CSO Insights Blog Posts

Entering the 21st Century

We are now almost a full decade into the twenty-first century and the idea of openly sharing content is gaining real traction. In his editorial in this month's issue of Selling Power magazine-and at last month's Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston--Gerhard Gschwandtner suggests replacing pitching with co-creating. That is, going on-line, opening a dialogue and seeing what develops. This initial blog is one of the ways CSO Insights is inviting you to comment, to share, and co-create with us.

In our 2009 Sales Performance Optimization report, 57% of respondents rated their company web site's effectiveness at engaging customers as needing improvement. Although Jim Dickie and I have been guest bloggers on other sites the past few years, we are just now launching the CSO Insights blog after redesigning our own site two months ago. In addition to turning on this blog capability, we have begun experimenting in the much discussed area of social networking or social media.

CSO Insights is now publishing an ebook each quarter and making these available for free. You can download your own copy of the current volume by clicking on the orange box on our home page or by clicking here: Sales Management 2.0. You needn't tell us who you are and only have to register if you want future ebooks automatically sent to you as we release them. But even with reasonable traffic visiting our site, this publication would have only limited distribution without collaboration from the community. Instead, inside the front cover beneath the copyright is a new message: Please feel free to post this document in its entirety on your blog or email it to anyone you feel would benefit from reading it. Thank you.

The results in the six weeks since we released this publication have been fascinating. We've received inquiries from the UK, Singapore, Australia and other parts of the globe asking about posting the book on their own blogs, etc. For example, Ardath Albee at marketinginteractions.com posted the offer on her blog as well as a couple of others and in one week more than 200 copies were downloaded. In addition, the book has now been posted on the blogs of some of her readers and was re-tweeted 5 times in one week. There is no question more people are receiving this book since it is being shared. And, of course, you are also invited to share your downloaded copy with any members of your network you feel would benefit from the content.

Let's be clear: giving stuff away is not the same as selling stuff. However, if you like our assertion that selling is establishing and elevating relationships then sharing knowledge, content, ideas is certainly part of selling. Especially if it results in your commenting, sharing ideas, being in touch. Gerhard's editorial outlines six action ideas. Certainly not all of our content is free but as I scanned his checklist this blog is one among other things we'll be doing to make our research much more accessible. The question you should be asking: Is your company part of the community in the 21^st Century?

Barry Trailer

< Back

John Bauer

Appearance on Selling Power

Friday July 31, 2009

Barry,

Enjoyed our conversation about your appearance on Selling Power. Yours is a great topic built on a solid premise and one that is too seldom heard. With over 30 years in sales I can attest that far too few C-Level managers may understand how your design is not only an excellent humanitarian philosophy generating company loyalty, but a strategy that would eliminate many dollars of expense through better utilization of employees. Great message keep up the good work.