Marc!

Your keynote this morning is terrific, but you said that you were invited to Crotonville to present to Jeff’s top 40 and you were intimidated because GE is such a big, diverse business…from locomotives to aircraft engines… so you arranged a private meeting with Jeff Immelt in advance to prep!

Poor lamb, I am so sorry! Had I known I would have made sure you had access to FirstRain inside the sales cloud!

Imagine how hard it is for your customers selling to GE’s many businesses. Your solution just would not work for most of them, Jeff doesn’t have the time to meet with every CEO and every major account sales rep does he?

Every sales rep can relate to the challenge you faced… how to quickly understand, analyze and stay on top of your customer’s business — by business line — when the customer has multiple, complex businesses and markets.

But now you can have the vision and understanding to be in the pack with your customer, protecting and growing their business.

Aaahhoooooo!

Penny

p.s. I am on stage with GE Capital tomorrow morning, and the challenge you faced is just one of the problems we solve with FirstRain. Join us!

Marc Benioff - Vampire Hunter!

Hi Marc

We’re on edge waiting for your keynote tomorrow at DF12. You are going to save us from the social media vampires! Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… They suck our time and our attention onto cute kittens and political posts from friends-who-are-no-longer-friends-because-they’ve-“liked”-Paul-Ryan and, according to Anxiety UK we are now anxious if we are away from them.

You, like Abraham Lincoln, have realized they are planning to take us over, and you are going to stop them!

You’re going to tell us our work life is now social so they can’t suck our blood any more. Thank you!! Now we can stay focused, never get distracted from the higher purpose of Revenue, and our every productive relationship is captured in your database. No more blood suckers taking us away from our customers.

Hail to the Chief!

Penny

p.s. Knowing your customer’s business is like a wooden stake - it works every time.

Dr. Marc

So you want to connect with cars!? Is this like the Dry Bones song?

“The heel bone connected to the foot bone. The foot bone connected to the ankle bone…”

True connectivity with your customer’s business and product lines takes intelligence, and not just the brainy kind. Patrick’s joined you from a Europe-Japan alliance. Does he know it takes a doctor’s scalpel to extract true business intelligence on the US car industry and the market trends that are impacting their product strategy? Talk about a noisy industry!

Ouch!

Penny

p.s. Want the precision surgery kit to dissect and understand the internals of your customers business the way your strategy needs to see it? Tweet me @pennyherscher

Hi Marc

Did you watch TV over the weekend? Hope it wasn’t as scary as your customer DirecTV’s new arrangement with Viggle.

They’re teaming up to provide rewards to DirecTV viewers playing with the Viggle app on their second screen while watching TV. Have you talked with Viggle about how you monitor social media in the second screen experience? Or are apps like Viggle going to suck little girls into their networks so you can’t see them anymore?

Back to the couch,

Penny

p.s. It’s scary not to have intelligence about your customers business at your fingertips these days.

Hi Marc,

Did you see Ellen Kullman’s grand scheme? Food, fuel and safety… of course it’s about business… but long term growth for your early customer (and your footprint there) means getting kids into STEM!

“A lot of my children’s friends, I’ll talk to them and I’ll say, “Have you considered engineering?” “Well, what’s that?” Kids have to see engineering as a great career opportunity.”

She’s certainly having fun steering DuPont into electronics - now that’s an interesting idea!

Penny

p.s. Want the raw materials to easily study your customers?

Photograph by Brian Grieme for Bloomberg Businessweek

Hey Marc

It’s 8pm and you’re entertaining your customer—but if you don’t have something to talk about, even the best martini can’t help you.

Your guy Scott Keane knows this. Tip#4 of his post 10 Tips to Up Your Sales Game

Have a conversation - Who wants to sit and listen to someone talk about how great they are? The answer is “no one”, in case you’re wondering. With that in mind, don’t sell or “pitch” your product. Make conversations about the person you’re speaking with, and learn about them first, then about their company or issues.

That martini sure tastes better when you can share your customer’s perspective doesn’t it.

Join me for a drink one day to talk about your business?

Penny

p.s. Your customer’s martinis can all taste better with FirstRain.