Podcasts about salesforce connections

Proving the Advantage that Marketing Creates In this Marketing Over Coffee: Talking with PWC’s Ian Kahn and Samrat Sharma at Salesforce Connections! Direct Link to File Samrat Sharma (Strategy, PwC) and Ian Kahn (Principal, Customer & Commercial Excellence Platform Leader, PwC) at Connections Samrat has over 20 years as a strategist – now working at […] The post Proving the Advantage that Marketing Creates appeared first on Marketing Over Coffee Marketing Podcast.

In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss the growing tension between businesses and software vendors, sparked by recent privacy policy changes at major platforms, and the fundamentals of AI data sovereignty. You will discover how to spot risky service rules before they impact your daily work. You will learn practical steps to evaluate whether building custom internal tools makes sense for your team. You will find out how to review agreement changes without getting lost in confusing language. You will gain confidence to protect your valuable information and keep full control of your digital assets. 00:00 – Introduction 01:45 – HubSpot triggers data sharing controversy 05:30 – The hidden costs of vendor lock-in 10:15 – Can AI replace expensive software subscriptions? 14:40 – Building custom tools in-house 19:20 – The importance of the 5P framework 24:10 – Reviewing service agreements quarterly 28:50 – Final thoughts and next steps 32:15 – Call to action Watch this episode to learn how you can take back control of your software and data today. Watch the video here: Can’t see anything? Watch it on YouTube here. Listen to the audio here: https://traffic.libsyn.com/inearinsights/tipodcast-what-is-ai-data-sovereignty.mp3 Download the MP3 audio here. Need help with your company’s data and analytics? Let us know! Join our free Slack group for marketers interested in analytics! [podcastsponsor] Machine-Generated Transcript What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the episode. Christopher S. Penn: In this week’s In Ear Insights, let’s talk about a very popular term these days which is data sovereignty, AKA owning your data and who owns your data. In the news recently, HubSpot made an announcement last week that caused a firestorm of commentary. Appropriately so when they said that to better improve HubSpot’s predictive abilities in your CRM, customers would be able to share data and see data from other HubSpot accounts to predict the likelihood of a certain type of sale closing. Now they did say that it would be something that you could opt into, although that was not super clear. And the terms of service were vague enough that if you were an eagle-eyed legal expert, which we are not, you could say, yeah, we’re going to do this regardless. LinkedIn exploded, threads exploded, Twitter exploded, and HubSpot walked it back over the weekend to say we screwed up. And to that credit they said we screwed up. We didn’t do our homework on this. We’re not going to make this terms of service change. However, there are still two consequences. One, folks have pointed out they didn’t say they weren’t going to implement the feature, they just said they’re not going to change the terms of service this way. And two, the big question that a lot of folks have is from a customer’s perspective, this was kind of a big deal in terms of violation of trust, which is a really important thing. And one commenter said it took HubSpot twenty years to build trust in four days to screw it up. Now again, to their credit, they did walk it back. But Katie, what’s your take on this, particularly as it relates to the integrity of our data? Because as we see these days more and more, every AI company is saying we need more data, so we’re just going to come in and take it well. Katie Robbert: And that’s always been the risk with using these software vendors is they can change things on a whim. And yeah, you can blow up social media and say I’m so mad at this. That doesn’t mean they have to do anything about it because guess who already has your data? Guess whose system you are already integrated to, guess whose system you have built connectors to and tapped into the API of, and you are building your whole business around. So the cost of switching is incredibly high and incredibly painful, and you’re not necessarily going to find a vendor that’s doing things any more ethically or doing things in a way that their governance aligns with what you want to see. Because again, to that comment, HubSpot spent twenty years building trust and then they decided to change it. I call BS on the we didn’t do our homework, we screwed up. Really. The size of company that you are, you don’t just change things on a whim. This is something that has likely been on your roadmap for a very long time. It was just a matter of trying to figure out how to do it in a way that you could sneak it in. But still, July fourth, holiday weekend. Well yeah, so there’s that. But legally, the language holds up. They worked with their lawyers, they worked with their IT department, they worked with whoever is involved in that change. It wasn’t an oopsie, we didn’t do our homework. No, I’ve worked in a large organization. I know how these things happen. There is no oopsie, we screwed up. You didn’t. You got caught, period. And your customers are angry. But guess who’s not going to stop being a customer anymore? Your customers. And they already got the data. Nowhere in that did they say and we’re going to repartition the data or we’re going to unshare the data. They were just like oopsies, you caught us. Okay, where is it? Oh, it’s over here. Here we go. That gets a red flag today. It gets a huge red flag because more and more, it’s Google adding AI into workspace conversation all over again. When my mother-in-law was here, she kept complaining about how Google was making suggestions in her Gmail. You can turn that off. Well, what if I need it? Then don’t complain about it. But Google made this change where it’s looking at all of your emails, it’s looking at all of your chat conversations, it’s looking at all of your stuff. Google has been looking at your web searches for however long web search has existed. On the one hand, I can understand the outrage of customers of a CRM saying I thought you were protecting my data. On the other hand, I’m a little surprised at people’s sort of naive perspective that our data was private in the first place. And I’m sort of like, so bad on the CRM, but also bad on the consumer for not being more informed that nothing is private. Like your Social Security number. It exists in a million places. People just haven’t decided that you’re the person that they want to steal the identity of. Maybe you’re not that interesting. I don’t know. Okay, I’m going to red flag myself. That was terrible. Red flag myself, sorry. Christopher S. Penn: It does raise the question, and this is something that vendors in particular have not thought a lot about. Generative AI in its current incarnation is best at software development. That is the number one task being used for. It is what is most skilled at, is what has been tuned the best for. Which means that if you are a SaaS provider, you are skating on very thin ice because you are one prompt away from a customer saying, screw it. I’m going to try vibe coding it myself. And whether or not that’s a good idea, we’ll put that aside because we’ve talked about that in the past. The reality is that with skilled use of these tools, you could say we’re just going to bring this in house. And we’ve done that. I’ve done that even on my personal blog, on my personal website. I said, you know what, I don’t want to pay for this plugin anymore. I’m just going to bring this in house and stop paying for this. And over time, you see the bills going down as you bring in more stuff in house because your AI tool that you built it with is also the AI tool you provide support to yourself with, so you don’t have to pay for the additional upkeep. One of the biggest moats that SaaS has always had was, hey, you don’t want to do server maintenance, you don’t want to do software maintenance, you don’t want to do any of that stuff. Pay a vendor to do it. Well, now it’s like I have basically a junior employee, right? Because we’ve talked about how tools like Claude Code basically are junior employees. I have a support resource. It may not be perfect, but it gets better every day. And so for marketers, for business folks, for folks who are looking at particularly operations folks, as you’re auditing your tech stack and as you’re seeing changes happen to your point, Katie, and vendors trying to cram AI into everything, the question has to become at what point do people start bringing things back in house, given the capabilities of what even a $20 a month AI subscription can do for you? Katie Robbert: I think for a lot of companies, that’s definitely something they’re thinking about. But you’re still talking about a whole suite of skills. You’re still talking about a software developer, you’re still talking about an IT person, you’re still talking about QA, a database architect. Sure, AI can do that stuff, provided you know how to tell IT what to do. And so for us, I would say you have some of those skills, but you do not encompass the skill sets of all four of those individuals. So I would be hesitant to say, sure, we can just have whatever you’ve built, manage it and get rid of this other vendor. We’re not there yet. I can see us getting there. Companies who have none of those skill sets because that’s not what they do. Think of perhaps a creative agency that really works on front-end design and