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How is Sales 2.0 transforming your sales department?
There have been a number of discussions about Sales 2.0 on Focus.com, and many see it as the next generation of sales strategies and techniques. What new techniques have you implemented in your sales department, and how? In what ways has 2.0 transformed your sales department and organization as a whole? Any pain points or unexpected benefits? High quality answers may be included in an upcoming report on Sales 2.0.
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3 Answers
Our key transformations:
1/ greater front-line autonomy + transparency on what's being done and achieved
2/ greater buyer/seller alignment (buyers are being less disrupted + more aided; sellers are being less busy + more productive)
3/ more judicious use of everyone's time (buyers getting fewer calls that they aren't ready for or interested in; sellers getting more conversations from the calls they're making)
4/ more testing, in fast, small, increments, in our sales + marketing practices
5/ greater alignment of marketing + sales efforts, now that it's clear how the former affect the funnel velocity being achieved by the latter
(Somewhat) unexpected benefit: by letting us sell at the cadence of the buyer, these techniques are letting us regularly close some deals in a fraction of the time + effort it normally takes.
Trust this helps. - John
I'm always torn on this question. Frankly, I'm confused about "Sales 2.0." I think it's supposed to be about how buyers are changing the way they buy, and what we need to change to engage these buyers where they are at.
But, too often, when we get into these conversations, it turns out to be a discussion of some new gee whiz software package that enables sales people to do more, faster, cheaper (though I'm not convinced better.)
The issue about Sales 2.0, if we have to be stuck with that label, is the way customers are buying is changing profoundly. That means the way we sell and create value has to change profoundly. We actually have to engage the customer much earlier in their buying process or even before they recognize they are in a buying process. We have to engage them on different "turf." That may be in the social media environment---and here's where some of the tools and software helps.
We have to change the way we engage them. The "sales person as informer/educator" is increasingly becoming an artifact of the past. The new sales person will be a business and resource manager, deeply skilled at change management, collaboration, and project management.
The function of selling will be hopelessly intertwined with the function of marketing, to the point of both being indistinquishable.
All these require new skills, capabilities, processes, metrics, and.... yes, tools--now we're back to the software discussion, but we've come there from the right place.
Dave: As ever, I agree with your take on things. Sales 2.0 is less about gee whiz software and more gee whiz sales performance. IMO, the path to the latter is paved with the effectiveness with which sellers create buyer value, not the speed with which they can accomplish tasks or use tools.
Not as convinced as you that marketing and sales are becoming more intertwined. They're different, and always will be. In a Sales 2.0 world, there's a better alignment of effort, armed with a shared understanding of the effectiveness of the efforts of each role and how each is affecting the effectiveness of the other.
Most profoundly, I agree with your take that as things change, there's a growing need for new skills, capabilities, processes, + metrics. From what I'm seeing the greatest transformations from Sales 2.0 are occurring where the doing of sales work enables Reps to understand + hone their sales skills by observing the buyer impacts of their sales efforts. Now we're back to the software discussion, but we've come there from the right place.
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