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Altimeter Group Report on Social Customer Technologies Highlights InsideView

March 16, 2010 in Sales 2.0, prospecting, sales intelligence, social crm | Tags: , , , | by insideviewblog | Leave a comment

The Altimeter Group’s recent report, “The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM, The New Rules of Relationship Management,” highlights use cases to show businesses how to finally put customers first, and the technologies to do so. Sales intelligence leader InsideView was named as one of only four companies as a ‘vendor to watch’ in the Rapid Social Response category, or as Altimeter explains, a technology to “catch a lead in mid-air.” The recognition, in conjunction with the report, exemplifies one of the first attempts to clarify the role of social media in the enterprise by segmenting business functions – in this case, sales.

How to Finally Put Customers First

Rapid Social Sales Response Explained

As Altimeter states, social sales enables seamless lead opportunities, emphasizing how being “social” allows companies the opportunity to reinvent business workflow, thus bringing new technologies to existing business functions like sales. As business-productivity technologies evolve, recognizing providers and detailing solutions are among the first steps of social adoption by enterprises, and we applaud Altimeter for their work in helping organizations map their route into the developing world of social technologies.

Why Companies Will Manage their Social Relationships

A few key takeaways from the report:

  • For companies, real-time may not even be fast enough. Companies need to be able to anticipate what customers are going to say, so they can be prepared and preemptively engage.
  • Companies are unable to scale to meet the needs of social. No matter how many community managers a company hires to support, they’ll never be able to match the number of active customers. So they need tools, and they need them now.
  • Customers don’t care what department you’re in; they just want their problem fixed.

When it comes to sales, so many of these tenets are key to the process. If you know your lead and prospect inside and out, you’ll have a productive and engaging interaction no matter what. If your sales team has the right tools in place, they’ll be “first responders” when opportunities arise, and will be able to do so without wasting hours of time researching.

You can see the report in its entirety here; we’d love your comments and thoughts on what you think!

Recommended Blogs of the Sales Cycle

February 26, 2010 in Sales 2.0, Technology, sales | Tags: , , , , , , , | by insideviewblog | 1 comment

Today’s post highlights blogs that are terrific resources to managing, maintaining and mastering the sales cycle. We’ve broken them out by three stages of the sales process that they specialize in – lead generation, lead management and lead nurturing /qualification. Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments.

Lead Generation

B2B Lead Generation Blog: Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, runs a blog about B2B lead generation, sales leads and marketing for the ‘complex’ sale.

Dig It: SalesDog.com is one of the Internet’s most visited sales-success sites, with insight from several of America’s leading sales experts, bringing practical selling tips and strategies to salespeople, sales managers, business owners and entrepreneurs.

The Virtual Handshake: A resource guide for Web 2.0 technology users, including blogs, social network sites, virtual communities, relationship capital management software and more.

Lead Management

Sales Lead Management Association Blog: Articles to help you become more successful in the lead management sales business process. The blog allows you to respond to posted articles, share your thoughts, opinions and ideas.

Sales and Sales Management Blog: Paul McCord, best-selling author, sales expert, coach and trainer, provides insight about sales and sales management issues, specializing in sales trends and topics including introductions vs. referrals, use of incentives and much more.

Lead Nurturing/Qualification

The Online Marketing Blog Network: The network brings together expertise from the sales and marketing online community, contributing news, ideas, strategies, commentary, insights, research and more

Inside Sales Experts Blog: Shares thoughts about best practices for sales, lead generation and nurturing and revenue generation, including trends, tips, models and metrics.

B2B Sales and Marketing Blog: Industry discussion about lead generation, qualification and nurturing, focused on providing ideas about global business-to-business sales support, growing the sales pipeline and increasing sales numbers.

For an expanded list of all-things-sales blogs, check out the Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills.

How to Blow Out Your Quota in 2010 Webinar

January 26, 2010 in Interview, Sales 2.0, Technology, notifications, sales, software tools | Tags: , , , , | by insideviewblog | Leave a comment

Interested in learning how your organization can increase sales productivity and efficiency? Of course you are. Tune in tomorrow (Wednesday, 1/27) at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET for valuable insight from Peter Ostrow, the Aberdeen Group’s sales effectiveness research director. Peter will highlight the results and benefits of SalesView, along with other great perspectives.

