MARKETING
What does Creating “a single version of the truth” even Mean for Sales?
Translating data into actionable insights can be a nightmare for most sales teams.
Whether it’s insights from Google Analytics or figures and stats from your own CRM, data is everywhere. And with so much of it coming from different sources, the crucial question is: which source should you trust?
Here’s where a SVOT (Single Version of the Truth) comes in handy.
By defining certain data as ‘correct’, it’ll be much easier to align your goals and objectives while keeping everyone in your team working on the same page.
Now, I admit this whole SVOT concept might be confusing at first and that’s why we created this guide.
We’ll show you exactly what a single version of the truth is, how it can improve your sales performance, and some of the best practices related to this concept.
What is a single version of truth (SVOT)?
In short, the expression “single version of the truth” represents the dataset that will be used throughout the company to measure performance and define future objectives.
Instead of relying on multiple data sources for decision-making, a SVOT helps you define the metrics that´ll mean success for you.
Let’s say you’re a SaaS trying to optimize your efforts for lead acquisition. In that case, different tools might register different data as “leads.”
For instance, an online form completion might register as a lead in Google Analytics, but downloading an ebook from your website might also register as a lead on your CRM. So how do you know which data you should be using to measure success and progress?
Well, a single version of the truth identifies one of these metrics as the ‘correct’ data. By doing this, the entire company will use the same data to measure success.
Single version of truth vs single source of truth
People tend to equate the concept “single version of truth” with “single source of truth.” While both concepts are pretty related, they’re slightly different.
So, before we get into the “nitty gritty” of this guide, let’s quickly talk about the differences between these two concepts.
The difference lies in the intent.
A SSOT is a data storage principle designed to keep data organized, avoid duplicate or denormalized data elements, and increase data accuracy. This principle, related to data center infrastructure, states that information should always be sourced from just one place.
On the other hand, a SVOT is intended to provide clarity to decision makers. It’s a verbalized agreement on the data you’ll trust and rely on.
Instead of depending on a variety of tools, you and your team will discuss what success means for you and define the data that better represents it.
As Bren Dykes states, “If a single source is focused on integrating and synchronizing data, a single version is about consolidating and aligning the reporting and analytics.”
How to improve sales performance with a SVOT
In today’s world, most business departments deal with an increasing volume of data, and sales isn’t the exception.
According to Capterra, there are over 5,000 sales tools available in the marketplace.
Even if your team uses just a handful of them, it’ll be hard to choose which numbers to focus on. To solve this problem, you must design a SVOT.
By centralizing your information and deciding which data you’ll trust, you’ll improve decision-making.
So let’s cover some of the best practices and benefits of an effective SVOT.
1. Increase organization-wide transparency
By removing silos between departments and making the right data more transparent to your sales team, you’ll maximize your sales efforts.
Let’s take this article on PEO companies as an example.
To see the best PEO companies in your area, you’re asked to enter your zip code.
Imagine they’re trying to launch a partner program where small businesses can get access to PEO companies at a discounted price.
With a SVOT in place, the sales reps in charge of promoting this program could access zip code data to identify the cities and areas that use their service the most and focus on businesses within those zones.
This way, their efforts would be more effective.
2. Improve customer experiences
According to Statista, 61% of decision makers in the US correlate fast customer service with an increase in revenue, which is a clear sign of the relevance of customer experiences in the sales process.
All the teams that manage customer data should work together to offer the best experience possible for their buyers. This will also improve their revenue operations strategy.
For instance, knowing whether a specific client has contacted customer support in the past, and being able to read the conversation before a sales call, can be helpful for a sales rep.
Or clearly stating what a “lead” means in your organization will help your marketing team send you more qualified prospects. This is why you need to have a sales tracking process in place to make sure all your leads are in the pipeline.
If you pay attention to Orizaba —a Mexican-style clothing store—you’ll notice how they use every channel to improve the overall experience.
You can’t only buy their products from their online store, but also from their Facebook page.
By consolidating all of this data into a single source of truth, they can increase consistency across all channels and build better relationships with their customers.
By applying this principle, each interaction will be aligned with the company’s goals and objectives. As a result, you’ll provide customers with consistent and concise messaging, and an all-around better experience.
3. Create consistency with branding
Lack of trust is the killer of sales.
If your prospects don’t trust your company, no matter how good of a salesperson you are, you won’t get very far.
That said, branding consistency is one of the best strategies to build trust and goodwill.
If your messaging is well-aligned with the values and beliefs of your customers, they’ll feel more connected to your brand.
