{"id":507,"date":"2011-11-02T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/?p=507"},"modified":"2017-02-08T09:54:41","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T17:54:41","slug":"definition-of-sales-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/archives\/507","title":{"rendered":"What is Sales 2.0?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I was speaking with a Sales leader last week when he asked me, \u201cHow do you define\u00a0Sales 2.0?\u201d\u00a0 At first I thought this was an easy question but as I formulated an answer (I try to do that before I speak) I was surprised by the complexity of\u00a0thoughts that came to mind.\u00a0 I was disappointed that my response was not crisp and articulate.\u00a0 Hmmm, I said to myself, this needs more thought and what a perfect subject for a future article.\u00a0 What is the definition of Sales 2.0?\u00a0 Has Sales 2.0 evolved since Nigel Edelshain<\/a> coined the term in 2006 or since Anneke Seley<\/a> and Brent Holloway<\/a> wrote the book “Sales 2.0”<\/a> in 2008?\u00a0 Has it been corrupted or enhanced by bloggers and thought leaders speaking at the many Sales 2.0 Conferences<\/a> organized by Gerhard Gschwandtner<\/a> over the years? \u00a0Is Sales 2.0 defined by whatever the many technology and consulting vendors are selling or is it more?<\/p>\n

According to Anneke Seley, \u201cSales 2.0 is a concept that is currently being defined by technology vendors, sales and marketing professionals, and consultants alike. And, like Web 2.0, it can mean different things to different people. In essence, Sales 2.0 is a better way of selling for today\u2019s buyers and sellers. It marries innovative Web technologies, processes and services with people and solid sales processes to meet buyers when and where they want to do business; to accelerate revenue growth, decrease sales costs and sustain a competitive advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

That definition seems to cover a wide range of possibilities with an ambitious outcome; perhaps a bit idealistic but an aspirational goal nonetheless.\u00a0 If I had to select one of Anneke\u2019s inputs required to achieve sustained growth it would be \u201csolid sales processes\u201d but, that is also true of Sales 1.0 selling.\u00a0 What makes Sales 2.0 different?\u00a0 The use of Web 2.0 technologies has enabled Sales leaders to continuously improve the methodologies and messages thus, the effectiveness of Sales and the consequential engagement of, and impact on buyers.\u00a0 In\u00a0Marty Levy’s\u00a0“era of\u00a0the the informed buyer<\/a>\u201d the interaction of Sales with buyers can be significantly reduced.\u00a0 Sales processes must evolve to reflect the new way companies buy.\u00a0 It\u2019s as though sellers get only one shot at collaborating with buyers to solve their business problems.\u00a0 There is less room for mistakes.\u00a0\u00a0Relevance is rewarded.\u00a0 Think: Challenger Sales Methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s also different today is that technology enables sales management to quickly and accurately measure and adapt those processes to optimize Sales effectiveness.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a coincidence that this movement is led by Inside Sales organizations where the deployment and adoption of the technology required to take those measurements is more easily controlled.<\/p>\n

Sales 2.0 has matured beyond the concept stage and is now made easier by dozens, if not hundreds, of technology vendors.\u00a0 But don\u2019t be fooled by this ubiquity.\u00a0 Adoption of\u00a0the latest\u00a0technology does not “get” you from Sales 1.0 to\u00a0Sales 2.0.\u00a0\u00a0The evolution of your sales organization\u00a0has to be preceded by a thorough analysis of the processes\u00a0the technology\u00a0is intended to automate.\u00a0 But that\u2019s a topic for another article\u2026<\/p>\n

I considered defining Sales 2.0 as the transformation of sales from art to science (ah, so crisp, impactful and nearly poetic an answer!) but that concept tends to discount the value brought to the table by\u00a0your skilled sales resources.\u00a0 The scripted or loosely outlined sales conversation can always take an unplanned turn even during what\u00a0has become\u00a0a\u00a0shorter interaction.\u00a0 The success of your selling effort can pivot on your recource’s skills to gently turn the conversation back on track.\u00a0 That’s not science.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s what I\u2019ll answer the next time someone asks, \u201cHow\u00a0do you define\u00a0Sales 2.0?\u201d\u00a0 I believe sales 2.0 is the evolution of selling driven by wide-ranging, timely and\u00a0empirical data.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m sure not everyone will agree.\u00a0 Please add your thoughts.\u00a0 What\u2019s your definition of Sales 2.0?<\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n

Bob Bacon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was speaking with a Sales leader last week when he asked me, \u201cHow do you define\u00a0Sales 2.0?\u201d\u00a0 At first I thought this was an easy question but as I formulated an answer (I try to do that before I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[48,15,26,33,55,53,64,43,21,42,37,35],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales_ops","tag-sales20","tag-analytics","tag-bob-bacon","tag-crm-adoption","tag-leads-management","tag-leads-methodology","tag-sales-2-0","tag-sales-analytics","tag-sales-management","tag-sales-metrics","tag-sales-operations","tag-sales-ops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1113,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions\/1113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}