Customer: Jason Stewart
Title: Senior Manager, Demand Generation
Organization: Demandbase
Web: www.demandbase.com

SP: What is Demandbase all about?
JS: Demandbase is an online, pay-as-you-go marketplace for business contact information. We’ve partnered with some leading data providers, such as Hoovers, D&B, Business Watch Network, and LexisNexis to create a place where B2B salespeople can purchase business contact information (often including email address) without a subscription and without a minimum purchase.

SP: How do you use salesforce.com?
JS: We use it for both sales and marketing operations. We have four sales people and a director of sales, and all of them receive email notification whenever a new lead comes in through the Web. They then track their activities and pipeline using all the tools built in to sf.com. They get a lot of visibility into where the leads come from and what they are interested in right off the bat, which helps them hit the ground running when it comes to making sales.

SP: What AppExchange partners are you using?
JS: We’re using VerticalResponse for all of our big email campaigns. The integration that VerticalResponse has with salesforce.com is particularly helpful in providing response information about every contact associated with the email campaign. I can see who opened the email, who clicked on any links in it, and then get that information out to the sales team so they can follow up with a phone call. Those leads may not be "hot," but they are definitely warm and worth a phone call to find out what caught their eye when they opened the email. We’ve also used Acteva RSVP for tracking responses to event invitations, and salesforce.com for Google Adwords to track our advertising efforts on Google.

SP: Why did you choose VerticalResponse rather than using salesforce.com’s built-in mass email capability?
JS: Quite a few reasons….we found that deliverability is higher with VerticalResponse because they have an outstanding reputation in the space. Reporting is also first rate…for example, I was seeing a lot of "false positives" on email opens when I used the mass email tool in sf.com. Not to mention the limitations in the amount of email I was allowed to send out of sf.com. I think it is something like 1,000 emails a day? Anyway, salesforce.com is great but they are the first to admit they don’t want to be in the email business. We needed a more specialized tool.

SP: How difficult was it to implement your system?
JS: There are always going to be aches and pains when it comes to any CRM installation, but the amount of difficulty involved with salesforce.com is minimal compared to the old client/server systems. As for installing and integrating the AppExchange applications, you need to be a system administrator, but other than that, it’s pretty easy. VerticalResponse went out of their way to make their package as easy to install as possible.

SP: I understand that you’re an AppExchange partner as well as a customer?
JF: Definitely. Demandbase was nominated as a finalist in "Breakthrough Application of the Year" at the most recent Dreamforce conference. I’m also the leader of the salesforce.com user group in the San Francisco area. It’s fair to say that I’m a huge fan of salesforce.com and feel the need to spread the word about this excellent product and platform.