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You know what’s on your customer’s mind?

Develop Stronger Customer

Relationships

Make sense of Data

New Competitors

Anticipate Market Shifts

Increase Revenue

Increase Business Agility & Speed

Reduce Capital & Operating Expense

Increase Sales

Increase Brand Recognition

Regulatory Compliance

Reduce Time-to-Market

Engage Customers in New Ways

Increase Collaboration

with customers

and partners

Increase Security

Innovation for Growth

Increase Customer

Satisfaction

Traditional Competitors

Increase Market Share

Improve Speed of Decision Making

Employee Productivity

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And, you have the solutions to solve their problems

Sales Force Automation

Security

Data Center Networking

CRM

Big Data

Cloud Computing

Content Management

Business Analytics

Wireless Networking

Social Relationship Management

VoIP

Marketing Automation

ERP

Virtualization

SOA

Collaboration Software

Contact Center Management

Mobile Mobile Apps

Infrastructure Management

Financial Management

Data Services

Voice Services

Gigabit Ethernet

Hosted Services

IaaS

SaaS

PaaS

Mobility Routers & Switches

Unified Communication

Web Conferencing Video

Conferencing

Storage

SAN

NAS

IP / MPLS

Next Generation Networks

e-Commerce

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!  Social Tools

!  People & Networks

!  Processes

!  Information & Assets

!  Internal & Externally Focused Activities

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So, what is a social business?

“…… activities that use social media, social software and technology-based social networks to enable connections between people, information and assets. These activities could be internally focused within the enterprise or externally focused toward customers, suppliers and partners.”

MIT Sloan Research Report: Moving Beyond Marketing

“80% respondents in IT, Technology and Telecomm companies stated social business was important to their business.”

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And, why should you care?

“…at least 60% of respondents in most industries agree that social business is important or somewhat important today (four or five on a five-point scale).”

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Recent studies show a clear connection between social business and top marketing priorities and sales projects

!  Lead generation & conversion

!  Increase audience reach

!  Increase customer loyalty & revenue

!  Reduce costs for lead generation

HubSpot State of Marketing 2014 Report

Lower Sales

Productivity

Ineffective Lead

Generation

Poor Pipeline Quality

Reduced Forecast Accuracy

Longer Sales Cycles

Higher Discounting

Lower Close Ratio

Reduced Sales &

Profitability

Higher Turnover

Rising Cost of Sales

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However, many sales organizations continue to use outdated sales methods that yield lackluster results

A Vicious Cycle

Time Consuming Research

Cold Calling

Rising Cost of Sales

Seller & Buyer Frustration

Expensive Leads

Declining Sales

Marketing & Sales Dysfunction

Outbound Sales Is “Interrupt” Driven

!  Cold Calls

!  Voice mail

!  Unsolicited e-mail; SPAM

!  Letters

!  Doesn’t align with customer buying process

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Research tells us that traditional outbound sales strategies are ineffective and mostly a waste of time and money

Because what was once the sales process has become the buying process requiring sellers to either “Adapt or Die”

!  Online Research

!  Education

!  Community Discussions

!  Content Consumption

!  Ratings

“…..distribute content that enables them to build up credibility and eventually develop a trusted reputation based on their expertise.”

“….making sales is now about delivering content at the precise moment each buyer needs it.”

!  Recommendations

!  Vendor Engagement

!  Supplier Selection

!  Review & Endorsement

THE NEW RULES OF SALES AND SERVICE David Meerman Scott

MIT Sloan Research Report: Social Business: Shifting Out of First Gear

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And, to engage today’s information savvy buyers requires an entirely different sales methodology

“….customers now handle an estimated 53% of the traditional sales process via online research and self-service.”

Defining the 21st Century Salesperson: Forrester Research

Today’s selling environment requires salespeople to have “a deep understanding of potential clients and can reach out to decision makers and influencers through introductions and build credibility with meaningful content.”