An example would be Quetext and how they explain on their homepage the benefits of their plagiarism checker for the different users of their tools. By explaining the benefits for each, they are connecting on another level with these users.
Without a SVOT, achieving consistency becomes utopic, though.
If different departments are seeing and interpreting different data, their priorities will differ, and thus, your branding might seem dispersed.
You see, this is crucial.
Your branding should communicate a message that resonates with your audience. If your data is dispersed, you can’t find the right insights to base your brand on.
For instance, let’s say you want to increase brand awareness and decide to create a corporate video for your company.
If you don’t have access to data from customer support, it’ll be hard for you to discover the most frequent questions your customers are asking. A great idea to gather data from your customers is to implement a chatbot like MannequinMall is doing.
You can have a direct conversation with potential buyers, provide information about your products but they also invite them to book a demo, which helps to convert visitors into buyers.
Analyzing what your customers are asking through a chat plugin can help you discover their most frequent questions and can help your sales and marketing teams to provide better insights.
Now, this might seem a rather simple example, but it emphasizes the importance of a SVOT even in the smallest of your activities.
4. Identify key activities
The current problem with most sales teams isn’t the lack of a defined sales process, but a deficiency in focus.
Most sales teams don’t understand causality and correlation—they don’t know which activities drive the most results.
They don’t know whether the customer support team is doing all the heavy lifting nor which outreach and marketing emails are driving the most qualified prospects.
A SVOT can solve this problem by telling you exactly where you’re spending your time and the correlation between those activities and your actual results.
Quoting William Oleksiienko, from Reply.io:
“If you want to build a strong SDR process, you can’t just set it and forget it. To get results, you must keep an eye on how your SDRs are performing and then make any necessary changes […] SDR performance is determined by how many meetings they’re able to book. It would also make sense to check other metrics, such as positive reply rate and pipeline generated, to measure the quality of their outreach.” It is also highly recommended to utilize meeting notes to ensure their results are accurate and efficient.
Now, just knowing your key activities isn’t enough. To get results, you should communicate such activities to your entire team.
So, once you figure out your most productive activities, you should streamline the process and design a roadmap that showcases these activities in a logical order. A good way to do this is to install a Gantt chart for all your teams.
This way, everyone will understand what they should focus on. Additionally, roadmaps will clarify your value proposition and will support your sales reps during presentations.
In the end, a SVOT isn’t a luxury, but a necessity, especially in sales.
5. Leverage the power of software
Implementing a SVOT in your organization might seem intimidating, but with the right process, it’s relatively simple.
The first step is to verbalize an agreement with your team and define which data will represent success for you.
With this agreement in mind, now you should integrate and consolidate all of your data into one source of truth.
By doing so, you’ll reduce the amount of time spent flicking between different platforms. Also, you’ll make it easier to see the data that’s most important.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that a SVOT shouldn’t only integrate marketing and sales, but also accounting, finance, HR, and every one of your departments.
This process might seem difficult at first and, if you do it manually, it can be a true nightmare. Fortunately, many platforms out there offer integrations to speed up this process.
For instance, take a look at Frevvo’s homepage. If you scroll down a bit, you’ll find a section about their integrations:
Even though Frevvo is a workflow automation software, you can integrate most of your tools and still centralize your information into one place using their low-code workflow automation tools.
You’ll be glad to hear that most platforms offer this type of integration.
Key takeaways
So there you have it.
Now that you understand what a single version of the truth is and the benefits of implementing this concept, let’s talk about some of the key takeaways of this guide:
- Don’t just look at your CRM data and reports to craft your next sales strategy: create a SVOT by combining your sales pipeline, telephony, marketing campaigns, support tickets, and after-sales services data to improve your customer experience throughout the entire journey.
- Identify key activities by analyzing data from other departments: use the data you’ve got from your SVOT to find the correlation between results and activities to justify the actions you’re including in your sales processes.
- SVOTs increase trust through consistency: by standardizing your processes and messaging throughout all of your channels, your customers will trust you more and, therefore, your sales will increase.
Finally, remember that choosing the right field management software to consolidate your data is a vital step. If you’re looking for a business intelligence tool to connect all your data sources, blend that data, and visualize your KPIs in real-time, then MozartData may be a good fit.
MARKETING
Comparing Credibility of Custom Chatbots & Live Chat

Addressing customer issues quickly is not merely a strategy to distinguish your brand; it’s an imperative for survival in today’s fiercely competitive marketplace.
Customer frustration can lead to customer churn. That’s precisely why organizations employ various support methods to ensure clients receive timely and adequate assistance whenever they require it.
