When I first heard the term ‘Sales 2.0′ my first thought was “oh dear, not another sales gimmick!”

For those who’ve been in sales a while, you probably know what I’m talking about. We tend to get inundated with hundreds of articles on new sales approaches, how to be a more efficient sales person, reduce or eliminate cold calling, present better, so on and so forth. Some articles are indeed good — don’t get me wrong — but some tend to feed the “flavor of the month” trap of excuses of why sales don’t happen.

I’m a firm believer in the tried and true sales approaches like SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham and have felt that some Web 2.0 tools (Instant Messaging, LinkedIn, Facebook, LiveHelp, etc.) actually enhance these proven approaches. In my mind, the most successful sales people are master social networkers and multi-taskers where these tools come in handy and lend to what is coming in Sales 2.0. Read the rest of this entry » »

Have you ever been driving down the freeway while listening to Jack FM, and the first note of Hotel California sparks a symphony of creative and committed action items? Call Jane about the sales meeting, buy Made to Stick, etc.

I know I am not alone in this. I see the drivers next to me boldly tapping at their blackberrys.

Then I change lanes.

To save us all the risk of peril in light of our large thumbs and fading eyesight focused on such small buttons, I offer Jott as a solution.

One of our clients, Dr. Stuart Dauermann of Rabbenu, a futurist who is well ahead of his peers when it comes to innovation and technology mentioned Jott to me. He described how he often has “a ha!” moments in the car and often cannot capture them as leaving himself a voicemail is often cumbersome and then requires follow up dictation while listening to the long message over the phone which no one enjoys.

Jott solves this problem by providing a voice to text system with an email/sms delivery model that makes logging multiple tasks on the go a snap. In fact, for those of you out there who love to broadcast yourself, you can even update blogs and other systems using Jott as well.

Check out more at www.jott.com and leave a comment below on how you use it and what benefit it had.

With enthusiasm,

–jc

Every winter I try and take a short vacation away from the balmy climes of Southern California, and try to get to some place that actually gets cold. With snow. And icicles. Whether Mammoth or Big Bear, getting into the snow is somewhat cathartic for me — I really feel like I’m getting away from the rote things I tend to do.

This winter, my heart was set on getting to Lake Tahoe, but not settling for a hotel room. I was looking to stay in something more memorable and less cookie-cutter. So, I started checking out my options on the ‘net , and one of the first places I came across was a great website called Home Away. Now, this isn’t an Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz, this is simply a site that connects someone who has a place to rent — whether a condo, a cabin, a house, or an entire plantation — to someone looking for a place to stay. Read the rest of this entry » »

One thing I love about the Enthusiast model is how we are able to interact in creative ways with our clients. Not just once but along the journey as we all grow, mature, and learn. One client of note is a great local city paper out of Culver City, now 100% digital, called The Front Page. I wish my home town had such great coverage on the details of city hall, the school board, and land development activities.

I was graciously invited to begin a column on marketing and Internet related topics. I am happy to say my first article has been posted and I hope you enjoy it. Everyone in business wants their core business to be remembered and stick to their buyers. How this happens can be a mystery but there is a method to the madness. Read on to learn how your ideas can be like “gum on the brain.”

Here is an excerpt:

“All too often, the delegate sent in place of true audience understanding in marketing today is the common platitude.

Please welcome the meticulous “Quality is Job No. 1” to the podium. He is flanked by the energetic “Providing Innovative Solutions” and the plural presence of “Our People Make the Difference.”

Not only can these phrases be wielded by any competitor without malice, they lack the concrete, real life details that make schema connections with your audience. “

I invite you to read “SSKI vs. KISS: Schema and a Smooch for Marketing” for more.

– jc

I recently read an article on www.sitepoint.com, “The Future of the Web: What to Expect in 2008” discussing new web trends and innovations their writers believed to be headed our way for 2008. One of the the more interesting predictions related to the belief that more and more search applications will develop geographic search functions. For instance, instead of simply typing in your destination address to Google Maps and receiving some basic information about what the terrain at the location looks like and how to get there, you could potentially come up with information on what restaurants are close, article reviews of such places as well as other entertainment spots in the area, weather forecasts and conditions for that specific geographic location and a host of other information This new geographic area just became fully accessible.

The interest for me came in the form of one question that you may find interesting to ponder yourself. What does this mean for individuals as well as for businesses and community’s? How will this new set of readily available information impact areas that may be well kept secrets, or long time favorites, as well as the way that businesses now communicate information and fight to control the information that is communicated about them on the web?

Why, oh, why, isn’t there a standard that all web browsers adhere to? Sure they all “kind of” use the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) CSS standards but there are enough discrepancies between the browsers (Firefox, IE, Safari, etc.) that it’s a real pain to get a web site to look the same in all web browsers. Sometimes it’s like walking a tightrope trying to get IE to display a search box the same size as it appears in Firefox. It can be a really frustrating endeavor, not to mention a waste of time.

Web browsers should differentiate themselves in their speed and features, not in how they interpret the standards suggested by the W3C. I look forward to that day, the web will be better off.

There are some hopeful movements, such as the Web Standards project that are trying to make it easy for browser vendors to get on the same page.