Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, today announced that it is now live on Amazon Web Service (AWS) Cloud infrastructure in Canada. Customers in Canada can access the Salesforce Intelligent Customer Success Platform, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Community Cloud, Analytics Cloud and more, on the AWS Canada (Central) Region.

AWS and Salesforce formed a strategic alliance to simplify and expand how customers capture, analyze and take action on data, delivering five service integrations for mutual customers. Additionally, as part of the partnership, Salesforce selected AWS as its preferred public cloud infrastructure provider. “As the global leader in CRM, Salesforce is committed to delivering the most trusted, reliable and resilient infrastructure available to our customers,” said Parker Harris, Co-Founder and CTO, Salesforce. “Our alliance with AWS, an industry-leading global public cloud infrastructure, allows us to expand our infrastructure presence more quickly and efficiently so we can support our fast-growing customer base in Canada and around the world.” With strong customer momentum across the country and Salesforce now live on the AWS Canada Region, located in Montreal, Salesforce is set to further accelerate its growth in Canada. Canadian companies of all sizes including Vidyard, Wealthsimple and Xplornet are using Salesforce to connect with their customers in entirely new ways. The company also announced that Salesforce is the #1 CRM software provider in Canada — based on total software revenue for 2016 — and the fastest-growing among the three largest enterprise software vendors in the region according to Gartner’s worldwide all software markets market share report. Salesforce is also driving the Canadian economy and job creation. According to research by IDC, Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners in Canada will drive over 46,000 new direct and indirect jobs and nearly $1.6 billion USD in new GDP in Canada by 2020. Additionally, with Trailhead — Salesforce’s online learning environment — Canadian Salesforce administrators, developers, users and partners have earned 87,000 badges, acquiring valuable skills to succeed in today’s technology-driven economy and to be a part of Salesforce’s flourishing ecosystem. “The shift to cloud and customer-centricity combined with the rapid pace of digital transformation is driving unprecedented growth of our Intelligent Customer Success Platform in Canada,” said Richard Eyram, Country Manager, Salesforce Canada. “With the availability of our powerful platform on AWS, we’re poised to further accelerate cloud and CRM adoption in the country and to drive innovation and success with our Canadian customers and partners.” The new AWS Canada (Central) Region continues AWS and Salesforce’s focus on delivering cloud technologies to customers in an environmentally-friendly way. AWS data centres in Canada draw from a regional electricity grid that is 99 per cent powered by hydro power. Earlier this year Salesforce announced that the company achieved net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and is now providing a carbon neutral cloud for all customers. Salesforce has also committed to reaching 100 per cent renewable energy. AWS’ long-term commitment is to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy usage for its global infrastructure footprint. AWS exceeded its goal of 40 per cent renewable energy by the end of 2016, and it has set a new goal to be powered by 50 per cent renewable energy by the end of 2017. You can find more information on Salesforce’s partnership with AWS here.

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Here are five of the biggest takeaways from the Women’s Leadership Summit:

1. There is no time like the present.

Salesforce co-founder Parker Harris said that while workplace equality is a widespread issue, tech companies need to take a step in the right direction and “set the example.” Arquette emphasized the urgency around the issue, saying: “We really have to look at what’s going on with women in America right now, we can’t wait 50 years.”

2. It comes down to culture.

“In order to make values come to life, you have to be building practices around them,” said Stitch Fix CEO and Founder Katrina Lake. Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff said the company’s intention is “to be an example of great women’s leadership in our industry,” adding, “What you prioritize is what you create.”

3. Parental leave can increase retention.

As a mother of five children, Wojcicki said she was surprised to learn just 12% of women receive paid maternity leave in the private sector and that 25% go back to work after ten days. “We found that having longer maternity leave helped us retain women at [YouTube]. You’re most ready to come back to work when the kids are a little bit older.” Actress and The Honest Company founder Jessica Alba announced that paid parental leave for their employees will increase to 16 weeks as of January 2016.

4. Offer a helping hand.

“Be incredibly kind to yourself and to those around you,” advised CoderDojo CEO Mary Moloney. Wojcicki noted that at most tech companies, the majority of employees are men, and as a result, most of her mentors have been male. “We need men to look at their teams and find out ‘Who are the women I can help get to the next level.’ I’ve worked really hard over the course of my career, but I realize there were men that sponsored me; that gave me that next position. And it’s only because they did that that I’m in this job today.”

