http://vodpod.com/watch/882704-doc-searls-speaking-at-mobile-monday-amsterdam?pod=dutchcowboy

Good post.

Social Media is simply the next evolution of global internet communications. User Groups, Message Boards, Email have all been the precursors.

Social media has just extended the reach and the increased the speed by which these communications happen.

Social CRM is the method of organizing, managing, and analyzing these conversations and interactions executed across the social networking landscape.

Brent Leary wrote a great article in Inc magazine comparing Traditional CRM with Social CRM. I added some additional thoughts.

http://freecrmstrategies.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/traditional-crm-vs-social-crm-expanded/

Best regards,
Brian

Cheers.
@davidalston
Radian6

BTW, I shared a nice presentation around Social CRM in the slideshare, its making a good noise today. Check it out:

http://www.slideshare.net/fhcipriani/social-crm-presentation-761225

Cheers,

Fabio Cipriani

I have been saying this throughout my years in this industry, that you cannot treat CRM like software that you turn on and it works, you need good management skills and savvy customer service when implementing not only CRM theory but also with the systems software. I have a had the privilege of working with a company before that preformed such services, the company is called Pervasive. They have great CRM integration software as while as a wonderful staff to help implement it within your business practices.

I loved your comments – seems we think alike.

From personal experience with SFA tools, I have seen disasters big and small that helped sales people become less efficient, less empowered, and naturally less profitable. Needless to say, those sales people – good and bad- soon began looking for ways to circumvent the system or to look for a job elsewhere.

I agree that sales people like to “look good”, perhaps that’s one of the better ways of capturing what motivates a sales professional. They like to look good to their customers, to their bosses, and in their business community – reputation, sales results, credibility, etc are all key factors here.

So, here’s the conundrum: Since CRM systems clearly weren’t designed with Sales as the primary guide – how do you get these solutions to be invaluable to sales people after the fact.

I agree, personalized brochures, presentations, emails and proposals are very important – as they are often the biggest time thieves of a sales day. However, good solutions need to automatically based on simple and quick profiling questions that can be remembered from one ’session’ to the next. (It’s no good having proposal templates where the only thing you end up keeping after hours of editing is the company logo…)

Speaking of Fridays… Why is it that sales managers insist on doing forecast reviews on Fridays when our sales people want to hit the links? A good CRM solution should again be able to automate much of this so that valuable time is not spent assembling reports and numbers, when it could be spent perfecting a swing.

We all agree that a well-populated and well-utilized CRM solution is for the good of the collective, but why is it so difficult to keep it up to date? Sales people are correctly enough the ones who are best positioned to enter or update customer information, but it needs to be done quickly and when it’s relevant. If what you’re missing is evident when you’re working on it, it’s a lot easier to spend the 30 seconds it takes to add a phone number or an email address or a hobby or a relationship.

Finally, since our valued sales people like to spend their time on the golf course, internet-based and mobile access is critical. Reliable two-way synchronization between the different ‘access points’ and the motherlode database should be fast and furious.

What else can help a sales person achieve their success..?

As I mentioned before, I truly believe that we have to appeal to and support the creative, non-linear and procedural, disciplined sides of sales.

* Automation that saves time and doesn’t hamper creativity is a good thing.

* Reporting tools and dashboards are fine and dandy, but not if you still have to sit there with the recipient and explain the details

* Multi-point access is excellent, but it does little good if you can’t get to the updated data or update data and send back.

I like this thread, and I’ll be back with more thoughts later, but I would also love to hear your ideas for value-enhanced CRM for Sales.

Thanks,

Eivind

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