Well, that’s that! (2008)
December 31, 2008
I know full well that you successful marketing dynamos and your daily goal setting have no need of the foolish single-day-of-goals celebration known to the savage peoples as; “neu yars”, but as we transition from the reason six fears seven (because it eight nine) there’s plenty of people looking back and speculating ahead about what’s in store for all of us in the coming year.
BBC’s Maggie Shiels has an article on 2009 in silicon valley, Appirio set out it’s predictions for the next year just over a week ago, cloud computing journal has a whole smack of CEO predictions for the coming year and lastly Michael Sheehan is offering us even more in-depth predictions of his own.
My opinion? December 31st, 2009: SaaS will still exist, the people in that industry will have more business, and “cloud computing” will hopefuly have a more accurate name. I’m a big fan of simplicity.
Good luck in the new year, everyone!
PaaS not passed up in India
December 26, 2008
Yeah it’s boxing day and I opened with a pun!
Akhtar Pasha of Express Computer has done a very thorough “what is PaaS?” style article and grabs a few quotes from the delightfuly bearded Doug Farber.
My personal favourite: “One thing we always keep in mind—people always overestimate what they can do in one year, and underestimate what they can do in 10 years. We are at the beginning of a huge technology shift, and only time will tell.”
True to life and to PaaS, I think. Check out the article here if you’re interested in a bit of holiday reading after the murderous knife-fights and savage present beat-downs of the boxing day near you!
Ten deep breaths, Ellison.
December 20, 2008
In through the nose, out through the mouth. That was the secret to anger management that my therapist taught me after an unfortunate incident involving ice cream, a six year old, a silk tie and a beluga tank. You’d think with all the money he has Larry Ellison could afford someone who’d give him the same advice.
When a company with a 91.5 billion dollar market cap comes out and declares a 4 billion dollar company it’s “combat challenge” of the quarter, you’ve just got to wonder if there’s not a bit of vendetta in that. Isn’t Oracle this massive company with arms spiralling off in all directions? And at that size isn’t it capable of offering such a variety of services that if Salesforce pulls up and becomes a new household name that it can’t just do something else?
Set your sights on Microsoft, IBM or SAP Ellison, bigger ankles to nip at and more inferior services to usurp! You can do it! ”Oracle Messenger.” I’m waiting for it.
ELLISON: “Let us taunt it. It may become so cross that it will make a mistake.”
HENLY: “Like what?”
ELLISON cannot find a suitable answer to this.
(Quote c/o Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
Sales 2.0: A “Need to Have” Philosophy to Weather the Economic Storm
December 18, 2008
I just received a copy of the new book, Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technologies and added it to my Holiday Reading List. Today I also received a great article by one of the book’s authors, Brent Holloway, which provides a very thorough, yet concise, summary of Sales 2.0. As most sales people are out trying to close year-end business, I thought it would be worth sharing with the Salesforce Times readers. Here’s the article:
Sales 2.0: A “Need to Have” Philosophy to Weather the Economic Storm
By Brent Holloway, co-author of Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology
What is your sales organization doing about the current economic downturn? What will make a difference for your company? While the economic forecast may be “uncertain,” it is certain that our customers are reducing their budgets and spending more carefully, forcing their vendors to do the same. This economic challenge will accelerate the adoption of Sales 2.0 from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” philosophy. Companies that continue to sell the way they sold in the past will become less profitable or fail altogether. Customer preferences, the ever-rising cost of sales, and the availability of next-generation technologies are making change mandatory for companies that want to outperform the competition and minimize the impact of the economic slowdown.
What is Sales 2.0?
Sales 2.0 is not a new technology. It is the use of innovative sales practices to improve business results, creating value for both the buyer and seller, and is often enabled by Web 2.0 or next-generation technology. Sales 2.0 initiatives typically center on process and customer-engagement improvements to increase sales productivity. Sales 2.0 practices combine the science of measurable, process-driven operations with the art of collaborative relationships, using the most profitable and expedient sales resources required to meet your customers’ needs. The goal of Sales 2.0 is to produce greater, predictable, repeatable business results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs, and sustained competitive advantage.
Sales 2.0 initiatives require changing mindset and adjusting sales strategies. A relatively simple Sales 2.0 practice involves selling more through video or web conferencing. This can be done by inside salespeople or by field salespeople who perform more of their jobs from their desks. Selling more efficiently should also mean selling more effectively, as many buyers now prefer to meet remotely via conference calls with video or web conferencing, and salespeople benefit from additional selling time that otherwise would be spent traveling. A traditional sales process that included three or four onsite visits might now have zero or just one face-to-face visit. The financial impact of reducing travel expenses can be significant and is easily measured, but the economics of giving your most expensive sales resources — your field salespeople — additional selling time is even more compelling.
Many products and services, especially those of relatively small to average value, can only be sold profitably with a remote or low-touch sales model. The definition of “small to medium orders” is different for every company, but they are generally those that fall into your bottom 50% in value. If ignored, these mid-market customers or transaction types are missed opportunities for organizations that rely solely or too heavily on a field-based sales model. And when they are sold through field sales, these smaller opportunities can derail focus and drain the organization’s profitability.
