Socialcast | A Sales Guy

Salesforce Chatter; Coming Soon

Many of you know I am a big fan of enterprise micro-blogging. Think Twitter for your company. It is by far the most efficient way to share information, exchange ideas, collaborate and engage people in your company. Enterprise micro-blogging tools make companies more agile and improve performance because they capture the invisible.

Salesforce.com is going to launch their own micro-blogging tool called Chatter (now in private beta.) Chatter will compete with Socialcast, Yammer, Socialtext and all the other microblogging tools out there today. It’s a crowded space, but they will have an advantage because of it’s integration into their Salesforce.com platform.

Chatter provides all the typical features you would expect from traditional micro-blogging tools. You can create groups, follow the people most interesting to you, filter feeds to easily find things that are important, respond to specific users directly, share documents and links and more.

But, Chatter also has a few unique features. The most interesting is, unlike Yammer, Socialcast and other pure play micro-blogging tools, Chatter gives you a home page where all of your Salesforce data and important information is laid out for you to monitor. Think of it like a business application dashboard. Another unique Chatter feature is the profile page. The Chatter profile page appears more informative than Yammer and Socialcast from what I can tell. It provides your experience, skills and other personal information so others in the organization know who you are and what you do. It has more of a Facebook profile feel.

Another unique feature Chatter has is its ability to allow you to follow a document. I like this feature a lot. You can follow a PowerPoint presentation, a spreadsheet, a word doc. anything. I like this feature because it makes updating, and managing versions super easy. It also allows you to see what others think of the information and make corrections on the fly. Beyond documents and people, Chatter allows you to follow other applications, including non-Salesforce.com applications.

Chatter also gives you the ability to bring information in from outside social networks like Twitter. The value here is you can create a Twitter search for a specific company or customer and anytime time that company or customer is mentioned on Twitter, everyone in your Chatter group can see it. This is a powerful way to manage a customer and stay ahead of the competition.

One question I do have about Chatter that concerns me is integrating an entire organization. Traditionally, only sales, and marketing and the executives use Salesforce.com If Salesforce wants it to be a ubiquitous tool for the entire company they will have to create licensing pricing that makes it worth it to have everyone in the company to use it; including those who normally don’t use Salesforce, like product, finance and HR. The real value in micro-blogging comes from connecting the entire organization. Not just a few functional groups.

If you are a Salesforce.com customer, Chatter is a compelling tool to bring your organization together. If used appropriately, it has the ability to create proposals faster, identify useful information faster, improve customers relationships, increase sales, accelerate product development and more.

Whether it’s Chatter, Socialcast, Yammer, Socialtext or any other micro-blogging tool, your organization will benefit from their use. Find one and use it. They are about more than chattering, yammering or twittering, they are about getting business done.

Salesforce Rolls Out a Facebook for Businesses (mashable.com)
Salesforce.com gets social with Chatter beta (news.cnet.com)

February 20, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance,Customer Service,Enterprise 2.0,What I Think! | View Comments |

All The Noise!!!

I’m wondering if Twitter is becoming too noisy. I’ve noticed over the past few weeks my mentions have gone up big time. Yet, my blog visits have stayed flat.

The increase in mentions have been mostly links to my blog posts. You’d think, more mentions, more visits; not so much.

Twitters numbers are down for the month of October by 2.11%. I know that almost every Twitter user, uses a third party app to Tweet, but I have to ask the question. Is something going on?

There is no question about it. Twitter is loud. I’m wondering, is it getting too loud? Are people starting to tune out the noise? Are we ignoring the links? Tim Young CEO of SocialCast calls the excessive use of linking on Twitter, link carpet bombing and link vomit. Is he right?

Mentions up, followers up, blog views flat. Is Twitter slipping? Is just getting too loud? What do you think?

November 13, 2009 | Filed under: Web 2.0/Social Networking | View Comments |

Is There A Future in Enterprise Micro-Blogging?

I have been a BIG fan of enterprise micro-blogging for the enterprise. Think Twitter for businesses. We use enterprise micro-blogging tool Yammer at Avaya and it’s been a great tool for collaboration and interaction, especially for an international company with a large virtual workforce. I use it everyday. It’s part of my work flow.

I expect micro-blogging within enterprises will be as common place as IM and email with in the next 5 years. Companies won’t be able to run their businesses with out them. (why? is a different post) Micro-Blogging for business is here to stay.

Despite my optimistic outlook for the platform. I think the space is in trouble. There are too many players; Yammer, SocialText, SocialCast, Rypple, Obayoo and more. Here is a list of the top ten. Beyond there being too many players, the barrier to entry is too low. It’s too easy for new players to enter the space. This is evident based on the large number of existing players so early in the game. There isn’t enough room in the space to support so many companies. The business models are too similar. There is little differentiation.

