27 CRM Influencers to keep on your radar
Leer net als wij van de besten.
At Salesflare, we’re always hungry to learn. One way of doing this is to keep a close eye on influencers in our space. However, if you’re anything like us, you’re probably following way too many people and wind up drowning out most of the interesting content.
We’re here to help you find the signal in the CRM noise. Our list includes tech-hungry software analysts, trailblazing CEOs and long-lived industry legends. Together they make up a remarkable club, but what they have in common is that they all inspire us when it comes to the use of technology, data and software to optimise CRM practices. Here’s your chance to learn from them as we do.
We looked for influencers that make it easy for you to follow them. That means that they’re actively sharing their opinions on social media channels and blogs. We made sure to add social links to each influencer. You can take your pick or choose the easy way and just follow the Salesflare CRM Influencers list on Twitter. Please note that there is no logic whatsoever behind the order of this list.
So, without further ado, here’s our personal hit list of CRM influencers for 2017.
1. Matthew Guay
Matthew is the lead app reviewer over at Zapier. If you don’t know about Zapier, you’re missing out. Zapier gives everyone the power to connect their everyday productivity apps and create their own automated workflows. It already works for more than 750 apps, making it a must-have for anyone looking to streamline their businesses processes. It’s up to Matthew to review all these apps, including a ton of CRMs. His Ultimate Guide to CRM Software is probably the most practical and insightful guide on CRM app you’ll find on the web. While you’re at it, make sure to check out the Zapier blog. It is the go-to place to learn about the best productivity apps out there. Matthew is sharing his best apps and latest thoughts on tech over at his personal blog TechInch, which is truly a joy to read.
2. Steli Efti
Steli is the co-founder and CEO of Close.io CRM and ElasticSales, helping out startups to scale up their sales efforts. He’s an alumni of Y Combinator, the famous seed accelerator that has help build companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, 9gag and is actively invested in sharing his knowledge on entrepreneurship and skills. He’s the author of ‘The Ultimate Startup Guide to Outbound Sales’ and hosts The Startup Chat a podcast on startups, together with Hiten Shah, co-founder of CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics.
3. Paul Greenberg
Paul Greenberg, aka the Bob Dylan of CRM and a devoted Yankee fan, has been one of the most omnipresent and shaping voices in the CRM community. Each one of the four editions of his bestselling book CRM at the Speed Of Light, often proclaimed as the ‘CRM bible’, has set new standards in the industry. Paul is the Managing Principal of The 56 Group LLC, an enterprise applications consultancy company focusing on CRM strategy as well as founding partner of BPT Partners, specialised in CRM training. You can read his insights on several blogs and business software website across the web, such as TechTarget and ZDNet, where he leads the conversation on Social CRM, as well as on his personal blog. When contacting Paul, we were excited to hear that he is currently working on a new book called ‘The Commonwealth of Self-Interest: Customer Engagement, Business Benefit’, to be published by Harvard Business Press either late 2017 or begin 2018. Stay tuned!
4. Rich Bohn
Richard Bohn, de oudste nog levende onafhankelijke CRM-analist, is een unieke mix van verkoper en computernerd op een missie om bedrijven te helpen het beste te krijgen voor hun geld als het gaat om CRM-software. Hij doet dit door vrijwel elk CRM-systeem dat hij te pakken kan krijgen grondig te beoordelen. Je kunt zijn reviews vinden op SellMoreNow, samen met een heleboel tips en trucs over het gebruik en de implementatie van CRM. Als je ooit iemand tegenkomt met meer passie voor CRM-software dan Richard, neem dan zo snel mogelijk contact met ons op.
5. Jon Ferrara
Jon Ferrara co-founded the award-winning Goldmine, one of the early pioneers in the CRM space, and has since continued to live up to his reputation as innovator. In 2009 he founded Nimble, a next-generation CRM to really bridge traditional and social communications, sparking a wave of innovation throughout the industry. In addition to his entrepreneurial endeavours, Ferrara is a noted speaker about social sales and marketing and is a regular in the world’s biggest business magazines like Forbes and Fortune.
