• Inside Sales practitioners could share ideas and information
  -and also to-
• Allow professionals from a variety of industries to network with people with similar interests

By "Discussions" I mean: 
- Questions asked by group members to other group members in the hopes of gaining/sharing information 

"News" on the other hand includes: 
- Solicitations 
- Webinar invites 
- Blog links 
- Other self-promotional material 

Inside sales experts is the best group I'm subscribing to. By far. Single reason is the good moderation, discussions that provide actual value and active contributions. Just as important for the quality: absence of (covert) ads, job postings, etc.

There are hundreds of lists where we can advertise, post openings, scream about useless innovations. Let's do that there, and keep inside sales expert the best group on LI.

• First, LinkedIn groups are a truly amazing way to learn, and more importantly, to help our peers.
• LinkedIn’s really isn’t at fault here. We are. LinkedIn isn’t flooding our groups with webinar invites, self-promotional news & links to articles about/for/by us. We are.

Is this signal? Or is this noise?

Am I trying to foster to a discussion here? Or am I shouting down someone else’s discussion in the spirit of self-promotion?

Starting today, you can be in the loop on new developments, potential business opportunities or even job opportunities by following companies of interest to you

• Departures and/or new hires in target roles
• New job opening in target departments
• Internal role changes that might spur re-engagement

• Companies that are large enough to have formal LinkedIn Company profiles
  I've found 3 person shops that have claimed their profiles and much larger organizations that have not.
  
  
• Companies that aren't so large as to inundate you with information
  Netflix, for example, had 1 role change, 8 job postings & 4 employee departures all within the last 7 days.
   

Chad: The term Sales 2.0 is getting a lot of buzz and attention - what is the buzz is all about and why is it important?

Trish: The buzz is all about the buzz....every once in a while the next great thing comes along and right now the next great thing is Sales 2.0. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a Sales 2.0 advocate but when you peel away all the layers, 2.0 is nothing more than the effective integration of people, process and technology.

Smart leaders have been thinking about this integration process for quite some time. What I like about the Sales 2.0 movement is that now it forces people to focus on the buyer as part of that equation. The challenge for sales and marketing executives has become "How do I effectively incorporate the needs of my buyer into my people, process and technology equation?"
 

Chad: I've spoken with many sales reps who think Sales 2.0 and social media are a waste of time - what is your response to them?

Trish: This is a tough one because I see both sides of the equation. If a business has not articulated a well thought out strategy then it says to the Sales Rep "Here, here's a bunch of other stuff that you need to think about and add to your to do list."

Let me break my answer into two segments starting with social media.

1. We believe, and we presented our thoughts on the topic at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston, that it is the responsibility of the corporation to figure out their social media strategy. Social media will deliver an ROI if and only if your buyer is participating in the medium. See our presentation Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim. You can tweet, Facebook. blog and text your ass off but if no one is listening...what does it get you? Figure out where your buyers go for information and then put all your eggs in only those social media basket/s.
   
   
2. As for Sales 2.0, for most organizations it means adding more technology to the mix. Before you do that, it is always good to ask "Have I maximized the technology I already have in place?" And, before you run out and buy the next bright shiny toy, have you thought through the process that will make you successful with it?
    

Chad: I believe inbound marketing can help sales reps create more value for their customers and prospects - how do you see inbound marketing influencing the sales profession?

Trish: Inbound marketing has come such a long way in the past two years. We are a Hubspot customer as well as a raving fans - so we have come a long way with inbound marketing ourselves. Smart Marketers really understand that the difference between dumping lists into a CRM and calling them "leads" and getting people who fit your Buyer Persona to raise their hands and engage with you is the key to success.

Great sales people have figured out how to marry the activity they get via inbound marketing with a well constructed outbound process. If your pipeline isn't robust, you can't sit and wait for buyers to self select. You need to go to them with a relevant story, arouse curiosity and then launch your sales process.
 

Chad: At The Bridge Group you track many different data points and trends - what are some of the most interesting trends you are seeing and what does it mean for sales professionals?

Trish: We have been around for 12 years and I have been in technology based inside sales for 30 so I can now say "Inside Sales is the wave of the future - finally!" We spent a lot of years building a business case for this mode of selling and sometimes it felt like the market would never see beyond "telemarketing". That has changed now and even the venture capital firms are requiring a sound Inside Sales strategy from their portfolio companies. Sales professionals must know how to leverage phone and web based selling to be successful in this day and age.
 