Adding to the pressure to survive, the pricing model has been pushed to zero by SocialCast who announced a freemium model for unlimited users with full administrative control. Add all these up and it’s hard to see how anymore than one, and maybe two of the players can make it. Even then, I’m having trouble seeing anyone make it due to the freemium model with out a substantial paying option.

If this isn’t enough to crush this budding industry, then the launch of Microsoft’s Sharepoint 2010 due out the end of this year and Google Wave due out next year will be. Sharepoint 2010 is expected to have a substantial number of Web 2.0 tools attached, including a micro-blogging tool. Although not traditionally considered an enterprise software company, Google Wave, in conjunction with Google Docs, and Google Voice are a compelling suite of tools for small to midsized business. The introduction of Sharepoint 2010 and Google Wave make it difficult for IT departments to justify supporting a one off platform for one purpose. There isn’t a significant enough value in the current micro-blogging tools to support their one off use, when you have the same feature already integrated with your existing collaboration, communication tools.

Not too long ago I traded emails with Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures about how Twitter could make money in the enterprise. He emphatically stated this was not a direction Twitter was going. I see why. Microsoft owns the desktop, companies like Cisco, Avaya and IBM could quickly add it to their Unified Communications platforms, Google Wave is attractive to small business, the business model has been pushed to free, and it’s a crowded field.

There is no future for the pioneers of enterprise micro-blogging. A lucky one or two will be bought within the next 18 months. The rest . . . RIP.

The good news, micro-blogging is here to stay and for that I am very excited.

July 23, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance,Enterprise 2.0,What I Think! | View Comments |

We Don’t Eat at Restaurants Because We’re Hungry!

We don’t pay to eat out because we are hungry. We have food in the fridge. (college kids, or bachelors are the exception). We don’t buy books because we want to read. We can get them at the library for free. We don’t pay for cable because we want to watch T.V. We can get the local channels for free. We don’t pay for radio to listen to music. We can listen to music on the radio for free. Prostitutes don’t flourish, because we need sex. Most people have a spouse or significant other that provides that service for free. There are things in life that are free or almost free yet we continually choose to pay for them. Why?

It’s because we almost never buy things for one reason. We rarely spend our money for a singular purpose. Buying is a complex process. If we only bought cars to get from point A to point B, then we wouldn’t have so many different types of cars. If we only bought food to eat, then there wouldn’t be so many different restaurants. If we only spent our money for the utility of things, there wouldn’t be any reason for much of anything else.

Chris Anderson’s book Free just came out. Fred Wilson just wrote an intriguing post on the idea of freemium business models and SocialCast an enterprise 2.0 company just announced their service is totally free to an unlimited number of users. The discussions around the idea of freemium services is interesting with many detractors. I think they are looking at it the wrong way. They are looking at it from the eyes of what was, not what can be. And unfortunately, that is even wrong.

A good sales person understands the buying process is complex and people rarely buy things for one, obvious, clear reason. We buy for a number of unique, individual, and varying reasons. The cable companies figured this out and now none of us could even imagine NOT paying for T.V. Restaurants figured this out and most of us have looked at a our monthly budgets and made commitments to stop eating out only to do it just as much next month. Radio was as free as a bird just a few years ago, now most of us are paying for XM/Sirus or HD radio and didn’t blink an eyelash at it.

Good sales people learn to identify the true buying motives. They pry, evaluate, assess and discover what it is that will motivate buyers and then capitalize on it. I think the freemium model could learn something from sales people. It’s not what your product does that we pay for. It’s what it does for us that excites us to pay. Give your product away all day long and while your doing it ask yourself what WILL my customers pay for? Because they will pay, you just have to figure it out.

July 6, 2009 | Filed under: Enterprise 2.0,Sales Process,Uncategorized,Web 2.0/Social Networking | View Comments |

Social Media: Are You Marketing or Selling? Part II

Yesterday I talked about Chris Brogran’s post The Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle. Chris’s suggestions were spot on. Social media gives us new tools to drive sales and accelerate the process.

Although good, I think Chris’s definition sales process was too marketing heavy

In my post I added two sales stages; the opportunity stage and the close stage to what Chris had already described.

1-Create Awareness (Marketing)
2-Identify Prospects (Marketing)
3-Generate Leads (Marketing)
4-Opportunity Pursuit (Sales)
5-The Close (Sales)
6-Customer (Sales and Marketing)
7-Evangelist (Marketing and Product)

Opportunity Pursuit is the process of moving a customer or lead to close. Opportunity pursuits include;

Assessment – what is happening in the client or buyers environment? What problem(s) are they struggling with that my product or service can solve?

Solution Identification – What solution am I offering? What is the value of my solution and how well does it deliver on the pain/problem of my customer/prospect?

Strategy – What is my approach to positioning my solution? How am I going to attack the process, what resources do I need, how will execute on the strategy?

Relationship – Who is responsible for the decision? How well do I know them? What is my relationship with them? What position am I in to influence their decision?