6. Denis Pombriant
Denis Pombriant is an active and award-winning software industry analyst, author and speaker. He runs The Beagle Research Group, a management consulting firm with focus on business software with an eye for customer experience and customer relationship management. Denis has written two books on customer loyalty and engagement, ‘Solve for the Customer’ and You Can’t Buy Customer Loyalty, But You Can Earn It. As a researcher, consultant and author on customer engagement, Denis advocates the use of Customer Science, a social science using data and analytics to develop and understand the social structures that embrace customers and satisfy their needs wherever these arise. He is currently slaving away at a new book that should be out by mid 2017. You can read Denis’ insights and findings on the The Beagle Research blog, CRM Magazine, CRM Buyer and Diginomica, a blog on digital enterprises, cloud apps and technological disruption.
7. Peter Kazanjy
Peter is a product manager/marketeer turned founder. And then sales leader. And then sales operations expert. A one-of-a-kind hustler, he’s all over the place when it comes to startups, early-stage sales and marketing and SaaS. He founded TalentBin, a category-defining talent search engine and recruiting CRM, acquired by Monster Worldwide. Today, Pete is a startup advisor/investor and the driving force of Modern Sales Salon, a 1,000+ member, invite-only peer learning salon focused on sales operations, sales management and sales systems staff. Keep a close eye on the Founding Sales, the ‘missing manual’ on early stage sales for founders and other first-time sales staff he is currently working on. You can keep up with chapters as they come out by following its Twitter account.
8. Mitch Lieberman
Mitch is a technology leader and practitioner with a particular focus on customer experience, next generation CRM and their more recent intertwinement with social media or Social CRM. He’s known to get his inspiration from one-on-one relationships customers and small businesses have in Williston, his hometown in Vermont. In helping organisations transform, Mitch practises a modern but practical view of customer strategy, process improvement and technology optimisation achieved by creating tight alignment between business strategy, goals and objectives. Mitch describes himself as your typical geek dad and is into skiing, cycling, writing and photography. His blog is a wonderful collection of content on the topics mentioned here.
9. Michael Fauscette
Michael Fauscette is chief-research officer at G2Crowd, one of the most important and transparent business software directories out on the web. Before he spent ten years years as an executive analyst over at technology market research firm IDC and has held senior roles with several other software vendors. He’s a published author, blogger and photographer and sought-after speaker on emerging trends in business software, business modernisation and customer experience strategies. His blog is a great resource of insights on all of the above.
10. Marc Benioff
No list like this would be complete without Marc Benioff, the charismatic founder and CEO of Salesforce.com. A pioneer in the CRM space and SaaS-evangelist, he built up Salesforce.com from a startup in a rented apartment into the fastest growing software company in less than a decade. Next to entrepreneur, Benioff is an awarded speaker, author and philanthropist. His bestselling book Behind The Cloud on Salesforce’s industry disrupting story is nothing short of a must-read for every aspiring SaaS-entrepreneur out there.
11. Jeff Kaplan
Jeff Kaplan is the managing director of THINKstrategies, a strategic consultancy firm focused on the business implications of the transition of the technology industry from product-centred solutions to service-centred solutions, more commonly known as SaaS. He’s also the founder of Cloud Showplace, one of the largest online resource centres for SaaS, PaaS and Iaas as well as host of the Cloud Summit series, showcasing successful cloud solutions, strategies and success stories.
12. Dharmesh Shah
Darmesh Shah is a highly successful software entrepreneur and one of the co-founders and current CTO of Hubspot, powerhouse of inbound marketing software. He’s an active member of the entrepreneurial community in Boston and has made several early-stage investments in software startups. Shah is also the driving force of OnStartups.com, an inspiring online community of +500,000 strong on and for software startups packed with articles and resources.
13. Marshall Lager
Of all thought leaders listed here, Marshall Lager may be the one with the most hands-on insights to share — although he prefers to think of himself as a thinker rather than a doer. He started off as a senior editor over at CRM Magazine, writing articles and reviews for both the magazine and its blog, destinationCRM. He then went on founding his own consultancy firm, Third Idea Consulting, to pass on his knowledge on the coming together of CRM, social media and brand awareness while still contributing to CRM Magazine. Marshall recently took up a position as senior analyst over at Ovum, an independent consultancy and research firm with a focus on on the commercial impact of technology and market changes in telecoms, software and IT services.
