Sales and Marketing Alignment Series Intro

I will be joining a panel discussion on June 28, 2010 at the Sales 2.0 Boston Conference. The topic for my panel is Sales and Marketing Alignment, so for the next couple of weeks I’ll be writing a series of posts on related theory. To cover the subject, I will be scratching the surface of very complex subject matter. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like me to dive deeper into any topic.

Here’s my initial list of topics, although these could certainly change as I go. 

1. Intro and What is Sales 2.0
2. CRM and Marketing Measurement to Drive Sales
3. What is a Qualified Lead?
4. Systems Integration - Connecting Web, CRM, and SFA tools
5. Global Sales and Marketing

This is a departure from previous posts about Data Governance, Customer Intelligence, etc., but it’s what I’ve been thinking about. I hope you enjoy.

What is Sales 2.0?

Most of the information about Sales 2.0 is from companies affiliated with the conference. That makes sense as this is about the intersection of Sales and Marketing, and these companies are eating their own dog food (my favorite cliche from my consulting days). It may be that there are lots of other people writing about it as well, but it’s no surprise that the content Google is finding first is from these Marketing focused companies.

What the hell is Sales 2.0? I’m not the first person to ask that question. HubSpot, a conference participant, asks that very question on their blog and their guest writer, Nigel Edelshain claims to have coined the phrase. N. B. I have no reason to doubt him, I’m just excited how nicely the Google results are shaping my blog post. If that’s intentional from the marketing spend of these companies, they are doing a great job of guiding my understanding of a new topic. It’s good to think about these things when approaching advanced Sales and Marketing techniques, because your ultimate goal should be to replicate this approach.

Nigel defines Sales 2.0 thusly: “Sales 2.0 is about sales people using Web 2.0 tools and social media to sell more effectively.” Alright. I get that. A good standard definition that everyone can buy into. I think it may overlook some of the CRM plumbing that makes this concept functional, but I like how concise that is.

What about others? How do the vendors promoting the theory define it? Inside View, who is another conference sponsor, has a whole page dedicated to defining Sales 2.0. They have been supporting the conference and concept since 2007 and confim Nigel as the creator of the original concept. Their definitions page links to other definition pages, and I count at least 30 different definitions for Sales 2.0.

I’ll stop there, but continue soon with CRM and Marketing Measurement. I look forward to your comments.