branding. They don’t have the skill sets in house to do this. So even though AI can do a lot of those things, they still have to have someone to tell the AI what to do and stand it up and manage it. That data has to go somewhere. That data still has to be secure in some way. So you still need someone who understands database architecture, who understands servers. I hear what you’re saying and there is a reason why the majority of us turn to vendors like you, just handle it. Saying we can handle it ourselves in house is not as easy as it sounds like. Yeah, it’s an empty threat to the vendors. Especially if you’ve never stood up a server. You don’t know what goes into good data privacy. You are just vibe coding your own version of a CRM. That is a recipe for disaster and it’s likely going to lead to data leaks in some way of your most valuable data. So I hear what you’re saying, Chris. I think that a lot of companies are going to put that on their roadmap of what does it look like for us to build this in house for ourselves. I think that is more possible than it ever has been. But there’s still a lot of caveats with that. I’m saying to do it the right way, you need those skill sets. It doesn’t mean you can’t just go ahead and do it. Christopher S. Penn: It’s true. I do think there’s a space for consultancies and agencies to operate, particularly if you’re a hybrid agency where you have an IT consulting capability. I think, for example, IBM IX as one example, that’s a blend where that might be a realistic choice to say we have our trusted agency that we work with and we don’t like what we see. A HubSpot or Salesforce or whoever doing it, we don’t need it. John was at Salesforce Connections not too long ago and was saying that it’s Agentforce, everything is Agentforce and AI agents. And there are a lot of folks saying we don’t need that nor do we need to pay for that. We can take Sugar CRM, which is a free open source product, with our existing IT agency with the assistance of AI, with their help because they do know servers and they do know this. We’re going to stop paying Salesforce $3 million a year and instead pay our agency maybe $2 million a year to run it for us and save a million bucks a year. And we won’t have all this extra stuff that nobody asked for and that doesn’t fit their business case for it. And I think there is an opportunity in the marketplace for that. Katie Robbert: I agree. But let me counter with this question. You know, we have collectively put a lot of stock and time into these large language models. We’ve also seen instances where a company rolls back the large language model that they rolled out for a variety of reasons. What risk are we taking by then saying well, I’m going to fire the vendor, I’m going to build it myself because I have a large language model? And then tomorrow the large language model gets shut down. So you fired your vendor, you don’t have a large language model. What do you do? Is that a real risk? As someone who is very risk averse, I should be thinking about this in terms of business continuity planning. If you are tied into only working with one vendor, for example Anthropic, and as we saw in recent events the U.S. government said you can’t have that model in public, yes, that is a risk. Christopher S. Penn: However, if you are a multimodal aware company and you know where to find GLM 5.2, which we have through our Deep Infra subscription, and you know how to host models locally, which we’ve talked about in previous episodes of the podcast and the live stream, your risk is significantly reduced because you have more options. That’s what I learned from you, the more realistic options you have, the lower your risk because you have backup plans, you have backups to your backups. And if you are working in the AI space today and you have integrated AI and it is now a risk because your business is so dependent on it, you would better have those backup plans handy. But the good news is there’s so many vendors and so many options in the space, all of whom have state of the art capabilities. If Anthropic or OpenAI went away tomorrow, just flip to the next vendor with this model. Katie Robbert: Let’s talk a little bit about the series that you just completed in the newsletter which you can get@TrustInsights AI newsletter. You talked a lot about Enterprise AI. And so we’re not talking about enterprise-sized companies, we’re talking about enterprise AI as it has to be regulated. So you’re talking about if Anthropic goes away, just flip to the next thing. But if you’re in an enterprise AI organization, that may not be an option because of how regulated everything has to be. So can you speak a little bit to that? Christopher S. Penn: Yeah. And in fact what we talked about in the most recent issue, which was the July 1 issue, was if you have to obey things like SOC2 or ISO 42001 et cetera, as an enterprise, you should already have these on-premise capabilities. Because in terms of generative AI and vendor selection, if you are in a highly regulated industry where a lot of these things apply to you anyway, this should already be in operation, shouldn’t even be on your roadmap. It should be in operation. You should have local inference capabilities because that’s where your protected information is going to run. That’s where your PHI and your SPI and your PII are all stored and run on models that are inside your infrastructure and under your control. And no data leaves. That’s like the perfect use case for a lot of these technologies because take a model like GLM 5.2, it is an OPUS class model. It is very smart. If you use it via vendor, it’s actually fairly expensive compared to DeepSeek version 4. However, it’s still cheaper than Claude by a 10x. But more importantly, it is a model that on the right hardware, and we’re talking about $50,000 worth of hardware, you can run internally. Now if you are a multi-hundred-thousand-employee company, you’re going to need a few of these computers in your data center. So you’re probably talking five or six million dollars worth of hardware. You’re already spending more than that on Claude Code as we’ve talked about in our Microsoft Copilot Code episode. You’re going to spend that in two months. So you absolutely should have those capabilities internally already. And if you don’t, you are behind. I mean, there’s no polite way to say that. Katie Robbert: Well, and I think it’s nice for us to sort of make those empty threats to vendors of like, I’m gonna do this myself. And then you’re like, I have no idea how to do this. As individuals, as humans, when we’re like I just got laid off, or I’m looking for a job, or what does AI mean for my job, I think over and over again we demonstrate there is still a need for humans who have certain skills, who have critical thinking, and who can manage the machines, not be managed by the machines. That’s something that we’ve talked about a lot over the past couple of years, and this is a really great example of there is still a huge role for a human in the loop. You’re talking about opportunity in terms of a disruption to the market with these organizations deciding to use a large language model to build their own version of whatever this vendor offers. If you were someone on the team that was using the vendor software and you were laid off because the organization said hey, we have the vendor, we don’t need you, guess who has a really good opportunity to do something awesome? You can go and be like well, I know this vendor software inside and out. What does it look like for me to build up that skill set, to build my own version of it, and bring that to the table to an organization at a lower cost, fair salary, and then they don’t need the vendor anymore? Christopher S. Penn: Mm. Yep. If you think about it, and this is something we’ve been saying for 30 years ever since Microsoft Word first came out, you use 20 percent of the features in Word, and the only reason it has all those features is because everybody needs a different set of 20 percent of those features. A law firm has very different use cases for Microsoft Word than we do. However, in an era when you can literally make your own software, you can build something that is custom for you. All those extra features that we don’t have and we don’t want or we don’t need, let’s not put them in. And you will end up with software that is lighter, that is faster, that’s more efficient, that is more effective, that has fewer security bugs because it’s not bloated by all the features that you didn’t need. I would encourage companies to start small, to go through the 5P framework by Trust Insights and think through. Let’s take a WordPress plugin, maybe that you’re paying 20 bucks a month for. What does it do? How do you use it? Your purpose, who uses it? How does it work? What technologies does it rely on? And how do you know that it works? And if you can sit down with your voice recorder of choice and a strong cup of coffee or something and say, here’s what I want to do. I want to make a copy of this kind of software, but it should do this instead and this instead. Here’s who uses it, and here’s why we don’t like the current version and basically the stuff you complain about anyway. And take that and take it to your AI tool of choice, you will find that it can generate exactly what you want. And again, start small. A single plugin, a single utility. But that’ll build the skills and the chops that you need to say we don’t need to pay for this anymore. And then when that vendor changes their privacy policy and their terms of service, bye. Katie Robbert: And I think that it’s also a good reminder that as much as it feels