Todays post is a guest post by Darren Cunningham. Darren is the Director of Product Marketing at LucidEra. Prior to joining LucidEra he was the Category Director for salesforce.com AppExchange Analytics and Data Management. Before joining the on-demand world, he spent over 7 years at Business Objects.

Sales organizations today are faced with the challenge of reducing costs while improving results. So in a climate of trying to do more with less, your first inclination as a VP of Sales is probably not, “I need to buy some software!” But what if the technology not only looks cool, but appears to be exactly what you need to hit your number?

I recently attended the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, which was billed as an opportunity for “forward-looking sales organizations” to “improve lead management, accelerate the sales process, improve sales effectiveness, decrease costs, and enhance the customer experience.” It was a great show, with many informative customer presentations, interactive panels, and networking opportunities. (You can read some of the blogs and tweets about the show here.)  But does Sales 2.0 represent a real opportunity for sales management and reps to become more productive, close more deals faster,  better align with customer buying behavior and [insert your benefit statement here], or does it potentially represent a case Shiny Object Syndrome for your sales organization? (What I call Sales SOS.)

Sales 2.0 is defined as “bringing together customer-focused methodologies and productivity-enhancing technologies that transform selling from an art to a science.” But with so many innovative new software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools and applications to consider, which ones will really add value and where do you start? One VP of Sales I spoke to after the Sales 2.0 show, referred to the conference as, “Disneyland for sales.” While this was meant as a compliment, it did get me thinking about Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS).

Karyn Greenstreet defines SOS this way:

“It’s not quite ADD/ADHD. It’s more that a new idea captures your imagination and attention in such a way that you get distracted from the bigger picture and go off in tangents instead of remaining focused on the goal.”

So where do you go with Sales 2.0 technology? How do you move from vendor and analyst buzzwords to real productivity benefits? And how do you avoid Sales SOS when it comes to your technology investments?

Greenstreet recommends that you always begin by asking some of these SOS questions:

• Is this right for my business?
• Do I have the time, resources, energy, and money to put into this to make it successful?
• Do I have too many open projects sitting on my desk that need to be finished before I begin something new?
• Do I have the ability to finish this new project, plus implement and maintain it?
• What has to drop off my radar in order for me to start something new?

While sound advice, these questions are primarily focused on prioritization, time management, and the tried and true 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. They’ll definitely help you avoid Sales SOS, but when it comes to the right Sales 2.0 investment, you need to go further. When determining whether or not a Sales 2.0 technology or service will help your sales organization not only survive but thrive in this difficult economy, be sure to also ask the following questions:

• Will it make my sales team more effective, not just efficient?
• Will it help me focus my resources on the right opportunities? (As @gerhard20 likes to say, “Are they chasing Brinks Trucks or Garbage Trucks?”)
• Will it help me improve the accuracy and predictability of my forecast?
• Will it help us achieve our overall business objectives and improve results?

As Greenstreet concludes in her Shiny Object Syndrome article, “there’s nothing wrong with loving innovation. Just make sure you don’t lose focus on what’s most important for you, your business and your customers.”

To read more articles by Darren besure to visit the Licidera Blog.

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Many years ago, I remember the first time I saw a BlackBerry from one of my “tech” friends who was a real estate broker.  I remember thinking, “Why in the world would anyone who sells real estate need to receive emails in real time?”.  Now that I live in the ever changing world of 2009, I find myself asking, “Are there any salespeople left who don’t receive their emails right away?”.

It think this has already become a rule, in case you did not know.  Customers in 2009 have an expectation that you receive your emails right away & have the ability to respond.  Yet another change added to a rapidly changing sales environment we once again find ourselves in.

If you are not receiving your emails in real time, you are behind the curve.  The days of the road warrior who only checks his emails in the morning and evening is coming to an end.  This is also one of those sales technology items that can cost you if you don’t get up to speed.  If you provide your own phone, make this change.  If your company provides one for you, you need to sell your company on embracing the present. sales environment.

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I have often wondered that for a species that is renowned for evolving and adapting technology over millenia to suit its own needs, why then is there so much resistance to change when it actually happens? In the early 19th century at the height of the industrial revolution there were some who saw the impact of technology in their lives with fear and hatred. One group, and here I have to harken back to my history lessons in school, was called the ‘Luddites’ whose speciality in the face of technological change was to smash the machines that were the cause of their ire.

