Tagged: Sales Process RSS

  • Tom Canning 3:02 pm on March 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Sales Process   

    robotbwAre You A Sales 2.0 Robot?

    Ok, time to put the robot picture on the right hand side of the blog! Why is this significant you ask? Because it represents a shift in my way of thinking. I resent shifts. I actually hate shifts. But they are required and I force myself to make them from time to time. This topic ties in with an upcoming guest blog post I am writing on the concept of evolution and how it applies to Sales 2.0. Look for it next week.

    It’s been a busy month in San Francisco. The Sales 2.0 Conference was a blast! I got to meet really cool people and hang with the stars of Sales 2.0. It almost sounds like it could be a TV show! Stars included Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway who wrote the book Sales 2.0, Sales Strategist  Jill Konrath and Sales 2.0 Shaker Nigel Edelshain. I had to be quick on my feet for Sales Evangelist Karl Goldfield for a quick on the spot interview. I think he talks almost as fast as I do! So as you can see – I’ve been busy.

    This robot thing came to me after the Sales 2.0 conference dust had settled and I had some time to reflect on the show and all the folks I had met

    Is there a danger we will all become Sales 2.0 robots? If the sales processes and tools are emerging and converging to support this evolution – what’s left for me to be me and for anyone to be able to differentiate themselves? Well – there are steps in a sales process which are robotic – like setting up a webex, (oh I hate that so much!) driving to a call, or getting bumped on your United Airlines flight – but the rest is all about you baby! We can and should always apply our personality and active reasoning to all parts of any sales process or methodology we follow. “Let’s keep it real” as they say. But let’s also “Get er done” in terms of correctly aligning with the customer’s needs and getting the business closed.

    Apart from the conference and some night time tech events, we’ve been busy in Connectize Labs working on real time collaboration capabilities and content for the account wiki. I’ve been a little quiet with the community – I realize everyone is time challenged – so once we finish up and deploy a few of the major features we are working on – I will notify everyone and ask for your feedback. Unlike a robot – I will take feedback and actually roll it that into our product road map! I hope to be a good community manager but I need your support and direction.

    Don’t be a boring robot. Be a Sales 2.0 Superstar!

     

    • Anneke Seley 10:27 am on March 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Wow, Tom. I’m flattered to be called a Sales 2.0 Star! Thanks for emphasizing that Sales 2.0 isn’t just about the things we associate with robots: process, measurement, and technology. In my view, a key element of practicing Sales 2.0 is creating and strengthening trusted, authentic, and respectful relationships with our clients. Sales people in best-performing companies combine art with science.

  • Tom Canning 5:01 pm on February 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Sales Process   

    dangerbw

    Danger: Don’t Be Just Another Sales 2.0 Peep!

    Yes – that’s the headline today. I mean it’s all good to follow Sales 2.0 as a new methodology and belief – but the real key is to make sure you bring your personality along it. For anyone is sales, personality is a really key factor that can make or break a deal. Don’t let Sales 2.0 or social media change that. Typing in your Twitter update, Facebook’s “What are you doing now” or Linkedin’s “What are you working on?” still needs to promote and differentiate you as the person you really are. If you post boring and really vanilla updates – you will have your customers in a deep coma. It’s great to see “I am washing the car” or “Just finished shining my shoes”, but wouldn’t it be much more interesting to post “just finished reading Oracle’s eWeek on-demand release 16 article – check it out at http://tinyurl.com/bs7ydg“

    Get it? Start using these free services as a way to promote your interests and expertise in a sales way. It’s your personal fabric, weave it for the best results and value to your customers and prospects! Post independent thoughts that set you aside from the noise and offers a perspective your customers will appreciate and value.

    So how can you start to shift towards this way of thinking? Start listening to the experts! I recently had the opportunity to become acquainted with Jonathan Farrington – who is sp_partner_160bwthe master of sales consultancy and is based in London. Jonathon has created TSE – Top Selling Experts and it is one of the greatest time savers for sales people anywhere. Why? Because it’s one of the fastest ways to get a pulse on what is actually happening across the top sales trainer, bloggers and sales consultants. I know first hand how time consuming it is to surf the web for “stuff”. Hey – you can either waste time looking or spend time reading – your choice! Jonathan has created an Article Vault – I’d seriously check it out. Remember – sometimes just the slightest change in strategy can result in a major win within an account. Why not take advantage of the collective intelligence of others (see my Crowsourcing post) and see how it can help you in this time of economic downturn.

    This Week’s News: Let me congratulate the folks at Coit Staffing. Not only do they help sales people across the world advance their careers – but they also helped Connectize in helping coitbwpromote our beta. A big thanks to Joe Belluomini and the staff at Coit!  Joe is not only a great guy – but he also hosts the The Monte Carlo Night 2009 in San Francisco benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A great cause to support!

     

  • Tom Canning 5:49 pm on February 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Sales Process   

    matchstickbwTime To Light Up Your Sales 2.0 Strategy? Starting something new is always a pain isn’t it?  Why bother…

    • I am really busy eh?..
    • I’ve been traveling all week…
    • I’ll add this my Outlook or SFDC tasks. Next week….

