Yesterday’s Salesforce World Tour Sydney was beamed live all over the world. Here are the highlights.
1. The Opening Keynote was reimagined
We were reminded that we are stronger together in the Opening Keynote
Yvonne Weldon, Chairperson of the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council, welcomed us to the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. She reminded us that we are one and that together we can build trust, be innovative and make a difference. And this theme of togetherness was represented in dance through a performance from the Jannawi Dance Clan.
In her very first opening keynote as CEO Salesforce ANZ, Pip Marlow made it clear we are stronger together.
“We’re a leader in innovation, philanthropy and culture – and we’re doing it together because what needs to be done is more than one company can do alone,” she said.
But to create this community, Pip reminded us that we need to be guided by our values: trust, customer success, innovation and equality.
“We know when we bring these values to life – when we live them, breathe them, invest in them – then the business is truly a platform for change.”
One Trailblazer customer that’s using Salesforce to help create incredible change is Jessica Macpherson CEO and Founder of St Kilda Mums, a not-for-profit changing the lives of mums and families in need – because of this Jessica was awarded the elusive Golden Hoodie.
There are amazing Trailblazers everywhere, including New Zealand company Fisher & Paykel. During the keynote, the Fisher & Paykel team shared their Customer 360 story and how they are achieving their purpose of becoming the most human-centred appliance brand in the world.
To close the 2020 keynote, our EVP and Head of Strategy and Planning APAC Dan Bognar talked data – filling us in on the bests of APIs, integration and Tableau.
“Our challenge is not the data, it’s generating insights from it. The combination of Salesforce and Tableau means we can now provide analytics to anyone, anywhere based on any type of data. It’s pretty exciting,” said Dan.
Watch the full opening keynote.
2. Small Business keynote: We received great advice from two SMB leaders
PepTalkHer Founder and CEO Meggie Palmer not only shared her journey from spreadsheets and multiple inboxes to the Salesforce platform but also their best piece of advice for SMB owners.
“When you start a business everyone will have an opinion and want to share their advice with you!”Meggie told us. “What you need to do is come back to your purpose. A quote I love to live by – leap and the net will appear.”
As someone who is working to make significant change that won’t happen overnight despite Meggie’s incredible work – it’s going to take more than 100 years to close the gender pay gap – no doubt courage is a requirement.
3. Tiffani Bova shared her growth secrets
Tiffani started out her session with a quote from one of our fave local customers, Big Red Group Co-Founder Naomi Simson: “1000 customers means 1000 opportunities”. The message?
“This shows you that every customer you get is an opportunity for you to grow, to engage, to learn. But most importantly to just wow them with the experience that you’ve been able to deliver,” Tiffani explained.
“So don’t think about your customers as this thing you have to capture each and every day. It’s something you collect over time, that you need to nurture, and make sure that they’re satisfied with not only what you’re giving them today but what you plan on giving them tomorrow.”
Tiffani, whose entire role is focused on growth and innovation, then shared her paths to growth – ways to optimise an entire small business to grow revenue, improve customer experience and improve profitability.
“Growth is a thinking game,”Tiffani said. “You can outthink your competition.”
So, even if you can’t out-develop to get to market faster, out-spend on marketing or out-hire a crack sales team, what you can do is you can think differently.
4. Customer Trailblazers shared incredible insights
We got a first-hand look at how our Trailblazers are using the Customer 360 platform to change the landscape of their businesses and drive success.
ModularWalls Founder Nick Holden, now also Director of Innovation and Enterprise, disrupted an entire industry after his local council prevented him from building a brick wall. And thanks to technology helping businesses appear larger than they are, small businesses like ModularWalls can quote to enterprises such as McDonald’s which – in Nick’s own words – “can be a little daunting!”.
So what did ModularWalls do? Built enterprise resource planning (ERP) software directly into the Customer 360 platform to create a single source of truth for its shipping, manufacturing, scheduling and billing. And what was once a two-day quoting process now takes two hours.
Born-in-the-cloud streaming service Kayo Sports has been using Salesforce since its inception 18 months ago, and has just hit a whopping 211 million views! One of the secrets to Kayo’s Netflix-like growth and exceptional low-touch customer service: an Einstein bot called K-Bot 7.0.
Last year at World Tour Sydney, Shae Marlow, Head of Consumer Platforms and Operations, shared insights into K-Bot’s second iteration. A year on, Shae updated us – K-Bot now handles an incredible number of customer interactions, with 92% of Kayo customers self-serving and K-Bot answering a quarter of the remaining queries.
And the other secret to innovating? “Never settle,” says Shay. “Always be curious and ask the why. Find a small thing you can always improve on. That’s what motivates others working around.”
Watch the full ModularWalls and Kayo sessions.
5. A rockstar panel told us how businesses can be platforms for change
In one of the most highly anticipated panels, tennis royalty and social equality icon Billie Jean King, former Telstra CEO David Thodey AO, and CEO and Founder of OzHarvest Ronni Kahn AO spoke of the importance of doing good while doing well.
Billie Jean King was first off the bat, sharing how at 13 she knew she was going to spend her life fighting for equality.
“Sometimes you can sit at the table and have a voice, and other times you can sit there and not have a voice. The bottom line is you have to be your authentic self,” she told us.
That authenticity, and authentic leadership in particular, was a major theme of the discussion between the four leaders.
