Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology

What is your sales organization doing about the current economic downturn? What will make a difference for your company? While the economic forecast may be “uncertain,” it is certain that our customers are reducing their budgets and spending more carefully, forcing their vendors to do the same. This economic challenge will accelerate the adoption of Sales 2.0 from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” philosophy. Companies that continue to sell the way they sold in the past will become less profitable or fail altogether. Customer preferences, the ever-rising cost of sales, and the availability of next-generation technologies are making change mandatory for companies that want to outperform the competition and minimize the impact of the economic slowdown.

What is Sales 2.0?
Sales 2.0 is not a new technology. It is the use of innovative sales practices to improve business results, creating value for both the buyer and seller, and is often enabled by Web 2.0 or next-generation technology. Sales 2.0 initiatives typically center on process and customer-engagement improvements to increase sales productivity. Sales 2.0 practices combine the science of measurable, process-driven operations with the art of collaborative relationships, using the most profitable and expedient sales resources required to meet your customers’ needs. The goal of Sales 2.0 is to produce greater, predictable, repeatable business results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs, and sustained competitive advantage.

Sales 2.0 initiatives require changing mindset and adjusting sales strategies. A relatively simple Sales 2.0 practice involves selling more through video or web conferencing. This can be done by inside salespeople or by field salespeople who perform more of their jobs from their desks. Selling more efficiently should also mean selling more effectively, as many buyers now prefer to meet remotely via conference calls with video or web conferencing, and salespeople benefit from additional selling time that otherwise would be spent traveling. A traditional sales process that included three or four onsite visits might now have zero or just one face-to-face visit. The financial impact of reducing travel expenses can be significant and is easily measured, but the economics of giving your most expensive sales resources — your field salespeople — additional selling time is even more compelling.

Many products and services, especially those of relatively small to average value, can only be sold profitably with a remote or low-touch sales model. The definition of “small to medium orders” is different for every company, but they are generally those that fall into your bottom 50% in value. If ignored, these mid-market customers or transaction types are missed opportunities for organizations that rely solely or too heavily on a field-based sales model. And when they are sold through field sales, these smaller opportunities can derail focus and drain the organization’s profitability.

Another Sales 2.0 practice uses some “science” to accurately capture key market information and metrics such as average sales cycle, average deal size and sales-cycle conversion rates. By using a defined sales process and data analytics, you can determine how your sales force should be structured and which customers and transaction types justify the assignment of field account executives, inside salespeople, channel partners or no selling effort at all. Data analytics in this sense can range from rudimentary (pen and paper) to moderate (spreadsheets, CRM, and most reporting systems) to advanced (dashboards and on-demand sales intelligence). Rather than simply measuring the final result (revenue), a Sales 2.0 approach measures the effectiveness of every stage in your sales process by salesperson, giving managers the opportunity to provide targeted coaching. Data analytics also can be used to correlate and analyze the specific characteristics of your most profitable customers (size, industries, locations, buyer types, etc.) that produce the most revenue and profit. Sales and marketing leaders can then use this information to fine-tune your sales model and activities to ensure the loyalty of your most valuable customers and find more prospects like them.

How do I begin a Sales 2.0 initiative with limited staff and budget?
A key Sales 2.0 tenet involves experimentation, often through testing new process ideas and piloting new technology. Testing a new sales message, pricing options, new technology, or even a new sales process enables the organization to be innovative with minimal risk. Small pilot programs that use minimal resources enable ineffective ideas to fail on a small scale, while good ones can be rolled out more aggressively.

Becoming a Sales 2.0 organization requires that we proactively adapt and continually improve so we can become closer to our customers and weather the economic storm better than our competitors.

New Year. New You. New Nest Egg.

Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is: Investment Strategies for Lifetime Wealth - Natalie Pace

Build a better nest egg with 6 easy, sound strategies for 2009. The stock market lost 38% in 2008, but if you lost more than 20%, your problem wasn't really the stock market, it was the design of your nest egg. Storms occur in markets, as they do in the real world, but your home shouldn't be flooding every time it happens.

You know intuitively that your retirement plan doesn't work. Your nest egg has drowned twice now in the last eight years. You were elated with your returns in 1999 and then devastated when your assets imploded during the DOT COM bust of 2000-2002. Same thing when Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through 14,000 in October of 2007, only to drop below 8000 in 2008. If you had a healthy fiscal plan, your nest egg wouldn't be sinking all of the time.

And contrary to what your financial advisor may be telling you, the markets returned only 4% over the last ten years, not 12%. That was less than a percentage point above Treasury Bills, at 3.3% annual gains, with a whole lot more risk.

