Dreamforce 2017 was incredible! We were awed by the amazing growth stories of the SMBs that attended, and learned so much from their experiences. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to attend — we’ve gathered some of their nuggets of wisdom and inspiration here.

On strategies for growth:

“Don’t let perfect spoil good.” — Jennifer Tejada, CEO, PagerDuty @jenntejada

“Time is a precious commodity. Speed is a priority for us because it’s priority to our customers.” — Alfredo Jimenez, Director of Sales Strategy, Kabbage @KabbageInc

“Attention is currency, so you need to have a story.” — Ramon Ray, Founder, Smart Hustle Magazine @ramonray

On a winning sales strategy:

“The most important thing is to engage and understand the customer’s why.” — Paul Leary, President, Bespoke Collection

“Tech is there to support and nurture, but not to replace the human touch.” — Summer Crenshaw, Co-founder, Tilr @SummerCrenshaw

On the importance of customer service:

“Service is not about convenience for you; it’s about convenience for your customer.” Paul Leary, President, Bespoke Collection

“Brands that don’t have great advocates are hit 10x harder by negative press and bad customer service.” — Gregarious Narain, Co-founder, Before Alpha @Gregarious

On technology:

“Technology is the change agent of our generation.” — Joe Galvin, Chief Research Officer, Vistage @JoeGalvin

“One big misconception is that AI makes decisions for you. In reality, AI lets me spend more time coaching my team.” — Brian Deignan, VP of Sales, FastSpring @FastSpring

On building community:

“Have an open, inclusive environment and access to capital to build a great community.” — Scott Kitun, CEO and host, Technori @kitun

“Three tips: a shared sense of purpose—or pain. People with passion and leadership. And a regular cadence for people to engage.”  — Bettina Hein, CEO, Pixability @bettinahein

“In order to have a community, you only need to have two people with similar passions.” Trey Bowles, CEO & Co-founder, The Dallas Entrepreneurship Center @treybowles

On supporting diversity:

“Change your employee referral program to encourage people to reach outside of their immediate networks.” — Rachel Williams, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Yelp @heymsrachel

“We need to create skill sets and opportunities, not just programs.” — LaFawn Davis, Global Head of Culture & Inclusion, Twilio @lafawn

Want to hear more? Tune into Salesforce Live to watch the Dreamforce SMB Keynote or to hear Marc Benioff’s predictions for customer success in the future. And mark your calendar now for Dreamforce 2018.