Formerly Sales & Marketing Strategies and News Ezine
Formerly Sales & Marketing Strategies and News Ezine
August 25, 2005 http://www.thecompetitiveadvantage.net
Janine Nunes, Editor JNunes@DouglasPublications.com
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CONTENTS:
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CRM
The Next Big Thing: CRM 3.0
By Liz Roche
Like virtually every technology category, CRM technology has developed along a predictable maturity curve. This curve is useful in matching your organization's technology risk tolerance to its potential technology purchases. For example, if your organization is fairly risk averse, you wouldn't go out and buy a technology in its very early maturity phases because all the kinks aren't ironed out.
The Game of CRM
Five or six years ago, a client asked me: “If CRM technology was a baseball game, what inning would we be in?” What I finally came to was this: CRM technology was, at that time, in the 3rd or 4th inning, but only in batting practice in terms of its user adoption. Technology has never really been the hard part; people and process are what always get in the way of a sustainable implementation. Today, I think we're probably in the 7th inning stretch technology-wise, but only in the 2nd inning in terms of user adoption. Let's call this combination CRM 1.0.
Manners vs. CRM 1.0
For years I've encountered folks who push back on the notion of spending money on implementing a CRM business system because they say their organizations are already customer centric. Some proudly proclaim their customer centricity because they do things like greet their customers by name or thank them for their business. While laudable, these activities are, at their core, just good manners. This is not the same thing as CRM.
We know that CRM 1.0 is beyond manners, for example, when it systematically collects customer information. But the rub for CRM 1.0 is that this information typically is not acted upon in a way that effects change in customer relationships.
CRM 2.0 (where cutting edge companies are now) assumes a well-balanced technology environment in which operational, collaborative and analytical CRM elements are at play along with the engage, transact, fulfill, service (ETFS) customer lifecycle and guiding CRM business strategy. However, the majority of organizations approaching CRM 2.0 are stymied by too little organizational adoption and limited empowerment.
CRM 3.0 (where the “sci fi” organizations are heading) assumes the former versions of CRM have been attained, with the addition of “analytics execution” – using customer information, derived from the balanced technology environment, to consistently execute to a customer strategy.
So, while you're winding down your summer, take a few minutes to really think about manners vs. CRM, and what analytics execution and CRM 3.0 could mean to your organization. Next time we'll talk about CRM 3.0 in more detail.
Liz Roche is Managing Partner with ETFS Partners, a CRM business and technology consulting firm. She is formerly a Vice President of CRM and Sell-Side Commerce with META Group. She can be reached at liz_roche2002@yahoo.com.
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Career Enhancement
Smash Team Communication Barriers
Teamwork depends on open, honest communication. But so many factors and outside influencers can get in the way. Here are some of the most common barriers to open communication, with tips for breaking them down:
To smash this barrier: Address issues and problems while they're still relatively minor; don't wait in hopes that they'll disappear, because they're more likely to escalate. That makes problems more difficult to overcome.
To smash this barrier: Discuss conflict techniques during team meetings. Create a written team policy, including guidelines, then offer training.
To smash this barrier: Keep information channels open to all. Train team members in basic business processes and teach them how to ask the right kinds of questions to gain information.
To smash this barrier: Hold open team meetings where everyone is invited to air gripes. Creating a supportive environment is important, but it's also key that you turn the group from complaining to problem-solving before the meeting ends.
To smash this barrier: Train, train and train. Hold occasional practice sessions during team meetings to let members role-play tough situations.
Adapted from Managing Teams, Lawrence Holpp, McGraw-Hill, http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.
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Sales Management
Developing Sales Stars is No Accident
By Mike Paton
In sports, all-stars make excellence look easy. But savvy athletes know there's more than talent behind the effortless swings and confident jump shots. In fact, the great stars nearly always study more and work harder than others, despite their immense talent.
The same can be said of the world's best sales and marketing professionals. If your goal is increasing revenue production through improved performance, follow these three steps:
These steps aren't new or unique. Until recently, however, few companies strung them together in a methodical way. Here's how to do that:
First, analyze performance from top to bottom. The best leaders compile mountains of data about the marketing initiatives that work, those that don't, and why.
That information becomes a series of best practices that form the basis of a marketing and sales system designed to maximize results. The knowledge, attitudes and behaviors that consistently achieve the desired results are then built into an employee development program that starts (but does not end) with training.
To achieve positive change, such a program must help participants understand the need for personal and organizational change. They need to know “What's in it for me?” And they need to have fun practicing the new skills that will make them more effective.
The real key to effective training is not in the teaching, it's in the follow-through. You wouldn't expect an all-star slugger to watch a video tape of Hank Aaron and start hitting the ball out of the park the next day. To help sales and marketing professionals through that difficult process of changing their habits, launch an ongoing reinforcement program that includes objective performance measurement, continuous training/coaching and ample recognition for a job well-done.
In addition to looking at sales numbers, regularly evaluate your team's knowledge, attitudes and behaviors with testing, mystery shopping , and customer surveys. Offer regular training events to continue building critical skills, and equip managers and supervisors with the proper tools to coach those who need it. Finally, demand excellence by holding your team accountable for minimum standards of excellence and rewarding exceptional behavior.
Mike Paton leads the sales efforts at Signature Worldwide, a business solutions and training company, www.SignatureWorldwide.com.
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Web Marketing
Use Web Traffic Data to Evaluate Marketing
By Julie Mason
Many marketers think that building Web traffic is the object of an online campaign, but that's only the start. Do you know who's perusing your home page, who's clicking to your sales pages and how to distinguish a ‘wrong turn' click-through versus a tire kicker versus a potential purchaser?
