CRM Hitchhiking, AI Apprehensions

This week on Funnel Frontier: Marketers, AI, & the fear of the unknown, CRM's latest roadshow, and the secrets of affiliate success. 

This week:

• AI scary (via Iterable)

• The hitchhiker’s guide to the CRM roadshow (via Pipeliner)

• Affirmative affiliates (via monday.com)

• KPI kryptonite (via Capsule) 

• Newsletter nebulae (via EngageBay)

Stat of the Week 

Zoho’s embedded analytics and BI offered 20% time savings to analysts, indicating that analytics tailored to proprietary data have real value. (Nucleus Research)

In space, no one can hear you be scared of AI (via Iterable)

Planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing AI can’t do? 

A new report commissioned by Iterable finds AI stirs a healthy mix of fear and opportunism among marketers.  

1,200 marketing managers/directors were surveyed: 99% are already on board the good spaceship AI, but only 48% really know how to drive. 

49% had The Fear™, worrying about keeping up with the space Joneses or getting blasted by new regulations. A mighty 89% of marketers were “at least somewhat concerned” about staying relevant in the AI era. 

And AI’s ROI? It’s like a meteor shower—many see a dazzling display of efficiency (51%) while a tiny group runs around trying to dodge the rocks. 

But for those brave enough to ride the rocket, AI is not just an automaton; it's a creativity booster, a stress buster, and a ticket to dream those cool guy dreams.

The Week @ CRM.org

Free CRM. Cosmic freebies—a good start, and a good way to avoid all that space junk.

Weekly Bloom

Jobs-to-be-Done Theory. Innovating is like zapping a bullseye in an earthquake. With Jobs-to-Be-Done, you've got a steadier aim.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to “Open to Close Roadshow” (via Pipeliner)

Imagine Easy Rider, but for CRM. Yes, it’s Pipeliner CRM's six-city Open to Close roadshow! 

In this Apollonian mission of sales, they’ll be zipping between Houston to Los Angeles faster than a Mars Attacks-style UFO, discussing everything from “Multithreading”  to “AI & Automation.”

Yes, think of Peter Fonda, but instead of spreading 60s counterculture ideals, he’s convincing the galaxy to buy stuff.

Pipeliner's CEO, Nikolaus Kimla, will be Captain Kirk-ing for CRM. Kimla says the sales landscape is evolving so fast it's like trying to sell smart monoliths to the apes from Space Odyssey (more-or-less).

And the panelists, gee willikers! There’s Trevor “the Revenue Rocketeer” Goldsmith and Frank “The Harvard Hover-er” Cespedes. 

A true gathering of the sales stellaris, laser-tagging their way through the neon smokescreen of B2B sales. 

Perhaps this roadshow's the intergalactic map you need? 

General attendance is open to anyone who fits this bill: “B2B Leaders and Executives, Sales & Business Development Leaders, and those with responsibility for maximizing revenue and sales team performance.”

Scope the sweep of shows and register here

Stellar Strategies: Tips & Tricks for Sales, Marketing & Service

Affirmative affiliates (via monday.com)

Ah, the Andromeda of affiliate management.

E-commerce sales are a whopping 16% in the US and Canada. So, if you're planning to peddle worldly wares along the Information Superhighway, you’ve gotta get your affiliate game on point.

Affiliate management is like playing captain, except where your crew (aka affiliates) are WFH-ing across the universe, promoting your products for a slice of the planetary pie (commission, that is). 

Of course, affiliates can be anyone from interstellar influencers to cosmic content creators.

But, hey now, you better have a rockin’ good strategy.

Some marketing metrics to metabolize: 

• Revenue

• Conversion rate 

• Average order value

• Commission percentage

• ROI 

• Revenue per affiliate

• Fraud rate

More tips here.

Keeping away KPI kryptonite (via Capsule)

Please don’t say, “these moments will be lost, like sales KPIs in the rain.” Too pessimistic. 

Actually, there’s plenty to do in 2024 to improve selling. CRM mainstay Capsule teamed up with Plecto (performance metric software) for a tip-toting webinar.

How can sales team success be measured? How often should you review pipelines with sales teams? How do you make sure a pipeline is being managed well?

On these Qs, the panel discussants put forth some pithy peeps. 

We heard real talk of how “results matter,” so you ought to reverse-engineer what’s worked so far. Seems calls made and “people talked to” are just vanity metrics if you’re not getting conversions or appointments. Shots fired. 

Also, any would-be Buzz Aldrin of marketing and sales should be into brand awareness. And then there was that stardust moment—we should be measuring team happiness and sales staff retention.

Feel free to scope the full webinar.

Newsletter nebulae (via EngageBay)

Newsletter subject lines. Either they lure readers with their tantalizing tractor beam, or your content gets blasted out of the airlock. 

In 2024, a staggering 60% of earthlings decided the fate of an email based on the subject line alone. 

How to avoid the void:

• Segment your audience to hit just the right risible resonance. 

• Keep it short and sweet. Like a shooting star, your title should flash for a quick, bright impact (50 characters or less).

• Play the emotion card: yes, that includes FOMO.

• Ask questions: Pique curiosity like an unsolved space mystery.

• A/B Test: Test your subject lines in different galaxies to see which ones shine brightest

And remember, avoid spammy black holes, keep your promises like the North Star, and never, ever make any weird jokes… 

EngageBay has plenty more information on where that came from.

Galactic Gourmet

CRM blips from around the web

CEO of HubSpot will present at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference. Yamini Rangan will speak on Monday, March 4th at 2:55 PM EST (is ‘on-the-hour’ out-of-style?).

SugarCRM makes the Constellation ShortList for Sales Force Automation. Sugar Sell and SugarPredict got them there. More generally, Constellation Research noted how mobile access, AI, machine learning, and automated workflows have become key. 

Wildix is now available on the HubSpot App Marketplace. The unified communications as a service (UCaaS) app integrates with HubSpot CRM and other major CRMs. 

GenAI-powered analytics platform Tableau Pulse has been released. The tool from Tableau (acquired by Salesforce back in 2019) features insights, a mobile app, and Slack Digest for insights on key metrics. 

Pipedrive launches School of Code in Prague. The paid talent-seeking program targets people with little to no tech experience, offering a curriculum based on the Pipedrive tech stack.

Astronomical Assets

Significant Stock Moves from Last Week

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