Sound Nest Egg Strategies:
Rule #1: Always keep a percent equal to your age. Modern Portfolio Theory, the cornerstone of a healthy nest egg, has been around for half a century and Harry Markowitz, the economist who wrote it, won a Nobel Prize in 1990. Many financial professionals are paid on commission to sell you mutual funds, so, if you weren't protected from the 2008 financial crisis, chances are that either 1) your guru just didn't know the theory, or 2) s/he wasn't paid to employ the theory, or 3) s/he had bosses who pushed sales hard and couldn't employ the theory, or 4) s/he was dumb enough to think s/he could outthink a genius Nobel Laureate.

Grade Your GuruYou wouldn't hire an architect whose buildings flood in a storm. Since there are so many ìprofessionalsî and ìpunditsî who are spouting off -- when in reality they drowned their clients' nest eggs in 2008 -- it's your job to take charge and design a better dream life. As TD AMERITRADE Chairman Joe Moglia says, "Nobody cares more about your money more than you do." Bears get lucky in bear markets. Bulls get lucky in bull markets. Sound nest egg strategies work in any market!

HOW TO GRADE YOUR GURU
Add up your losses. If you lost more than 20% in 2008, your guru isn't making the grade.
Check your allocation. If you didn't start 2008 with a percent equal to your age SAFE in Treasury Bills and/or high-rated bonds (GM, Fannie, etc. DO NOT QUALIFY), your guru isn't looking out for your best interest.

MY GRADES
NEST EGG: The pie charts and strategies outlined in Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is saved Bill (a handyman) and Nilo (an office administrator) Bolden's nest egg, while Nilo's bosses lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since employing my strategies, they haven't lost anything.

TRADERS:Before I give you the details on my track record this year, which was outstanding, please note that novices have no business trading individual stocks in this financial storm anymore than beginning surfers should race into the jaws of a tsunami. Don't trade individual companies in 2009 unless: 1) you know how to buy put options and have had a few years of successful trading long and short, and 2) are willing to take your profits early and often. Obviously, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to focus on sound nest egg strategies first and education second -- perhaps at my Get Rich and Enrich Retreat. (Check out the banner ad on the home page at NataliePace.com for more details.)70% of the companies I featured in my 2008 monthly article and stock report cards were winners. Of those winners, more than half (58%) were shorts, i.e., companies that we expected to go DOWN in value.

ACT NOW TO GET IN GREAT FISCAL SHAPE!
Blind faith lost you a lot of money in 2008. 2009 is poised to be another stormy environment in stocks, which means that if you don't pull your head out of the sand and get a better dream life plan, you're going to be get buried.

My Golden Nest Egg Formula
ALWAYS KEEP A PERCENT EQUAL TO YOUR AGE SAFE. Treasury bills are the safest investment today. (High-rated bonds, money markets and CDs are traditionally and will be again in the future.)

DURING RECESSIONS, OVERWEIGHT 15-20% ADDITIONAL INTO SAFETY. Cash is King in a recession, i.e. not losing is winning. You will not be stuck overweighted in cash forever. If the markets continue to drop in 2009, as they are poised to do, you'll be glad you employed this defensive strategy. And you will have cash to invest, while those around you are scrambling to hang on and/or are forced to sell low to cover basic needs.

REMAINDER IN YOUR NEST EGG SHOULD BE DIVERSIFIED INTO 10 ETFS. You will find detailed pie charts in Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is.

EMERGING INDUSTRIES, NOT DYING COMPANIES. General Motors and Ford Motor Company combined are worth less than one-tenth of Toyota Motor Company's $102 billion. It is not just that Ford and GM have more expenses. GM and Ford lost market share this decade because their gas guzzlers were far less popular than the fuel-efficient Prius and other Toyota models.

KNOW WHAT YOU OWN, i.e., not mutual funds. The top mutual fund holdings in the U.S. in 2007 included some of the most poorly run companies, including General Motors, AIG, Fannie Mae and Phillip Morris Tobacco Company. ETFs allow you to target sections of the stock market by size (small, medium and large), style (value and growth), industry (gold mining, clean technology, international, biotechnology, etc.) and more.

DON'T TRADE. If you don't know how to take your profits early and often and/or if you don't know how to buy put options, do not buy and sell individual companies at all in 2009. (Own companies you love in ETFs where you are more protected from the price fluctuations of any one individual company.)

If you used this 6-step formula and rebalanced only once a year (say in January), you could have captured your gains in 2000 at the NASDAQ high. Likewise, in January of 2008, you would have captured your Dow Jones Industrial Average gains before the major fall-off and redistributed. Identifying where your gains are coming from allows you to increase your assets and redeploy your holdings back into a sound, dream life blueprint – which is a combination of Modern Portfolio Theory, ETFs, common sense and basic investing recipes. These strategies and more are outlined in my book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is. Buy it now as part of your New Year; New You; New Dream Life! And be sure to forward this article to a dozen of your closest friends, family, clients and co-workers who need to get fiscally fit.

