In this post I interview the awesome Trish Bertuzzi, President and Chief Strategist at the Bridge Group. Trish is widely considered to be an expert in building inside sales teams through her work with over 130 technology sector clients. In this interview Trish shares why the sales profession is changing, how inbound marketing can help B2B sales reps and how blogging has dramatically increased lead flow at the Bridge Group.
Chad: The term Sales 2.0 is getting a lot of buzz and attention – what is the buzz is all about and why is it important?
Trish: The buzz is all about the buzz….every once in a while the next great thing comes along and right now the next great thing is Sales 2.0. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a Sales 2.0 advocate but when you peel away all the layers 2.0 is nothing more than the effective integration of people, process and technology.
Smart leaders have been thinking about this integration process for quite some time. What I like about the Sales 2.0 movement is that now it forces people to focus on the buyer as part of that equation. The challenge for sales and marketing executives has become “How do I effectively incorporate the needs of my buyer into my people, process and technology equation?”
Chad: I’ve spoken with many sales reps who think Sales 2.0 and social media are a waste of time – what is your response to them?
Trish: This is a tough one because I see both sides of the equation. If a business has not articulated a well thought out Sales 2.0 strategy that incorporates social media then it says to the sales rep…here…here is a bunch of other stuff that you need to think about and add to your to do list.
Let me break my answer into two segments starting with social media.
1.) We believe, and we presented our thoughts on the topic at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston, that it is the responsibility of the corporation to figure out their social media strategy. Social media will deliver an ROI if and only if your buyer is participating in the medium. See our presentation Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim. You can tweet, Facebook. blog and text your ass off but if no one is listening…what does it get you? Figure out where your buyers go for information and then put all your eggs in that social media basket/s.
2.) As for Sales 2.0, for most organizations it means adding more technology to the mix. Before you do that, it is always good to ask “Have I maximized the technology I already have in place?” And, before you run out and buy the next bright shiny toy, have you thought through the process that will make you successful with it?
Chad: I believe inbound marketing can help sales reps create more value for their customers and prospects – how do you see inbound marketing influencing the sales profession?
Trish: Inbound marketing has come such a long way in the past two years. We are a Hubspot customer as well as a raving fan so we have come a long way with inbound marketing ourselves. Smart marketers really understand that the difference between dumping lists into a CRM and calling them leads and getting people who fit your Buyer Persona to raise their hands and engage with you is the key to success.
Great sales people have figured out how to marry the activity they get via inbound marketing with a well constructed outbound process. If your pipeline isn’t robust, you can’t sit and wait for buyers to self select. You need to go to them with a relevant story, arouse curiosity and then launch your sales process.
Chad: At the Bridge Group you track many different data points and trends – what are some of the most interesting trends you are seeing and what does it mean for sales professionals?
Trish: We have been around for 12 years and I have been in technology based inside sales for 30 so I can now say “Inside Sales is the wave of the future – finally!” We spent a lot of years building a business case for this mode of selling and sometimes it felt like the market would never see beyond “telemarketing”. That has changed now and even the venture capital firms are requiring a sound Inside Sales strategy from their portfolio companies. Sales professionals must know how to leverage phone and web based selling to be successful in this day and age.
Chad: I read a lot of blogs on many subjects – what are some of your favorite blogs and why?
Trish: I read about 30 blogs a day so I will give you my Top Three – it goes without saying that yours is one as well!
Marketing Interactions by Ardath Albee – She is the queen of all things content driven and I learn a lot from her.
Castain’s Sales Playbook by Paul Castain – Paul is not in the technology space but I love to read his stuff because he is incredibly motivating person and gives off incredibly positive vibes.
Garth’s World by Garth Moulton – Garth is irreverent and I love that. If it is in his head he puts it out there and I LOL every time I read him.
Chad: How do you use social media at the Bridge Group and what kind of results have you seen?
Trish: We blog quite a bit and that drives a ton of traffic to our web site. We just closed one of our biggest deals ever and the company found us via our blog. I tweet and although I do not think my buyers are following me, it has certainly brought me fantastic relationships with vendors, analysts and other consultants.
Look, you can’t put a price on having a great network and that is what social media brings you. It isn’t about the activity it is about the relationships you develop as a result of that activity.
Chad: What is the one thing you recommend sales reps do or learn to stay competitive in an increasingly competitive marketplace?
