James Obermayer, Executive Director and CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association and President of Sales Leakage Consulting is a regular guest blogger with ViewPoint. This month Jim's intention is to stimulate conversation...

I am asking you to take a journey of Counterfactual Reflection.*

Counterfactual reflection is considering a turning point in the past and making assumptions as if the event had not occurred. I have chosen Marketing Automation for this month and next month I would like to undertake the same exercise for CRM. Right now, let’s concentrate on Marketing Automation.

For the average marketer to understand the value of marketing automation I ask that each reader post the “things that would not have happened if Marketing Automation in its present form had not been invented.”

What would be the state of marketing departments? What would be the condition of the sales channels? What differences in marketing and sales management would have occurred if marketing automation with all of its benefits would not be a part of B2B and B2C marketing today?

Footnote: Professor Laura Kray, Professor Philip Tetlock. Might Have Been to What Must Have Been: Counterfactual Thinking Creates Meaning" was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in January 2010