Thought Leaders in Sales 2.0: Carol O’Kelley, CEO of Salesfusion (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Have you been tracking this area of influencer marketing that is getting a bit of attention these days?

Carol O’Kelley: I’m not sure what you mean. I’m certainly interested in the idea of Masons and that there are gurus in particular areas that can have enormous influence, but I’m not sure if that’s what you mean.

Sramana Mitra: There are two trends that I’ve observed. We’ve profiled a bunch of different companies in some of these spaces. One trend is that there are people with significant influence. These are people who have huge social media influence. Maybe, through their blogs or LinkedIn accounts. In their niches, they are very influential people. There’s a company called Influitive founded by the founder of Eloqua. That one is focusing more on really mining your customers and turning them into advocates. I was wondering if you were tracking any of that work.

Carol O’Kelley: I think it would be an overstatement to say that I’m tracking it, but I do believe in the concept. People having a high amount of influence is something that we’ve known for a long time. I think what’s going to be interesting to see is how that will develop as a discipline. For example, I don’t see business to business marketers necessarily having their buying decisions influenced by a Twitter follower. I think that it’s more around what you described at the outset of what you’re doing with One Million by One Million where it’s a multi-channel program where you can have richer content and develop a deeper dialogue and establish credibility.

I call it the look-smart-at-work program. How can you make people who have an interest in a particular topic, whether that’s sales and marketing automation or entrepreneurship, make you as their go-to? I don’t think that has been done in a handful of characters. I think that’s done in a richer and more almost encyclopaedic way. It would be interesting to see how companies like Influitive figure out how to crack that nut. I’m not sure anyone has done it for this market yet.

Sramana Mitra: The point you’re making is correct and I agree with that. Multi-channel influence and real expertise actually carry a lot more weight. We’re seeing that actually very heavily in the fashion and style world. There are a lot of people who have emerged who are really doing fabulous curation of style trends. If you were working in the fashion retail industry, you basically have to work with these people. You don’t have a choice.

Carol O’Kelley: Think about mainstream media like Vanity Fair with their international best dressed list, they started a couple of years ago even acknowledging fashion bloggers. I think that’s right. I think with something like fashion, which I love, it’s great to see the mainstream media embracing those people because it makes sense in a more consumer-driven space. What’ll be interesting for me to see is how that translates on the B2B side.

Sramana Mitra: Any other thoughts that you want to add?

Carol O’Kelley: Nothing in particular. I love what you’re doing. The cross platform approach to sharing your expertise on entrepreneurship is exciting. I hope we get to a place where we see more women taking on entrepreneurship. I hope you have some influence there. I know it’s not necessarily your core mission.

Sramana Mitra: We do see a lot of women because I think women feel good about working with another woman in the role that I play. We do see women. I’m very supportive of women entrepreneurs for sure.

Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in Sales 2.0: Carol O’Kelley, CEO of Salesfusion
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