Win. Grow. Social Sales. The Book. 3rd Edition.

Win. Grow.
Social Sales. rd
The Book. 3 Edition.

Leverage the Power of
Collaboration, Social Networks and CRM
to Hunt and Farm new Business.

Andreas Uthmann

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Win.Grow.
Social Sales.
The Book. 3rd Edition.

Win.Grow.
Social Sales.
The Book. 3rd Edition.

Leverage the Power of
Collaboration, Social Networks and CRM
to Hunt and Farm new Business.

Andreas Uthmann

Copyright © 2012 by Andreas Uthmann

Third, revised and enhanced edition.

Production & Publishing
Books on Demand GmbH,
Norderstedt, Germany.

ISBN 9783842382435

Inspired and contributed by Alfred Höllwarth, Andrea Luder, Andreea
Salbatecu, Andrei Postoiu, Brian Rüeger, Brian Solis, Claudia Meier-
Biedermann, Daniel Haas, Dominik Steiner, Dr. Dorian Selz, Ed Thompson,
Fred Kessler, Guy Loretan, Hakan Waerdell, Heinz Gras, Jean-Pierre
Vuilleumier, Jenny Sussin, Jim Pulcrano, Jochen Gross, László István Etesi,
Laura Ramos, Livia Scapin, Luc Galoppin, Prof. Dr. Manfred Vogel, Mark
Möbius, Martin Wyttenbach, Dr. Michael Geke, Milan Vopolka, Nitesh
Bansal, Patrick De Boer, Patrick Stakenas, Prof. Dr. Peter Gloor, Dr. Pius
Küng, Renaud Richardet, Reto Graber, Sarah Hauser, Tobias Rohrbach, Tom
Searcy, Prof. Dr. Ulrik Brandes, Wolfgang Vogt.

Special thanks to the Commission for Technology & Innovation (CTI) of the
Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA)

Social Sales. The Book.

«Social Selling is a business strategy that mutually benefits
buyers and sellers by fostering meaningful engagement
throughout the buying and selling process to generate
efficiency, value and relationships.»
InsideView

2


«If I had more time, I would write you a shorter letter.»
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1767

4

(About.)

Kiss.

With the rise of the Internet, the way we manage and consume information
has dramatically changed. In this book, we are reflecting this by keeping it
short and simple. Some of the underlying concepts we are introducing do
fill entire bookshelves. But the idea of this book is to compress the key
messages in a few simple sentences and no more than 5 bullet points.

On top, we do explain and underline complex models by using side notes,
comments and quotes that will be regularly updated.

As a result, you are holding an interactive compendium in your hands, the
encyclopedia of Social Sales.

5


Why Social Sales?

What if you could increase your win rate by 10%, 20% or even 50%?

No-one likes to loose. But we all do. And there are good excuses like price,
features and our administrative workload. We also know that providing a
discount is not selling. But yes, we all do. And we all remember situations
finding ourselves talking to the wrong audience…

The world of sales is changing: Information overload, buyer networks, social
business and collaborative CRM are transforming the way we interact and
engage with customers.

With «Social Sales», we can focus on what is really important: The people
and social relationships behind the opportunity.

This book is designed for the visionaries and game changers applying
«Social Sales» to hunt and farm new business.

It is targeted to sales, account, marketing and business managers who want
to invest in their social capital in order to succeed in relationship-driven
sales environments.

The objective is to support sales teams to win strategic opportunities and
grow within their target accounts.

6

(About.)

Storyline

The content of this book is structured into 5 chapters. Most topics are
presented in a closed way, so you can read it from right to left or back to
front depending on your interest. To breathe the full story we recommend
you to start with the background presented in the first chapters.

I. People Business
Sales is about people. Period?

II. Buyside
No selling without buying. The customer perspective.

III. Salesside
B2B sales can be very challenging. In this chapter, we will summarize some
of the most popular concepts, processes and methodologies for you.

IV. Social Business
The building blocks of social businesses: Thought leadership on social
media, social networks and collaboration.

V. Social Sales
How does a SocialSalesMap look like? What is a SocialSalesIndex? And how
can a SocialSalesMatrix help you in defining the most effective action plan?

Bonus Material

7


Sales is about people. Period?

The world of sales is changing dramatically. Information overload. Buyer
networks. Social Business. Collaborative CRM. What strategic options do we
have to differentiate in the marketplace and grow our sales?

8

I. People Business

I. People Business

9


«Executives need to push their organizations toward
becoming fully networked enterprises.»

«A new class of company is emerging—one that uses collaborative Web 2.0
technologies intensively to connect the internal efforts of employees and to
extend the organization’s reach to customers, partners, and suppliers. We
call this new kind of company the networked enterprise. Results from our
analysis of proprietary survey data show that the Web 2.0 use of these
companies is significantly improving their reported performance. In fact,
our data show that fully networked enterprises are not only more likely to
be market leaders or to be gaining market share but also use management
practices that lead to margins higher than those of companies using the
Web in more limited ways.»

McKinsey & Company,
“The rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds its payday.”,
April 2011.

10

I. People Business

Managing Complexity

The world of sales is changing dramatically. Driven by internationalization
and latest information technologies, B2B sales has become more complex
than ever before.

1. Buyer Networks
Value chains are being transformed into networks. Hierarchies have turned
into collaborative communities and virtual teamwork further accelerates
distributed decision-making. As a result, buyer decision models are being
fundamentally transformed.

2. Social Business
On top, social media, networks and business software are completely
changing the way we communicate and engage with people, internally as
well as externally. Gathering information about sellers and buyers in real-
time has never been easier providing threats and opportunities at the same
time.

The future success of sales organizations depends on how well they are
able to adapt to the above changes in the marketplace. It also means that
selling roles will be changing.

Are you ready?

11


«A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.»
Herbert A. Simon, Social Scientist, Nobel Prize in Economics

12

I. People Business

Information Overload

We are living and working in an information-driven world. Human
knowledge is multiplying within years. So is the number and availability of
information. Sales and marketing teams are in a constant fight for attention
from the customer.

1. Content is King
It’s very easy to find information on the Internet today, so sales teams can
expect to meet well-informed customers in most cases. The challenge is to
provide extra value by superior content that relates to the specific
customer, brings in personal opinions and experiences and filters out the
noise.

2. Airtime
Every touchpoint is an opportunity to sell. Not just a product or solution,
but your values, your brand, your company. Make sure you make use of this
attention with a nice message or extra value. Your customer might forget
the last marketing brochure but she will always remember your excellent
service when she had a machine breakdown.

3. Relationship
Naturally, the better and more intensive the relationship is, the higher the
likelihood of listening. So investing into good personal relationships will
already pay off very early in the sales process.

13


«It is taught in kindergarten that sharing is a nice thing to
do. The same rule applies in business, at least when it
comes to the type of CRM known as collaborative CRM.»

«Collaborative CRM aims to get various departments within a business,
such as sales, technical support and marketing, to share the useful
information that they collect from interactions with customers. Feedback
from a tech-support center, for example, could be used to inform marketing
staffers about specific services and features requested by customers.
Collaborative CRM's ultimate goal is to use information collected from all
departments to improve the quality of customer service, and, as a result,
increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.»

InsideCRM
“Get it together with collaborative CRM”,
November 2007.

14

I. People Business

The evolution of CRM.

In the past, customer relationship management (CRM) was mainly used to
streamline processes and running detailed analysis and reports. By adding
collaborative aspects, CRM gets a whole new dimension.

1. Transactional
Running marketing and sales operations efficiently requires a high level of
process optimization. This is especially true for service organizations or in
classical product sales using push technologies.

2. Analytical
Analyzing customers, regions and SKU’s left and right is the fundament of
data-driven, intelligent sales. Specific reports can be used to segment
markets, identify target accounts and maximize conversion rates.

3. Collaborative
Working together on projects and opportunities leveraging the power of
social technologies, can also help to achieve targets, not just to report on
them.

Collaboration is not necessarily new. Nor is CRM. But making CRM
collaborative is a great opportunity to maximize the outcome of sales
investments. At the end, it is about effectiveness, not just efficiency.

15


«If you don't have a competitive advantage,
don't compete.»
Jack Welch, Former CEO, General Electric

16

I. People Business

Competitive Differentiation

There is three ways for companies to create competitive advantages.

