Web 2.0 Technologies and Sales Force Management - Félicien Scott de Martinville
Web 2.0 technologies are gaining weight in companies’ Internet investments. Blogs, wikis, web services, peer to peer networking, social networks, mash-ups, all those tools are part of the shift towards Web 2.0. By relying on user collaboration, impact on sales force seems sizeable since reps represent a population with high communication and sharing needs.
To begin with, the most obvious aspect concerns training and best practices sharing. Indeed, blogs and wikis are probably the most efficient tools to obtain a real-time best practices sharing. Compared to classic documents the main difference is that reps can actually collaborate to a blog or a wiki. The reader becomes a contributor; this simple shift is often enough to spark interest. Therefore, reading about what others consider as best practices (which, in fact, is training), might not be considered as additional work but as a dialogue with a colleague. Given hindsight, one also quickly realizes that on a long-term timeline blogs and wikis allow highly efficient knowledge management programs, for constraints about how to transfer information from the sales force to the Head Office no longer exist.
A rep’s efficiency is driven by bonus and information. Bonus creates the will to sell more, but information provides the rep with arguments that are necessary to back his willpower. Thus, performance management is not left behind when it comes to web 2.0 technologies. Think about a dashboard displaying at the same time information regarding the client you’re about to meet and the supplier from whom your company buys what you’re about to sell, as well as internal information regarding previous meetings with this particular client and external information such as weather forecast and the fastest way to reach your client. Web services and mash-ups gather relevant information in real-time and therefore become significantly time-saving tools if reps are trained on how to use them. By saving time and allowing to gain perspective with better information they enhance efficiency.
Last but not least, one particularly interesting application of web 2.0 technologies in sales force management resides in the company’s ability to let reps know they are sincerely backed and not left alone, even though they’re always on the road. As a matter of fact, one thing you don’t want to propagate within your reps fleet is loneliness. Web 2.0 offers various ways to prevent it:
- The RSS feed of the company’s intranet can make reps feel the Head Office keeps in touch with them.
- Geolocated services displaying accurate geographical positions of colleagues can help finding ways to have lunch with a friend, and can also provide the best addresses close to the actual position in order to have the best possible meal.
- Microblogging applications allowing users to let their network know “what they are doing right now” like Yammer, which applys Twitter’s principles to internal communications inside a company, can truly give the feeling of actually being in the same office even though everyone is in a distinct sector. For instance, during a meeting a rep might encounter something interesting from competitors. With Yammer, he would take a picture with his cell phone and instantly share it with every colleague.
- More generally speaking, the point is creating a community within a sales force. The feeling that you belong to a group creates additional motivation by making you feel stronger.
Web 2.0 technologies are like diamonds in the rough. They offer various tools that must be integrated in a platform such as TilboardTM that reps would use on a daily basis. Thus, it seems that interactive sales book should be tomorrow’s sales force management essential tool, by integrating every previously mentioned technology. Note that a McKinsey survey on Web 2.0 investments states that “companies that acted quickly in the previous wave of investment are more satisfied than late movers. Of those who rated themselves as very satisfied, 46 percent are early adopters and 44 percent are fast followers.” (PDF) It’s time to make the move!
