The concept of Sales 2.0 represents an enormous change in the way many companies sell and market. Some of us will be attending The Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco on March 4th and 5th to see best practices in action. So it begs the questions: What is Sales 2.0, is it right for your organization and why does it matter to your sale effort?
A BRIEF BACKGROUND ON SALES 2.0
1. Sales 2.0 is an approach to sales and marketing that evolved from increasingly sophisticated CRM applications and growth in adoption rates of sales force automation, the Internet giving us pervasive access to information, and the emergence of rich media and social networking (or Web 2.0 which is the link to Sales 2.0).
2. According to Selling Power Magazine, “Sales 2.0 brings together customer-focused methodologies and productivity-enhancing technologies that transform selling from an art to a science.”
3. There is no Sales 2.0 standard, but applications that claim to be part of this group typically share the following: the collaboration between the customer, sales and marketing organizations, integration of processes, systems-based and repeatable. The best ones are simple, easy to use and compliment existing normal interaction between your company and the its customers.
SO WHY DO YOU CARE?
1. Keep pace with the way customers are buying – with unlimited access to data and best of breed suppliers, customer purchasing behavior has changed. Prospects don’t want to be sold, they increasingly want to buy on their own schedule.
2. More Sales – If you connect with your customer in more meaningful ways, provide more personalized services, create conditions under which they are incented to buy and let them buy on their own schedule, they will purchase more often.
3. Less Effort – pushing hard to close sales is futile and costly, in contrast to the benefits of programs and systems which enable customers to come to you when they are ready to buy.
4. More Predictable Results – with more visibility into customer behavior and better insight into the buying lifecycle, you are in a better position to predict future demand, revenue and growth
5. Accountability – following above, your team is armed with more useful information enabling you to hold them more accountable for contributing to successful outcomes
6. Better Alignment with Marketing – meaningful customer, prospect, market and buying data is shared across your organization to ensure that all functions are working together to better capitalize on opportunities and drive growth.
7. More Professional Service – beyond the benefits of customization, your team projects a far more professional image when it is armed with relevant information insights and in keeping with modern events. There are many more elements to this emerging trend and we are excited to see it coming to fruition.
IS IT RIGHT FOR OUR ORGANIZATION?
Adopting Sales 2.0 requires the right people and the right processes in place. Just like introducing CRM. you can’t throw process and systems on top of a team or culture that is not process oriented and systematic – it won’t work. You need to be ready. You will need to train your people. You will need to be committed.
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Eliot Burdett
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)
- 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
- How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
- Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021
