“Can You Dig It?” or Me Entiendes

I never mind staying late at the office, not only because I hate coming in early, but also because it gives me the opportunity to chat with some colleagues. We’ve all seen them. The quiet, industrious people who clean up our mess and set us up for success the next day. My friend Juan Palacios hails from El Salvador and I know that many of the hustling yuppies who routinely ignore him, would benefit from the depth of his knowledge and business savy. He’s the proud owner of a new home and a thriving business which is constantly growing, even in this economy. His words have a curious urgency and his advice is excellent.

“Me entiendes Pablo?..” he always says with a smile.
“Por supuesto Don Palacios” I answer.

It’s a valuable transaction in which I help him understand English and some of our stranger American practices, while he provides me with fresh perspectives on the challenges I face daily. As with all such relationships it takes work and dedicated effort. It’s often difficult to push past the barriers of language, custom, and preconceptions, but we manage…we communicate. I’m afraid that I don’t see a lot of successful communication out there currently…time to wake up people!

Emerging markets? China? Again?

In the past our ancestors had to venture forth in search of new markets and new connections. They made enormous investments in time, money, and resources to get the job done. Often when poor preparation and bad decisions threatened their goals, they resorted to appalling tactics in their attempts to achieve them. Unfortunately, little has changed…globalization, the internet, and social media offer a plethora of tools and venues to facilitate the process. There are an ever increasing number of pitches, messages, i.e. “ships” sailing forth on cyber-seas, but with declining results. There’s ultimately only one central challenge- to quickly, concisely communicate the value proposition (and / or measurable ROI) of your solution to the right person, at the right time, and in the right way.  Recently, I’ve noticed some formidable obstacles to meeting this challenge and I like to refer to them collectively as la tirania de las ideas preconcebidas or the tyranny of preconceptions. 

“It doesn’t work for us…” said the CEO when referring to social media.  Not swimming in leads…low Klout score…???  Social media is not some form of a checklist in which you just have to cover all the bases, but something that has to become part of your organization’s DNA…Like my relationship with Juan, it takes planning, dedication, and hard work.  Define your goals, develop a plan to reach them, and pick the right vehicle(s).

“We gotta get in front of more people and we need more activity” claimed the VP of Sales.  Following the traditional path is very comforting, customs always are, but you can’t expect to continue doing the same things and expect different outcomes.  I ‘m very surprised that an executive from a growing technology solutions company seems fixated on the traditional Inside Sales / Outside Sales model.  How can you expect continued growth when you don’t have any data on the average cost of sale?  As another mentor of mine said “leading Sales organizations realize that accurate data improves efficiency and is the cure for bad results…”

“Do they even have money ?” responded the Chief Sales Officer of a European multinational to my enthusiasm over a simple RFP from the Central Bank of Venezuela.  I was dumbfounded over this blatant display of ethnocentrism…preconceived notions…prejudice.  Everyone likes the idea of global markets in theory, but in practice we’re still back in the days of Columbus.  Business, indeed, opportunities are where you find them.  You don’t have to commit to completely localizing your website or hiring a lot of multilingual staff.  Ask yourself if your solution(s) would be useful and / or address the pains of organizations in different geographic areas.  Then enlist the assistance of some experts who have the subject matter expertise to best represent you and your organization.  The world’s as big or as small as you make it…leads, prospects, and business are literally all around you!

Can  you dig it?

“Demented and Sad…but Social” : Social CRM

It’s abundantly clear that the subject which has garnered the most attention recently is Social Media or it’s latest incarnation- Social CRM.  Let’s delve a little deeper into this area and explore the impact that it definitely will have on you, your professional role, and your organization.

I have always been a complete skeptic when it comes to the potential benefits of Social CRM for business.  As my favorite rapper used to say “don’t believe the Hype, it’s a sequel…” or in business vernacular- don’t waste your time looking at these new tools because something new always comes along!  Yet, there are a number of ways that a coordinated, planned, and executed Social CRM practice can benefit your organization in the year to come:

• Collaboration-Allowing various departments / teams within an organization to jointly monitor their performance and to literally adapt to changes in the market, their company, and their customers very rapidly.
• Sales-Social CRM not only provides additional areas to exploit for lead generation, but also helps the salesperson to track prospects through different organizations.  It also gives the salesperson additional insights into the prospect or company he is pursuing which can shorten the sales cycle and lead to better customer satisfaction.
• Marketing- Lead generation campaigns will never be the same now with real-time social media updates which can drive attendance to virtual (and real world) events.

New tools require new methods and there are a number of dangers from the expanded capabilities and reach presented by Social CRM:

• Control- Once you introduce social media and a Social CRM practice into your organization there is no going back people.  You are constantly accountable for branding and reputation management.  There is no longer the “illusion of control” over a company’s image, reputation, or future which many senior executives seem to cling to…
• ROI-It is often more difficult to measure the return on investment for Social CRM.  In fact it’s most likely that there will not be any immediate ROI!  Social media takes a lot of daily work!  It’s often worse to begin the process and abandon it, than never to attempt it at all…It will definitely require participation from all departments and levels in the organization to be successful.
• Revelations-Everyone mentions the dangers of the release of information outside the company, but few realize that there will be increased visibility into the company’s processes, procedures, and personnel!  Be aware of the implications of these new insights and embrace the change.

Change is never easy!  It always comes with a cost…the most painful of which are usually unexpected.  Who would ever have anticipated the enormous impact of Cloud CRM  or even that organizations / individuals would allow a third party to manage their most valuable data?

Disruptive…yes!  But that’s often a good thing!

Happy Hunting,

Paul Williams

COO