Getting to Yes – Every sales process is made up of a series of yes’s. Each yes, brings you closer to the closing the deal. The opportunity pursuit is all about getting to yes, and driving the deal to close.

The Close is the culmination of the above. It’s not a process, but a transition. Getting to the close depends on the opportunity pursuit. I give “The Close” it’s own place in the process, because of it’s culmination of the pursuit. Nothing happens with out it.

As Chris described, Social Media can help a sales cycle.

Social Media fits well into a sales process. As within a marketing cycle you have to know when and how to use them.

Assessment

The better the assessment of your customers environment, the challenges they face and the resources available to them, the better the chances to win the deal. Social Media can do wonders here. Finding and following employees from the company on Twitter will provide you with insight to what they are working on and the challenges they have. Following your customers competitors can give you visibility into positioning. It will point you to industry research comparing the companies and outlining their strengths and weaknesses. Industry Analyst blogs are killer for calling out industry gaps, player analysis and future opportunities.

This information gleaned from Social Media can give you a substantial leg up in framing your strategy and understanding your customers world.

Solution Identification

Because of it’s proprietary nature traditional Social Media is less effective here, however a crop of new Enterprise 2.0 applications, such as Socialcast and Yammer, are popping up, accelerating the movement of information within companies. A Socialcast type application allows you to quickly corral your company experts, brainstorm ideas, and share information in real time, therefore creating bigger, better, faster solutions.

Strategy

Blogs, LinkedIn, Industry Analysts via Twitter etc. provide tremendous amounts of company, industry, competitor, and solution oriented information. Grabbing this information and gleaning the subtle messages will help you understand the best approach to position your solution. Strategy heavily relies on assessment. Social Media makes a big impact here. Use it to ask questions on Twitter, find White Papers, Engage Analysts, or find former employees or your competitors who are willing to give you insight.

Don’t be shy to leverage Social Media for information to influence your strategy development

Relationships

This is an easy one. Use LinkedIn to find and learn about your buyers. Follow the tweets of the buyers. Become aware of your individual customers social graph, where do they live, what do they talk about, who are they friends with. Once you find them, listen, engage. Comment on their blog, retweet their tweets, comment on their LinkedIn status, join the forum they are on etc. By understanding their online presence, the offline becomes much easier.

Getting to “Yes”

Getting to “Yes” is understanding the unique gates or objections required to demonstrate increasing value of your solution. In the beginning of an opportunity pursuit, getting a “yes” to meet is your first yes. Using LinkedIn to find a contact of yours that can create an introduction will accelerate the process. Getting to “yes” is different in every sales process, across every opportunity. Social media is key in shortening the effort curve.

Blogs, Twitter, Socialcast, Yammer, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS, etc, like any set of tools they each have their own value, solving different problems in different ways. The key to getting the most of Social Media in a sales process is to know what tools are available to you and wield them appropriately.

How are you using social media in your sales and marketing cycles? Share in the comments and I will post them.

May 13, 2009 | Filed under: Enterprise 2.0,Marketing,Sales Process,The Chase,Web 2.0/Social Networking | View Comments |

Capturing The Invisible

the-invisible-man I had a great conversation the other day with Tim Young, CEO and Founder of Socialcast about Enterprise 2.0. During the conversation Tim talked about, what he calls, invisible and visible conversations. Invisible conversations are water cooler conversations, the conversations in our heads, the conversations that aren’t traditionally visible to an organization. I really liked the way he described it. I think there is value in capturing the invisible conversation.

We use Yammer at my company. Yammer, like Socialcast is a micro-blogging tool for the enterprise, similar to Twitter. About month ago, I Yammered about heading to NYC for a partner meeting. Before I got into the meeting, I had 3 replies asking if I needed anything and offering help. At the end of the meeting I Yammered the outcome as I was getting on a plane home. When I landed, there were 4 replies to my Yammer. The V.P. of product, and a cast of supporting folks had read my Yammer and had started developing the response and the strategy I needed to respond to the partner. It was amazing! Traditionally, it would have taken me several hours in calls and emails, with days of planning to collect the appropriate players, and formulate a response. By capturing the invisible conversation it was done in hours, on it’s own.

Yammer, Socialcast and other Enterprise 2.0 applications capture the invisible. Conversations that once occurred in our heads, with friends during casual phone calls, or while walking through a convention hall are now becoming visible and this visibility has value.

Enterprise 2.0 and tools such as Socialcast and Yammer put new information on the table. They flush out information normally hidden deep within our networks and casual conversations and allow companies to capitalize on that knowledge base. They speed the flow of information and allow for faster decision making. They can make companies more agile.

Agile companies that make better decisions perform better and performance is something you can measure. Can you capture the invisible? If you can’t, you should. There is value in it.

April 21, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance,Enterprise 2.0,Web 2.0/Social Networking | View Comments |