Web 2.0 as a Sales Tool...Not!

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  laurencooney11/09/07 Report as spam
  1

  Good points - alternate ideas for sales tools?

  Hi there,
  
  I think you make some very valid points in this entry. One of the things that I've been thinking of a lot lately is how Web 2.0 can make sales teams more efficient with mashups. One of the ways that I see Web 2.0 helping out sales folks specifically is around data tracking and monitoring of sales channels or lead generation data - for example, pulling in database information and mashing it up with geographical information to find out what regions are tracking to revenue goals, or have sales leads that need attention, etc. With the new tools out there with Web 2.0, there is much more than community feedback that can be offered. Being a community person, I totally understand that this information can be very limited and the results can be skewed, but I also see that we need to listen to what those customers are saying, regardless.
  
  I'd love to hear some of your thoughts around tools that you think are effective for the salesforce, including how important things like a good business UI are.
  
  I've got some entries on my blog as well in terms of how to implement Web 2.0 for success (in business units). Http://cooney.typepad.com.
  
  Look forward to your next entry./LC
  
  Lauren Cooney
  CTO Office, Information Management Group
  IBM

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  alex.hendler@...11/09/07 Report as spam
  2

  RE: Web 2.0 as a Sales Tool...Not!

  Naturally, Geoffrey, I'm flattered that a highly-esteemed author as yourself would give such a detailed (and pointed) response to my comment on your earlier blog. But since you wanted to clarify some of your earlier points, please allow me to clarify one of mine.
  
  I never suggested that one should use the various going-on's in the wacky world of Web 2.0 as a substitute for formal, disciplined market research, only as an enhancer to a company's market's intelligence. Yes, it's anecdotal but it also is a way to gauge in real-time what a certain segment of people - whether statistically valid or not - are thinking about your brand. To say "1,000 anecdotes are just as meaningless as one anecdote" is naive in my mind, because in the Web 2.0 world, those 1,000 anecdotes can easily turn into 100,000 anecdotes and then your business is going to have a real sales problem. So if you have 1,000 people say something about your brand, whether true or false, you had better use that market intelligence and do something to address it before it spreads far and wide.
  
  To my knowledge, there are no formal market research methodologies that can gauge your audience's mood in real-time - and in this increasingly speedy world in which brands can live or die in a second, you need something to supplement both market research and how you are putting your brand forward in the world, especially in the online world.
  
  And while I agree Web 2.0 definitely has a lot of hype attached to it (I'm already hearing, as I imagine you are, marketers talking about "Web 3.0."), dismissing it as a "wildly oversold high tech fad" is hazardous to a company's health, no matter how big or small, in the 21st century...

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine11/12/07 Reported as spam
  3

  Good points...but

  "highly esteemed"???? Enough with the sarcasm already...
  
  Seriously, you make a good point about comments. It's true that the data may not be statistically significant, but the fact that people may be rubbishing your company online is extremely significant, because other customers and prospects aren't going to sit back and think... "hmmmm... this isn't a statistically valid approach so I should ignore it."
  
  I never said that people shouldn't take Web 2.0 seriously -- only that they realize that it has some downside when it comes to selling.

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  madcry11/12/07 Report as spam
  4

  Web 2.0 as a Sales Tool...Not!

  agree with the author,
  I mostly post to ask/answer question or to complain
  very seldom to congratulate others or to say benefit of the product I use
  it is all because I am human and I am selfish in nature
  This might be the first and the last time I write something that I agree on just because this topic is very interesting for me and the comment given is just so challenging for me to write on!

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  CAROLV11/12/07 Report as spam
  5

  RE: Web 2.0 as a Sales Tool...Not!

  Web 2.0 in the travel industry is becoming more of a buying factor than is price according to a recent study that I can share with you. As a sales trainer and consultant to the hospitality industry, the community review sites as well as industry blogs and message boards are becoming a critical factor
  A bad review on Trip Advisor or another reivew site can 'deep six' the sales efforts of any hotel. We deal with how to respond and use these reviews in monitoring a hotel or hotel company's 'online presence', how to use them to point out and correct operational deficiencies and how to use comnpetitor reviews in a sales situation.
  Indeed, the online community now soliticts RFPs through online platforms that have become a critical part of the hotel's sales process.
  Web 2.0 has evolved into Sales 2.0 in this industry. So I think to make a blanket statement about Web 2.0 does not take into consideration the industry specific importance of this new way to not only use the internet but also in terms of buying behavor.
  In two brief months, my blog has attracted the most visitors to my web site.
  I'm a fan of yours! Carol Verret, Carol Verret Consulting & Training

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine11/12/07 Report as spam
  6

  Sales Tool?

