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INSIGHTS

Above the Funnel No More

The conventional sales funnel exceeded its usefulness a long time ago, roughly when the Internet gave us the ability to gather our own information about vendors, products and services. Without having to contact a salesperson, individuals and businesses could eliminate the middleman. The result was s...

INSIGHTS

Digital Disruption Pathways

Digital transformation means a lot of things to different people, but if you do it right it should be virtually unique to your circumstance. The other day I caught up with Rip Gerber, CMO at Vlocity, the Salesforce partner that specializes in vertical industries like telecommunications and insurance...

In the last decade or so, the inability or unwillingness to adapt has caused many businesses to succumb to a newer, more innovative company, or one that has re-thought how to do business in the digital age. For example, people who can remember browsing the aisles of Borders likely understand the iro...

EXPERT ADVICE

How E-Commerce SMBs Can Step Up Sales Engagement

"Sales engagement" is not a new concept, but the premise around its application has matured over the last few years. So, what is it? If you want the TL;DR version, it's the process of engaging with new sales opportunities quickly and persistently, with a cadence designed to connect, using multiple c...

EXPERT ADVICE

Dialing Up CRM: Harnessing the Power of Voice

Until fairly recently, industry pundits had all but written off voice as a customer engagement channel. Considering there were more than 100 billion inbound calls via mobile devices alone in 2018, the past year has proven them wrong. There has been an incredible resurgence of voice as the new UI of ...

Many people would like to know the ingredients of the secret sauce that will get their Twitter and LinkedIn follower lists to grow. I have tried some things that proved successful. I have learned from other successful users as well. Here are a few ideas that have worked for me. First, here's an upda...

Data science has become mission-critical to many enterprises. Internet Advertising Bureau projections indicate that companies in the United States will spend billions on third-party audience data in 2018 and even more on third-party solutions to use that data as they move toward becoming model-drive...

With the holidays approaching, many resellers may think it's too late to set up or expand their marketplaces to take advantage of the holiday rush. That is not the case. If you leverage the right technology, you can accelerate the process of setting up your marketplace from weeks to hours, and never...

Many brick-and-mortar shops have been expanding their business to the online realm. It's no wonder why, considering global retail e-commerce sales are expected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2021. However, brands making the move first need to consider the differences between brick-and-mortar and e-commer...

EXPERT ADVICE

7 Priceless E-Commerce Tips for Small Businesses

From big companies to small-town mom-and-pop shops to "mompreneurs" working from home, e-commerce is the key to keeping revenue streams flowing and businesses afloat. In fact, e-commerce is really the only way for you to ensure your business' longevity these days, especially if you are a small retai...

Where does the discipline of CRM begin? We have a good idea where the software fits, but where does its impact end? With a sale? With a customer saying good things about your company to other customers? With a repeat purchase? And does CRM contribute to these events alone, or is there a web of other...

There could be as much as a 22 percent increase in holiday sales this season, based on industry analyst predictions. The 2018 U.S. retail e-commerce season will reach $123.4 billion, up from $106.14 billion in 2017, according to Statista's estimates. If you are a small business retailer, these numb...

EXPERT ADVICE

Harnessing Video for Customer Advocacy

Video and marketing are a perfect fit. However, your company can find a multitude of other uses for video elements that will expand the scope of your video infrastructure and simplify and augment many facets of your business.

INSIGHTS

Turning a Corner in CRM

For the last 20 years, CRM has occupied a preeminent niche in enterprise software. It has been the hip, up-and-coming solution in the front office, brimming with innovation and new approaches to some difficult problems that go back a long way. CRM applied basic database technology to a business' cha...

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