There's been so much crap written about "everything 2.0", yet I've seen scant discussion, that is to say that there's really been NO discussion, on what "Sales 2.0" really means for the discipline of sales and marketing.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm delivering a course at a local tech college on Wednesday that's titled "Better Selling Through Technology", but that's really a user-friendly name for the bigger agenda of starting to spread the word on "Sales 2.0".

What changes in Sales 2.0? Well, I think there are a few key things. Keep in mind, this is a working document, so bear with me, not everything's gonig to hold water at this point.

Sales 2.0

General themes:
- Sales reps have more control over the tools that they use; the CIO no longer makes one-size-fits-all technology decisions for the sales force
- Sales reps are taking customer communications into their own hands and to an entirely new level. Starting their own blogs, engaging in social networking and generally putting a friendlier face, theirs, on the corporate message.
- Web-app based mission critical tools such as instant messaging, salesforce.com, virtual assistants and online project management tools.
- Free or nearly free services as reliable, relied upon, enterprise tools. Free conference calls, blogging software and other free enablers, which once carried some stigma or were thought unreliable are enabling a new class of sales executive 2.0.
- Always on sales people. Broadband penetration among the ranks of sales professionals is much higher than even five years ago when we all 'dialed in' at the end of the day to check email. This opens up new possibilities for connectivity and real-time interaction
- Voice and email on par with one another. Blackberries and Treos now accompany many salespeople out into their rounds in the field. Customers have come to expect the same response time from whatever communique they send your way.
- End-user power. It's no longer just he buyer that's got influence. When innovation and ideas come from all over the enterprise, you never know when you next sale-influencer will come from.

Areas affected by Sales 2.0:
- Voice communications (VOIP, cell, Skype)
- Sales rep availability (always on)
- Conference calling (free)
- Sales force automation (web based)
- Customer communication (blogging, email)
- Customer community (wiki, jotspot)
- Project management
- Messaging
- email (mobile)
- IM (in office, sidekick, etc)
- Pre-call planning / customer research
- Collaboration (internal blogs, wikis, IM)
- Collateral (real time, PDF, POD (print on demand)
- Document authoring (web document authoring)

Sales 2.0 Vendor List:
- Storyquest
- Zimbra
- Skype
- Vonage
- Salesforce.com
- Sugar CRM
- Basecamp
- TypePad

Pre-call planning:
- I can remember back 7 years ago when it was a real novelty to research companies on the internet before a sales call. Between Yahoo and Hoovers there wasn't much you couldn't find, and it was really all you needed going in. Now, pre-call planning has moved from an episodic research endeavor to an ongoing conversation monitoring art. Sure, Hoovers is still relevant, but now we have Technorati, to keep up on the blog conversation about our customers (and us) and Google news alerts along with your prospects' RSS feeds. Now, pre call planning is not part of the evening ritual, it's an ongoing part of a sales executive's job description.

> Enablers:
- Google news alerts
- RSS feeds & aggregators
- NewsGator, Bloglines
- Technorati.com search feeds.

Availability:
- The day has arrived that customers have come to expect persistent availability. Asking customers to try your office, your cell phone, your pager or whatever other phone number you have is often too much to ask. Once only within reach of large corporations with enterprise phone systems, everyone from the medium size sales force to the solo sales rep can now take advantage of services that aggregate phone service, voicemail, call forwarding , fax and virtual PBX service for one low price.

> Enablers:
- Vonage for basic voice over IP, call forwarding and retrieving messages through emailed MP3 attachments or from anywhere via a dial in number. You can even get different vonage numbers for each local that you serve, making it a local call for your customers.
- GotVMail Communications offers an virtual PBX, fax, call forwarding and a wide array of additional virtual services such as virtual assistant starting at less than $10 per month.
- Onebox.com (J2 company...owners of Jfax)
- http://www.virtualpbx.com/

VOIP:
- Sure, Vonage is great, but it's not portable. Skype is. I recently talked to a friend who's a college recruiter working from his home office who is using Skype almost exclusively. Whether he's in a hotel, a coffee house, his own house, or visiting friends near the beach, his office phone is never more than a boot-up a way. Moreover, Skype now offers call forwarding, so if you happen to be using a cell phone or land line and don't have Skype turned on, it will forward to any number you choose.

