Sales 2.0

Over the last few weeks, we reviewed the concepts of Social Selling and The Social Enterprise. This week we will marry the aforementioned concepts in the revolution known as Sales 2.0. In my estimation there are 3 key characteristics to Sales 2.0:

• Introducing Compelling Content
• Performing Rock Star Presentations
• The Forgotten Concept of Human Interaction

Cold Calling is Dead
Very few people answer the office phone, everyone has caller ID, and calling from a blocked number is a poor way to establish trust. Everyone is busy and interruptions are never well received. Even the magic phone controllers of yesteryear need a point of reference these days.

In order to make an impact you need content to support your prospecting efforts that is easy to access and simple to understand:

• Value propositions must be conveyed within 10 seconds
• Content has to be written in your prospective customer's language
• The best way to intrigue your buying audience is by entertaining them 

Maybe you have a knack for writing concise and meaningful emails. You might be able to peak customer interest through video sharing. Maybe social media has served as an engagement point. These days a phone call or smile without significant content attached to it will commoditize you as another pretty face.

Wake Up Call
Sales teams spend countless hours preparing for the big pitch. We think ourselves in circles obsessing over the intricacies of our products and services. We get in front of a prospective customer and take them way down the rabbit whole....a 90 minute crash course training on how our products works......without considering WHY they would want to use it. Repeat this pain staking process 4 times and you have a day in the life of a buyer....no wonder why they're grumpy.

All sales people want to be Rock Stars....your content and how you present it is your Rock Opera!

You can differentiate yourself from the other boring presenters by doing the following:

• Deliver multi-media presentations that are "fun" for your audience
• Consult in an interactive manner
• Articulate a business solution (not a product or service)

We all know the fine points of where we are better than our competitors....our buyer doesn't care. The key to wining is presenting as if you were a co-worker not a potential "vendor".

The Secret Sauce
The sales folk are aggressive and articulate but they still seem to believe their gift of gab is all that matters. The marketing folk have amazing content but engaging at the point of sale requires more than product functionality. Sales 2.0 brings great content and differentiated consultation together. But, don't fall into the trap. There are products built by brilliant programmers who know how products function but are unable to articulate why they will make a potential customer's business better. It's not about the widget!

The key to winning in sales is to develop the ability to become a consultant not a salesperson, a partner not a vendor, a friendly advisor not an annoying product pusher.

Consider This....

• Don't demonstrate a product, present a solution
• A brand is only as good as the people who represent it
• Make is easy
• Make it fun!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave          

People Not Contacts

It was a great day in San Francisco on March 12th. The Sales Giants of Tomorrow braved the time change to attend Inside View's Insider Summit. It was a well put together event...great keynote, 1 minute sponsor intros and short/informative breakout sessions. A lot of information in a snapshot....such are times in which we exist.

Umberto Milletti eloquently delivered the message of the day.....selling is about people not contacts. Umberto told us that he, as a buyer, does not answer the phone and rarely replies to email. He then noted that commercial real estate agents are among the most pushy salespeople but when he requested information for commercial space on Twitter only 2 people replied. A reflection on the swinging pendulum of sales. It is no longer about having the gift of gab or an extroverted personality. It is about doing your research, differentiating your solution to the personality of your buyer, and finding a creative way to access them. The game is changing and if you stick to your old methods your forehead will start bleeding.....from running into walls!

Introducing the 3 Stages of Social Selling:
Personal Access
Differentiation
Silver Bullet

How did you know that?
....because it's on your facebook page.

Still to this day people are surprised when I mention their favorite baseball team or a current event at their alma mater - and this is the easily accessible information. Don't worry about freaking out your buyer. You can find out a lot about a person in a 15 minute review of their LinkedIn profile, Twitter page, Facebook posts and/or blog. If they put it out there it is yours to share in....the key is using the information in a differentiating way without creeping someone out!!!!!!

Information is not an Invitation!
Be an advisor not a stalker! Use the elements of a person's personality conveyed through social media only in ways applicable to your products/services.

Don't:
Tell someone their daughter is beautiful!
Revisit a political or religious opinion that may have been posted!
Ask if you can have permission to date the aforementioned beautiful daughter!!!

Do:
Mention an industry relevant article or case study that they posted, retweeted, or favored
Mention a common professional connection
Correlate the benefit of your solution in metaphor to their favorite team winning (...tricky...)

