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By Ryan Warren, Vice President of Marketing

From the information technology industry to marketing, it seems like most professionals in almost every field are talking about the cloud these days. And it's no wonder – investing in cloud software for your enterprise lets you gain market intelligence, analyze industry trends and even examine customer analytics. The cloud will become one of the top innovations for salespeople fairly soon.

In fact, the trend is becoming so wide spread that Salesforce recently acquired business intelligence startup EdgeSpring to enhance the site's marketing cloud. If that's not enough, the investment came a week after the site purchased email marketing firm ExactTarget for $2.5 billion. The integration of business intelligence with analytics is set to help boost customer relationship management (CRM) ROI.

Cloud sales have gone through the roof, with Ellen O'Brien, executive editor at TechCrunch, suggesting recent slowdowns in cloud computing storage are due to the rapid increase in users. O'Brien reported cloud storage vendors have been around for years, but the recent uptick in the demand for customer insight solutions and tools as well as user demand, sales have significantly increased. More sales people are now investing in the tools they need to ensure the sale and to increase their CRM ROI.

Customer Conversion Flies Into the Cloud
Louis Columbus, cloud computing expert and Forbes contributor, recently wrote that now is the era of digital customer insights for the marketing industry. With the purchase of EdgeSpring and ExactTarget by Salesforce, the marketing world is on the cusp of integrating cloud computing into their customer insight platforms. But the advertising industry is just the latest in a long line to have adopted cloud analytics. Sales was one of the first.

Cloud-based services came into the sales mainstream with platform applications, such as FirstRain into Salesforce, by bringing sales people up to date on the latest customer insights and intelligence. Business analytics that use the cloud format allows you to get a glimpse into what's going on in the industry, what's trending up or down and what areas to focus on. It cuts your customer research time in half while boosting your client conversion rates skyward.

Many of us try to take time everyday to do some Internet research about our clients, but it often gets a back seat to other more pressing issues. And most of the time, treading through the clutter of information can be a hassle. Having access to one place that gives you the most important insights of the day keeps you connected with customers and be prepared for every client interaction.

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