Revenue 2.0 - The Power of Online Marketing

The world-wide web has radically changed the "art of selling".  Your target customers are very well educated on you and your competitors long before that first sales call.  Early qualification is often done by Webex with leads coming from search engine marketing and optimization techniques.  This has transformed how companies sell and this has been coined "Sales 2.0".  

In my first sales job (1980s), I was consistently the new account leader in my branch.  My product was a computer system that sold for $50,000 to $400,000 each. Not too many companies needed what I sold.  So why was I successful?

Remember, 1980s... no eMail, no web, no Google. The biggest three reasons for my success:

• Prospect base - Put more accounts into play than my peers
• Qualification - Made sure prospects have clear need for offering (get to "no" quicker)
• Mutual success - Focused on making my customer successful

  (see Buy Cycle for more on Sales 2.0 and Buy Cycle Alignment)

So what is the point?  Fact is, SFA, CRM, adwords, eMail marketing and Webex will never close a deal that requires personal relationship!  Sure, they help, and these are tremendous tools.  It is in the proper application of these tools for identifying and closing "sales ready prospects" that results in more revenue - i.e. Revenue 2.0.

Key challenges for B2B sales companies to ask regarding Revenue 2.0...

• Are we actively seeking out new prospects on behalf of sales? (eMail marketing)
• Are we in the "virtual showroom" visible to prospects active in a buy cycle? (SEM / SEO)
• How do we make it easy for sales to maintain a relationship with "not ready" buyers?

To learn more, see SEM and Google, eMail marketing and SFA & CRM