14 Business-Killing Things I Learned About Selling to Tech Buyers

All because of someone I met on LinkedIn  

I was recently engaged in a passionate discussion with a new friend of mine, Kenny Madden, about the importance of understanding sales from the buyer’s perspective. He said something like “Who cares how a bunch of salespeople are defining Sales 2.0; the buyer has no clue what that is and doesn’t care. They just want us to do a better job selling.”  

You might think I would be offended, as co-author of the book, Sales 2.0.  On the contrary, I couldn’t have agreed more, because his in-your-face statement reinforced a basic premise of Sales 2.0 – it’s about a better way of selling to meet the expectations of today’s buyers.  Reinforcing my beliefs further, this discussion would never have happened were it not for social networking (an important tool in Sales 2.0).  Kenny and I have never met face-to-face or even talked on the phone.  We met on LinkedIn, have had several “conversations” on Facebook, and have exchanged e-mail.  Our entire relationship has been carried out online.  How cool is that? 

So what does all of that have to do with selling to tech buyers?  Kenny, true to his word, decided to listen to a bunch of tech buyers – 1.6 million to be exact – to get their perspective and learn what they want from those of us who sell to them.  From his online survey, here are the 14 business-killing things he shared in a recent blog. And – using another Sales 2.0 technique – I’m passing it on to our friends and colleagues.

The 14 worst things an IT vendor can do (in no particular order)

1. Cold call – don’t do any research about my company or business
2. Lie about your products
3. Don’t listen
4. Slam the competition
5. Assume IT decision makers have linear buying stages – you have to be on, “always on,” regardless of where I am
6. Poor, generic advertising and marketing that provides no useful information about you or your company
7. Not responding
8. Not being open about pricing
9. Pretending you have a relationship with my company when you don’t
10. Refuse to leave a voicemail with the receptionist
11. Argue
12. Thinking that I’m ready to buy simply because I downloaded a whitepaper
13. Making your technical information hard to find on your website
14. And my personal favorite…Thinking that the IT department has no juice; only selling to the C level (All they do is pass it to IT to vet)

Kenny, who works in market development at Spiceworks, the fastest growing IT social business network, went on to share the 13 best things an IT vendor can do, along with summary recommendations.  You can read his entire blog here.

 Another cool thing about Kenny…he expresses his passion for sales and marketing in art.  Here’s one of my favorite pieces from his collection, titled “I am not a Lead.”   

That’s the story of my latest great find on social media.  I found a new friend and like-minded colleague.  I gained some new insights into selling to tech buyers that I can pass on to my team and all of you.  What’s your best social networking story? 

Tags: IT vendors, Kenny Madden, LinkedIn, Sales 2.0, selling to IT, selling to tech buyers, social media, social networking, Spiceworks, technology sales

The Art of Social Sales E-Book: Sales 2.0 Strategies in 5 Industries

I am honored to be included among the authors of this e-book, including Paul Greenberg, who spearheaded the project for The Customer Collective and asked me to contribute. As always, my content focuses on real sales and marketing people, generating measurable results using social media and networking. Do you have a “social sales” success story to share?

Here’s a summary of the book’s topics.  You can download a copy free with registration.

Sales are not often traditionally thought of as a social process. But the behavior of the modern customer is changing. Customers today, in many ways that we’ll explain, can increasingly be described as “social customers,” prompting the contemporary sales organization and even the individual salesperson to rethink how they sell. And that can be daunting for many reasons.

• Learn how high-tech, non-profits, retail, sports and telcos leverage new strategies to engage with customers.
• Develop strategies to use social networks to generate leads and cultivate relationships.
• Learn how companies like newScale and ConnectandSell are using LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Participate in the conversations that your newly empowered consumers are having.

Featuring input from:

	Paul Greenberg is a recognized CRM thought leader, the author of the best-selling CRM at the Speed of Light,  President of The 56 Group, LLC, a customer strategy consulting firm focused on cutting edge CRM strategic services, and a founding partner of the CRM training company BPT Partners, LLC.
	Anneke Seley is  CEO and founder of Phone Works, a sales strategy and implementation consultancy that helps businesses build and restructure sales teams to achieve measurable goals using Sales 2.0 principles. She was previously the twelfth employee at Oracle and the designer of OracleDirect, the company’s revolutionary inside sales operation.
	Jay Dunn is VP of Marketing for Lane Bryant, and Founder of Supergroup, the social network for marketing, social media, retail and design professionals. Jay combines his expertise in marketing, design, and branding with his passion for new media, social networking, and technology to reinterpret retail marketing for a variety of clients.
	Jouko Ahvenainen is a pioneer in social media marketing, and played a significant role in the development of the first social marketing intelligence solutions for mobile and media companies. He is co-founder of Xtract, the world’s first social network analytics company, and Grow VC, the first global peer-to-peer micro-funding service for startups.
	Brian Komar is the Director of Strategic Outreach, Activism and Alliances at the Center for American Progress, overseeing three portfolios focused on strategic marketing efforts to strengthen the capacity of progressive advocates and networks, amplify the progressive voice, and extend the reach of the Center’s policy work.
	Mark DiMaurizio is VP of Technology Solutions for Comcast- Spectacor, overseeing the company’s sales and marketing technologies for its Philadelphia sports properties (Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia 76ers) and all events at their two Philadelphia venues.

