Five Sales 2.0 Tools that Drive Results
For much of the 20th century the typical sales process has involved objection-handling and closing tactics. In the 1980’s solution selling, a process of developing win-win customer relationships, redefined business-to-business selling. Solution selling offered a way for sales people to move beyond pushy tactics to consultative strategies.Now, solution selling is fading in relevancy as the tools of Web 2.0 allow customers to review products and share product information online. This paradigm creates well-educated buyers, who are sometimes better informed than the product’s salespeople.Sales 2.0 Defined
Sales 2.0 uses the tools of Web 2.0 to drive people to your products. Specifically, sales 2.0 drives sales from any and all of these avenues: a company Website, Webinars, viral marketing, online product demos, product reviews, blogs, SMS messaging, discussion boards, videos, deal sites, organic search engine listing, and paid search engine listings. Because interested customers come to you, traditional sales activities such as cold-calling and in person meetings are no longer an effective use of resources.
A buyer who finds you on Google is often a far better prospect than a company you cold call. When someone engages you from your Website they have already initiated a relationship with your firm, formed an opinion and are receptive to entering into a sales dialogue. You face none of the buyer resistance that comes with cold calling.
Sales 2.0 requires a new methodology for sales departments. Rather than a salesperson originating a sale, they now help complete a sale. Within the Sales 2.0 framework, a sales department manages the buying process online, develops meaningful customer experiences, and allows customers to engage your salespeople at the time of their choosing.
Five Sales 2.0 Tools You Should Know About
Using new sales tools creates efficiencies throughout your sales process. Here are five examples of new sales tools:
Webinars: WebEx, Placeware and other online conferencing tools enable a sales force to conduct demonstrations virtually with customers who want more detailed information about a product. The customer gains immediate gratification by seeing how the product works, and they quickly educate themselves on its benefits. The seller also benefits by reducing certain costs such as the time and money incurred from traveling for face-to-face meeting.
Videos: Posting clever videos of your product on your own site as well as video hosting sites such as YouTube, offers your product tremendous exposure at a low cost. For example, BlendTec, a blender maker, turned to videos to prove how powerful and durable their blenders are. In their “Will it Blend?” series, they blend golf balls, alarm clocks, iPhones and many other items you would never put into a blender. These videos have become online hits, attracting media attention, as well as driving a 700 percent increase in sales.Blogs: Companies typically use two types of blogs, one where employees can post videos or write about the design, features or progress of a product, and another where customers can offer feedback and recommendations for products or services. Blogs serve to enhance your online visibility, establish expertise, create brand loyalty, increase top-of-mind awareness and influence the public conversation about your company. Recently Starbucks launched the blog site mystarbucksidea.com where customers can make suggestions for new products (such as ice cubes made of coffee so iced-drinks don’t get diluted). Other customers can vote on or discuss the ideas. Customers who feel engaged and acknowledged become loyal customers.
Search Marketing: Search marketing is one of the most powerful ways to get prospects to find you on the Web. By leveraging the power of Google and Yahoo, customers will find you. There are two types of search marketing: paid key words and organic search.Organic search marketing focuses on fine-tuning the content and structure of your website so that it comes up first in search results. This is known as search engine optimization (SEO). The key to SEO is clear categorization. Users don’t type in unique value propositions to find what they are looking for; they type in categories and criteria. For example, if you are looking for a sales recruiter in Toronto you may type “Sales Recruiter Toronto.” LEAPJob has conducted SEO on their site so they come up first, which is delivering them two to five new customers per week.Companies can further increase their exposure by purchasing key words to get top-of-page results – Google calls this service AdWords. AdWords are highly effective for getting clear search results when you can’t achieve your organic listing goals, or when you want to run targeted campaigns. They allow companies to control their advertising budgets, and to promote pages, services or campaigns in a targeted fashion. It’s often money well spent.
Publicity and Social Proof: Leveraging the media can be an effective tool for generating leads, but in a Sales 2.0 context, it’s all about credibility. Consumers are inundated by marketers and advertisers so much that they begin to tune the messages out. Buyers are cynical of case studies and testimonials on companies’ websites. They want social proof instead. Social proof occurs when consumers rate, review or discuss your product online in review or blog sites, or when the press creates a story. Being quoted in major media outlets is powerful, because it says that a trusted source views your company as reputable. A media or unbiased consumer review creates a connection that helps prospective customers get beyond the hype, and listen to what your company has to say. The above listed tools drive sales, but also require a clear sales process that serves the customer’s buying experience. Shifting into Sales 2.0 takes a real commitment to understanding your customers, and to developing a sales process that meets the needs of their buying habits.Sales 2.0 is a long-term strategy. If you can embrace your customers and develop an organization tuned to their needs, you can build a powerful sales engine that outstrips the solution selling approach. If you think Sales 2.0 tools are not applicable to your business, think one more time about how your customers want to engage with your company online in a meaningful way. The companies that deliver on those expectations will be handsomely rewarded for it.
Jeremy Miller is a partner with LEAPJob, a sales recruiting firm in Toronto, Canada. LEAPJob recruits sales professionals and sales leaders for many of Canada's most recognized companies. Their clients range from the Top 50 Employers to smaller organizations building their first sales force. For more information on LEAPJob please visit http://www.LEAPJob.com.
