(This is a guest post by Matt Lind of the Customer Contact Council, our sister program for heads of customer service and contact centers.)

If you own a smartphone, tablet, or laptop computer (okay, that should cover just about everybody), then you’re likely familiar with the slick video-recording capabilities that now come standard on these gadgets. And if you’re like me, you’ve been wowed at the ability of face-to-face video conferencing to bridge physical limitations, seemingly bringing people much closer together, even if only in a ‘virtual’ sense.

With technology enabling the world to better capture, store, and share video content, we’ve certainly seen a rise in the number of organizations wondering how they can use video to serve their customers.

Indeed, the recent and rapid rise of services like Apple’s FaceTime, Google Hangouts, and Skype naturally leads us to think about the potential for sales and service organizations to leverage this technology, and while it’s certainly too early to say for sure, here’s my take on the future of video calling for sales and service:   Read More »

The rise of big data has been a double-edged sword for some. While customers have embraced data as it allows for easier price comparisons, their persistent focus on short-term savings has created new challenges for sellers—mainly, by undercutting the power of storytelling.

A member we recently spoke with shared how increasingly data-driven customers in the electronics industry have become so focused on price that they often lose sight of their vision and initial objectives behind a purchase.

“It’s like trying to buy a painting based only on numbers and price comparisons–which is impossible–when in fact it’s the story behind the painting that sells,” he said, describing the whole situation.

His experience refers to a growing phenomenon we are seeing in sales today: customers’ increasing use of data and rational reasoning in the purchasing decision (This, in fact, was one of the trends we believe every Sales Exec must know in 2012).

In today’s tough economy, everyone wants to get the most for their money. It’s natural for customers to try to break down deal components and compare apples to apples. And if customers want to do it that way, isn’t it natural for sales reps to respond using data and numbers too?

But therein lies the problem. The customer’s persistent focus on price and short-term savings distracts them from the real issue at hand—the long-term strategic value of your solution. Read More »

(This is a guest post by Rick DeLisi of the Customer Contact Council, our sister program for heads of Customer Service and Contact Centers.)

New Year’s observation: If there’s anything longer than the line at the bar/buffet line/dessert table in December…it’s the line at the gym/health club/Weight Watchers’ meeting in January.

‘Tis the season to resolve.

If your quest for the new year is to drop a few holiday-induced L-B-S’s…the best advice I’ve ever heard is, “Write down everything you eat during the course of the day.”  Turns out that simply training your brain to become hyper-aware of how many unnecessary calories we each consume every day is the “trigger” to kick-start a whole new mental process, that ultimately makes you eat less, and lose weight.  (BTW, 45 minutes a day on the treadmill ain’t gonna kill ya either, pal!)

But if your resolution for 2012 is to create an even greater customer experience at your company, here’s a small piece of friendly advice that will similarly trigger a new mental process for you and your entire team. It’s a matter of eliminating one simple phrase from your everyday vocabulary.  It’s not a phrase that sounds harmful at any level (in fact, when you use it, you probably think you’re doing something positive). But if you stop using it (although it’ll be hard at first), many amazing things will happen.

Stop saying, “the customer.”   Read More »

In the Sales world, the start of a new year often brings with it a fervent roll out of new compensation plans. It’s the one activity that garners the most interest from all quarters of the sales force. After all, a good compensation plan can drive the right behaviors, and retain and attract top talent.

The compensation plan design process itself is anything but simple though. Its scope overlaps with the domain of multiple functions—Sales Ops, HR, Finance, and Legal being the most vocal participants and stakeholders. Each, with often competing interests, claims ownership of sales compensation design. It’s no wonder we see compensation plans often stray away from the broader business goals of the organization.

Who then is best suited to own sales compensation? Read More »

When faced with a tough business challenge, have you ever wanted the advice of someone that’s been in your shoes?

Across the past year, SEC members have asked more than 400 questions and received nearly 2,000 answers from peers on the SEC Discussions Q&A forums.

