I was delighted to be selected by Suyati to represent the company at the world’s largest software conference – Dreamforce17 in San Francisco. And the icing on the cake was that for the first time in the last five years, Suyati was investing in a booth at the Cloud Expo. The entire team was excited!
What can you expect?
People who come to Dreamforce mostly EXPLORE rather than take any kind of decisions (be it product/vendor/app). What I mean is, Dreamforce is a venue where you get to learn more about the roadmap of Salesforce native features, get to know the kind of apps and vendors in the market, and the innovative transformations happening in the industry. So you can expect learning and insights – not so much on the spot deals or commitments!
Why should you invest in a booth?
150,000 participants spread over 2700 sessions across 4 days. You can only imagine the chances of having a fruitful and in-depth conversation with a potential client or associate. Since Suyati invested in a booth, we had hundreds of visitors who came our way to understand our company and our offerings in the digital transformation space. However, we did not just have a booth – we offered a free CRM audit tool (more about it later in the blog) that was a major draw. We also ensured we steered people to our booth with freebies and gifts. No one can turn down free cashewnuts!
Now for the preparation leading to the event
The Suyati team at Dreamforce17 consisted of 2 hard core Salesforce techies (me included!), and 4 sales professionals, including our VP of Sales. Our first meeting agenda was to understand the etiquette to follow, dress code, logistics plan for goodies, brochures, technical equipment, roles and responsibilities during the four days. This was very useful because it helped everyone to be on the same page. We collected our badges from the Dreamforce registrations team and also visited our booth to have a feel of how we will be positioned in the expo area.
Our performance at Dreamforce17
Suyati was shining at Dreamforce Cloud Expo with our unique Digital Transformation strategy and how we help enterprises transform their business to keep up with Industry Revolution 4.0. As a techie, it was an amazing learning experience as I spoke to customers and understood their pain points and suggested solutions that will digitally transform their business. Sunil (our VP/Chief Sales Officer) was exceptional in his knowledge on various business verticals and was able to connect to almost every customer that we met. Srinivas, Director of Delivery, was phenomenal in connecting with our existing client base and potential new customers on the single org strategy and its potential benefits. Abhishek (Manager – International Sales) and Evita (Manager – Sales) were keen and detail oriented in their conversation with customers across any industry or vertical.
Most of the customers who visited the booth appreciated our CRM Audit tool (provided FREE of cost) that helps enterprises audit and prepare their Salesforce Org for scaling up/down in the future. As one of the lead architects for the tool, I am glad the team went the extra mile to create value to our customers. This is what I love about our team Suyati and why I say Suyati thinks DIFFERENTLY.
My personal transformation!
After the first day of customer engagements, I definitely started to believe that I have also transformed into a Sales person. I was able to talk the business lingo, connect with customers to understand where they were in the digital transformation journey, and also use my technical skills to explain Salesforce and the wide range of native features it has that will help their business succeed without any kind of magic wand. It is all about how differently you are able to view an enterprise from a Digital Transformation strategy point of view.
At Cloud Expo, I also got a chance to meet the Salesforce team (what a creative and talented bunch!) and some of our clients who loved hanging out with us in the booth. It was an awesome experience and I would like to thank all our customers who trust us as their valuable partner.
Where is Salesforce going?
Based on the events and the discussions, I can definitely bet that Salesforce is pushing the importance of IoT Cloud and Einstein AI to discovering new opportunities and value addition to businesses. This clearly shows how Salesforce is showing the entire world on how to gear up for Industry Revolution 4.0.
To sum it all….
It was easy to see that Suyati is respected by global businesses on how we are making their Digital Transformation dreams possible for them. It is an honor to be a part of the Suyati family. I also want to thank the entire leadership at Suyati for making Dreamforce17 possible. I also want to record my appreciation for the Marketing team who tirelessly worked to get us equipped for such a mega event, Operations and HR team for making our travel and accommodation smooth and hassle free, and to our VP, Sunil and his wonderful family who treated us as part of their own. Last but not the least, a great thanks to the amazing team of Sales & Technical champions with whom I was fortunate to enough to represent Suyati at Dreamforce17.