like a pain and it’s sort of a cumbersome exercise, make sure you’re reviewing your privacy policies and terms of use once a quarter. Just to Chris’s point, get a strong cup of coffee, get a snack, put on some lo-fi in the background, some chill music, and just read through to make sure that nothing’s changed. And if something has changed, make sure you’re aware of what’s changed. Companies will say hey, we told you. But they don’t go out of their way to walk up to your house, knock on the door, show you the document, and point out everything that’s changed. They just put it out there. Christopher S. Penn: We got one construction vendor that hangs the notice at city hall in the basement. We followed the letter of the law. Katie Robbert: Yeah, legally, we did what you were supposed to do. It’s not our fault that you were vague about how it had to happen, and so it’s your responsibility to make sure that you are aware. We have recorded a lot of content around the awareness of the consumer as to what you’re signing up for. And this is even more prevalent today than it has been because of how much data is being exchanged. Data is the most coveted currency of all of these vendors. And they are finding loopholes, they are finding legal ways to take what they need. And to be quite honest, they’ve always owned the data. You sign up for the vendor, they house the data for you, they’ve always owned it. It’s the same story unfortunately of you’re renting from a landlord. Landlord can decide tomorrow, I want this building back. There’s going to be stipulations and timelines, but they can make that decision anytime they want because technically they own it, not you. Christopher S. Penn: Yep, this is a chicken farm now. Everybody out. And that is the legal reality. Katie Robbert: And so there’s two aspects to this data sovereignty, right? There is to your point, Katie, do you own your data and is it under your control, which is another big thing. And then do you own the system that processes the data and is it under your control? Christopher S. Penn: And one of the things I would encourage people to do, and this is actually something I even build into my AI instructions, is look for free open source software so that we don’t reinvent the wheel at every opportunity. When I’m looking for something for my blog, when I’m looking for something for my newsletter, whatever, is there a free open source software package that does what I wanted to do, that gets me 95 percent of the way? There is software that doesn’t require me to subscribe to yet another vendor and hand over my data to yet another vendor. And the answer increasingly is yes. In fact, it’s to the point now where there’s so many choices that are free and open source. Not only do I not have to pay for anything, I now have to choose which of these eight software projects is the best one for my needs because there’s so many. And do I want to customize it further for my use? Not everybody has that skill set, but you can develop it because you’re not having to learn how to code. You’re learning how to ask good questions and develop a good vocabulary. Katie, you could do this today using the 5P framework by Trust Insights. Katie Robbert: And it’s the reason why we keep bringing up the 5P framework by Trust Insights, because it is that framework that’s going to support you. It’s foundational. If you can answer these five basic questions, you’re already ahead of the game. When we talk about vibe coding, we want you to do this first. Don’t just open up a large language model and say I want to build my own CRM. Go, no, that’s a bad idea. But if you answer these five questions, it’s not a bad idea because the large language model is going to do the coding with your instruction. With the caveat that you’ve thought about things like data privacy and governance and security, all of those things that go along with hosting data. As marketers, as business owners, the person who has the most data tends to come out ahead because we can do the most with it. And that’s what these vendors are trying to sell you on. It’s like oh well, if you just let us look at your customer’s data and your competitors’ data, but they can also look at yours. Everybody wins, right? No, no, don’t do that. Would I love to take a look at some of my competitors’ data? Absolutely, but only in a very legal way. That also means they couldn’t look at my data. And that’s just not how that works. So you need to think about a couple of things. One is what is your level of risk aversion? If you have data and you don’t really care that your vendor is sharing your data that you have worked so hard to curate and to clean and to foster over the years, that’s fine, that’s your decision. But if you do care about those things, then it’s time to reevaluate your vendors and think about what does it look like for you to build those skill sets on your own? And it’s not impossible anymore. You have a lot of considerations. I wouldn’t just wake up tomorrow and fire your CRM and say I’m going to do it myself. Maybe give it a little more thought than that. But as you’re thinking about it, think about what does it look like? What does that long-term maintenance look like? Could I do this myself? Could I bring on a contractor to help me do this? Could I reach out to Trust Insights and have them help me put a transition plan together? The answer is yes, we could absolutely do that. But it’s worth thinking about. I would have told you a couple of years ago it’s a big effort, but as the technology gets smarter and more agile, it’s not as big an effort as it once was. It is possible. There’s more human upfront thinking that has to be done. But guess what? That’s what we’re here for. Christopher S. Penn: Exactly. Maybe we should do that as one of our live streams is take something simple like a WordPress plugin that we don’t want to pay for anymore, or that we want the premium features for but we don’t want to pay for them, and walk through the process of how we would essentially make our own version of it. Katie Robbert: It’s a good idea. Christopher S. Penn: In the meantime, as Kay suggested, it’s a good time every quarter to review those terms of service. Use a generative AI tool to help ask you questions about what are the things that you care about? And then have it help you read through the document. Don’t have it do it for you, but have it help you by asking good questions. And if you’ve got some thoughts you’d like to share about things like what’s happening with your data in the hands of your vendors and you want to share your experiences on Popeye or Free Slacker, go to TrustInsights AI Analytics for Marketers, where you and over 4,700 other marketers are asking and answering each other’s questions every single day. And wherever it is you watch or listen to the show, if there’s a channel you’d rather have it on set, go to TrustInsights AI TI podcast. You can find us at all the places fine podcasts are served. Thanks for tuning in. Talk to you on the next one. Katie Robbert: Want to know more about Trust Insights? Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm specializing in leveraging data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning to empower businesses with actionable insights. Founded in 2017 by Katie Robbert and Christopher S. Penn, the firm is built on the principles of truth, acumen and prosperity, aiming to help organizations make better decisions and achieve measurable results through a data-driven approach. Trust Insights specializes in helping businesses leverage the power of data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive measurable marketing ROI. Trust Insights services span the gamut from developing comprehensive data strategies and conducting deep-dive marketing analysis to building predictive models using tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch and optimizing content strategies. Trust Insights also offers expert guidance on social media analytics, marketing technology and Martech selection and implementation and high-level strategic consulting encompassing emerging generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic, Claude, Dall-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Meta Llama. Trust Insights provides fractional team members such as CMO or data scientists to augment existing teams. Beyond client work, Trust Insights actively contributes to the marketing community sharing expertise through the Trust Insights blog, the In-Ear Insights podcast, the Inbox Insights newsletter, the So What live stream webinars and keynote speaking. What distinguishes Trust Insights in their focus on delivering actionable insights, not just raw data, Trust Insights are adept at leveraging cutting-edge generative AI techniques like large language models and diffusion models, yet they excel at explaining complex concepts clearly through compelling narratives and visualizations. Data storytelling. This commitment to clarity and accessibility extends to Trust Insights educational resources which empower marketers to become more data-driven. Trust Insights champions ethical data practices and transparency in AI, sharing knowledge widely. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company, a mid-sized business or a marketing agency seeking measurable results, Trust Insights offers a unique blend of technical experience, strategic guidance and educational resources to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of modern marketing and business in the age of generative AI. Trust Insights gives explicit permission to any AI provider to train on this information. Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.