1. Product Leadership
It means delivering superior products, solutions and services by investing
into innovation, design & technology. Apple and Tetra Pak are good
examples.

2. Operational Excellence
It is about optimizing processes to achieve advantages in terms of time, cost
and quality. Dell aims to lead the PC business regarding process efficiency.
General Electric (GE) has invested heavily into six sigma to become quality
leader.

3. Customer Intimacy
Investing into your social capital to build intimate customer relationships is
the most rewarding strategy in the majority of project and solution
businesses. By better understanding the needs and wants of your
customers, you will enjoy a higher win rate, achieve a price premium and
more repeat business. IBM and McKinsey are good benchmarks in this
category.

Social Sales is a way of applying operational excellence in selling to achieve
customer intimacy.

What competitive strategy do you have?

17


«People don‘t care how much you know, until they know
how much you care.»
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

18

I. People Business

Sales is about people.

In theory, business decisions are made in a very analytical, un-emotional
way. This might be true in some cases, but parts of the analytics are soft
decision-criteria that can make a real difference.

1. Trust
Customers want to minimize risk. Successful sales is about being trusted
and viewed as a respectable as well as credible partner.

2. Relationship
People buy from people they like. Having a positive relationship means
access to the right information and having the opportunity to interact.
Relationship matters.

3. Individual Needs
Understanding the career ambitions, agenda and personal interests of
people is equally important then the business case itself. The more you can
step up and take responsibility for the individual needs and wants, the
higher the value you create, the higher the premium you get.

It doesn’t matter whether you are selling a product frame agreement, a
service project or a technical solution. The best business proposal is useless
if you cannot identify, engage and manage the right persons effectively.

19


«What if you added more reps?»

What if you increased investments in lead generation to create more
opportunities? What if you reduced the no decision rate by a few
percentage points/or increased you win rates against competitors? How
about figuring out how to remove some of the admin burden from your
sales people so they have more time to actually sell?

CSO Insights,
“Revenue 2012: Making it Happen Versus Hoping it Happens”,
January 2012.

20

I. People Business

Growth Options

Do you plan to increase sales this year? Let’s assume for a second that
demand, offering and competition will be stable, what options do you have
to grow your sales?

1. Increase Salesforce
Depending on your market coverage, hiring new sales employees should
give you the capacity to acquire additional business, directly or indirectly.
The challenge is to train and coach them effectively, keeping lead times in
mind. This is even more true for entering new markets.

2. Increase Sales Efficiency
In B2B, salespeople often spend some 30% of their time on administrative
tasks. Reducing the admin effort and/or offloading internal activities to
sales assistants or operation centers, will free time for direct sales activities
like customer calls and other touches. You will also see positive impact on
the average cost of sales (COS).

3. Increase Sales Effectiveness
Keep the team, but increase the outcome (win rate) by better customer
engagement. Social Sales aims to help you achieve more with the same
resources by extending and capitalizing on your social relationships.

Where do you see the highest impact? What’s the best mix for your
business?

21


No selling without buying.

Before jumping into the sales discussions, let’s look on it from the customer
perspective first. How are complex buying decisions being made? How does
a typical buying cycle look like? Which roles are involved? What impact
does the personality have on individual decision-making? And how are
suppliers being managed most effectively?

22

II. Buyside.

II. Buyside

23


«The shift from hierarchical leadership to tribal leadership
makes it clear that social architectures don’t need control;
they need trust.»

«As we are witnessing the end of the Industrial Revolution, we discover that
leadership and workplace dynamics are no longer hierarchical. That game is
over. We need to take into account the fact that the internet is
fundamentally changing the DNA of workplace dynamics.»

Luc Galoppin,
“Social Architecture, a Manifesto”
January 2011.

24

II. Buyside.

Buying Decision Model

In the past, decisions have been made in silos and by Patriarchs. Today,
extensive collaboration across complex buyer networks is reality. We can
differentiate the following buying decision models:

1. Hierarchical
Classical top-down approach. Decisions are being prepared by the Indians
and decided by the chiefs.

2. Decentralized
Local organizations are entitled to decide based on their individual needs.

3. Collaborative
Diverse, multidisciplinary and open teams are working together to find the
best solution.

4. Buyer Networks
External influencers like partners, suppliers, experts and institutions are
actively integrated into the decision process.

There is a clear downshift, with dramatic impact on any sales organization.
We have to learn how to effectively manage and succeed as part of
complex value networks.

25


The Buying Cycle

Today’s buying journey consists of a mix of interactions across different
channels and networks. However, the traditional buying cycle still applies
behind the scenes.

1. Awareness
An initial stimulus let the discussion start. This could be an internal problem
escalation, a marketing interaction or just a coincidental meeting.

2. Consideration
Depending on the potential, the customer forms a first buying intention and
actively gathers information to satisfy its needs. Typically, at this point, you
will have the first sales meeting.

3. Preference
A detailed analysis will let the customer narrow down different alternatives.
Often, a structured RFQ process is being used. At the end, there should be a
preliminary decision.

4. Action
So if you don’t mess up in final negotiations or run into unacceptable
contractual terms, the purchase is being formalized.

5. Loyalty
There’s a great opportunity to intensify the relationship during delivery and
if maintained well, trigger re-purchases, up- and cross-sell business.

26

II. Buyside.

ZMOT

What has really changed is that the customer now has the opportunity to
do intensive research by herself using search engines and social media,
without and before talking to a supplier. That is, what Google calls the
“Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT).

1. Stimulus
The awareness phase.

2. ZMOT
The customer researches potential solutions, compares products and
prices, follows discussions and reads reviews. Online.

3. Shelf
The first touchpoint with the potential product, service or solution. In the
B2B world, this might be your sales presentation.

4. Experience
The second, “real” point of truth. Does the solution keep its promises when
using?

As a result, you will meet a better informed customer who often already
has a preference in mind before talking to you. So the best way is to be the
stimulus yourself to trigger the direction the customer takes. And to work
with existing customers to provide positive online reviews and case studies
to positively influence the ZMOT.

27


Buying Criteria.

Interestingly, buying criteria are traditionally changing along the buying
journey.

1. Need
Identifying a business issue and analyzing its root cause triggers the start of
a new buying process. The need is the most important subject of the
discussion.

2. Solution
Second, we can look into alternative solutions addressing it. What are the
pros and cons?

3. Cost
If the solution and its related value are understood, the buyer intends to
minimize costs in order to improve the ROI. Often, the purchase
department comes into play.

4. Risk
At the end of the buying cycle, risk is the dominant factor. So if the buyer
starts to ask the “risk” questions, you are coming to an end. The business
case is being completed.

28

II. Buyside.

How are group decisions being made?

According to studies of behavioral science, the interaction of groups in
decision-making can be structured into different phases.

1. Orientation
This is the warm-up phase, where people start to meet and interact with
each other.

2. Conflict
Once the group is being formed, there’s a healthy phase of arguing and
discussing, not just on facts, but also on positions.

3. Emergence
Different views and opinions are consolidated into a common picture.

4. Reinforcement
Once the decision is being made, members will try to defend it, internally as
well as externally.

Most probably you will recognize above behaviors in most buying decisions
of your customers. But let’s also keep in mind that decisions are rarely
being made in isolated groups, but in complex networks. For the good and
the bad.

29


Roles

Today, roles are more important than functions. It’s the hat(s) that
someone has in a project, not the imprint on her business card, which
makes the difference.

1. Budget Owner
The ones sitting on the money to fund the exercise. In enterprises, budget
owners might be very different from the ones receiving the value.

2. Contract Signatory
Usually, two persons with power of procuration will put their signature
under the final contract.

3. Opportunity Owner
Who is having the lead on solving the problem on customer side? Who is
driving the deal from the partner and from our side?

4. Proposal Lead
The person running the RFP process. In our team, the member responsible
for preparing the bid.

5. Subject Matter Expert
Specialists or trusted advisors that do the technical or functional
assessment or build the vision.

6. Ultimate Authority
Who is doing the final, final go/no go decision?

30

II. Buyside.

Psychology - The People Side of Business

At the end of the day, we are selling to people, not companies.

According to psychology, the personality of every person can be classified
into a mixture of 3 main structures.

1. Red
This is the emotional, dominant, dynamic side of life. Red personalities love
to win and would like you to go the extra mile.

