Sales 2.0 E-Book

Anneke Seley

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 353

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2008

Beschreibung

Two Silicon Valley insiders reveal the emerging Sales 2.0 trend and how companies can profit from it Sales 2.0 explores the emerging Sales 2.0 phenomenon, how it is characterized, why it is imperative for a company's long-term success, and how anyone can get started with this new approach to generating revenue. Driven by an explosion of online products and changing customer buying preferences, Sales 2.0 is the marriage of Web 2.0 technologies with innovative sales processes. The book shows readers how to redeploy their sales teams for greater bottom-line results and reveals all the differences between Sales 2.0 and traditional selling. Through real world case studies, readers will learn how industry leaders achieved phenomenal results and a competitive advantage. Applicable to sales teams in any industry, Sales 2.0 presents the future of sales today.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

PREFACE

Foreword

PART 1 - Selling In The Twenty-First Century

Chapter 1 - WHAT IS SALES 2.0?

THE FOUNDATION OF SALES 2.0

Chapter 2 - WHY IS SALES 2.0 IMPERATIVE FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

KEY FACTORS DRIVING SALES 2.0 ADOPTION

IS TECHNOLOGY THE ANSWER?

Chapter 3 - SALES 1.0 TO SALES 2.0: CHANGING MINDSET

SALES IS ART AND SCIENCE

THINKING LIKE YOUR CUSTOMER

THE EVOLUTION FROM SALES 1.0 TO SALES 2.0

Chapter 4 - SALES 2.0 RESULTS AND REWARDS

SALES 2.0 COMPANIES SEE BETTER RESULTS

INVESTORS REWARD SALES 2.0 COMPANIES

Chapter 5 - SEVEN MISPERCEPTIONS ABOUT SALES 2.0

Misperception 1: My Company Is Making Its Numbers and I’m Not Targeting Small ...

Misperception 2: I Don’t Need a Formal Sales Process. If We Hire the Right ...

Misperception 3: My New Sales 2.0 Initiatives Will Improve Revenue Results this Month.

Misperception 4: It Is Unnecessary to Invest in My Sales 2.0 Implementation. By ...

Misperception 5: It Doesn’t Make Sense to Standardize the Company on Sales ...

Misperception 6: Sales 2.0 Engagement Is Impersonal. It Is Always Better to ...

Misperception 7: Sales 2.0 Won’t Work Outside the Technology Industry or in ...

Chapter 6 - EIGHT SALES 2.0 IMPERATIVES

Imperative 1: Plan and Test Sales 2.0 Initiatives, Organize Sales Resources ...

Imperative 2: Facilitate Sales and Marketing Collaboration and Alignment

Imperative 3: Define an Improved Sales Process and Commit to It

Imperative 4: Use the Sales Process Strategically

Imperative 5: Create Personalized, Long-Term, Collaborative Relationships with ...

Imperative 6: Facilitate Team Selling and Best-Practices Sharing

Imperative 7: Revisit Sales Employee Profile

Imperative 8: Implement Technology to Improve Results

Chapter 7 - R U SALES 2.0? A CHECKLIST

PART 2 - Your Entry into Sales 2.0

Chapter 8 - WHAT IS INSIDE SALES?

SALES DEVELOPMENT AND TELESALES: WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOUR COMPANY?

Chapter 9 - SALES DEVELOPMENT: GENERATING, QUALIFYING, AND MANAGING LEADS

SALES DEVELOPMENT RETURN ON INVESTMENT

SALES LEAD RANKING

MEASURING THE BEGINNING OF THE SALES PROCESS: PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT

MEASURING THE END OF THE SALES PROCESS: PIPELINE TO REVENUE PROJECTION

SPECIALIZED ROLES IN SALES DEVELOPMENT

COLD CALLING 2.0

SALESFORCE.COM: USING COLD CALLING 2.0 TO REACH MAJOR ACCOUNTS

Chapter 10 - TELESALES: SELLING BY TELEPHONE AND WEB

CAN YOUR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES BE SOLD BY WEB AND TELEPHONE?

ASSIGNING TELESALES QUOTAS

STRENGTHENING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS WITH TELESALES

OUTSOURCING INSIDE SALES

ACTEVA: EXPERIMENTING WITH OUTSOURCING AND OFFSHORING

Chapter 11 - THE BENEFITS OF INSIDE SALES

High Volume: Increase and Maximize Revenue

High Velocity: Accelerate the Sales Cycle

High Value: Increase Sales at Lower Cost by Aligning Resources with Opportunity ...

Predictability: Establish a Predictable, Measurable, Repeatable, Scalable Business

Stronger Customer Relationships: Communicate and Engage More Easily by Phone ...

