How Zoho was "helping" Salesforce users

November 27, 2013 | Author: Sandeep Sharma


Last week the biggest IT conference Dreamforce took place and as usual for these big vendor events, it didn't escape some funny marketing tricks. Competitors are always trying to drive customers from a company that owns a conference (in this case, Salesforce) and invent original ideas. For example, that's how Microsoft tried to spoil Salesforce conference and Salesforce picketed Oracle conference. At this time, was Zoho's turn. Though Zoho's CEO, Sridhar Vhembe, has the personal offense with Marc Benioff, he didn't try to troll Salesforce at its event. Instead, he ordered to help Salesforce users. After all, they have to pay big money monthly for CRM-system and even a ticket to the conference costs $1,000 . So Zoho gave Salesforce customers free pedicab rides to whatever their destination was – their next session, party or their hotel. It was something like free Zoho CRM test drive.

And for lunch they gave Salesforce.com customers free snacks to taste a piece of Zoho



with such napkins:



Do you think Zoho has just wasted money to entice a couple of Salesforce customers? Of course not, because the main benefit of this campaign came from the social networks in which people talked about Zoho:

See also: Top 10 Online CRM software

Author: Sandeep Sharma
Sandeep is a marketing expert with a wealth of knowledge in various domains: customer relationship management, social media management, advertising, search engine optimization, website building, Sandeep has established himself as a multifaceted professional. He honed his skills while working at Salesforce and Hubspot, where he gained invaluable insights into the industry. Now, as the proud owner of a small advertising consulting agency, Sandeep continues to provide innovative and effective strategies to businesses, helping them thrive in the competitive landscape of digital marketing. You can contact Sandeep via email sandeep@liventerprise.com