In my dealings with developing sales technology in SPM and CRM systems I have come accross a few people who have expressed the same fear and resentment to technology in their business environment. This is not just an issue in this field either, the same kind of resistance to change can be seen from anything technological such as the internet, Twitter, Facebook, mobile phones etc. Time and again I here comments like ‘this will never last’ or ‘this doesn’t have the legs to stay the distance’ and ‘I really don’t get this, I don’t think it has any relevance to my business’.

Surely, the point about change is that nothing is going to be the same forever. If you are expecting something to stay the same for a length of time then the world will change around you. Computer technology is one of the fastest changing industries in the world and is growing and changing exponentially – which requires us to have the right attitude in using it. Therefore change and exploration are a key attitude to adopting and using technology in sales especially if it is something you want to continually use to keep up with your ability to do business. It really doesn’t matter whether in a year’s time Twitter is going to be around, or whether the CRM system you are using right now is going to be able to handle the demands of future growth – technology is changing too fast for that. The point is that you are there to use it and to explore and benefit from it and are willing to continuously challenge and find new ways that technology can help you connect with your customers.

As a sales system developer I consider myself one of the most lucky people to be in an industry where change happens at such a fast pace. The beautiful thing about it is that I don’t know what is going to happen next. Think back five or ten years and ask yourself if you predicted how sales technology would be used today? I can’t say for sure where we will be in the next five or ten years but I am eagerly waiting to see and I am keen to explore…

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Over my years as a consultant I’ve seen huge increases in the use of technology to support sales. From the initial wave of Sales Force Automation (SFA) systems – to the channel integration offered by Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, to advanced analytics and the introduction of web technology and mobile to sales systems.

These technologies have helped many companies (although their main impact seems to have been to make the software companies pretty rich) – but there have been many failures too. Implementations that never got off the ground, or took too long and cost too much, or that never delivered the benefits aimed for.

In my experience, the biggest cause of implementation failure is simply that the systems are often designed for the wrong people.

More often than not, the main beneficiaries of sales technologies are management. Sales managers get better visibility of what the sales reps are doing, the marketing group gets better customer data, the FD gets better numbers to work from.

It’s actually quite rare that the salesforce themselves see immediate benefits from the system. They put information in (customer information, meeting reports, tracking information) and they get very little out that helps them sell better.

Of course, a system where the people you are reliant on to provide information don’t see any benefits themselves is simply doomed to failure. And with sales forces the failure is even faster. Sales reps don’t sit in offices working on computers – they’re not easily monitorable. Force them to put information in where they don’t see the value and they’ll do the bare minimum they can get away with (and quite rightly so in many cases).

But actually listen to them when you start designing your system – and you see a world of difference. Bring in the “opinion leaders” amongst the sales community and find out what would help them sell more. Show them some ideas for what the system could do and how they could use it to help grow their sales and work with you to make implementing the system a success.

It doesn’t take much: perhaps access to their current sales figures and estimated bonus; visibility of which other salespeople are talking to their customer, some basic analysis of their customer base to help them focus on the highest potential ones. Focus your implementation of areas which bring value to the salesforce and your system will be up and running smoothly very quickly indeed.

But focus instead on the needs of managers and the finance community to the exclusion of the sales force and you’ll soon find that the principle of “garbage in, garbage out” is as alive and well today as it was nearly 30 years ago when the phrase was originated.

Ian

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This post will be brief as on Sales Training for Startups I am posting extensively this month on the Sales 2.0 conference and all of the amazing technology helping the Sales world on a real time Web connected planet. Be sure to read all of the live blogging from the event and the upcoming reviews on products and services. This will give you a sense of the asphalt being laid to help pave a new highway for sales.

This is the point to keep in mind. The tools, any tools only help make the ride more comfortable. It is still up to us as individuals to be great at sales. Sure you can have systems that tell you when a prospect is reacting to your email or website, but you still have to use that information wisely. CRM and SFA make data management extremely simple, but it is still up to a sales person to make sense of that information and develop objectives and action plans.

All too often management, executives, and even sales people think that the new system is going to help them sell more. This is only true if you continue to hone your selling skills right next to your advancements in technology. A Ferarri does not make a 5 year old Mario Andretti; Mario Andretti turns a Ferarri into a rocket ship.

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When I first started in radio advertising sales my training consisted of watching a series of video tapes produced by a guy named Norm Goldsmith.  My fellow sellers enjoyed making fun of the Norm Goldsmith tapes because his entire presentation consisted of him sitting on his desk in front of a bizarre, psychedelic painting and monologuing.  Despite all of that, I actually remember some of Norm’s wisdom today – 20 years down the road.