Green Shopping Bags

Non Woven Bags Direct Australia directly manufacturers and imports eco-friendly non woven polypropylene bags commonly referred to as green shopping bags, green bags or eco bags to Australia.

Non Woven Bags Direct Australia chooses strong, premium quality non-woven polypropylene, an eco-friendly and non-toxic material used in surgical wear. Their non woven bags are 100% recyclable and washable, which is an easy and cost effective way to promote your business

They have 39 colours of non woven fabrics in stock. For orders of 10 000+, you may choose from any colour from the Pantone Matching System (PMS) range.

Our Non Woven Bags containers are directly shipped to major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. When you order through Non Woven Bags Direct Australia, there are no hidden import costs and many businesses across Australia are happy dealing with them for their no hassle, cost effective business practices. Non woven polypropylene bags are also known as green shopping bags or green Bags. The more green bags you order, the less expensive the price. They can also supply their quality green bags to international markets directly from their factory in Shenzhen, China.

SA Median House Prices (September Quarter)

SA median house prices. The biggest drop is within the Adelaide metro region. Regional SA prices have also dropped as well. With consumer confidence dropping, SA median house prices will continue to drop into the year 2009.
SA median house prices

A Sydney Escort Erotic Story

Here is an interesting Erotic Sydney Escort story which I got from this Sydney website
“So, what was she like?” I asked my friend David. Last night he’d hired a Sydney Escort for the first time. He’d been pretty nervous but at the same time excited about it beforehand, and now, he was speechless – almost. “Mind-blowing,” he kept saying. “Just amazing…I had the best time.”
Finally he came out of his dreamy state long enough to go into details about the previous evening’s sex encounter with Bryony from one of the top Sydney escort agencies. He’d gone to her city apartment and been greeted by Bryony, a green-eyed blonde with perfect olive skin, and an hourglass figure that included a fantastic pair of natural boobs and lovely tight ass, all clad in a sexy black lace negligee. David could hardly believe his eyes or his luck!
Bryony led him into the lounge, gave him a drink and asked him to tell her exactly what he liked. David had no trouble recounting his desires to this stunning and sexually available woman who was only to happy to accommodate him.. He handed over his money, confident of a good time.
He wasn’t disappointed. Bryony led him into the bedroom, slipped out of her negligee and gave him a massage that included a full body slide. It didn’t take long for David to get hard as Bryony gave him a blow job. She teased his cock, flicking it with her tongue before taking it into her mouth and sucking until David came.
Only half an hour had passed, so after a short rest during which time Bryony did a masturbation show for him, David climbed on top of her and slipped his cock into her warm, wet pussy and began to fuck her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him deeper into her vagina, fucking her harder until they’d both cum.
I made a note of the Sydney escort agency’s name and resolved to give Bryony a call.
Big Black Book which is based in Sydney has one of the best selection of sexy Sydney Escorts. Do check out this website! They also have a great list of strippers, erotic massage, adult stores etc.

Top 21 Casinos

Looking for a online casions resource site? Top 21 casinos is one good site that you should visit. Online casinos are the way of the future rather than going to the real casinos in person. Online casinos let you play your favorite games anywhere at any time. The best online casinos are out there, and normally you have to look far and wide for them, but not any more! Top 21 Casinos has taken all the searching away from you because they have reviewed and rated a huge range of The best online casinos, and presented to top 21 online casinos for you right here. This includes several objective reviews of top rated online casinos including those that accept U.S. players.

How to Unshrink Clothes (Wool Sweather, etc)

Here is an article which tells you exactly how to unshrink wool.

When wool gets wet and warm, the fibres in the wool lock themselves together and don't want to let go, resulting in shrinkage (you can get wool warm or wet, but not both), which kind of makes washing wool garments a dangerous business.
To un-shrink the wool, soak the garment in warm water with a mild wool friendly soap for about 10 minutes. This unlocks the fibres in the wool. Then lay the garment out on some towels in a cool place. Stretch the garment out to its original dimensions. The stretching pulls the unlocked wool fibres away from each other. Once this is done relax and allow your wool garment to dry. The absence of heat from the drying process allows the wool fibres to set in place without locking together and shrinking the garment again.

Free Online Games

Looking for free games to play online? Look no further, play free online games has a great archive of all games that you can play for free online. There's action, board/puzzle, casino, RPG, strategy and many more games. My favourite is their RPG section where they have more than 100 free RPG games to play.

Three Column Blogger Template

This is by far the best site to download three column blogger template. It has all the blogger templates and it is really easy to install. Most of the sites I've visited have very limited templates or either have problems or makes it very difficult for a beginner to install. Check Webtalks blog out.