Chad: I read a lot of blogs on many subjects - what are some of your favorite blogs and why?

Trish: I read about 30 blogs a day so I will give you my top 3 - it goes without saying that yours is one as well!

Chad: How do you use social media at The Bridge Group and what kind of results have you seen?

Trish: We blog quite a bit and that drives a ton of traffic to our web site. We just closed one of our biggest deals ever and the company found us via our blog. I tweet and although I do not think my buyers are following me, it has certainly brought me fantastic relationships with vendors, analysts and other consultants.

Look, you can't put a price on having a great network and that is what social media brings you. It isn't about the activity it is about the relationships you develop as a result of that activity.
 

Chad: What is the one thing you recommend sales reps do or learn to stay competitive in an increasingly competitive marketplace?

Trish: Learn how to be relevant to your buyers. The days of vanilla selling are gone. You need to have an intimate knowledge of your buyer's day to day business life. If you make that kind of investment in learning, you will win!
 

PowerSteering provides Enterprise SaaS Project and Portfolio Management software to help large organizations manage IT, New Product Development, Six Sigma and other strategic initiatives. They were recently recognized by Forrester Research as a leader in IT and Business-Driven PPM.

Linda, I'm starting to be concerned about the view that Marketing is responsible for a prospect until they are scored as "sales ready".  My take is that it is a slippery slope that could result in lost deals.  If a prospect is in my nurture process and my competitor is fully engaged in their sales process, I think I am at a distinct disadvantage.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think it is fantastic that Marketing wants to assume more responsibility, but as a salesperson shouldn't I be the one to determine when a lead is "sales ready"?  As a salesperson, my job is to convert interest to opportunity.  Why delay that process?

Linda: Trish, I share your concern!  In fact, I think we're already at the point where some sales organizations feel they no longer have to do outbound prospecting.  Their skills in this area are starting to become rusty because they are not used to it.
 

So where do you draw the line?  What's your vision for a best practice and how does it work within your Sales organization?

Linda: Internally, we don't use the terms sales ready or marketing ready.  It just adds a level of complexity to the process that we don't need.  We agreed on basic qualification parameters and we adhere to those. And when necessary, we revisit those qualification criteria.

Our internal group handles most of the leads we generate, but we do assign the customer leads directly to the Sales Reps.  We sell to large global organizations so new contacts within those organizations represent potential expansion value to us.  Our Sales Reps maintains the relationship with our customer, so it makes sense for them to leverage that knowledge to penetrate new groups, divisions etc.

We also send them leads for companies where they are already engaged in a sales cycle to ensure continuity of follow up  We want the Sales Rep to have immediate access to any contact that may impact the ongoing sales process.  It also eliminates the potential for Inside Sales to be calling into an existing opportunity.

Our goal is to have one point of contact for every Account at the relationship level and we try to facilitate this through marketing automation tools like Salesforce.com and Marketo.
 

At this event, and throughout the industry, there is much discussion about Sales and Marketing working together to build out lead definitions, scoring and nurture programs.  Conceptually, most companies are in agreement with this strategy.  What have you seen in terms of implementation?

Linda: Well, that is a bone of contention with me!  You never want Sales and Marketing to be silos, but when push comes to shove, there is only so much time in the day for collaboration.  At some point you have to draw a line in the sand and move forward with a strategy which of course can and should evolve through ongoing feedback.  The pundits preach nirvana, but you have to make sure that this doesn't come at the cost of sales and end up becoming a distraction from selling.  Practically speaking, it's already challenging just to get basic sales follow up data documented adequately.

The reality is that in the current environment, it's harder to sell than ever before.  That is what has created a lot of this backlash with Marketing owning more of the process.  As Marketers, we are trying to lighten the load for Sales.  We are trying to give them the bandwidth they need to focus on closing business in the current quarter.

• CRM
• Sales & prospect data sources
• Lead tracking & marketing automation
• Sales enablement & productivity
   

• CRM is at 100% deployment across all company sizes
   
• Sales/prospect data averages 73% deployment with minimal variation across company sizes
   
• Lead tracking & marketing automation averages 53% deployment, but what is interesting to note is that the $50M-$499M category reported only 48% deployment.
   
• Sales enablement & productivity averages 30% deployment. Interestingly, only 19% of the under $50M category has deployed. Also, 43% of the $500M+ category have deployed, but with homegrown systems as opposed to vendors.
   