5. STEM is for everyone.

“Computer science should be a required course,” said Wojcicki. Actress, model, and app developer Lyndsey Scott added that “letting our kids know that they can learn technology is critical.” European Digital Girl of the Year, 10-year-old Lauren Boyle, summed it up by saying: “Mindsets have to change. I think that the mindset that’s seen is that [technology]’s boring or it’s stupid, but it’s not. It’s actually really cool.”

Missed Marc Benioff’s Dreamforce keynote? Catch up with the free Dreamforce e-book.

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At this year’s Salesforce Connections in New York City, I was honored to lead a panel of three brilliant marketing executives: Gary Briggs, CMO for Facebook; Katie Bisbee, CMO for DonorsChoose.org; and John Osborn, President & CEO for BBDO NY.

Each of these leaders spoke candidly about their vision for the future of marketing and how they’re connecting to customers in new, more personalized ways.

Here were a few of my top takeaways from our conversation. You can also check out the full video.

1. Customers crave transparency and choice. When I asked Katie what the customer journey looks like for their donors, she told me that donors look for two things at every stage of their journey: transparency and choice. As DonorsChoose.org seeks to provide the best philanthropic experience available, they let donors select the individual projects that speak to them.

Even for businesses that aren’t nonprofits, I think every customer wants to feel that their choices are honored, and everyone wants transparency into where their dollars are going. It’s about authenticity — and truly coming to understand and know your customers.

2. Personalize in a way that’s welcomed. Personalization is one of today’s most critical marketing tools. Facebook has played a key role in the personalization revolution with its custom audiences and precise ad targeting.

As Facebook’s CMO, Gary explained that Facebook is more focused than ever on delivering relevant ads and experiences to each individual user. Marketers have the data to deliver the right content to the right customers, and customers increasingly expect that level of personalization. The goal now, Gary told me, should be to target “in a way that’s welcomed, and grow that to the benefit of all customers.”

3. The journey is never over. Using data to build experiences is the mandate of every modern marketer. John talked about the head and the heart of marketing: the head being data, and the heart being storytelling. He said, “Now with technology, we can tell stories in vastly different ways: long form, short form, everything in between.”

Thanks to technology, we can reach people when they want to be reached, on channels they prefer. Of course, that means marketers must constantly earn customers’ respect and the right to contact them. Earning and retaining customers is a constant responsibility.

4. Virtual reality is on the horizon. I asked Gary about emerging trends he believes will become more critical to marketing strategy in the coming months and years. He mentioned Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus Rift and predicted that we’ll see broad-scale adoption of virtual reality in the next three to five years.

“It will start with gaming, but move very quickly to merchandising,” Gary said. I loved the example he shared where one retail store created a virtual shopping experience that looks and feels like a real store. I’m looking forward to seeing more innovation from marketers in the virtual reality space. Is virtual reality on your marketing team’s radar?

5. Video: the trend that’s only growing. John shared that his top emerging marketing trend continues to be video. Although video isn’t a new channel like virtual reality, the way we’re sharing and telling stories with video definitely is new. I’m thinking of the newfound popularity of Meerkat and Periscope, especially, as examples.

John said the way video integrates into platforms like Facebook is truly instrumental in changing the way BBDO NY tells stories on behalf of its clients. Because videos play automatically in Facebook’s News Feed, but without sound, BBDO’s clients strive to make the first few seconds of a video so engaging that customers can’t help but turn on the sound.

6. Email scales. I asked for Katie’s thoughts on the idea that email is dead, or less significant to customers these days. She explained that email is still the number-one driver of revenue for DonorsChoose.org, accounting for more than 50 percent of donations this year. Social, by comparison, will drive about 10 percent.

Katie said email is still alive and well for her organization because it “allows us to tell a story, which is so critical in our business . . . Email allows us to personalize our asks to individual people.” I agree with her, and I’m seeing marketers use email as a fully scalable channel that can grow in personalization and journey tracks as your marketing strategy grows.

7. Innovate around the customer. At last year’s Connections, I spoke with Beth Comstock of GE, about the importance of innovation. Innovation was a recurring theme in today’s discussion, too, and John stressed how every innovation should be centered on the customer.

Just like marketers shouldn’t aim for creativity for creativity’s sake, innovation for innovation’s sake isn’t the point. “That service-oriented model has taken hold. If you look across the swath of clients we serve, I can tell you how they serve their customers or greater community or society at large,” John said. I loved the focus from every member of our panel on service as a key part of the customer experience.