MarketingFirst Group

David Herlambang's marketing blog. He's got some very interesting and good marketing related posting. http://www.marketingfirst.blogspot.com/

The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005

The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005
http://web2.wsj2.com/the_best_web_20_software_of_2005.htm

Website history

Wanna see how other websites look like in the past? Check out Wayback Machine for an archive of all websites since 1996. This is cool.

Good Quotes

Good quotes from Brand Autopsy:

• Aspire to Be the Dumbest Person in the Room
• It's Impossible to be Happy Without Momentum
• The Antidote to Fear is Action
• Do What You Are

Button Maker

Want to create new buttons for your blog or site? Try these sites out:
http://kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker/
http://www.gtmcknight.com/buttons/

Quotes

3 quotes that I believe in and have act upon:

"You get what you give"

"The solution to overcome fear is action" - "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

“世界上最宽阔的是海洋，比海洋更宽阔的是天空，比天空更宽阔的是人的胸怀。”

6 Hats Thinking by Dr. Edward de Bono

Continuation from my posting in http://www.livejournal.com/users/bryanong/:

White Hat
When you think of white, think of neutral. de Bono has categorized information as a neutral subject. The white hat has to do with data and information.
What information do we have here?
What information is missing?
What information would we like to have?
How are we going to get the information?
When you ask for white hat thinking at a meeting you are asking people to forget about proposals and arguments and to concentrate directly on the information. What information is needed, what is available, and how it can be obtained.

Red Hat
When you think of red, think of fire and passion. The red hat allows people to show their emotions on a subject, their gut feelings. People don't need to justify their statements. It is often important to get feelings out in the open, rather than have people at a meeting have hidden agendas, feelings, or misgivings. The red hat allows these feelings to be expressed, to come out in the open.
This is what I feel about the project...
My instincts tell me this won't work.
I like this, I don't like that. The idea is that these statements are known to be "feelings" and nothing more. Once they are stated, the meeting can move on to a more constructive approach.

Black Hat
When you think of black, think of negative, or caution. The black hat is for critical judgment. It points out what cannot be done. The hope is that the black hat role will prevent us from making mistakes.

Yellow Hat
When you think of yellow, think of the sun and sunny, positive thoughts. The yellow hat role is for discussing ONLY the positive view of problems and solution possibilities. The yellow hat looks for benefits (and feasibility), but must be logically based, not intuitive like the red hat.
We are often better with the black hat. We are good at seeing what won't work, as opposed to what will. Forcing ourselves to look only at the positive aspects can be very valuable, since otherwise we don't always move forward.

Green Hat
When you think of green, think of plants and growth. The green hat is for new ideas, for creativity, for new alternative solutions.
Could this be done in another way?
Might there be another explanation?
Does anyone have another idea? (See brainstorming)

Blue Hat
When you think of blue, think of the sky and an overview. The blue hat is the hardest one to understand. It deals with controlling the thinking process. The blue hat is often "given" to one person, who controls what hat will be "worn", hence controlling the type of thinking being used. The different colours don't always follow in the same order. Depending on the situation, and the mix of people, it might be better to let people get their negative thoughts out first, or their intuitive sense, and then use yellow or green to move ahead. The blue hat comments on the thinking being used, asks for conclusions, decisions, etc. The blue hat can move from person to person, or can be a chairperson.

Source

Never present a problem without a solution

A posting from Brand autopsy that really makes us think.

Do SomethingOne of the earliest business rules I can recall that made a HUGE difference in my professional style was...

Never present a problem to your boss without having a suggested solution ready. Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution.In their book, Why People Business People Speak Like Idiots, Fugere, Hardaway & Washawsky take this lesson further. They call it... Do Something.

Here's an excerpt of the passage...

"...Never present a problem without actually doing something that represents a positive step to fix it. Even if it's nothing more than scheduling a trip to visit the disgruntled customer, do something. Show momentum toward and answer, even if you don't know what the answer is. There's a difference between bad news with signs of hope and bad news presented from the deepest pits of despair. You don't want to be the happy messenger, but it's not much better to be the hopeless prophet of doom."

For those passionate professionals wondering how they can position themselves for the next role at their organization this is one of those priceless tips.

For more tips on being better at your job, I highly recommend the book The Unofficial Guide to Power Managing by Alan Weiss. We've mentioned this before on Brand Autopsy... This book is so good you won't want to tell your co-workers you're reading it.

Digital Point Tools

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/
Webmaster tools & Search engine optimisation tools

Spiral Logos

Logos with spirals: http://www.splorp.com/critique/ Pretty Cool eh?

The Yes Man

A definitely must watch sites where you see guerrilla media activists, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano exposing the evil of corporates and politicians in a very unique funny way. See them impose as WTO, George Bush's website and many other more.
http://www.theyesmen.org/
http://www.rtmark.com/