Nevertheless, selecting the most suitable support channel isn’t always straightforward. Support teams often grapple with the choice between live chat and chatbots.
The automation landscape has transformed how businesses engage with customers, elevating chatbots as a widely embraced support solution. As more companies embrace technology to enhance their customer service, the debate over the credibility of chatbots versus live chat support has gained prominence.
However, customizable chatbot continue to offer a broader scope for personalization and creating their own chatbots.
In this article, we will delve into the world of customer support, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of both chatbots and live chat and how they can influence customer trust. By the end, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of which option may be the best fit for your business.
The Rise of Chatbots
Chatbots have become increasingly prevalent in customer support due to their ability to provide instant responses and cost-effective solutions. These automated systems use artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to engage with customers in real-time, making them a valuable resource for businesses looking to streamline their customer service operations.
Advantages of Chatbots
24/7 Availability
One of the most significant advantages of custom chatbots is their round-the-clock availability. They can respond to customer inquiries at any time, ensuring that customers receive support even outside regular business hours.
Consistency
Custom Chatbots provide consistent responses to frequently asked questions, eliminating the risk of human error or inconsistency in service quality.
Cost-Efficiency
Implementing chatbots can reduce operational costs by automating routine inquiries and allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues.
Scalability
Chatbots can handle multiple customer interactions simultaneously, making them highly scalable as your business grows.
Disadvantages of Chatbots
Limited Understanding
Chatbots may struggle to understand complex or nuanced inquiries, leading to frustration for customers seeking detailed information or support.
Lack of Empathy
Chatbots lack the emotional intelligence and empathy that human agents can provide, making them less suitable for handling sensitive or emotionally charged issues.
Initial Setup Costs
Developing and implementing chatbot technology can be costly, especially for small businesses.
The Role of Live Chat Support
Live chat support, on the other hand, involves real human agents who engage with customers in real-time through text-based conversations. While it may not offer the same level of automation as custom chatbots, live chat support excels in areas where human interaction and empathy are crucial.
Advantages of Live Chat
Human Touch
Live chat support provides a personal touch that chatbots cannot replicate. Human agents can empathize with customers, building a stronger emotional connection.
Complex Issues
For inquiries that require a nuanced understanding or involve complex problem-solving, human agents are better equipped to provide in-depth assistance.
Trust Building
Customers often trust human agents more readily, especially when dealing with sensitive matters or making important decisions.
Adaptability
Human agents can adapt to various customer personalities and communication styles, ensuring a positive experience for diverse customers.
Disadvantages of Live Chat
Limited Availability
Live chat support operates within specified business hours, which may not align with all customer needs, potentially leading to frustration.
Response Time
The speed of response in live chat support can vary depending on agent availability and workload, leading to potential delays in customer assistance.
Costly
Maintaining a live chat support team with trained agents can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses strategically.
Building Customer Trust: The Credibility Factor
When it comes to building customer trust, credibility is paramount. Customers want to feel that they are dealing with a reliable and knowledgeable source. Both customziable chatbots and live chat support can contribute to credibility, but their effectiveness varies in different contexts.
Building Trust with Chatbots
Chatbots can build trust in various ways:
Consistency
Chatbots provide consistent responses, ensuring that customers receive accurate information every time they interact with them.
Quick Responses
Chatbots offer instant responses, which can convey a sense of efficiency and attentiveness.
Data Security
Chatbots can assure customers of their data security through automated privacy policies and compliance statements.
However, custom chatbots may face credibility challenges when dealing with complex issues or highly emotional situations. In such cases, the lack of human empathy and understanding can hinder trust-building efforts.
Building Trust with Live Chat Support
Live chat support, with its human touch, excels at building trust in several ways:
Empathy
Human agents can show empathy by actively listening to customers’ concerns and providing emotional support.
Tailored Solutions
Live chat agents can tailor solutions to individual customer needs, demonstrating a commitment to solving their problems.
Flexibility
Human agents can adapt to changing customer requirements, ensuring a personalized and satisfying experience.
However, live chat support’s limitations, such as availability and potential response times, can sometimes hinder trust-building efforts, especially when customers require immediate assistance.
Finding the Right Balance
The choice between custom chatbots and live chat support is not always binary. Many businesses find success by integrating both options strategically:
Initial Interaction
Use chatbots for initial inquiries, providing quick responses, and gathering essential information. This frees up human agents to handle more complex cases.
Escalation to Live Chat
Implement a seamless escalation process from custom chatbots to live chat support when customer inquiries require a higher level of expertise or personal interaction.
Continuous Improvement
Regularly analyze customer interactions and feedback to refine your custom chatbot’s responses and improve the overall support experience.
