So the whirlwind-cum-force majeur that was Dreamforce 2016 came and went like it was supposed to – fast and devastatingly good — although most of us would have preferred it a little slower, you know, for the important stuff to really seep into our collective souls. But everybody’s got some business to take care of and so we try to move on, tightly clutching at the memories DF16 left behind, and hoping to put it to good use sooner than later.
Callbox has been to to three editions of Dreamforce and I personally have been to the last two, and each year tries to one-up the year before it. Really, it’s like a Comic-Con of sales and marketing and tech geeks. There was no shortage of experts and specialists and leaders who were either discussing, brainstorming, working, networking, and hoping to make giant strides in their respective organizations with the new ideas they learned and confidence they acquired from being at DF. Yes, all 170,000 of us (sorry, I counted myself in) were there because, come on, where on earth would we rather be for four days? And best part is, the fan in me never gets tired of ogling at even the hundreds of booths showing off all the latest most cutting-edge technologies and software.
Imagine a kid’s first time at Disneyland. That’s me every time I go to Dreamforce. I always make it a point to check out every one of the booths and sort of make a personal review of the stuff I try out.
And every time my time’s over, I never fail to list down the things that leave my jaw on the floor. Here’s a rundown of everything that piqued my interest and made me do a double-take like the time I really thought it was Zac Efron in an Audi R8 driving near Union Square.
There were dozens of Database Management Software on Display, and I’m familiar with (and underwhelmed by) several of them, but there were some that were either too good not to try out or have been flying under the radar for quite some time and just needed the right break.
Marketing’s twin brother, Sales, cannot be taken for granted. We all know these guys are inseparable, and any good marketing software should have an equally efficient sales counterpart.
Marketing and Sales cannot prosper without intelligent lead distribution. Get these software and you won’t need anything else. Thank me later.
- Openprise – A full cleanup, deduping, and segmenting tool using “recipes” which are a set of rules. It provides new insights into data quality and if you’re into data driven tech, it creates significant, measurable impact.
- CRMfusion – Its data cleansing automation tools turn you into an instant hero, at least in the Data management department. And why not? It has the requisite data quality and cleansing toolset in Demandtools, real-time de-duplication with Dupeblocker, importing lists ultimate tool Peopleimport, to name a few.
Related: Easy Tips in Finding and Removing Duplicate Data Using Excel
- Melissadata – You can now spell “simple” through M-E-L-I-S-S-A-D-A-T-A. Now, that’s ironic because doing so actually required more effort, but don’t worry, the software will more than compensate for it. It’s mainly for deduping and correcting data, because, well, E-commerce fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s similar to our very own ContactDB cleanup tool, so I know it’s cool.
- Insidesales (TOP) – The Olympics has Citius, Altius, Fortius – Faster, Higher, Stronger. Insidesales has Sell Faster, Sell Smarter, Sell More. Sounds like a good sales pitch to me. Insidesales help you setup your playbook because it has template playbooks to start with. You can easily match your lead with their database of 100 million contacts, and an advanced algorithm of when to call and when to email. Crazy good.
Related: The Hidden Gems of the Web: Where Can You Get a Good B2B Lead List?
- Conversica – Is a sales AI that automates email conversations with all your leads. Simply put, it does the important stuff for you automatically. Because Artificial Intelligence will help you find your next customer.
- Yesware – The goal is to sell smarter. If that alone is the goal, then it’s an affirmative for Yesware. No questions asked. It uses prescriptive analytics to help you make better decisions and for those already using Yesware, try their Touchpoints.
Learn more about Callbox Managed Marketing Automation..
- Velocify – This software prides itself with shotgun transfer / no-hold transfer features – the repetitive stuff that help enforce your contact strategy — so you can focus on closing deals. So nice of them, right?
- Ncsquared – It’s like a NBA superstar point guard who thrives on making the right plays, making everyone of his teammates better, and making a lot of things easier. Some of its features are round robin, lead allocation, lead routing, and a dozen others you’d be crazy not to try for yourself.
- Prosperworks – I like it for the simple fact that it has a very simple user interface (I’m a minimalist at heart). And yeah, it lives inside Gmail, so you know. Convenient. Efficient. What more can you ask for?
Bonus:
Slack – I’m a fan of this thing and that means I really use it. So far, it has lived up to its promise of making me “less busy”. But it doesn’t mean less productive. You can use this with apps like Trello. Nowadays, you can slack off thanks to slack.
After Dreamforce, I wanted a much-needed R and R. I thought about road tripping along the coast and just whiling away time like I deserved to. I’m now back in LA having Darjeeling tea listening to some guy in the background rapping about California girls. I know, but it’s the software that would’ve melted my popsicle. So I came up with this.
