizations and Environments: If your company has multiple Salesforce organizations (instances) or a proliferation of sandbox environments, evaluate whether they can be consolidated. Merging organizations can eliminate duplicate licenses (for example, when the same person requires separate licenses in two organizations). Likewise, cleaning up unnecessary developer sandboxes or test environments can reduce overhead. A more consolidated Salesforce landscape is easier to manage and often requires fewer total licenses.
- Leverage License Flexibility: Use any flexibility your contract allows now. If you have spare licenses of one type but a shortage in another area, consider repurposing them to address the shortage. Sometimes, a partial license swap (e.g., trading some Sales Cloud licenses for Service Cloud licenses) can be arranged with Salesforce on a mid-term basis if it leads to increased product adoption without incurring additional costs. Don’t leave potential value untapped.
- Communicate Quick Wins: Inform leadership about these immediate optimizations and the resulting savings. Quick wins build momentum for broader license management initiatives and show stakeholders that active management of Salesforce licenses yields real dollar savings.
Each of these actions can produce tangible cost reductions quickly and requires minimal effort or disruption. By achieving a few quick wins, you demonstrate the value of license optimization and set the stage for more comprehensive strategies, such as policy changes or contract negotiations.
FAQ – Salesforce License Optimization
How much can enterprises save by eliminating shelfware?
The savings can be significant. Many enterprises find that 20%–30% (or more) of their Salesforce licenses are not fully used. Eliminating this shelfware can translate to millions of dollars saved annually, depending on the size of your Salesforce deployment. In other words, every unused license you cut is pure cost savings with no impact on users.
How often should we audit Salesforce licenses?
Perform a license audit at least quarterly. Fast-growing or large organizations may even do monthly checks. The goal is to identify and address unused licenses promptly. Frequent audits ensure your license count stays in sync with actual needs, especially as staff join, leave, or change roles. Regular auditing prevents a pile-up of shelfware that only gets addressed at renewal (when it might be too late to adjust easily).
Can licenses be downgraded mid-contract?
You can always reassign or downgrade a user’s license type internally; however, financially, you’re typically locked into the purchased license until the next renewal. Salesforce contracts typically don’t allow for reducing the total license count or switching to a cheaper edition mid-term without incurring a penalty. However, you can change an individual user from a higher-tier license to a lower-tier one if both types are available in your contract (the extra higher-tier license would then remain unused unless you can allocate it elsewhere). In short, true reductions usually have to wait until the renewal point – which is why negotiating flexibility upfront is so important. Always check your contract or ask your Salesforce rep if any mid-term adjustments are possible, but plan as if you’ll have the licenses for the full term.
How do I prevent license creep in the future?
License creep is best prevented by strong governance and internal controls. Establish a clear policy that requires any new Salesforce license requests to be submitted through a centralized team for approval. Keep a running inventory of all licenses and regularly review usage. Educate department heads on the cost of licenses so they don’t over-request “just in case.” By enforcing discipline – through approval workflows, audits, and executive awareness – you stop the cycle of accumulating extra licenses that aren’t truly needed.
What governance model works best for ongoing optimization and improvement?
A cross-functional governance model tends to work best. Assign a central owner (or committee) for Salesforce license management – often led by IT asset management or procurement, with input from Finance. This group should meet periodically to review license usage data, approve or deny license changes, and plan for renewals. The key is having a single source of truth for license status and a coordinated approach: IT understands the user needs, Procurement negotiates with Salesforce, and Finance ensures budgets aren’t exceeded. With this collaborative model, ongoing optimization becomes part of business as usual, rather than an afterthought.
By following these strategies for Salesforce license optimization – from auditing and right-sizing to governance and proactive renewal planning – enterprises can eliminate shelfware and save substantial money. The result is a leaner Salesforce footprint that delivers full value for every dollar spent, along with a procurement approach that keeps costs and usage tightly aligned. Businesses that treat license management as a strategic discipline will consistently stay ahead of the shelfware curve and maximize their Salesforce ROI.
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