  What you're describing is the use of Web 2.0 as a sales prevention tool. That was the point I was making -- that Web 2.0 creates problems that must be overcome. It's a world wide complaint forum -- with no accountability for making a complaint. I'll bet that a good number of the negative comments on hotel sites are from competitors rather than guests.

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  CAROLV11/13/07 Report as spam
  7

  Agree to Disagree

  The review sites do a very good job of filtering out specious reviews --not all but most.
  What we forget is that in a cusotmer centric approach it was always about the customer -- the customer now has the means to take back control of promoting who listens to their customers and who doesn't and they can now post photos and videos to make their points.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine11/13/07 Report as spam
  8

  Who's benefiting?

  The review sites do a very good job of filtering out specious reviews --not all but most.
  
  How would anyone know? I've never seen a hotel review site that requires a link back to an electronic record of a reservation. A clever writer could easily imitate the style of a real customer and come up with complaints that seem valid. What you mean is that the review sites capture the obvious examples. That goes without saying. My gut feeling says that there are plenty of sock puppets out there -- probably most of them employees disguised as customers leaving positive comments.
  
  But putting that issue aside, here's the problem from a SALES perspective. People who comment are more likely to complain than praise, and people who read customer reviews generally don't understand that the five comments on the review site aren't (and can't be) representative of an average customer experience. It's irrelevant whether the complaints are valid or not; it's still a SALES problem that didn't exist before Web 2.0.

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  webco56611/21/07 Report as spam
  9

  RE: Web 2.0 as a Sales Tool...Not!

  Great article. As a Web Developer/Business Analyst for 15 years I completely agree with all of your comments. The unfortunate thing is there are too many people that know nothing about the web i.e. Portal Managers of large companies that are using Web 2.0 as a buzz word in discussion with little understanding of what it is is all about. This I agree can be very dangerous in an organization.
  
  Blogging and all that crap (I say this because I never have bought into it, feeling my time could be spent doing something else), is basically a glorified chat tool for the mentally challenged or depressed. Great therapy for those people that use to keep their diaries under there pillow and write into it every night before bedtime. Now they can share all their problems and none exciting lives with everyone else. Who cares? Myspace is wasted bandwidth.
  
  However, not all blogging is bad. Some blogs are quite useful. Take for instance, Dave Crow of Deloitte, I don't even know this guy but happen to goole his site and found it useful for finding out about web business in Toronto and a networking tool called FaceBook like Link-in that is connecting people to jobs. Or a blog used by an auto company to connect existing car owners with potential new customers. This too is a great marketing and useful blogging idea um provided the people your chatting/blogging with are not all one sided, which is probably the case because they want to sell you a car. They aren't going to say the car is junk, although it might in reality be.
  
  I also feel sometimes web developers create new web development languages and techniques like Ajax, that are kind of silly. In some ways it is a way in which developers can control the industry or the direction the web is going to go in the future. Yes Web 2.0 is all the stuff that is used right now: Ajax, Wikis, Blogs, Flash (ActionScript), Widgets (applets, javascrip, flash), javascript, J2EE (Java), Portals ... but wait, there's more ... more to learn.

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  dromeropro02/11/08 Report as spam
  10

  RE: Web 2.0 as a Sales Tool...Not!

  Are you so ignorant as to discount the entire Web 2.0 movement? If you had a rabbit's share of marketing intellect you would know that producing a sale comes from drawing a connection between your brand and potential customer. Whether you have a compelling message or a compelling product you still NEED a medium in which you can reach people. Of all the possible mediums you could choose to market your product, the internet has the highest sales/advertising ratio which makes it the most effective for the money.
  
  The beauty in the culmination of technologies that are Web 2.0 is that they facilitate penetrable social networks in more niche markets than we can possibly image. This means that no matter the product or message that's being conveying, one is guaranteed to find a market that parallels at least a few major criteria of their target market.
  
  Demographics aside, statistics dictate that one in every so many people that are presented with your message will jibe with it. This holds true for every marketing medium.
  
  In regard to Web 2.0 being dangerous, as long as you hold true to the principles of "repetition" and "clear message," you can't go wrong. Obviously, there will alway be people who use Web 2.0 technologies to slander your company, but this will occur whether you your firm actively participates in the community or not. It's all water under the bridge until that slanderous idiot becomes somebody within your own company.