Artifical Intelligence and the $1.2 Trillion Dollar Heist - Using salesforce.com to Dominate and Disrupt Your Market

Imagine that you are at the helm of a business that has been dominating in the industry for 35+ years. Profits are predictable and have been steady at 2.5% growth year after year until the 2nd quarter when you notice that your net new business has fallen off by 85%. You decide to dig to determine the cause of the loss and what factors lead to missing out on the new logos.

The first thing you do is bring in your VP of Sales to discuss the details of the last quarter only to find out that the sales managers are struggling to control the renewals and have not had time to focus on prospecting. The fact that renewals are consuming the majority of the sales professionals time should be a sign that your competition has gained ground and that your customer service is lagging behind in their follow up. Has your VP of Sales noticed any kick back on price with regards to the renewals? He confirms what you feared, that the business has had to discount almost every renewal to keep from losing the client to a new smaller agile competitor.

This scenario is playing out across the country in boardrooms, and corner offices as industries are being disrupted and dismantled by those companies focused on smarter ways of doing business. Artificial intelligence tools are being used today in small ways that make a huge difference in how your customer, client, and most importantly your employees view your level of support for them.

What steps and processes are you as the #CEO, #COO, or #CIO going to use to correct this looming revenue issue? Do you have the data and the tools needed to make the decisions required? If you have a #CRM system that is being used, then you are one step ahead of most. However, if you are not currently tracking each step of the customer journey you are leaving valuable information out there for your competitors to use to steal your business.

Salesforce.com is the cloud based solution that allows you to view that data quickly as an executive dashboard. These dashboards show the current state of business and all steps needed in forecasting. Dashboards allow the c-suite and managers to analyze all data and react quickly to changes in sales and marketing. Understanding how everything is tied together will allow for an agile form of management and keep the WTF moments from sneaking up like this scenario.

Modern artificial intelligence uses both categorized and uncategorized data along with machine learning to automate decisions and cut time, effort, and money needed to complete a task. This time savings leads to quicker more informed sales support and customer service.

IBM's Watson is the most advanced AI platform when it comes to using the vast amount of uncategorized data. Watson will forecast multiple factors such as the weather and historical business data to deliver accurate information back to the staff in need. Salesforce's Einstein allows you to use all the categorized data in your CRM to automate basic functions like sales marketing and account management. These two unique AI engines can be harnessed using Bluewolf, an IBM company, as the SFDC strategic partner of choice. Bluewolf will advise, develop, and deliver the solutions to take your business to the next level using salesforce.com and the latest and greatest AI tools.

If you are interested in learning more about this type of innovation, reach out to me or Bluewolf and let us share our vast expertise in how to be a leader using Salesforce.com and Artificial Intelligence.

Andy C. Sanderson

Client Advisor - TOLA

Bluewolf, an IBM Co.

[email protected]