Leverage innovation, both BIG and small to own the Sales Journey
At the opening sequence of TED2016, held in February, a profound statement was made to begin the conference. The sentiment was retweeted and referenced several times shortly after (and during) the event, as it seemed to have been thought-provoking to people other than just myself. OK, suspense killing you?
"Humans walked on the moon before it occurred to anyone to put wheels on suitcases."
-@Bill_Gross
Let that sink in. The first patent filed to place small wheels on luggage was in 1972, three years after "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." So, yes, Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin sent a space shuttle to outer space, took a stroll on the moon, re-entered Earth's atmosphere – and then had to carry their suitcases back when they finally got home!
How did the most innovative and advanced society put a man on the moon before thinking about putting wheels on luggage?
Innovation is not always a product of a linear thought process and evolution (sure, sometimes it is), but we all too often define innovation by really BIG ideas only. Space travel, air travel, smart phones, etc - all are certainly massive accomplishments of innovation and ones that have undoubtedly changed the world in which we live. But innovation is found everywhere, and opportunities to innovate are everywhere - we just have to look for them. Not just suitcase wheels - think Post-it notes, paperclips, sliced bread! Our lives are improved every day by innovation - big and small.
The future is now - own the sales journey.
At Matrix, our product mission is simple: make sales people faster, smarter, and more efficient - translating into more sales and more revenue. Simply put, we believe that a sales organization that equips their team with the Matrix platform is vastly better than one without it. We provide our clients with the functionality, tools, and know-how they need to enable sales.
Our team believes that the innovation and evolution of the Matrix platform helps users own the sales journey of the future. We recently had the opportunity to meet many of our clients and partners at the 2016 NAB Show to discuss and get feedback on the future of media sales, the future of Matrix, and our strategic and innovative roadmap designed to empower and enable sales organizations to own the future. One of the core components of the discussed roadmap was the creation of a more integrated partner ecosystem.
At an increasing pace over the last several years, there have been a large number of excellent vendors and innovative technologies that have entered the media sales marketplace. Yet in many ways, these great innovations have introduced unnecessary complexity into a system that has no room for such. While we are all racing to the ‘moon,’ we have been overlooking the opportunity to put the ‘wheels on the suitcase.’ We believe that your sales organization, and more specifically, sellers, should not have to have 28 (alright, maybe a slight exaggeration) different systems running to fully understand their opportunities to sell, research, close, and manage their existing and potential relationships. They need a more fully-integrated solution to enable them to take advantage of the great innovation and tools, while having more time to actually sell and manage those all-important relationships. At Matrix, we are committed to creating and optimizing a more integrated, media-specific ecosystem for your sales organization.
We are very excited to have been able to announce new integration partners over the last several weeks: incorporating Media Market Forecast data from BIA/Kelsey, a partnership with TapClicks that opens up a lot of exciting new opportunities, and an exciting new relationship with SalesFuel and their AdMall product, which streamlines access to their awesome research and analytic information. These accompany our existing integrations with vendors such as Wide Orbit, Imagine, Strata, LinkedIn, and more. We also have a number of new and exciting integrated solutions that are on our roadmap including marketing automation tools like MailChimp, campaign effectiveness management tools like Google DFP data, digital and automation tools from Vendasta, and much more. Stay tuned for more specifics and information from our team.
Stop Carrying that suitcase - demand more!
Finally, I will leave you with this: help us, help you! Do you see an opportunity for efficiency, new integrations, or a simple feature that would help you be faster, smarter, or more efficient? Let us know. Knock on our door, or better yet, just send us an email - we want to know. We are focused on media sales and are committed to helping our partners own the future, whether that is going to the ‘moon’ or putting the ‘wheels on the suitcase’ - every suggestion is important. The future is exciting and bright!