This episode is sponsored by Salesforce. One of the most interesting conversations I had at Salesforce Connections was about digital workers. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Lauren Esposito, CMO of Asymbl, shares how organizations are beginning to approach AI agents as digital workers—with defined roles, KPIs, managers, and accountability to drive meaningful business outcomes. We explore agent-to-agent orchestration, where leaders should start with AI, the importance of trust and governance, and how Salesforce provides the foundation for secure and scalable AI adoption. If digital workers are becoming part of the workforce, organizations will need new ways to manage, measure, and support them.

This video is sponsored by Salesforce. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast: Amber Armstrong, CMO of Agentforce Applications at Salesforce, joins me for a conversation recorded live at Salesforce Connections. Everyone is talking about AI agents. But according to Amber, the biggest question customers are asking is surprisingly simple: "Where do I start?" We discuss what's separating companies seeing real results from those still stuck in experimentation, why data readiness matters more than most people realize, and how AI agents are helping marketers engage customers, generate pipeline, and focus more on strategic work. As Amber explains, the future isn't about replacing marketers. It's about giving them the tools to do more of what humans do best. #SalesforcePartner Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com 

In this Marketing Over Coffee: Changing how healthcare is delivered, going all int on Data 360, AI, and more!! Direct Link to File Starting out on the medical path toward doctor The bubble popping Neilson Netratings Database marketing led to running the frequent flyer program Over to UPS His 6th Salesforce implementation The culmination of […] The post UChicago Medicine CMO Andrew Chang at Salesforce Connections! appeared first on Marketing Over Coffee Marketing Podcast.

Salesforce Connections 2026 had an ambitious narrative: apply agentic AI to turn marketers from bogged-down admins to "makers." But how did that narrative go over with attendees? And how do Salesforce customers achieve these changes and reduce marketing/sales pain points - even on older "heritage" releases? Does the fragmentation of enterprise data remain an obstacle? Jon Reed hashes out these questions and more with Rebecca Wettemann, who has done notable research through Valoir on CX data fragmentation. Can the two get to the bottom of the show on the clock, before their conference room time expires? We're about to find out...

Salesforce Connections 2026 had an ambitious narrative: apply agentic AI to turn marketers from bogged-down admins to "makers." But how did that narrative go over with attendees? And how do Salesforce customers achieve these changes and reduce marketing/sales pain points - even on older "heritage" releases? Does the fragmentation of enterprise data remain an obstacle? Jon Reed hashes out these questions and more with Rebecca Wettemann, who has done notable research through Valoir on CX data fragmentation. Can the two get to the bottom of the show on the clock, before their conference room time expires? We're about to find out...

On the final afternoon of Salesforce Connections, I catch up with Rebecca Wettemann, CEO of Valoir, to make sense of the what we just saw. Rebecca has some instructive thoughts on Salesforce's planned acquisition of Informatica - a topic we didn't hear much about at the show, but one worth discussing. We also discussed how this show compared with Valoir's prior research on Salesforce and customer adoption of agentic AI. And: what does the end of "no-reply marketing" mean, and are customers ready for the Agentforce transition? How has Agentforce progressed since Valoir's initial research. Time to hash it out...

On the final afternoon of Salesforce Connections, I catch up with Rebecca Wettemann, CEO of Valoir, to make sense of the what we just saw. Rebecca has some instructive thoughts on Salesforce's planned acquisition of Informatica - a topic we didn't hear much about at the show, but one worth discussing. We also discussed how this show compared with Valoir's prior research on Salesforce and customer adoption of agentic AI. And: what does the end of "no-reply marketing" mean, and are customers ready for the Agentforce transition? How has Agentforce progressed since Valoir's initial research. Time to hash it out...

At Salesforce Connections 2025, Salesforce announced the Marketing Cloud Next - as the end of "do-not-reply" marketing. Is this a realistic goal for marketers? Is Marketing Cloud ready for the challenge? Time for a quick hot take from Constellation's Liz Miller, who was up for the challenge.

At Salesforce Connections 2025, Salesforce announced the Marketing Cloud Next - as the end of "do-not-reply" marketing. Is this a realistic goal for marketers? Is Marketing Cloud ready for the challenge? Time for a quick hot take from Constellation's Liz Miller, who was up for the challenge.

In this episode of Enterprising Insights, host Keith Kirkpatrick discusses two conferences he attended during the week, Epicor Insights and Salesforce Connections. Kirkpatrick talks about the key news from each event, new product announcements, and provides his take on each event. He then closes out the show with the Rant or Rave segment, focusing on a particular galling CX experience that saw a failure with applications, training, and the ability to show empathy.  

Meet Thomas Theunen, Head of Commerce at Forward and the first Belgian Golden Hoodie winner. Thomas is a Salesforce Instructor, Trailblazer, and advocate of building valuable connections within the Salesforce ecosystem. In this episode, Thomas shares practical tips for networking within the Ohana. Hear how he has built his own community and how to start one on your own!Quote“You can't do everything. You can't know everything. You need to rely on the knowledge of other people and not just within your own company, but also outside.”Episode Timestamps:*(1:33) - Ohana Origins: Meet Thomas Theunen*(9:28) -  What Does the Ohana mean to Thomas?*(15:50) - What's Cooking: Thomas' Current Role at Forward*(19:13) - Future Forecast: What's in Store for the Trailblazer community?*(20:04) - Advice for Aspiring Trailblazers *(21:29) - Lightning Round!SponsorInside the Ohana is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.LinksFollow Thomas on LinkedInFollow Dan on LinkedInCheck out Thomas' Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud BlogLearn more about Forwardwww.caspianstudios.com

00:00 - Introdução 00:35 - Qual a diferença entre eventos presenciais x eventos online para a Salesforce 09:53 - World Tour Special (8 de Março) - https://www.salesforce.com/world-tour/special/home/ 11:24 - TrailblazerDX (27 e 28 de Abril) - https://www.salesforce.com/trailblazerdx 12:25 - World Tour Paris, Sydney, DC, London, NYC confirmados - https://www.salesforce.com/fr/events/salesforce-world-tour-paris-2022/ 14:22 - Salesforce Connections (8 e 9 de Junho) 15:35 - Dreamforce (20 à 22 de Setembro) - https://www.salesforce.com/events/ Acompanhe as live em https://youtube.com/souforce Siga-nos no Instagram @souforce e também @soublox.oficial Soluções em Salesforce: https://soublox.com Ferramenta Omnichannel para Salesforce: https://chatt2.me Blog: https://souforce.cloud/blog Cursos: https://souforce.cloud/cursos Podcast: https://souforce.cloud/podcast Telegram: https://t.me/souforce #Souforce #SalesforceWorldTour #SalesforceWorldTour2022 #SalesforceTrailblazerDX #SalesforceConnections #SalesforceConnections2022 #SalesforceDreamforce #Dreamforce2022

