CloserQ Readers I have the privilege of being one of the authors of "What is Sales2.o?", a compilations of articles by sales leaders. My article is "Can You Leverage 2.0 to help you grow your sales?!" Below is my article and the link to the free eBook:
Free Sales 2.0 eBook: "What is Sales2.0"
http://podcast.salesmanagement20.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/What-is-sales-2.pdf
My article:
Sales 2.0: Can you leverage 2.0 to help you grow your sales?
By: Shaun Priest
The answer is Yes! However the better question to ask is HOW, can you use Web2.0 to grow your quality sales? This article gives you actionable content to start leveraging 2.0 today. There are two high-level options to leverage 2.0, you yourself and your organization. Below are definitions, recommendations, and options for both you and your company.
For level setting, let’s start with my simple definitions of Web2.0 and Sales2.0. Web 2.0 is interaction and having a voice on-line. Sales 2.0 is leveraging Web2.0 to increase your quality sales. Web2.0 is the evolution from reading content (Web1.0) on the web, to transacting (Web1.5) on the web, to truly interacting (Web2.0), and having your personal voice on the web. The heart of Web2.0 is social media (blogs, videos, groups, twitter, surveys, forums, wikis, listservs, rss, etc.) and user generated content.
Many folks think of social networking as a user-to-user, business-to-consumer (B2C), however, social networking is a great opportunity for business-to-business (B2B). As a Sales VP for a technology vendor, this article focuses solely on B2B opportunities for leveraging Web2.0 and Sales2.0.
Blogs: Have your CEO, VP of Development, Senior Leaders, Industry Experts, and/or Consultants write a blog. At my company one of our SVPs writes an excellent industry blog and I am encouraging an associate who knows our product inside and out to write a tips and tricks blog. Once you determine who, have them create a theme for their blog. Be aware that blogs are not
marketing press releases but personal comments on your business, your industry, and current events. Next, determine the cadence of the updates. Bloggers need to make a commitment to update their blogs on a regular basis. This can be daily, weekly or even monthly, but needs to be consistent.
Create your own blog. Talk about your industry, events, job, or whatever you are passionate about. If your blog is work related, I strongly recommend you inform your manager and get their permission. My blog, http://www.closerq.com/, is a sales and business blog, where I answer one question a week from my readers. My blog is separate from my company, my CEO is aware of my blog, and there is disclaimer that my blog is my opinions only.
There are hundreds of free blogging sites, I personally use Blogspot by Google and Wordpress is another popular one. As with your company blogs, you need to update on a regular basis. My business blog is updated every Wednesday.
Microblogging: Microblogging is getting a lot of press and attention. Microblogging Is a combination of texting and blogging, with only a 140 characters to send your update. Twitter.com is by the far the most popular microblog. Similar to blogs, have your marketing and senior leadership start tweeting. Also, start your own twitter. Twitter is free and very simple. If you travel, Twitter is a great way to tweet about your trips. I use Twitter to promote my business blog and my business novel, Decisions.
Videos: Are a great way to show your solutions on the web, both high and low quality videos. Youtube.com has set the bar for high speed, low quality video. You can buy a Flip video player for a couple of hundred of dollars to film and upload videos to your website and presentations. For cu
stom developed product, service, and solution videos, I personally like www.commoncraft.com. In addition to your website, post your B2B videos on, www.youtube.com. You can set up your own channel and send your clients and prospects to youtube and your website. Plus with youtube you have the opportunity for your videos to go viral.
Don’t get bogged down in the quality of your videos. There is even an added benefit of low quality videos because they have the benefit of being more real from a viewer perspective versus high-end videos, which can appear to be more commercial and less original.
Surveys: You can setup surveys and polls on your website and blogs. Have your clients do ratings and reviews of your products. This gives your clients and prospects to ‘have a voice’ with you.
Social Netw
orks: You can set up your own social network for your clients or set up an account in an established social network. If your senior leadership thinks social networking is for teenagers, the number of 35 years olds plus on Facebook has doubled in the last 60 days alone1. You may want to use the term ‘Enterprise Collaboration’, for your internal meetings on promoting and getting into social networking.
Your company has multiple options for creating their social network: build your own; buy white label social networking software; Microsoft Sharepoint offers Social Networking functionality; go with a free site, like Ning; and / or participate in established networks. These social network (Enterprise Collaboration) can be secure (only for clients), open (clients, prospects, partners, competitors, etc.) or a combination of the two.
Below are two popular established social networks.