At the end of our discussion, I asked each leader to summarize his or her top priority for the rest of the year in one word. Briggs answered “usefulness,” Bisbee said “communities,” and Osborn chose “serve.” I think these three powerful words can describe Connections: a community of marketers seeking to be useful and of service to their customers.

Lynn Vojvodich is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce.

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That, in a nutshell, helps explain the “Circles of Success” concept we’re bringing to the Salesforce World Tour, which touches down in Toronto on May 14. Although the agenda is filled with keynotes from Salesforce experts and special guests, attendees will have just as many opportunities to talk and share their stories as they will to listen to great business advice.

Spread throughout the day in the event’s breakout sessions, the Circles of Success are moderated discussions with other businesses who are seeking to grow, improve their processes and make their customers happy.

Here are a few things to keep in mind to maximize the benefits of the Circles of Success sessions:

Track and Move the Adoption Needle

Getting the first customer is tough, and building a stable of loyal, repeat business is even tougher. In fact, small and medium-sized businesses can be so busy selling that it becomes difficult to keep track of what’s working and what’s not. Cloud-based software makes that easier of course, but listen for the data points that your peers determined contributed directly to greater sales. What information did they collect? How much data provided useful analysis? What was the process of turning the insight into action? These are all questions to ask, sharing your own experiences as appropriate.

Business Metrics For Success

Part of the power of CRM is being able to know more about your customers than was ever possible before. How are other companies making use of that capability? For example, what has made the difference between a one-off sale and a lifetime customer? How do you calculate the time and money you spend to build deeper relationships with your top customers vs. new prospects? What does true customer satisfaction look like? Also, think about the things which don’t always seem tangible like the morale of our staff. Many firms approach these things very differently. Pick and choose what works for you.

When To Hit The Reboot Button

When technology fails, the first thing experts suggest doing is turning something off, then trying again. Businesses often have to do something similar. One of the best icebreakers for a Circle of Success-style gathering is, “Tell us about the last time you started over on a strategy, a process or a product?” No one likes to talk about their failures, of course, but the smartest people in business understand that assessing the lessoned learned from their challenges – and then passing them on – is an important part of being a leader.

Weathering the Storm of Change Management

Small and medium-sized businesses get used to doing things the same way, just like big businesses do. When the demands of customers require a shift in processes or tools – like moving to cloud computing or communicating through social tools, for instance – the big job may be shifting the organizational culture. Circles of Success can be a place to talk about how to effectively work with teams in difficult situations – or at least deepen your understanding about the potential mistakes to avoid.

Circles of Success are not the only reason to come to the Salesforce World Tour Toronto. Salesforce is bringing the action, excitement, education, and big announcements of Dreamforce to the Allstream Centre in Toronto for free! Experience the Salesforce World Tour in Toronto on Thursday, May 14 and see how to connect with your customers in a whole new way. Register today for a full day of innovation and learning.

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Martha is a career mentor, outspoken supporter of women in business and an advocate for helping lift other professionals while she grows.

We caught up with Martha and asked her three questions about her career in technology and what advice she’d give to others as they pursue their careers in the field. We also asked her about the role volunteering and giving back has played in her career development.

If you could give one piece of advice for young girls thinking about a career in technology, what would it be?

To be consciously competent. By that I mean you need to understand what your strengths and skills are, where you want to go, how you’re going to get there and what challenges you’re ready and willing to tackle in your career. You also have to take a hard look at whether you have a personal support network to help you get there and be pragmatic about the time it might take you to get to your end goal. It’s frequently said that you can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you’re going. People don’t generally make it to leadership positions without a plan, so ensuring you have a clear and well-thought out plan for your career is tantamount.

What’s one technical skill you wish you had and why?

I’d love to have the data and skills of a data scientist. I always say you can’t expect what you’re unable to inspect. We have more and more data available to us than every before and there’s so much we can learn from it. Merging quantitative and qualitative inputs can help tackle not only the toughest problems but also our day-to-day business challenges. Fortunately, with Salesforce’s Analytics Cloud, I don’t have to go back to school to become a data scientist — every business user now has access to analytics like they’ve never before. I think it’s going to be a game-changer.

What types of volunteer activities inspire you and why? What has been your favorite volunteer activity you’ve participated in at Salesforce?