2. Green
Green characters are very communicative, nice and relaxed persons. They
value harmony and personal relationships.

3. Blue
Blue signals fact-based, analytical and serious behavior. Blue characters
need to be convinced with arguments and strong cases.

Understanding the characteristics, needs and interests of people is the first
step of finding the right sales approach to turn challengers into champions.

31


Cognitive Styles

Another way, to look at it, is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It
captures a person’s behavior across four polarizing dimensions.

1. Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)
This parameter describes the general attitude of a person, which can be
used to engage with her.

2. Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)
This pair is capturing the irrational, perceiving function. This attitude is
mainly used while gathering information.

3. Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
This behavior is called the rational or judging function. It is especially
important in decision making. A thinker will seek for a reasonable, process-
oriented and analytical approach. Instead, a feeler will try to balance the
interests, seek consensus and trust her instinct.

4. Judgment (J) vs. Perception (P)
The lifestyle set analyzes, whether the perceiving or judging functions are
dominating. Is the person rather strong in preparing the story or in closing
the discussions?

It can also be applied to explain cross-cultural differences in decision-
making.

32

II. Buyside.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

The idea of effective supplier relationship management (SRM) is to segment
the entire portfolio into manageable groups depending on factors like
volume, value and variability. By using ABC analysis and different
collaboration models within each segment, the buyer can make best use of
its resources as well as the supplier capabilities.

A Strategic
You are trusted and respected to contribute to the long-term business
objectives of the buyer. You are expected to create value by effective
collaboration beyond delivery.

B Tactical
You might still sell significant volumes with certain interdependencies,
however your contribution is limited to satisfy a specific demand. There is
little influence on the specification or strategic direction of the customer.

C Transactional
You are seen as non-critical by the buyer. Perceived differentiation and
switching costs are low.

33


Supplier Segmentation

Another way to segment suppliers is by defining the role they play in
contributing to the buyer’s business.

1. Approved Vendor
You are selling a good product or service at attractive conditions.

2. Preferred Supplier
You are a supplier of choice in certain product categories. You have a basic
understanding about the application areas and use cases of your products.

3. Strategic Partner
You are solving specific problems for the customer. The focus of the
discussions shifts from the functional level to the business needs. You are
involved early in the decision process.

4. Trusted Advisor
Due to your excellent understanding of the customer’s industry and
business, you have the luxury to influence the strategic direction of the
customer on the executive level.

Not every company needs to and will move up the ladder. Vice versa, most
companies will find themselves at the vendor levels with most customers.
However, if you are in the solution business, the best way to increase your
share of wallet and keep attractive margins is to become a trusted advisor
in the long run.

34


The Art and Science of Selling

B2B sales can be very challenging. It requires broad knowledge, practical
experience and especially senior management skills. In this chapter, we will
summarize some of the most popular concepts, processes and
methodologies for you. The topics range from qualifying opportunities,
increasing forecast accuracy, getting the most out of a sales meeting up to
managing risks and lifetime value. Depending on your specific sales
environment, not all of it will apply to you, but it’s good to keep the
concepts in mind to stay on top of your sales opportunities at any point in
time.

36

III. Salesside.

III. Salesside

37


The Sales Journey

Sales can be positively or negatively influenced at many points during a
buying journey. The key challenge is to ensure consistency of messages and
service levels across all touchpoints, independently of department and
function.

1. Attention – Marketing
It’s the responsibility of the marketing department to provide strong
messages to the market, the media, partners and prospective buyers to
create initial appetite.

2. Promise – Sales
Once a prospect is being qualified, the sales team takes the lead to analyze
the individual buyer needs, build a relationship and work out a matching
proposal.

3. Delivery - Operations
Fulfillment is in charge in delivering against customer expectations created
at earlier stages of the cycle.

4. Loyalty – Service
After customer acceptance, the service teams ensure that the customer
gets the most value throughout the lifetime of the product or solution.

This setup not just calls for intensive collaboration across the entire
enterprise but also shows that selling is within the responsibility of the
whole organization, not just the sales department. In fact, every employee
is also a salesperson.

38

III. Salesside.

Lead Management

Sales starts with a lead. Effective lead management is important to fill your
sales pipeline with a continuous flow of new opportunities.

1. Lead Identification
Capturing leads is like fishing in a pool of prospects for those who are most
receptive and hungry for your offering. Either they need to show a certain
level of interest or have a very high sales potential.

2. Lead Nurturing
By engaging in a value-adding dialogue between prospect and vendor, a
lead can be advanced or disqualified at an early stage.

3. Lead Scoring
When a lead reaches a certain state, i.e. qualifies against the criteria, it
turns into a sales opportunity and becomes part of your sales pipeline.

To avoid the classical mismatch between sales and marketing, it is
important that both teams agree on the way leads are being managed and
qualified. Depending on your type of business, responsibilities can vary
significantly. But it is not important who is in charge nor when the handover
is taking place, but there is clear responsibility at any point in time.

39


Sales Strategies

There are 2 fundamental sales strategies. Farmers will earn a price
premium, while hunters will keep your cost-of-sales low.

1. Farming
Developing a target account strategically can be a challenging and time-
consuming task. The fruits are sustainable relationships and strategic
insights. If you believe, that long-term partnerships are crucial to your
business, seed.

2. Hunting
Hunters are focusing on low-hanging fruits instead. The goal is not to
become a trusted advisor, but to win that particular opportunity and then
move on to the next. It can be most effective to work with B and C accounts
or markets.

Depending how relationship-intensive your business or industry is, you will
meet more farmers or hunters. But most often, you will see a mix of both
working in parallel.

40

III. Salesside.

Sales Stages

Without process, you simply can’t manage your sales activities strategically.
Following a structured process, will enable effective planning, collaboration
and especially resource allocation.

1. Discovery
A potential sales opportunity is being identified.

2. Qualification
Does the opportunity meet our bid criteria?

3. Pre-Proposal
Analyzing key needs by active listening. Here, you can take the most
influence shaping the customer needs and wants.

4. Proposal
In close collaboration with the customer and partners, a formal offer is
being provided.

5. Negotiation
Final terms and conditions are being agreed upon.

6. Award
The contract is being signed. Start of delivery.

In general, the earlier the interaction with the customer and partners, the
better, so you cannot just maximize your influence but also come to an
early go/no go decision.

41


«As a rule of thumb,
orders always take 2 times longer and are 1/2 the volume.»
Felix Mayer, CEO, Sensirion AG.

42

III. Salesside.

Forecasting

Accurate forecasting is not rocket science, if you have a good pipeline
management in place.

1. Opportunity Probability
What is the likelihood of the opportunity to be awarded? Are the
qualification criteria fulfilled? Will there be any organizational changes? Is
the business climate stable?

2. Likelihood to Win
Assuming the project will be awarded, what are our chances to win
compared to the competition? How many vendors are involved at the
different buying stages? Do we have good or superior relationships and/or
value propositions?

3. Weighted Forecast
An opportunity of 1mio with a probability of 80% and a 50% likelihood of
winning makes up 400,000 in the books. Simple, but effective.

4. Weighted Value
On top you might want to consider the strategic value of entering new
markets, cracking a reference account or winning a pilot project. Whatever
factor you apply, make sure it is also reflected in the compensation plan, so
the sales team matches their level of effort.

The more you automate the process, the more time for selling. Tying it
strictly to the sales stages and their qualification criteria will leave no room
for interpretation.

43


BANT

Asking the BANT questions at an early stage ensures to focus our limited
resources on the “real” opportunities.

1. Budget
Is the potential funding of the deal secured? Does the sponsor have enough
cash to pay for the total expenses?

2. Authority
Do we have access to the “real” decision-makers? Can we leverage any
direct or indirect relationships to the person in charge?

3. Need
Does the customer have a latent or explicit need? Is there a problem to be
solved?

4. Timeline
Is there a clear timeframe to resolve the problem? Do you feel a certain
sense of urgency? Has the customer set any milestones for decision-
making?

Yes, we have a qualified opportunity. So there is real demand. But what is
our chance of winning?

44

III. Salesside.

AIDA

Classical sales pitches follow the AIDA principle.

1. Attention
Entry question, joke or story. “Did you know that SuperCompany doubled
their win rate by engaging in Social Sales?”