The Webinar, “How to Blow Out Your Quota in 2010,” is complimentary and will teach you and your organization how to:

  • Achieve an average of 87% overall sales team quota
  • Increase average revenue by 17%
  • Experience an average of 7% improvement of lead conversion rate
  • Raise average selling price/contract size by 45%

Register in advance at http://tinyurl.com/yzm8c7t.

The InsideView 20 – The Top Sales Industry Social Media Users

January 7, 2010 in InsideView 20, Sales 2.0 | Tags: , , , , , | by insideviewblog | 10 comments

Social media is changing hundreds of industries and professions, and sales is no exception. To recognize those members of the sales industry who in their use of social media are bringing together important news, sales intelligence and theory, we are pleased to announce the full list of the ‘InsideView 20.’ This list of sales industry leaders is composed of sales executives, writers, trainers, analysts and more, all of whom are making savvy use of many of the social media tools available today and helping usher in the renaissance we like to call ‘Sales 2.0.’ These are the folks, who like InsideView itself, are doing their part to deliver us to the future of the sales industry – one that is highly connected, informed and efficient.

1. Mike Damphousse, CEO/CMO of GreenLeads
@damphoux
Company website: http://www.green-leads.com/

GreenLeads is a B2B company specializing in marketing strategies and leads. Mike has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and technology in an array of industries. He consistently tweets helpful links on the topics of lead generation, demand generation and a variety of other sales-related topics and regularly engages with his followers.

2. Anneke Seley, author of the book, Sales 2.0, CEO and founder of Phone Works
@annekeseley
Anneke’s blog: http://www.sales20book.com/wp/blog/

Anneke brings her expertise from the sales and technology industries to the masses through her books, articles and savvy use of social media. Her role as the CEO of Phoneworks, a sales strategy and implementation consultancy, and experience designing OracleDirect provide her with a uniquely informed insight into Silicon Valley. Anneke is a true Sales 2.0 leader.

3. Jonathon Hewitt, founder of SEO Sport
@gohewitt
Company Website: http://seosport.com/

Jonathon is founder of SEO Sport, a search engine marketing company. He has over a decade of internet marketing experience and is an unstoppable tweeter. John is constantly sharing tech and social media stories, providing his followers with a constant stream of smart, handpicked information on these areas.

4. Josiane Feigon, CEO of Telesmart, author, blogger
@josianefeigon
Company Website: Telesmart

Josiane started Telesmart over 15 years ago and has over 25 years sales experience in the technology sector. She is also the author of a couple of books the latest of which, Smart Selling From the Inside Out, came out this fall. She blogs on a very regular basis through the Telesmart company website and updates twitter all the time.

5. Trish Bertuzzi, President and Chief Strategist at The Bridge Group
@bridgegroupinc
Company website: www.bridgegroupinc.com

Trish Bertuzzi has over 27 years experience working in technology and more than 11 as president of The Bridge Group, a Sales Consulting company. She tweets frequently, sharing tips on sales, marketing, technology news and other interesting life tidbits. If you have an inside sales team you need to follow Trish.

6. Jill Konrath, Jill is the CEO and founder of Sales Shebang and the Chief Sales Officer and CEO of Selling to Big Companies
@jillkonrath
Company Website: http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com/

Jill is not only CEO of the company Selling to Big Companies, she is also the author of a successful book by the same name. She tweets often and blogs on her company website about smart selling strategies. She has over 20 years of experience working in the B2B sales industry.

7. Alen Majer, Founder and Owner of The Science and Art of Selling, author
@alenmajer
Company Website: The Science and Art of Selling

Alen’s company, The Science and Art of Selling, trains, coaches and consults with executives and sales teams on sales strategy. His sales expertise also extends beyond domestic borders, as he speaks internationally and is the co-founder of the Sales Academy-Croatia and Sales Institute of Croatia. Alen is a prolific writer in both the analog and digital mediums; he is the author of several books including the most recent, Selling is Better Than Sex, and is constantly tweeting and adding content to his company website.

