One of the ground-breaking tech companies of the past decade is Salesforce.com, which is the mastermind of Marc Benioff. He realized that enterprise software could be much better and cheaper. Of course, the solution was leveraging the cloud.
So for those who have worked with Benioff, there has been a great opportunity to learn some valuable lessons.
And this has certainly been the case with Marcus Nelson, who was the Director of Social Media at Salesforce.com. He would go on to create his own company, Addvocate, and raise a slug of venture capital.
So what are some of his takeaways? Here’s a look at three lessons:
Lesson #1: No Risk, No Reward
"Don’t be afraid of sweeping, eye-catching statements. No one expected 'The end of software' to come true in 1999 when Marc made it his catch phrase. Now cloud-computing is killing on-premise software.
"Same thing happened in February 2010 when Marc wrote The Facebook Imperative. Now social is seeped into almost every business department."
Action: "Boldly proclaim your vision. Swing for the fences. If you believe the world is going to be different, or it needs to be different, don’t wait for your competitors to define it. You define it and challenge competitors to beat you to the vision."
Lesson #2: Trust is Everything
"Don’t underestimate the power of marketing. Salesforce.com is a marketing machine that Marc Benioff never turns off. At the same time, Marc never confuses slideware with marketing. Customers will never trust you if you don’t deliver on the promises you make - and Marc knows that trust is too valuable to ever squander on empty hype."
Action: "Show customers a working product. It may not work now, and it may not ship soon, but never promise something if it’s not even been built yet."
Lesson #3: Quiet the Critics with Bottom Line Results
"Under promise and over deliver. Marc may be the maestro of marketing, but he never makes promises he knows he can’t exceed. You can see that in his quarterly conference calls with analysts, and you see it when the company announces new capabilities that - eventually - wow his customers."
Action: "Never let your customers or investors feel you’ve let them down. Clearly set expectations and set them to achievable levels. Then race to beat the goals you’ve stated. Even if you don’t beat the goals, you’ll be the only one disappointed - and those around you will continue to believe you’re amazing."
Tom Taulli (@ttaulli) operates MasterCFO, which provides consulting services to business owners for financings, tax preparation and budgeting/reporting.
