"So, yo. I was sitting around one day in '98 when Larry called me from his yacht and says, 'Marc, I've been thinking. I ran into Tom the other day, and he started spewing again about Siebel-this, Siebel-that, salesforce automation, blah, blah, blah. So, I told him to shut-up and get back to work, because in a few years we're going to own you anyway. And then I realized - hey, why don't I just mess with him instead? So I went out and bought the url salesforce.com for $199 - and, anyway, will you just see what you can do with it? Gotta go... my martini glass is caught in the rigging again.'
So, I called-up Jobso to ask him what to do (I had him on speed-dial because I used to get he and Woz coffee when I worked at Apple, and, if you haven't heard, he invented the friggin' iphone) and he said, 'Omigod this is beautiful. Here's what you are going to do. You are going to build this, like, online, ASP-model, web-service thingy, and you're going to sell it to sales-tards who are going to love you because they will think you are helping make their cash register ring. But - here's the beautiful part - it's really just a trojan horse for us marketing guys who do the real work - I mean, geez - everyone knows that even a lame Chiat/Day ad is worth more than a yacht full of sales guys! So anyway, just think about this: you're going to get all of this customer data and sales data right from the sales guys, and *voila* it will be a marketing revolution! Not enough leads? Well, how about closing the ones I gave you last week that you haven't touched yet, pal! Don't like the messaging? Well that's funny - seems to work great in the western region! Need a bigger discount? Stop giving away the farm, pal, because all your buddies are selling at MSRP!
Seriously, Marc, if you pull this whole sham off, marketing geniuses like us will just be able to sit back, pull the strings this way and that, and the whole salesforce will respond like a pack of sled dogs... and we'll be laughing all the way to Banana Republic. Kapich? Hey - gotta go. Sony's calling on the other line with some lame-o partnership idea around the next-gen Walkman. Later.'
So, that's what I did. Salesforce.com was born, and now I just sit back in Hawaii reading Sun Tzu and doing yoga."
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