Sustainability: Reduce Travel and Carbon Footprint

PART 3 - Profiles of Four Sales 2.0 Leaders

Chapter 12 - ORACLE CORPORATION: THE ORIGINAL SALES 2.0 COMPANY

THE BIRTH OF SALES 2.0 PRACTICES

THE FOUNDING OF ORACLEDIRECT

SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT AND COLLABORATION

RECRUITING AND TRAINING A SALES 2.0 ORGANIZATION

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY, AUTOMATING PROCESSES

ORACLEDIRECT AND SALES 2.0 TODAY

SALES ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE MAPPED TO BUYERS

TEAM SELLING REDUCES CHANNEL CONFLICT

THE INTERNET CHANGES COMMUNICATIONS

ORACLE PRODUCES SALES 2.0 LEADERS AND ENTREPRENEURS

ORACLEDIRECT INDIA STRATEGY

BRINGING SALES 2.0 PRACTICES TO ORACLE APPLICATIONS CUSTOMERS

SALES 2.0 OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES

GLOBAL COLLABORATION AND BEST-PRACTICES SHARING

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS ENHANCE THE SALES PROCESS

TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION AND ACCEPTANCE: TAKE AN INCREMENTAL APPROACH

WHAT’S AHEAD? ORACLE’S NEXT-GENERATION CRM PRODUCTS

Chapter 13 - WEBEX COMMUNICATIONS: SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE LEADER AND SALES 2.0 SHOWCASE

WEB-TOUCH SALES

USING WEBEX TECHNOLOGY AT EVERY STAGE IN THE SALES PROCESS

SALES ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE BY FUNCTION AND CUSTOMER TYPE

INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE

MARKETING AND SALES: PART OF THE SAME PROCESS

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROCESS, TRACKING, AND MEASUREMENT

IMPROVING KEY METRICS: SALES CYCLE LENGTH AND CLOSE RATES

“CUSTOMERS DON’T BUY SOLUTIONS”

RETHINKING THE SALES FUNNEL: STATIC VERSUS DYNAMIC MEASUREMENT

TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERS THE SALESFORCE

TRANSFORMING A SALES ORGANIZATION TO INCORPORATE SALES 2.0

MAKING TELEPHONE/WEB SALES CALLS VISUAL

Chapter 14 - GENIUS.COM: AN EMERGING SALES 2.0 PIONEER

DIRECT-RESPONSE MARKETING AND SALES 2.0

ANALYTICS PROVIDE SALES CYCLE DETAILS

A PROCESS-ORIENTED VP OF SALES

SALES 2.0: EMPOWERING SALES REPS AND CUSTOMERS ALIKE

RETHINKING SALES MODELS TO ENGAGE NEW MARKETS

SALES 2.0 AND CULTURE SHIFT AT GENIUS’S CUSTOMER, BT

HIRING SALES 2.0 REPS

PHONE AND WEB SELLING

Chapter 15 - SYNERON: VISIONARY SALES LEADERSHIP IN AN UNEXPECTED INDUSTRY

IMPROVING ON THE TRADITIONAL SALES MODEL

TAKING AN INCREMENTAL APPROACH

IMPLEMENTING SALES DEVELOPMENT TO GENERATE AND QUALIFY LEADS

MINING THE CUSTOMER BASE

PILOTING THE NEW PROGRAMS

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS WHILE GAINING INTELLIGENCE

SCALING THE ORGANIZATION

IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY AND RESULTS

ADDRESSING CHALLENGES

EXPERIMENTING WITH OUTSOURCING

ENABLING SALES WITH TECHNOLOGY

PART 4 - Getting Started with Sales 2.0

Chapter 16 - YOUR SALES 2.0 PLAN: MAKING A TRANSITION

Chapter 17 - SALES 2.0 STRATEGY: REALIGNING YOUR SALES ORGANIZATION

OPTIMIZING THE BALANCE BETWEEN TELESALES AND FIELD RESOURCES

Chapter 18 - SALES 2.0 PEOPLE: ASSESSING STAFFING, TRAINING, AND COMPENSATION

UPDATING INTERVIEWING PROCESSES

USING TOOLS TO PINPOINT HIRING PROFILES

RETHINKING SALES 2.0 POSITIONS AND RECRUITING

IMPLEMENTING SALES 2.0 TRAINING

STRUCTURING THE RIGHT COMPENSATION

MOTIVATING SALESPEOPLE WITH COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Chapter 19 - SALES 2.0 PROCESS: DEFINING AND MEASURING YOUR CUSTOMER-CENTRIC ...

