World, meet Jimmie BrainSell. A superhero taking on business pains from around the world. Sales people all over the world are restricted by sub-par technology and less than ideal operations. Have no fear… Jimmie BrainSell is here!
prog·nos·ti·cate - To predict according to present indications or signs; foretell.
I’ve seen the future and I’m not sure I saw a Blackberry.
First, I’m not a technologist and can’t explain technical details of why the Blackberry may have already seen its best days, I’m simply a user. A long time user. And today in a mobile world it’s all about usability. I’m also in the business of providing business technology: CRM (SalesLogix, SageCRM, ACT!, SugarCRM) and ERP software (Sage MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500, ACCPAC ERP, Acumatica). It’s clear that our clients and prospects are looking toward becoming increasingly mobile. Our software vendors are also gearing up for the mobility revolution.
In order to be a successful mobile user, the hardware needs to make using these applications, well, usable. Having tried hardware like the iPad, Android and iPhone and comparing those to using any of the Blackberry solutions, I fear Blackberry may not win this competition.
Does the Blackberry go the way of the Tyrannosaurus Rex? I think it does, unless RIM reinvents itself, and fast. I’d love to hear other thoughts on this so comment away.
Purchasing and implimenting a CRM system can be a daunting task. Sometimes you can buy directly from the software vendor and other times you can buy through a Value Added Reseller (VAR). BrainSell President Jim Ward addressed the topic of who to buy from as a guest blogger on the Sales Opperation Blog this week.
Jim focused on the pros and cons of buying direct and buying from a VAR. Here are some of his points in short… to read the entire post, visit Marci Reynolds’ Sales Opperation Blog.
Definitions:
Direct Sales: A direct sales model for a CRM software vendor means the vendor employs their own sales force and you do business directly with the vendor.
Value Added Reseller (VAR): When buying through a VAR you’re buying through a company certified to resell the vendor’s software. VARs offer additional services such as training, development, consulting and implementation to add “value” (the “V” in VAR) to the sale.
2010 SugarCon speaker Jan Sysmans, Director of Product Marketing at SugarCRM, made a very compelling SugarCRM vs. Salesforce argument. Below are some of his points.
SugarCRM’s Flexibility is Superior
* With SugarCRM, you can… easy drag and drop UI for customization. Create your own integrations in PHP (open language) – Salesforce has a proprietary language (NOT open source).
* SugarCRM has… 5,000+ integrations with other applications – Salesforce has under 1,000
* SugarCRM has no limitations to the number of custom modules and work flow – Salesforce DOES have limits
With SugarCRM, you get more Control
* With SugarCRM, every customer has their own database – Salesforce users share one multi-tenant database.
* SugarCRM does weekly database backups with object relationships intact – Salesforce only does monthly backups without object relationships (they’ll charge you if you want to back up more frequently)
* With SugarCRM, you’re free to deploy on-demand or on-site or virtual private cloud and easily move your deployment from on-demand to on-site – Salesforce is locked into a Salesforce data center – that’s not very nice.
Guest blog by Seth Ellertson, Director of Sales East for Sage CRM
As Sage is rapidly approaching the advent of our new and exciting cloud offering for SalesLogix CRM, we’re tasked with advising our partners on how to appropriately motivate and compensating their sales people in this new world. While there is no question our partner and customers are anxiously awaiting our new offer, I can’t help but think that this changes the game for sales compensation. The old days were easy – you gave a sales representative a quota for license sales and paid them against achievement. It was really that easy. The only real question was how much to make their quota and how much to pay them, but of course that could be solved pretty easily by some revenue and cost modeling done by accounting people much smarter in the ways of finance than myself. Sales people had a license revenue target that they achieved by securing upfront software license purchases.
The SASS and Cloud offerings require a bit more thought, although according to Joel York in his March 2010 article SaaS Sales Compensation Made Easy, “The ONLY difference between SaaS sales compensation and sales compensation for software or other products is that you should pay based on the “LIFETIME VALUE of THE DEAL” instead of the unit price of the product. Unfortunately, It didn’t appear that simple from the rest of his article. Joel actually goes on to talk about present values of annuity’s and other financial calculations that I just simply couldn’t focus enough of my attention deficit mind around in my most boring college classes. (Trust me there is a reason I’m in sales) Joel then goes to provide the following formula – SaaS Subscription LTV=RR = RR (1-a)/(1=i) + RR ……… ok, I can’t find the symbols on the key board for the rest of it. Needless to say that’s where Joel lost me.
So I started to think about all of the reasons that a re-occurring model was different from a traditional sales model and the questions surrounding the differences - Should a sales representatative be paid upfront despite the company receiving payments in monthly or quarterly increments? Do you pay on total contract value or reoccurring revenue? If you pay on reoccurring revenue how to you motivate someone to secure a multi-year contract. What if a customer cancels their contract? As I’m researching options, one thing continues to come to my mind –COMPENSATION DRIVES MOTIVATION.