The introduction is over
People's time has never been more precious. They will smile and entertain your personal probing questions but they would rather you cut to the chase. You can now access the answers to all the stupid "ice breaker" questions before you check in with the receptionist.

With all the information at your finger tips everything you say should be direct and relevant. Formulate and customize a presentation (or conversation strategy) that is personally engaging. If you are smooth in your delivery (which every salesperson should be) you will come off as a subject matter expert: "This guy knows my business and his product matches what I do really well".

The New Age in Sales
* Everyone thinks sales people are pushy. You have a direct path to victory if you can dispel that presumption.
* Time is money: be relevant, precise and direct.
* Know not just what they do but why it matters and how you can help.

The tools are there but they are commonly avoided. The salespeople who are winning have put themselves on the buyers side of the table through research and the ability to differentiate. The salespeople who are losing think they can still rely on their big mouth to impress people.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"   - Albert Einstein

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Enterprise 2.0 - Part 2.0

Earlier this week, I wrote of the mind meld that is Enterprise 2.0. The Santa Clara Convention Center and the Twitter back channel was filled with awesomeness this week. Consultants, Entrepreneurs and Community Advocates from Major Corporations gathered to contribute their Thought Leadership in development of a strategic approach to Social Media.

As a Social Media Evangelist, I can say this conference was equal parts inspiring and alarming. We are always trying to use technology to support our companies and customers in the best way possible. We want to keep up with trends while protecting our public reputation. It's tricky!

I pointed out the superstars of the convention earlier this week. Today I have a few take aways to challenge those who believe in the power of social media.

The Art of Presenting
I've been to a thousand conferences.....Human Resources, Training, Coaching, Sales, Music Industry....whatever. The thing that differentiates tech conferences like Dreamforce, Tech Crunch and E 2.0 from the others is the matter in which people present.

Two Things to Consider:
1. It seems a lot of the population in the tech industry are young entrepreneurs who are programmers by nature.
2. The Tech Crunch Ethos has created a very narrow window for presenting.

The aforementioned pre-qualifiers make for presentations that are either really good or really bad. The Great Aaron Levie of Box gave a super-charged keynote that included a plethora of information at rapid fire pace. He was focused, fluid, and passionate about the topic he presented. The Twitter back channel seemed lost in his pace of verbosity.....but I thought it was the perfect way to present.

A few things Presenters should be aware of:
1. Don't Product Dump!
2. Don't Tell Us About YOUR company exclusively
3. Act like you are actually interested in your topic
4. Deliver your message with passion

I would consider presenting at Enterprise 2.0 to be a pretty big deal. I was surprised how many people were unprepared. Just kind of reading slides. I understand that not everyone is comfortable presenting in front of people. All you need is a little humor, some energy, and a message that your audience can relate to.

At Dreamforce I saw an Executive from a Fortune 20 get in front of the audience and talk about her company...on and on and on.....The fact that this person is a Millionaire is disconcerting. If I am in the audience to improve my organizational strategy, I don't need a case study on YOUR company's success. I need you to tell me how your strategy can enhance my company. Show me the WHY not the WHAT.

FUN!
The most heated back channel discussion at E 2.0 involved Gamification. There are emerging companies that are using game theory to engage their employees. The crowd of ferociously competitive young professionals seemed put off by the idea that "work" would be a "game". Gen Y stereotype dispelled!

Gamification is a slippery slope. I have no issue with adding a creative way of bringing employees into a forum to showcase their degree of engagement. We got a peek at VMware's Niko Niko, a single-touch daily employee feedback function. There are other concepts of Avatar driven virtual rewards that employees seem to view as a waste of time. As long as the metrics of the "game" attach business critical behaviors to organizational directives a little creative design never hurts.

You Are Welcome   
As evolved as Social Media has become, it can still be a good old boys/girls club. In participating in Social Media people also submit themselves to criticism. The attendees at E 2.0 seem to be aware of this and were thus massively supportive. In a Twitter back channel of thousands of posts, I saw very little negativity. People were also willing to have in-person discussions. The mood was profoundly upbeat. There was not a feeling of competition but a Community of Collaboration. It feels great to walk into a conference with the willingness to share without being judged. Thanks to everyone who made me feel at home in Santa Clara.

Parting Message:
Adoption is Social Media's greatest challenge. People are apprehensive to participate in social media for fear they will have their message misinterpreted, will be judged, and will ultimately have their reputation (and the reputation of their company) damaged.