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMERS’ EXPERIENCE

TRACKING METRICS IN ADDITION TO REVENUE

Chapter 20 - SALES 2.0 TECHNOLOGY: SELECTING THE RIGHT ENABLING TOOLS

A FUNDAMENTAL: CRM SYSTEMS

MANAGING PARTNER RELATIONSHIPS: PRM

APPLYING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TO SALES: SALES ANALYTICS

GENERATING QUALIFIED LEADS: FINDING THE RIGHT CONTACTS

IMPROVING SALES DEVELOPMENT: EXPEDITING LIVE CONTACTS

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER: SALES INTELLIGENCE

IDENTIFYING CUSTOMER INTEREST: E-MAIL AND WEB SITE TRACKING

SPEEDING UP THE APPROVAL CYCLE: ONLINE CONTRACTING

ENGAGING CUSTOMERS: WEB CONFERENCING AND ON-DEMAND PRESENTATIONS

IMPROVING COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION: WIKIS, BLOGS, COMMUNITIES, AND SALES PORTALS

MAKING STRONGER CONNECTIONS: SOCIAL NETWORKING

CLOSING COMMENTS: THE FUTURE OF SALES 2.0

AFTERWORD

SALES 2.0 RESOURCES

INDEX

Praise for Sales2.0

“As founder of Oracle’s telephone sales group, Anneke Seley pioneered today’s modern selling techniques.”

—Marc Benioff, Founder and CEO, salesforce.com

“Sales 2.0 is a major trend that is approaching the tipping point. Seley and Holloway have written the rare business strategy book that is immediately actionable. It’s mandatory reading for sales professionals and business leaders alike.”

—Geoffrey Moore, Best-Selling Author of Crossing the Chasm,

Dealing with Darwin, and other books

“Anneke has been an innovator in maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of sales organizations, from the introduction of telesales channels to Web 2.0 communities, and has dramatically improved the way business is done.”

—Craig Conway, Former CEO, PeopleSoft

“The authors have been at the forefront of creating and defining the Sales 2.0 phenomenon and show you how to make money and achieve exceptional ROI with this approach.”

—John Luongo, Former CEO, the Vantive Corporation

“No sales executive wakes up and says ‘How do I reach more customers in a more expensive way?’ Implementing strategies and technologies that allow you to be more competitive is the key to success. If you are concerned with long-term success and viability of your organization and maintaining the pulse of your customer, you must read this book.”

—Rudy Corsi, Senior Vice President, OracleDirect and Operations,

Oracle Corporation

“As a former Sales 1.0 professional, I can vouch for the fact that Sales 2.0 works. Since adopting a Sales 2.0 approach to selling, I have achieved increases in quota attainment as well as predictability in sales forecasts.”

—Stu Schmidt, Vice President of Solutions Sales, Cisco WebEx

Copyright © 2009 by Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Seley, Anneke, 1958- Sales 2.0 : improve business results using innovative sales practices and technology / Anneke Seley, Brent Holloway. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-48280-3

1. Selling—Data processing. 2. Selling—Technological innovations. 3. Sales management—Technological innovations. I. Holloway, Brent, 1974- II. Title. HF5438.35.S453 2009 658.85—dc22 2008029060 .

This book is dedicated to our customers, who have rewarded our Sales 2.0 philosophy with their business and shown that it works.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We learned a great deal in the course of writing this book, thanks to the many people who were willing to help. Like Sales 2.0, this project is a result of collaboration and idea sharing.

Jeff Weinberger started as a business contact at Cisco WebEx, but quickly became an intellectual guide and good friend. He spent many hours reviewing, editing, and helping us think about Sales 2.0 as well as authoring our Afterword.

Anneke’s team at Phone Works—especially Sally Duby, Cathie Dodge, Charissa Franklin, Anita Gryska, and Leslie Rearte—edited our drafts and gave us important perspectives. B. J. Bushur, our partner and friend, introduced us to Syneron and other customers featured in the book. Thanks to Hank Oswald as well, for being a willing member of the review team.

Sherry Paterra provided important guidance for this project. A friend, mentor, and early Sales 2.0 business leader, she helped with everything from strategic thinking to line-by-line editing.

Aaron Ross made major contributions to the manuscript. We are so grateful to have collaborated with him, so his experiences could be shared.

Without Barry Trailer’s and Jim Dickie’s CSO Insights research, the book’s message would be much less compelling.

Lauren Hauptman gave us the confidence that only a professional editor can provide with her generous review of major sections. Ken Fromm, an author and entrepreneur, also gave us valuable ideas on how to improve the work.

Dave Thompson and his team at Genius.com gave Sales 2.0 early visibility and brought the pioneers of the Sales 2.0 community together with the inaugural Sales 2.0 Conference in 2007.

Geoffrey Moore sparked the idea for the Sales 2.0 conference. He also graciously agreed to be a part of this book as the author of its Foreword.

Barry Trailer, Vance Christensen, and Tina Babbi saw early outlines for the book and helped us rework its focus. The result is a much higher-quality product.

Lisa Herling educated Anneke on the world of professional publishing. Her network led to a referral to John Willig, who became our literary agent.

John Willig introduced us to Matthew Holt, our executive editor at John Wiley & Sons, and helped us convince him that a book on Sales 2.0 was a good investment.

The Wiley team has been wonderfully supportive. Without Matthew Holt’s approval of the project, and Jessica Campilango’s assistance throughout the process, there would be no book. Christine Moore, our developmental editor, read all our ugly first drafts and made the content crisper. Christine Kim, our marketing manager, helped us with our promotional questions and projects.