8. Joanne Black, founder of consulting business for Referral Sales, No More Cold Calling
@referralsales
Company Website: No More Cold Calling

Joanne has over 30 years experience in sales training and consulting. She is the founder of Referral Sales strategy-based business No More Cold Calling and has worked in a range of industries including retail, technology, finance, etc. She tweets, blogs and creates podcasts regularly on the secrets behind referral sales.

9. Chad Levitt, a sales associate at EMC Corp. and author of the New Sales Economy Blog
@chadalevitt
Chad’s blog: New Sales Economy Blog

Chad is not only involved in the business of sales during the day, but he writes on the topic for two highly regarded sales 2.0 sites, salesgravy.com and sales2.com. Chad stays up to date on anything relating to sales 2.0 and shares tons of information on this space via his blogs and Twitter.

10. Tibor Shanto, principal and founder of Renbor Sales Solutions Inc.
@renbor
Company Website: Renbor Sales Solutions Inc.

Tibor started Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. which helps businesses increase and better their sales by focusing on Objective Based Selling. Tibor has over 20 years experience ranging from leading global sales teams to telemarketing. He was very quick to join the online information revolution and continues to stay on the pulse of sales and technology, follow him on Twitter for a steady flow of great sales advice and news.

11. Chris Powell, VP of sales and founder of Industrial Interface
Twitter: @TechSalesLeads
More: Industrial Interface home

If you work in sales, you need to follow Chris on Twitter. His feed is chock-full of sales industry insights and links to relevant articles and studies.

12. Randy Ferrell, VP of Sales at Care2.com
Twitter: @randyferrell
More: Care2.com

Need another reason why Twitter is a brilliant service? You get to regularly see what is on the mind of a VP of Sales for a forward-thinking organization. Randy frequently tweets links to really interesting articles that are related to the issues his company works on, such as the environment, health, human rights and animal welfare.

13. Paul Cummings, VP Sales and Marketing for Impression Management Professionals
Twitter: @paul_cummings
More: Impression Management home

Paul is VP of Sales at a sales training and leadership development organization, so following him is like getting a double dose of what you need in the Sales 2.0 world. From Webinars to articles – great stuff, Paul!

14. Helene Zemel, Senior Regional Sales Director for AmeriPlan

Twitter: @hzemel
More: Health Plans Plus blog

Helene tweets and blogs regularly, keeping her followers entertained and informed on both her personal interests (she’s a classically-trained pianist) and the issues shaping her professional world (healthcare reform and industry trends).

15. Megan Heuer, Research Director at SiriusDecisions
Twitter: @megheuer
More: Sirius Blog

Meg is a regular contributor to her company blog, examining topics like what sales really needs, and an active tweeter, sharing links and constantly joining the conversations she finds important. As part of the research team at her firm, she’s no doubt gathering a cornucopia of insight from the social Web.

16. Brad Trnavsky, President of Sales Management 2.0

Twitter: @bmtrnavsky
More: Sales Management 2.0 profile

In addition to tweeting about the latest sales and marketing resources, Brad has created an entire social community for the sales management profession at Sales Management 2.0 with more than 1,100 members. If you’re not tapped into that conversation, we highly suggest doing so now.

17. Maurice Cheeks, Apple Educational sales executive
Twitter: @MoCheeks
More: MoCheeks.com

Maurice is a frequent blogger, Twitterer and general social media force who shares thoughts about a wide range of subject from media to sales to philosophy — sounds about right for an Apple employee.

18. Alden Mills, founder of Perfect Fitness
Twitter: @aldenmills
More: Perfect Fitness blog

You’ve probably seen the Perfect Pushup device in stores and on TV, now meet the man behind the muscle by following him on Twitter and checking out his blog, which gives you extra tips and clearly written posts on how to get the most out of your workout. This former Navy SEAL is not only tearing it up in the gym, but is also active on the social Web. Great stuff for advancing his goal of “perfect fitness.”

