I just had a series of great calls with analysts today, including the always erudite Denis Pombriant. And I also met with the founders of a cool new company called BeRelevant. Both these meetings got me thinking, as usual. Denis and I had a great talk about getting back to the business value of CRM … Continue reading »
Posted in February 2010 …
SugarCRM Storms CeBIT!
Just a shout out to all of the German and EU at large readers of Outsiders who are attending CeBIT this year. SugarCRM will be well represented at the event – with some of our partners showing off cool integrations and customer success stories. Sugar partner PSTech will be exhibiting its Sugar/Cisco integration – powering … Continue reading »
CRM, “Must Have” Sales Tools, and the Buying Mentality…
I had a very interesting talk with one of our great Sugar users, Martin Umeh who is a sales manager at Control Technology. Apart from having an awesome name, Martin is a very bright guy when it comes to CRM adoption, and just has a great sales mind. We were discussing the fact that major … Continue reading »
Collaboration, Stickiness, and why Chatter is Stupid…
I am supposed to be finishing up a slide deck for a conference speech I am giving (which was due on Friday) and also extending invites to customers for SugarCon (maybe if some of you readers register I can kill at least two birds here – please?). But in my usual scatterbrained manner I was … Continue reading »
Know the Future of Open Source? Let us Know!
I often forget these days how the world of technology used to be…closed systems, expensive and exhaustive buying cycles, frustrating integration scenarios. It’s amazing that in just about a decade, open source was able to supplant entrenched industry leaders in many sectors, and continues to disrupt and force major re-thinking across every IT sector. But … Continue reading »
Soft Skills, Not Always Software, Can Drive Social CRM Success
A small side conversation I had with some of the participants in the Social SCM Summit in DC this week revolved around successful social CRM strategies. I know, isn’t that the whole reason we braved the snow in the first place? But this was more of a discussion around what intangibles are involved in successful … Continue reading »
Peers, Influencers and Trust in the Social CRM Economy
I am just sitting back in my hotel room and taking stock after day one of a great Social CRM Summit put on by Paul Greenberg and his group of CRM Experts at BPT partners here in DC. Now, apart from being essentially snowed in indefinitely, I am really glad I came. We had some … Continue reading »
Remember, Social CRM is About Employees, Too!
I have been reading a lot of Esteban Kolsky’s writing these days. And not just because he is going to be participating in the social media track at SugarCon this year. Esteban makes a lot of great points about how concepts like Enterprise 2.0 bleed into a total Social CRM – or really any “customer-centric” … Continue reading »
Social Media Trumps Sales Force Expansion in Monthly Poll
In my monthly Outsiders poll, I asked the question “What will be your largest sales and marketing project in 2010?” The choices for answers were: Building Out Sales Force; Traditional CRM Deployment; Social Media Strategy Development; Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy and “Other.” I may preach the importance of leveraging social media and engaging with customers across … Continue reading »