Ellie Koss, Brian Anderson, Bill Concevitch, Barry Trailer, Aaron Ross, Sramana Mitra, Mike Saylor, Dave Green, and many others gave us early advice and encouragement on writing, editing, publishing, and the creative process.

Kathleen Bruno, Jennifer Brandenburg, and Frances Evensen made vital introductions to many of the key people featured in our interviews. Relationships matter!

Many generous people agreed to be interviewed or quoted for the book. We enjoyed each and every interaction, although not everyone’s stories could be told. We appreciate the time they spent with us and are grateful for their participation.

We thank our sales managers, not only for providing encouragement and content for this project, but also for teaching us about sales and sales management. The career opportunities and guidance they provided have given us the credibility to write this book. Anneke is especially indebted to Craig Conway, Mike Seashols, John Luongo, Tom Siebel, and Mike Humphries. Anneke also thanks Larry Ellison for hiring her in the early days of Oracle and Marcia Wells-Lawson, her first manager, for patiently teaching her the basics of business. Brent thanks Doron Aspitz, Jeff Schmidt, Roger Nunn, Brian Anderson, Omar Kassem, Gary Trudo, Brad Mirkovich, and Bill Ryan for their leadership as innovative sales managers.

Writing a book can be an emotional roller coaster. Our spouses bore the brunt of this and made it possible for us to deliver the manuscript within our short, five-month deadline. Anneke thanks Jack Oswald for urging her to write a book in the first place and reminding her on a constant basis of the strategic value and timeliness of the Sales 2.0 message. His insights helped shape the book and make it pertinent and actionable for executives and business leaders. Brent thanks his wife, Cindy Holloway, for her ongoing support and encouragement.

PREFACE

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone provided the first technological alternative to information exchange by mail or in person. In more recent times, we have access to a dazzling array of online products, mobile devices, and automated services that are changing the way we communicate and, therefore, how customers buy and how sellers sell. However, despite more than a century of technological advancement, we still have sales productivity challenges.

Thought leaders and technology vendors are defining a phenomenon called Sales 2.0, which evokes a newer, better, more effective way to identify and communicate with customers. Like Web 2.0—which defines the Internet as the platform for creating new business opportunities—Sales 2.0 is an umbrella term for describing best practices for predictable, measurable selling that results in improved business results. Although the “2.0” version number suggests that the Internet-based sales enablement tools are what give companies a performance edge, Sales 2.0 is not just about the Internet and the technological advances of Web 2.0. Technology, in fact, is enabling the Sales 2.0 movement—which centers on a measurable, customer-centric sales process, strong and aligned relationships, and the strategic application of sales resources for maximum profitability.

This book’s purpose is to demystify the emerging Sales 2.0 trend and present ideas on how you can profit from it. We provide a framework for business leaders and sales professionals to understand the many facets of Sales 2.0 from the perspective of experienced sales managers. Since change in general is difficult, and implementing Sales 2.0 requires a different mindset, we provide guidance on how to introduce Sales 2.0 to your organization to achieve lasting success. Throughout the book, we demonstrate how Sales 2.0 leads to better business results in the real world, which transforms this subject from an academic curiosity to a compelling business case.

In Part 1, we introduce you to the general concepts of Sales 2.0 and its importance to your company. We explain why changing the way you sell is imperative, and we cover some common misperceptions that hinder the process of reaping the benefits of Sales 2.0. Part 2 explores the Sales 2.0 practice of selling by telephone and Web and shows how inside sales is a strategic entry point and baseline for future Sales 2.0 initiatives. Part 3 showcases four innovative companies that are using Sales 2.0 practices to create competitive advantage and impressive returns. In Part 4, we conclude with some practical approaches to getting started with Sales 2.0—including illustrations of how companies are using technology products to support the sales practices that improve business results.

The Sales 2.0 strategy includes the proper alignment of sales and marketing and well as sales resources and customer opportunities to create a leveraged approach to salesforce deployment and territory coverage. This means segmenting sales process steps, customers, and opportunities, and using the most profitable sales channel or communications medium needed to engage more buyers. Companies that include inside sales—the use of the telephone and Web to communicate with customers—in their sales mix, therefore, have a competitive advantage. Furthermore, companies gain the most traction and acceptance for Sales 2.0 practices through the groups that are most process-driven, technologically oriented, and open to change: inside sales groups for sales development and telesales. Through implementation of Sales 2.0 in sales development (for lead generation and qualification) and telesales (for telephone and web-based selling), companies can spearhead the transformation of an entire multichannel sales organization.

We pioneered Sales 2.0 concepts in the inside sales groups that we created and managed in the 1980s and 1990s, and we continue to perfect these approaches in our roles today. Although the quality and quantity of enabling technology products have increased by an order of magnitude, the fundamental sales practices have not changed. Using the phone and Web in the sales process is a huge opportunity for companies that have yet to fully exploit these highly effective, low-cost media, given shifts in customer buying preferences. For many businesses or markets, economics mandate the use of inside sales as the primary sales channel.