19. Kendra Lee, President and IT sales expert at KLA Group
Twitter: @KendraLeeKLA
More: KLA Group

Following Kendra on Twitter is not only a way to get insight into the latest sales and marketing events, but also a clear answer to issues such as the best way to follow up with leads and why you should take a long, hard look at your actual sales processes.

20. Bill Rice, founder and CEO of Kaleidico
Twitter: @BillRice
More: Better Closer blog

In addition to founding a company that provides a CRM solution to the mortgage industry, Bill writes regularly on smarter marketing and social selling at his blog, and keeps his Twitter followers in the know on the latest tips and tricks for the best sales strategies.

The InsideView 20 – The Top Sales Industry Social Media Users

December 9, 2009 in Sales 2.0 | Tags: , , | by insideviewblog | 2 comments

Social media is changing hundreds of industries and professions, and sales is no exception. Though not everyone is ahead of the curve, there are a select few that are trailblazing for the rest of us.  To recognize those members of the sales industry who in their use of social media are bringing together important news, sales intelligence and theory, we are pleased to announce the first 10 members of the InsideView 20. This list of sales industry leaders is composed of sales executives, writers, trainers, analysts and more, all of whom are making savvy use of many of the social media tools available today and helping usher in the renaissance we like to call ‘Sales 2.0.’ These are the folks, who like InsideView itself, are doing their part to deliver us to the future of the sales industry – one that is highly connected, informed and efficient.

With out further ado, here are the first 10 members of the InsideView 20 (in no particular order):

1. Chris Powell, VP of sales and founder of Industrial Interface
Twitter: @TechSalesLeads
More: Industrial Interface home

If you work in sales, you need to follow Chris on Twitter. His feed is chock-full of sales industry insights and links to relevant articles and studies.

2. Randy Ferrell, VP of Sales at Care2.com
Twitter: @randyferrell
More: Care2.com

Need another reason why Twitter is a brilliant service? You get to regularly see what is on the mind of a VP of Sales for a forward-thinking organization. Randy frequently tweets links to really interesting articles that are related to the issues his company works on, such as the environment, health, human rights and animal welfare.

3. Paul Cummings, VP Sales and Marketing for Impression Management Professionals
Twitter: @paul_cummings
More: Impression Management home

Paul is VP of Sales at a sales training and leadership development organization, so following him is like getting a double dose of what you need in the Sales 2.0 world. From Webinars to articles – great stuff, Paul!

4. Helene Zemel, Senior Regional Sales Director for AmeriPlan

Twitter: @hzemel
More: Health Plans Plus blog

Helene tweets and blogs regularly, keeping her followers entertained and informed on both her personal interests (she’s a classically-trained pianist) and the issues shaping her professional world (healthcare reform and industry trends).

5. Megan Heuer, Research Director at SiriusDecisions
Twitter: @megheuer
More: Sirius Blog

Meg is a regular contributor to her company blog, examining topics like what sales really needs, and an active tweeter, sharing links and constantly joining the conversations she finds important. As part of the research team at her firm, she’s no doubt gathering a cornucopia of insight from the social Web.

6. Brad Trnavsky, President of Sales Management 2.0

Twitter: @bmtrnavsky
More: Sales Management 2.0 profile

In addition to tweeting about the latest sales and marketing resources, Brad has created an entire social community for the sales management profession at Sales Management 2.0 with more than 1,100 members. If you’re not tapped into that conversation, we highly suggest doing so now.

7. Maurice Cheeks, Apple Educational sales executive
Twitter: @MoCheeks
More: MoCheeks.com

Maurice is a frequent blogger, Twitterer and general social media force who shares thoughts about a wide range of subject from media to sales to philosophy — sounds about right for an Apple employee.

8. Alden Mills, founder of Perfect Fitness
Twitter: @aldenmills
More: Perfect Fitness blog

You’ve probably seen the Perfect Pushup device in stores and on TV, now meet the man behind the muscle by following him on Twitter and checking out his blog, which gives you extra tips and clearly written posts on how to get the most out of your workout. This former Navy SEAL is not only tearing it up in the gym, but is also active on the social Web. Great stuff for advancing his goal of “perfect fitness.”

