by twieberneit | Mar 22, 2021 | Blog, CRMKonvos |
Now this title is not a case of do a rhyme or get bitten but actually summarizes the topic pretty well. The CRMKonvos team had a long and good discussion with John Paterson, CEO of Really Simple Systems about the needs and wants of a CRM for SMBs. Are the requirements that an SMB has really different from the ones that an enterprise has? At the end of the day the original challenges seem to be fairly similar. Especially on the sales side, people avoid the system, just like Denis Pombriant found in a study that we talked about earlier this year in our CRMKonvo about why salesreps hate their CRM. Here a short version that just answers this very question. The parallels in thinking and observations between Denis and John are striking! But then, there are a few differences. Listen to John explaining them. But then this isn’t all. Talking about value of the systems we couldn’t not also talk about the value of AI. Is there any? Where? Spoiler alert: There is, but one needs to know what one is doing. What? The discussion reveals it in the last 15 or so minutes. Enjoy the conversation. We learned a lot. You can,...
by twieberneit | Jan 1, 2021 | Blog, CRMKonvos |
Many CRM systems are still well in the past. They do not do what their users, especially sales people want them to do. They do not see them as helpful. Why not? What can be done to improve the situation? The CRMKonvos team discusses with Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research. Why do salespersons rather clean the bathroom than use their CRM? Do you know why a CRM system cannot be “sexy”? You will not be surprised to learn that technology is only one aspect in this picture. It’s not just the bathroom. A study that was conducted by Beagle Research found a long list of things salespeople would rather do than work with their CRM systems. For instance, waiting in line at the motor vehicles office, having a fight with your significant other, going to the dentist — you get the idea–are all ahead of CRM. The question is why? And Denis simple answer is that all the other things are finite and have an endpoint but CRM seems to be forever or at least more long term. That says a lot. Still, people are reluctant to discuss this and it’s no one’s fault, certainly it’s not the fault of the software, the software vendor or incompetence about the purchase process. What this nets out to is that the majority of CRM in use today was designed for another time, for different business processes that have been superseded by the Covid era but that started even before Covid. Digressing slightly, the same phenomenon could be seen about ten or more years ago. Back then businesses were trying to get...
by twieberneit | Dec 1, 2020 | Blog, Sponsored |
Smaller enterprise software vendors today operate in a world where their fortunes may rise and fall on their ability to integrate with one or more cloud computing platforms. In many cases, having a connector or API for multiple platforms is a great means to survive and thrive. But it’s not the only way. Versatility has always been one of the watch words of cloud computing. The ease of adding and updating functions, or of moving to a new platform entirely, created an incentive for vendors to embrace that versatility. The CEO or CFO who is looking out for their company’s future would thus rarely be faulted for trusting vendors whose products work on as many platforms as possible. The CTO, on the other hand, might not share that view. While that role has to allow for future moves their company might make, they are also the person who is most responsible for choosing the best tools for the job and making sure they keep working. For the CTO, a vendor’s ability to serve across multiple platforms is far less relevant than the quality, usability, and robustness of their product for the platform being used right now. Disclosure: The inspiration for this article comes from working with FastCall (www.fastcall.com), a business communications system vendor that works exclusively with Salesforce. FastCall is my client; the words and thoughts presented here are my own. Is This A Game? Think of it this way: Let’s say you have a Playstation gaming console. Does it matter if your favorite game is also available for XBox, Nintendo Switch, and PC? You can only use one...
by twieberneit | Oct 13, 2020 | Blog |
Salesreps really love to feed data into their CRM system after a long day, or even during the week-end. They are truly looking forward to their weekly sales call with numbers that every single one of their colleague massaged themselves. They are obsessed with typing all sorts of entries into a quotation and know their product catalogue by heart, so that they can provide their customer with the best of all possible quotes to solve their business issue. Salespeople really appreciate all the high quality leads that are funnelled to them by the system. And, of course, they are truly altruistic and thrive on helping their customers for good. Sounds like you? No? Well, then you are probably like most of us. In brief: Salespeople hate their CRM! This didn’t change almost 40 years after the first electronic CRM tools have been introduced. Users of CRM systems still often do not have the feeling that the systems are serving them, but that it is rather the opposite. That is especially true for salespeople. But I repeat myself. Salespeople face a two-pronged challenge. On one side, in an environment that is more and more data driven, they face an increasing reporting demand, which in turns requires an increasing amount of quality data being fed into the system. They feel that all these administrative tasks keep them away what they are doing best and what they want to do most: Be with their customers, understand them, and offer – sell – them the right solutions for their challenges. Thereby making them happy. On the other hand, salespeople feel that they become...
by twieberneit | Aug 5, 2020 | Analysis, Blog |
The News On July 30, New Relic announced the delivery of its new Observability Platform, New Relic One. The platform has been redeveloped (‘reimagined’) to be more simple and integrated while retaining the power it already offered. New Relic One offers three core modules: A highly scalable telemetry data platform as the single source of truth of all operational data. It collects and visualizes data and creates alerts on application and infrastructure data Full stack observability that enables the analysis and troubleshooting of the complete software stack, including IaaS Applied intelligence to detect, understand and resolve incidents, ideally before they even happen. These modules are offered with a perpetually free tier. Once the quotas of the free tier are exceeded, New Relic offers the solution in a pricing model based upon amount of data (telemetry data platform), seats (observability), and incidents (applied intelligence). For your convenience, you can read the press release – minus some quotes – right here: New Relic Delivers Reimagined Observability Platform with Unified User Experience, and Simplified, Predictable Pricing to Bring Value to Engineering Teams Introduces consumption pricing model that’s easy to manage — the end of host-based pricing SAN FRANCISCO – July 30, 2020 – New Relic, Inc. (NYSE: NEWR), the observability platform company, today delivered strategic updates to New Relic One [ADD LINK]. In a video to customers [ADD LINK], New Relic CEO and Founder Lew Cirne introduced a reimagined New Relic One, including a unified, intuitive user experience, new simple, predictable packaging and pricing, and a new perpetual free tier to make it easy for developers to try,...