For nearly 20 years after leaving Oracle, Anneke has been applying the best sales practices she learned there and improving on them in the work she does with the clients of Phone Works, her sales consulting company. Led by her former Oracle colleague Sally Duby, the team of Phone Works consultants has designed, implemented, and relaunched measurable and predictable sales teams for hundreds of clients. Anneke has learned through her experiences that inside sales is a strategic business element and competitive differentiator with enormous value; and this book reveals why.

Brent has worked as a practicing sales manager with high-growth software companies for over 10 years. He is constantly looking for ways to increase the productivity of his telesales team at Verint Systems, which generates millions of dollars per year by staying engaged with customers. Brent writes on the topic of inside sales from a true insider’s point of view. His research and reporting on implementing Sales 2.0 people, process, and technology focuses on measurable results in groups such as the one he himself manages.

Because of our job experiences and the companies with whom we’ve worked, the book highlights technology companies selling business-to-business (B2B)—complex products that typically require several interactions between customers and salespeople before a purchase is made. And although you may be thinking that Sales 2.0 only applies to Silicon Valley companies in the computer software and technological products industries, this is not at all the case. As Professor Andrew McAfee at Harvard Business School states in his blog (“The Pursuit of Busyness,” http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee, April 14, 2007), “I often look to high-tech companies to observe state of the art work practices. Something about the intensity of both the competition and the war for talent in their industries makes them laboratories for workplace innovations.” This speaks directly to the fact that there is an important message here for readers in other industries with similarly complex sales cycles and evolving markets in which customers are using technology to communicate.

We’ve also discovered that Sales 2.0 practices can be applied more widely than we originally realized. Through discussions with professionals who are not in technology sales—including a cofounder of a prominent San Francisco Bay Area environmental nonprofit, and a medical entrepreneur who wants to transform the way health care is delivered—we have learned that Sales 2.0 approaches will likely yield improvements in all kinds of organizations, given the key concepts of functional and strategic resource alignment, measurable and predictable process, and online engagement.

We’d like to hear about your experiences with Sales 2.0, and share our ongoing insights after this book is published. Let’s be consistent with the Sales 2.0 message, start a conversation online, and keep the relationship going! Join us on www.sales20book.com.

Thanks so much for reading our book.

FOREWORD

We are in the early stages of a movement called Sales 2.0. Forward-thinking companies are the practitioners of Sales 2.0, and technology vendors are supplying the tools to enable its practice. Sales 2.0 companies are experimenting with innovative sales practices every day in a changing world of customer preferences

Why implement Sales 2.0 now? Because it allows companies to win more deals faster. It creates low-latency sales cycles, prioritizes best sales opportunities, highly leverages scarce expertise, proliferates best practices, and provides an on-ramp for next-generation talent.

How is Sales 2.0 a whole new ball game? It requires a major shift in sales management style. It’s all about measurement, tracking a sales team’s performance and metrics-oriented management philosophy. For sales reps, it requires a light touch and the right touch—being at the right place at the right time for your customer with the right information. Sales 2.0 tools can help achieve this.

Sales 2.0 is also about being authentic, not the stereotypical hype-y salesperson. Sales 2.0 reps help your customer to buy as opposed to “selling them.” The reward for Sales 2.0 selling is your customer’s loyalty and business.

The bottom line? As a result, of “No pushing!” “less friction!” and “less fiction!” you will see “more action!” and “more traction!”

—GEOFFREY MOOREBest-selling author, Managing Director at TCGAdvisors and Venture Partner at MDV

PART 1

Selling In The Twenty-First Century

HOW INNOVATIVE SELLING BEGAN IN SILICON VALLEY

In the 1970s, IBM was the company to emulate in high technology. IBM’s salespeople were considered the best in the business. Their image—symbolized by the dress code of dark business suits with nicely pressed white shirts and ties—was the height of professionalism. IBM’s customer service and sales training program were legendary. Sales professionals like Mike Seashols, who started his career in sales at IBM, were highly regarded and sought-after for top jobs across the technology industry. Seashols was recruited to head Oracle’s sales organization during the company’s high-growth years of the 1980s and currently serves as chairman and CEO of Avolent. As an IBM sales professional, he virtually lived with his customers, one of whom was Steve Jobs; he spent more time at their offices than his own to make sure they received instant attention and were completely satisfied with IBM’s products. Customers responded well to this level of service and rewarded IBM with their orders. It was said that “nobody ever got fired for buying Big Blue.”

In the days before the advent of the personal computer and the commercial use of the Internet, computers cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and required large, dedicated, temperature-controlled rooms, and staffs of technical people to keep them running. Software, which cost tens of thousands to millions of dollars to license, was sold top down to what we now call the chief information officer (CIO)—the head of information technology—and approved by senior management. It was distributed on physical reels of magnetic tape and procured as a perpetual use license, personally delivered and installed at the customer’s site by a technical specialist or team and carefully monitored until the application went live and was stable. Software upgrades also required onsite installation by a technical expert.

