The JF Guest Author Spot

Nancy Nardin

Following on from my post here yesterday with my commentary on this week’s Sales & Marketing 2.0 Conference, here are some further thoughts:

“Focus on the Customer” was also a mantra at the event. Instead of “Always be closing” it’s now “Always be helping”.  Learning about prospects in advance of a call – indeed, monitoring and aggregating information available from social networking sites to facilitate a connection and a better conversation is a key element of customer focus.
 
Hoover’s, OneSource, InsideView, and FirstRain were there demonstrating how their products could help with that. And they weren’t the only ones. CRM companies were also there talking about Social CRM.
 
This is the first Sales2.0 conference I’ve attended where I can recall 4 CRM products being exhibited (SAP CRM, Pivotal CRM, Oracle OnDemand and Microsoft Dynamics).
 
CRM equals Sales 2.0? Funny thing… seems that the CRM platform has turned out to be a perfect meeting ground for Sales and Marketing to come together. And the concept of Social CRM is becoming a reality as these CRM vendors (and others) are adding social networking capabilities to their platforms.
 
Other technology related take-aways are:

• Social Media cannot be ignored. At minimum, Marketing needs to participate and Sales needs to listen and leverage what they learn to create more knowledgeable conversations with prospects.

• Mobile access is essential. Prospects must have mobile access to your information and resources. Salespeople must have mobile access to needed information (CRM) and resources (social media and collaboration platforms).

Buyer behavior with respect to the purchasing process has forever changed. The way we market to buyers must also change. The focus has to be on helping the customer with their buying journey.  And that requires a change in mind-set.
 
You no longer have the same ability to control the buying process. But that presents enormous opportunities for those who can evolve. And the Sales & Marketing 2.0 conference is a good place to learn how.

Nancy Nardin founded Smart Selling Tools in early 2009. It has rapidly become the go-to-place for sales professionals to find and recommend tools. The company is revolutionizing how busy sales professionals find, and buy software.

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