Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference took over the streets of San Francisco. Maxine-Laurie Marshall looks at the key takeaways for marketers
With a title of ‘biggest software conference in the world’ and 145,000 registered attendees, Dreamforce has made a name for itself beyond the usual crowd of tech addicts, and is increasingly appealing to marketers. Although I’m also sure the fact that marketers are now pretty much required to be tech addicts, or at least enthusiasts, may also have something to do with its crossover.
The overriding themes at this year’s conference were particularly pertinent for marketers. Many of the speakers were sharing advice on what it takes to be a great leader. As more marketing teams are beginning to take a central role in the businesses in which they operate, they must be able to lead, not just their teams, but the organisation. In order to do so successfully, both Tony Prophet, corporate vice president of Windows marketing at Microsoft, and former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton shared a similar sentiment. Prophet said: “Leaders must continue learning and surround themselves with people who don’t just tell them what they want to hear.” And Clinton advised attendees to: “Create conversations with people who may disagree with you.”
Leadership
This seems to highlight a change that has been going on in marketing over the last couple of years. Working in silos is actively discouraged, but that doesn’t mean you will be best friends with the sales director or head of IT. By marketers working with people who intrinsically look at things from a different viewpoint, and may well be likely to disagree, encourages marketers to think differently, solve problems and innovate; all key qualities of a good leader.
Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, shared the stage with Clinton and asserted: “Dialogue creates trust. Success relies on maintaining that dialogue.” Again this highlights the importance of working with other departments. However, weighing in on the leadership debate was musician and tech entrepreneur Will.i.am. He launched his wearable tech offering, Puls – a cuff that goes on a user’s wrist. The wearable device has wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS, a pedometer, one gb of memory and 16gb of storage. During the launch he said: “There are leaders and there are followers. Followers follow leaders. Leaders follow their heart.”
While this may sound very idealistic and implausible for B2B marketers, I think it’s advice that is well worth heeding. If your heart isn’t in your job, then you’re in the wrong job. Sometimes you have to do what you feel is right, even if people are telling you otherwise. This might conflict a little with the idea that leaders surround themselves with people who think differently, but a good leader combines the two. You must listen to the points of view of others but also be prepared to follow your heart and your gut instead of just following in the footsteps of competitors. This is the only way to innovate.
Serving the community
Schwab’s additional comment on leaders leans nicely in to the second big topic of discussion at this year’s Dreamforce: CSR. He said: “Management should serve more than stakeholders, they should serve the community.”
Leading by example at his conference, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff kicked off the event by launching the company’s ‘one million meals’ initiative. The tech company asked all delegates to donate a tin of food with the aim of collecting one million meals to donate to charity. Life coach and speaker at Dreamforce, Tony Robbins and Benioff then matched the donations and turned it into three million meals.
Salesforce’s philanthropic endeavours are seemingly never ending, a sea of school children who are benefitting from equipment donated by Salesforce were actually in the audience for Benioff’s three-hour keynote this year. It’s always going to be a battle between doing good and telling people you’re doing good. Your CSR activity may well originate from the right reasons, but as soon as you use it in your marketing it very quickly taints it. But what’s the option for marketers? Clinton warned: “Ethics are as important as electronics,” so evidently you can’t avoid them anymore.
Microsoft’s Tony Prophet spoke about transparency as a solution to bad ethical practices, saying: “Transparency is the beginning of change, it’s the beginning of progress and it’s absolutely the beginning of accountability.”
So I guess the message for marketers is to be open and honest, be prepared for customers and prospects to ask if you’re working ethically and helping sustain the community you are in. But don’t over share your good deeds, it should be something you do as standard practice. And something you have to do in order to see success.
For a technology conference to have two human topics of conversation at its heart should demonstrate the importance of both. Technology, of course, plays an important role in leadership as well. Without a solid understanding of marketing tech, it’s now impossible to progress into a leadership position. As well as tech, marketers must be responsible for pushing the conversation about CSR within their companies as the activity ties into audience perception of the brand. However, they must also exercise an element of selfishness to their working day and dedicate a certain portion of their time to thinking about activity beyond their campaigns and strategy. They must think about what it takes to be a good leader and ensure they are shaping up the right way, proving marketing is about so much more than just marketing.