The 21st Century Buyers

•  Are better informed

•  Expect greater knowledge and sophistication from salespeople

•  Insist on more than basic product information

•  Require collaborative partnerships

•  Demand solutions and capabilities that deliver quantifiable, measurable, business results

•  Are slashing procurement process costs

•  Eliminate vendors that don’t add value

What’s needed is a new approach

10 Things Social Selling Does:

!  Delivers customer focused content

!  Educates and informs

!  Generates awareness & interest

!  Solves customer problems

!  Demonstrates expertise & leadership

!  Provides insight through storytelling

!  Supplies information when and where needed

!  Facilitates conversations and connections

!  Aligns with the customer buying process

!  Employs data to gain deeper customer understanding and anticipate needs

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One based on building relationships and providing buyers with information they need to make purchase decisions

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That uses storytelling to articulate why your company is uniquely positioned to solve a buyers problems Effective Storytelling

!  Discusses customer problems and concerns

!  Acknowledges industry trends and directions

!  Aligns solution messages and value propositions with customer needs and emerging trends

!  Uses customer examples, references and case studies to describe how you solve buyer problems

!  Employs a single unified message across the organization from Marketing, Sales and Customer Service

!  Uses simple language not technical jargon & Gobbledygook

!  Told in a compelling manner using a unique tone

!  Based on data and analytics gathered through research and social listening tools

!  Appropriate level of content for where the buyer is in their journey

65% of industry leading companies use social media to understand market shifts vs. 14% for less socially mature companies

MIT Sloan Research Report: Social Business: Shifting Out of First Gear

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And provides clear and differentiated messages through customer focused content Customer Focused Messaging

!  Solution oriented not product focused

!  Describes value not features

!  Describes “How and Why” not “What”

!  Provides vision and a bridge from customer’s current state to desired state

!  Based on fact versus fiction

!  Specific to individual buyer profiles: “Buyer of One”

!  Is differentiated and unique

!  Timely and uses news stories and current events to draw attention and raise visibility

!  Distributed through multiple social media venues

!  Interesting and engaging

“Vendors need to base their message on their high-level value propositions….the wrong value proposition dooms a product or a whole company.”

Forrester Research Defining the 21st Century Salesperson

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An approach that parallels and intersects with a customers buying process Engage With The Buyer Process

!  Uses buyer profiles that aligns your offerings with a buyers problems, needs and concerns

!  Increases buyer awareness with customer centric information optimized for buyer searches; available across multiple channels

!  Provides appropriate level of content or resources at each stage of the buying cycle

!  Encourages collaboration and discussions among buyers, sharing similar problems, and your sales staff

!  Provides flexibility for buyers to connect with your salespeople in multiple ways

!  Facilitates speed and responsiveness to customer buying signals

Give them what they need at each stage

!  Discovery: Basic information that educates

!  Evaluation: Greater detail for comparison

!  Validation: Proof points, value propositions and references

!  Purchase: Real-time connection with sales and technical resources

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That aligns Marketing and Sales to provide a single voice in all communications Aligning Marketing & Sales

!  One message articulated across the organization

!  Educates and informs audience

!  Focused on individual buyer persona needs, concerns and interests

!  Addresses buyer perceptions for doing business with you or your competitors

!  Takes into account competitive strategies, messages and solutions

!  Based on insight about how, when and why buyers make purchase decisions

!  Gives salespeople contextual content to share with buyers at just the right moment

!  Structured to lead buyers to eventually connect with your experts & salespeople

“Marketing generates attention of the many people who make up a buyer persona, whereas sales communicates with one potential customer at a time, putting the buying process into context.”

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While using rich data and analytics to learn more about customer needs and preferences through their interactions Rich Data Provides Insight To:

!  Quickly identify and respond to customer buying signals and trigger events

!  Anticipate buyer needs

!  Improve lead qualification, pipeline and forecast quality

!  Facilitate real-time customer connections with your salespeople to accelerate and shorten buying cycles

!  Align with the buyer journey by understanding how, when and why they make purchase decisions

!  Gauge effectiveness of strategy, messaging and tactics

!  Rapidly recognize and capitalize on new market opportunities

!  Improve responsiveness to market shifts and competitive threats

With the underlying objective that enables buyers to purchase from YOU

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Social Selling delivers tangible business results for

Technology & Telecommunications sales

organizations

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Social Selling delivers tangible business results for

Technology & Telecommunications sales

organizations

Want to learn more about social selling and social business? Check us out at www.clearconsultgroup.com

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Strategy & Consulting

Content Creation &

Management

Social Selling & Business

Development

Increase brand visibility, awareness and customer engagements to deliver increases in measurable

business results

Reach more customers and

develop stronger relationships

Increase leads, pipeline quality, forecast accuracy,

sales & revenue

We just might be able to help you harness the

power of social business and social

selling

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