Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
Issue link: http://elmezine.epubxp.com/i/134584
Leader'sView 4 Questions… …FOR MARC BENIOFF, CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF SALESFORCE.COM, NAMED BY FORBES MAGAZINE AS THE WORLD'S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANY TWO YEARS RUNNING. HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH SALES? I've been around sales almost all my life. When I was growing up, I watched my father build a chain of stores that sold apparel. When I was 15, I started my frst business, Liberty Sofware, with a friend. Our passion was writing computer games, but along the way we also fgured out how to sell our products to Atari. Later, I had the good fortune of interning at Apple, one of the most innovative sellers of this age. When I graduated, I followed the urging of my college professors and began my career working in sales for Oracle as a way to gain business experience. Dealing directly with customers, I developed a deep appreciation for the art of discovering their point of view. In many ways, my understanding of business began with sales, and so too does my perspective on it. EXACTLY HOW IMPORTANT IS SALES? While my heart was always to start my own company, I've never wandered far from the business of sales. And that's appropriate. Because the way I see it, every business revolves around sales. Tere may be seasons when sales seems to take a back seat to other things. But if you observe it long enough, things have a way of coming back around to it. HOW DID YOUR NEWEST PARTNERSHIP EVOLVE? A lot of people don't know this, but I attended a Tony Robbins event more than 13 years ago that got me to tap into my driving force and take the actions that needed that led to salesforce.com. Tony has been one of the critical keys to salesforce.com's culture, our leadership in cloud computing, and our growth into a $3 billion-dollar company. Many organizations get so focused on the mechanics of selling or managing that they forget about the impact of psychology on ultimate success. One reason I'm excited about CloudCoaching International and the Pathways to Growth system is that it creates an intersection between technology, skills, processes and psychology to maximize our customer's salesforce.com investment. It leverages breakthrough strategies and tools that help our customers accelerate their pipeline-to-purchase cycle. Te economy has driven many companies to exhaust techniques for cutting costs. Sooner or later in the quest for increasing margin, you have to turn your attention to raising top-line sales. WHAT WAS THE RATIONALE BEHIND FOUNDING SALESFORCE.COM? I founded salesforce.com because I saw new potential in the intersection of sales and technology. My vision was to take the mission-critical tasks of the sales force and leverage technology to dramatically improve them. Now Tony and Walter have joined forces to help companies leverage the role of the most infuential members of the sales force — the sales managers and executives. Between them, they've served thousands of companies around the world, including many of our most important clients. Te work they do is transformative. Teir expertise can provide you with a framework for fnding the ideal pattern for maximizing sales. Even in this economy, there are clear pathways to growth. When you combine the proven disciplines they teach with today's innovative cloud business tools, you can expect nothing less than a breakthrough. 18 June / July 2013 Elearning!