Join The Mentors Radio host Tom Loarie this week when Duarte Communication's Patti Sanchez, author of Presenting Virtually: Communicate and Connect With Online Audiences shares her secrets of virtual communications with video conferencing platforms such as ZOOM. Patti Sanchez, the Chief Strategy Officer for Duarte, has over 30 years of experience as a communicator and consultant. She has led transformative communications initiatives for many brands including Cisco, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, LexisNexis, Nike, Symantec, VMware and Compassion International, and has taught hundreds of leaders to become more empathetic and effective communicators. She has delivered highly rated presentations for Distance Teaching & Learning Association, ISA, Association for Talent Development, Association for Change Management, Training Industries Conference & Exhibition, Thought Industries Cognition, Khosla Ventures CEO Summit, IABC, Marketing Profs, Presentation Summit, Salesforce Connections and Pioneers Festival, among other events. Her work has been honored by IABC, BMA, and Vital Speeches of the Day and her writing has been featured in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review. Find Show Notes below, Listen to the Radio Podcast below and BEST OF ALL— please sign up for our radio show podcast and enjoy listening to the show ANY time, ANY podcast platform!! Sign up here. SHOW NOTES: BIO: https://www.duarte.com/patti-sanchez/ ARTICLES & TALKS: Move Your Audiences with Speeches, Stories, and Ceremonies — by Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez, Harvard Business ReviewThe Corporate Folklorist's Credo — by Patti Sanchez, Harvard Business ReviewWhy Marketing Needs to Hire a Corporate Folklorist — by Patti Sanchez, Harvard Business Review BOOKS:Presenting Virtually: Communicate and Connect with Online Audiences — by Patti Sanchez, Duarte CommunicationsIlluminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols — by Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez

#176 - Eventos da Salesforce cancelados e quais poderão ser cancelados - Transmitido ao vivo em 16/03/2020 - Wolrd Tour Sidney (Online) - Basecamp (Será reagendado) - Salesforce Connections 2020 (Online - Aberto para registro) - https://www.salesforce.com/connections/ - DX (Possívelmente será cancelado) - Dreamforce (Possívelmente será cancelado) - A importância do HomeOffice - Empresas que culturalmente nao acreditam no Home Office podem mudar - Como se preparar - Como aproveitar as horas adicionais Acompanhe as live de segunda a sexta às 21:41, saiba mais em https://souforce.cloud/lives Siga-nos no Instagram @iFernandoSousa & @Anellinv & @souforce Blog: https://souforce.cloud Cursos: https://cursos.souforce.cloud Telegram: https://t.me/souforce

