In this episode of CRM Talk, Steve Chipman and Sam Biardo discuss AI agents and their impact on business. They talk about how AI agents have evolved from basic IVR functionality to sophisticated business tools.

Steve mentions Greg Eisenberg's insights about various types of agents (acquisition, research, content, and community agents) and how they're replacing human tasks at a fraction of the cost ($2,000 in agent costs vs $2 million in salary costs).

They discuss Salesforce's Agentforce, with Steve noting Marc Benioff's aggressive marketing against Microsoft's Copilot. Sam shares his experience using Copilot and discusses implementing AI in their Starfish product, including their pricing strategy of raising rates to cover AI token costs.

They also explore various pricing models for AI services, from token-based to per-question pricing, and discuss the integration trends they're seeing in the industry, particularly with ServiceNow, HubSpot, and Infor. The conversation concludes with a discussion of sales tax software integration needs and AI-powered headshot generation tools.

Sam LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/sambiardo/

Steve LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schipman/

Steve X: @stevechipman

Sam Biardo of Technology Advisors and Steve Chipman of CRM Switch discuss the changes and trends in CRM implementations over the past few years.

The key points discussed include the shift towards low-code/no-code platforms, the transition from on-premise to cloud-based solutions, the reduced need for developers and increased reliance on business analysts, the growing involvement of clients in the configuration process, and the emphasis on delivering a minimally viable product (MVP) in shorter implementation cycles to minimize risk and provide faster value realization.

Other topics covered include the importance of planning and phasing, integration challenges with legacy systems, project management and AI tools, reporting and dashboard creation, measuring success criteria, and data migration best practices.

Sam LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/sambiardo/

Steve LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schipman/

Steve X: @stevechipman

Sam Biardo of Technology Advisors and Steve Chipman of CRM Switch discuss the high-level differences between these top CRM vendors. Topics include:

• Vendor Overviews
• Scope and Complexity of Business Needs
• Extending the CRM Database
• Native vs. Integrated Marketing Functionality
• The Consultant Ecosystems
• The HubSpot & Salesforce App Marketplaces
• Freemium vs. Only Pay-For
• Scope of Product Offerings
• AI Features
• Business Process Automation Tools
• The User Experience and Interface

Near the end, we tacked on an AI version of the podcast created with NotebookLM, derived from a blog post that Steve wrote about the high-level differences between Salesforce and HubSpot.

Sam LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/sambiardo/

Steve LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schipman/

Steve X: @stevechipman

Steve Chipman of CRM Switch and Sam Biardo of Technology Advisors talk to Sati Hillyer, founder and CEO of OneMob, about his journey from starting the AppExchange at Salesforce to developing and advancing his company's video platform for sellers over an almost ten-year period.

With a OneMob microsite, sellers can provide context, content, and a clear next step for the prospect.

👉 If you are in sales, you can sign up for a Forever Free account athttps://onemob.com/pricing-benefits/

Sam and Steve are joined by Jon Richards of Evolve Video Marketing. We discuss today's buyer, using video in the sales process, how digital sales rooms work, and getting salespeople to adopt tools like OneMob.

Steve Chipman of CRM Switch and Sam Biardo of Technology Advisors talk to marketing guru Ross Simmonds, who shares insights on creating valuable content and leveraging AI to optimize and distribute it more efficiently across channels.

Topics include the disconnect between marketing and sales teams, taking an investor mindset with content assets, events, and video for lead generation, email outreach fatigue, and predictions for increased AI usage and industry consolidation.

Steve and Sam discuss quote-to-cash (Q2C) solutions that enable sales teams to quickly generate quotes and receive more orders. They cover use cases for field and desk-based sales, components like CPQ and eSignature integrations, rule-based guidance, and vendor solutions from Conga to MobileForce. Also discussed are sales scenarios with frequent pricing changes, needed integrations, and evaluating vendors based on industry-specific requirements.

AI-generated summary

In this episode, Sam and Steve discuss the benefits of podcasting for marketing versus blogging, based on data showing more people per podcast than per blog. It then covers a survey showing that most marketers are using at least some AI to generate blog content, with the risk of too much AI hurting search rankings. 

Sam and Steve agree AI is best for outlines and some after-the-fact SEO optimization, while human-written content ranks better. They discuss various uses of AI in marketing, like generating content sections, outlines, titles/descriptions, Tweets, LinkedIn posts, images, presentations, and videos.

Key takeaways are that AI is extremely helpful for accelerating content creation and distribution but should be used carefully and edited by humans for the best results. The hosts emphasize keeping human-created, original text for critical content like blogs.

They note AI content lacks nuance and sounds formulaic if not edited. Data shows that human-optimized content ranks better in search.

Other topics include using AI for sales enablement assets, contracts, policies, CRM, training, and deflecting questions.

AI is great for outlines, titles, descriptions, and images, but human creativity is essential for resonance and ranking.

X thread prompt

"Create an X (formerly Twitter) thread from this article https://yourcompany.com/blog/postname.  Ignore the information in the page's footer. Create a 5-part thread, with 3-4 lines each. Each part should lead the reader to read the next part of the thread. Do not use hashtags."

Steve and Sam talk about the state of SEO in the context of CRM and leads.

Sam and Steve discuss CRM AI use cases for sales, marketing, customer service, customization & configuration, data migration & integration, analytics, and automations.