There have always been three important criteria for me when picking a company to work for — quality of people, depth and breadth of the company and its products, and an organization with a soul — I’ve found all three of these in Salesforce. I’m so incredibly proud to work for a company where corporate philanthropy and volunteerism is at the core of our culture. I love that I can also pursue volunteer opportunities that I’m passionate about. I care most deeply about organizations that provide food and shelter for women and children in need around the globe. I volunteered for several months at an international education and cultural exchange organization and I’m a regular volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and Glide Foundation. I also care deeply about helping develop women in business and leadership, and I participate in informal and formal networking with many other professional women at different stages of their careers.

For more best practices on making the most of your career, check out Salesforce’s free eBook: Women in Technology: Make the Most of Your Career

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In that time, I have identified a few key trends in the experiences (and complaints) of women working across the tech industry. Given that it’s Women in Tech month, I thought it would be appropriate to share these 4 ideas for personal and corporate change as a starting point for how we can attract and retain more women in tech.

1. Stop Interrupting

The number one complaint, overwhelmingly, among women leaders in the tech industry is they are darn sick and tired of being interrupted in meetings (and on panels) by their male colleagues. If the culture were such that interrupting was never tolerated, a whole lot more women would stay and be happier every day.

2. Stop Stealing Ideas and Acting Like They Are Your Own

This one is closely intertwined with the first. Almost every woman I know will tell you a story of outlining a great idea in a meeting only to have everyone overlook it. Then, when a few minutes has passed, one of her male colleagues will say the exact same thing and everyone will say, “great idea” as if they’ve never heard it before. This completely undermines women’s motivation to show up or say anything in the next meeting.

3. Stop Valuing “Face Time” Over Real Work

The women I have spoken with frequently tell me that their company has a ‘face time culture’ – the boss seems to overly value seeing your face in the office late at night, early in the morning and on weekends. Since we all know that time at work is not the same as time being productive, this seems like the wrong thing to be valuing. What it does do is allow young, male go-getters – who seem to have nothing better to do than be at work – to shine, even when they are not actually using the work time to do anything productive. Others – particularly moms or people who actually have a life outside of work – get dinged for not staying late, even when they have already gotten their work done.

4. Stop Hiring People Like You and Rewarding Referrals of More of the Same

Part of the reason that there are so many men in the tech industry is that we all prefer to work with people who are a lot like us. We look for and hire people who went to the same school, were in the same fraternity, someone we’ve worked with before or someone who reminds us of us in some way. This tendency is exacerbated when there are generous bonuses offered to people who bring in others to work in the company. This seems like a great hiring and retention strategy but it fosters more and more of the same. If we rewarded people instead for hiring their opposite, we’d see a very different culture being fostered. After all, there is one key thing I learned in business school – if you want to change the culture, change the reward structure.

Think about your own culture. Which of these behaviors are you ignoring, rewarding, or even incentivizing? What’s one step you can take today to make a change?

About the Author

Denise Brosseau is an author, speaker and executive coach. She is the CEO of Thought Leadership Lab where she works with executives and entrepreneurs who want to accelerate their journey from leader to thought leader. She is the author of Ready to Be a Thought Leader? (Wiley 2014) and in 2012, she was recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change. Find her at www.thoughtleadershiplab.com.

Want more on promoting women in technology? Download the free Salesforce e-book:

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Want more data? A study of 200 of the Fortune 500 firms across 40 industries found a 1 per cent improvement in customer satisfaction led to an increase in the firm’s value of approximately $275 million.

The typical business only hears from 4 per cent of its dissatisfied customers. And while 80 per cent of companies rate their customer service as superior, only 8 per cent of customers feel the same.

For every one complaint, an estimated 26 remain silent. Well, not exactly silent. A customer may not file a complaint with a company, but they may spread word of a bad experience to friends and family. The worse the experience, the more people they tell. On average, consumers tell 15 people about their good customer service experiences, and 24 people about their bad experiences. Another survey of 3,600 consumers, located in the U.S. and Canada, revealed that 79 per cent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

This means there is a premium on asking for customer reviews and making them a strategic part of your business—online or offline. Here are four steps to do just that.

1. Ask

Let’s start with the obvious. To get customer reviews, you have to ask. But how?

The mechanics are fairly simple. If you run an online business, create a simple template in your email provider (an autoresponder) that includes a link to your page on the most relevant review site listed below. A week or so after every new sale, send a confirmation email (read CASL implications below). If your business takes place in person, then you can integrate a request-for-review email into your point-of-sale system itself.