14. Perry Norgarb
Based in South Africa, Perry Norgarb is the founder and editor-in-chief at SmallBizCRM.com to help small businesses make quicker and more informed decisions as to what CRM is the best fit for them. He has more than 20 years of experience in the industry, being involved in sales, marketing and management of IT solution companies, including his own software company and has developed a strong passion for CRMs along the way. He has spoken on several sales conferences (although he claims he’s not cut out for it) and co-hosted a radio show discussing software tools for small businesses.
15. Brent Leary
Brent Leary is medeoprichter en partner bij CRM Essentials, een CRM-consultancybedrijf dat zich richt op kleine en middelgrote bedrijven. Hij heeft meer dan 15 jaar ervaring in IT en management consulting en werkte aan projecten voor onder andere Compaq, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, het IMF en de Wereldbank. Leary is een veelgevraagd spreker over verschillende onderwerpen die te maken hebben met CRM, technologie en kleine bedrijven. Enkele van de platforms waarop hij zijn inzichten deelt zijn Inc.com, SmallBizTrends en TechTarget. Bekijk ook zijn columns in CRM Magazine en zijn persoonlijke blog.
16. Lauren Horwitz
Lauren Horwitz is senior executive editor en expert op het gebied van bedrijfsapplicaties bij TechTarget, een van de meest gerespecteerde bronnen voor technologiekopers. Ze leidt met name de secties CRM, Salesforce en Content Management. Tijdens haar carrière heeft Lauren verschillende prijzen ontvangen voor haar werk van de American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE), waaronder een Silver award in 2009.
17. Ron Miller
Ron Miller is one of the more legendary tech reporters, having been in the business for more than twenty years. He’s worked for the biggest publications around and is currently reporting on enterprise software over at TechCrunch, making him an influential voice on CRM apps. In fact, a great deal of the articles on CRM over at TechCrunch are from Ron’s hand. Outside of TechCrunch, he’s the co-founder of Socmedianews.com, a blog on the wonderful world of social media. He also blogs, over at Intronis about the cloud an at his own blog, By Ron Miller.
18. Esteban Kolsky
Mr. “All Things Customer” Esteban Kolsky is the the go-to guy for customer initiatives, ranging from CRM to SCRM, Social Business, CEM, CX,… Basically everything that has the letter C of ‘Customer’ in it. He’s the founder of thinkJar, a customer strategy consulting and think thank group that wants to drive organisations to become more open and collaborative. Esteban counts AI and big data among his hobby horses and writes strongly opinionated and downright intriguing pieces on everything with a C on his blog. Which is always a joy to read.
19. Michael Taylor
Michael is de CRM-expert bij WalkMe, een cloudgebaseerd betrokkenheidsplatform om gebruikers te leiden en aan te zetten tot actie binnen elke online ervaring, gebruikt door meer dan 800 zakelijke dienstverleners en SaaS-leveranciers. Zijn blog over CRM en CRM-software, CRM Simplified, is een geweldige bron van recensies, tips over gebruik en implementatie en infographics en aanbevelingen voor andere kwaliteitsartikelen over CRM.
20. Rob Marvin
Rob is assistant editor for the Business section over at PCMag. This has him writing news, features and reviews on a gazillion of software and SaaS applications, including a lot of CRM tools. Rob is your typical tech-savvy journalist, excited about all that is innovative and emerging. He’s into startups, blockchain, AI, AR, cloud, legal cannabis tech, big data, deep linking and the mobile app economy, just to name a few. Aside from tech, he does some occasional blogging on movies and TV series, reads fantasy and has his heart routinely broken by the Knicks and the Jets. When he’s not writing, you can probably find him on a couch, marathoning Lord Of The Rings. The extended edition, what else.
21. Joel Capperella
Joel ‘Cap’ Capperella brings over 20 years strategic marketing execution in software and SaaS, with both big fish (SAP, Oracle) and small startups. He’s now building on that experience to help startups and small companies to think like and relate to customers in the way they go about sales and marketing. Joel is an active contributor to The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, FastCompany and HRO Today. You can check out his blog and podcast over at his website.