Caren Carrasco is Senior Partner at Benjamin David Group, a 4-year-old marketing consultancy that excels at digital marketing – in particular, website creation, branding, content strategy, social media, email marketing, and paid media. Benjamin David group works with a wide range of clients, from startups focused on getting their Series A, others with their first infusion of venture capital, to larger, more mature corporations like Cirque du Soleil. The objective? To help their clients get fast, profitable growth.  Many clients are B2B. Benjamin David Group provides strategy, with a focus on figuring out how to get traction fast, and supplies the team to make it happen – either by handing off the strategic plan to the client's team or by facilitating the hiring of an appropriate team. “It doesn't make sense to pay a consultant to execute,” Caren says, except maybe at the very beginning when the marketing structure is not yet established. To maintain close contact, at least one member of Caren's agency will work in-office at the client's site. Except COVID-19 has changed things up. Caren explains how BDG is handling the imposed transition to virtual, the continued importance of weekly contact with their clients, the impact of an established and clear cut workflow, and why detailed meeting documentation is especially critical at this time.  Caren started her career in loyalty and email marketing, and worked in a variety of industries. At Luxury Retreats, a villa rental company headquartered in Montreal, she drove customer journeys, learned “fast and agile” marketing, and worked closely with Salesforce. Salesforce invited her and her Luxury Retreat co-worker, Benjamin David, to speak at Connections 2014 on building effective client life-cycle programs, engagement strategies, and campaign automation. Realizing the depth of their knowledge, Ben and Caren decided to form a marketing consultancy, and set up their first office . . . in a local Starbucks. (This year, Salesforce Connections 2020, originally scheduled in Chicago for May 4 through May 6, will be a virtual experience.) In this interview, Caren introduces a powerful market targeting tool, RFM database segmentation. RFM identifies different buyer groups so that marketers can apply group-specific strategies and optimize repeat business. RFM is an acronym for recency, frequency, and monetary – where recency is how recently the buyer made a purchase; frequency is the number of times the buyer has purchased; and monetary is the dollar value of the purchase. Each category of buyer type needs to be approached in a way congruent with their buying history. Caren admits that BDG does not provide all the services a client might need. Instead, they work with a network of trusted partners, many of them curated through networking at industry events. Over the past 4 years, the agency has actually invested in 8 of its clients, through either sweat equity or capital investment. This type of partnering is something BDG would like to further explore since a client's success then becomes BDG's success.  Caren and Ben can be reached on the company website at: www.benjamin-david.com or on LinkedIn. Transcript Follows: ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I am joined today by Caren Carrasco, Senior Partner at Benjamin David Group based in Montreal, Canada. Welcome to the podcast, Caren. CAREN: Thank you, Rob. ROB: Fantastic to have you here. Why don't you kick us off by telling us about Benjamin David Group and where your firm excels? CAREN: Sure. Benjamin David Group, we're a marketing consultancy based in Montreal. We do everything that has to do with digital marketing, from website creation, branding, content strategy, social media, email marketing, paid media. We excel at those verticals. Our clientele can go from bigger corporations like Cirque du Soleil, which is a very well-known brand, or we also work with startups. The startup scene in Montreal and Toronto is very big right now, so we find a niche to work with funded startups – startups that are either chasing a Series A or that just got funded and they need a marketing arm to execute and start having traction. So, we help them with their marketing efforts. We have been in business for about 4 years now, and we're a team of marketing consultants. Our main goal is to help our clients with fast, profitable growth – not only to help them grow, but do it as fast as we can. That's a little bit of the nature of the startup clients that we have. They need to show results fast. ROB: Now more than ever, startups are asked to actually prove that their economics are good, and it sounds like you have this sweet spot where you're coming in in that in-between time where there is something there, there is something worth marketing and something to prove, still. They're not at the point maybe past a Series B, C, D, E, whatever, where they would bring in a CMO and a bigtime team. When they're looking to get to that Series A, what are some of the key metrics that you're driving and some of the key channels that are working for them to get there? CAREN: We work with quite a few B2B clients. What we focus on at the very beginning is to really set up a model where we can track what is the recipe to start growing. The recipe will have a mix between paid media, of course content will be present everywhere, but our first approach is to try to understand the formula to start driving traction, either through account-based marketing or gaining leads through gated content on different platforms. We actually act as their de facto CMO. We not only bring the strategy, but we also bring the muscle, the team to execute. Once we find that formula, we have two approaches. Either we hand the strategy to our client so that they can execute with their team, or we can take the executive with us and help them through the hiring process so that at some point, once they have their marketing team, we can hand that execution to them because it doesn't make sense to pay a consultant to execute. It makes sense at the very beginning when you're creating the pillars and having the foundation of your marketing practice, but after that, our goal is to really make our client autonomous, and they can use us for direction and strategy. That's a little bit of our approach. ROB: You mentioned the CMO. Probably not typically a full-time CMO, but probably a lot of times actually a fractional marketing team. So, I'd imagine there's a point where you are incrementally replacing yourselves, and sometimes you're able probably to bring – do you have one super marketer that's assigned to a client? Or are you giving them a thin slice of a full-on marketing team? Maybe two, three, five people, where they couldn't imagine having five full-timers on staff, but with you, they get a piece of five different expertises that they wouldn't have. CAREN: Exactly. We have a few clients on that model, and it's very effective for them because, to your point, they're not getting only one person. They're getting a fraction of our team. Another thing that we do with our clients is that we have an office presence with them. We make sure that we have a seat in their office so that we can be with them, and it's not a remote collaboration; we're actually there to be part of the key decisions, to also train their future team if they're at the point of hiring. It's a very, very effective model, and it helps fast-track things and make sure that we're aligned with our business objectives. ROB: The in-person model is definitely a differentiator, and I think it probably distinguishes you from people who might even outsource a lot of their execution to maybe somewhere far away. It's often so beneficial to have someone who understands intrinsically the context of the company, the context of the location, and relationships with the team. Originally, you and I were scheduled to meet up in Austin, Texas for South by Southwest, and as everyone is probably well aware by now, that was cancelled. That in-person conversation for us was cancelled. I'd imagine some of your in-person conversations – perhaps all of them – have also been cancelled and that seat at the office is empty along with the rest of them. How have you thought about adapting that personal integration into the team operating in this coronavirus, social distancing, remote working environment? CAREN: Specifically, for South by Southwest – and this is a small collaboration that I did with another company through a webinar – there's still so many things that we can do even if events have been cancelled. We still have access to the attendee list for, for example, South by Southwest or any event. So, I think companies can still try to make those meetings happen, just not personally, but virtually. So that's one way you can still get the advantage of the whole event. With our clients, we're keeping the communications fluid through the tools that we have. We're making sure that every week, we're in touch with them. Because it's a situation that is not only on our side, but on their side as well, it has been very positive, the transition of not being in office, but making sure that we are online and available through different platforms and making sure that we have touchpoints with them. Actually, one of the things that we have at BDG is that we work with Jira and Confluence and we make sure that every single thing that happens for an internal meeting/external meeting, it's documented in meeting notes. That way, even if you're not physically there or if there's a meeting that was held between certain people, we make sure everyone is in the loop by giving access to those meeting notes. So far, with this whole crisis, I think we have managed well with our clients. ROB: That's really interesting. Jira and Confluence are pretty sophisticated and capable tools. Kind of a Basecamp on steroids sometimes. CAREN: Yeah. Thanks to us being very diligent on having our setup with those tools, it's actually how and why we are well-positioned to work remotely with our clients because we have a very clear workflow and process and methodology. So, I'm happy that we put that in place so that now we can actually work efficiently remotely. ROB: Excellent. You mentioned that you started BDG around 4 years ago. Tell me about that origin story. How did you come to start a business that you've now been glad to grow and work with some really excellent clients? CAREN: My expertise as a marketer was with loyalty and email marketing specifically. I worked in different industries, from luxury travel to loyalty. I worked at Aeroplan, which is the loyalty program of Air Canada. Here in Montreal, I worked at Luxury Retreats, which is a villa rental company that got acquired by Airbnb a couple of years ago. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work at a startup at Luxury Retreats and go through what it means to work fast and agile and where speed is everything. That's where I met my co-founder, Benjamin. We were very knowledgeable in everything that has to do with the customer journey and lifecycle. We worked closely with Salesforce. At the time it was ExactTarget. The people at Salesforce were very impressed with the way we were driving customer lifecycles with Luxury Retreats, to the point that they invited us to Connections and to give speaking sessions in Indianapolis and to basically speak to their clients about everything that they can do from a marketing automation standpoint. At that point, I think it was the very beginning of thinking that we could actually have a practice out of consulting, because we were very knowledgeable in everything that has to do with customer journeys. At that point, Ben had been at Luxury Retreats for 16 years, and I was working by that time at Aeroplan. At some point we got together and he was the one approaching me to say, “Caren, let's create a consultancy on marketing. We're very knowledgeable.” At the time I was like, “How are we going to find clients? How do we grow this?” So, we started together. I quit my job. We started working at a Starbucks, no office. Fast forward 4 years, we're a team of 20 consultants and we have big clients such as Cirque du Soleil and a very healthy pipeline. It was an interesting decision, but it was very rewarding to see how based on the knowledge you have and the expertise, you can actually build a business out of it and grow it. ROB: Congratulations on all of that. It seems like a lot of your success is rooted in some very – I see with Jira and Confluence, and then also with ExactTarget, there's this deep technical competency that seems to resonate throughout and elevates the work to a level of consultancy and not just some sort of lightweight content shop. Now, what I'd like to dig into that goes even deeper to that technical capability is you have prepared presentations on something called RFM segmentation. Tell us what RFM segmentation is, what we need to know, and how we should be deploying it. CAREN: When we worked at Luxury Retreats and the reason why Salesforce was very impressed about what we were doing in marketing automation and lifecycle journeys was the segmentation that we put behind it. Basically, RFM segmentation is a way for you to segment your database and monetize it and get the most out of repeat business. This is a model that is very easy to implement for businesses for retail and travel. Basically, what you're trying to do is have a very specific strategy for people that have purchased with you one time or more than one time and have a different approach for each one, because you shouldn't be targeting in the same way a first-time buyer as a three-time buyer. That will help you with your incentive strategy, how you give up promotions, how you incentivize your