Want to Automate Like a Pro & Charm Like a Human?

This week on Funnel Frontier: Einstein your CRM & ditch the reply guy for genAI. Learn how to elevate customer experiences from automated responses to personalized engagements.

This week:

• Einstein’s mind palace (via Salesforce)

• Reply guy vs GenAI (via Freshworks)

• Exiting the data doldrums (via monday.com)

• SaaS sales star power (via Capsule)

• Automating alpha-ness (via EngageBay)

Stat of the Week 

The SMB segment of CRM is projected to grow at a 15.5% CAGR from 2024 to 2030. (Grand View Research)

Inside Einstein’s studio, thinking great thoughts (via Salesforce)

Once again, everyone’s favorite theoretical physicist from Ulm is in the news.

Ta-da. Salesforce just released Einstein 1 Studio, a low-code toolkit that’s theoretically great for physicizing CRM customizations.

Imagine a universe where Salesforce admins and developers wield the power to tailor AI across any app or workflow. With Einstein 1 Studio, the idea is that crafting custom AI actions will be as easy-peasy as zero-gravity milk runs.

It’s got three major modules:

• Copilot Builder for custom AI actions

• Prompt Builder for custom prompts for workflows

• Model Builder for building and importing AI models

Fueled by Data Cloud's galaxy of customer insights, the toolkit aims to ensure every AI model is as sharp as the rings of Saturn.

Salesforce is tipping Trailhead as the place for space cadets to get their AI wings—they say over 6 million folks have logged in since summer 2023, and 1 million have earned AI badges. 

AI not so hard. So, ditch the PhD in rocket science and turn that minor in charm into your Double Major?

The Week @ CRM.org

Mind Mapping Software. Remember when brainstorming was just a whiteboard and stale dip? 

Freshsales CRM Review. Promising to keep your sales fresher than a newly discovered planet, ensure the features align with your mission. Updated for 2024.

CRM for Small Business. SMB CRM doesn't just do contacts. It's a loyal pet that fetches leads and rolls over tasks without chewing up your budget.

Google Sheets CRM Templates. Like navigating the stars with a map drawn on a napkin—surprisingly effective!

Weekly Bloom

Patagonia’s Customers and the Environmental Ethos. Wearing Patagonia can make you feel like you've saved a penguin or two. Here’s why.

Reply guy vs. GenAI (via Freshworks)

Remember the dark ages of the customer support space, when you'd scream into the void about a refund, only to be coldly escorted to "terms and conditions”?

The interstellar nightmares… are over. 

A piece over at the Economic Times says that AI customer support is getting better, getting adopted, and getting that sweet, sweet money.

And hey, CRM stalwart Freshworks features in the article. It seems their Freddy Copilot GenAI platform has saved $94,000 “in the first year of implementation for a B2C enterprise retail customer”—a 187% ROI. 

Priya Subramani, VP at Freshworks, says, “for our customers, the impact is tangible, with a significant reduction in ticket resolution time by 54% and an impressive 58% improvement in response times on average using Freddy Copilot.” 

Meta WhatsApp is a notable early flag-planter of AI customer support that people don’t hate. But the real Mission to Mars is coming: website and in-app chat support where the vendor owns the channel. 

So strap in because the future of customer care is generative.

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

The dark matter of data doldrums (via monday.com)

Fasten your seatbelts and prepare to enter the world of data enrichment, where mundane customer info undergoes a transformation worthy of a Vincent Price sci-fi flick. 

Think of data enrichment as the 21st century upgrade your CRM needs—something that makes it less of a space junk collector and more of a Hubble Telescope of customer insights. 

We're talking about adding everything from demographic dilithium crystals to geographic warp drives and even behavioral photon torpedoes. Real firepower to target your marketing campaigns like never before (pew pew…). 

Data enrichment can beam up all those missing pieces of information. But there's a dark side to this exospheric journey that needs taming—the black hole of data cleansing, where outdated and duplicate data is sucked into oblivion, never to mislead your marketing strategies again.

Enrich yourself more here.

When you wish upon a star [of SaaS sales] (via Capsule)

Ah yes, SaaS sales, a game-world where navigating the stars of lead generation, product demos, and closing deals requires more finesse than “faking the moon landing.”

Your mission is to conquer the final frontier of predictable income. In this quest, eminent entities like Zoom and Slack have planted their flags on the distant planets of success. Meanwhile, 30,000+ SaaS companies are out there chasing the same glory.

But beware, space-fellow, for this journey is fraught with plot-enriching adversaries, like lengthy sales cycles and alien concepts like MQLs and SQLs.

Your arsenal? A toolkit brimming with email campaigns, social media probes, and the almighty CRM, your trusty navigation system guiding you through the asteroid field of customer acquisition.

More sweet somethings about SaaS sales here.

Automation adventure (via EngageBay)

Are you ready to blast off into the cosmos of sales and marketing automation, where mundane tasks get sent on a one-way trip to the sun, like in that Simpsons episode?

You are? Great news! Here are a few tips:

• Know your audience

• Have clear objectives

• Know your customer journey front-to-back

• Segment your audience

• Make engaging content

• Make sure to invest in marketing analytics 

When automation goes well, it helps you leap across vast distances in personalization at the speed of light. Automation strategy needs to evolve with customer needs. 

The cosmic ballet goes on. 

Engage more automation with EngageBay.

Galactic Gourmet

CRM blips from around the web

New CTO for Capsule CRM. It’s Anna Dick, formerly of Hiring Hub, BBC, and Lunio. Outgoing CTO Philip Haines (also Capsule co-founder) will move to a non-executive role.

SugarCRM clinches Best Loyalty Management Platform at 2024 CX Awards. The global awards, held by CX Today, honored the vendor for the third year in a row (in 2022 and 2023, SugarCRM was named Best CRM Platform).

Tracker RMS expands into Australia and New Zealand. The cloud recruitment, application tracking, and CRM software vendor moves into ANZ to follow up success in other regions. 

Astronomical Assets

Significant Stock Moves from Last Week

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