Defining Social CRM for B2B Sales

May 15, 2012 in Prospecting, Sales Intelligence, Social CRM, Social Selling by Koka Sexton | No comments

social crm evolution

image source Microsoft Dynamics Community

 

When social media started to take shape in the 21st Century, it represented a way for people to connect, interact and share with others more frequently and more remotely. Twitter, Facebook, and the like allowed users to share the details of their personal and professional lives for the world to see, for better or worse.

Now, social media has spawned into as a legitimate form of human communication as speaking with someone in the physical form. Society has changed accordingly, and so has the business of sales.

As sales people began to troubleshoot customer issues and engage with consumers on social media sites more and more, so did the need for software applications to integrate the external data from those social media sites with existing customer relationship managment (CRM) systems. Thus, social CRM apps were born.

Social CRM apps are now common among sales people. They help companies track customer activity and engage with them quicker and more effectively. The presence also helps sales people maintain their company brand while building trust among clients.

If a business has a social media presence, customers expect to be able to engage with it immediately. For the sales people on the other end of the social media conversation, they should expect to gain vital CRM analytics through it, too.

 

“Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”

- Paul Greenberg, author, CRM at the Speed of Light: Social CRM Strategies, Tools, and Techniques for Engaging Your Customers


The bottom line effect


If money is any indicator, then social CRM app is here to stay. Information technology research group Gartner predicts that the social CRM market for year-end 2012 is expected to reach beyond $1 billion in revenue, nearly double than the year prior.

Although social CRM apps are abundant, the app is only useful if it ties into a company’s bottom line, says Gartner research director Adam Sarner in Forbes.

 

“However, while market growth is assured during the next two years, the ultimate success of social CRM will depend on how well companies and social CRM technology providers can accelerate through the inevitable social expectation bust and make social projects more than just ‘engagement’ objectives and actually tie social activities to clear and measurable business objectives.”


Social CRM apps have been shown to help business objectives. A new Nucleus Research report showed that the productivity of sales people increased 26 percent when they had CRM apps with social features and mobile access. They were able to easier communicate with customers and track their satisfaction rate, which enabled them to more efficiently calculate their CRM systems within their own companies.

The mobile component also helped streamline CRM analytics and cut down on often time-wasting tasks, such as organizing emails into existing CRM systems, according to the report.

Social CRM could also improve a company’s marketing RIO (return on marking investment), because sales people better understand what their customers want by being engaged with social media. The more social CRM analytics sales people bring in, the better.

 

“Sales teams are more equipped with an integrated view of online conversations of their customers and as a result can obtain more relevant information that is crucial to sales operations. Marketing teams can connect much earlier in the buying process while meeting customers at their point of need and gain insight into the behaviour, sentiment, and effectiveness of how they conduct their marketing strategy.”

- Yoav Techelet, Memeburn


Other big players in the social CRM game are acting accordingly to the need for mobile and social CRM apps. Salesforce.com acquired Model Metrics, a mobile and social consulting company, near the end of 2011, and Microsoft recently released software that made CRM apps available on the iPad, iPhone, Droid, and Blackberry.

The need for social CRM apps and awareness has grown abundantly clear. If conversation between a sales rep and his or her client has moved to the world of social media, the sales rep must be equipped with the proper technology to best interact with and understand the customer.

 

“Using mobile and social channels will evolve from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a critical component of interacting with and gaining insights about customers and prospects.”

- Vinay Iver, vice president of SAP CRM Global Marketing (source: Enterprise Apps Today)


Other Helpful Links
Best social CRM apps for small businesses
Paul Greenberg’s blog on ZDNet
Paul Greenberg’s Social CRM 2012 Watchlist
An Overview of Customer Relationship Management

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How to Measure Social Selling Results

May 14, 2012 in Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence, Social Selling by Koka Sexton | No comments

It all comes down to numbers right? I was told something very early on in my career “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”. When it comes to social selling, sales executives want to see the benefits of leveraging social intelligence during the sales cycle. Sales intelligence tools can make an impact on your revenue. B2B sales professionals that make the change are seeing great results. Even with this knowledge many sales executives are slow to implement applications that can make identifying new business and build pipelines faster. Part of this has to do with the concept of change.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin

 

Companies that have been leveraging social intelligence for the past couple years have been reaping the benefits of their efforts in an environment that has been changing quickly. Instead of relying on pure marketing tactics, they have enabled their sales teams with tools that have been speeding up prospect research times and outbound targeting.

social selling ROI Dashboards

Measuring Social Selling Impact

ROI Dashboards transform outdated sales team management tactics into actionable, rewarding, always-present information that allows sales professionals and their managers to monitor actual business results and progress any time. InsideView ROI dashboards are designed to help sales teams identify, track and report social selling activities that make meaningful impact on their business. This information enables constant   monitoring and adjustment of tactics to achieve the greatest results. InsideView ROI dashboards deliver rich information across three key areas:  leads, accounts and contacts, and opportunities.

“With ROI Dashboards, we were immediately able to track the value of our investment in social selling,” said Melissa Cole of Egencia.  “In the first quarter, we were able to attribute millions of dollars in pipeline to social selling activities enabled by Insideview. We also used InsideView’s social media integration and people alerts to identify over 1,000 key decision makers at our premier accounts. With these dashboards, not only can we attach real business value to our social selling activities, we can also fine-tune our social selling strategies and best practices for optimal sales performance.”

Grow your sales pipeline with social selling.

Organizations are changing the way they collect information and contact prospects and customers - 98 percent say they waste their budget each year on inaccurate contact data. (DataMyth.com) With data being poured into in the Internet everyday, there is no way lists of contact information should be cutting it anymore for sales professionals.

The age of lists and phonebooks are over for sales teams. The tools you need are out there on the Internet and social intelligence can bring it to you all in one package. 