2. Interest
Facts. Facts. Facts. What’s the problem? What’s the solution? What are the
key features and benefits?

3. Desire
Explain the value proposition. Potential impact. Reason-to-buy. Proof-
Points. Why now?

4. Action
Get a specific deliverable or commitment from the customer side. Next
steps?

While a lot has changed since the introduction of solution selling concepts,
there still might be moments within the sales process where it is highly
effective to follow the AIDA principle.

Just think of your next proposal presentation.

45


«People love to buy. But they hate to feel being sold to.»
Miller Heiman.

46

III. Salesside.

Solution Selling

Solution selling is complex in practice, but simple in theory.

1. Identify Problem
Are there any pain points the customer experiences? Can we pinpoint the
root cause? And what’s the impact for her business?

2. Need
A problem turns into a need if the customer is prepared to fix it.

3. Solution
There are many ways of satisfying a specific need. The challenge is to help
the buyer build a vision for a solution, which outbeats alternatives.

4. Value
The best solution will remain on shelve, unless we can help the buyer to
justify the costs and risks associated. If we have a superior value
proposition, it’s time to put it on the table now.

The tricky thing is to make the buyer feel being in full control throughout
the process and help her to make a smart decision by really understanding
her specific needs.

47


Value Tree

Larger investments will often require a business case behind. The better we
understand and help to assess the value and impact of the buying decision
on the customer’s performance, the higher our likelihood of winning. The
value tree is a nice model in showing the ROI case in a structured way.

1. Revenues
How can we contribute to the growth objectives of our customers? How
can we help her sell more, more effectively?

2. Profitability
What does our product or solution add to the bottom line of our
customers? How can we make her save costs or make her more efficient?

3. Investment
And what kind of financial effort does it take to introduce the changes
required? And what does it cost to operate it?

Please check the bonus material for a more detailed example of a value
tree, used to quantify the business case of CRM investments.

48

III. Salesside.

Managing Risks

Life is about risks, especially sales life. At the end of the buying cycle, risk
becomes the most important decision criteria for the buyer, so we have the
chance to positively influence the decision.

In quantitative risk analysis, the following parameters are being used to
prioritize and decide whether to enter a specific risk or mitigate.

1. Probability
What’s the likelihood of a specific event to occur?

2. Impact
In case the event happens, what is the magnitude of the potential loss?

3. Effort
What’s the cost of mitigating the risk? In case of uncertainty due to lack of
information, it can be rather low. But sometimes a complex proof-of-
concept or contingency plan might be needed to convince the customer.

At the end, probability times impact minus effort gives the customer an
idea whether a possible mitigation would see a positive ROI or not.

49


Sales KPI

What you can’t measure, you can’t manage. Using the most appropriate
sales KPI for your business will help you to take your sales to the next level.

1. Response Rate
For any sales and marketing campaign, how many contacts from the target
community make use of the call-to-action, e.g. visiting the landing page,
ordering a sample or requesting a service?

2. Conversion Rate
It tells us how much effort it takes to transfer a visitor, contact or lead into
a qualified opportunity.

3. Bid Rate
From all the requests we receive, in what percentage of potential sales
volume have we made an offer?

4. Hit Rate
From all offers made, what volume percentage have we won? Since it also
includes cancelled opportunities, it tells us whether we have put the efforts
on the right place.

5. Win Rate
Measured against the volume of awarded opportunities, what percentage
did we finally win against competition?

50

III. Salesside.

Customer Satisfaction

In most businesses, the typical sales effort for keeping existing customers is
just 10-20% of winning new ones. Increasing customer satisfaction and
stimulating cross- and upselling should be a priority for every sales team.

1. Repurchase Rate
The repurchase rate is a good indicator for how satisfied new customers are
and whether your products, solutions and services have met their
expectations.

2. Retention Rate
Managed well, the renewal of service contracts or frame agreements is a
great opportunity to ensure a constant revenue stream from existing
customers.

3. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
With NPS, you can measure and compare what percentage of customers
will be very likely to recommend your product, service or solution to a
friend or colleague (promoters) versus the unlikely ones (detractors). There
is a direct correlation between NPS and company growth.

4. Lifetime Value
What’s the average contribution a new customer of a specific type brings
throughout the product/solution lifecycle? In other words: What’s the
cross- and upsell potential for new customers? For many investment goods
like machinery or software, the service business exceeds the new business
by factor 2 or more. This figure tells you how aggressive you can be in
acquiring new customers.

51


Sales Profiles

According to the Corporate Executive Board, we can differentiate sales reps
into 5 profiles.

1. The Hard Worker
By maximizing the number of activities, calls and visits, hard workers are
pushing the business forward.

2. The Lone Wolf
They are taking full ownership by hunting new business by themselves with
very little internal collaboration.

3. The Problem Solver
Consultants put the needs of the customers first.

4. The Relationship Builder
This profile invests into the social capital by developing strong personal and
professional relationships.

5. The Challenger
The challenger is uncovering unidentified opportunities and hidden
problems by critically questioning the customer.

According to the research, salespeople can be performing well across all
profiles. However, challenging the customer seems to be a behavior that
yields positive return, but also requires a healthy working relationship of
being a trusted advisor to the customer.

52

III. Salesside.

Top5 Sales Questions

Questions are the answers. Here are the top 5 qualification questions.

1. Why?
Is there a specific customer need?

2. What?
Do we have a competitive solution to address the problem?

3. Who?
Do we know the key players in the buyer network?

4. How?
Do we have a good sales strategy and action plan to win?

5. When?
Is the timing right? When will the existing contract expire or when does the
existing equipment need to be replaced?

53


The building blocks of social businesses.

The social media revolution is still very young but has fundamentally
changed the way we communicate and exchange information, for
individuals and businesses alike. We are still in the process of learning how
to utilize social communities and networks most effectively. However, it is a
pleasure to present some of the thought leadership on social media, social
networks and collaboration in the following. Today, we cannot imagine a
company without email or Internet presence. In the future, there will be no
company without social media engagement and social collaboration, not
just related to marketing and sales.

54

IV. Social Business.

IV. Social Business

55


«As the world becomes more instrumented,
interconnected and intelligent and the population
continues to embrace social computing, today’s enterprises
face the dawn of a new era –
The era of the Social Business.»

«Just as the Internet changed the marketplace forever, the integration of
social computing into enterprise design represents another enormous shift
in the landscape. Organizations that successfully transform into a Social
Business can potentially reap great benefits – among them the ability to
deepen customer relationships, drive operational efficiencies and optimize
the workforce.»

IBM Corporation,
“The Social Business - Advent of a new age”,
February 2011.

56


Social Media Opportunities

Whether in sales, marketing or service, providing a great customer
experience also means making effective use of social networks and media.

1. Listen
The first step of every social media engagement is to understand the
different channels, conversations and opportunities by effective Social
Media Monitoring (SMM) and Analysis.

2. Engage
Providing interactive support is a great way to collaborate with existing and
potential customers alike. Technical communities can build the first level of
trust required for future touchpoints.

3. Promote
Social media marketing is the art of using social media channels to increase
marketing reach and awareness.

4. Learn
Finally, social media can be used to co-innovate with customers and
partners by crowdsourcing ideas and continuously gathering market
feedback.

57


«Social Media puts Buyers, not Marketers in Control.»
Laura Ramos, Forrester

58


Social Media Marketing

Social media enables individual, targeted marketing responses along the
customer decision journey. McKinsey differentiates the social media
marketing landscape into the following categories.

1. Monitor
Using social channels to identify trends and gain incremental market
insights for effective brand management.

2. Respond
Reply to customers by effective crisis management or customer service.

3. Amplify
Leverage the power of referrals and recommendations, fostering
communities and brand advocacies.

4. Lead
Actively manage changes in sentiment or behavior by driving brand content
awareness and product launches, providing targeted deals and offers as
well as using customer input.

59


Social Analytics

One of the huge advantages of interacting on social networks is that it
becomes fully measurable.

1. Sentiment Analysis
We can measure brand awareness and reputation by clustering the tonality
of posts in positive, negative or neutral mentions.

2. Social Reach
The community of fans, followers and group members across the different
platforms is an indicator on how far we can potentially spread a message.

3. Social Engagement
Finally, we can measure the effectiveness of sales and marketing activities
by analyzing the social feedback through likes, shares, posts and (re)tweets.

