I recently had the pleasure of talking with Scott Brinker of Chief Martec about where sales and marketing technology is heading in the future.
Scott started his Chief Martec blog to discuss and review technology solutions in the service of marketing or sales -- marketing automation platforms, social media marketing systems, content management systems (CMS), CRMs and content marketing tools. There has been an explosion of technology solutions within the marketing and sales space, and it is difficult to find a category where there isn't some sort of disruptive innovation happening. There are likely 5,000 or more companies in this space now -- from a few multi-billion-dollar companies like Adobe or Salesforce to a plethora of hundred-million-dollar enterprises, to what is an infinite long tail of companies, some of whom are not yet profitable. The technology empowering marketing and sales is an order of magnitude greater than the capabilities available just 10 years ago.