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of some of the major review sources, first by industry, then by category.

Service Review Sites by Industry

• Angie’s List – Auto and Home
• Better Business Bureau – Travel, Dining, Auto, Home, and Hospitality
• Bing Local – Dining, Auto, and Home
• Citysearch – Travel, Dining, Auto, and Hospitality
• Demand Force – Home
• Dex Knows – Travel, Dining, Auto, Home, and Hospitality
• DoneRight.com – Auto and Home
• Google My Business – Travel, Dining, Auto, Home, and Hospitality
• Google+ Local/Google Places -Travel, Dining, Auto, Home, and Hospitality
• Home Advisor – Auto and Home
• Insider Pages – Travel, Dining, Auto, Home, and Hospitality
• Judy’s Book – Travel, Dining, Auto, Home, and Hospitality
• MerchantCircle – Dining, Auto, Home, and Hospitality
• Opentable.com – Dining
• Trip Advisor – Travel, Dining, and Hospitality

Product Review Sites by Category

• Amazon – Electronics, Clothes, Books/Movies, Toys, and Other
• Better Business Bureau – Electronics, Clothes, Auto, Books/Movies, Health, Toys, and Other
• Consumer Reports – Electronics, Clothes, Auto, Books/Movies, Health, and Other
• Consumr.com – Electronics, Clothes, Auto, Books/Movies, Health, Toys, and Other
• Dex Knows – Clothes, Auto, Books/Movies, Health, and Other
• Carandriver.com – Auto and Other
• Epinions.com – Electronics, Clothes, Books/Movies, Health, Toys, and Other
• Google+Local / Google Places – Electronics, Clothes, Auto, Books/Movies, Health, and Other
• Yelp! – Clothes, Auto, Health, and Other
• Google My Business – Electronics, Clothes, Auto, Books/Movies, Health, and Other
• Buzzilions.com – Electronics and Other
• CNET.com – Electronics and Other
• Goodguide.com – Clothes, Toys, and Other
• Consumersearch.com – Electronics, Books/Movies, Health, Toys, and Other
• Review Centre – Electronics and Other

Considering most of these sites are free, they’re easily accessible. Once you’ve identified the sites most relevant to your business (check the categories above) create a simple profile page that lists your business, products, and services. Be sure to enter your location for local searches. Then—the most crucial part of the equation—ask for reviews.

Get proactive. Include links to the sites you’re listed at on your business cards, bills, invoices, and in all emails that touch your customers or prospects.

To go beyond quantitative data, such as simple ratings, and really crawl inside your customers’ heads you can also try qualitative data, such as surveys.

Major Survey Providers by Level of Difficulty

• Basic
  • SurveyMonkey
  • Zoomerang
  • SurveyGizmo
  • PollDaddy
• Intermediate
  • Constant Contact
  • FormSite
  • Moodle
• Advanced
  • Qualtrics
  • QuestionPro
  • LimeSurvey
  • Key Survey

When drafting customer surveys, ask both closed and open-ended questions. Closed questions ask for data (quantitative questions about ranking), or they require “yes” or “no” responses. Closed questions are great because they don’t require much from your reviewer. They’re simple, easy to take care of, and quick.

Open questions ask for qualitative feedback. They ask for your customers’ opinions and feelings. Questions such as “What would you tell a friend about our product?” elicit more developed responses.

Once you’ve asked, don’t forget to share your results—not only on your own website and the review sites themselves, but across social media platforms. This is what persuasion expert Robert Cialdini calls “social proof”:

“When people are uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look to those around them to guide their decisions and actions. They especially want to know what everyone else is doing—especially their peers.”

2. Hold Contests and Offer Incentives

But what if no one responds? To increase participation—that is, actually get people to review—you may want to incentivize your customers.

Holding contests for returned surveys is a strategy that is often successfully employed. More notable examples of customer survey contests range from dine-in restaurants to auto part stores.

For example, by using the incentive of a Netflix coupon with a customer survey, a software company saw a 77 per cent increase in click rate and a 326 per cent increase in response rate.

Contests can be held via email by sending announcements with the incentives highlighted. These are great points of contact; instead of selling, your brand is giving away something truly valuable and exciting.

Social media contests can not only generate feedback but amp up the number of likes, follows, and email list subscribers. Facebook contests that aim at information collection have been labeled action-gating. Again, you incentivize information sharing by offering entry into a contest for prizes.