Mike Seashols remembers, “A typical IBM sales cycle was 12 months or longer. Sales reps usually made four sales calls to customers each day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon after lunch.” Often, multiple meetings were required to close a sale, given the large financial investment required, the levels of customer management needed for approval, and the evangelical type of selling required to educate customers on new products. Lengthy contract negotiations were often needed as well before products were sold. Legal departments and contract administrators on both sides of the table could add weeks to the sales cycle, just to fulfill their responsibility to protect their company’s interests and secure the best possible terms.

Due to the high costs associated with these installations, only the largest companies and government agencies could afford such expenditures. And these customers expected not only dedicated technical resources—which ensured smooth and successful implementations—but also perks that added to the cost of doing business. Customers often enjoyed invitations to expensive meals or rounds of golf, accompanied by their salesperson. As a result, technology vendors’ cost of selling and servicing customers was so high and sales rep productivity was so limited that only the largest deals and biggest customers could be targeted in order to make a healthy profit.

Those were the good old days of Sales 1.0 selling in Silicon Valley. Boy, has the world changed.

In the mid-1980s, as computers became smaller, more affordable, and more ubiquitous, the market blew wide open for a much bigger range of less expensive software and hardware that appealed to a bigger universe of potential customers. No longer were these complex products the domain of only the Fortune 1000 and big government. The superhigh-touch, labor-intensive way we used to sell technology products no longer made economic sense for markets, customers, or products requiring a high volume of sales transactions. Sales strategies and distribution channels in Silicon Valley had to evolve.

The old way of selling wasn’t a fit for the new buyers either. Customers with smaller computers became more self-sufficient and often installed their own software without involving their information technology (IT) departments or requiring CIO or senior management approval. Contracts for smaller systems were initially simplified and shrink-wrapped with the product, which was shipped on discs. This approach made the negotiation of terms between legal departments increasingly rare. When it became possible to license software over the Internet, many software products became available for download through a web site link, and users would just check the “Accept” box online to agree to contractual terms. The simplification of the shipping, installation, and contractual requirements also reduced sales-cycle lengths and cost of sales and paved the way for much more software to be sold.

One could argue that the telephone was the first Sales 2.0 disruptive technology to be integrated into the sales process, as Oracle found in 1985. Under certain circumstances, prospects proved to be comfortable interacting with salespeople and even buying complex technology—such as packaged software—from them by phone, as long as they could get quick, accurate answers to their questions and discuss how a product could meet their business requirements. They often had the decision-making and budget authority for smaller purchases, and many preferred the efficiency and instant gratification of phone communication to the lengthy process and delays of scheduling onsite meetings. Trial license programs with liberal return policies preceded the downloadable demos and trials that are offered through many software vendors’ web sites today.

The comfort level associated with this manner of buying products along with a thirst for purchasing them more efficiently has expanded to include bigger-ticket items with more complex sales cycles in technology—as well as in other industries. As our customers change, companies that are open, flexible, and changing the way they sell are creating competitive advantage, and leaving behind those that don’t do so.

This new, emerging framework for selling effectively in the twenty-first century is called Sales 2.0.

1

WHAT IS SALES 2.0?

Sales 2.0 is the use of innovative sales practices, focused on creating value for both buyer and seller and enabled by Web 2.0 and next-generation technology. Sales 2.0 practices combine the science of process-driven operations with the art of collaborative relationships, using the most profitable and most expedient sales resources required to meet customers’ needs. This approach produces superior, predictable, repeatable business results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs, and sustained competitive advantage.

THE FOUNDATION OF SALES 2.0

The innovations associated with Sales 2.0 practices fit into four interrelated, interdependent categories: strategy, people, process, and technology (Figure 1.1). Sales 2.0 organizations feature:

1. Strategy which includes alignment of sales resources with customer opportunities and leverages your most expensive professionals while providing coverage for buyers regardless of location, size,

Figure 1.1 The Foundation of Sales 2.0

or stage in the sales cycle. Sales 2.0 companies also have the right go-to-market plan and integrated, coordinated sales and marketing plans.

2. People who are relationship-focused, open, authentic, and flexible. They create and maintain collaborative interactions with people both inside and outside the company, using the most appropriate medium to engage and maintain relationships. Sales 2.0 professionals are trusted and enjoy support from customers, partners, colleagues, and peers alike, which leads to improved business results for all parties.

3. Process that is customer-focused, measurable, reproducible, and automated, and which can be duplicated across a sales organization to produce predictable sales results from quarter to quarter. The Sales 2.0 process results in optimized sales efficiency and effectiveness, and ultimately high-velocity, high-volume, and high-value transactions. Deals close faster, there are more of them, and they are more profitable.

4. Technology which enables sales process and relationship-building, and which helps your people be more productive and successful.

