Jon Ferrara ( @Jon_Ferrara ) invented customer relationship management, CRM, before the term actually existed. Jon created the award-winning customer management product, GoldMine, which was eventually acquired by FrontRange in 1999. Today, Jon is the CEO at Nimble, a SaaS CRM software platform designed for social selling.
This episode is full of educational nuggets from someone practicing what he preaches. Jon is an advocate of social selling and provides several tips on how to become more effective and get more done by connecting with people the right way. Jon talks about some of the common pitfalls of CRM systems today and describes a better way to do it. He walks us through one of his personal examples on how he secured 30 meetings from a Twitter list that eventually led to Microsoft reselling his service.
Notable Quotes from Episode
There are five “fs” that connect people: friends, family, food, fun, and fellowship.
— Jon Ferrara, CEO Nimble
A marketer today should be inspiring and educating on a daily basis about how their prospects and customers may become better, smarter, faster and become their trusted advisor. The easiest way is to get someone they trust to trust you.
Hashtags and mentions are Fishing lures in the digital river.
The more digital we get the more human we need to be.
Questions During Podcast
- What is Nimble?
- What do you consider the biggest challenge for CMOs and marketers today?
- How do executive teams need to address these challenges?
- How do you see digital marketing or digital experiences evolving?
- How can a salesperson use social when they don’t have time?
- Which one of your customers taught you the most?
- What did they teach you?
- Are sales and marketing teams blind from too much data?
- What is your most proud accomplishment?
- Who or what do you listen to or read to get inspiration?
- If you didn’t have any responsibilities at home or work next week what would you do with your time?