On-site customer reviews come in many forms. In fact, a great way to crowdsource feedback while engaging your niche is to ask for proactive participation in something like a photo-sharing or caption contest. User-submission contests are a powerful two-for-one. First, you get to run an incentivised contest that engages your audience. Second, you and your audience get real feedback by allowing other visitors to vote on the winner.

Rule of thumb: Offer multiple prizes. The mentality is that multiple smaller prizes increase the odds of winning versus one big prize, which increases the incentive to participate and also the number of responses.

3. Connect Offline and Online Reviews

One major source of confusion over implementing customer reviews comes from the conversion of offline sales to online reviews. In other words, what do you do if the majority of your transactions take place in person rather than online?

The easiest way to connect these offline and online reviews is to gather information about your customers right at the point of sale (POS). To do this, you’ll need a POS system integrated with customer relationship management (CRM) system.

With this kind of combined service, the POS process and review looks like this:

• The customer makes a purchase on location.
• The clerk is prompted to ask for their email.*
• The transaction occurs and a “thank you plus request for feedback” email is sent automatically with a link to the appropriate review site.

*Remember, just asking for an email during POS (without informing a customer what they will be emailed) may not be considered consent according to CASL. Include disclosures when asking for consent—an opt-in needs to be an action that the consumer must take. Include clear steps for unsubscribing in any emails sent and remind customers how their address was acquired. Automation is key, because the sooner the email is sent after the interaction occurs, the higher the likelihood the customer will complete the survey.

4. Provide a Dream Come True Experience

Chances are, middle-of-the-road customers won’t write reviews. The fringes do. This means both ends: the people who aren’t happy with your company and the people who love your company. Bottom line: The majority of respondents are the extremes. These people either genuinely love what a company has done, or they can’t stand it.

To create a dream-come-true experience, tell yourself a story. Start with the end in mind: If I were one of my customers, what is the best possible outcome? What would be an amazing payoff? What would make me want to share my experience with my friends? What would make me say “wow!”?

Then, think of all the ingredients that add up to that ending. For instance:

• The product does exactly what it says it does.
• Any trouble with the product was dealt with by a real person who I could contact immediately.
• The product arrived on time and undamaged.
• The product was shipped and tracked automatically.
• The product shipped free.

The point isn’t to create satisfied customers, but rather, raving fans.

Go Get ‘Em

To supercharge both your online and offline sales by collecting customer reviews, follow these four steps:

How to Get Customer Reviews

1. Ask.
2. Use contests and incentives.
3. Translate offline sales into online reviews at the point of sale.
4. Provide a dream come true experience.

Remember, your customers will talk about you. No comment isn’t an option. So, what do you want them to say and how will you get them to say it?

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Large organizations can often struggle to serve their customers and miss opportunities to grow in part because they lose track of all the data about sales transactions across a slew of different departments. That’s what has made customer relationship management (CRM) so essential, but in many cases, CRM has been deployed by large firms to solve problems long after they began. Startups, on the other hand, may lack the scale and resources of an enterprise but have the benefit of launching their business with a clean slate, at least from a data perspective.

Much like their counterparts in Silicon Valley, Canadian entrepreneurs often talk about the importance of thinking “mobile-first” in terms of how they create products for customers. When they think about how they’ll run their business in the future, though, they might be better to think “CRM-first” — and that doesn’t mean simply using CRM:

Build CRM Into Your Business Plan

Startups are usually too busy trying to get their product or service off the ground to imagine what will happen when and if they are truly successful. Thinking “CRM-first,” however, is a way of being better prepared for growth. As a story on VentureBeat suggested, it’s best to figure out when you’re truly ready to begin selling, what kind of repeatable sales process you’ll have and what kind of data will be useful. Don’t count on a spreadsheet to scale easily alongside your business.

Make CRM A Company Value Employees Will Embrace

Startups are great because they’re often composed, at least initially, of small teams that can work more quickly and flexibly than those in large, bureaucratic organizations. The pitfall is that a lot of details can fall through the cracks — like customer prospects or action items to keep existing customers happy. Venture Accelerator Partners recommends even startups with less than 10 employees use CRM to better capture and capitalize on this kind of data.

