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.
Chaff and Flares for Marketing
The Hoosier Contrarian gave me the big thought of the day. He writes:
"I just read parts of the US Army Manual, FM34-60 COUNTERINTELLIGENCE
( I have way too much time on my hands), and a thought occurred to me.
We all have, or should have, firewalls for our personal computers,
passwords for our banking and communication over the internet, etc. But
what about consumer tools that have been specifically designed to act
as “countermarketing” aids? And if they exist, what do they look like,
how are they configured, and managed? It may be a bit of a stretch to
visualize, but for me, it might mean that I can begin to manage how I
want various companies to incorporate my internet behavior into their
computerized marketing machinery. Imagine the possibilities. If enough
people used such a tool, it might even force companies to do the hard
work. Actually get to know me." (emphasis added)
( I have way too much time on my hands), and a thought occurred to me.
We all have, or should have, firewalls for our personal computers,
passwords for our banking and communication over the internet, etc. But
what about consumer tools that have been specifically designed to act
as “countermarketing” aids? And if they exist, what do they look like,
how are they configured, and managed? It may be a bit of a stretch to
visualize, but for me, it might mean that I can begin to manage how I
want various companies to incorporate my internet behavior into their
computerized marketing machinery. Imagine the possibilities. If enough
people used such a tool, it might even force companies to do the hard
work. Actually get to know me." (emphasis added)
Now, I do a fair amount of this currently, primarily by trying to use plus addressing on my email address whenever possible in order to know who is selling my email address to whom. (Plus addressing allows me to determine the source of the leak.)
What kinds of marketing countermeasures do you use?
Mobilize
"Advertisers should not make the mistake of trying to recreate classic
Web advertising models that gather metrics like impressions and
click-throughs…a better strategy is to create great branded mobile experiences that
drive interactive usage and brand awareness. Successful brands have
leveraged mobile to extend their overall brand equity, not necessarily
to turn on a new revenue stream in the mobile channel." – Dave Sloan
image: gizmodo
VRM Workshop 2009 at SAP Labs – May 15-16, 2009
The first VRM West Coast Workshop (tag vrm2009) will take place on Friday-Saturday 15-16 May, 2009 at SAP Labs at 1410 Hillview Street in Palo Alto. The event will go from 9am to roughly 5pm on both days. The cost is a recession-friendly $0.00.
As with earlier VRM gatherings, the purpose of the workshop is to
bring people together and make progress on any number of VRM topics and
projects. The workshop will be run as an "unconference" on the open
space model, which means session topics will be chosen by participants.
Here is the Wikipedia page on open space.
In open space there are no speakers or panels — just participants,
gathered to get work done and enjoy doing it. Participation includes
contributing to the VRM Workshop 2008 wiki.
The workshop is scheduled to come just ahead of the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW2009a)
in Mountain View (a couple miles away), which takes place on
Monday-Wednesday, May 18-20. Many of the people involved in VRM are
also involved in the user-driven identity community.
B2B vs. B2C?
There's historically been a separation between businesses that sell directly to end customers ("business to consumer," or B2C) like Best Buy or Wal*Mart, and businesses that sell primarily to other businesses ("business to business," or B2B) like IBM or a large automotive component supplier.
The question: with social media, where people deal with other people and not an abstract "organization," does this change? (Chris Brogan has some thoughts here.)
What do you think? Are B2B and B2C outmoded terms as we all start to interact as "people?"
Mobile Marketing, From The Customer’s Point of View
My April article is now up at Mobile Marketer: Mobile Marketing, From The Customer's Point of View.
Listen Carefully
Brian Roger over at The Customer Collective and I had a nice chat on the topic of listening to one's customers. You can eavesdrop here.
Owning Your Own Data
This one's important, and a worthy read.
The Industry Standard: Owning Your Own Data (April 2, 2009)
Solid article about one of the cornerstones of the VRM initiative, that of taking control of the data that is currently floating around about us in various systems, both financial and vendor-based. The lede:
"The idea of you 'owning' the data about yourself is both emotionally and intellectually appealing. This data, which ranges from the critical (your medical and financial records) to the theoretically trivial (what you buy and search for, and which Web sites you visit) defines, quantifies and describes your preferences, resources, habits and health. It is a proxy for you. It is also what every marketer in the entire commercial universe wants to get their hands on."
photo: ian-s