Conclusion
In the quest to build customer trust, both chatbots and live chat support have their roles to play. Customizable Chatbots offer efficiency, consistency, and round-the-clock availability, while live chat support provides the human touch, empathy, and adaptability. The key is to strike the right balance, leveraging the strengths of each to create a credible and trustworthy customer support experience. By understanding the unique advantages and disadvantages of both options, businesses can make informed decisions to enhance customer trust and satisfaction in the digital era.
MARKETING
The Rise in Retail Media Networks

As LL Cool J might say, “Don’t call it a comeback. It’s been here for years.”
Paid advertising is alive and growing faster in different forms than any other marketing method.
Magna, a media research firm, and GroupM, a media agency, wrapped the year with their ad industry predictions – expect big growth for digital advertising in 2024, especially with the pending US presidential political season.
But the bigger, more unexpected news comes from the rise in retail media networks – a relative newcomer in the industry.
Watch CMI’s chief strategy advisor Robert Rose explain how these trends could affect marketers or keep reading for his thoughts:
GroupM expects digital advertising revenue in 2023 to conclude with a 5.8% or $889 billion increase – excluding political advertising. Magna believes ad revenue will tick up 5.5% this year and jump 7.2% in 2024. GroupM and Zenith say 2024 will see a more modest 4.8% growth.
Robert says that the feeling of an ad slump and other predictions of advertising’s demise in the modern economy don’t seem to be coming to pass, as paid advertising not only survived 2023 but will thrive in 2024.
What’s a retail media network?
On to the bigger news – the rise of retail media networks. Retail media networks, the smallest segment in these agencies’ and research firms’ evaluation, will be one of the fastest-growing and truly important digital advertising formats in 2024.
GroupM suggests the $119 billion expected to be spent in the networks this year and should grow by a whopping 8.3% in the coming year. Magna estimates $124 billion in ad revenue from retail media networks this year.
“Think about this for a moment. Retail media is now almost a quarter of the total spent on search advertising outside of China,” Robert points out.
You’re not alone if you aren’t familiar with retail media networks. A familiar vernacular in the B2C world, especially the consumer-packaged goods industry, retail media networks are an advertising segment you should now pay attention to.
Retail media networks are advertising platforms within the retailer’s network. It’s search advertising on retailers’ online stores. So, for example, if you spend money to advertise against product keywords on Amazon, Walmart, or Instacart, you use a retail media network.
But these ad-buying networks also exist on other digital media properties, from mini-sites to videos to content marketing hubs. They also exist on location through interactive kiosks and in-store screens. New formats are rising every day.
Retail media networks make sense. Retailers take advantage of their knowledge of customers, where and why they shop, and present offers and content relevant to their interests. The retailer uses their content as a media company would, knowing their customers trust them to provide valuable information.
Think about these 2 things in 2024
That brings Robert to two things he wants you to consider for 2024 and beyond. The first is a question: Why should you consider retail media networks for your products or services?
Advertising works because it connects to the idea of a brand. Retail media networks work deep into the buyer’s journey. They use the consumer’s presence in a store (online or brick-and-mortar) to cross-sell merchandise or become the chosen provider.
For example, Robert might advertise his Content Marketing Strategy book on Amazon’s retail network because he knows his customers seek business books. When they search for “content marketing,” his book would appear first.
However, retail media networks also work well because they create a brand halo effect. Robert might buy an ad for his book in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal because he knows their readers view those media outlets as reputable sources of information. He gains some trust by connecting his book to their media properties.
Smart marketing teams will recognize the power of the halo effect and create brand-level experiences on retail media networks. They will do so not because they seek an immediate customer but because they can connect their brand content experience to a trusted media network like Amazon, Nordstrom, eBay, etc.
The second thing Robert wants you to think about relates to the B2B opportunity. More retail media network opportunities for B2B brands are coming.
You can already buy into content syndication networks such as Netline, Business2Community, and others. But given the astronomical growth, for example, of Amazon’s B2B marketplace ($35 billion in 2023), Robert expects a similar trend of retail media networks to emerge on these types of platforms.
“If I were Adobe, Microsoft, Salesforce, HubSpot, or any brand with big content platforms, I’d look to monetize them by selling paid sponsorship of content (as advertising or sponsored content) on them,” Robert says.
As you think about creative ways to use your paid advertising spend, consider the retail media networks in 2024.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
MARKETING
AI driving an exponential increase in marketing technology solutions

The martech landscape is expanding and AI is the prime driving force. That’s the topline news from the “Martech 2024” report released today. And, while that will get the headline, the report contains much more.
