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Trigger Events and Sales 2.0
Written by: Alen MajerArticle Overview: Web 2.0 enables Sales 2.0 and many sales people can take customer communications into their own hands and to an entirely new level. Sales reps have more control over the tools that they use, and they can be always on, answering to customers questions in the matter of minutes and not hours or days.
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Trigger Events and Sales 2.0
Let’s take a look at what has recently happened to the salespeople in a company that has a fine record of few product and sales mistakes - Proctor & Gamble.
Proctor & Gamble manufactures a product called SK II and it was offered by its sales force to the world market. In one country there were complaints that the product when applied to the skin for the use of moistening the skin caused skin rashes.
How did the word get around? The internet. The Blogs with comments read by thousands of current and prospective customers. The company withdrew the product from the market, but not until consumer trust had been badly damaged. Like luck, the freedom of the World Wide Web can work in two opposite ways for a business and for sales.
Everyone is talking about the Web 2.0 as a second generation of web-based communities and services, such as social networking sites that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. The phrase Web 2.0 may hint at an improved form of the World Wide Web. Advocates of the concept suggest those technologies such as blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, and online Web services imply a significant change in web usage.
I firmly believe that is time to start talking about Sales 2.0.
Certainly there are many areas that sales people are affected with the new technology, pushing them to be more pro-active and having more control over the tools they are using.
To give a few examples: communications with the customers are affected with Sales 2.0 because many of your customers’ executives are having their own Blogs; emails are taking over the communication to a different level, many sales reps are always available due to the technology of Blackberry phones of the world, and especially internet makes it possible to do something that even decade ago was impossible – research companies before you contact them with the help of RSS feeds, online business directories, news alerts from search engines, etc.
And if technology has changed, markets are also changing by the same speed: one of the basic rules of capitalism is that in capitalism business collapses if it does not adapt to the situation on the market. Collapse of the businesses ironically benefits the system because it makes a space on the market for fresh ideas and new, better, and improved products.
Even a business collapse today can be a sales opportunity as pointed out above. There are over 3000 important cases in bankruptcy court in the U.S. at any one time these days. One of the chief examples is the airlines.
In over half of the cases the companies process through bankruptcy and reorganize successfully, becoming new customer for a variety of salespeople. It can be a huge untapped sales market, and by recognizing trigger events you can open a whole new market space for you.
Even the tragic case of Enron where fraud ruled the roost; they have turned around and with one of their energy company’s regained health again: new products, new services needed and new sales.
A lot of “motivational” preaching books have it backwards that urge salespeople to simply swim against the current. And it looks as if that’s what winners are doing. But winners have identified the future direction of the river current and swim vigorously in that direction.
With trigger events you will learn in which direction are your customers swimming, and nothing else is needed from you but to join them.
We sales people are in the business of asking our clients to make a major change. If we are unwilling to change ourselves, how can we ask our prospects to?
Read more about Sales 2.0 and about Trigger Events (where to find them and how to use them) in my book "Trigger Events - How to Find Your Next Customer".
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Article Tags: advocates, blackberry phones, blogs, business directories, collaboration, consumer trust, decade, new technology, phrase, proctor gamble, prospective customers, sales reps, salespeople, second generation, social bookmarking, social networking sites, social software, web usage, world market, world wide web
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About the Author: Alen Majer RSS for Alen's articles - Visit Alen's website  Alen Mayer, Canadian Sales Expert, is fiercely committed to guiding Entrepreneurs and Sales Professionals to improve their sales knowledge and skills so they can achieve extraordinary sales results, close more sales effectively, and learn more to earn more. If you are looking for a proven Sales Expert who will show you new ways of getting more clients in less time, how to book more appointments by fighting phone resistance, and learn new ways of handling excuses and objections to excel in sales, you've come to the right place. With 20 years in sales and 10 years of experience working with amazing clients with similar worries and concerns and guiding them to achieve remarkable success, my mission and commitment is to help sales people achieve their goals faster than they would without my guidance. I am living proof that you don't need to be a natural-born salesperson to be successful in sales. What lights me up about this work and what sets me apart from other service providers is that I believe that sales is a process and that process can be taught. You always need training. A great salesperson is always trying to make him or herself better. Alen is author of these books: ■ Selling IS Better Than Sex - www.SellingIsBetter.com Sales Training Programs: ■ Get More Appointments TM Summary: - 20+ years in international sales and business development, 10+ years in sales management, coaching and training Alen has inspired audiences from St. John's to Vancouver, and across North America and Europe. Whether a business conference, association meeting, or other event, every aspect is planned and coordinated to maximize attendee value. As keynote speaker, Alen achieves your objectives. To book Alen Majer, one of Canada's top sales experts, please send an email to alen@alenmajer.com.
Click here to visit Alen's website   3 reasons why you lose a sale |
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I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
- [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan,
I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz]
I second the request...
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- i just wanted to say that posting Small Business Events on CanadaOne is a great resource. Thanks Julie!
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My name is Tim Naylor and I am in Direct Sales! I am glad I have found EC's sites and I hope to learn and share a lot!
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