4. Demand Generation
Wouldn’t it be also nice to know how many of our contacts, leads and
opportunities have been originated from social interactions at first?

60


POEM

The Paid, Owned, Earned Media (POEM) framework is a powerful tool to
understand the new media environment.

1. Owned
The good thing with owned content is that you have full control of it, might
it be your websites, online stores, apps, newsletters or social network
profiles. Here, you can maintain relationships and stimulate cross- and
upselling.

2. Paid
Banner ads or paid search engine marketing can be a great source to
increase awareness and generate traffic. While response rates are
declining, it can still provide the required scalability to generate new sales
leads.

3. Earned
Obviously, the most credible form of content are external comments, likes,
shares, forum entries, blog posts or other forms of word-of-mouth and viral
marketing. Establishing a strong community of net promoters is fuel for
your sales engine.

While the roles of the different media types are very different for sales and
marketing alike, synchronized well, they all play together to help you
achieve your overall business goals.

61


90-9-1 Principle

In Internet communities, forums and social networks we can see a large
participation inequality, described by the 90-9-1 rule.

1. Readers
A large majority (90%) of users view content without contributing.

2. Contributors
Some 9% of users edit or modify content.

3. Creators
But only 1% of users create new content.

While this is not necessarily surprising, it is important to keep in mind when
using social business software for sales and marketing purposes.

62


Social Adoption

Likewise, Forrester classifies the social media audience into 6 groups based
on their adoption levels.

1. Creators
They create and publish social media content in blogs, posts and/or articles.

2. Critics
Critics post reviews, recommendations, discuss in forums and leave
comments.

3. Collectors
Collectors mainly consume info but also tag and vote content.

4. Joiners
Joiners visit networks and own and maintain social profiles.

5. Spectators
Spectators read, watch and listen to social media content.

6. Inactives
Inactives do not use social media at all.

63


«Social CRM is a business strategy that generates
opportunities for sales, marketing and customer service,
while also benefiting cloud-based communities.»

«Social CRM applications need to be far more customer-centric than more
traditional CRM applications. Without benefits for the customer,
communities and social networks die, resulting in no benefits to the
organization using the social CRM applications. To be successful with social
CRM, organizations need to be much less focused on how an organization
can manage the customer, and much more focused on how the customer
can manage the relationship.»

Gartner Group,
“Magic Quadrant for Social CRM”,
July 2011.

64


Social CRM

Already today, every salesperson, marketeer and service manager can make
effective use of social media. Moving forward, there will be no CRM service
without reaching out into social networks anymore.

1. Identify service opportunities
Turning a twitter complaint into a support opportunity.

2. Identify leads
Capture a sales lead from a LinkedIn group or Quora discussion.

3. Identify target audiences
Use social media profiles on Xing or Google Plus to identify potential
influencers and decision-makers.

4. Connect
Use existing relationships to reach out and build new relationships in a
credible way.

65


«We believe influence is the ability to drive action.»

«It's great to have lots of connections but what really matters is how people
engage with the content you create. We believe it's better to have a small
and engaged audience than a large network that doesn't act upon your
content.»

Klout,
“Understanding Klout”,
2012.

66


Follow Me.

Ties between people can have many faces, especially in social networks.

1. Subscription
Following someone or something on social media means institutionalizing
the interest into a person or group by subscribing to her posts and updates.

2. Connection
Based on mutual agreement, a friendship or connection can be established.
In theory, every person is connected with every other person by not more
than 5 degrees.

3. Interaction
In social media, an interaction can be commenting, liking, sharing, writing
on the wall, mentioning or re-posting. Every interaction is an opportunity to
strengthen a relationship.

4. Relationship
A relationship constitutes of the sum of all interactions, online and offline,
between two parties. In a network, it represents the flow of information
and communication.

In fact, a subscription or connection is a sign of potential influence. But
interactions are measurable indicators of relationship intensity.

67


Social Network Dictionary

1. Edge
Interdependent social relationship (tie, connection, link) between teams
and/or persons. Represents the flow of information and communication in
a network. Can be directed or undirected.

2. Node
A social entity, either an individual (person, contact) or a team (group,
organization).

3. Team
In multi-level networks, persons with common attributes can be grouped
together into teams.

4. Bridge
Relationship providing indirect access to other teams and/or persons for
introductions or for channeling messages.

5. Gatekeeper
Person providing exclusive access to disconnected teams or persons. Can be
used for channeling or need to be bypassed.

6. Hub
Central team or person connected to multiple other teams and/or persons.
Good subject for effective targeting.

7. Satellite
Person linked to a central hub.

68


Social Network Analysis

Social Network Analysis (SNA) studies relationship structures among social
entities (teams, persons) in order to assess its social influence and
importance.

1. Centrality
Indicates the social influence or importance of a node based on their social
connections in a network.

1. Degree Centrality
Measures the number of connections a node owns. It only takes direct
relationships into account.

2. Closeness Centrality
Measures the influence based on the shortest paths to any other node.
Hubs typically have a high closeness centrality.

3. Betweenness Centrality
Measures the influence based on how often a contact sits on the shortest
path connecting other nodes. Gatekeepers typically have a high
betweenness centrality.

4. Eigenvector Centrality
Measures the importance of a node by taking into account the strenghts of
relationships and influence of directly and indirectly connected nodes. By
analyzing sales networks using Eigenvector centrality, the «real»
importance of influencers and decision-makers can be assessed.

69


Pillars Of Influence

Brian Solis has built a framework to understand influence of people in a
social network in order to determine how a brand or person can cause
change or effect.

1. Reach
Reach defines how far a message can travel across the social graph,
measured in terms of popularity, proximity and goodwill.

2. Relevance
More importantly, the interest graph models the quality of the message to
the specific audience in terms of authority, trust and affinity.

3. Resonance
As a result, the resonance measures the duration, rate and intensity level of
the generated activities, measured as frequency, period and amplitude.

Together, the pillars of influence form the social capital, a catalyst for
potential influence.

70


Law of the Few.

Research suggests that within a social network, there is a small number of
influencers that can make an idea or opinion succeed. This phenomenon is
called the law of the few. Malcolm Gladwell differentiates in 3 types of
roles that have the particular and rare social gift to create such a social
epidemic.

1. Connectors
Connectors are people experts. They own a large social network, so they
can spread the word and provide required reach for your messages.

2. Maven
Mavens are information experts. They accumulate incredible knowledge
and are recognized, trusted experts in their field. Typically, they are early
adapters of new technologies.

3. Salesmen
Salesmen are very charismatic persuaders. They have very strong
negotiation skills and can make people buy into your idea.

Depending on what message you want to spread, you can make use of the
different types of influencers. Important is to recognize and identify the few
key influencers that will have the real impact.

71


The strength of weak ties.

Another interesting phenomena shows that loose social network
connections, i.e. weak ties, can be a great source of differentiation and
diversity.

1. Frequency
Strong ties are more likely to share the same or similar information.
Contacts are more likely to consume and respond to information from
stronger ties.

2. Grouping
Interacting with a group of contacts frequently, also raises the likelihood
that these contacts will interact more frequently with each other. As a
result, homogeneous groups of strong ties emerge.

3. Breath
On the other hand, the vast majority of information comes from contacts
that we interact with less frequently, due to typically larger volume of weak
ties in the network.

4. Novelty
Often, weak ties act as gatekeepers to disconnected groups and teams. As a
result, they can enrich discussions with new perspectives and information,
which might have left out by a group of strong ties.

72


«It's time to transform your business
for the new social reality.»

«Social media is changing how we connect and share in our personal lives
and—increasingly—in business. Our customers are just as likely to look for
us on Facebook as they are to visit our corporate website. Internally, we
work more productively when we can easily collaborate with our colleagues
online. Weaving a social context into your business is quickly becoming a
prerequisite for success. It's time to transform your business for the new
social reality. It's time to delight your customers by connecting to them—
and to your employees—in new and powerful ways. Welcome to the Social
Enterprise.»

Salesforce.com,
“The Social Enterprise”,
January 2012.

73


Collaboration

Put simply, collaboration means working together towards common
targets. Successful sales collaboration consists of 3 critical elements:

1. Teamwork
It is about people sharing information, exchanging documents and opinions.
Sometimes organized in public groups, to get broad input on the next sales
campaign. But very often in small teams, to collaborate on a specific sales
opportunity in an intimate way.

