Category: Marketing 2.0 (Page 31 of 33)
Social media is used everywhere and is crucial to think through as a sales avenue:
- 1 of 5 minutes is spent online
- 3 in 5 IT decision makers learn about new products
- 57% of decision made before Sales contact
Social selling drives (per Aberdeen Group, Collaborate, Listen, Contribute: How Best-in-Class Sales Teams Leverage Social Selling, Nov 2012)
- 30% more team attainment of sales quota
- 21% more reps achieve quota
- 15% increase in customer renewal rate
Who is a Social Seller? The social seller doesn’t just use social tools — they have a different approach. They are:
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A Trust-builder
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An Idea challenger
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A Customer Advocate
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A Conversation Partner
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THE Go-to Person
I was just at the IMPACT conference, and a new term came up — A business in motion! I loved it. It is dynamic and a living organization! A business in motion is ready to meet customers on their terms, with a complete understanding of each customer, used to create deeper, more meaningful engagements.
Here’s what I learned about in terms of the imperatives for a Business in Motion!
5 key imperatives:
- Put mobile first, because this is the first point of engagement for your customers, partners and employees.
- Social Everywhere. Reinvent the way you work in the market — this is the new norm.
- Reinvent your design and business processes to meet new expectations for instant, seamless and insightful interactions
- Adopt a flexible and secure integration model so that back-office systems can keep pace with rapid change
- Be Insight and Data Driven to uncover opportunities, build efficiencies and make informed decisions
What do you think?
The power of social is everywhere.
But no where as relevant than in personal life.
My dad was placed in the hospital for emergency brain surgery. I got the news while in Vegas, and booked the first flight out. I had to wait for the plane for over 6 hours — hoping to get home in time.
I was going crazy in the wait — and really needed to talk to someone.
So I did something I usually don’t do — I posted something very personal on Facebook about my dad. Much to my surprise, within minutes I had response from friends all over the world. The outpouring was overwhelming — over 500 comments plus dozens of calls.
- I had calls from friends that I had not heard from since High School.
- Prayers poured in
- Comments of encouragement came in texts, comments, tweets
- And I didn’t feel alone
No one gave up either — days and weeks went by ….. and the love flowed in through twitter, facebook and beyond.
I talk about the power of social in business — and the power there is very strong and real. But this personal impact — priceless.
Happy Monday and welcome to our Social Business Coffee Break!
Today we feature Caterpillar Inc. a leader in building the world’s infrastructure, and in enabling progress for millions of people around the globe, .as a Best Practice Social Business!
Hot of the presses!
- 96% of companies don’t link internal & external efforts – Dachis Social Business Council, August 2012
- And if you do link them together as per McKinsey’s Web 2.0 Survey – calculating the average benefit increase of Fully Networked compared to only Internal or External — showed that “Fully Networked” companies achieve 3.6X higher benefit increase.
So how about you? Are you linking the 2 together?
In most of the visits I do with companies on social, the big question I get asked is what is the benefit of becoming a social business?
Here are a few great benefits that I see:
- Stronger employee engagement. Stronger employee engagement leads to great client engagement. In a social business, employees are smarter, more loyal, and engaged because their organization uses social networks, collaboration systems and shared messaging services.
- Great talent in and around! A “social” approach enables employees around the world to tap into each other’s expertise and connections. Companies can attract top talent and give employees the social tools they need to work together. Executives can layer analytics on top of social technologies to make sure their companies have the right skills and expertise to meet market demands.
- Exceptional client service. A social business is also one where customer service is exceptional because the company reaches out to customers through social networks, Twitter and blogs in innovative ways and acts on the insights it pulls together about consumers. That way, customer service teams have the insights and the analytics they need to predict and resolve problems before they happen.
- Personalized. Value in a Social Business is created not for ‘market segments’ or demographics but for individuals. Companies can dish up more targeted offers to customers and respond more quickly to their problems. R&D can gain new sources of inspirations and insight from customers and employees so that the products customers want are the ones that get to market … customized to their particular need, even made to order!
What are your thoughts on the value you see in Social?
Welcome to our Social Business Coffee Break !!! I am welcoming all you pragmatics to the social era!
Trying to get adoption and use of social from these folks are very different for companies than the leaders and visionary!
I’d love your thoughts!
I have been fortunate to meet an incredible group of women through my professional and organizational roles, and one person who shares my passion for expanding opportunities would like to encourage more women to connect with each other and access great resources through her organization, The Women’s Toolbox. Janet Powers, the Chief Executive Connector, will — in her own words — help you FIND Your Voice, SHARPEN Your Skills, SHARE Your Expertise and EXPAND Your Network. Its tagline (“Practical Advice for Busy Business Women”) illustrates its mission is to empower, educate, and entertain women.
I had the opportunity to talk with Janet at a lunch I hosted for female executives during our recent global customer event IBM Connect, and she suggested we work together in our support of women’s empowerment. As part of her commitment, I am excited to share that if you become a new member of The Women’s Toolbox, for a limited time you will receive a copy of my book, Get Bold: Using Social Media to Create a New Type of Social Business. I hope you will learn more about the resources available from Janet’s organization, and that you will share the opportunity to participate with the women in your networks as well.
Join online at
http://womenstoolbox.com/join-today/.