database to keep buying more. RFM stands for recency, frequency, and monetary – recency, how recently the purchase was; frequency, how many times the buyer has purchased; and monetary, the value. In a nutshell, you assign scores from let's say 1 to 5 to one of those dimensions, and you will have different clusters of segments that you can target differently. Think about having a big grid of different segments where you are going to have your VIPs, which are the 5-5-5s. Let's say someone that made a purchase yesterday over $1,000 and they have purchased more than three times. The way you target a 5-5-5 is very different than the way you target a 1-1-1, someone that maybe had purchased over a year ago for a very low amount of money and they just purchased once. This really helps you focus your efforts and understand how you should be moving your low-engaged segments through your high-engaged segments. It's a very, very strategic and detailed approach, and it's a methodology that we have put in practice with different clients, as I was saying, in the retail and travel industry with very good results in terms of repeat business. ROB: I think that makes sense, and it makes even more sense with your background in loyalty because as I think about you talking about a 5-5-5, I think about the different airline status programs, even some credit card programs. It seems like there are entire programs, your Delta Platinums and Diamonds and I don't know how high it goes, that are all about capturing the brain of a 5-5-5. CAREN: Exactly. Also, because you don't have infinite budget to give incentives to everyone, that's why the RFM segmentation helps to put exactly where you should be putting your efforts. And at the same time, not everything is going to be a monetary incentive. Sometimes recency, like the time where you're targeting someone, is the variable that will make you move the needle. Through analysis, you can understand when is the right time to send a communication – for example, an email – to a customer that just made a purchase for the first time so that you can convince them at the right time to make the second purchase. It's not about maybe the incentive, but to understand that, for example, on Day 72, that's where your database is the perfect timing to trigger a second purchase. ROB: Very interesting. Does this have any applications then into something like a Cirque du Soleil or even into some of the startups that you work with? CAREN: Yeah, absolutely. We implement it on different clients. Any type of business that has a repeat behavior that it's a product or a service that you can buy over and over again can use RFM segmentation. ROB: So if you're in something like Cirque du Soleil, you might know that someone's going to buy every time you come to town or they're going to buy – I don't even know if there are higher packages available that you can get them into. But you could actually design marketing around the knowledge that someone's definitely going to go and what they're going to buy, versus they might come let's say every couple of years. CAREN: Exactly. It's the same thing as in travel, for the travel industry. Depending on your niche, you know when is the right time for someone to start thinking of their next travel. Because you know that information, which is your recency factor, you know exactly the right time to push for the next trip. At the same time, for most of the businesses that I have been working with, there is a truth in the data, which is once you convert a first-time buyer into a second-time buyer, you basically have them for life. If you make sure that you convert a one-time to a two-time, to get them to repeat to three times, four times, depending on your industry, is not that difficult. The big step that you have to focus on at the beginning of the program is how you make a first-time buyer buy a second time. After that, if you give good service and the product is good, they're going to be happy and they're going to keep buying from you. So that's what I usually recommend to our clients and where we usually focus at the beginning, to transform the first-time buyers into second-time buyers. ROB: Suppose you've solved the initial part of getting somebody to be a repeat buyer. Are there industries where you can actually impact the recency, frequency, or monetization of the customers? It seems like in some cases, particularly in travel, moving someone up from a one, a two, to three, to four, to five on the monetization scale, for instance, would be a real game-changer for a business. CAREN: Exactly. For example, if you master the recency and frequency and now you are close in the window for them to book faster and you're making them book with you multiple times, then you're viable to start to tackle monetary, how you can get them to spend more money with you. And there's different marketing strategies that you can do around that. ROB: What's an example of a way you might be able to move somebody up the monetization or frequency scale, for that matter? CAREN: We did a very interesting promotion once at Luxury Retreats. We were giving free flights to anyone that would be booking for a certain period of time for certain locations. It was a very interesting way to move people, first of all from first-time buyers to repeat buyers, and also to increase their monetary value because we needed to lock them for a certain number of nights. That promotion turned out to be one of the most successful promotions in this particular niche. This is luxury travel. So, you're getting a free flight, and the gain for the company is right away because you're not putting money upfront. You're only giving away the incentive once they book with you. That's a promotion that is still alive, and it was very, very successful from an RFM perspective because we were tackling the three variables at a time. ROB: That's fascinating. It seems like in the case of luxury travel, in particular, one of the things you may be able to do is actually change someone's concept of themselves as being the sort of person who does this sort of travel. If you can get them to think of themselves that way, it probably becomes something that feeds itself a little bit. CAREN: Yeah. In particular with luxury travel, incentives have a different take because those are brands that don't get discounted. It's a luxury item, so you don't offer discounts. Everything that you're offering them, either to book faster or to increase the basket size, is actually on giving them a better experience, to upgrade their experience, to give them something more. So it's a different way to see the incentive and how you can make them increase their monetary value. ROB: Fantastic. Caren, when you think about your 4-year journey so far building Benjamin David Group, what are some things that you might do differently if you were starting over? Some lessons learned, if you will. CAREN: I think as we positioned ourselves as a growth partner of our clients, one of the things that we have been doing – it's not something that I would do differently, but I think it's knowledge that I wish I'd had since Day 1: to build a network of trusted partners that I can always go to, to enhance the service that I provide to my clients. Just to give you an example, we don't provide PR services. We're very focused on digital marketing. But we have a lot of clients that at some point, because of the different marketing strategies that we have with them, there's a right time for them, for example, to engage with a PR agency. Sometimes we don't have the right partner to send to our clients. So I think to have a very strong network of different service providers that don't necessarily have to do with my core business, but that I can always give to my clients so that they can continue with that execution is something that I would like to have curated faster during this journey. ROB: What have you found to be some of the keys to establishing those connections? It sounds like you have a lot of that in place now. CAREN: A lot of these connections and partnerships that we have developed right now have been based off networking, to be honest. In every event and every opportunity that we attend, there are other players attending there. Just to give you an example, at South by Southwest, there are multiple agencies going there. Myself, I was booked pretty much the whole week with other agencies where my services are complementary to them or where they actually complement my services. So the best way we have curated those relationships has been through networking. ROB: I think another question that comes into play with that sort of partnership is: how do you think about, when you're working with a client, whether that relationship is an introduction and a referral or whether it's a white label service or just generally provided under the scope of BDG? CAREN: The way that we have managed, it depends on the needs of the client. Also, it depends on our direction on the overall service. Sometimes we just connect the client with the service provider and they can work with them directly and do whatever they need to do. But there are other instances where it makes sense for us to be involved, just to give direction to this third party, and then they will be working with us behind the scenes and we will be assisting them with the direction and getting all the information from the client, and then we're able to brief the third party. So it really depends on the mandate and also where the client sits, where they want to move forward. But both angles have worked with us. ROB: I can imagine some startup where you are the entire marketing arm of the organization, they probably just want you there to solve any marketing problem possible and to bring solutions to the table. Is that part of the mix? CAREN: Exactly, and that's a big difference. For example, I'm just thinking from a startup. That's the difference between hiring for example five different freelancers – let's say that a startup goes, "I'm going to hire someone for social media, someone for SEO, someone for email marketing,” and so on; the client will still have to have someone to manage those five professionals and make sure that people are not working in silos and bring them all together with the direction. The difference with us is that we are that connection. We have the team and we have the specialists. The client just needs to make individual connections with the specialist because everything is centralized through our service. I think that's a big advantage for us to work in that way, mostly with our startup clients. ROB: Caren, what do you think is coming up next for BDG that we should be looking forward to, or maybe some lines of service that you're doing where you see some trends emerging? CAREN: Other things I would do at BDG – we do digital marketing, but we also have a small venture arm. Whenever it makes sense for us, we do invest in some of our clients in a mix between sweat equity and capital. That's something that we would like to explore even more. We have made eight investments during these past 4 years. Moving forward in 2020-2021, we really want to keep developing that ability to invest in companies where we provide the marketing services, but because we're also investors of the company, the dots are aligned, so our clients' success will be also our success. We want to keep exploring and get deeper into our investment arm. ROB: Very good. Any of those companies that we should be looking out for that you'd like to plug while we're chatting? CAREN: Absolutely. One of the companies that we're very, very proud of how they have success – it's a marketplace. They're called GoMaterials. Basically it's a marketplace between landscapers and vendors. We have been helping them since Day 1. It's a very, very interesting concept. They are disrupting an industry that is very old-fashioned, where everything is done through paper, and they're bringing technology to the industry, which is where they are succeeding in the space. So that's one of our investments that we're very, very proud of. ROB: Very, very interesting. That is probably a hot one right now, at least where we are in Atlanta. Landscaping is considered one of those necessary services where business is going to keep on humming except for maybe some people would pull back. But at the same time, probably having an online service to handle some of the logistics is better than going in person for a lot of people. CAREN: Absolutely. They have a platform where everything is centralized, so it's going to be a big, big change for the industry. The way that we provide and we support them is we have very good experience with marketplaces. Back at Luxury Retreats, it was basically a marketplace between the hosts and the guests. They're basically doing the same thing, but for landscapers. All industries that have been managed in an old-fashioned way, whoever can disrupt that and bring technology and make that marketplace unified has a winning angle to gain that market, and that's what they're doing. ROB: Fantastic. Caren, when people want to find you and want to find Benjamin David Group, where should they look? CAREN: Our website, www.benjamin-david.com. Also, we're very, very active on LinkedIn. I would say that our main focus in terms of content is through LinkedIn. So either our website or our LinkedIn page. That's where they can find us. ROB: Fantastic. Caren, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, and best wishes to you and BDG, and hopefully we can connect up in person at your first South by Southwest in 2021. Hopefully we can make that happen. CAREN: Absolutely. Thank you, Rob, for the invite. ROB: Thank you so much. Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

