"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all customers are born
free, that they are endowed by the market with innate abilities to
relate, to converse and and to transact — on their own terms, and in
their own ways…"
photo: schaffner
That’s Spamtertainment!
This Is An Insane(ly cool) Idea
Check this out, courtesy of the Hoosier Contrarian.
It's a proposal for building power generation directly into roadways. Very cool thought.
Video: Doc Searls Pulls Out A Gun
Doc Searls pulls out a (pricing) gun at the 2009 VRM West Coast Workshop on May 15, 2009. Some great thoughts in here about the transformation of "content" industries, and hints at the tools that customers could wield to set their own price.
And just because it's fun to pull it out of context, I love this blurry screen grab, too. 🙂
photo: christopher carfi, creative commons 3.0 attribution
Social CRM / Social Selling (Webcast Archive)
Back in March, I had the opportunity to chat for an hour or so with Mark Woollen from Oracle and Anneke Seley from PhoneWorks around topics related to how customers and sales teams interact at a time when the customer is increasingly in charge of the dynamics of the relationship. A bit of presentation bits at the beginning, and then the balance of the hour is Q&A with the participants on the webinar. Here ’tis:
(Disclosure: The Customer Collective is a customer of Cerado)
YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup
Just got a nice note from old friend Anastasia Goodstein, who is the prime mover behind YPulse (which is a formidable marketing blog and is the place to understand what is current in media, technology and entertainment with tweens and teens). YPulse is gearing up for their next "YPulse Mashup" event. Here's the scoop:
"Hey Chris! I hope this email finds you well.
We have an amazing line up this year including Don Tapscott, Donna Fenn (Inc.)
and so many other cool speakers.
I was
hoping you might share it with your readers. We created a special code SC
(Social Customer) just for your readers/Twitter followers to get 10 percent off
the price."
Indeed. So, if you want to go and save a couple of bucks, use the code "SC" when you register. The conference is June 1-2, 2009 in San Francisco.
ListenLog Overview at VRM West Coast Workshop
Keith Hopper talks about ListenLog at the 2009 VRM West Coast Workshop in May, 2009.
Link to the video here.
tags: vrm, vrm2009
VRM West Coast Workshop
At the VRM West Coast Workshop today. Agenda attached. (Click through the pic to expand).
About 40-50 folks here. Open Space format. Follow along here: VRM twitter stream
CRM, Sales and Social Media: A Webinar
Recently, the fine folks over at EcSell Institute invited me to participate in a webinar entitled "CRM Doesn't Go Far Enough: Somehow We Left the Customer Out of Customer Relationship Management." The webinar is about 50min in length, and is viewable in two parts. We had a lot of GREAT questions and conversation … thank you for all who attended, and thanks again to Bill Eckstrom and Kristi Shoemaker at EcSell Institute for the invitation.
Here's the background:
"While we were using CRM systems for "sales effectiveness," our
customers weren't standing still and waiting for us. They were using
their newly found power to research our organizations, shop for
products, and create their own support channels. Not only that, they
were connecting with their peers and having conversations about us.
Join us in a conversation that looks at how sales managers can use the
customer side of CRM to drive revenue and customer loyalty. This
webinar will provide you education and development on how to
incorporate social networks and CRM 2.0 into your everyday sales
process.
– Learn how to use social networks as a tool to improve internal communication and deepen customer relationships.
– Understand how business blogging, social media and enterprise social networking fits into the sales cycle.
EcSELL Institute is thrilled to have Christopher Carfi, co-founder of
Cerado, Inc., as our next Pillars of Sales Productivity speaker. Come
learn how companies such as Dell, Mini and Zappos are using CRM 2.0 and
social networking to increase sales effectiveness and success."
customers weren't standing still and waiting for us. They were using
their newly found power to research our organizations, shop for
products, and create their own support channels. Not only that, they
were connecting with their peers and having conversations about us.
Join us in a conversation that looks at how sales managers can use the
customer side of CRM to drive revenue and customer loyalty. This
webinar will provide you education and development on how to
incorporate social networks and CRM 2.0 into your everyday sales
process.
– Learn how to use social networks as a tool to improve internal communication and deepen customer relationships.
– Understand how business blogging, social media and enterprise social networking fits into the sales cycle.
EcSELL Institute is thrilled to have Christopher Carfi, co-founder of
Cerado, Inc., as our next Pillars of Sales Productivity speaker. Come
learn how companies such as Dell, Mini and Zappos are using CRM 2.0 and
social networking to increase sales effectiveness and success."
The video is in two parts; both are available on Vimeo. Here are the links:
EcSell / Cerado Webinar: Part 1
EcSell / Cerado Webinar: Part 2
The videos are also embedded below.
Part 1:
Part 2:
I think the stuff that Bill and Kristi and the rest of the EcSell team are doing is really unique in a couple of ways. First, they are creating a community of individuals who are in sales management (not front-line sales reps), and they strive to provide "an arsenal of fact based information, a regular schedule of educational programs, and a network of peers willing to help each other." (Sounds a lot like a community, doesn't it?) Second, all the information that EcSell provides has to tie back either to data that is fact-based and scientifically provable, or is the current "best practice" in industry. It's a degree of rigor that's not often seen. And it's refreshing.
This was the first chance I'd had to work with them, and really enjoyed it.
Am now really looking forward to their upcoming Sales Management Summit, which is happening July 28-29 right out here in Half Moon Bay. Seeya there!
Golden Gate Bridge, Fog
Stunning. More photos by Chuck Revell here.