Facebook.com: At this time, Facebook is the largest social network. However 18 months ago, MySpace was the largest. Have your company create their own Facebook page, for clients, employees, and prospects to be fans. It is better for your company to set up the pages versus a dissatisfied client or a disgruntled employee. As a reader of this article, there is a 90% probability you already have a Facebook page.
LinkedIn.com: Is a great business networking tool. Create your own profile and network with your previous employees, alumni, clients, business associates.
In regards to your personal use of social networks, make sure they do not take up too much of your valuable time. Facebook and Twitter can waste both your valuable personal and professional time.
Web2.0 has gotten a lot press, so the latest marketing trend is to add 2.0 to your offering: Web2.0, Sales2.0, Business2.0, Detroit2.0, Library2.0, Whitehouse2.0, etc. As with any hype, Hype2.0, you need to look under the covers to see what is real and what is just ole hype. A lot of companies are redesigning their website and calling it Web2.0 with no additional interactivity.
By making a commitment to Web2.0 will see an increase in your sales and quality prospects. Below are Wikipedia’s definitions of both Web2.0 and Sales2.0.
Sales 2.0 Wikipedia Definition: Sales2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications that aim to improve the speed, collaboration, customer engagement and accountability of the sales process. Sales 2.0 applications utilize Internet technology, now commonly known as Web 2.0, to enable new ways of interacting, collaborating, and sharing information between sales professionals and their customers and potential customers. Additionally, the technology and concept intend to add increased analytics measurement to the sales process and seek to bring increased alignment between the sales and marketing professions, as new customer engagement technologies create shared goals for the two professions throughout the sales cycle.
Web 2.0 Wikipedia Definition: Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web. According to Tim O'Reilly: “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.” Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.
1 http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/03/25/number-of-us-facebook-users-over-35-nearly-doubles-in-last-60-days/
SHAUN PRIEST
E-mail: shaun@closerq.com
Blog: http://www.closerq.com/
Sales Novel: http://www.shaunpriest.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/closerq
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunpriest
Bio: Shaun is Vice President of Sales for eHealth Vendor, MEDSEEK. Shaun has over 18 years of sales and sales management experience. His popular business blog, http://www.closerq.com/, is where readers submit sales and business oriented questions, and Shaun answers with actionable content. Shaun recently published, ‘Decisions‘, an original novel about a sales person with personal demons by Small Dogma Publisher, http://www.smalldogma.com/?page_id=416.
‘Good 2.0ing’. Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give me your feedback on my article. Shaun Priest at shaun@closerq.com.
Free Sales 2.0 eBook: "What is Sales2.0"
http://podcast.salesmanagement20.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/What-is-sales-2.pdf
My article:
Sales 2.0: Can you leverage 2.0 to help you grow your sales?
By: Shaun Priest
The answer is Yes! However the better question to ask is HOW, can you use Web2.0 to grow your quality sales? This article gives you actionable content to start leveraging 2.0 today. There are two high-level options to leverage 2.0, you yourself and your organization. Below are definitions, recommendations, and options for both you and your company.
For level setting, let’s start with my simple definitions of Web2.0 and Sales2.0. Web 2.0 is interaction and having a voice on-line. Sales 2.0 is leveraging Web2.0 to increase your quality sales. Web2.0 is the evolution from reading content (Web1.0) on the web, to transacting (Web1.5) on the web, to truly interacting (Web2.0), and having your personal voice on the web. The heart of Web2.0 is social media (blogs, videos, groups, twitter, surveys, forums, wikis, listservs, rss, etc.) and user generated content.
Many folks think of social networking as a user-to-user, business-to-consumer (B2C), however, social networking is a great opportunity for business-to-business (B2B). As a Sales VP for a technology vendor, this article focuses solely on B2B opportunities for leveraging Web2.0 and Sales2.0.
Blogs: Have your CEO, VP of Development, Senior Leaders, Industry Experts, and/or Consultants write a blog. At my company one of our SVPs writes an excellent industry blog and I am encouraging an associate who knows our product inside and out to write a tips and tricks blog. Once you determine who, have them create a theme for their blog. Be aware that blogs are not
marketing press releases but personal comments on your business, your industry, and current events. Next, determine the cadence of the updates. Bloggers need to make a commitment to update their blogs on a regular basis. This can be daily, weekly or even monthly, but needs to be consistent.Create your own blog. Talk about your industry, events, job, or whatever you are passionate about. If your blog is work related, I strongly recommend you inform your manager and get their permission. My blog, http://www.closerq.com/, is a sales and business blog, where I answer one question a week from my readers. My blog is separate from my company, my CEO is aware of my blog, and there is disclaimer that my blog is my opinions only.
There are hundreds of free blogging sites, I personally use Blogspot by Google and Wordpress is another popular one. As with your company blogs, you need to update on a regular basis. My business blog is updated every Wednesday.
