The Social Business Collaboration Software Powered Sales Force

With the sales team being the front line in the quest for success for any organization, the need to strengthen their abilities as a team and equip them to function as efficiently as possible becomes paramount to their effectiveness. From businesses with smaller sales teams to ones with a sales force which can be hundreds and even thousands strong, there are a number of challenges which they can face which are unique to the sales organization. The ability to communicate easily and collaborate as a unit is perhaps one of the most common ones and while CRM software and blackberry’s are associated with making the lives of the sales team better, there is one other technology which is gaining ground very quickly…social networking software for collaboration.

Whether an in house sales force or a network of channel and partner sales representatives, the sales organization is often a widely spread very mobile organization scattered across locations or always on the move. Communication and content is a lifeline for the organization but the common complaint is a lack of a unified platform they can use to communicate on and work with each other. This often sees large numbers of sales representatives working as islands with no sharing of intelligence, best practices and a coordinated effort which could otherwise result in more efficient working and perhaps better revenues.

For the management, there are other challenges such as the need to send out individual communications with each sales rep with the alternative being to email or push out their communications and content across the entire sales force even though a lot of it may not be relevant to each one of them again creating an inefficient process. Training and development of new and existing sales reps is a constant concern with higher employee turnover rates than most other departments and the need to constantly update and enhance skills and information throughout the daily working process. So how is a social networking based business community platform going to address all this?

Building a collaboration network platform for the sales force is a great strategy. Sales teams at IBM, CISCO, T-Mobile and others have already experienced the results of leveraging collaborative social software in providing their sales teams with these platforms and here is just some of what has been observed by companies who have built such online networks for their sales organization:

Greater sharing of knowledge & best practices: – collaboration and social networking environments foster sharing of information and experiences which among sales organizations often translates to a widespread sharing of best practices. These best practices which are often posted by members of the sales team on the job come from practical experiences with customers and the practice of sharing this knowledge alone helps build a better sales organization.

Rapid turnaround time in getting answers to questions:- companies have seen with the ability to simply log in to the network and post a question on the discussion boards or forums, sales reps and channel sales agents find it easy to ask questions on handling situations, on product updates and other topics. What’s more is with all the other members regularly on the network, questions get answered quickly creating a strong process for ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Better objection handling:- it’s been observed that when sales reps come across customer objections while selling and post them within their network, they are replied to with multiple suggestions for handling these objections from others on the community. With everyone collectively pitching in on how to manage these objections, the learning curve increases and everyone gains from better success rates.

Constant pull-based learning & development process:- With the constant discussion, conversation, posting of learning content, presentations, blog posts, videos, webinars and other useful content the network also acts as a platform for continuous learning. Since it’s not pushed on employees it’s not seen as something they are forced to learn and rather, they are encouraged to participate in posting, consuming, commenting on and sharing learning content by seeing others do the same.

Single platform for distribution of content: Rather than have to email each sales rep or go through the other extreme of email the entire sales force with content and material which may not be relevant or useful to all of them, the collaborative network provides a single platform to which content can be posted to. Sales reps can simply login and take what they need whether it’s a product guide, specs update sheet or marketing collateral. This makes it easier for management to distribute content and spares the sales reps from being bombarded with what they may not need.

Single platform for communication and planning:- Perhaps one of the biggest plus points for management is having a single platform they can use to communicate with the entire sales team no matter how far they are spread and where they are physically located. Whether it’s sending out important notices or planning campaigns which need groups of sales reps to participate and discuss, the network provides a platform to communicate, plan and execute on what may otherwise be a daunting task.

Visibility into operations and recognition of performers:- The collaboration network brings a greater level of transparency into the working of the sales organization as well as to information which would otherwise slipped under the radar. Management can spot performers, contributions to the sales organization and spread the word on achievements to recognize outstanding sales reps and also to motivate the sales community as a whole to push the envelope and do better.

In short, the social collaboration software platform can bring a new level of cohesiveness to the working of the sales force and a unified sales force is powerful one. Quicker spread of information, better ability to plan and interact with each other and better communication can be targeted with building a platform exclusively for sales employees and a lot of businesses can benefit from the results seen by those who have been front runners in this space. After all if the goal is to push revenues, what better way than to equip the sales organization with the technology they need to bring home the results?

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How Social Collaboration Software Can Take Us Towards A More Transparent Business Environment

The economic crisis and global recession that brought economies the world over to its knees may be showing signs of improvement, but it’s impact is far from over. While the mood is slowly turning positive, the recession has left people more skeptical or more cautious over the financial system and the way business is done, irrespective of where in the world they are. With support from the media, there is a very strong resolve among people everywhere to instill change in business practices and ensure disasters of this scale don’t happen in the future. The millions of people who have felt deceived by the large banks and financial companies will feel this way for quite some time, despite the worst being over for now and for businesses everywhere the challenge of winning the confidence of their shareholders and people in general is going to be one they need to face.

The challenge of being able to create a more transparent, more accountable work environment is a universal one. Having transparency in day to day functioning builds confidence both internally within the organization as well as externally among people — which is why businesses have to seriously evaluate how they can move to a more transparent system of working. Whether it’s your sales team working with customers, management working with employees, management communicating with shareholders, company buyers evaluating purchases, or project managers working with customers, if you’re communications are transparent and there for others (who have some association with the work you’re doing) to observe, then everything is being transacted in plain view and the scope for large scale scandals, frauds, and misuse of position is reduced.

A similar challenge was highlighted in a case study involving Canada’s trade association for airports when they were evaluating a collaboration solution which would help them work with the several member airports. They were geographically scattered and there was no visibility into the business proposals and deals being made, as most of them happened through email discussions which were privy to the parties and it was easy to exclude people from being cc’d. While document sharing and collaboration helps to an extent, documentation is one part of business communication. Social software based collaborative networks offer a better more well rounded solution as they can centralize the documents around a deal or discussion and also provide a transparent platform for the communication and working that goes with it. In a collaborative networking environment, unlike email, people interact within groups, shared documents like wikis, forums and so on, leaving a clear record of the working process — which is there in plain sight for anyone to see.

Business communications need to be more transparent and corporate culture is slowly being driven by peoples need for more accountability towards being more open. There is a lot we can take from social networking and collaboration software technology there. Trade associations, governing bodies, governmental agencies, and businesses can all benefit from developing a better, stronger collaborative communication process which makes everyone more accountable and brings back the confidence to all involved. That is a change that can bring us all one step closer to better business practices in the future.

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