Another Sales 2.0 practice uses some “science” to accurately capture key market information and metrics such as average sales cycle, average deal size and sales-cycle conversion rates. By using a defined sales process and data analytics, you can determine how your sales force should be structured and which customers and transaction types justify the assignment of field account executives, inside salespeople, channel partners or no selling effort at all. Data analytics in this sense can range from rudimentary (pen and paper) to moderate (spreadsheets, CRM, and most reporting systems) to advanced (dashboards and on-demand sales intelligence). Rather than simply measuring the final result (revenue), a Sales 2.0 approach measures the effectiveness of every stage in your sales process by salesperson, giving managers the opportunity to provide targeted coaching. Data analytics also can be used to correlate and analyze the specific characteristics of your most profitable customers (size, industries, locations, buyer types, etc.) that produce the most revenue and profit. Sales and marketing leaders can then use this information to fine-tune your sales model and activities to ensure the loyalty of your most valuable customers and find more prospects like them.
How do I begin a Sales 2.0 initiative with limited staff and budget?
A key Sales 2.0 tenet involves experimentation, often through testing new process ideas and piloting new technology. Testing a new sales message, pricing options, new technology, or even a new sales process enables the organization to be innovative with minimal risk. Small pilot programs that use minimal resources enable ineffective ideas to fail on a small scale, while good ones can be rolled out more aggressively.
Becoming a Sales 2.0 organization requires that we proactively adapt and continually improve so we can become closer to our customers and weather the economic storm better than our competitors.
©2008 Brent Holloway
Author Bio
Brent Holloway is an inside sales manager for Verint Systems. He has more than a decade of experience in sales and sales management with high-technology companies. He co-authored Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology, published by John Wiley and Sons in December of 2008, available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com and other retailers. For more information, visit www.sales20book.com
A story with conviction: Forbes
December 17, 2008
I get all giggly and excited like a schoolgirl when I read a story coming from a reputable source and an intelligent individual that actually says: “You should do this, it is the smart thing to do” as opposed to a lot of guessing and maybes.
Therefore I give you this Forbes article in hopes it may supply you with a nice smug grin concerning the superiority of your industry! Haha!
Mmm… a $300 pc running a free linux distro with a $750 in Salesforce expenses (maybe less!) over a year for IT accountability, inventory and maybe some analytics (for fun)? Yes, please, now excuse me I have to go and towel off the nerd.
Long-range? Damning? Hm.
December 15, 2008
Hm.
A cnet post: “Handicapping cloud computing.” This is a very excellent article about how underwhelming cloud computing is, I guess cnet is playing foil to the legions who say 2009 is/maybe/will be/certainly might be the year of SaaS’ assertion.
I guess it’s always worth it to hear what your doubters are saying. This one has a nifty chart too, a SaaS chart! What I don’t think these sort of financial research reports tell you about are all of the little people out there (young people), like me who are at a point where they can no longer do without Google Docs… a few years and I’ll be pushing it on whatever company I’m working for, Docs already has every creative project I’m working on burried in it…
Hm.
A Noteworthy Nostrodamus or Generalissimo Generalisation?
December 12, 2008
Points for the Rocky and Bullwinkle title?
I think it’s great when someone predicts a bright future for this industry, but when they come back to their predictions a year later and they’ve got it 75% correct, maybe this is somebody worth keeping tabs on? I don’t know if his predictions were too general (they seem pretty on target, this is no carnival fortune teller) but hey, you be the judge.
Check out Alastair Bathgate’s workforceinabox.com and the post here.
Electronic signature platforms: Close deals faster
December 12, 2008
Are you looking for ways to reduce your deal close time? Setifi Co-Founder John Stojka brought to my attention a new post over at the Closing 2.0 blog that highlights how to do just that.
Sertifi provides an electronic signature platform that is now available on the Force.com AppExchange.
I’ve been hearing good things for quite some time now about digital document management and electronic signature systems but have yet to hear of a local company who uses them extensively. Is the paperless office a reality in your company?
Post thoughts to comments.
Some excellent with your lunch?
December 11, 2008
Mmm, toast and tea.
James Kobielus of Networkworld (and the aptly named James Kobielus blog, where I found the story initially) has written something excellent. Part prognostication and part analysis, James’ article is about the state of SaaS as it is at the moment and how it stands to challenge competitors with it’s pricing scheme and challenge potential customers to make the switch in a tough economy. I’m convinced.
Now I just need a small business to switch over, ooo, and I could make some testimonials!
Read it here.
Googles for everyone!
December 9, 2008
Let’s have some link spam. (I like the story under “link” the most)
Announced Sunday under the dreary cloak of the very early hours of greenwitch mean time, Salesforce has pulled tighter into the embrace of it’s fast-stepping dance partner’s arms. Salesforce has announced that it is set to integrate itself more closely with Google, connecting Force.com to the Google Apps Engine.
So let me see, you have oranges; which are delicious and citrusy and you love the taste of them (oh it’s the holidays getting to me) and you’re mixing it with chocolate; something we know goes great everywhere and never lets anyone down?
Lovely. A Force.com Terry’s Chocolate Google Orange for everyone.
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