Norm told me “to always be prepared to do business when meeting with a client”.  His idea of preparation was to have all the supplies you might need so that you didn’t have to return to the radio station.  This included a notebook, a pen, station information, a rate card, order forms, etc.  Good advice that I made sure to follow from day one.

I advise professional media sellers to be prepared when meeting with a client, too.  But, the preparation that must be done requires the use of today’s modern technology.

1) The Internet.   Go to your prospect’s website and read everything.  Your new knowledge will include information that helps you understand their important initiatives. 

2) Google.  Search the names of a few of the top executives – especially the ones with whom you will be meeting.  Read their Linkedin profiles or their Facebook pages and discover some of their outside interests to see if there is a connection that you can leverage.  Why not start following them on Twitter?

3) Your laptop.  No doubt that much of your company’s computing is done on the cloud and you’ll be able to access your systems with a broadband card, wi-fi or local area network.

4) Your PDA or smart phone - where you’ve stored your prospect’s contact information.  When you get stuck in traffic, you’ll want to call from the road to let them know you’ll be a couple of minutes late.  No need for directions, though as you Mapquested their address or stored it in your GPS.

As Norm Goldsmith told me many years ago, being prepared is not an option.  For professional media sellers, modern technology isn’t either.

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Other than the cool factor of some technology, the key benefit technology brings, or should bring, is increased productivity.  Technology however does not replace basic skills and best practices; but many intentionally or unintentionally confuse the two.  There are many examples where technology has failed to improve productivity, and in fact has been a barrier, or a hindrance, and at times a means of hiding or masking lack of productivity by some in the sales profession.

Whether you call it CRM or SFA, these tools can be great enablers, but at times they just enable sales people and organization to update and automate their existing problems and challenges.  They either bring new challenges that compound issues, or mask old problems and provide a falls sense of progress that manifests in new ways, the net result being no improved productivity, and not even enough lift in revenue to pay for the initiative.

Not too long ago I was having a discussion with a VP of a services company.  I asked him if they had a defined sales process, and he responded “yes, we use XYZ CRM, it came with the stages defined out of the box.”  It took a lot of discussion to help him understand the difference and between what a process is, and how his CRM can help him and his team execute it.  Another customer who rolled out the same CRM application said that the first comment his reps had was “now there is no where left to hide.”  It is clear that proper planning and helping reps understand what the CRM will do for them, how to best utilize it to drive mutual results, it did result in his organization spending time to find new ways to sand bag, and while their day to day activity did change, their productivity did not measurably improve.

Because we have gotten so used to talking about applications as solutions we have allowed ourselves to actually believe that they are indeed the solution.  When companies believe that they can invest in systems to create change in habits they over look some fundamental dynamics of sales, human nature and how adults learn to alter behaviours.  This not only negates the minor gains they are able at time to achieve, but often creates distractions that cause further challenges.

Couple of other examples, that I would suggest are typical, because technology does not deal with the root issues, it merely attempts to help sales organizations manage the symptoms.  One company involved just the managers in a strategy session to formalize their sales process and related metrics, key indicators to track and how they would utilize to drive results.  There was a lot of energy in the room, a real sense of accomplishment, and a sense of excitement about the possibilities and a new set of results.

Right said one the sales directors “we are all agreed and ready to go back to our respective regions and implement this tomorrow”; “well hang on a second we still haven’t got a system to roll this out through and track things with, even the current CRM would need to be modified before we can start” said the Americas sales director.  Well this started a round of discussions that took two hours, until the VP of Sales cut off discussions by saying that he and Sales Op director would decide and inform the team next day as to the direction.  To their credit, they had the technology in place within six weeks, process rolling in two months, and didn’t make their quota for the quarter.  But man did they have some slick technology.

The other example is of a company was one where the VP of Sales was a bit more anatomically prepared.  They had decided to start tracking some of the numbers we put a focus in our Prospecting Program.  Again everyone was enthused and committed, the only thing missing apparently was a way to track the numbers, seems there was no system in place.  The VP said, no problem it will be dealt with within the hour was his commitment.

An hour later his admin showed up with a bag from Staples, in it was a note pad and a box of Crayola crayons for each rep, and proclaimed, “Right, now you all have a proven system for tracking your numbers and results.

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