22. Jesús Hoyos
Jesús Hoyos is the managing partner of Solvis Consulting, specialized in the integration and implementation of digital marketing and customer relationship management systems. Solvis and Jesús have a particular focus for the Latin American market, making them unique among influencers in the CRM space. You can read Jesús’ personal blog over at the Solvis website, with posts and podcasts on anecdotes, best practices and opinions on CRM, Social CRM, communities, marketing automation and customer intelligence in the Latin-American region. While his blog is mostly in Spanish, he also keeps to regularly posting in English on LinkedIn and Twitter.
23. Sara Angeles
Sara is a staff writer over at BusinessNewsDaily, where she covers business, marketing and business software. Her articles on boosting business productivity stand out for their practicality, with a focus on small business. This focus has seen her reviewing a great deal of productivity apps, including a fair amount of CRM software. You can read her review report on CRM software in 2016 here. Sara’s work has also been featured at Mashable, Fox Business and Yahoo News.
24. Michael Maoz
Michael Maoz is the Vice President of Research at Gartner Research. He brings thirty years of experience, of which twenty spent at Gartner. Long story short: Michael Maoz is nothing short of an absolute expert when it comes to business software in general, with an emphasis on CRM. His research is particularly focused on customer strategies and technologies, with a keen eye for CRM customer service disciplines, collaborative customer strategies, social media strategies, cloud-based CRM applications and analytics. He’s also Gartner’s Lead Analyst for Salesforce. His Gartner blog stands out for his engaging way of covering business software, often relating personal stories to analyses into the social customer and social CRM practices.
25. R “Ray” Wang
R “Ray” Wang is the Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley based Constellation Research, Inc. He’s also the author of the popular business strategy and technology blog A Software Insider’s Point of View, easily one of the most popular and influential blogs of its kind with over tens of millions of page views every year. His work and writings revolve around how disruptive technologies, digital transformation and artificial intelligence can bring about or do away with business leadership. His book Disrupting Digital Business draws insights upon on why 52% of the Fortune 500 have been merged, acquired, gone bankrupt, or fallen off the list since 2000. Ray is a regular contributor of Harvard Business Review and has appeared in the biggest publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes and Bloomberg.
26. Anita Campbell
Anita Campbell is de oprichter, CEO en uitgever van SmallbizTrends.com, de populairste, onafhankelijke blog en community voor kleine bedrijven op internet. Dit is de populairste, onafhankelijke blog en community voor kleine bedrijven op internet. De blog wordt samengesteld door een fulltime toegewijde redactie en meer dan 400 experts en biedt een eersteklas bron van informatie, het laatste nieuws en advies over zaken die van groot belang zijn voor kleine bedrijven, zoals CRM en CRM-software. Anita is lid of lid geweest van verschillende raden en adviesraden en is co-auteur van Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design, gepubliceerd door Wiley in 2011. Ze is een van de toonaangevende autoriteiten op het gebied van kleine bedrijven en ondernemerschap en verscheen in niet minder dan 3 Forbes toplijsten: 25 Most Influential Women Tweeting About Entrepreneurship, 20 Best-Branded Vrouwen op Twitter, en 30 Vrouwelijke Ondernemers om te volgen op Twitter. Ze werd ook genoemd als een van de 100 meest krachtige vrouwen op Twitter door Hubspot.
27. Chuck Schaeffer
Chuck Schaeffer is momenteel Go-To-Market Leader voor Global Business Services bij IBM. Dit is echter slechts de laatste van vele prominente functies die hij in de loop der jaren heeft bekleed op het gebied van CRM, ERP en bedrijfsapplicaties in de cloud in het algemeen. Bedrijven die hij eerder heeft geleid als CEO zijn onder andere Vantive Media (technologiemedia voor bedrijfs- en IT-leiders), Aplicor (on-demand CRM- en ERP-cloudtoepassingen), Cinergi Consulting (IT-consulting en implementatie voor SAP, Oracle en Microsoft bedrijfssystemen) en FSC (vergelijkbaar met Cinergi, overgenomen door Analysts International Corp). Als thought leader is hij genoemd in bekende tijdschriften als Inc. Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Computer World en CXO Magazine. Je kunt zijn inzichten lezen op CRMsearch.com, als redacteur, en CustomerThink.
Did we miss anyone? Drop us a line in the comments and we’ll make it right. In the meantime, you can follow all of these influencers in a single click with our Salesflare lijst met beïnvloeders.
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