This is a framework that Salesforce pioneered years ago. Marc Benioff talks about it in Behind the Cloud—and it's where Connect The Dots got its name.
The seven plays
- S — Seed & Grow. Land small, prove value, then expand.
- U — Users Sell for You. Happy users are your best sales force.
- C — Compelling Demos. Show, don't tell.
- C — Connect The Dots. Use the relationships around you to reach buyers through warm introductions.
- E — Experience Events. Bring customers and prospects together.
- S — Sell High and Sell Through. Reach executives and multi-thread accounts.
- S — Show Them the Money. Anchor everything in customer ROI.
Two things stand out when revisiting the SUCCESS framework:
1
These plays stand up 20 years later
Cold channels keep getting noisier, but seeding accounts, activating users, and selling through relationships work as well today as they did on Salesforce's way from $0 to $1B.
2
CTD makes these plays far easier to execute
"Connect the dots" used to mean asking around and hoping someone remembered a relationship. Relationship intelligence makes the whole play systematic: every relationship your team has, scored and searchable, with the warmest path to any buyer one query away.