    The good news is that there is no big rush for most things – they say “Don’t sweat the small stuff” right?   So as far as this sales 2.0 stuff goes, ” Tom,  just let me get this quarter over and worry about it in Q2.”  No problem with that approach – as you will have plenty of time while you search Monster and Linkedin for your next sales job after missing your Q1 number!  Come on folks – it’s February 2009 – you need to have kicked in your Sales 2.0 game plan!  Did you?  Nope.  I know.  And I know why.  You just don’t know what Sales 2.0 is and how to get started!

    It’s not like going to see a dentist – but I think a lot of sales people think it is.  Sales 2.0 is not a do-it-once-a-year drilling.  It is a planned and measurable process and tool set that will increase the most important aspect of your sales career – more customers!  Ok, so I jumped a lot of steps in between, and went from concept to big commission check in one sentence.  No worries.  Over time – I will be sharing what I think makes a really good Sales 2.0 self starter plan.  Why do I think it will be a good plan?  Because everyone will be able to understand it, apply it and see results.  Sales 2.0 is in bold five times (5x) in this posting to start getting you used to the term and thinking about it.

    podtech_vmware_roi_vdi2

    This Week’s News: Paul Cohan is our winner! Paul is a senior recruiter at Vmware and helps great sales people get involved with virtualization. Thanks Paul for helping share the news of Connectize!

     

  • Tom Canning 5:02 pm on December 9, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Sales Process   

    Crowdsourcing: Fast Track to Sales Information 

    Jeff Howe is a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, where he covers the media and entertainment industry. I saw his video on YouYube and thought I would share it on my blog today. Crowdsourcing, as Jeff describes it, is when “a company takes a job that was once performed by employees and outsources it in the form of an open call to a large undefined group of people”

    Mmm…  I remember working for various companies were we had employees responsible for competitive intelligence, lead generation, territory help and basically attempting to enable the sales organization to be more effective and efficient. I also remember how rarely that information actually helped me close a deal! For years, smart sales people have “crowdsourced” the important information they needed – and it was this information that made them successful in their sales execution. I’m really pleased that Jeff has written this book. You can check it out at Amazon.

    Read More >>

     

  • Tom Canning 5:44 pm on November 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Sales Process   

    Sales 2.0 – Are You ready? 

    saleslicensebw1Are you Sales 2.0 licensed yet?

    Can you imagine if every sales person had to get a license to sell?  Maybe it would look like this?

    As Sales 2.0 starts to heat up in the market place – there will be a lot of changes in the ways that we find and sell to customers.  If you look at the Sales 2.0 conference that took place in San Francisco last week – you can see that this change is starting to happen.  Panel discussions included; Sales Process 2.0, Customer Engagement 2.0 and even Compensation 2.0!

    The real question for any busy sales person is - “What the heck is Sales 2.0?” and “Can it save me time and make me money?“

    Enter the Sales 2.0 tools world and we’re starting to see a new level of sales enablement to drive and deliver the early principles of Sales 2.0.  For me, It’s all about increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of a sales process – let me get my job done as quickly as I can and maximize the end results for both my customer, my company and myself.  I like win-win and that should core value for anyone involved in sales.

    So, why do we need Sales 2.0?  Simply put – the Sales 1.0 model is completely broken.  Take a look at the enterprise software space.  Mix together the the availability of information/standards groups/events/webinars/blogs on the Internet, throw in open source (cheap), software-as-a-service (no commitment required),  and finish with web 2.0 consumer applications (sexy, cool, free).  It leaves the whole enterprise software space gasping for a new model and process to adjust to a heavily educated and consumer influenced customer.  Today’s customers are faster, smarter and have a ton of choices.  Sales cycles are compressing, deals sizes are falling, and everyone wants to chop the cost of sales – it tells me that it is time to change the model.

    Over the next few posts – I will start sharing my thoughts on Sales 2.0.  Certainly, the idea of collaboration, leveraging and monetizing shared expertise is certainly on the top of my mind.  As we evolve Connectize – you will see features that reinforce this direction in our service.

    This week’s product update:

    • New site design
    • Network grouping using tags
    • Group messaging
    • My Website for blog/company/personal promotion
    • Additional email address/log-in support

    Next week we start work on team and private group capabilities. Think of private marketplaces for internal sales teams or business groups and you start to see where Collaboration 2.0 meets Sales 2.0…

     

  • Tom Canning 7:30 pm on November 9, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Sales Acceleration, Sales Leads, Sales Pipeline, Sales Process   

    News: A Catalyst for Connecting With Others 

    newguybw

    Have you seen the news?  Have you heard the news?

    News is something that drives our professional activities everyday.  Sales and business people react to the news they hear and the news they make!

    When I was in sales, I used to read news feeds and articles while having an early ( or not so early ) morning cup of coffee.  I would leverage both positive and negative news in my daily sales efforts – it was a way to differentiate myself from the “other” sales people.  In the customer’s eyes I was on top of my game and a person to trust.  It was also a catalyst for reaching out to new prospects.  News creates action.  It is a reason to search out and connect!

    Read More >>

     

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