presenting

“You Had Me At Hello @FirstRain”

Letters to Marc Benioff

From The Desk Of

You Had Me at Hello

Hi Marc

Three minutes into my story, the SVP of Sales of one of the world’s biggest software companies said: “You had me at hello.” It was an instant connection—he grokked the value of each sales person truly understanding his customer’s business. Magical. Something I am sure you have experienced yourself!

What he saw was that for the first time ever, his sales and marketing people can get intelligence about their customer’s business, tuned to their strategy, so everyone can be as knowledgeable as his superstars.

There is no reason anymore that every one of your customers can’t easily understand their customer’s customer, their markets, the forces shaping their decisions. That’s how “You Had Me at Hello.” happens.

Dorothy

This tumblr is for you. So every one of your customers can be as smart about their customers as the top 5%. They’re coming to DreamForce (who isn’t!?) Dreamforce is over now - they believe in you - and they want that magical experience too.

Looking forward to #DF123!

Penny

p.s. Want your team to really grok your best customers? Drop me a line.

September 23
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Hi Marc Wonderful keynote with Sir Richard last week! But could you please make contact with Jeff Smisek—he really needs your help. I know running the world’s largest airline can’t be easy, but Jeff needs your social enterprise to have a prayer of managing the United brand and customer engagement. Analyzing the intelligence on their business is the opposite of a Tony Robbins seminar. Considering buying oil refineries, killing dogs, losing my bag tonight… there’s no hope for them but the Marketing Cloud to respond to their customer’s concerns. Yes I’m mad tonight, and 5 minutes on FirstRain analyzing their business told me the sales pitch I’d use if I were you wanting to get Jeff’s attention! Time for a scotch! Penny p.s. You can analyze any customer’s business lines and challenges in an instant. Check out how.

Hi Marc

Wonderful keynote with Sir Richard last week! But could you please make contact with Jeff Smisek—he really needs your help.

I know running the world’s largest airline can’t be easy, but Jeff needs your social enterprise to have a prayer of managing the United brand and customer engagement. Analyzing the intelligence on their business is the opposite of a Tony Robbins seminar. Considering buying oil refineries, killing dogs, losing my bag tonight… there’s no hope for them but the Marketing Cloud to respond to their customer’s concerns.

Yes I’m mad tonight, and 5 minutes on FirstRain analyzing their business told me the sales pitch I’d use if I were you wanting to get Jeff’s attention!

Time for a scotch!

Penny

p.s. You can analyze any customer’s business lines and challenges in an instant. Check out how.

September 23
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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!

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.

Wolves

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!

September 19
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Marc Benioff - Vampire Hunter! Hi MarcWe’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!Pennyp.s. Knowing your customer’s business is like a wooden stake - it works every time.

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.

September 18
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Hi Marc

Well my team is a just a tad excited about Dreamforce. I am sure you can understand.

So excited that they put together a video of the S**t Dreamforcers Say!

Enjoy!

Penny

p.s. Track any one of these aspiring young actors down at DF12 and they’ll tell you about how FirstRain customer intelligence is the bomb for your enterprise sales team.

September 13
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From The Desk Of

BYOD: The Times They Are A-Changin’

Brother

You asked yesterday how many of the #TCDisrupt audience were on LSD. That crowd probably thought you said LCDs, but even so, they are making a revolution aren’t they?

This time it’s the BYOD revolution your man Bruce Francis is blogging about. As the poet said:

Bob Dylan

   Come gather ‘round people
   Wherever you roam
   And admit that the waters
   Around you have grown
   And accept it that soon
   You’ll be drenched to the bone
   If your time to you
   Is worth savin’
   Then you better start swimmin’
   Or you’ll sink like a stone
   For the times they are a-changin’.

Your customers and mine, CIOs of the worlds largest companies like Dell’s Adriana Karaboutis, are getting drenched and learning how to swim.

It’s a revolution man

Penny

p.s. You can sing the song your customers want to hear if you understand how their business is a-changin’

September 12
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From The Desk Of

Why crash diets don’t work

Marc

Serious subject here. Dieting! But since you’re not a teenage girl subject to the US media maybe it’s not something you obsess about… but in case you’ve tried it… crash dieting doesn’t work!

Great blog post from Seth Grodin on dieting and sales today - did you see it?

He’s right: “[Diets] don’t work for losing weight, they don’t work for making sales quota” and “If you want to make sales quota, get in the habit of making more sales calls, learning more about your market and generally showing up.”

He sure is right about learning more about your market! It’s like eating more fruit and vegetables, just as effective!

waistline

Back to my broccoli,

Penny

p.s. Rainmakers help sales teams get healthy with more fruit and vegetables

August 21
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