9. Kendra Lee, President and IT sales expert at KLA Group
Twitter: @KendraLeeKLA
More: KLA Group

Following Kendra on Twitter is not only a way to get insight into the latest sales and marketing events, but also a clear answer to issues such as the best way to follow up with leads and why you should take a long, hard look at your actual sales processes.

10. Bill Rice, founder and CEO of Kaleidico
Twitter: @BillRice
More: Better Closer blog

In addition to founding a company that provides a CRM solution to the mortgage industry, Bill writes regularly on smarter marketing and social selling at his blog, and keeps his Twitter followers in the know on the latest tips and tricks for the best sales strategies.

InsideView Speaking at Enterprise 2.0

June 22, 2009 in Sales 2.0, Technology | by insideviewblog | Leave a comment

Today the Enterprise 2.0 Conference kicks off in Boston and the organizers certainly have a lot on their plates this year! The conference organizer, TechWeb’s Steve Wylie, gave CRM analyst and ZDNet blogger Paul Greenberg a great perspective recently about why this year’s theme — adoption — will lead to some interesting and informative key take-aways for the attendees.

Our own CEO, Umberto Milletti, will be speaking on one panel that’s sure to result in helpful tools for the sales and marketing enterprise. Wednesday’s “Web 2.0 and Selling” panel will break down the explosion of Web 2.0 tools which brings customers so quickly and directly into all aspects of sales and marketing. As the moderator – Mark Lazen of Social Media Today, describes – “Today’s buyers are not content to be passive recipients of controlled and targeted information; they are demanding an equal voice in the sales process, sharing information, engaging with other buyers in digital communities, and doing competitive research online.”

Umberto and his co-panelists will explore what this means, and how sales people have to be smarter and learn how to translate the sales fundamentals into “social selling.” Be sure to check out the panel on Wednesday at 2:15 (Harbor Ballroom III) and follow along in the entire week’s Enterprise 2.0 conversation using the Twitter hashtag #e2conf!

Twitter: brand new channel, same old challenges

April 9, 2009 in Sales 2.0, Technology | Tags: , , , , , , | by perramond | 6 comments

Weeks after Paul Greenberg’s thought-provoking post on ZDNet, the debate continues as to whether Twitter could/should evolve into a Social CRM or remain a channel/medium (read: a “non app”).  This on-going conversation in the Blogosphere & Twittersphere, have actually done a lot to bring together the social media crowd and social CRM (“CRM 2.0″) proponents.  There’s also some promising talk of collaboration between industry pundits Paul Greenberg and Brian Solis.

One of Paul’s central arguments here is that Twitter is not (and should not become) an application, but rather remain “just” a channel / medium (albeit it a powerful, extremely trendy, and perhaps transformation one.)  Most of the reader comments agreed (no shocker there… Paul has a pretty loyal following, and he has a nasty habit of being right most of the time.)

One particular blog comment from “kotharia” struck a chord.  The gist was that while leveraging Twitter as a listening & communication channel is a good start, “these emerging channels have a potential to generate a huge volume of conversations (unstructured data) which cannot be harnessed easily.”  Hmm, this problem sounds familiar.  They went on to suggest that “One would need effective tools to harness & synthesize the data to enable better decision making.”

BINGO!  One thing is guaranteed… just like all other media, traditional and social, Twitter will exacerbate information overload. We happen to focus on solving this problem specifically for sales & marketing professionals but really the principles are applicable across all knowledge workers.  You need a layer of intelligence / analytics operating on top of Twitter (along with all other potentially useful data sets and information sources) if you want to make it relevant and actionable.  SalesView is focused on doing just that for sales/marketing/support professionals, WITHIN their CRM.  Call it social CRM, CRM 2.0, socialprise, or just plain cool… the bottom line is that it has a huge impact on sales productivity.