Microblogging: Microblogging is getting a lot of press and attention. Microblogging Is a combination of texting and blogging, with only a 140 characters to send your update. Twitter.com is by the far the most popular microblog. Similar to blogs, have your marketing and senior leadership start tweeting. Also, start your own twitter. Twitter is free and very simple. If you travel, Twitter is a great way to tweet about your trips. I use Twitter to promote my business blog and my business novel, Decisions.
Videos: Are a great way to show your solutions on the web, both high and low quality videos. Youtube.com has set the bar for high speed, low quality video. You can buy a Flip video player for a couple of hundred of dollars to film and upload videos to your website and presentations. For cu
stom developed product, service, and solution videos, I personally like www.commoncraft.com. In addition to your website, post your B2B videos on, www.youtube.com. You can set up your own channel and send your clients and prospects to youtube and your website. Plus with youtube you have the opportunity for your videos to go viral.Don’t get bogged down in the quality of your videos. There is even an added benefit of low quality videos because they have the benefit of being more real from a viewer perspective versus high-end videos, which can appear to be more commercial and less original.
Surveys: You can setup surveys and polls on your website and blogs. Have your clients do ratings and reviews of your products. This gives your clients and prospects to ‘have a voice’ with you.
Social Netw
orks: You can set up your own social network for your clients or set up an account in an established social network. If your senior leadership thinks social networking is for teenagers, the number of 35 years olds plus on Facebook has doubled in the last 60 days alone1. You may want to use the term ‘Enterprise Collaboration’, for your internal meetings on promoting and getting into social networking.Your company has multiple options for creating their social network: build your own; buy white label social networking software; Microsoft Sharepoint offers Social Networking functionality; go with a free site, like Ning; and / or participate in established networks. These social network (Enterprise Collaboration) can be secure (only for clients), open (clients, prospects, partners, competitors, etc.) or a combination of the two.
Below are two popular established social networks.
Facebook.com: At this time, Facebook is the largest social network. However 18 months ago, MySpace was the largest. Have your company create their own Facebook page, for clients, employees, and prospects to be fans. It is better for your company to set up the pages versus a dissatisfied client or a disgruntled employee. As a reader of this article, there is a 90% probability you already have a Facebook page.
LinkedIn.com: Is a great business networking tool. Create your own profile and network with your previous employees, alumni, clients, business associates.
In regards to your personal use of social networks, make sure they do not take up too much of your valuable time. Facebook and Twitter can waste both your valuable personal and professional time.
Web2.0 has gotten a lot press, so the latest marketing trend is to add 2.0 to your offering: Web2.0, Sales2.0, Business2.0, Detroit2.0, Library2.0, Whitehouse2.0, etc. As with any hype, Hype2.0, you need to look under the covers to see what is real and what is just ole hype. A lot of companies are redesigning their website and calling it Web2.0 with no additional interactivity.
By making a commitment to Web2.0 will see an increase in your sales and quality prospects. Below are Wikipedia’s definitions of both Web2.0 and Sales2.0.
Sales 2.0 Wikipedia Definition: Sales2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications that aim to improve the speed, collaboration, customer engagement and accountability of the sales process. Sales 2.0 applications utilize Internet technology, now commonly known as Web 2.0, to enable new ways of interacting, collaborating, and sharing information between sales professionals and their customers and potential customers. Additionally, the technology and concept intend to add increased analytics measurement to the sales process and seek to bring increased alignment between the sales and marketing professions, as new customer engagement technologies create shared goals for the two professions throughout the sales cycle.
Web 2.0 Wikipedia Definition: Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web. According to Tim O'Reilly: “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.” Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.
1 http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/03/25/number-of-us-facebook-users-over-35-nearly-doubles-in-last-60-days/
SHAUN PRIEST
E-mail: shaun@closerq.com
Blog: http://www.closerq.com/
Sales Novel: http://www.shaunpriest.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/closerq
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunpriest
Bio: Shaun is Vice President of Sales for eHealth Vendor, MEDSEEK. Shaun has over 18 years of sales and sales management experience. His popular business blog, http://www.closerq.com/, is where readers submit sales and business oriented questions, and Shaun answers with actionable content. Shaun recently published, ‘Decisions‘, an original novel about a sales person with personal demons by Small Dogma Publisher, http://www.smalldogma.com/?page_id=416.
‘Good 2.0ing’. Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give me your feedback on my article. Shaun Priest at shaun@closerq.com.
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Read more at: http://blog.insideview.com/2010/05/15/sales-2-0-95-sales-5-technology