How sales organizations use technology to drive revenue

A staggering 87% of employees are disengaged at work. That translates into real costs for organizations – low morale, high turnover, and poor performance. The traditional response would be to offer monetary incentives – do this, get this much money, car, trip, etc. The problem with this approach is that it only works for a short period and it motivates a small and wrong segment of your team. Get core performers in the game According to HBR’s study  “Motivating Salespeople: What Really Works” , sales leaders need to focus on core performers. These are the solid performers that make up much of the sales team and have the greatest potential in shifting the organizational performance upward. One reason they are overlooked is that sales managers don’t identify with them. At many companies, the managers are former stars, so they pay the current stars an undue amount of attention. As a result, the incentives are often targeted at the salespeople who are already self-motivated and ...

“Cortana?” “I’m listening…” “Define artificial intelligence.” “According to merriam-webster.com, the simple definition of artificial intelligence: ‘an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence; the power of a machine to copy intelligent behavior.’”  Ready or not, artificial intelligence is here; and it’s here to stay. Businesses and organizations that have taken an early lead in the adoption and use of artificial intelligence (be it natural language processing, machine learning, deep learning, or cognitive computing) are simply scratching the surface of its potential to not only improve sales, service, marketing and operations, but to discover and deliver new digital business models.  In the 2017 Economist Intelligence Unit report,  Artificial Intelligence in the Real World , 75% of more than 200 business executives surveyed said AI will be actively implemented in their companies within the n...

Digital transformation, as defined by Constellation Research, is "the methodology in which organizations transform and create new business models and culture with digital technologies." And these new business models, says Constellation Founder and Principal Analyst Ray Wang, are creating a winner takes all market. In a  webinar available on-demand , Wang notes that more than half of the Fortune 500 companies since the year 2000 have been merged, acquired, gone bankrupt or have fallen off the list. And much of this change can be attributed to the creation – or not – of new digital business models. “What we are seeing in every industry,” says Wang, “digital leaders are taking 40 to 70% of the overall market share and 23 to 57% of profits. In some places, if there are only one or two major players, they’re taking up to 77% of the profits. “This is a massive change in the marketplace.” And to survive and thrive, Wang advises, organizations must transform their bus...

If there’s one thing everyone can agree on about digital transformation, it’s that change is constant – and happening faster than ever before. We’ve seen many iconic brands upended in recent history by digital disruption (think Blockbuster as one we all know), which provides every brand and organization with a sense of urgency – that we must find and act on change before it finds us. Every organization looking to tackle digital transformation instead of being tackled is sure to face some challenges. In the  2016 State of Digital Transformation Report , Brian Solis and the Altimeter Group surveyed 500 executives and digital transformation strategists whose organizations had already begun digital transformation initiatives.  Five top challenges most common among those surveyed included: (1) understanding customer behavior (2) a lack of data or ROI to justify the value of digital transformation (3) risk management, compliance or legal complications (4) resour...

In July we unveiled a new approach to business apps, and today I’m excited to share more about the capabilities coming to customers in Microdatum Insights – our new cloud service with purpose-built apps that enable you to address specific business needs (like sales automation, operations or customer service) and start small with the assurance that the solution can grow as your needs do. Powered by advanced analytics and machine learning – what we call Intelligence – Microdatum Insights will usher in a new era of business agility for you, our customers. Intelligence for your  entire  business – backed by deep experience  Across Microdatum we’ve invested lots, over time, into cutting-edge AI research to  help every person and organization achieve more . We are also bringing those investments to you through Microdatum Insights. Designed to help improve manufacturing and supply chain execution, make field service operations more efficient, sell more effectively and...

If there’s one thing everyone can agree on about digital transformation, it’s that change is constant - and happening faster than ever before. We’ve seen many iconic brands upended in recent history by digital disruption (think Blockbuster as one we all know), which provides every brand and organization with a sense of urgency – that we must find and act on change before it finds us. Every organization looking to tackle digital transformation instead of being tackled is sure to face some challenges. In the  2016 State of Digital Transformation Report , Brian Solis and the Altimeter Group surveyed 500 executives and digital transformation strategists whose organizations had already begun digital transformation initiatives.  Five top challenges most common among those surveyed included: (1) understanding customer behavior (2) a lack of data or ROI to justify the value of digital transformation (3) risk management, compliance or legal complications (4) resource...