“It really does have to start from the top,” said Ronni.
A common impression of publicly listed companies is that shareholders come before anything else – former Telstra CEO David Thodey was quick to dismiss that idea.
“The very idea that being authentic and making a difference is inconsistent with shareholders just doesn’t compute with me. I don’t see them as the opposite,” DAvid said. “As a CEO your personal ambition and values have to be aligned with your business.”
So, how do companies choose which causes and charities to get behind in a way that is authentic?
“In the corporate world, it’s hard to show your values – often we [not-for-profits] are that vehicle to give the voice to the values of a corporate entity,” explained Ronni. “I’m not interested in a partner who is just going to throw me money. I want to work with their staff so they can understand where their money is going and what the impact is. Long-term authentic relationships are key.”
Watch the full panel discussion.
6. Billie Jean King brought the stories (and leadership advice)
“Everyone has a story to tell – and if they don’t it’s because you’re not asking the right questions,” Billie Jean King told Pip Marlow in their Fireside Chat.
And what a story Billie Jean has to tell. It would take a novel to cover all her incredible achievements – in fact a movie has been made to cover just a few of them! She’s tennis royalty, founder of Women’s Sports Foundation and the Women’s Tennis Association, equality fighter and icon across the globe. But it’s the way Billie Jean has dedicated her life to encouraging women to believe in themselves that she and Pip bonded over.
“What makes life purposeful is when you can shine a light on others,” says Billie Jean. She has been ‘first’ to do so many things in her career but says the important thing isn’t being the first – it’s not being the last.
“You have to think who else can get this,” she said. “How can we continue this and give back to others?”
One way Billie Jean gives back is educating girls and young women about the importance of money.
“I want girls to understand that money is good, not bad!” she told us, recounting a tale of meeting with a group of young women who wanted to build women’s shelters – when Billie Jean asked them the magical question, ‘how are you going to build it?’, they didn’t have an answer.
“And I told them they had to have money.”
From the sports court to community, Billie Jean has embraced being a leader. But it wasn’t what she always wanted.
“Most people will be pushed into leadership – even I was pushed into being the spokesperson for the tennis community. You have to buy into the dream and embrace your values. 24/7. People will champion you if you do the right thing.”
Leaders don’t choose followers; followers choose leaders, she told us. And Pip agreed: “I was lucky that people believed in me before I believed in myself.”
And one final piece of advice from the iconic Billie Jean King?
“It’s okay to be a disruptor, but don’t complain, complain, complain. We have to have a solution. Complaining is easy. Come up with a solution and you can start driving change.”
7. We learnt about the future of sales
The future of selling is all about insights and becoming a trusted adviser.
Since the Fourth Industrial Revolution, power has shifted from sellers to customers and the gap between the two is growing. There has never been a more important time to empower every salesperson with information and insights so they can take action and start closing that gap.
Janet Cutler, General Manager – Salesforce Innovation at Modern Star spoke about how her company has used technology to help its sales reps transform into advisers.
“The tools have given them the extra step up,” she said. “We have a lot of reps who have been with us for 35 years and they have personal connections with their customers – but they have never had any insights into what that customer is doing as an account or a whole business.
“Now they can see what marketing is doing, interactions with customer service and analytics – they have all that rich data at their fingertips on the road that they can quickly check on their phone before they meet the customer.”
Data visibility was a game-changer for Modern Star reps, but the one piece of advice Janet has for other companies looking to take advantage of AI?
“Ensure your data is clean, and plan do to do something with that data so your reps can go out there and turn it into dollars.”
8. Meggie Palmer told us how she overcame imposter syndrome
Have you ever thought “I’m a fraud and I don’t belong”?
Founder of PepTalkHer, speaker and journalist Meggie Palmer delivered a session made for you, and the 70% of the population who say they have imposter syndrome.
Even as the leader of a successful global technology company, Meggie still sometimes suffers from imposter syndrome.
“It diminishes our victories and allows our failures to loom large,” she said. And if you’re a small business owner, that wouldn’t be doing any good for your business.
Here are Meggie’s top three steps to help overcome imposter syndrome:
- Acknowledge and own it: “Think about the moments in your business where you don’t feel comfortable and note them down.”
- Brain gym: “One practice I look to do is a gratitude practice. It sounded a bit ‘woo-woo’ to me at first too, but every morning before I jump on my phone I write down three things that I’m grateful for.”
- Track your success: “Share your feedback from clients with your team and watch the ripple effect it has.”
Learn to overcome imposter syndrome – watch Meggie Palmer’s full session.
9. We delivered that dancing bear
We promised you a dancing bear and did we ever deliver – Astro and Codey went toe to tapping toe in the inaugural Salesforce World Tour Dance Battle. And it was one of the greatest moments any of us have ever witnessed.
The lawnmower! The sprinkler! Wiggling nose versus wagging tail! It was a close call, but Astro’s twerking took out top gong.
Unfortunately this one isn’t in the video archive, so it’s time to turn on notifications on our social channels to make sure you don’t miss the video when we post it there.
10. You brought the community
We are so grateful for every single person who tuned in, joined a 1:1 session, attended a viewing party, tagged us in their social updates and made the day an absolute joy.
In particular, thank you to those who donated to Red Cross during their session, and to the speakers and staff on-site who built solar lights for our Salesforce.org partner Solar Buddy.
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Catch up on all the World Tour Sessions.
