Were we in Amsterdam or Zaandam?
Yes, it was a bit confusing for Dutch people: were we in Amsterdam, as the official title suggested, or not? In fact, this year the Salesforce World Tour was held in Zaandam, just across the Noordzee Channel from Amsterdam.
Naming it World Tour Amsterdam was a pity in a way, because this region, known as the Zaanstreek, played a pivotal role in industrial innovation in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. But we understand Amsterdam is more well known to visitors from abroad.
The motto of the keynote speech was “Become a Customer Company”. This involves three key components: CRM, Data and AI. Generative AI is the big buzzword of the moment of course, but without the solid foundation of CRM and Data, it’s impossible to get something of value from it.
Guido Fambach, Executive Vice President Sales for our client Just Eat Takeaway came to the keynote by bike (what else!), to explain how Salesforce helps them achieve growth and success. The last speaker at the keynote was the truly inspirational Sima Samara, who shared her story of how she fled repression to become a Trailblazer in a Golden Hoodie.
In Salesforce’s philosophy, organisations from every sector should apply the same criteria to become a Customer Company. Be they charities, like de Zonnebloem, retail like Just Eat Takeaway, or financial services like Adyen.
A succesful company has a 360° view of its customer, based on a CRM that is the single source of truth because it contains all relevant data from sales, service, commerce and marketing. Built-in AI makes it easier to effectively deploy this data. Generative AI can help create content like landing pages without having to write code, personalise at scale and a faster and better customer service.
This compact version of the World Tour certainly drew a crowd, and the Breakout and Theater sessions were full to capacity. Victoria French presented a Theater session for out client Beerwulf, about the implementation of Salesforce MCP we are working on with them.
Our team was present as a Gold Sponsor once again. In our booth on the Campground we answered questions, gave demos, and connected with friends old and new. If you were there, we hope you benefitted from all the information, and maybe caught a pair of Slack socks from the machine! If you couldn’t attend this year, we hope to see you at a future event.
Do you need help and advice on your journey to become a customer company? Contact us to learn more about your options.
