At First Glance

It's Chicken Soup! (yes, I'm talking about screen-sharing)

"Its chicken soup!" That's how my grandmother told you something you were trying to do was (or should be) really easy. Apparently, she thought making chicken soup was easy, and maybe, in comparison to the other more complicated Mediterranean recipes in her cooking repertoire, it was!

These days, I'm the Marketing Director at Glance -- a high-tech start up, that makes the world's easiest screen sharing tool. I'm sure my grandmother would not only say "it's chicken soup!" but she'd be able to use Glance herself (and she wasn't a fan of technology - never learned to drive a car).

Watch our new (really short) how-to video, below, and see for yourself how easy Glance is to use, compared to all those complicated web conferencing services out there that need an IT guy standing by just to get it started. Better yet, test it on your grandmother. And then try it with your prospects, clients, and colleagues, when you do your next sales demo, sales presentation, prospecting, or support call.

Let me hear you say it now, "IT'S CHICKEN SOUP!"

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for daily tips on using screen-sharing to maximize every conversation throughout your sales cycle.

-- Carla Gates, Director, Marketing

Adherence to Sales Process Drops, With Negative Results

More interesting insights from CSO Insights' Sales Performance Optimization 2009 Survey:

I was surprised by the fact that 62% of all companies surveyed have a random or informal sales process! The CSO Insights Report points out that, in fact, year over year, companies using formal or dynamic processes have decreased, and that loss was converted to increases in informal processes.

Why does all this matter? Well, businesses that have implemented more formal or dynamic sales processes have:

• higher conversion rates throughout the sales cycle,
• better predictive ability to forecast, and
• better ability to adapt quickly to changes in the marketplace (e.g., recessions)

Clearly, it takes much more discipline and rigor to implement and maintain formal sales processes than not (I know because I watch my friends in Sales here at Glance do the hard, sometimes tedious, work of maintaining our formal process!) But it's worth it. In difficult times, sticking to formal sales processes can give you a significant competitive edge.

A few resources on sales processes, to get you started:

• The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the Worlds Best Companies, Miller & Heiman.
• Systematic Selling: Process Map Portfolio, Smith, Selden, and Burton
• BNET.com's 84 Resources for Sales Processes

And of course, my own plug: Make every conversation count, throughout your sales process -- Try Glance, the only screen-sharing tool built for sales pros, free for 7 days...

-- Carla Gates, Director, Marketing

How Are Your Sales Leads Generated?

Like last week's blog post, this week I'm posting more interesting observations from CSO Insights' Sales Performance Optimization 2009 Survey:

If you're like us here at Glance, you'd probably rather have your sales reps spend more time actually selling rather then generating leads, right? The CSO Insights Report goes on to suggest that the best way that Marketing can help Sales find more leads is to improve the company web site. In fact, 54% of Sales reps interviewed in this study, feel their company web site needs improvement!

Marketing: point taken! After all, the first step in any prospects' buy cycle is visiting web sites to research purchase options, hopefully registering (friending, following, etc.) for more information, and therefore, becoming a lead. For prospects, your company web site needs to engage their attention, garner their interest, and make them take an action to become a lead.

What about your company -- how/where do you generate most of your sales leads? How is Marketing helping Sales generate leads?

Follow us on Twitter for more daily tips about effective sales and lead gen.

-- Carla Gates, Director, Marketing

Research Results: Top 3 Sales Objectives for the Next 12 Months

From CSO Insights' Sales Performance Optimization 2009 Survey:

So, what objectives do you have at the top of your list?

Consider making "increase sales effectiveness" a very close #2. There's a whole host of Sales 2.0 tools out there, that help sales pros make each call more effective, as opposed to simply making more calls.

[And if you want to maximize your impact on every phone conversation, try my company's sales-focused, screen-sharing product, Glance, for free!]

-- Carla Gates, Director, Marketing

Riding Shotgun = Sales Coaching

I'm writing this post from my Blackberry while riding shot gun; my 17 year old daughter, Sophia, behind the wheel earning hours so that she can take the test to join the ranks of the privileged.
 