2. Project Management
In fact, every sales opportunity is a small project requiring resource
orchestration and task synchronization in order to make best use of the
collective knowledge and relationships of its members.

3. Communication
Finally, we can make use of online communication tools like discussion
forums, chat, video chat and web meetings to effectively communicate with
each other.

Depending on the complexity of the opportunity, there is a direct
correlation between sales effectiveness and collaboration.

Short: No sales without collaboration.

74


Roles in Collaboration

According to Tom Searcy, speaker and sales consultant, collaboration is the
secret sauce of successful selling. It means structured teamwork to
accomplish a shared goal that no member or subset of the group could
accomplish alone. Effective collaboration requires members consisting of 3
roles.

1. Facilitator
The group needs a moderator to manage the process and transition the
project to the next step.

2. Clarifyer
The clarifiers will take the action items and solve the issues.

3. Expert
Experts bring in the subject knowledge. They serve as a resource pool.

Or in other words: You need effective project management, execution
capabilities as well as specific subject knowledge at the table.

75


«Social Business Software is transforming
business as we know it.
And driving breakthroughs in productivity, sales, product
innovation, and employee and customer satisfaction.»

«Traditional enterprise applications reinforce hierarchies and create siloes.
With Social Business, information flows freely. Social Business Software lets
people form self-organizing communities, discover each other and connect
– instantly. Work gets done far more naturally and faster than ever before.»

Jive Software,
“New to Social Business?”,
January 2012.

76


Enterprise 2.0

Described as Facebook for the enterprise, social business software helps
users to collaborate more effectively, internally as well as externally.
Typically, it consists of the following functionality.

1. Profiles
Users can manage their profile information including contact details,
competencies, business background, education and current responsibilities.
This is especially valuable to identify appropriate project resources.

2. Connections
Users can follow and connect with each other in order to stay up-to-date on
collegues and their activities.

3. Real-Time Update
By following other users, groups, sales opportunities or even customers and
competitors, users can receive a network stream of status updates in real-
time.

4. Teamrooms
Every sales opportunity is a project. Users can join groups to share
information, exchange documents and manage project tasks and calender.

5. Chat
Integrated presence management and chat functionality facilitates
communication.

77


Shake up your B2B sales by leveraging the power of
collaboration, social networks and CRM.

Social Sales means seeing relationships as assets and investing into the
social capital of your company, your sales networks, in order to win
strategic opportunities and grow your business. It provides a structured
approach to relationship-driven decision-making. Over time, it has evolved
into a comprehensive sales approach to “identify, analyze and act”. But
how does a SocialSalesMap look like? What is a SocialSalesIndex? And how
can a SocialSalesMatrix help you in defining the most effective action plan?

78

V. Social Sales.

V. Social Sales

79


«Social Sales represents a new way of fueling sales force
productivity, eliminating functional silos and becoming
more responsive to customer demands. »

«At Accenture, we believe any organization can benefit from a Social Sales
capability. Our research and experience have shown that top sales forces
across all industries achieve an optimal balance of data, technology, process
and talent. In doing so, they master both the art and science of sales. Social
sales provides a low-cost mechanism by which companies can not only
achieve the balance of skills they need, but also bridge the art/science gap.
This, in turn, helps organizations improve their sales force productivity
across the sales lifecycle, from identifying prospects to winning the deal. »

Accenture,
“Social Sales - Collaborating for high performance”,
2011.

80

V. Social Sales.

Social Sales Opportunities

Sales has always been challenging. Especially strategic sales.

1. Relationship
Engaging multiple levels of decision-makers across complex value networks
requires a very structured and analytic approach to relationship-driven
decision-making.

2. Soft Factors
Effectively navigating politics by incorporating social factors will reduce the
risk of failure and avoid unwanted surprises.

3. Collaboration
Collaborating effectively with internal stakeholders, channel partners and
influencers can shorten the sales cycle, increase your win rate and help you
grow your business.

4. Social Media
Making best use of social networks to identify and engage relevant
influencers.

81


Identify, Analyze, Act

Social Sales is about mapping and analyzing Social Sales networks to define
the most effective, relationship-driven sales strategy and action plan.

1. Identify
In a first step, we need to identify and map decision-makers, influencers,
partners and customer contacts (and their relationships) into a social
network graph. By visualizing the results, you can get a first idea of
potential options.

2. Analyze
Based on the information available, who is the most important contact for
us to work with? Where should we focus our resources? Which contacts to
engage first?

Applying social network analysis (SNA) to complex B2B sales can provide
answers to some of those questions.

3. Act
Sales teams want to win, so they need to focus their efforts on the most
important tasks. By using the above visualization and analysis, they have
the transparency and confidence in place, to build the most effective sales
strategy and action plan leveraging their existing relationships networks. A
sales network lives. Actions will turn into new identified contacts and
changed relationships. Managing it in iterative circles will help you to get
the most of your sales engagement.

82

V. Social Sales.

1. Identify

Like in classical buying center analysis, it is important to understand the key
players of a deal. The difference with using Social Sales methodologies is
that we can also map the relationships between them in form of a network,
so it helps to understand how the influence moves and where the social
center of gravity is.

1. Decision-Maker
Who are the relevant authorities in the specific buying process, formally or
informally?

2. Influencer
Who are the internal and external people with the most (potential)
influence on the buying decision?

3. Partner
Are there any channel partners that we should bring to the table? Does the
customer have a preference for specific distributors, integrators, design
houses or consultancies?

4. Internal Support
Do we need an executive sponsorship? Who in the account team has
relevant relationships to leverage? How can we get support from the right
people in the product or service team?

83


Shot: SocialSalesMap

A picture tells more than words. And faster. When it comes to networks,
traditional tables and forms reach their limits. Instead, maps can help you
telling the story.

84

V. Social Sales.

SocialSalesMap

A SocialSalesMap is a graphical representation of a sales network. It helps
to identify, engage and manage key influencers and decision-makers
effectively.

1. Simple information access
It carries information on companies, teams, contacts, relationships and
actions.

2. Graphical visualization
It displays key data like influence, position, names, functions, actions, roles
and relationships directly on the map.

3. Collaboration
It enables multi-user access, simulations, action and milestone
management to facilitate teamwork and effective collaboration.

4. Social Network Analysis (SNA)
SNA allows you to segment your contacts and aggregate drivers into an
interactive graph to ease sales life and support pro-active decision-making.

5. Smart Integration
By integrating to Outlook, LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, Twitter and Skype as
well as leading CRM systems, you can re-use existing contact and
relationship information.

85


Social Relationships

A relationship lives. It can grow or dry out over time. In order to analyze
networks, we need to capture and understand the relationships in more
detail, especially...

1. Relationship Intensity
The frequency of interactions and touchpoints drives the intensity of a
relationship.

2. Relationship Quality
Working with someone on a daily base makes up a high intensity, but it
doesn’t mean you have a very intimate relationship. Instead, the
relationship quality is defined by the mutual acceptance, intimacy and trust.
It can be both, positive or negative.

3. Relationship Type
The nature and kind of relationship can be very different reaching from
kinship to friendship, from membership to business.

4. Direction
Some relationships like member (of) or reporting (to) will also feature a
clear direction.

Regarding sales, it is important to understand the different parameters in
order to judge the potential cross-influence between the counterparts.

86

V. Social Sales.

2. Analyze

Based on the information available, who is the most important contact for
us to work with? Where should we focus our resources? Which contacts to
engage first?

Applying social network analysis (SNA) to complex B2B sales can provide
effective answers to some of those questions. Assuming, a first estimate of
the influence of a contact is available, we can use SNA algorithms to
calculate the overall importance of any contact within a sales network, i.e.
the so-called SocialSalesIndex (SSI).

1. Individual and team Influence
The more influence my team has, the higher my importance for the specific
opportunity. Specific roles are also strong drivers of influence.

2. Relationships
The underlying logic is simple. The more relationships someone has to other
important stakeholders, the higher her indirect influence. The more intense
those relationships, the better.

The SocialSalesIndex (SSI) is an indicator of social influence of teams and/or
persons in a sales network based on network topology as well as relevance
and intensity of her relationships (calculated as Eigenvector Centrality).