Since the release of the most recent Martech Landscape in May 2023, 2,042 new marketing technology tools have surfaced, bringing the total to 13,080 — an 18.5% increase. Of those, 1,498 (73%) were AI-based.

“But where did it land?” said Frans Riemersma of Martech Tribe during a joint video conference call with Scott Brinker of ChiefMartec and HubSpot. “And the usual suspect, of course, is content. But the truth is you can build an empire with all the genAI that has been surfacing — and by an empire, I mean, of course, a business.”
Content tools accounted for 34% of all the new AI tools, far ahead of video, the second-place category, which had only 4.85%. U.S. companies were responsible for 61% of these tools — not surprising given that most of the generative AI dynamos, like OpenAI, are based here. Next up was the U.K. at 5.7%, but third place was a big surprise: Iceland — with a population of 373,000 — launched 4.6% of all AI martech tools. That’s significantly ahead of fourth place India (3.5%), whose population is 1.4 billion and which has a significant tech industry.
Dig deeper: 3 ways email marketers should actually use AI
The global development of these tools shows the desire for solutions that natively understand the place they are being used.
“These regional products in their particular country…they’re fantastic,” said Brinker. “They’re loved, and part of it is because they understand the culture, they’ve got the right thing in the language, the support is in that language.”
Now that we’ve looked at the headline stuff, let’s take a deep dive into the fascinating body of the report.
The report: A deeper dive
Marketing technology “is a study in contradictions,” according to Brinker and Riemersma.
In the new report they embrace these contradictions, telling readers that, while they support “discipline and fiscal responsibility” in martech management, failure to innovate might mean “missing out on opportunities for competitive advantage.” By all means, edit your stack meticulously to ensure it meets business value use cases — but sure, spend 5-10% of your time playing with “cool” new tools that don’t yet have a use case. That seems like a lot of time.
Similarly, while you mustn’t be “carried away” by new technology hype cycles, you mustn’t ignore them either. You need to make “deliberate choices” in the realm of technological change, but be agile about implementing them. Be excited by martech innovation, in other words, but be sensible about it.
The growing landscape
Consolidation for the martech space is not in sight, Brinker and Riemersma say. Despite many mergers and acquisitions, and a steadily increasing number of bankruptcies and dissolutions, the exponentially increasing launch of new start-ups powers continuing growth.
It should be observed, of course, that this is almost entirely a cloud-based, subscription-based commercial space. To launch a martech start-up doesn’t require manufacturing, storage and distribution capabilities, or necessarily a workforce; it just requires uploading an app to the cloud. That is surely one reason new start-ups appear at such a startling rate.
Dig deeper: AI ad spending has skyrocketed this year
As the authors admit, “(i)f we measure by revenue and/or install base, the graph of all martech companies is a ‘long tail’ distribution.” What’s more, focus on the 200 or so leading companies in the space and consolidation can certainly be seen.
Long-tail tools are certainly not under-utilized, however. Based on a survey of over 1,000 real-world stacks, the report finds long-tail tools constitute about half of the solutions portfolios — a proportion that has remained fairly consistent since 2017. The authors see long-tail adoption where users perceive feature gaps — or subpar feature performance — in their core solutions.
Composability and aggregation
The other two trends covered in detail in the report are composability and aggregation. In brief, a composable view of a martech stack means seeing it as a collection of features and functions rather than a collection of software products. A composable “architecture” is one where apps, workflows, customer experiences, etc., are developed using features of multiple products to serve a specific use case.
Indeed, some martech vendors are now describing their own offerings as composable, meaning that their proprietary features are designed to be used in tandem with third-party solutions that integrate with them. This is an evolution of the core-suite-plus-app-marketplace framework.
That framework is what Brinker and Riemersma refer to as “vertical aggregation.” “Horizontal aggregation,” they write, is “a newer model” where aggregation of software is seen not around certain business functions (marketing, sales, etc.) but around a layer of the tech stack. An obvious example is the data layer, fed from numerous sources and consumed by a range of applications. They correctly observe that this has been an important trend over the past year.
Build it yourself
Finally, and consistent with Brinker’s long-time advocacy for the citizen developer, the report detects a nascent trend towards teams creating their own software — a trend that will doubtless be accelerated by support from AI.
So far, the apps that are being created internally may be no more than “simple workflows and automations.” But come the day that app development is so democratized that it will be available to a wide range of users, the software will be a “reflection of the way they want their company to operate and the experiences they want to deliver to customers. This will be a powerful dimension for competitive advantage.”
Constantine von Hoffman contributed to this report.
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