Many of you have already had the same thought as I have; "shouldn't he be paying attention?"
 
If you have gone through this process with a teenager, you know the answer is clearly 'no'. I'm learning as the father of a 17-year-old; to give space, observe, and only take action to avoid potential tragedy; and I’m not just referring to the driving.
 
Come to think of it, this challenge is similar to coaching fledgling sales professionals; when you have been doing something for so long that its second nature, it’s hard to not comment on every small infraction.

Today I am trying to take my own medicine. Prior to this drive, I asked my daughter to:

1. Pick a clear destination,
2. Understand the directions,
3. Review the various roads which we will travel, and,
   
4. If she has questions about challenges we may find along the way; to make sure that we discuss ahead of time.

But once on the road, she owns the deal.
 
So here we are barreling down I-95 South. Sure, there have been a few hiccups, yes, I would rather her not actually turn the car into oncoming traffic, yes, it would have been nice to give the poor old man out walking his dog a few more inches, or possibly things may improve when she understands the that “Yield” does not mean “stop completely”...
 
But that is why I sit here, texting this blog; peripheral vision in overdrive, heart rate pegged, and palms so sweaty I can barely type.
 
I am doing my best to promote a healthy learning environment, without saying it, letting her know that I have confidence in her, to not over coach, so that ironically she can relax.
 
Will I point out later that “Speed Pass Lane” is not for literal interpretation? Of course I will. But I will do that at the right time, not in the middle of “the deal”, not when she needs me most.

Like my daughter, the budding sales pro needs similar guidance:

1. To explain the value of establishing a clear destination,
2. Assistance in building a roadmap to keep them focused,
3. The teaching of required sales skills, and most importantly,
4. The leadership to build the confidence required to drive revenue in these toughest of times.

When sales coaching, remember to ride shotgun, not drive.

-- Tom Scontras, VP Sales & Marketing

LinkedIn: 10 Best Practices for Sales

Remember when you got that first LinkedIn invite 6 years ago and you thought it was spam? So much has changed! Today, LinkedIn is officially a phenomenon -- with 50 million users worldwide -- and growing roughly one new member/second! When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it took 477 days to reach their first million members. The last million took only 12 days.

So, how do you make the most of LinkedIn in your prospecting, negotiating, and closing efforts? I’ve collected 10 great best practices; from some of the wisest Smarketing thought leaders I follow every day on Twitter:

1. Take a few regularly scheduled minutes each week to expand your network. Develop your network before you need it. [Mark Hunter ]
2. Include a personal note when you invite others to your LinkedIn network (i.e., go beyond the standard form greeting). Consider adding, “If you feel you have received this invitation in error or simply don’t want to connect, please archive this message”. This way they are less likely to ‘I don’t know’ you  [Viveka von Rosen]
3. Send a LinkedIn request to anyone you meet in a professional setting. Even if you don't see immediate opportunity, there's a chance something may materialize down the line with that person or someone in their network [Aaron Goldman]
4. Start writing quality recommendations for people you can vouch for. If they can do the same for you, ask for one back. If not, hold off. No sense making someone feel awkward. [Chris Brogan]
5. Focus on being genuine and offering something of value to your connections. [Bill Rice]
6. Use your LinkedIn connections to create meeting opportunities (breakfast, lunch, phone conferences, etc.) Simply connecting on LinkedIn is not enough. [Nathan Kievman]
7. Create a power public profile (including a professional headline, a regularly updated status, a summary that tells people what you do, and links to your web site for SEO bonus) [Gail Milton]
8. Make sure your profile sizzles! Tell your audience not only that you’re great at your job, but passionate about it. [Trish Bertuzzi]
9. Include a link to your LinkedIn profile as part of your email signature [Guy Kawasaki]
10. Participate in, and initiate LinkedIn Q&A forums and polls to assert your thought leadership. [Doyle Slayton]

Follow us on Twitter for more tips on Sales and Marketing.

-- Carla Gates, Director, Marketing

Better Than Santa?