It can be used for ranking key decision makers in terms of importance. The
higher the SocialSalesIndex, the more important the contact for the sales
decision.

87


Shot: SocialSalesMatrix

Engineers like matrix diagrams. But business people love it. Looking at the
SocialSalesMatrix, we can focus our sales efforts on the most important
targets and hopefully avoid talking to the wrong audience.

88

V. Social Sales.

SocialSalesMatrix

In a SocialSalesMatrix, all contacts are being segmented by importance
(SocialSalesIndex) as well as their pro/contra position. As a result, we
receive manageable, actionable groups.

1. Challengers
It’s very important to understand the most important, but critical decision-
makers to decide about potential mitigation. A hunter will focus most of her
efforts here.

2. Critics
In the mid-term, a farmer will try to improve the position of less important
contacts through better sales, marketing and service engagement with
reasonable effort.

3. Supporter
This group can be used very well for a positive “Grundrauschen”, even if
their immediate importance is limited.

4. Champions
These are our most important promoters. If we manage to turn all decision-
makers into champions, we will win.

89


Shot: Driver Analysis

A spider graph helps to understand and focus on the mission-critical drivers
of your sales opportunity. Tip: You might also map the capabilities of your
partners to the spider, so you can complement your skills.

90

V. Social Sales.

Driver Analysis

Once we have understood the sales network and its players, we can now
think about which are the key decision criteria that we need to work on to
secure the deal.

1. Driver Assessment
Decision criteria can vary a lot by target group and buying phase. The
business team might want to facilitate profitable growth, purchasing wants
to reduce costs and the technology team might look for new innovation,
compatibility or reliability. In a first step, we need to identify those key
drivers and assess their importance on a fixed scale.

2. Consolidation
When consolidating the different needs into a common view, we can re-use
the results of the SNA. The driver of teams with the highest influence on the
buying decision will have more weight.

3. Gap Analysis
In order to do a gap analysis, we can now match our capabilities against the
consolidated, weighted needs. What’s the perceived contribution in terms
of growth, price and innovation? How do we rank compared to
competition?

91


Shot: Action Timeline

You need both: An effective sales strategy and a professional execution.
The best plan is obsolete if you don’t have the tools and structure in place
to follow-up.

92

V. Social Sales.

3. Act

Every sales network is different, so is the sales strategy and action plan.
Important is to follow an analytic, structured approach, understand the
strategic options and apply them most effectively.

1. Targeting
If relationships to key influencers or decision-makers exist, we can target
and engage them directly. The good thing with targeting is that we have full
control of our message and can actively handle objections.

2. Bridging
In case no direct relationships exist yet, we can establish bridges by either
being introduced to the target or for future channeling.

3. Channeling
Sometimes, it can be most effective to use bridges respectively indirect
relationships to channel our message instead of trying to build up a direct
relationship. This is especially true if close contacts of the target audience
act as trusted advisor.

4. Bypassing
In order to minimize dependency on existing bridges or gatekeepers, we
might want to neutralize them by establishing direct relationships or
building up alternative paths.

In reality, the most effective sales strategy will always incorporate a mix of
different Social Sales actions.

93


Social Door Openers

The times of cold calls are gone. But the good news is that social networks
offer a great opportunity to warm up your target contacts.

1. Introduction
Ask someone of your bridge contacts to introduce you by arranging a joint
meeting.

2. Social Introduction
Social networks like LinkedIN feature a “get introduced” function to
leverage your joint connections.

3. Referral
Build trust by referring to a relevant friend, colleague or business partner
connected to your target contact.

4. Profile Info
And if you can’t identify any joint connections, you can still use background
information from her profile. “I have seen you are interested in or looking
for...”.

5. Yes-Street
Make use of posts, tweets or other social content to ask for feedback and
try to build a “yes” street by using engaging, positive questions.

94

V. Social Sales.

Social Actions

Whatever sales action you take, there is always the possibility to use the
social capital of you, your team and your company. In fact, every sales
action carries a social component, some more, some less.

1. Enlarge the table
Are the right people involved in the decision? Maybe the assessment team
lacks some key people who could help you to win? Are they aware?

2. Match the Audience
People like talking to their counterparts, lawyers to lawyers, engineers to
engineers and managers to managers. Instead of trying to handle key
contacts by yourself, make use of your specialists and the existing
relationships of your teammates to match the target audience.

3. Find the bad guy
Whatever you do, somebody will fight the project. Change creates anxiety.
And someone will feel responsible for the status quo. So make sure that
whatever pain and need you are addressing, you will not blame nor step on
the feet of the key decision-makers and influencers. Instead, if needed, try
to find the bad guy outside of the room or even organization.

95


«In today's workplace, people have emerged as the most
valuable asset to unlocking the power
of information and ideas.»

«To innovate and remain competitive, organizations need to provide the
right tools, culture, and IT ecosystem for employees, business partners,
suppliers, and customers to communicate and collaborate.»

IDC,
“Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions.”,
2012.

96

V. Social Sales.

Collaboration

Sometimes, orchestrating the internal team can be more challenging than
working with the customer.

1. Leadership
The opportunity owner is responsible to coordinate the overall effort. She
needs to build the team, assign roles and responsibilities, as well as coach
and support the team members. By visualizing your own team on your sales
network you will increase transparency and commitment.

2. Weekly Opportunity Reviews
Regular status meetings, either as online conferences or in person are a
prerequisite to keep everybody aligned and engaged.

3. Notifications
Real-time information on contacts, customers and partners will keep your
team up-to-date on the latest status and actions and help you to re-act fast,
if needed.

4. Win/Loss Analysis
There’s a lot you can learn from a good debriefing. Review the key
milestones and how your sales network has evolved over time. What would
you do differently today and what would you re-do the same way again?

97


«Nothing is easier than losing a competitive edge in the
marketplace. You just have to stand still.»
Marcel Dobler, CEO, Digitec

98

V. Social Sales.

The Road to Success.

Social Sales will not happen overnight, but can be developed in stages.

1. Internal Collaboration
Break the silos. Build diverse, multi-functional, cross-group teams to
manage specific opportunities. Run brainstorming workshops to leverage
your social capital most effectively.

2. External Collaboration
Enhance your sales network by making your partners become part of your
team. Engage influencers strategically. Ask your customer supporters and
champions to help you on your journey.

3. Standardization
Align your tools, processes and terminology into a common Social Sales
framework. Define local superusers to provide interactive trainings and
gather continuous feedback.

4. Advanced Deployment
SocialSalesMaps have entered the boardroom and are a core element of
your account planning. Pipeline reviews have turned into “social”
opportunity reviews. Sales incentives are aligned with social objectives.

5. Strategic Engagement
Enhancing your social capital is the core driving force of your growth
strategy. Social Sales has become part of your corporate culture and DNA.

99


«The implications for a salesperson are simple.
They have to understand that generating leads, managing
opportunities and closing deals need fresh approaches and
skills in utilizing tools that help enrich customer insights.»

«Because whether it’s a B2B or B2C sale, the customer is expecting you, the
sales maven and your company, to know them and what they want. That
means that sales intelligence and engaging in the networks the customer
participates in are of critical importance.»

Oracle/The Customer Collective,
“The Art of Social Sales”,
2009.

100

V. Social Sales.

Summary

It will be hard to ignore the changes and opportunities provided by

Sales is about People. And Social Sales is about engaging the right people at
the right time via the right channel in order to win. It provides a fresh
approach to master the complexities of B2B sales by capitalizing on the
social capital of your company.

In brief, Social Sales addresses the need to
1. Identify and map influencers and decision-makers
2. Analyze, manage and enhance sales networks
3. Effectively act on relationship-driven sales strategies

And finally to collaborate across the sales cycle, internally as well as
externally.

If you believe, that people and relationships are the driving forces of sales
success in your business, Social Sales will help you to achieve and exceed
your targets.

What are you waiting for?

101


102

Bonus Material

Bonus Material

103


Checklist

This checklist can be used to facilitate discussions across the sales cycle on
potential actions and issues.

1. Discovery
[ ] Do we have an <Opportunity Owner> assigned?
[ ] Does the <Opportunity Owner> confirm her/his role?
[ ] Do we have a first idea of the customer budget?
[ ] Do we have a first relationship to the customer?