> Enablers:
- Skype - www.skype.com
- Also, Gizmo Project

RESOURCES:
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P14914_0_4_0_C
http://www.nickdenton.org/002173.html
http://www.evhead.com/2005/04/running-your-company-on-web-apps.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/assnfe/ev.asp?MODE=&SNID=945900684&ID=77

My friend Elaine is looking for some talented people with Siebel in their blood. There are a number of really great positions. Know anyone?

If you or anyone you know is interested, please contact Elaine Motyl at elaine dot motyl at whiteboard-partners.net.

The positions:

1. Siebel Business Analyst
2. Sr Siebel Business Analyst
3. Technical Analyst
4. Siebel Application Interface Consultant(2 positions)
5. Siebel Configurator
6. Siebel Interface Consultant
7. Business Objects Project Manager
8. Business Objects Administrator
9. Strong Business Intelligence Analyst

THE SOCIETY FOR SELF-SERVICE TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS (S3TP) INTRODUCED AT KIOSKCOM.COM 2005
The Society for Self-Service Technology Professionals, or S3TP, a new organization specifically focused on ensuring successful deployments for end-users, officially launched last week. "This new society will be dedicated to promoting the acceptance, implementation and best practices of kiosks and interactive self-service technology," said executive director Lawrence Dvorchik.

For more information, visit www.S3TP.com

I'm spending the week in Chicago at the DCI Shared Insights CRM conference. It's amazing how much crossover between what companies should be doing about blogging and what companies should be doing, or are doing, in the CRM space.

DestinationCRM on 10 CRM technology evolutions

Many of today's most effective CRM processes and strategies are so successful because of the underlying technologies that enable and support them. In our dynamic, evolving industry new technologies continue to allow us to interact with customers in ways we never imagined. This is not to say that technology is the end-all in CRM--we still need engaged people, relevant processes, and quality data. But when properly implemented, technology can take that powerful threesome even farther. Consider the already heady impact and potential of the following 10 technologies...

1. VoIP
   
2. Web Services and Services Oriented Architecture
   
3. Speech Applications
   
4. Outsourced Application Delivery
   
5. Social Networking
   
6. Wireless Connectivity and Applications
   
7. Presence Technologies (RFID, POS)
   
8. Open Source CRM
   
9. Embedded Analytics and Business Intelligence
   
10. Queue Management
    

I just took advantage of Local Number Portability (LNP) to transition my former AT&T number to a new Verizon number due to a number of factors, but mainly because I get a better deal through my employer’s discount.

What I was pleasantly surprised at were the following:

1. Verizon was more than accommodating in explaining how their billing, coverage, phones, and service worked, and were intstrumental in helping me choose exactly the right plan. Their AT&T counterparts here in Green Bay are assholes.
   
2. Local Number Portability really does work. It took only 7 minutes for my number to reach my new phone.
   
3. Talk about some great process work – once you switch your number to a new provider, it initiates an account cancellation sequence at AT&T which cuts your service and sends out your last bill which is pro-rated to where you left off with your service.
   
4. AT&T customer service was very helpful in explaining that basically, I didn’t even need to call them to cancel, and their CRM system knew exactly how long I had been a subscriber and thanked my for my 6 years of loyalty to them.
   

I was in a meeting today with a 20 year veteran of the company when he said "my vision for a sales force dashboard would look like a stock tracking page." No shit, I thought, of course it would! What better way to view your customers than with a full cadre of metrics spanning the last year, 2 years, or more. You would be able to set custom limits, parameters, and alarms that alert you when they go above or below your pre-set points, and alert you when you need to make a decision on action.