“Dad do you believe in Santa?” ...a question that many parents field from their children in this holiday season, and not an easy one to answer, at least not for me. Ironically there is a similar question that I ask of Andy Beaupre (at our PR agency) on a regular basis: “Andy, should Glance believe in Social Media?”

I mean, think about it. Is there really an entity that can circle the Earth in less than 24 hours, and deliver revenue at your door step?
 
Prior to mine and Andy’s philosophical debates on “believing leads to seeing” I would have told you I understood the theory but was looking for clear proof points and execution.
 
That was until September, when the Smarketing Team at Glance decided that we would bring in several account intelligence packages for evaluation.
 
We had just completed our roll out of Salesforce.com, and were building out our enterprise sales organization.
 
As part of our target account selling efforts, we gather as much g2 on prospects, to insure that we can make an impact on every call, deriving the greatest return on our marketing investment.
 
We looked at all of the top account intelligence packages, including Hoovers. In full disclosure, I was in a hurry and just assumed that all of these services were alike.  But that night I posted on Mobile Facebook: "About to purchase Hoovers Services, anyone have any feedback? Speak now or forever hold your peace". Before I completed my commute the next morning, I had received three posts in reply, one of them from trusted advisor Steven Harper, CEO of Plan2Win and Consultant at Trish Bertuzzi's The Bridge Group.
It was simple, he said, "Check out InsideView, great service..."
 
So, I did.
 
I called InsideView, they called back, I connected with them on-the-fly using Glance's screen share service, got the demo, validated Steve's guidance with my own eyes, placed an order, and was up and running with InsideView in days.

This may not be the best blog post for InsideView competitors, but that's not the point. Instead it’s the fact that with one simple social media post from a Blackberry, I was able to obtain feedback from an industry expert regarding a new and innovative service that I otherwise would have missed. Pretty cool for me as a buyer, but think about it from the sellers' perspective; they get an inbound phone call from a qualified, educated prospect, resulting in nearly immediate recurring revenue.

Yup -- social media -- I believe!

-- Tom Scontras, VP Sales & Marketing

Sales + Marketing = SMARKETING = Business Success

Sales vs. Marketing - it's the "Great Divide" in many organizations. Why should you cross this divide (and get rid of the "vs.")? It's simple: improved sales, higher return on resources, and ultimately business growth.

In Sales 2.0: How Will It Improve Your Business?, Pelin Wood Thorogood and Gerhard Gschwandtner write  "Sales 2.0 empowers sales and marketing to work together like a beehive. The sole purpose of the worker bees and the drones is to continually execute a set of compatible processes that have only one purpose: to keep the queen bee happy. If the queen is not happy, the future of the hive is in jeopardy. Likewise, if the processes and technologies of a sales and marketing organization are not optimized and synchronized in a way that keeps the customers happy, then the company is in trouble."

Or put another way, Marketing is everything an organization does to reach out to and generate interest among prospects. Sales is everything an organization does to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract. Both are necessities to the success of a business. You cannot do one without the other. And by strategically combining both efforts, organizations will experience business growth.

Here at Glance, Sales and Marketing works in lockstep -- creating all lead generation and sales conversion programs together -- in fact, we've taken to calling ourselves the Smarketing Team. I've learned more about Sales here than anywhere I've ever worked -- and one big reason is that Sales and Marketing physically sits next to one other. Yup, my desk in our renovated mill building, is right next to Mike and Tom's desks, so that I can hear them talking to prospects and customers all day long. Understanding first-hand what their day is like, helps me design more successful lead generation programs -- leads which they are ultimately responsible for converting! Similarly, they see how much time I invest on our social media, thought leadership, email nurturing, and advertising efforts, and thus can help me design programs which have the greatest sales ROI.

For business success in your organization, invite the Marketing and Sales teams into each other's worlds -- and become SMARKETING!

Follow us on Twitter for more tips on Sales and Marketing.

-- Carla Gates, Director, Marketing

Sell Yourself!

Last night I attended a mixer for sales executives here in Boston.  I had a nice time, however, couldn’t help but notice the undercurrent. Although most did their best to “keep on a happy face”, it was clear that these are tough times.
 
I spoke with senior people, top sales producers; all feeling the pain, many were unemployed.
 
