Retargeter

Dreamforce Key Takeaways and How They Affect Marketers

ReTargeter is a big user of Salesforce.  We’ve been squeezing the most out of the Enterprise Edition for the last few years.  Because our organization relies so heavily on the solution, we sent most of our team to Dreamforce to listen to various talks, network, and walk the floor.  Additionally ReTargeter’s CEO, Arjun Arora delivered a great talk attended by about 100 Salesforce users about how small business can capitalize on the power of mobile for competitive advantage.  From our presence at this massive and influential trade show and user conference, I’ve compiled some Dreamforce key takeaways that marketers and organizations of all sizes might find interesting.

I love this factoid that I read in a recent report from the floor of Dreamforce, “Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff was effusive in his comments, using the word ‘phenomenal’ 30 times and ‘awesome’ 25 times,” this according to Tim Welsh, president of Nexus Strategy.

So what’s the big deal?

Salesforce1 is the company’s unequivocal leap, with both feet, into the world of mobility.  While Chatter was a precursor to a connected organization, Salesforce1 takes everything to a new level, allowing companies to work in ‘micromoments’ anytime, anywhere, via any device.  This promises to enable companies to achieve greater efficiencies and more scale, provide better, faster service, and gain competitive advantage.

Why Marketers Should Care

But what does Salesforce1 mean to marketers?  In short, it could mean a shift in the way that marketers design and execute on campaigns, manage leads, and work with sales.

Studies done in 2007 by Dr. James Oldroyd and again in 2011 by the Harvard Business School, show that if a company, “…attempts phone contact within five minutes after somebody submits an internet inquiry on their website, the odds that the lead is contacted are 100 times greater than it if is contacted 30 minutes after submission.” I just want to say that again, “100 times greater.”

Imagine a prospect submitting a form on your website – a form that you, as a marketer, worked hard to create, test, and optimize – and within five minutes, a sales rep (wherever they are) gets the lead via their CRM solution and gives the prospect a call to see how they can help that prospect.  Putting my customer hat on, it’s not hard to imagine that I’d feel pretty valued, have a great impression about the service of that company, and be much more inclined to do business with that company.

And putting my marketer hat on, I get chills just thinking about how much more effective my marketing could be with the tools that would easily allow salespeople to do this from anywhere in the world and at any time.

Collaboration and Customization for Competitive Advantage

This is a good segue into another key promise of Salesforce1. Heightened collaboration was also on the lips of Salesforce leadership, and not just collaboration within the sales team. Salesforce1 promises to help companies collaborate better and faster internally across silos as well as with partners and customers.  This all tying back into better service levels and a greater competitive advantage.

And last but certainly not least, on the technology side, Salesforce has developed a host of advanced APIs to not only connect all devices, but to enable companies to customize the solution even further to meet an organization’s specific needs and requirements, thus helping them provide better service and more of a competitive advantage.

You see the pattern in these Dreamforce key takeaways.  But of course, all of these are no small promises.

In the near future, we’ll see if Salesforce eats its own dog food by providing heightened service to its own customer and prospect base.

In the mean time, we can all dream.