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The Elevator Pitch

December 9, 2011 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, Andrew Somosi described an Elevator Pitch contest at the November Sales 2.0 conference. To start the day off, Gerhard Gschwandtner, the CEO of Selling Power, asked the sponsors to present a 60-second pitch about their companies to the audience. This was serious business. There was a 60-second countdown timer at the stage, and the microphone cut-out when the time was up (which happened several times). The feedback from Andrew and from other attendees was that this was a very valuable exercise. It really forced them to super-synthesize and focus on the most important and compelling points to communicate.

Having seen the positive reactions on Twitter from the audience about the pitches, I asked Andrew to deliver an encore of his pitch for the camera.

And, congratulations to Andy Shefsky  — @AndyShefsky – - from iMeet for winning the pitch contest.

 

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B2B Sales, Events
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B2B Sales in the Year 2020

November 28, 2011 1 Comment

At the last Sales 2.0 conference, Social Strategies in a Social and Mobile World, Andrew Somosi (Lattice Engines) gave a presentation on what social selling really means for B2B sales. Our objective was to showcase facts and research on how actual sales professionals are engaging with social media to improve their productivity, and what companies can do to extend and enhance these existing efforts.  A key theme was that there is a lot more room to infuse science into the art of sales. This then led Gerhard Gschwandtner, CEO of Selling Power, to engage with Andrew in a discussion on what the future of sales might look like.

Here are some of the questions that Gerhard raised for discussion:

  • If science enables you to ‘predict’ what a company will need and when they will make a purchase, does the rep still have a role in the buying process?
  • Buyers are starting their purchase process online and are more inclined to listen to their trusted peers on social networks. How does a sales person create value in the selling process given these evolving dynamics?
  • What does ‘social learning’ mean for buyers and sellers in this new world?
  • What does B2B sales look like in 2020?

Watch the entire discussion between Gerhard and Andrew here:

View the full session presented by Andrew Somosi: ‘Social Selling: What’s Really in It for B2B Sales’
Read the whitepaper to learn how companies can operationalize a ‘social’ approach for their sales teams


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B2B Sales, Events, Predictive Analytics, Sales Intelligence, Social Media
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Sales and Marketing Converge at the Sales 2.0 Conference

May 9, 2010 0 Comments

I attended the Sales 2.0 conference this week in Boston where the number one theme was greater sales and marketing integration.  One full panel was dedicated to this theme, which touched on common definitions of qualified leads, end-to-end marketing and sales measurement, and more comprehensive data management. Several sales and marketing executives commented that as much as 40-60% of closed business had originated from a marketing-driven activity. These are high figures, as most B2B companies would consider 30% a highly successful outcome. One implication is that there is significantly more room for Marketing to apply smarter segmentations and smarter campaigns that help generate demand but also provide the sales rep with context on why they should follow-up with a particular lead and what they should message in that interaction. Second, it seems that even if you reach the vaunted 40-60% figure, it still means that sales needs support on identifying who to call and what to say in order to achieve the other 50% of closed business.

“Lead scoring” came up several times. I sensed frustration with current approaches. As one panelist said, “a loser is a loser even if he downloads that whitepaper seventeen times.” My sense is that the panelists were trying to move beyond lead scoring to a significantly more comprehensive solution that creates campaigns and navigates outcomes using a much broader set of internal and external data.

Another theme was that it’s becoming much harder for the sales person to be the smartest guy/gal in the room. The sales function is evolving in response to the proliferation of online data and the changing expectations of buyers.  Buyers have become more sophisticated and informed,  raising expectations of how much knowledge sales reps should have about the industry, company and its needs when coming-in for sales meetings. There is a lot less asymmetry in the buyer/seller interaction. Buyers are a lot smarter and do lot more research on the web about their options and vendors. Sales reps are expected to be “situational-ly fluent”, or have the ability to understand the company context and present a relevant value proposition that will address specific needs.  In parallel, there is a lot more info out there on the web for sales reps to look at and digest.  This means more homework for the sales rep, a decrease in selling time and the need to raise the bar on sales skills/IQ.  The implication is that there is a need for: 1) tools to help reps find and make sense of information and 2) stratification of sales roles into lower level reps and senior, strategic sales execs to provide consultative coverage, as needed.

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