Tags: E-book, Paul Greenberg, Sales 2.0, social media, social networking

Confessions, True Stories & Free Drinks: Social Media Session at the Chicago Sales 2.0 Conference

After a long day of sessions covering Sales Lead Management 2.0, Customer Engagement Strategies,  and the Sales 2.0-Driven Sales Process,  we knew we had to wow the audience of 250 people to keep them engaged. Along with expert moderator David Thompson, CEO of Genius.com, my social media panel-mates, Kevin Popovic, President of Ideahaus, and Nigel Edelshain, CEO of Sales 2.0 LLC, and I  took to the stage last Thursday with beers and glasses of wine in hand.  David, who knows how to warm a crowd,  kicked off our session by announcing “the bar is open!” and set the stage with an overview on the incredible growth of social media (More than 275 million blogs! More than 300 million active Facebook users! ) Kevin, who looks the part of a social media guru (think blond California surf god) kicked off the panel with a staggering survey of all things social media and an introduction of his concept of Satellite Marketing (TM).   Part professor, part British comedy guy Nigel, who authored the popular e-book, “Don’t Cold Call. Social Call” spoke next and showed how prospect outreach + social media to research and personalize conversations produces greater than eight times better results than traditional prospecting (love those metrics!)

I started my presentation with a confession: “a  little over a year ago, I was a social media skeptic.”  Much to my surprise, I’m now considered enough of an expert in using social media and social networking in the sales process that I am invited to speak on the topic at events such as this.

How did this happen?!

Earlier this year, I was introduced to someone who became my company‘s largest client this year.  This may sound commonplace except for one thing: the introduction was made on Facebook. It was enough to make a convert out of me.  Given my own experience starting out with some serious doubts about the ROI of using new media in sales, I focused my talk on a live demo showing  three examples of success featuring real people in real companies generating real results. I told personal stories to show how social media and social networking are helping sales and marketing people generate qualified leads and revenue.

Example #1: Dell Computer’s DellOutlet Twitter team
Dell has generated $2million in revenue in 2 years by attracting over a million followers to its Twitter property, which promotes returned and refurbished products; $3million if you count the additional $1M in sales generated from new products purchased from its main dell.com site that originated from a link in Twitter. It took Dell 18 months to realize the first $1M from Twitter and only six months to generate its second million.

Example #2:Dan Harding, Regional Director of Sales at ConnectandSell

Dan claims 80% of his qualified leads are coming from referrals, social networking and social media, which he considers technologies that leverage his personal referral network.  I wrote about Dan’s use of LinkedIn, which includes using SlideShare and frequent updates to his status to stay front of mind with his contacts, in an earlier post, “Social Networking in Sales: Show Me the Money”. Every time I talk to Dan, who exemplifies a Sales 2.0 leader,  he has a new successful approach to report. He recently closed sales worth 50% of his monthly quota by using social networking to stay connected to customers who have changed jobs.  He learned of these customers’ job changes through LinkedIn Messages and then requested an introduction (via LinkedIn, of course) to the new company.  The new sales closed within 30 days. Dan also “social calls” by reading his customers’ blogs, blogs that are popular in the vertical industries he targets, and blogs that his customers read.  RSS feeds alert him when updates are available, which triggers new personalized customer contacts. Dan then weaves the blog content into his outreach message, letting prospects know he is following them, their industry, or their area of interest.

Example #3: Mark Hamilton, former VP of Marketing at newScale

Mark, who recently left newScale’s CMO post to found a stealth startup,  launched a mixed media campaign which included both traditional programs (press releases, email, webinars) as well as new media (blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn Groups) to announce a new product to a new market and offer a free trial.  The social media used content as the draw to the offer rather than a traditional product push. Within 30 days, $3million in incremental revenue was added to the sales pipeline, 2/3 of which came from social media and networking. 50% of the traditional sales opportunities were qualified opportunities. 90% of those coming from social programs were qualified. As a result, newScale is increasing its investments in social media.

Gerhard Gschwandtner, conference host and Publisher of Selling Power, concluded the session by letting us know he is a strong advocate of social media in sales.  Not only is he on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among other social networks, he is also blogging once a day.  Check out his post on the Social Media panel for another perspective.

