Dave Belove has been a Salesforce user, integration consultant, and system administrator for nearly 10 years. He is currently the Sr. Director of Global Sales Operations for Cloud9, an AppExchange partner, and a member of the executive committee of the Salesforce Silicon Valley Users Group.

As an AppExchange Partner, the culture at Cloud9 is very open to trying new things (even if we have to pay for them!). But when we choose a new component from the AppExchange, we make sure that it fits our overall Marketing and Sales 2.0 strategy. We don’t just buy things for the fun of it. Each item must simplify or automate an important step in our Marketing and Sales process. We consider the potential learning curve for our users and the potential support burden on me. (Yes, I’m the only sales ops person and the systems administrator for our instance of Salesforce!)  Our favorite applications require little or no support and are easy to learn and use.

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Marketo Marketing Automation, Email Marketing & Lead Management by Marketo

We use Marketo in the early stages of our process to capture leads with landing pages (without creating duplicates), nurture leads through segmented email campaigns, and then assign them to our Account Development Reps (ADRs) based on a sophisticated lead scoring system. ADRs and sales execs can see all of the interactions that Cloud9 Marketing has had with a lead (or contact) from within Salesforce Lead and Contact records. 

LinkedIn for Salesforce by LinkedIn

LinkedIn for Salesforce provides ADRs instant access to a wealth of information about an individual from within a Salesforce lead or contact record, before they pick up the phone.  Prior to adopting LinkedIn for Salesforce, Cloud9 ADRs had to take extra the time to do a separate LinkedIn search using the limited visibility of their personal LinkedIn account. The AppExchange version provides the visibility of equivalent to a LinkedIn Premium account--a big advantage. 

Qvidian Sales Playbooks and Analytics by Qvidian

Qvidian Sales Playbooks and Analytics has been a tremendous timesaver for me, personally. Instead of answering questions from our sales team one by one, I document the answers to the Qvidian playbook in the form of coaching tips, making answers available to the entire sales team anytime they need it. In addition, I have used Qvidian to automated repetitive tasks for the sales execs like sending our NDAs or product information. The analytics feature allows Sales Management to track which “plays” are being used and where deals are at in the sales process based on which plays (activities) have been completed. 

Cloud9 Sales Forecasting and Pipeline Management by Cloud9

Obviously, we use our own product to manage our pipeline and forecast. The Cloud9 application provides great clarity into changes in our aggregate pipeline and provides drill down to the deal level. We can track stalls, deferrals, expired deals, and other risks to making our goal with the click of a button—no spreadsheets are required! 

Z-Force 4.0 - Subscription Billing and Commerce Platform by Zuora

When a sales exec is ready to present a prospective customer with a quote, Zuora kicks in. A professional-looking quote can be created and sent via DocuSign in a couple of minutes. When the customer reads the quote the DocuSign Status record (visible in a related list at the bottom of the quote) is updated. This is particularly valuable when the recipient has NOT read the quote, because the sales exec knows to follow up. Once the quote is eSigned, both Cloud9 and the customer get a pdf copy and the pdf is automatically attached to the quote and opportunity records in SFDC. This is a big time saver for the sales execs and eliminates the need to hunt down a copy of the quote to complete the order. To finish the process, I click the update subscription button at the top of the Z-Quote record and a subscription is created or updated in Zuora and the invoice scheduled. This is virtually a “lights out process”. 

Brainshark Connector for Salesforce by Brainshark, Inc.

All through the Marketing and Sales process we are beginning to use our newly acquired Brainshark solution, from sending marketing materials to training materials and video tutorials in our Salesforce-based Cloud9 Customer Portal. Brainshark provides us with a high degree of visibility into what and when a prospect has viewed and updates their lead or contact record in Salesforce. 

WorldSmart VoIP CTI Integration

I also want to mention that our CTI integration with WorldSmart’s VOIP service provides click-to-dial for lead and contact phone numbers. It automatically creates an activity record in Salesforce and allows an ADR or sales exec to take notes in the activity record description field during the call. If you are having trouble getting your users to create activity records, this is a great solution.