Below is a collection of the most popular discussions that took place across 2011 – these questions shed light on the issues that were top of mind to sales executives throughout the year, and the in-depth answers provided by peers provide helpful perspective on how organizations are tackling these sales-related challenges.

Top 5 Questions from the Sales Ops Forum: Read More »

As we’ve continued to meet with sales leaders across the globe about our research on the Challenger Rep, we always get a variety of reactions and responses as they think about how the research relates to their own experiences, teams and organization.  And quite often, a leader will make a statement about how Challenger correlates to their sales metrics – comments such as “You know, our metrics around activities don’t reinforce Challenger behaviors, they are more aligned to Hard Worker behaviors” or “my highest activity reps aren’t my highest performing reps.”

In fact, our 2011 Sales Metrics Benchmark Survey shows that 30% of respondents measure “customer appointments made per rep per month” as a rep performance metric.  But does this metric necessarily align to the Challenger behaviors?

It’s one of many interesting insights and questions our members ask when they see the research on the five sales rep profiles, including: Read More »

Buyers are outpacing supplier capabilities and becoming more efficient at pressuring on price—at least that’s the recurring theme the SEC is hearing in our recent conversations with members. But what’s enabling this behavior today’s buyers, and more importantly, what does it mean for your sales strategy?

The recent member conversations we’ve had suggest that customers have become more sophisticated at buying over the last several years due to:

• Economic pressures that have forced buyers to become increasingly risk averse and focused on cost—In response to the economic  uncertainty in the marketplace, customer organizations are relying more heavily on group buying, professionalized, process-driven procurement teams, and third-party consultants to help mitigate risk through well vetted purchases with higher levels of savings .
• Increased access to information— Internet access and vast technological advances over the past decade have created a much more transparent buying environment than what existed in the past. Customers can now easily find and access information about their industry, the competition, your product/solution, and your competitors’ products/solutions without spending a lot of time or money.

So what are the implications for sellers? Read More »

(This is a guest post by Patrick Spenner of the Marketing Leadership Council, our sister program for heads of Marketing.)

Each year, the Marketing Leadership Council (MLC) surveys our members about their top challenges looking ahead.  As we read the tea leaves in this year’s survey results, here are our thoughts on what’s creeping into (or storming) the B2B marketing consciousness for 2012.

1) Voice-of-Customer 2.0. Marketers are grappling with what kinds of customer data are most important to collect and how to make hay out of the data. Early hypothesis from the MLC team: marketers are over-investing in collecting and analyzing data about the customer, and not enough in gathering information and insight about customer context, which is critical for generating commercial insight (see #5 below)

2) Skill Set Reset. There’s a creeping sense among B2B CMO’s that their marketing teams are in need of a capability overhaul.  With the rise of “no man’s land” in the mid-funnel and rapid changes in how buying centers are making purchase decisions, out-of-date marketing skill sets are being laid bare.

As one example of B2B marketing teams aggressively managing the skill set transition, consider the example of Cisco starting to “badge” and reward its marketers on their social media impact.

Ask yourself: how sweet/spooky would it be for 20% of your pay to rest on your social graph? Read More »

We hope you’ll read this and share this.

It’s a unique occasion when we get to step back from the day-to-day of supporting our members’ decisions and reflect on where we believe the world of sales is headed. In 2011, the SEC had thousands of interactions with sales executives around the globe, held dozens of conferences and intimate roundtable discussions with leading CSOs, and examined hundreds of thousands data points.

Given this, we’d like to share the fundamental shifts we expect to play out in increasingly significant ways in 2012.

Granted, it’s not a MECE list – there is overlap and implications shared throughout these trends, but we hope you’ll take a minute and reflect on how these trends are manifesting in your own organization, disagree if appropriate, and highlight trends you expect to see that we missed. It’s meant to be a reflective, but fun list. We look forward to your input! Read More »