CRM Talk

Steve and Sam are joined by One Chowdhury, founder of the AI-native CRM, Octolane [https://octolane.com]. One shares his incredible journey from a Duke University student who didn't know what a CRM was to a Y Combinator-backed founder aiming to take down Salesforce. He discusses why legacy CRMs are "trapped with their own success" and struggle to adapt to AI, while Octolane is built from the ground up to eliminate manual data entry and give sales reps their time back. Learn how Octolane's 'Action Mode' proactively suggests follow-ups and meeting prep, aiming to turn every user into a 'superhuman seller'. This conversation covers the future of CRM, go-to-market strategy, and building a product that solves the core pains of sales professionals.

Sam and Steve discuss the practical applications of AI in modern sales and marketing. Steve explains his process for using Gemini's Deep Research feature to generate detailed company reports, condensed infographics, and audio summaries for effective account-based marketing. Sam shares his techniques for leveraging AI to create personalized connection requests on LinkedIn and to repurpose podcasts into engaging social media posts. They also explore how AI is changing SEO, shifting the focus from clicks to brand mentions within AI-generated search results.  The conversation covers how AI can transform existing content into new formats and significantly shorten the traditional sales discovery process.

In this episode, Steve and Sam are joined by special guest Clint Oram, who recently left SugarCRM after exactly 21 years. The group explores the future of CRM, the transformative power of AI, and how technology is reshaping the way organizations think about customer relationships, system design, and collaboration.

Jennifer Noonan, VP and GM of CX and IPMC Business Units at Infor, joins Steve and Sam to discuss the evolution of Infor CRM SLX (formerly SalesLogix) and its role in industry-specific digital transformation. Jen shares how Infor’s vertically aligned strategy enables the delivery of tailored ERP and CRM solutions to manufacturing, distribution, and service-based organizations. The conversation covers CRM and ERP integration, quoting workflows, and why CRM should be the system of engagement while ERP remains the system of record. Jen also reflects on Koch Industries’ long-term investment approach and how it has accelerated innovation across Infor’s cloud offerings.

Is your organization ready for CRM? Sam and Steve discuss the ten readiness statements from CRM Switch's online calculator: https://crm-readiness-calculator.crmswitch.com/