{"id":1671,"date":"2008-07-22T11:30:04","date_gmt":"2008-07-22T16:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/07\/sales-20\/"},"modified":"2008-07-22T05:08:02","modified_gmt":"2008-07-22T10:08:02","slug":"sales-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/07\/sales-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I read often about web 2.0, recruiting 2.0 and sales 2.0.\u00a0 Math was never my forte so numbers scare me.\u00a0 But I did come across a very informative article in Sales &amp; Marketing Management article titled <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nxtbook.com\/nxtbooks\/nielsen\/smm_200807\/index.php?startid=20\">A Step-By-Step Overview of Sales 2.0<\/a>.\u00a0 The first pull quote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>With instant access to corporate Web sites, search and social networks, your customers have company and product information at their fingertips, which give them much more control over the sales process than they had in the day when brochures and pricing were only available from a sales rep. Many prospective customers postpone talking with a sales rep, believing that they&#8217;ll get a better deal by acquiring as much &#8220;ammunition&#8221; as possible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t that the truth?\u00a0 I&#8217;ve seen many salespeople struggle with this transition as it is still underway.\u00a0 Heck, I&#8217;ve struggled with it.\u00a0 One change from prospects having the information has been a loss of control by the salesperson.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t view this as a bad thing, just a change.<\/p>\n<p>When salespeople controlled the information, they were able to qualify the prospect before supplying the catalogs\/brochures\/spec sheets.\u00a0 Those days are long gone which is why I think there is such a strong push for relationship-focused salespeople.\u00a0 Building a relationship with the prospect to get to the qualifying stage is the salesperson&#8217;s best approach today.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, all things equal out which brings us to sales 2.0.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sales 2.0 technologies are delivering instant information that build relationships and enable sales to be more efficient, more cost-effective and more productive that the old Willie Loman-style of selling.\u00a0 Just as the Internet allowed buyers to literally let their fingers do the walking, these new Sales 2.0 technologies are allowing the customer&#8217;s online behavior to dictate the communication &#8211; before sales does the talking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And that is a good summation of how selling is changing today.\u00a0 Communication has increased dramatically between prospect and salesperson.\u00a0 The next phase of selling continues the relationship sale by incorporating web-based tools to open a dialogue between the prospect and the salesperson in a new context.\u00a0 In our business, we get calls from prospects who already have a general understanding of our process, assessments, training, etc..\u00a0 The discussion starts at a point that would have taken 2 or 3 phone calls to reach just 10 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read often about web 2.0, recruiting 2.0 and sales 2.0.\u00a0 Math was never my forte so numbers scare me.\u00a0 But I did come across a very informative article in Sales &amp; Marketing Management article titled A Step-By-Step Overview of Sales 2.0.\u00a0 The first pull quote: With instant access to corporate Web sites, search and social networks, your customers have company and product information at their fingertips, which give them much more control over the sales process than they had in the day when brochures and pricing were only available from a sales rep. Many prospective customers postpone talking with a sales rep, believing that they&#8217;ll get a better deal&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/07\/sales-20\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,9,5],"tags":[886,883,551,884,885],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-sales-techniques","category-trends","tag-21st-century-selling","tag-sales-20","tag-sales-communication","tag-selling-20","tag-selling-today"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-qX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1616,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/06\/topgrading-for-sales\/","url_meta":{"origin":1671,"position":0},"title":"Topgrading For Sales","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We received an email heads up about the new book from Bradford Smart titled Topgrading for Sales.\u00a0 What I like is the promo page they have put together for the book - it includes a movie trailer...of the book's content.\u00a0 A very web 2.0 approach which I appreciate. The topics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":445,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/candidate-blogs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1671,"position":1},"title":"Candidates With Blogs","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"All right, we posted on Candidates with Personal Websites yesterday and now today we come across this Selling Power article - Blogs: Are You There Yet? This phenomenon is more than a fad, it appears to be a growing trend: \"Blogs are, generally speaking, genuine,\" says Krane. \"A blog is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/when-sales-job-postings-go-bad\/","url_meta":{"origin":1671,"position":2},"title":"When Sales Job Postings Go Bad","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We keep an eye on the sales employment ads so we are informed of trends in the market. I came across an ad that was innocuous enough in its title. Then I read the opening sentence: This is a job in our Customer Service Department that can lead to an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2432,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/10\/skills-pay-the-bills\/","url_meta":{"origin":1671,"position":3},"title":"Skills Pay The Bills","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I am slowly coming to the realization that many (most?) sales hiring managers are drawn to hiring experience like a moth is drawn to light.\u00a0 I am seeing it play out again at one of our assessment customers.\u00a0 The allure is to hire a salesperson with industry experience before properly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2084,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/07\/the-future-of-social-networking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1671,"position":4},"title":"The Future Of Social Networking","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Herman Trend Alert\u2019s topic this week is the future of social networking.\u00a0 An excerpt for you (my bolding): \"Social networking is in its infancy\", says David Nour, Relationship Economics CEO and Web 2.0 guru. \"We're on the upward swing of the hype cycle\". Lots of people are discovering the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Networking&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3194,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2016\/06\/collaboration-kills-commoditization\/","url_meta":{"origin":1671,"position":5},"title":"Collaboration Kills Commoditization","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a trend developing in the sales world that has caught my eye over the past couple years.\u00a0 This Sales & Marketing Management article opens with a terrific summary of what I have experienced (emphasis mine): According to Harvard Business Review, \u201cTraditional sales methods are increasingly unproductive. In fact,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Generations&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Generations","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/generations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Hammer-Egg.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Hammer-Egg.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Hammer-Egg.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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