Companies have realized that a solid social media strategy is vital to the companies goals for revenue and growth. Emphasis still remains on common business goals like:

  • Customer retention
  • Customer acquisition
  • Customer profitability

Measuring the effects of social selling is no longer a difficult process. Leveraging an ROI dashboard that measures the pipeline of your sales team can bring huge results, just ask our customers.

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Why your sales staff isn’t on iPads (and why it should be)

May 14, 2012 in Sales 2.0, Social CRM by Koka Sexton | No comments

ipad for b2b sales

A new report from Gartner covers the latest advances in sales strategy and some serious stats on B2B adoption of mobile technology, social CRM, and clienteling. Here’s one of their most startling predictions: 80% iPad adoption by pharmaceutical sales forces by the end of 2012. The High Tech, Life Sciences and Insurance industries already have a jump on the game with huge levels of iPad adoption for sales productivity. Insurance is not really what you think of when it comes to being ‘adventurous’ so you know there are some serious numbers behind the move.

Budgeting for new vs. old CRM

While some companies and entire industries are leapfrogging with mobile CRM gear, Gartner found that 70% of budgets still concentrate on more mature CRM technologies like customer service, e-commerce and sales force automation. This is great news for you because adopting future-forward techniques like iPads puts cloud capabilities in the hands of your sales force while cutting out 2/3 of your competition. Sales productivity has shown immediate gains from up-to-the-second streaming video demonstrations, immersion catalogs, and targeted apps on an iPad.
To get you started, here are your 3 biggest obstacles to deploying BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) along with some suggestions on how to handle them.

iPad roadblocks and bypasses

  • BYOD skepticism – VMware reported that 79% of businesses do not support BYOD due to security and compatibility problems. Apple has an app for that. Apps push the security back to network level and so device security is not such a problem. iPads are not designed for document storage but your sales force doesn’t need to store anything if the cloud is available and your bandwidth is strong. If the device is lost or stolen, it can be switched off the network. The bigger philosophical question is: do you trust your sales staff. If not, you’ve got a different category of problems.
  • C-suite silence – If iPads were so great, you would hear it from your CEO-CFO-CTO, right? Wrong. This is precisely the kind of tactical decision they are counting on you to handle while they work on long-term strategies. The ball is in your court so slam-dunk it. But these guys don’t have time to do the research so you’ll have to post-it note the financials. One thing you can do right now is to do some office politics and get your plan in front of senior managers. The reality is that gatekeepers have to be in place to protect C-suite schedules, but they can’t ignore an accumulation of management support.
  • Passive pushback – the modern sales force correctly feels that more is being demanded of them every day. Management priorities come and go, so the safest way to survive in sales is to ignore most of what you are ordered to do. Sales numbers speak louder than compliance. So how does a manager motivate a jaded sales force to try something new? Fight dirty: think about what’s in it for them and give it to them. Don’t underestimate the power of shiny new toys that they can call their own. Allow them to customize things like look-and-feel, even if it creates more work for you and the IT department. Sales productivity will be worth the headaches.


SaaS and the future

Your next problem is how to support the flood of new customers and where to spend all that extra loot. Gartner’s report is ready with a suggestion for you there as well. Software-as-a-service has been such a financial success (because customers now demand a customized experience of your core business) that leading companies are moving up to Platform-as-a-service.

 

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The Secret of Converting Leads into Sales

May 10, 2012 in Prospecting, Sales Intelligence by Koka Sexton | 1 comment

Convert More Leads

When you’re a B2B sales rep, few things feel worse than spending weeks or months on a high-priority prospect only to find out that your biggest competitor won the business. If this happens to you frequently then you’re probably feeling stressed out and unmotivated. Fortunately, you can turn things around with a simple secret: if you master the art of qualifying your leads, you can achieve greater sales with less time and effort. Initially you’ll have to fight against some instinctive habits, but with practice you’ll become a lead-qualifying pro. Keep reading to find out how to hone this crucial skill.

Maintain Control of Yourself and the Conversation

During your first contact with a lead, you may be eager to begin your sales pitch. It’s exciting to share your brand’s message with someone new, but it’s more important to listen than to talk right now. If you immediately launch into a speech about features and benefits, you’ll hand control of the conversation to your prospect. You’ll also lose a valuable opportunity to determine if this lead can become a loyal, profitable customer.

Gather Information

IBM developed – and still uses – the BANT approach for qualifying leads:

  • Budget: Can the customer afford your product or service?
  • Authority: Is the person you’re talking to authorized to purchase your product or service?
  • Need: Do the customer’s needs match the benefits provided by your product or service?
  • Timeline: How far into the future is the customer planning to make a purchase?

The BANT framework is very effective. Use it to your advantage by asking tactful questions such as, “What’s your budget for this project?” or “Who’s on your purchasing committee?” By keeping your customer talking, you can figure out what he’s really looking for.

Rank Your Lead

Once you you’ve gathered enough information, score your lead from 1-10 on each of the BANT categories, with a score of 10 equaling a perfect match. Combine all four categories to generate a total score out of 40. This score allows you to rank this lead against your other prospects. The prospects that deserve the majority of your time are the ones who can afford your product or service, who have the authority to make a buying decision, whose needs match the benefits you offer, and who are planning to make a purchase within your normal sales cycle. You can’t afford to pursue every prospect with equal intensity. Ranking your leads ensures that you’re distributing your time appropriately.

Welcome to Your New Reality

Qualifying leads keeps you from wasting your time on dead-end prospects. Sales success isn’t about looking busy, it’s about growing business. If you can grow your business twice as much as the next rep in half the time, then you’re way ahead of the game. Qualify every lead that comes your way. Your wallet – and your sanity – will thank you for it.

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