If you want to start a relationship, you need to know who you're interacting with before you can devise a plan to keep them coming back. Identifying Web site traffic is a multi-stage process that involves close coordination between your marketing team and IT department.
Collection
If you want to start a relationship, you need to know who you're interacting with before you can devise a plan to keep them coming back. The most detailed results will be generated from online surveys and from building a registration section into your site. A general user registration page, which requires all visitors to register, will cull targeted and detailed demographic data about each site visitor. To avoid hassling visitors by asking them to register or login each time they visit, build a cookie into the registration process.
Avoid turning visitors away by setting this page to pop-up when a user clicks through from anywhere on the homepage, allowing visitors to see the basics but requiring them to pony up a little demographic information before going deeper into the site. This also will let you distinguish a tire kicker from a true visitor. General visitor registration pages are not beneficial to every Web site, however, and if you're not careful about how you implement them you may actually turn visitors away.
Strategically placing registration sections on your site will avoid this problem but often reduces the volume of information collected. For example, putting a white paper or access to data sheets on your site and into your marketing material will drive qualified contacts to the site, boosting traffic while building your contact database.
Posting a registration page on the site before allowing any of these offers to be downloaded gives you the opportunity to collect some valuable data. Since this portion of the site traffic is motivated by the ‘free information' offering, visitors are more apt to give up more demographic information, but be careful not to ask too much, or they will go away.
Evaluation
Just as important as registration pages, paying attention to internet provider (IP) addresses for your site's traffic will reveal a lot of valuable information about who's visiting the site, what pages are getting the most traffic and whether they are intended or accidental clickers. A visit to your IT department will give you an idea of what your systems' capabilities are and how to leverage them to see useful information - making life easier for you.
Through the eyes of your IT department, you'll be able to ‘read' IP logs and see that they appear in either one of two ways – either as a company-specific ID or as an internet service provider (ISP) identifier. For all those logs showing a company ID, geographic location will be apparent, which may be a useful demographic. What to look for? Frequency of visits, length of time spent on the site and page click-throughs. A visit of more than a minute is a good indicator of a unique visitor and not a tire kicker. When compared to total traffic numbers, this filtered data will highlight meaningful traffic numbers, geographical information and even some specific companies the sales team might not have on their radar.
Another useful bit of information IP logs show is referral traffic, or how each visitor came to the site.
What does all this mean for your business? Collecting traffic demographics via controlled registration pages adds continually qualified contacts to your database without having to rent or buy lists. Controlling the registration questions ensures you will be able to slice and dice that list any way you want. Monitoring traffic patterns and details provides benchmark data to evaluate marketing and advertising campaigns, traffic trending data and Web page evaluation. After all, a Web site can be an integral part of any marketing and sales program if used effectively.
Julie Mason is the director of general manager for Kellysearch.com, a comprehensive online buyers' guide and search engine, www.kellysearch.com.
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Sales Tips
Sell More by Asking the Right Questions
By Jack Perry
Knowledge is a special power that gives you leverage in all negotiations. The more you know about your prospects and clients, the better chance you have of providing the specific services and products they desire.
The only way you can acquire knowledge of what's important to your prospects is to ask questions. Unfortunately, 80 percent of all salespeople do not prepare questions in advance for sales calls. Therefore, the majority of lost sales opportunities happen because of the salesperson's failure to uncover the prospect's specific needs.
Use the following steps to ask the right questions and understand the needs of your prospects and clients:
1. Ask Permission
Simply say, “I'd like to ask you a few questions so I can understand what you want and how I can best serve you. Would that be alright?” Once they say, “Yes,” remember to take notes – you don't want to forget any valuable information. This act also assures them that you're paying attention.
2. There Are No Stupid Questions
Knowing and understanding a client or prospect means more than name, address, and phone number. What's their favorite food? Are they married? Do they have children? What are their hobbies? Where did they go to school? These questions, although they may sound unnecessary, will help you understand where people come from and how they make their decisions.
In fact, ask the stupid questions first. Then create a database full of information to help you respond to their needs.
3. Open or Closed-ended Questions
Choose one of these types of questions, depending on what and how much information you need. An open-ended question gives the person a wide range of choices from which to respond. A closed-ended question allows only a very specific answer. If you don't have hours to spend, but still want to know what your prospect/client desires in a representative, you ask close-ended questions.
4. Clarifying Questions
Use clarifying questions to gain understanding, and keep asking questions until you know exactly what the prospect or client is talking about. For example, “I need your help. Please explain…”
You can also use open-ended clarifying questions to help your prospects and clients find their own answers and solve personal problems.
5. Rhetorical Questions
Salespeople can use rhetorical questions to convey understanding and empathy.
6. Dialogue Questions
These questions require complex thinking by the prospect, involve longer exchanges, and solicit opinions, rather than just a correct answer.
Example: “Can you describe your biggest challenge?”
Dialogue questions differentiate you from the competition and increase your credibility.
Asking Questions and Listening
Understanding the delicacies of communicating (asking), gathering (listening), and processing (clarifying) information is the most important aspect of sales success. It takes those three steps to draw you closer to any human being, and to any sale. When you ask a prospect or client a question and really listen to the answer, you speak volumes without uttering a single syllable.
Jack Perry is a leadership and sales coach with more than 40 years of experience. For more information on his training and speaking, visit his Web site: www.respectfactor.com.
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Competitive Advantage e-zine, formerly Sales and Marketing Strategies & News E-zine, is published by Douglas Publications LLC.
Visit us at http://www.thecompetitiveadvantage.net.
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