Sales 2.0 Strategy: Alignment and Resource Allocation

Sales 2.0 businesses perform market analysis to identify customer types and requirements and assign the most profitable sales resources appropriate for each customer segment and market. Your most experienced and expensive sales teams should be focused on your largest qualified customers or sales opportunities. You can leverage their time and attention with a sales strategy that includes sales resources dedicated to sales opportunities that do not require face-to-face interaction. This includes qualifying buyers of all sizes in early stages of your sales cycle, smaller sales opportunities or prospects that may be geographically distant, and customers who have already purchased products from you. These communities can often be served by lower-cost sales resources using the phone and online technology. Sales 2.0 strategy leverages the most expensive sales reps while keeping sales pipelines consistently full, increasing customer acquisition and revenue generation, which keeps cost of sales low to deliver maximum value to investors and shareholders.

Sales and marketing alignment is especially important in Sales 2.0. These departments function together as one continuum to generate interest and engage customers. They collaborate on key strategy decisions as well as customer acquisition and relationship-building programs. Without the right go-to-market strategy, companies cannot enjoy Sales 2.0 benefits. These strategic prerequisites include product offering, positioning, messaging, pricing, target audience and qualified lead definitions, and channel distribution appropriate for the customers in your market. Without getting these right, Sales 2.0 initiatives—and Sales in general—will be ineffective. Although this book does not address these preconditions for success—numerous other books explore these marketing fundamentals in great detail—we do cover Sales 2.0 practices that can be used to test and refine or correct your marketing and sales strategies.

Sales 2.0 People: Open, Flexible, Collaborative, and Tech-Savvy

Relationships, interaction, and collaboration among different constituencies are major themes in Sales 2.0. The main selling relationship focus is on the connection between sales reps and their prospects or customers. As time progresses, the majority of these interactions are occurring by phone and Web. In addition, teamwork among colleagues is another prerequisite for Sales 2.0 success. The aforementioned sales and marketing alignment is a classic example of a Sales 2.0 relationship, and with technology, the line between the two functions is blurring. Also, close collaboration between inside and field reps, sales reps and sales support staff such as subject matter experts (SMEs), and contracts or legal leads to shorter sales cycles and increased revenue in Sales 2.0 companies.

In order to achieve Sales 2.0 levels of relationships and collaboration, company cultures will inevitably shift and managers may need to rethink their hiring strategies and compensation plans for sales employees. This new breed of sales rep must be open to change in the sales profession. As they focus on building relationships with customers and peers, these open-minded reps use the phone and Web extensively in place of on-site visits to contain costs, improve productivity, and provide more immediate service. They need to come up to speed on new technologies as customers adopt them. These Sales 2.0 reps often have team-selling goals—in addition to individual ones—that are supported by compensation plans that reward Sales 2.0 behavior. And for maximum performance gains, they must embrace a sales process that evolves with changing customer and market conditions.

Sales 2.0 Process: A Customer-Centric Yardstick for KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

Salespeople take certain steps to advance a sale, and their prospective customers take parallel steps to make a purchase decision. Sales 2.0 process is designed with customers at the forefront and asks: What are their business initiatives? What actions must they take at each step? What do they need from you and by when? Are you easy to do business with? This customer-focused process gives you a framework by which to measure your business metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs): to figure out what’s working and what’s not. Without it, you can’t predict business results; nor can you duplicate successes by sharing knowledge and best practices, fine-tune your sales approaches when markets and customers’ businesses change, or make continuous improvements as you experiment with different sales and marketing programs. Think of Sales 2.0 process measurement as part yardstick, part crystal ball.

Sales 2.0 Technology: The Right Tools for Your Sales Reps and Customers

The predictability, constant improvement in business processes, and strong, engaged online relationships that are the hallmarks of Sales 2.0 are supported by technology. It may be customer relationship management (CRM), business analytics, e-mail and web site tracking software; or products that accelerate account research or lead generation that help make sales reps more effective and efficient. Or it may by video e-mail, webinar software, or sales portals that encourage interaction, collaboration, and engagement. Without today’s technology enabling detailed sales process measurement and analysis—as well as the meaningful building of relationships without in-person meetings—Sales 2.0 simply wouldn’t be possible.

Recognizing the opportunity to enable these practices—which result in improved sales metrics—technology vendors have responded with an explosion of available online products. In general, these are Web 2.0 or advanced technologies that include software and services that speed up, enhance, or provide visibility into the sales cycle, or improve customer experience and engagement. In Part 4, we cover some of these technologies and how they are improving sales productivity.

Later in Part 1, we discuss eight imperatives for Sales 2.0 strategy, people, process, and technology in more detail. But first, we want to address some questions that may be on your mind:

• Why is it so important to begin a transformation to Sales 2.0?

• What happens if you don’t?

• What do you need to change from the way you’re selling now?

• What are the rewards for implementing Sales 2.0?