Twitter ups the ante in terms of volume and frequency, but the challenge is not a new one. Before our current love affair with Twitter, most organizations had not yet figured out how to filter & analyze the thousands of online news sources, much less the hundreds of thousands of business blogs out there. So we can’t assume that Twitter is “noisier” (as measured by signal to noise ratio, not volume) than any previously available media. It’s just a bigger fire hose!

Here’s the approach we’ve taken to date…
http://www.insideview.com/cat-platform.html

Basically we look at channels / media / content as plug & play. Blogs come along, plug it in. Twitter comes along, plug it in. Rest assured that in the next 6-12 months, some OTHER shiny, new thing will capture the hearts & imagination of sales & marketing so what then?  Just plug it in. After all, the next-next-big-thing promises to accelerate the commoditization of content and worsen information overload. Unless, that is, you have tools that can filter & analyze data in the cloud to identify only the relevant & actionable information.

That’s where we think things are going. What do you think? Reply here or Tweet us at http://twitter.com/insideview.

Why Bernie Madoff Matters to Sales

April 2, 2009 in Sales 2.0, sales intelligence | Tags: , , , | by insideviewblog | Leave a comment

Last week, amidst continuing news of the Madoff scandal, the thought crossed our minds: This seemingly distant national headline sensation is directly related to what sales folks unfortunately experience regularly: Lost deals and customers. Simply put, they are the result of poor intelligence. And on the bright side, while we can’t turn back the clock on Madoff, every day we have new opportunities to compete for customers.

This is the theme of a recent post featured in Sales and Marketing Management, penned by our CEO, Umberto. Want to read more? Check it out here.

Twitter’s role in Sales 2.0: The Debate Continues

March 27, 2009 in Sales 2.0 | Tags: , , , , , | by insideviewblog | Leave a comment

This week, CRM expert Paul Greenberg continues the Twitter/sales discussion in his recent ZDNet post “Is Twitter Social CRM? Nope.” In the piece he argues that while folks like Jeremiah Owyang and Brian Solis are claiming the micro-blogging tool will become a very useful too for ’social CRM,’ in reality it can’t be due to the “M” — management. If Twitter were to allow the management of conversations around brands and businesses, then it would simply no longer be the freewheeling communication platform it has become.

Paul does conceed though that Twitter can be used as “a channel for finding the customers to engage with and to get data from” and a means for developing “richer customer insights.” How does he differentiate this from Social CRM? We recommend reading the article.

‘Social CRM’ relates to the ability of CRM technology to monitor, engage, and interact, on a social-Web level — essentially, to do its job in a social-Web context. This technology is evolving, from mash-ups to becoming part of CRM offerings out of the gate. The idea that CRM is getting social is hardly new, but it is exciting to see the ways that it keeps getting social. Twitter is latest ingredient in a cornucopia of information that the social Web offers up and we are curious to see what role it can play in the future of sales intelligence. One can observe the limitations that the service currently has for sales prospecting, but as Twitter evolves, we may be singing a different tune.

Update April 8th:  The Twitter + Social CRM discussion continues on ZDNet –  and there’s promising talk of collaboration between industry pundits Paul Greenberg and Brian Solis.  Check out the full discussion thread here:

http://talkback.zdnet.com/5206-17933-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=62379

Twitter’s role in Sales 2.0

March 20, 2009 in Sales 2.0 | Tags: , , | by insideviewblog | 2 comments

A lot of interesting blog posts have popped up on the effectiveness of Twitter as a sales tool. This was also a topic covered at the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco during the panel discussion, “Accelerating Productivity: New Sales 2.0 Tools.” The value of Twitter to salespeople is clearly debatable, which is not surprising as the value of the service is probably being analyzed by the majority of tech savvy businesses right now. One thing that is clear is that the popularity of Twitter is exploding, which means that increasingly more prospective sales targets are going to be using it regardless of what vertical you target. But is that enough to make it worthwhile for salespeople to use Twitter as part of their research? Do professionals share enough information within the 140 character limit to give a salesperson true insight to the company? Only time will tell. In the meantime, checkout these other posts to see what other Sales 2.0 bloggers are saying about Twitter:

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