Salesforce.com for sale? Rumor mill starts up again…
September 26, 2008
Richard Adhikari of Internetnews.com posted an article today that highlights yet another rumor of Salesforce.com’s sale to: who knows…
The article is an obvious attempt to generate something interesting to say and ends up being… well… very un-interesting.
I’d slap myself right now for copy-catting and spreading the rumor even further but I do have one small point to add:
I’ve noticed that emails coming from Salesforce, for example when doing a CRM implementation for a client, do not include a very warm and friendly message from Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff. Ok, they may not have been overly warm but it was a nice touch to receive an email from “the big guy”.
It may be just me, but is Benioff beginning to subtly remove his imprint on the company? So while the ongoing rumors get a bit annoying when you’re knee deep in the world of SFDC every day, the company very well may be bought out at some point and Benioff making it less about him and more about the SFDC and Force.com brands may be a precursor to all that.
Thoughts?
Salesforce.com Winter ’09 sneak and peak
September 26, 2008
SFDC has is giving us a sneak peak of some of the cool new features to be included in the Winter ’09 release.
One of my favorites? Opportunity splitting (shared opportunities) for sales teams working on the same opportunities and “campaign influence” or the ability to tie opportunities back to the specific campaign they came from.
Follow this link -> to get the skinny via the new SFDC community site.
Successforce gets a make-over
September 25, 2008
Salesforce.com has updated its customer success portal, successforce.salesforce.com. A new, nicely designed and very easy to navigate site has been launched over at salesforce.com/community/. In addition to the great new design and easy to use functionality the site is obviously putting more emphasis on helping the new user get up and running on SFDC.
With sections such as “Getting Started” and “New to Salesforce.com CRM?” and greater emphasis being placed on the browse by roll area, Salesforce is making a push to help new users get the info they need to be successful.
I enjoyed the previous successforce website due to the tons of useful content, Dreamforce videos, process maps and Salesforce Ideas app – these all remain. What I didn’t enjoy was the visual headache that was the old site.
A tribute to SFDC’s good branding sense and web savvy is the fact that even apps such as the Idea Exchange have been given a nice makeover with no need to jump back to the old site to use the voting system.
All in all I give the site two thumbs up. Good work guys. It looks good and is easy to use – much like the actual product.
The subscribers, they rule? They do!
September 24, 2008
ExactTarget, provider of delightful on-demand e-mail and other marketing solutions has introduced it’s unique “SUBSCRIBERS RULE!” initiative today.
The initiative is aimed at educating e-mail marketers about being chivalrous with their marketing. Long has mankind lived beneath the swinging sword of impersonal, pointless e-mail spam. ExactTarget is doing it’s part for it’s little corner of the community by taking steps to educate those willing to listen on how best to treat their subscribers like people.
On the one hand I think it’s mildly depressing that anyone out there is looking at my client contact card and considering me a chore or just another click per day before blasting me with an e-mail I could care less about, but on the other hand it’s great to think that someone out there’s doing something to try and bring up the level of quality and sacrificing their own money to do it.
Here are your links; ExactTarget, Subscribers Rule!, and the press release.
Go bananas for Salesforce.com
September 22, 2008
Del Monte Philippines has picked up 50 Salesforce.com enterprise licenses in one of the largest contract deals struct in the burgeoning Philippine marketplace. I guess that new data center is finally going to get it’s stress test, eh?
Del Monte is best known by me for it’s wide array of delicious fruit products that manage to reach even up into the frozen reaches of Canada! While this is all good news for Salesforce.com I really think the consumer is going to suffer. Why? Well the Del Monte bananas already arrive at my local supermarket green, if they start getting here any more swiftly they’re still going to be attached to the trees!
… and I live on a hill!
ZDNet Asia has the story.
The First 500: Salesforce Certification
September 17, 2008
From the unpublished book of Herodotus,
The Salesforce.com professionals signed up at the desks where they sat; and for these, as well as those who were denied the chance to be in the five hundred, there is an inscription which runs thus: “Here once, facing three hundred myriads of bulky software and overblown costs, five hundred did contend, men of the Salesforce.com”
Check out the latest post at demandblog and wish him luck as he joins with the first through the hotgates and into infamy with his Salesforce Certification!