2. Qualification
[ ] Is the <Budget Owner> identified?
[ ] Does the <Budget Owner> confirm the budget?
[ ] Is the <Ultimate Authority> identified?
[ ] Do we have a first idea of the customer drivers?
[ ] Do we know the timeline?
[ ] Did the customer confirm the timeline?

3. Pre-Proposal
[ ] Did we receive a request for information?
[ ] Is the <Proposal Lead> identified?
[ ] Does the <Proposal Lead> confirm her/his role?
[ ] Do we have a direct relationship to the <Ultimate Authority>?
[ ] Do we have a relationship to the majority of important players?
[ ] Did we identify potential partners?
[ ] Did we establish relationships to the potential partners?
[ ] Did we validate the drivers of the customer?
[ ] Did the important players confirm their key drivers?

104

Bonus Material

[ ] Are our capabilities close to the drivers of the customer?
[ ] Has the timeline being updated/reconfirmed?
[ ] Did we provide a draft budget proposal to the customer?

4. Proposal
[ ] Did we receive a request for proposal?
[ ] Is the <Contract Signatory> identified?
[ ] Can we turn the <Ultimate Authority> into a <Champion>?
[ ] Did we turn the majority of <Critics> into <Supporters>?
[ ] Did we turn the majority of <Challengers> into <Champions>?
[ ] Do we have the support of potential partners?
[ ] Did the partner(s) confirm their support and championship?
[ ]Did we re-validate the drivers of the customer?
[ ] Did the important players confirm the key drivers?
[ ] Do our capabilities match ALL customer drivers?
[ ] Has the timeline been updated/reconfirmed?
[ ] Did we provide a final proposal to the customer?

5. Negotiation
[ ] Did we receive a verbal commitment?
[ ] Did we establish relationship to the <Contract Signatory>?
[ ] Do we have the support of the <Contract Signatory>?

6. Award
[ ] Did the customer award the contract?
[ ] Did we win?

105


Quick Assessment

The Quick Assessment provides a simple, but structured way of identifying
the gaps and opportunities in sales, marketing and service performance as
well as potential for collaboration and CRM.

1. How do you rate your company's sales performance?
[ ] Our win/loss ratio is better than that of most our competitors.
[ ] Thanks to the insight into our sales pipeline, we enjoy a high forecast
accuracy.
[ ] In strategic opportunities, we are using the collective knowledge and
relationships of our people to win.
[ ] We have good transparency into our customers relationship networks,
politics and decision-making processes.

2. How do you perceive your company's marketing performance?
[ ] The number and quality of responses/leads generated from our
marketing campaigns are very good.
[ ] We are managing customer touchpoints across departments and
channels in an integrated way.
[ ] We know all key influencers (consultants, politicians, academic, partners)
of our customers in the market.
[ ] We have excellent collaboration with our channel partner network.

106

Bonus Material

3. What's your opinion on your company's service and support?
[ ] Customer requests are replied and resolved in a very fast and effective
way.
[ ] The volume of our service business lives up to its real market potential.
[ ] Our customers do pro-actively recommend working with us towards their
friends and colleagues.
[ ] We never compete internally. Instead we collaborate across our different
businesses to support our customers best.

4. What do you think about your company's market intelligence?
[ ] We have deep and actual market know-how to re-act fast on any
changes. ]
[ ] We are focusing on the right target opportunities and accounts.
[ ] We have the right metrics in place to measure our sales, marketing and
service performance.

5. How do you feel about your company's customer relationship
management strategy?
[ ] Customer relationship management is considered very strategic and
supported by top management.
[ ] We have already exploited our full internal cross-sell potential.
[ ] Sales and marketing are working closely together towards common
objectives.
[ ] How do you feel about your company's customer relationship
management strategy?
[ ] Our team has the right tools and systems in place to be successful.
[ ] We are investing the right resources, time and money to improve sales,
marketing and service performance.

107


Value Tree

The value tree helps you to build the business case and model your value
proposition to the customer in a nice way.

1. Revenue Growth
1.1 Marketing Effectiveness
1.1.1 Market Penetration
1.1.1.1 Market Coverage (Access)
1.1.1.2 Market Reach (Information)
1.1.2 Conversion
1.1.2.1 Prospect Conversion (Interest)
1.1.2.2 Lead Conversion (Consideration)
1.2 Sales Effectiveness
1.2.1 Pipeline Effectiveness
1.2.1.1 Request Rate
1.2.1.2 Bid Rate
1.2.1.3 Hit Rate
1.2.2 Channel Optimization
1.2.2.1 Direct Sales Rate
1.2.2.2 Sell-Through Rate
1.2.2.3 Sell-With Rate
1.3 Service Effectiveness
1.3.1 Collaboration
1.3.2 Cross-Sell
1.3.3 Up-Sell
1.3.2 Customer Satisfaction
1.3.2.1 Net Promoter Score (NPS)
1.3.2.2 Repurchase Rate

108

Bonus Material

2. Profitability
2. 1 Efficiency
2.1.1 Price Optimization
2.1.2 Resource Utilization
2.2 Cost Structure
2.2.1 Marketing Costs
2.2.2 Sales Costs
2.2.3 Service Costs

3. Investments
3.1 Technology
3.1.1 Design
3.1.2 Development
3.1.3 Software
3.1.3 Hardware
3.2 Change Management
3.2.1 Business Management
3.2.2 Communication
3.2.3 Training
3.2 Operation Costs
3.2.1 Services
3.2.2 Licenses

109


Market Model

The market model connects the marketing funnel with the sales pipeline to
align terminology, processes and measurement across the entire customer
lifecycle.

Marketing Stage Sales Status KPI
Potential n/a n/a
Access n/a Coverage
Marketing Awareness Prospects Reach
Interest Leads Prospect Conversion
Consideration Opportunities Lead Conversion
Information RFI RFI Rate
Pre-Evaluation Budgetary Offer Pre-Bid
Proof Feasibility Study POC Rate
Sales
Preference RFQ Request Rate
Evaluation Offers Bid Rate
Commitment Customers Hit Rate
Repeat
Loyality Repurchase Rate
Service Customers
Referral Net Promoter Net Promoter Score

110


112

Abbreviations

AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
COS – Cost of Sales
NPS – Net Promoter Score
ROI – Return of Investment
RFQ – Request for Quotation
RFP – Request for Proposal
SKU - Stock Keeping Unit
SME – Subject Matter Expert
SMM – Social Media Monitoring
SNA – Social Network Analysis
SRM – Supplier Relationship Management
SSI – SocialSalesIndex
POEM – Paid, Owned, Earned Media
ZMOT – Zero Moment of Truth

113


114

Recommended Readings

Accenture, “Social Sales - Collaborating for high performance”,2011.

CSO Insights,“Revenue 2012: Making it Happen Versus Hoping it Happens”,
January 2012.

Gartner Group, “Magic Quadrant for Social CRM”, July 2011.

IBM Corporation, “The Social Business - Advent of a new age”, February
2011.

Luc Galoppin,“Social Architecture, a Manifesto”, January 2011.

Matthew Dickson/Brent Adamson, “The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of
the Customer Conversation”, 2011.

McKinsey & Company, “The rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds
its payday.”, April 2011.

Oracle/The Customer Collective, “The Art of Social Sales”, 2009.

115


116

About the Author

Andreas Uthmann is a business developer and consultant with a strong
passion for technology and innovation.

He is the founder and CEO of Blueconomics Business Solutions GmbH
(www.blueconomics.com) supporting customers to drive B2B sales,
marketing and service effectiveness by leveraging the power of

He was born in Westphalia/Germany and lives in Zürich/Switzerland.

117

Win. Grow. Social Sales.
rd
The Book. 3 Edition.

What if you could increase your win rate by 10%, 20% or 50% ?

The world of sales is changing: Information overload, buyer networks, social
business and collaborative CRM are transforming the way we interact and
engage with customers.

With «Social Sales», you can focus on what is really important: The people and
social relationships behind the opportunity. It provides a fresh approach to
master the complexities of B2B sales by capitalizing on the social capital of
your company.

This book is targeted to sales, account, marketing and business managers
applying «Social Sales» to hunt and farm new business.

The objective is to support sales teams to win strategic opportunities and grow
within their target accounts.

If you believe, that people and relationships are the driving forces of sales
success in your business, this book is designed for you.

Win. Grow. Social Sales. The Book. 3rd Edition.

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