2

WHY IS SALES 2.0 IMPERATIVE FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

You may be asking, “Is Sales 2.0 really that important? Can my business survive without it?” In Part 3 of this book, we show you how four forward-thinking companies are leading their industries with Sales 2.0 practices. But they’re not the only ones. Your competitors may be considering similar sales approaches—that is, if they haven’t implemented Sales 2.0 already. Wouldn’t you like to beat them to it?

The way we’ve been selling in the past is too expensive, too slow, too unpredictable, and too hazardous to relationships for today’s businesses and their customers. Change is mandatory for those companies that want to outperform the competition. It is much more challenging to sell in today’s world, where sales reps struggle to meet the increasing demands of their customers while keeping sales numbers high and expense dollars low. Sellers often contend with decentralized customer organizations, multiple decision makers, and complex decision-making processes. New competitors seem to enter the market every day, requiring ever-improving differentiation in products and services. Meanwhile buyers are on information overload and face a myriad of product offerings and multiple choices of vendors—not to mention a steady stream of marketing and advertising campaigns coming at them through multiple media.

Marketing and sales professionals in every industry need to re-examine their markets, potential new customers, and how new and current customers evaluate and select products. They need to adapt their marketing strategies and sales processes to match the way that all their customers want to buy, while maintaining the flexibility to allow different customers to buy in different ways. For many companies with complex, business-to-business (B2B) sales models—where competition has increased and technology advances have changed customer preferences—the traditional sales approaches that have yielded success in the past will not work for much longer. These models typically center on field-based sales reps and executives who conduct most of their business through face-to-face prospect and customer meetings, and who are accountable for the entire sales process from prospect to qualified lead to opportunity development to sale. These Sales 1.0 salesforces:

• Favor information control over facilitating customer self-service.

• Are more oriented to internal competition than team collaboration.

• Are not measured on anything but the short-term revenue they generate.

• Are focused on making quota this quarter without regard for making their customers successful over the long term and contributing profit to two bottom lines: their company’s and their customer’s.

These characteristics are endemic in Sales 1.0 organizations, many of which are already experiencing a slowdown in success.

KEY FACTORS DRIVING SALES 2.0 ADOPTION

There are seven significant factors that make it imperative for your business to implement Sales 2.0 practices to create sustainable advantage over your competition and create value for you and your customer, ensuring that when the dust settles, your company comes out on top. These factors are:

1. Customers’ changing communications preferences.

2. Shifting power from sales reps to customers.

3. Rising cost of sales.

4. Customer demand for corporate social responsibility.

5. Different markets, different economics.

6. Decreasing sales effectiveness.

7. Increased customer demand for trust, responsiveness, and authenticity.

Customers’ Changing Communications Preferences

In the 1980s, e-mail and web sites were not yet part of everyday life. Businesses routinely mailed documents such as brochures or contracts—or shipped them overnight in urgent situations. Toward the end of the decade, a new technology—the fax machine—allowed us to share printed or visual information faster.

Since those days, an evolution in communications and information access has been taking place in our society. Both at home and at work, we are embracing all kinds of technology to stay in touch and stay informed. E-mail, web sites, texting, instant messaging (IM), FaceBook, and YouTube are among the products and methods that have become an integral part of our everyday lives.

As a result, the way we buy and sell products is changing as well. Customer communications preferences have radically transformed in the last decade, and they will continue to do so as new technologies are released and become ubiquitous.

Relationships between sellers and buyers can be increasingly initiated, strengthened, and maintained online and by telephone, rather than in face-to-face meetings. Customers who need to interact with a salesperson before making a purchase decision are becoming very comfortable doing so by phone or Internet, given the powerful array of web-based tools available to fully demonstrate a product’s capabilities.

Even if you haven’t experienced these shifting communications preferences in your customer community yet, change is inevitable over time. The next generation of young people is growing up in a technological age, almost exclusively using applications such as MySpace, chat, and mobile-phone texting to communicate. Soon enough, this generation will be entering the workforce and becoming buyers and sellers—and with them, even the landline phone and e-mail are in danger of becoming outdated forms of information exchange. As customer landscapes change and buyer needs, communications preferences, and buying processes evolve, businesses need to prepare for change to respond accordingly.

Shifting Power from Sales Reps to Customers

Decades ago, customers had limited ability to access product information without seeing a salesperson. These salespeople were often aggressive, lone wolf road warriors who traveled door to door or consulted the Yellow Pages to find buyers. They brought their brochures and binders to three-martini lunches and spouted their product features and benefits in hopes that the customer would buy.

Not anymore. Sales reps have evolved from information sources to solutions consultants. Given today’s technology, salespeople can no longer realistically control information; prospects go online to research product solutions before ever engaging with a salesperson. Company-and vendor-independent web sites provide countless tools such as videos, podcasts, free demos, and recorded webinars that provide information on demand 24 hours a day. Prospects and customers are becoming more and more educated about the companies and people from whom they buy. Through social networks and community sites, they can tap into personal connections for references as well as both good and bad product reviews. Every day, customers are increasing their sophistication and using technology to empower their decision making.