5/4/10 – John McCormick
Watching all the buzz around Salesforce.com’s newest app “Chatter”, and Marc Benioff leading the charge in a jump from “Cloud 1” to “Cloud 2”, it got me thinking of all the technological change that has occurred in sales over the last few years. Remember when Zack Morris was ordering pizzas in class from his gigantic cell phone? Now we are all glued to our iPhones, Blackberrys and Droids… and can email, post and play a game while ordering pizza in class.
When I read Marc’s post on moving to Cloud 2, it occurred to me that a similar movement is underway in the sales intelligence world, popularly referred to as Sales 2.0. We have moved from static to dynamic data, from editorial based information (think Hoover’s) to user generated content (think Jigsaw and NetProspex.) We’ve moved from a “who do I know” mentality (think Rolodex) to a “how are we connected” mentality (think LinkedIn and Facebook.) And we’ve moved from a research mentality (think news clippings) to a follow/subscribe mentality (think network updates, RSS feeds and email alerts.)
The days of going out to do manual research and putting it all together are past us. Having actionable sales intelligence delivered to me through my CRM just makes sense. Today’s top chefs don’t go out and go to Safeway, then Whole Foods, then to the Fish Market – they have all their ingredients delivered to them. Why should sales intelligence be any different?
| Cloud 1 —–> Cloud 2 | Sales 1.0 —–> Sales 2.0 |
| Type/Click —–> Touch | Search —–> Follow / Subscribe |
| Yahoo/Amazon —–> Facebook | Black Book —–> Facebook / LinkedIn |
| Tabs —–> Feeds | Newspaper —–> Blogs / Wikis / RSS feeds |
| Chat —–> Video | Mass Email —–> Event Based Prospecting |
| Pull —–> Push | Customer 1.0 —–> Customer 2.0 |
| Create —–> Consume | Call Volumes —–> Meaningful Interaction |
| Location Unknown —–> Location Known | Onsite Visits —–> WebEx / GoToMeeting |
| Desktop/notebook —–> Smart phone/Tablet | Cold Calling —–> Social Calling |
| Windows/Mac —–> Cocoa/HTML 5 | Hoover’s/OneSource —–> SalesView |
The point here is this… we are already doing all these things separately – but why? When all the information I need can be delivered to me within my CRM and help make my message more relevant – seems like a no brainer. Do you think Zack Morris would still be using something that is outdated by 10+ years?
12 comments
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May 4, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Good blog, great stuff « Orthoblaino’s Blog
[...] May 5, 2010 http://blog.insideview.com/2010/05/04/marc-benioff-vs-zack-morris/ [...]
May 5, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Margot
John,
I think you hit the nail on the head with this article. Very well written and thought out. Kudos.
MW
May 5, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Michael
Ha! Mr. McCormick always entertaining. Would Jim Steele be A.C. in this analogy? I would argue that Cloud 1 to Cloud 2, Sales 1 to Sales 2, Support 1 to Support 2 (if you would consider such a thing yet)…is an overall shift of “Data 1.0 to Data 2.0″ in that all of the above movements revolve around the ways we access and consume data.
Where I’d like to see the next phase move is having a database, whether CRM, Marketing Automation, ERP, or the like sophisticated enough to take all of this customer, campaign, and social data and provide actionable insights off of historical trends. For example…why not have a CRM that tells me to go acquire data from a specific company, in a specific industry, in a specific region, and market to them in a specific way because based on historical campaign and customer interaction we know that the probability of these individuals converting and becoming an eventual customer is X%.
Hope all is well! Cool article.
May 6, 2010 at 11:29 am
Abby Brody
Great article John! Well said.
Cheers!
Abby
May 10, 2010 at 11:24 am
Don
Nicely put. Relevant, clear, concise and entertaining.
May 10, 2010 at 11:31 am
Andrew
This is a great review. Very well done.
May 10, 2010 at 11:42 am
Whitney
Well said John – dynamic and ‘chosen access point’ (i.e. my Blackberry or iPhone) are definitely the new mantras.
May 10, 2010 at 11:58 am
PF
Nice take on it John,
I wonder if next time you can throw in a comparison of Saved by the Bell and Saved by the Bell; the College Years to round out the article…
Well done!
PF
May 10, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Anthony
Very interesting article about the state of cloud computing and where this industry is headed. I appreciate the insight and shared knowledge.
Best,
Anthony
May 12, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Gordon Anderson
I wonder what Screetch’s take on cloud computing would be….
May 18, 2010 at 5:07 am
Marc Benioff vs. Zack Morris? « Randomprism's Blog
[...] Benioff vs. Zack Morris? Marc Benioff vs. Zack Morris?. [...]
May 19, 2010 at 4:53 pm
DL
Great article. i think with the ubiquity of devices and tools that provide information on a platter, sources like this become an essential business tool . given that those we sell against certainly will have this type of information, it’s no longer a competitive advantage to have it; it’s a disadvantage NOT to have it. getting insideview in my CRM a few months ago has provided critical (and timely) news updates i might not have seen otherwise as i meet with clients. last month, i learned about a customer’s new product release prior to a meeting that afternoon. i sounded plugged into their business. in a way, one could say i was saved by the bell….