How are you using (or thinking of using) social media and social networking in your sales and marketing efforts? What results are you seeing?

Tags: Sales 2.0, Social Calling, social media, social networking

Social Networking in Sales: Show Me the Money

Last Thursday at the Sales 2.0 conference in Boston, a sales executive from Microsoft was lamenting the growing popularity of social networking in his sales force.  “My sales people are wasting valuable time on Facebook when they should be selling,” he said in frustration during the final presentation of the day (mine) on Social Networking in Sales.  This topic was part of the agenda of the first Sales 2.0 conference to take place on the east coast, which attracted over 200 sales leaders looking for innovative ways to improve sales results. The event featured presentations by sales pioneers at companies who described the ways they are transforming the way they sell using Sales 2.0 practices, or forward-thinking sales strategy, people, and processes, enabled by sales productivity and customer engagement technologies.

In the sales community, there continues to be skepticism about social media’s ability to help sales people sell. This concern is not unique to east-coast-based sales managers; similar doubts were expressed at the March Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco, which I wrote about in an earlier post. As sales managers are struggling to make their numbers in a slowed down economy, they are super vigilant of keeping their sales reps focused on revenue-generating activities.  Other than social networking’s ability to  “like Botox, make us feel younger and fresher”, as a I read on Twitter the day of the conference, it has yet to be proven in many sales organizations as a productive channel for sales people to connect with and close customers.

To prepare for my presentation at the conference, I knew what I had to do: find real world examples of sales and marketing people not just using social tools – but also seeing measurable results, i.e., qualified sales opportunities and revenue. Naturally, I reached out to my network by posting my search for social media ROI on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn in addition to sending e-mail.  Here’s what I found:

Dan Harding, Regional Sales Manager at ConnectandSell, is on track to close 25% of his annual quota by using LinkedIn and Twitter.  Within four months of using these tools as part of his sales process, he has filled his pipeline with at least ten highly qualified opportunities representing several hundred thousand dollars in revenue.  He uses LinkedIn to stay in touch with his network of hundreds of contacts by regularly updating the status box to report on events, promotions, and customer successes. For example, Dan’s status box today reads:

Another Great Customer Kick-Off 12 reps, 12 hours, 140 connects, 24 referrals, 17 Demo/Follow-up! Meetings

E-mail is automatically sent to his connections through LinkedIn network updates, which drives people to check out his newly refreshed profile.  This includes a five-slide SlideShare presentation that succinctly describes how his offering helps clients increase their sales results.  Dan says, “LinkedIn helps me leverage referral-selling. I can easily update my network and stay in touch, which is resulting in e-mail and phone inquiries from people I used to work with or those they recommend.”

To the sales executives out there who are worried about social networking interfering with their ability to make their numbers, I say this: Sales managers who hire the right people –those who are self-motivated and driven to achieve – and set the right objectives, supported by the right compensation – can expect that these reps won’t waste time on non-revenue-generating activities. Quota-carrying reps and managers can easily experiment with social networking and figure out whether they help or hurt their individual productivity and ability to deliver revenue.

Social media also can be very effective in sales lead generation marketing(depending on whether your target audience engages in those media), as I found in another example. When Tealeaf became a client of my consulting company, Phone Works, we quickly learned of the company’s impressive results using Twitter to attract executive-level attendees to their Customer Experience Management seminars.    Tealeaf’s director of online marketing, Dave Ewart, has generated 10% of event registrants using Twitter and over 50% of them are in the company’s target audience – almost twice the percentage than registrants coming from traditional media marketing campaigns. Over $200,000 in potential sales has already been generated via social media marketing campaigns, which launched only a few months ago. Dave designed the event registration campaign to be viral by including an “invite an executive colleague” link in the confirmation e-mail as well as a “tell followers you’ll be attending” link for Twitter users.  Here’s what this looks like:

annekeseleyI just registered for Tealeaf’s executive Customer Experience Summit in D.C. on May 19, Join me. http://cli.gs/vy24LT (via @tealeaf) #wa

It is too soon to tell how many of these opportunities will close, given the length of Tealeaf’s sales cycle and the short amount of time that the company has been piloting these new programs.  Dave maintains, “Twitter helps us find prospective customers that we’re not reaching through other media, especially because new prospects are referring other prospects. ”

These are just two examples of how forward-thinking sales and marketing managers are generating quantifiable business results leveraging existing relationships as well as reaching new prospects using social networking.

What are your experiences with social networking in sales and marketing? Can you attribute measurable results such as sales or qualified leads to new media?

Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Phone Works, ROI, Sales 2.0, Sales 2.0 Conference, social media, social networking, twitter