10 Things I Learned at Sales 2.0 Boston

Over the last couple of days I’ve been reflecting on what I learned at Sales 2.0 Boston. I’m sure some of this has already been discussed in other posts, but I’m interested to hear which of these are most interesting to you.

1) Sales teams are demanding integrated Marketing tools to drive their business.

CRM and Web Analytics can no longer stand as separate systems. Polly Sumner described an experience where she never heard back from an unresponsive CIO, but was able to track that the email she sent was opened 17 times. This implicit interest let her know there was an opportunity at that client. Invaluable.

2) SFDC Chatter allows you to identify top performers.

Eric Johnson described the way his team was using the tool to collaborate and identify the company’s top performers. Eric and Polly both shared experiences that the real superstars of the organization shine through when they analyze their chatter follows and participation.

3) Operational Sales Reporting may not be needed in the future.

This was my most revolutionary “Ah-Ha” moment of the conference. If Chatter allows a manager to see who is taking many actions that drive results, and who is unable to interact with valuable leads and customers, then there is no need to track phone usage, leads closed, and account coverage to understand which sales reps are doing their jobs.

4) You can survive without an IT organization!

I was amazed to hear Dave Fitzgerald from Brainshark describe his systematic dismantling of Brainshark’s internal business systems. Dave sounded very proud when he described the 17 core functions that are now implemented by SaaS tools. He also discussed swapping some out that weren’t performing as expected with simple on / off service contracts. Dave is down to three FTEs supporting his whole Sales and Marketing infrastructure.

5) Siebel is not popular among Sales 2.0 folks.

My company continues to use an on-premise install of Siebel as our CRM / SFA. When I told people this, they gave me a look of sympathy mixed with dissappointment. It was like I had just told them that I had a terminal disease.

6) It takes a village of applications to enable Sales 2.0.

As I begin to think about building a SaaS based Sales and Marketing infrastructure, I realize that you need to select a series of tools that each play their role well. At a bare minimum, an enterprise would need a central CRM / SFA system, a Marketing Automation platform, an integrated lead generation engine, a Sales compensation tool, and an analytic package.

7) The table in the back corner at the Hoovers VIP dinner had more fun than my table.

This was evidenced by the fact that we took the “What will you do to fill the lead funnel?” question seriously, and they spent the same time laughing and drinking. And we still lost to Anneke Seeley’s table!

8 - The Sales 2.0 Conference will be changing it’s name to the Sales and Marketing 2.0 Conference in the future.

As Sales and Marketing Alignment panelist, I completely agree with this approach. The best conversations at the conference were about the intersection of Sales, Marketing, Technology, and Data and over time these things will converge.

9) Sales executives get very interested when you talk about advanced analytics.

That was the number one follow up after my Panel. Everyone I spoke thought they could do better than they were today at priortizing leads, and understood that they needed better analytic tools and models.

10) I need to attend more conferences like this one.

I spend most of my team navigating internal company issues rather than thinking about ways to create revolutionary change for my organization. After attending this conference, I am more qualified to help my company succeed over time. There is no better way I can justify a day out of the office.