Comments on: Steroids and Painkillers for Sale: The Funnelholic’s Take on the Sales 2.0 Conference http://www.funnelholic.com/2010/03/12/steroids-and-painkillers-for-sale-the-funnelholic%e2%80%99s-take-on-the-sales-20-conference/ a blog for those of us who live and work at the top end of the b2b funnel: Demand Generation, Lead Generation, Online Media, B2B Sales and Marketing, Marketing Automation, DRIP, Lead Nurturing, and Fun. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:48:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Adam Needles http://www.funnelholic.com/2010/03/12/steroids-and-painkillers-for-sale-the-funnelholic%e2%80%99s-take-on-the-sales-20-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-1790 Adam Needles Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:43:27 +0000 http://www.funnelholic.com/?p=1082#comment-1790 Craig, I think the most significant call-out is that 'revolution' IS upon us. And it's both a sales and marketing thing. In fact, maybe it's a holistic 'demand chain' thing, for lack of a better way to say it. But people are really getting religion around marketing and sales science -- and there is a science here -- and around having end-to-end systems for demand-chain management. Similar to the revolution that has swept the CPGs around behavioral/ethnographic targeting and NPD, we're now seeing it in B2B with closed-loop efforts that give us real, end-to-end behavioral insight into our prospects and -- thus -- help us get closer to them and respond to them in real time. Glad to see Sales 2.0 getting traction, and we're seeing the same thing with the B2B Marketing University series the Silverpop team launched last Fall. (BTW -- We have upcoming events in Boston and Palo Alto -- just Google us, and you'll find the series.) Thanks for a great write-up. Couldn't be at Sales 2.0, but our Silverpop team said it was a great show. Sounds like it. Craig, I think the most significant call-out is that ‘revolution’ IS upon us. And it’s both a sales and marketing thing. In fact, maybe it’s a holistic ‘demand chain’ thing, for lack of a better way to say it. But people are really getting religion around marketing and sales science — and there is a science here — and around having end-to-end systems for demand-chain management.

Similar to the revolution that has swept the CPGs around behavioral/ethnographic targeting and NPD, we’re now seeing it in B2B with closed-loop efforts that give us real, end-to-end behavioral insight into our prospects and — thus — help us get closer to them and respond to them in real time.

Glad to see Sales 2.0 getting traction, and we’re seeing the same thing with the B2B Marketing University series the Silverpop team launched last Fall. (BTW — We have upcoming events in Boston and Palo Alto — just Google us, and you’ll find the series.)

Thanks for a great write-up. Couldn’t be at Sales 2.0, but our Silverpop team said it was a great show. Sounds like it.

]]> By: Jeff Ogden http://www.funnelholic.com/2010/03/12/steroids-and-painkillers-for-sale-the-funnelholic%e2%80%99s-take-on-the-sales-20-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-1783 Jeff Ogden Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:29:35 +0000 http://www.funnelholic.com/?p=1082#comment-1783 I have to confess, Craig, that I'm a skeptic on events. So many of them are bad, that I think they all need a close look. But it seems that Sales 2.0, The Online Marketing Summit, and the MarketingProfs event in Boston are three really good ones. Sorry I did not make it to this event, but I certainly hope to next year. Jeff Ogden, President Find New Customers "Lead Generation Made Simple" http://www.findnewcustomers.net I have to confess, Craig, that I’m a skeptic on events. So many of them are bad, that I think they all need a close look. But it seems that Sales 2.0, The Online Marketing Summit, and the MarketingProfs event in Boston are three really good ones.

Sorry I did not make it to this event, but I certainly hope to next year.

Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple”
http://www.findnewcustomers.net

]]> By: Marc Perramond http://www.funnelholic.com/2010/03/12/steroids-and-painkillers-for-sale-the-funnelholic%e2%80%99s-take-on-the-sales-20-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-1781 Marc Perramond Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:42:46 +0000 http://www.funnelholic.com/?p=1082#comment-1781 Excellent post, Craig. Also, great job moderating the Lead Gen & Customer Acquisition panel on Monday!) The steroids & pain killers analogy, aside from being quite catchy, is a great way of categorizing most Sales 2.0 solutions (be they technologies or processes). One camp focuses on optimizing the performance of the sales organization (revenue, speed) and the other on reducing the pain involved with operating that sales organization (costs, morale). When our product first came to market in 2007, Sales 2.0 was just emerging as a concept and people really didn't know how to categorize us. What we often heard was "Cool, so you're like [old school business data provider] on steroids?" As a product manager this was like an affront and sounded like nails on a chalk board. I would reply that no, no, no we're an entirely different kind of application focused on sales productivity rather than data, then go on to explain the finer points on how we aggregate, apply intelligence, tap into social media, mash-up in your CRM, etc, etc. YAWN, right? Most people eventually got it and the education cycle shrunk considerably as the Sales 2.0 gospel spread. But reading your post just now makes me realize that I shouldn't have been so resistant to this analogy, so much more common at the time. Instead of focusing on who we were being compared to, I should have focused on the "steroids" part, i.e. "performance enhancing", i.e. "Sales 2.0". Happy hunting, -marc Marc Perramond Product Guy InsideView Excellent post, Craig. Also, great job moderating the Lead Gen & Customer Acquisition panel on Monday!)

The steroids & pain killers analogy, aside from being quite catchy, is a great way of categorizing most Sales 2.0 solutions (be they technologies or processes). One camp focuses on optimizing the performance of the sales organization (revenue, speed) and the other on reducing the pain involved with operating that sales organization (costs, morale).

When our product first came to market in 2007, Sales 2.0 was just emerging as a concept and people really didn’t know how to categorize us. What we often heard was “Cool, so you’re like [old school business data provider] on steroids?” As a product manager this was like an affront and sounded like nails on a chalk board. I would reply that no, no, no we’re an entirely different kind of application focused on sales productivity rather than data, then go on to explain the finer points on how we aggregate, apply intelligence, tap into social media, mash-up in your CRM, etc, etc. YAWN, right? Most people eventually got it and the education cycle shrunk considerably as the Sales 2.0 gospel spread. But reading your post just now makes me realize that I shouldn’t have been so resistant to this analogy, so much more common at the time. Instead of focusing on who we were being compared to, I should have focused on the “steroids” part, i.e. “performance enhancing”, i.e. “Sales 2.0″.

Happy hunting,
-marc

Marc Perramond
Product Guy
InsideView

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