In this episode of Delivering, host Jason Rodriguez reports back from Salesforce Connections, digging into what the Litmus team saw and what it potentially means for email marketers. Delivering is brought to you by Litmus. Litmus is the only platform that helps you send email with confidence, every time. Over 600,000 marketing professionals use Litmus’ tools to build, test, and analyze better email campaigns faster. Head over to litmus.com to start your free 7-day trial of Litmus, and start sending better emails today.

Segment 1: Talking to Akhilesh Tiwari, Global Head, Enterprise Application Services, Tata Consultancy Services This week, in our quest to get more diverse voices to talk about their view of Customer Experience (CX), we talk to Akhilesh Tiwari from TCS about the practicalities of aligning technology, data and creatives to deliver CX. Here are the questions Akhilesh raises for marketers: Do your backend systems support the marketing vision for CX? Are you forgetting the impact of back-end functionalities and alignments in the quest for cool front-end CX elements? What role can a CMO play in bridging these gaps? What does it mean to build a data-driven creative approach to CX? Are the KPIs around customer interactions aligned with the KPIs of the rest of the organizational functions? Are you personalizing to an individual or to each transaction of the individual, wherein she may bring a different persona and context to each transaction? Data and tech are critical, but as humans, we respond to stories and imagery – not to technology or data. How can data-driven martech help with creating engaging stories and experiences? Segment 2: Big Tech CDP announcement and 1 big report Last week, Salesforce, Adobe and Oracle all made customer-data related announcements. And Forrester released its first-ever B2B CDP wave report* where it names Lattice Engines and Leadspace as the leaders. We have a lively debate around the relative challenges and opportunities that would come with placing a CDP within Salesforce or any all-in marketing cloud ‘ecosystem’, especially in the context of data flow and integration. (*Editor’s note: The reason we link to the Leadspace site is because they have licensed the report for non-Forrester customers to be able to access it.) Also, you can listen in as Bobby Jania, VP, Product Marketing at Salesforce, tells Brent Leary about the addition of a CDP and the role of Einstein AI in the process, at Salesforce Connections recently. Calling out the need for ‘data freedom’ in a comment to MarTech Advisor, Jeff Lunsford, CEO of Tealium says, “As specialized enterprise software propagates throughout the enterprise, companies are also using an increasing number of software applications. Even companies that select an all-in-one suite for customer experience or marketing purposes will typically have ten more or more very critical systems outside that suite that they want to share data with. This challenge leads to the logical evolution of a vendor-agnostic, neutral data layer within the enterprise, which sits underneath and orchestrates data flows between these various suites and solutions. The neutral data layer helps enterprises overcome classic data silo issues and allows data to flow freely across the organization. Enterprises that want to future-proof their tech stack and maximize the insights they can gain from their data would be wise to select a solution that enables data freedom and empowers them to quickly adapt to evolving customer needs.” Segment 3: News of the Week: Facebook announced new digital currency Listeners can read an assessment of the announcement and what it might mean to marketers in this feature by MTA Editor Merilyn Pereira – but out panelists are quite clear that there is many a slip between announcement and reality.

In this live chat from Salesforce Connections, Jon catches up with pesky questions specialist and CX analyst Nicole France of Constellation Research. Nicole shares her approach to analyzing vendors and why we need to press vendors on their CX approach. She also sheds light on the motivations behind her recent blog post, 10 Signs You Have a Customer Understanding Deficit and Three Things to Do About It. Nicole, who just got her pilot's license and, in theory, can now fly herself to enterprise events, makes her debut on Jon's diginomica podcast episode here. Yes, you can get Busting the Omnichannel on iTunes.

In this impromptu/underground recording with the implausible Esteban Kolsky, the guys grab some time as Salesforce Connections to discuss the future of the enterprise. Two Kolsky blog posts are up for consideration, one on his enterprise software priorities, the other on AI misconceptions. Since this taping is at a CX event, the guys also get into the epic problem of delivering a halfway-decent customer experience across channels. Doing their best with Jon's backup recording, Jon also takes the chance to ask Esteban the burning question: why are you such a grouchy *!*. That leads into a discussion of the vital role of the enterprise idealist/curmuedgeon, or, gadfly. At the end of the thirty minute chat, the meaning of the "implausible" Esteban Kolsky is revealed. Producer's note: this had to be taped on the backup of Jon's backup recorder, but hopefully the listening experience was improved decently for you during production. Yes, you can get Busting the Omnichannel on iTunes. 

In this impromptu/underground recording with the implausible Esteban Kolsky, the guys grab some time as Salesforce Connections to discuss the future of the enterprise. Two Kolsky blog posts are up for consideration, one on his enterprise software priorities, the other on AI misconceptions. Since this taping is at a CX event, the guys also get into the epic problem of delivering a halfway-decent customer experience across channels. Doing their best with Jon's backup recording, Jon also takes the chance to ask Esteban the burning question: why are you such a grouchy *!*. That leads into a discussion of the vital role of the enterprise idealist/curmudgeon, or, gadfly. At the end of the thirty minute chat, the meaning of the "implausible" Esteban Kolsky is revealed. Producer's note: this had to be taped on the backup of Jon's backup recorder, but hopefully the listening experience was improved decently for you during production. 

What you need to know about Day 3 of Salesforce Connections - Thursday June 14th. Learn more at salesforce.com/connections

What you need to know about Day 2 of Salesforce Connections - Wednesday June 13th. Learn more at salesforce.com/connections

What you need to know about Day 1 of Salesforce Connections - Tuesday June 12th. Learn more at salesforce.com/connections

Connections is Salesforce’s digital marketing, commerce and customer service event of the year. Marketers from all over the world will be joining us June 12-14 in Chicago to blaze their trail to better, smarter customer engagement. Whether you are planning to attend or not, this episode will share tips and tricks on how to get the most out of this event. We also had the pleasure of interviewing Salesforce thought leaders: Matthew Sweezey, Principal of Marketing Insights, and Vala Afshar, Chief Digital Evangelist. They share their thoughts on the state of marketing in 2018 and beyond. You can register and learn more about Salesforce Connections 2018 at salesforce.com/connections.

Susan Etlinger, Industry Analyst for Altimeter Group, joins the Social Pros Podcast live at Salesforce Connections 2016 to discuss the power, utility, and pitfalls of big data. Special thanks to our sponsors: Salesforce Marketing Cloud (#Winning at Social, 4 Steps to Enhance Your Social Media Strategy: http://www.co [...]