Thanks for the read and the comment. I think that you got some nice ideas and make some interesting statements – but ultimately the entire sales model needs to change for it to become social. The entire dependence on the 1:1 relationship between the sales person and the customer must go. Yes, even in a B2B situation. This is where I strongly disagree with Joe and mostly everyone in the current sales process. Do I think it is going to be a short process? no, it will probably take a long time.

Alas, until we see an end to the sales-owns-the-customer-and-the-relationship attitude we will not see sales become social.

Thanks
Esteban

I read most of Joe Galvin’s responses above with a hint of disbelief – reminded me of when someone said back in the 80′s that ’640K ought to be enough for anybody’.

To pick up on just one of Joe’s insights – ‘First is digging out from the Great Recession’ – what he misses is that SCRM can be used as a relatively low cost approach to recovery by a business if applied intelligently and staged according to a well planned strategy. The real cost savings being achieved by real businesses for customer support & product improvement via community feedback are well documented – the direct sales impact via social channels is certainly a reality (as Dell via Twitter) and will continue to do be as companies realise that (at least in B2C) a loyal community brings the hallowed ‘customer for life’ who buys more and responds to offers and campaigns fed through the community – can this ‘loyal community selling’ happen in B2B? – why not?

Three things are converging here:

1. Global Recession
2. Emergence and mainstream acceptance of ‘cloud’, ‘saas’ platforms
3. Explosion of social/community networks – 96% of Generation Y are members of at least 1 network, most are members of 2

When this type of significant convergence happens – at anytime in history – it usually brings huge change and opportunity.

None of this means that 1-1 relationships, a firm handshake and a steady look in the eye don’t matter anymore – what it does mean though is that new ways of doing business, ‘selling’, whatever you want to call it, ‘change’ is with us now – today.
.-= Sean Greenan´s last blog ..Beaterator Rocks the Playstation Portable !!! =-.

Much like eHarmony and how they do all the leg work in selecting the perfect online match, and hopefully long-lasting relationship bliss, there are solutions emerging to help marketers automate this in the B2B world. Yet like in most relationships, timing is everything and no amount of automation can replace the 1-1 chemistry that happens when the salesperson makes that all important connection.

Thanks for a great comment! I am beginning to change my approach to the numerality of the relationships slightly. I don’t think we are going from 1:1 to 1:M or M:M – that is not a good thing to have for business if you think about it. There is no way you can personalize a 1:M and nothing you can for a M:M other than provide a platform and pray. I think the new relationships are actually 1:1:M where the users are members of communities (the M) and the business has to worry about two things (like we did in the old B2B2C model): the customers and a personalized experience and the community that the customer is a member of and their needs. Think about it, it becomes an issue of addressing the needs of the community and the customer separately – which is a lot easier than trying to personalize a 1:M or M:M experience.

Going back to the theme of this post (sorry), I agree that the community-based content like Helpstream and Fuze provide among others is a great way to create and improve content for use by communities (the many) and by organizations (to serve the one).

Looking forward to your blog, I think that the cross-channel and channel-hopping experience is prime for a better solution.

Thanks
Esteban

“BtoB clients want sales people to work with them directly one-on-one, not via novelty channels.”

I think the 1:1 observation is key. What Social CRM really does well is 1:Many and Many:Many. Sales is more of a 1:1 game in its later stages, but not in the earlier stages.

The interesting social interface for sales is in the introduction and the personalization of content (as Joe mentions). For most organizations, it’s up to sales to personalize content for a particular customer. It doesn’t have to be up to sales, but typically marketing has neither the resources nor the focus to take that on.

Personalized content does not have to mean it has no value for others or that it isn’t social. On the contrary, many times I’ve seen personalized content turn out to be extremely valuable to a broader audience, often making its way back into the broader marketing collateral line up.

I would therefore look to have whomever is responsible for personalized content leveraging Social CRM. It will turn out to have value beyond the immediate prospect the content is prepared for. A corporate community such as what Helpstream and others offer is an ideal medium to disseminate such content. If nothing else, the Social Media make it easier for the customer to request the desired content.

The second area I touched on is in the introduction. Here again, seamlessly meshing sales into the social until the introduction is made, and then moving that discussion to email or telephone are excellent tactics to pursue.

This is an area I’ll blog about more this week on the Helpstream blog.

Cheers,

BW
.-= Bob Warfield´s last blog ..The Experience Portfolio: Thinking about Customer Experience Strategy =-.

i sing in the same choir as you.
.-= yadu tekale´s last blog ..More on CRM v SCRM =-.

I could not agree with you more. If you look through my blog you’ll see I never changed my tune – this is an improvement in CRM. And we need to focus on that. Create a strategy that manages the “new” things and makes CRM better is what is necessary. There are going to be changes as a result of the social channels being adopted, but not as dramatic as changing the business function (as Joe describes very well in the interview).

We can argue the long-term relationship later

Thanks for the read
Esteban

I agree that the relationship is what matters, the issue is getting used to the new relationships model that went from 1:1 to 1:1:M when you throw in communities (not only forums). It will be interesting to see how organizations adapt to the new model of relationships and how they use the tools that are being provided (social analytics, communities, feedback) to make the business functions better (and improve the relationships).

Thanks for the read!