The following (unsolicited) post appeared last week on Laurent Pacalin’s blog. Laurent is SVP and CMO at FICO and a current Phone Works client. 

For those of you who have an interest in improving your sales process, I highly recommend Anneke Seley’s book Sales 2.0, available at booksellers including Amazon. Having rolled out the first Oracle website in the ’90s, in a (very successful) effort to increase the penetration of the Oracle database in the mid-market, I had the opportunity to work very closely with Oracle’s inside sales organization. I later took advantage of this experience to design Siebel’s enterprise CRM software, which gave me the privilege to work with some of the most talented companies on the planet: companies trying to build great sales organizations and striving to integrate successfully the multiple channels of customer communications!

I certainly wish that Anneke Seley’s book had been available at the time, as it very clearly and realistically explains and underscores how successful sales organizations need to use contemporary technology, and be disciplined in codifying and measuring meaningful processes and outcomes from prospect inquiry to customer close. Anneke’s emphasis on a common lead framework between sales and marketing is right on! Don’t wait to implement a low-latency sales cycle: Implement Sales 2.0 now.