Transform CRM Into A Marketing And Collaboration Tool

CRM is not just about cross-selling and following up on leads. As CrazyAboutStartups notes in ‘8 Use Cases for Connecting Search Marketing and CRM,’ entrepreneurs can use the tools more strategically to get a more holistic view of customers that results in more relevant campaigns. This is particularly important for startups who are far from being a household name in their target sector, and for whom every marketing dollar spent is another dollar not being invested in other parts of their business.

Let CRM Help Your Startup When It Pivots

Many entrepreneurs start out with one kind of company and then discover they need to switch gears, enter a new market or revamp their product and service portfolio entirely. As TechCrunch points out, it has even happened to major companies like Twitter and Pinterest. Startups call this a “pivot,” and it’s a lot easier to do when you have all your critical sales and marketing data in one place. CRM can also help ensure nothing’s lost when staff abruptly leave a startup, and provide a way of managing all the critical contacts — venture capitalists, accelerator programs and more — that will help them continue to make good decisions.

For more ideas, download Salesforce’s free eBook, How a CRM Solution Helps Small Businesses.

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According to a report published in March by the Information and Communications Technology Council of Canada (ICTC), the rise of cloud computing, mobile devices, analytics and apps has forced many companies to rethink the talent they need to succeed. In fact, the report projects that within just four years, businesses across the country will be struggling to fill a collective 18,000 jobs or more.

Unfortunately, not all firms have human resources departments who can make these hires a priority.

“While building a healthy talent supply through education and training is a key focus in Canada, the lead-time to staff and train critical positions is a challenge for many industries, especially SMEs (small and medium enterprises),” the ICTC report says.

Of course, having this kind of data is a helpful first step towards preparing for the future, as are the growing number of educational programs at Canadian post-secondary schools to develop the next-generation workforce. However there is a lot more small and medium-sized businesses in Canada can do today to make sure they’ll be able to attract the kind of skills they will require tomorrow:

Think of every job as an ‘IT’ job: While the ICTC report highlights programmers, computer technicians and database analysts as the most in-demand jobs of the near future, a lot of other roles in companies today rely on technology, from sales reps to marketers. The more familiar they are with the use of mobile apps, cloud-based services and how to analyze data, the better they’ll be able to work with technology professionals and explain their specific needs.

Think beyond traditional assumptions about gender and technology: Like many professions, women have historically been under-represented in technology careers, and the looming worker shortage may only make matters worse. The solution starts with recognizing that not all technology professionals are going to be former video game-playing teenage boys but an increasing number of young women who blend an understanding or interest in solving business problems and a comfort level with smartphones, apps and other digital tools.

Think young – but also international: As best-selling Canadian author Don Tapscott first observed, today’s Millennials have “grown up digital.” That means creating internships or co-op roles for younger workers could be the first step in gaining IT expertise while also providing valuable business experience to new recruits. There are also a number of new Canadians who bring technology skills from overseas who haven’t found a place to apply them. Explore mentoring or “bridging” programs that give this talent a way to prove themselves in a competitive market while easing future hiring woes.

If the value of technology talent isn’t immediately obvious, Canadian SMBs should explore how technology can make them more competitive with even the largest firms in their industry or sector. To find out more, download Salesforce’s free eBook, Best Practices To Grow Your Business.

The post How Canadian Business Can Avoid The Hiring Crunch That’s Coming appeared first on Salesforce.

It’s not a trick question. Your answer is as good as mine. But if either team manages to find some leads, it won’t have been nearly as many as if both teams had worked together.

“Marketing and Sales Alignment.” We’ve all heard of it. It can sound too theoretical or too challenging to implement. But I can tell you that at Vidyard, it isn’t a “nice to have”, it’s a “need to have.” In fact, sales and marketing alignment helped Vidyard grow by more than 1000% between 2012 and 2014.

That growth was the topic of a previous Salesforce case study, where we discussed how we utilize the Salesforce platform to improve efficiencies and customer service. Automation and CRM tools are only a part of the bigger picture of marketing and sales alignment. At Vidyard, we look at the “What,” the “How,” and the “Who” to keep these two teams in sync and on the road to continued growth and success.

The What: Aligned Objectives and Reporting

Traditionally, Marketing and Sales have been set up to run independently of each other. Marketing does what it needs to do to produce a large volume of leads, which it then passes off to Sales. Sales is measured by how many deals it closes. If Marketing produces a high number of leads and Sales teams are expert at closing leads, why then have these teams so often not been able to meet their goals? Something is broken here.