For those who participate in social media forums.
* Judge Not!
* Try to see all sides
* Be Positive

For those on the fringe.....as I stated earlier this week, Social Media is no longer the elephant in the room ~ it is a Fire Breathing Dragon! It is not a fad, it is not going away, and it will be a pre-qualifier for your next job! It is very important to put your predisposition aside and get your feet wet.

Know this, your reputation will not be damaged if your intentions are good:
a. Share in the interest of everyone
b. Don't assume people think a certain way by researching their profile/company
c. Don't be an asshole!

Collaborate!

Don't Forget to Remember!

- Dave Kovacovich

Observations from Enterprise 2.0

Every year people gather in various cities to discuss the next phase of the inter-webs....also know as Enterprise 2.0. This conference is a thought leadership explosion uniting the directives and intangibles that guide the next day of the ever-evolving world of social media and the like. The degree of collaborative thinking is encouraging to say the least. New platforms are introduced and strategies are discussed. We learn how to measure the ROI of social media, how to sell it our executives and what trends to adopt/ignore.

With my blogger pass proudly displayed around my neck (pictured). I braved the halls of the Santa Clara Convention Center. Here's what I learned on days 1 and 2:

Community Evangelism
We often think about social media as it applies to the organization that employs us: our employees and how they can use it to boost revenue, our executives and their degree of adoption. This year's focus has been firmly on product end-users, program administrators, and customers. It has become abundantly clear in 2011 that company reputations are rooted in social media. Product reviews, staff responsiveness and leadership accessibility are always on trial in the social media world. It's not just an awareness of poor Yelp reviews anymore. Great companies are embracing transparency and are showcasing their customer service practices on Twitter, Facebook and the like. Fan pages have become a community for those who love certain products to evangelize. The question at E 2.0 - how do we incent our community of customers?

Erica Kuhl of Salesforce.com lead a great break out session on Monday. She introduced the Salesforce MVP program. This program recognizes the world's best salesforce.com Administrators. This is not a passive customer loyalty program. MVP's are granted access to product managers, invited into exclusive community forums, and empowered to drive the success of their companies by improving product development at SFDC. The concept was fresh and inviting to me. Show us you love our products/services and we will give you not a gift card, but more work to do....the difference: the people who work as salesforce admins love their work. They are willing to do more to make product administration more streamlined to their companies.

Throughout the sessions presenters have differentiated customer satisfaction from Community Evangelism. Lessons learned that social media is no longer an option, it is a necessity that drives your organizational reputation. Ignore social media and your customers will ignore you.

Organizational Contortionists
At Dreamforce 2011, the great Gary Vee was asked by an audience member how she could evangelize social media to her reluctant organization. Gary commented that you don't need a title to sell the merits of social media internally. Along this line of thinking, Daniel Zucker offered the description of Social Media Leads at Autodesk as Organizational Contortionists. (he wanted me to be very clear that this phrase was coined by his manager, Maura Ginty)

Gary's advice and Autodesk's qualifications are the essence of the existence of social advocacy. Great organizations have the ability to find their catalyst. That person who represents well...sometimes its a Sales Professional to speak at a conference, sometimes its a programmer to share her vision with a client. At present, the social media realm is not completely defined - an opportunity for advocacy.

I find it a great luxury to work for a company that has empowered me to drive organizational social media strategy (albeit as a volunteer). I also see it as a massive opportunity for anyone who has the willingness to lead the charge.

Simplicity
The standout Keynote of the Enterprise 2.0 event was presented by Tim Young, VP of Social Enterprise at VMware. Tim introduced the concept of About.Me as the template for future of social media. In short, simplicity rules. No one can argue that adoption of social media will require executive approval. Bring a CMO a list of 28 sites you wish to integrate into a congruent strategy and she will slap you across the face. Tim's message was perfectly appropriate, if you are asking people to do something new make sure it is a simple transition. Words to live by.

As we move forward....
I love being in the presence of people who have something to share. The feeling that there is something new that will change the way we work is massively empowering.

A resounding message from Enterprise 2.0:
Social Media is no longer the Elephant in the room...it is a Fire Breathing Dragon!

It is no longer an option to ignore social media. Your customers, competitors and your girlfriend are in the community.....if you pretend it doesn't exist, neither will they!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave Kovacovich