As these events go there is never enough time, nor quiet, to hold a meaningful discussion.  If its the case that you were one of those folks with whom I had the chance to chat, or simply find yourself reading this and know someone conducting a search during this holiday season, I’d like to pass along a few suggestions to help you sell yourself that came to me in the quiet of my late night commute:
 

• Go Social: Whatever your reasons for not being on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter; put them aside right away and establish a social presence for yourself.  Reach out to new and old friends, don’t be shy.

• Polish Up Your Shiny Persona: If you already have a social presence then polish your on line persona. Have a professional appearance in you profile pic; no shots of your dog, or sail boat, or girlfriend.  Just a simple clean pic, and a smile is always great.  Along with your new image, review your summary and brush up your employment history.  Make sure your bio sells you, that it is current, hip, and uses language aimed at the industry which you target. If you are not a great writer seek help from pros who are.

• Tweet & reTweet: Follow every company that you are targeting and master the art of reTweeting their posts.  Essentially, via retweets, pitch their product for them.  As these companies begin to follow you, and trust me if you do this they will, thank each one of them. Leverage this point of engagement to connect directly, if the opportunity presents itself, make them aware of your interest in their firm.

• Join Groups & Seek Alumni: Join LinkedIn Groups. Speak with other sales pros about what groups they find helpful, sign up and actively engage in the give and take. Be smart and get noticed. Most importantly sign up for old company “alum” groups; you’ll be amazed at the career path of that former 23-year old telemarketer that once made cold calls for you.

• Evangelize: Blog; if you don’t have a blog, create one.  Write about your own experience, subject matter which reflects your IP, and your philosophies. For example, if you have been selling database technologies for 10 years, discuss lessons learned, new innovation, sales best practices. You may not get 10,000 followers, that doesn’t matter, what does, is that when send your resume yours contains a link to your blog, and the other guys does not.

• Proof of Concept: There are tons of companies today that need to hire Sales Professionals but budgets simply do not allow the expense that comes with the best of the best.  Find these companies, especially the small ones.  Get connected with the CEO or VP Sales and discuss their challenges. If there is a specific need that you can fill, offer to address it via contract, commission only, or if it has great potential, for free.

• Join the Human League: Leverage all of the above, but ultimately you have to get out there.  Find events like the one I attended last night, sign up for user groups, go to trade shows.  Don’t solicit for jobs within the venue, but build some rapport, offer a lead or two from your executive network.  Making something happen for them first will go a long way!

-- Tom Scontras, VP Sales & Marketing

Still a Differentiator: Delighting the Customer

It started with a retweet (RT) on Twitter over the weekend -- @TrishLambert (a Glance customer) thanked Glance in the ubiquitous 140 Twitter characters:

"HUGE THX 2 @glancenetworks 4 handling critical tech issue 4 me at 8 pm! BTW, awesome screen sharing svc! http://is.gd/5cJ6W" 

And...she included a link to our homepage. This is the best kind of viral compliment a company can hope for!

I asked around the office and found that Glance Account Exec, Mike Walsh, had indeed, helped Trish with a technical issue for a webinar she had scheduled the next day. And he helped her from his home, at 8pm at night. Trish found this unexpected and highly gratifying, and so she tweeted about it.

I recently read a Bain & Co. study that said that while 80% of senior executives believe they deliver superior customer service, only 8% of their customers agree. Ouch! At Glance, we are committed to "customer delight", which by definition, goes beyond "customer satisfaction". To us, customer delight means:

• living and breathing a company culture of integrity, service, quality;
• empowering employees to solve customer problems on their own; and
  
• giving truly unexpected customer service and experiences to everyone we come in contact with.

Customer delight results in enormous goodwill (which quickly turns viral in this age of social media), and customer loyalty, and sets you way apart from your competition (especially important in a crowded field like ours.)

Try it today and your business will reap the benefits. (Oh, and if you need to contact us here at Glance, I hope we continue to find ways to exceed your expectations!)

Follow us on Twitter for more tips on delighting customers.

-- Carla Gates, Director, Marketing