The buyer mentality has changed. Now, at least 70 percent of the sales cycle is completed before the buyer even contacts the seller, according to Sirius Decisions. Buyers are accessing content, data, and peer networks to self-service their needs, which in effect means that Marketing is making the first sales call. Sales has never needed Marketing more, and it has never been more imperative that Marketing knows exactly what Sales needs to close the deal. Marketing needs to know what buyers’ interests and pain points are so that Sales receives better leads, not simply more leads.

At Vidyard, the “What” means that both Marketing and Sales work together to align their objectives on qualified opportunities, pipeline, and revenue. We call this aligned team “Smarketing,” and both sides of it are measured on their actual impact on the business.

The How: Aligned Profiling, Processes, and Programs

Now both Marketing and Sales know they’re accountable for qualified leads, opportunities, pipeline, and revenue. So how we do we implement this unified goal?

Both Marketing and Sales need to be part of the conversation when defining what the ideal prospect looks like. They need to work together on creating ideal customer profiles and defining buyer personas, target markets, and related value propositions. At Vidyard, these definitions are continually refined, and the Sales team’s input is sought when doing so.

Once both teams know what we’re looking for, we work to be able to identify those prospective customers. Marketing and Sales collaborate on lead scoring methodologies, and what actions should trigger conversion from one stage of the funnel to the next. That includes the weighted value of different digital interactions and marketing program responses.

Both teams have a clear understanding of who the customer is, and what they might look like at different stages. Our teams have also created a unified “revenue engine,” which outlines the lead-to-revenue process and what information Sales needs from Marketing when a lead is flipped. If a lead is flipped too early, the process is reconsidered and realigned.

To remain aligned throughout the process, Marketing cannot simply “flip and go.” Where the traditional funnel began with Marketing and was quickly transitioned to Sales, now both teams work together throughout the cycle to make sure not only that the Marketing team’s leads are stronger, but that Sales receives the support they need from Marketing through programs and processes.

Using the right tools to their fullest also ensures Vidyard’s Sales and Marketing teams are aligned. We link our marketing automation with our Salesforce CRM, which provides a single view into all of a customer’s interactions with us. When both teams know exactly how a lead is engaging with us, they can respond accordingly, whether with further, targeted nurturing, or with related sales conversations.

According to Sirius Decisions, other than better leads, Sales’ top two requests from Marketing are programs that they can launch themselves, and programs that accelerate their pipeline. At Vidyard, the Sales team utilizes a variety of automated nurture streams set up for them by the Marketing team, enabling them to keep existing opportunities warm while focusing their energy on other accounts. Our Sales people also have the ability to quickly create their own custom videos, send them to a prospect, and receive detailed metrics as soon as that prospect watches the video. Simple tools and processes like these can go a long way to increasing sales effectiveness and improving funnel velocity.

The Who: Living Marketing and Sales Alignment

Sales and Marketing Alignment remains only a theory if a company’s people don’t buy into it. Alignment needs to be a part of the culture, and putting it into action starts from the top down. At the executive level, Marketing needs to be recognized for being as vital to revenue generation as Sales, and Sales must be given all the necessary opportunities to enable Marketing to generate the best leads possible.

On the individual level, both teams need to develop and maintain strong working relationships, and consider the input of their peers. There is a Sales presence at Vidyard’s weekly Marketing meetings, for example. A champion of the process can also help keep the alignment on track. That person at Vidyard is the Director of Demand Generation and Revenue Operations, but this role could be filled by someone in Marketing Operations or Sales Operations as well. We’ve seen other organizations add a full-time “Sales Liaison” role to their marketing team as a way to facilitate this alignment and the continuous exchange of information and feedback between the two groups.

Marketing and Sales Alignment isn’t just a “nice to have.” It can have a significant impact on your company’s growth, as it has here at Vidyard. Forrester Research has indicated that aligned organizations achieve an average of 32% annual revenue growth while less aligned companies report an average 7% decline in revenue. The numbers are there, and the tools and strategies are available to create this kind of alignment today. Just remember that the solution doesn’t just lie in people, processes or technology; it requires focused attention on all three areas and a disciplined approach to objective setting and performance management.

About the Author

Michael Litt is the CEO and co-founder of Vidyard, a video marketing platform helping marketers measure the impact of their video content. Thought leader, surfer, and serial entrepreneur, Michael is passionate about content marketing and changing the way we engage and purchase with video. Chat with Michael on Twitter @MichaelLitt or LindIken to learn more.

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