They’re called “Mindtouch” ?
September 16, 2008
What a day we are living in when a company can get away with a name as awesome a Mindtouch.So quick update for a new SaaS product that has just poked it’s beak out into the big bright world beyond the shell; Deki for CRM. Deki is the result of a collaboration between Mindtouch, interconnectivity and social specialists and SnapLogic, bringers of data integration in all forms.TMC net has a review, and of course there’s a ubiquitous press release.
How Salesforce.com Uses Salesforce.com: Webinar
September 12, 2008
This webinar theme has been one that Salesforce has used over the years to showcase how it walks its talk.
Sign up for the the latest “How Salesforce uses Salesforce” webinar here.
Salesforce.com on the S&P 500
September 11, 2008
Milestone. In business there are many milestones, being included on a major index is definitely one in the group of achievements that might be headlined “We have arrived.”Just a quick update on this because it is simply huge and there are dozens of stories from financial, CRM, SaaS, and varying blogs on the topic. Try; CRM Buyer, the AP Newswire spot that is being republished everywhere, InformationWeek, etc.
Can You Answer These Questions About Your Sales Pipeline?
September 9, 2008
For most of us, we’re nearing the end of Q3 and the all important 4th quarter is looming large on the horizon. If you’re managing a highly transactional sales organization, you may be starting to wonder:
- “How’s my pipeline changing?”
- “Which deals should I focus on?”
- “Where does my team need help?
- “What patterns are emerging?”
- “Where do we need to invest?”
In sales it’s critical that you have visibility into what’s coming into your pipeline, what’s moving out, and what’s changed. And you need to be able to see the trend over time. Without the ability to get answers to these and other questions and take the appropriate action, revenue growth opportunities will continue to be missed and you’ll risk being hit by nasty surprises throughout each quarter.
Here’s a list of the types of questions you need to be able to answer in order to ensure your sales pipeline is not based on fiction or fantasy:
New Pipeline Since the Beginning of the Month, Quarter or Year
- What’s new in the pipeline since the beginning of the selected time period?
- What % of the pipeline is new for this period?
- What % of the new pipeline has closed within the same quarter historically?
Pipeline Fluctuations in the Current Period
What moved out? What’s stuck?
- What % of the current period pipeline moved out to future periods?
- Is there a pattern? (e.g. particular sales reps, products, industry verticals, etc.)
Where has the pipeline shrunk?
- What % of the current period pipeline shrunk?
- Is there a pattern? (e.g. particular sales reps, products, industry verticals, etc.)
Where has the pipeline grown?
- What % of the current period pipeline grew?
- Is there a pattern? (e.g. particular sales reps, products, industry verticals, etc.)
Pipeline Velocity
- What % of the current period pipeline is stuck in its current stage?
- What % of the current period pipeline has progressed to subsequent stages?
Pipeline Size and Shape
What are your conversion rates and sales cycle times?
- Lead to opportunity
- Opportunity to demo
- Demo to quote
- Quote to close
What % of your current period pipeline is above and below the thresholds of average days to close for deals that end up being won?
- By industry vertical
- By sales rep
- By competitor
What % of your current period pipeline is nearing the threshold of average days to close for deals that end up being lost?
- By industry vertical
- By sales rep
- By competitor
What is the pipeline for the remaining month, quarter or year?
- Next 30, 60, 90 days, etc.?
What is the % distribution for early stage vs late stage opportunities?
- By region
- By sales rep
Are there some possible quick wins?
- What are the dynamics of new versus repeat business?
- What are the days to close for new versus repeat business?
- What is the current period pipeline for new vs repeat business?
And if you’re wondering what other companies are doing to become what Thomas Davenport refers to as “analytical competitors,“ be sure to download this new research from Aberdeen, called “Sales Analytics: Hitting the Bulls-eye.”
You may also want to register for this new Sales Management 2.0 community centered around best-practice sharing.
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