• If you have metrics to share on how Sales 2.0 tools have increased your productivity and yield PLEASE share a comment.
• If you are a vendor in any of these categories and you have data to share, PLEASE feel free to post a comment. If you would like to make a special offer to our readers, feel free to send it to me.

Step 1: Know Thy Buyer Personas

People still confuse their Ideal Customer Profile with their Buyer Personas.  Your Ideal Customer Profile typically looks something like this:

Ideal Customer Profiles point you in the right direction and make it easy to purchase lists, size target markets, etc. 

Buyer Personas, on the other hand, provide you with the information you need to communicate with your buyers in a way that is meaningful to them.  Think The Bachelor - you need to make a "connection" with your buyers and that connection has to be personal, emotional & relevant.

So, how do you do that?  Well, you start by fleshing out your Buyer Personas to the point that they are people with faces, names, specific challenges & goals.

Let's walk through a high level example which is a representation of Jennifer, a Director of Marketing.

What do we know about Jennifer?

• We know her background
• We understand her role and how she is measured
• We understand the things that frustrate her
• We know how she defines a "win"
• We understand her expectations of vendor relationships

If you are like most companies, you will have multiple Buyer Personas and you should execute this exercise for each of them.  It will provide you with the language you need to communicate with these buyers.  They don't want to hear about how wonderful you are. They want to know how you are going to help them solve the challenges they face on a daily basis.
 

Step 2: Find the Jennifer's

Now that you know what Jennifer looks like, you can find sample Jennifer's in your customer and prospect base.

Next, go do some research to find out how they are using Social Networking. It has never been easier to conduct this research: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook - they all provide search capabilities.

The matrix displayed above is all you need to create your Social Networking strategy.  That matrix will tell you where to invest your time for your specific Buyer Personas.

In this instance, the strategy is clearly laid out for you.  You want to invest significant time on LinkedIn, establish a presence on Facebook and then investigate Twitter to connect with your Jennifers.
 

Step 3: Find the Conversation

So, now we know who to target and we know what networking sites to target.  Next, find the conversations that are meaningful to Jennifer.

We already know our Jennifer's are active in LinkedIn groups so why not start there. Your research on Jennifer's groups will provide you insight into where your Buyer Personas are spending time.

Join those Groups with the goal of engaging in meaningful conversation, not indulging in self promotion. Ask questions, answer questions - establish yourself as a thought leader. This is about sharing information and becoming part of a community with your buyers.
 

Summary

Ready...Aim...Fire is a great approach to Social Networking.  Taking the time to understand your buyer is an investment that will pay off!  It takes some planning (and requires some work), but would you trust any Sales & Marketing strategy that didn't?
 

Agree? Disagree? Please share your thoughts on getting started with Social Networking!

There are so many social networking sites out there...and this number only continues to grow.  How do you figure out where to invest your energy? 

Possible Approach #1 - Ignore It!
This analysis by Forrester clearly states that ignoring the phenomena is not in your best interest.  Although the data is from 2007/2008 (here is the current research tool), you can see that increasingly B2B technology buyers embracing social media.  This trend is changing the nature of the B2B buyer/seller realtionship at a fundamental level.

Possible Approach #2 - Let Your Reps Figure It Out
This one is a little scary to me.  Your Reps are using Social  Networking in their personal lives and are starting to dabble with it in their professional lives.  But, not having a corporate strategy for how they do so puts you at risk in 2 areas.

First, you have no control over what they are saying about you, your product, your company and/or your competitors.  Are they on message, are they being professional, are they articulate? 

Second, if everyone is off doing their own thing, how do you measure what is working and what isn't?  Defining repeatable, scalable success is the cornerstone of all great strategies.

You need to fish where your buyers swim!

• Gives Insight Into Expertise and Experience
  This is the kind of depth that candidates have been struggling to (while more often than not failing) bring out in the "cover letter".
  
  
• Shows the "Real" Candidate
  A blog gives insight into a candidate's approach, personality and writing style. I cannot stress the importance of the latter enough.
  
  Increasingly Sales is a writing intensive profession (for marketing this goes without saying). Just think of how much business is conducted via email.
  
  
• Compliments the Resume
  Posting your resume "live" on LinkedIn and then linking your blog postings to your Network Updates provides you with future exposure. Hey, with 40+ Million users, LinkedIn is certainly a powerful way for candidates to rise above a static 2-page resume.
  
  Blogs can fill in this "picture" even further. Is this candidate passionate about this topic, field, industry, etc.? Can they stick with something (is the blog 6 weeks old, 6 months or 6 years)? How do they handle differing opinions?