As we’ve rolled out dozens of different sales models over the years the only real question that sales people have is – what exactly do I need to do to make exactly how much money. So what does that mean for a small business owner or a VP of sales looking to change a compensation model… well its simple I think (although I’m clearly not as financially educated as Joel) - First make sure the plan is easy to understand and calculate, remember us sales people like thinks simple. Second make sure that you align compensation with corporate goals. If your corporate goal is to acquire 100 new customers this year, then base a sales representative on customer acquisition. If your goal is to secure 5 million or 500 million in annual re-occurring revenue, then base them on those targets. The only real thing to be careful about according to Joel (yes, I really did read his whole article, it was quite insightful) is to make sure that you choose a time frame for the reoccurring target like monthly, quarterly and yearly and stick with that timeframe, as changing it periodically has serious impact.
So at the end of the day figure out a reoccurring revenue target by doing some projections and modeling and pay your people for achieving those targets. Couldn’t be easier… after all sales people aren’t compensated for managing cash flow they are compensated for closing deals.
I found a great quote in a pdf presentation I found on sales compensation -
“Most of the time was spent discussing our business plans and objectives and worrying less about paying too much or too little” Steve Balk, VP Sales, Dataflux
Steve, I don’t know who you are, but I like your style. I couldn’t agree with you more, although I selfishly favor paying salespeople too much. Lets figure out how to achieve our business objectives and if we overpay our salespeople a bit in the first year because we achieved those objectives – who cares, let’s just go sell!
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Social CRM process. Actually, the phrase was recently dubbed by blogger Jacob Morgan. As social media outlets continue to take off, we need to understand how the wealth of data can be categorized and monetized within CRM. It’s difficult to visualize how these outlets can turn into sales.
How can we successfuly integrate social media into our CRM systems? It seems like a messy undertaking, but Morgan does a great job of clearing it up.
Here is his original idea. It’s simple, maybe too simple.
Morgan's Original SCRM Depiction
Through the beauty of social media, his ideas grew in a few week’s time and he’s added on to it. A Google group, Social CRM Pioneers, led a discussion on Morgan’s initial thoughts. The discussion took on even more interest on the Cloud Ave. blog and ReTweets followed. Social media seems abstract, but with the help of others, Morgan drilled down a little more.
Morgan's Revised SCRM Process Depiction
How do you follow through with social media traffic? Have you created new fields in account records for Twitter activity?
Ross Jones, VP of Sales Engineering at BrainSell, lectured at Harvard University’s Extension School of Management last month. Jones has been feature as a guest lecturer for three years at Harvard.
Jones’ lecture, The Need for CRM, is part of the graduate course, MGMT 6060 Customer Relationship Management. The course, led by Paul Olean, teaches how to develop a successful customer relationship management (CRM) program.
Jones’ two hour presentation addressed why CRM is needed in business, the benefits and implementation tactics. Jones also discussed why social media is now an invaluable facet of CRM.
“Social media can no longer be ignored,” said Jones. “Using social media as a means of inbound marketing is a very cost-effective way of increasing sales. CRM can handle all the extra data that is a product of social media. It’s a win-win.”
Jones has been a VP with BrainSell for eight years and is an expert on CRM implementation and service.
For more information on Harvard University’s graduate management program, visit the extension Website.
Hubspot founder Dharmesh Shah related outbound marketing to killing kittens at our Accelerator event last month. We don’t like doing it, but it’s necessisary sometimes. Depending on your business, you may be able to use inbound marketing so much that you’re running an animal shelter. Others aren’t so lucky.
BrainSell still finds outbound marketing valuable. It’s a way to engage customers who aren’t buzzing on social media sites all day. With the right pitch and implementation, outbound marketing can work.
A method we favor is still email marketing. However, you have to be careful! Getting blacklisted is easier than you think. Using an automated email program can build consistency, leads and follow-through. You can also integrate these programs into CRM systems so the correspondence doesn’t get lost.
Join us for a free 1 hour webinar on email marketing and CRM. We’ll show you how to do it right!
The countdown is on – 5 days until our big social media event at the Woburn Hilton. Close to 200 people are signed up already and we’re setting our goals high. 300 sign ups! Almost all of the sign ups have come from social media. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
We needed to step things up in the final sprint. So one of our fine colleagues from SugarCRM, @mjayliebs, suggested running a Twitter contest. After a little research, I found that short and easy is the best way to get traction with a contest.
@brainsell hyped about http://bit.ly/brainsellevent and giving away $100 in GC today! RT this to be eligible to win 1 of 4 $25 GCs
That’s it! Re-tweet our message about re-tweeting and you can win one of 4 $25 gift cards. To where? Who cares! It only takes one click for a chance at free money, I’m down. Are you? Starbucks anyone?
RT @RWW: The new Apple TV will retail for $99. Will you be buying one? #apple8:34 PM Sep 1st,2010
RT @WSJ: 40% of Americans over age 55 are working or looking for work, the highest rate since JFK's administration http://on.wsj.com/a4CBN08:06 PM Sep 1st,2010
@gmobisson Thanks for the RT! Always nice to see a fellow Sugar admirer 6:41 PM Sep 1st,2010
New blog posting, Internet Spying, a Rapidly Growing Business - http://tinyurl.com/2amt2ba2:26 PM Sep 1st,2010
However, you have to be careful! Getting blacklisted is easier than you think. Using an automated email program can build consistency, leads and follow-through. You can also integrate these programs into CRM systems so the correspondence doesn’t get lost.
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