Paul Gillin

APRIL 27, 2012

In a presentation to the SugarCRM SugarCon conference in San Francisco earlier this week, Gary Burnette, vice president of sales transformation at IBM, told how the implementation team at IBM succeeded in making social selling a coveted goal rather than another set of rules and reports. “We Familiarity Breeds Intent.

Process 50

Process Word of Mouth Forecasting Lock-In 50

Paul Gillin

AUGUST 20, 2013

Outside of prospecting with LinkedIn, few sales pros are willing to make the investment of time to learn and use tools that promise a payoff months or years down the road. Information is competitive advantage in sales. Sales pros are driven by quotas, which are measured in monthly increments. I think they’re worth sharing.

Social Media 50

Social Media Training Media Opinions 50

Paul Gillin

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Marketing and sales organizations at most B2B companies have a relationship that can be politely described as strained. Sales complains that marketing gives them lousy leads while marketers charge that sales wouldn’t know a good lead is it bit them on the nose. Both sides are correct.

BtoB 50

BtoB Social Networks B2B Sales Network Marketing 50

Paul Gillin

OCTOBER 5, 2011

In the weeks leading up to the Direct Marketing Association annual conference in Boston this week, exhibitors were out strutting their best stuff. Both turned out to be promotions for companies exhibiting at the conference. Are serious buyers really willing to endure a half-hour sales pitch to get a crummy pair of movie tickets?

Direct Marketing 50

Direct Marketing BtoB Word of Mouth Conference 50

Paul Gillin

APRIL 24, 2012

It’s about giving people at every stage in the sales cycle the incentive to adopt tools that make their jobs easier and contribute to customer satisfaction. IBM started with that simple premise when it tackled the task of convincing its sales and marketing people to adopt a new way of doing business. Photo via NigelBeck.com.

Business 50

Business Work Management Customer Satisfaction Marketing Management 50

Paul Gillin

JANUARY 17, 2012

The research & development organization has used IBM Connections to take a long-standing technical conference online. The Virtual Technical Information Exchange (VTIE) renders in cyberspace what used to be done with speeches, posters and conference calls. Time to Market.

Wiki 50

Wiki Peer-to-peer Work Management Marketing Management 50

Paul Gillin

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

That story popped into my mind last week as I was participating in a webcast with The Conference Board about internal social networks, their promise and the significant impediments that many organizations face to adopting them. The message was clear: Using the lab was equivalent to goofing off. Needless to say, people stayed away.

Enterprise Management 50

Enterprise Management Social Networks Webcast Paid Search Agency 50