We continuously struggle with how to make the sales dashboard a more effective one, and the answer could be right under our noses!

I know, this isn't the be-all end all, there are flaws in this thinking. However, every idea's good for at least 15 seconds, and it pays to consider modeling one of the most challenging problems in sales tracking and sales technology on one of most steadfast and successful tracking tools know to man.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Author and CRM consultant Martha Rogers kicked off the Smart CRM West conference by comparing customers to stocks. They're both worth something today and their value will increase or decrease over time, she said.

[via SearchCRM.com]

Real-time mobile devices for CRM can have a wide-ranging positive impact on customer satisfaction through automation for both simple and complex functions. The more complex functions need the most attention to processes and bandwidth considerations. But only effective understanding of these functions by the organization and technology vendors will result in satisfaction becoming a realization. For successful implementations, organizations must use incentives to drive user adoption of customer-centric strategies and to realize whatever success metrics have been established.

That being said, deployment of these types of mobile systems is unwise unless an underlying strategy is in place with defined processes and integration needs. The strategy should also include a breakeven analysis of whether real-time synchronization is cost justifiable or not. Before organizations get too enamored with these solutions they first must understand what problem(s) they are trying to solve and identify measurable ROI.

[adapted from desintationCRM - Assessing Readiness for Mobile CRM]

When Office Depot Inc. first surveyed its business contract customers a few years ago regarding their interest in online payments, less than 1% said they wanted to pay online. Yet, when that same survey was done again in '03, that number rose to over 60%!

"We can save millions of dollars in having customers go online instead of asking us for paper reprints and reports,"

Just like "the best products are never part of a focus group", this speaks volumes to the theory of just pushing ahead and innovating. Everyone saves and almost everyone wins with this type of initiative.

[via Internet Retailer]

When we say "build for CRM", we mean, build_for_CRM. Right now we are in the midst of advising a retail client on how to integrate their POS system, online gift card sales, loyalty program, and e-mail marketing program. Yes, in a perfect world with lots of money and nothing invested in legacy data stores, we'd integrate this all into one. But, we don't have that luxury, so what's a marketer to do?

Having an integrated database strategy does not mean that you have to have everything in one place to begin with. For example, it's sometimes infeasible to hold all of your customer data in your permission-based, opt-in, ASP hosted e-mail marketing database. However, it does mean that you should consider how you will pull that data in and merge it with sales data to understand which customers clicked, browsed, and purchased based on your marketing (and that's just e-mail, we haven't even touched on integrating loyalty yet!)

The likelihood of success in a corporate CRM implementation can be improved from less than 15% to as much as 80% by the careful prioritisation and selection of key CRM approaches and business processes, according to a global survey published by IBM Business Consulting Services.

Interestingly, more expensive aspects of CRM (customer relationship management) such as technology implementation and data integration proved to be of secondary importance for CRM success compared to other aspects such as human-oriented steps.

From 'The CRM Global Study: Doing CRM Right'. The executive summary of the report has been made available on IBM's web site as a 24-page PDF document.

[via The Wise Marketer]

The Contra Costa Times: New technology is all about 'presence'

Spawned by the popularity of instant messaging buddy lists, a new technology trend known as "presence" is all about making people aware that you're available.

New developments in Instant Messaging and "presence" software could change workflow and make employees more productive, or so software developers at the annual DEMO trade show claim. Some new programs allow for sophisticated presence capabilities, making scheduling meetings and conferences more seamless.

I'm personally a huge fan of this concept, both internally and for customers visiting your website. In fact, one of the benefits of being at Warner Bros. when AOL took over was that we all got on the AOL IM bandwagon, and I could IM anyone from my boss to my employees in other buildings on the campus down the street. It was an invaluable tool.

Right now, this means 3 things to me:

1. Use IM internally within your company to streamline communications (but don't replace a good phone conversation when needed)
2. Have IM addresses on website - assign someone to chat
3. Use LivePerson or some such application on e-commerce sites to allow immediate interactions