Last week, I spoke at Social Business Atlanta. My talk was on the three P’s of avoiding social CRM failure (the article that started that train of thought rolling can be found here), so I served as the voice of caution and/or the source of comic relief for the event. The other speakers were among … Continue reading »
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The Secret To A Successful CRM Implementation
One of the recurring questions I get from customers and prospects all over the world is, what is the secret to a successful CRM implementation? My answer resonates with companies large and small, here in North America, in Europe and in Asia. The secret to a successful CRM implementation is process, process, process. A CRM … Continue reading »
Salesforce.com, What the F$#% are You Thinking?!?!?!
I remember there was a song that was pretty popular a few years ago called “If I had a Million Dollars,” by the Bare Naked Ladies. That song seems childish and silly compared to the spending spree that Salesforce.com has been on over the past several months. The two main acquisitions by Salesforce that give … Continue reading »
Real Estate, the Recession and the Value of the SugarCRM Platform
I just had a great talk with the always erudite and enlightening Brent Leary. We were talking about some of the great news coming out of SugarCRM – namely the IBM and Hubspot partnerships. In our discussion I made an analogy that I wanted to share. We were talking about how SugarCRM has not been … Continue reading »
Hubspot + SugarCRM = Closed Loop Inbound Marketing
It is a simple fact that in an increasingly fragmented world – it is harder and harder to differentiate as a company. Competing on price is a thing of the past in many industries – and exceptional service is awesome…But, you have to attract customers before you can delight them and retain them. Oh, and … Continue reading »
Salesforce’s DimDim Buy – A Typical Proprietary Move
Many have probably seen that Salesforce.com has acquired web conferencing tools provider DimDim for $31m. (The rumors of this deal had been percolating since before Dreamforce so for many this was no surprise at all.) The deal pits Salesforce.com in many ways against some big companies and very popular products – Citrix’s GoToMeeting and Cisco’s Webex, … Continue reading »
Will Salesforce.com Become a Data Player, Not a CRM Player in Time?
Salesforce.com seems to be blowing out its sales numbers and in a lot of ways that is great news. What is good for the market leader is good for everyone in the space: the great sales numbers validate our market message and really proves that all businesses need a great CRM initiative. One of the … Continue reading »
Five Reasons Why Salesforce.com’s Chatter Will Fail
I have been watching the concept of Chatter for a while now. On the one hand, I could kick myself for not making more hype out of Sugar Feeds, the exact same functionality Sugar has had in its product for more than a year prior to availability of Chatter. My bad. On the other hand, … Continue reading »
Don’t Let Social Derail Traditional Customer Support Goals
This is just a small thought – as I have far too many ideas that are too big for a tweet and not really epic blog material. But looking at Michael Maoz’s recent blog post around customer service vs. social. He makes a great point: good service is a must-have goal of any company and … Continue reading »
What is IT’s Role in the Social CRM Revolution?
Cruel dictator? Benevolent gatekeeper? Ignorant chump? All these words could describe your IT department’s stance to social media and how your organization drives business value out of the social revolution. Really, what is the ideal role for IT when it comes to adding social tools into the day-to-day life of sales, marketing and support agents? … Continue reading »