Trish: Learn how to be relevant to your buyers. The days of vanilla selling are gone. You need to have an intimate knowledge of your buyer’s day to day business life. If you make that kind of investment in learning, you will win!
Chad: How can readers get in touch with you and learn more about the trends affecting the sales industry?
Trish: Info@bridgegroupinc.com will come to me. They can sign up for our blog Inside Sales Experts and we also publish a ton of research and content on our resources page.
Chad: Great stuff Trish — thank you!
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Related posts:
- The Tri-Fecta of Sales Opportunity: Personal Branding, Social Media and Inbound Marketing
- My Interview with Anneke Seley: Social Media Sales Strategy
- The New Rules of Marketing and PR — Interview with David Meerman Scott
- Sales 2.0 Interview | Anneke Seley CEO PhoneWorks
- My Interview with Jill Konrath: Sales Strategy for the Web 2.0 World
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
@Nigel: Thanks for your comment and I agree with you Trish makes a very valid point about you need to be where your customers are — and with increasing frequency you can find them on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc. B2B sales reps should also keep in mind that social media and sharing platforms like Youtube, Slideshare, a personal website and blog can be used as inbound marketing tools to create more top of mind awareness with customers. For sales reps the combination of the best of outbound and inbound strategies will lead to outsize returns.
Thoughts?
Chad,
Yes, all the social media tools are valid. I totally believe Inbound vs outbound is the way to go.
Real world trick though is TIME MANAGEMENT. It's my observation that sales people need to super time managers in order to excel. Trish nails the point of where to spend most of your TIME. Social media is a great "time absorber" so we sales people need to figure out the ":social media usage formula" that works for our SPECIFIC market and with our specific prospects. For example, in our own market I see a big difference in the activity of marketing managers vs sales managers on Twitter.
Nigel
Chad,
Good info.
Beware, Sales 2.0 "process" can get you fired. Verify if your company is still using carrier pigeons, telegraph and "door to door" selling. (which actually can work ok depending on how you do it).
Beware of the "mustache pete" old school manager" IE. "just make more calls" or "when I was a rep, I could find 10 prospects a week and close 3!" Too bad your need 250-1000 companies in the funnel to-day. Hello McFly, reps are out of TIME. (see Sirius surveys) http://www.siriusdecisions.com
If your company/boss is old school, then the top of funnel leadgen is most likely very weak in to-days economy.. In many companies,sales reps are expected to generate 100% of their own leads. In fact CSOinsights surveys indicate sales reps find 40-45% of their own leads. (http://www.csoinsights.com)
They have to, as there is no integrated inside sales/demand system. Add to these the 5-6 meetings to close deals, the ton of product/competitive info to read, etc. no wonder 90 hour weeks are the norm- and so are the divorces.
CRM 100%? SMB sector CEOs', SVPs, sales Managers in many industries including IT, telecom don't even know about ideal customer profiling> ICP database marketing, clean CRM databases, drip marketing, nurturing etc.
They didn't have to 15-25 years when they first got into the business. I used to sell MITEL door to door just after telecom de-regulation. 100% leadgen RATE. EVERY company said they were considering a new PBX to save 100% vs Bell. I remember generating 39 requests for quotes in ONE day worth $1.95MM
MANY Sr Mgrs still measure their reps by these "by gone days metrics". (I used to work at Digital, where the founder Ken Olsen firmly believed that sales commissions were not required and, reps were an annoyance. maybe he had a point, clients would WALK in the front door to BUY).
CRM 100% adoption? sorry its less than that. I'd say about 80%. (installing it doesn't mean your using itI ). Recently I was with the CEO of Toronto based IT VAR who's ranked in the lower half of Top 100 VARs in Canada. Sales have dropped 40% in one year. They were using Excel spreadsheets to manage CRM until 3 months ago. They have 20 employees, $7MM sales. They can only "manage" about 150 relationships (50 existing clients, 50 former clients and about 100 "suspects". Now that 80% of what they are selling are commodities services/products, they need to manage 500-1000 company relationships to create a funnel flow.
Of course MANY companies are drinking the sales 2,0 "process kool-aid": and building inside sales > leadgen process etc, and that's "a good thing".
Henry Ford did it
my 2 cts from Canada
I’m not sure if that was spam but I accepted the comment.