The data helps the relationship, but the relationship drives the sale - Story From: CRM Outsiders
By Chris Bucholtz A few years ago, I did a webinar with some respected thought leaders in the area of sales about the impact data was having on selling. No one was willing to use the term “data-driven selling” – that was too much for sales people’s sensibilities. But the guests were willing and able [...]
Categories: CRM, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, sales Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
What Sugar 6.3 teaches us about customer co-creation - Story From: CRM Outsiders
By Chris Bucholtz Social media and social CRM are the kinds of things that offer multiple points of value. People who have their throwback CRM hats screwed on too tightly tend to see the formula as data+SCRM=sales dollars as the only metric, which isn’t exactly right. There are other benefits to engaging in SCRM – [...]
Categories: On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
The Secret To A Successful CRM Implementation - Story From: CRM Outsiders
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 system [...]
Categories: CRM, CRM Acceleration, On-Demand CRM, SaaS, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, Uncategorized, cloud computing Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Do your customers trust you? - Story From: CRM Outsiders
We are here at SugarCon 2011 (#scon11) learning more about how to build a social business with SugarCRM. The social business is the next step in how we as globally interconnected society do business together. A vibrant, energized social business is one that interacts with its customers everyday across every possible channel of [...]
Categories: CRM, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
The Future of Business is Social - Story From: CRM Outsiders
SugarCon 2011 (#scon11) is here and it is the place to be. If you couldn’t make the annual pilgrimage to San Francisco, I’d like to share with you the ideas and direction the Sugar team is discussing this week with our fantastic community of users, customers and partners. This series of [...]
Categories: On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
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 me [...]
Categories: CRM, M&A, On-Demand CRM, SaaS, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, cloud computing, salesforce.com, social media, web 2.0 Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Is Sales Ahead or Behind the Social CRM Learning Curve? - Story From: CRM Outsiders
When discussing the advent of the social business, I always hear questions like “where do we start?” and “what departments will/are most affected by social media?” The answer, to be a bit pat, to both these questions is “everywhere.” Social is a transformative phenomenon – one that is taking businesses from yesterday’s approach to scale (one-to-many [...]
Categories: CRM, Conferences, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, social media, web 2.0 Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Get Social at SugarCon!!! (And Get a Great Rate) - Story From: CRM Outsiders
I am freshly back in the office (OK, maybe fresh is not the right word, more like jet-lagged and overwhelmed with emails and projects) after an awesome two-week press tour in Europe. The media and analysts I met were all amazing, and really seemed to “get” where SugarCRM is going, our unique value proposition to [...]
Categories: CRM, Conferences, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, Uncategorized, social media, twitter, web 2.0 Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
The Cloud, Big Data, and the Future of CRM - Story From: CRM Outsiders
I just read that Basho Technologies, which has created an open source, highly available and fault-tolerant data structure for the cloud called Riak, has landed a cool $7.5m in new funding. The news is interesting, as it shows more and more people are not only banking on NoSQL and other cloud-optimized data architectures from an [...]
Categories: Application Design, CRM, On-Demand CRM, Open Source, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, cloud computing Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Hubspot + SugarCRM = Closed Loop Inbound Marketing - Story From: CRM Outsiders
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 of [...]
Categories: CRM, On-Demand CRM, SaaS, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, Uncategorized Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Tibco’s Tibbr – Where’s the Customer in all This? - Story From: CRM Outsiders
After more than a year of silent anticipation (that’s a nice way of saying “no one really cared”) integration giant Tibco is launching its first stab at social with its product called Tibbr. Yes, Tibbr. While Tibbr may do a lot of what people might expect from a status-update focused tool, in my opinion it fails to [...]
Categories: Application Design, CRM, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, salesforce.com, social media, twitter Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
7 Ways to Get More Fans and Followers - Story From: The Official Infusionsoft Blog
Social media is essential to many small businesses because they know it can result in more leads, more customer engagements and more buzz for their brand. You probably have established your social media presence for your business and then have been faced with the challenge of getting Fans and Followers. I wanted to help you [...]
Categories: Email Marketing, Entrepreneur, Infusionsoft, Social Business, Tips, facebook, small business, social media, twitter Tags: Infusionsoft CRM
The Compartmentalization of Social Profiles & Marketing - Story From: CRM Outsiders
I just checked out BranchOut, a new social site that is essentially a LinkedIn for facebook. The notion – keep all of your business contacts and information on BranchOut, without the total hassle of managing two completely separate profiles. This plays into a concept I was discussing yesterday with my associate and very socially savvy pal [...]
Categories: CRM, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, twitter Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Salesforce’s DimDim Buy – A Typical Proprietary Move - Story From: CRM Outsiders
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, in [...]
Categories: CRM, M&A, On-Demand CRM, Open Source, SaaS, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, cloud computing, salesforce.com, social media Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
SugarCon is Coming – Lock-in a Great Rate Today! - Story From: CRM Outsiders
The beginning of a new year means one thing at Sugar HQ – time to kick in to gear for SugarCon! SugarCon 2011 is already shaping up to be an AMAZING event. Between awesome evening events, a full-on social media “conference within a conference,” and a bazillion other cool sessions, speakers, special guests etc. – this [...]
Categories: CRM, Conferences, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, social media Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
With CRM, are You a Leader, Follower…or Just in the Way? - Story From: CRM Outsiders
I really like talking with CRM journalist and all around smart guy Chris Bucholtz. Whenever we have an interview – it always beings around one topic and very quickly tangents off into a great conversation about what we as an industry could be doing better (as well as some side stops discussing WWII aircraft and [...]
Categories: CRM, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Is Social a “Meatball on the Spaghetti” or “Layer in Your Lasagna?” - Story From: CRM Outsiders
Ok, I realize this post’s title may qualify for the most ridiculous I’ve done yet…but bear with me. I promise it will (kind of) make sense in a bit. I was talking with Mitch Lieberman (@mjayliebs to most of you) and we were discussing how for many analysts and consultants – social is seen as a [...]
Categories: CRM, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, social media, twitter Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Write Your Own SugarCRM Carol – Win an iPad! - Story From: CRM Outsiders
I wanted to thank everyone who sent in emails, texts and voicemails about the SugarCRM Dreamforce carols – so many of you loved the concept and the creativity. Well, I thought – since it ’tis the season of giving and carols – let’s have a contest to see just how creative our Sugar community can be! So [...]
Categories: Conferences, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, salesforce.com Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
On the First Day of Dreamforce…SugarCRM Carolers a Huge Hit! - Story From: CRM Outsiders
Many of the Outsiders readers might remember that last year we spoofed Marc Benioff’s book Behind the Cloud last year at Dreamforce. That stunt caused quite a stir, and this year we decided to make things a little less personal and a little more jovial, as it is the holiday season after all. So, the marketing [...]
Categories: CRM, Conferences, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, salesforce.com Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
Five Questions to Ask Before Starting a Social Media Initiative - Story From: CRM Outsiders
Outsider’s note: This blog post originally appeared in the UK-based B2B Marketing magazine blog series. And, since I think these are points worth repeating (and I wanted to get a blog post out this week!) I am reprinting my thoughts here. Also note, while it’s true I am too lazy to change spelling back to [...]
Categories: CRM, On-Demand CRM, Social Business, Social CRM, SugarCRM, social media, twitter Tags: CRM Reviews, SugarCRM
