What’s the biggest attraction for you at Dreamforce 2018?

Dreamforce has an infectious energy of other professionals that want to implement change. This energy and excitement attracts companies that want to improve and break new ground, rather than maintain the status quo.

Who are you keen to meet and huddle at the event? Which sections would you be attending?

I’m excited to meet with Mediafly’s customers, prospects and partners. Dreamforce is a rare time where you can get together with this many people in one place.

How do Salesforce trends and technology impact your business?

At Mediafly, we are a user of Salesforce, but also a Salesforce partner. We’re proud to be a driver of Salesforce trends, including the use of artificial intelligence in sales enablement platforms. By having the opportunity to see up-and-coming trends, we’re able to benefit our customers integrating these ideas and trends into future offerings of Mediafly.

How do you plan to extend the benefits of Dreamforce to your employees, customers and technology partners?

Salesforce and CRM is the hub of Sales Enablement. The role of Mediafly is to bring best-in-class sales presentation experiences to customers and partners. Dreamforce stimulates ideas and new capabilities that we bring into Mediafly.

With 6000-plus Martech and salestech companies to choose from, how should new businesses leverage customer review platforms to make better, unbiased decisions while buying enterprise software?

Customer review platforms are one of many sources companies should use to narrow down companies that could be the right fit for their needs. Nothing beats using the software in a real-world context in a pilot/demo situation so you know what you are getting before you buy.

Could you elaborate on the idea of “buyer-drive sales’ journeys? How does Mediafly impact these sales journeys?

Too many sales meetings and presentations focus on the seller, their products and solutions and the pretty PowerPoint presentations they created. A buyer-driven sales journeys occur when every sales meeting and presentation is focused on the buyer and their needs. Mediafly moves companies from static presentations about products and solutions to interactive sales tools that can deliver unique insights about the buyer in every meeting.

Do you think lack of CRM innovation is hurting the martech and salestech ecosystem?

CRM at its core is a central database where customer-related information flows from humans (sellers) and the integrated systems — marketing automation, training, sales enablement, etc. The future innovation of CRM will be in the form of new contiguous solution areas that are tightly integrated and further improve the relationship and engagement between buyers and customers and the awareness companies have about their customers and prospects so they can make more informed decisions. The growth of contiguous solutions does not appear to be slowing. In the next two years, I foresee CRM companies starting to acquire these solutions and making them an integrated part of the CRM core.

Would you provide us your take on turning AI-driven and enabled by 2020?

As it relates to sales enablement and customer relationship, AI and Machine Learning will drive many improvements. AI/ML can identify and make suggestions based on patterns and trends that humans and traditional algorithms might not see. In the near future, AI/ML will be able to identify buying trends across integrated systems such as Machine Learning, Sales Enablement, Training and web browsing so that each informs the collective.  For example, marketing campaigns will be automatically adjusted based on what sales content was shown the most in a meeting. And what content a sales rep should present will be suggested by what emails and web pages a prospect has been viewing.

Thank you, Carson! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.