Let me explain …

Many of the most Socially advanced Contact Centers today are using tools to listen in on Conversations. Conversations that are happening about their brand, conversations that are happening about their competition, and of course conversations that revolve around Customer Support! Customer Support makes for an easy anchor of any good Social Media strategy so it stands to reason that Customer Support would play a leading role when it comes to listening in on Conversations.

But today’s listening and analytical technology for social conversations are still in their infancy. So many Contact Center managers find themselves using their listening tools to find Support opportunities and then manually “cutting and pasting” them into email to send to the agent that can best handle the inquiry.

In his book, Gladwell describes “agents of change” like the Connectors who are the people who “link us up with the world”. He characterizes these individuals as having social networks of over one hundred people. And the Mavens who are “information specialists”, or “people we rely upon to connect us with new information.” They accumulate knowledge, especially about the marketplace, and know how to share it with others.

So in effect the Contact Center Manager acts as the Social Agent of Change, more specifically in the role as the “Connector” linking up the worlds social requests to the best qualified Agent who then plays the role of the “Maven” or information specialist.

While this is a great role for the Contact Center to play it has 2 distinct pitfalls. First is this approach while admirable is just not scaleable. Too much manual intervention and we need to evolve the analytical tools take the place of the “Connector” role. Second we are going to need to get to a place where all this is trackable and measurable rather than unstructured workloads.

When you have an issue these days – what’s the first place you go for more information? That’s right – the Internet – most likely Google but increasingly for real time information search you might use Twitter. Conversely most people don’t just pick up the phone and call a company anymore.

Some of these issues first showed up on Twitter way before they ever hit the Contact Center. Perhaps days before anyone called into the Contact Center to inquire.

With the speed of Social Media these days – wouldn’t you love to have a few day head start? Well you do – but only if you are listening.

A peer of mine said that she has seen this effect already on Twitter but she doesn’t jump at the first sighting – she waits to see at least a second sighting perhaps in a different channel (or coming from a different region) before she decides to engage.

While clearly you need to use your best judgment – you do have the opportunity to head off at the pass serious issues for your brand before they become front page news. The only caveat is, you have to be listening …

Seems to me like these channels have gone mainstream in the minds of many marketers as evidenced by the number of inquires about these channels and also by my mom’s Facebook profile and my dad’s Twitter feed! But what scares me even more than that is the seemingly singleminded focus on the launch of these mediums rather than conversational aspect.

Everyone seems content to dive right in and start planning their presence on these channels but is missing the point from a marketing perspective. Much like the old adage “people spend more time planning the wedding than they spend planning the marriage”.

The point is you need to plan the flow of content that will go into these channels. If you already have a blog, podcast series or video series you can effectively use Facebook or Twitter to attract another audience to interact and create conversations with those assets.

Facebook Content Syndication Tips

And there are a variety of ways to syndicate content on your Facebook Fan page. You can use the Notes page to import blog posts to your Fan page, you can use the My Del.icio.us application to import any bookmarks you may have made in your Del.icio.us account, you can use the Simply RSS application to bring in RSS feeds you may have on your company website, you can edit your links section of have a variety of blogs or websites you may want to highlight perhaps by employees or partners of your company, and don’t forget to edit your Feed settings to include the complete versions of all your blog posts so they appear not only on your Fan page but on the Feeds of all your fans.

The channels you choose will only be as good as the content you publish with them. Spend more time on the content and the plans for future content if you really want to create a strong pull of interested prospects with those channels!

A good Social Media strategy starts with looking at what Conversations you want to engage in, what Objectives you have for engaging in those conversations, what Strategy you will have to fulfill on those objectives and finally what Technology you will use to get there.

In order to plan that out for a client, the agency can work with them to get a sense for the Conversations a brand should be engaged in, what Objectives they should have for engaging in these conversation, what strategy will best fulfill on your objective and what technology to use. But where Agencies typically are challenged is on the “who” part of the equation – “who” will be the person best suited to represent the brand for a particular type of conversation.

Agencies have to get internally savvy fast to navigate the waters of an organization and this typically doesn’t happen overnight. Or perhaps they need to find the “super connector” within the organization who can help them articulate who to go to as point of contact for those conversations.

So when you are working with an outside agency on helping you with your Social Media strategy the best place to focus your efforts to help them is in the identification and recruitment of strong personas who can represent your brand in some very specific conversations.

Marketing is “passive selling”. I think the problem is execution and rests in two places. The first is with corporate structure. Companies can do a better job at integrating the two functions. Marketing and Sales need to be tightly integrated with the same incentive and management plans. I don’t see this enough. I don’t know too many companies where the marketing people are on the same quota plan as the sales people. Marketing supports sales, if sales fails, not sure how marketing can be successful. The creative component is the other problem. I get the need the need for creativity in marketing, however all too often the creativity gets in the way of the message. If it looks cool, is hip, and wins awards for creativity, but doesn’t increase sales isn’t worth anything.

2) What do you think is the most important thing a marketer can do for you to help you sell?

Create a compelling story. I think marketing forgets this sometimes. I see a lot of slick, aesthetically appealing campaigns, but they lack a story. Marketing has an interesting, and I’ll admit, difficult job. They have to connect with their audience through indirect, passive mediums. As sales people we get to talk to folks directly. Sales has the benefit of engagement. If we say the wrong thing, miss the mark with a point, we usually get a second chance to correct it and get back on track. Marketers don’t have that. If their campaign misses the mark they’re in trouble. This is why marketers HAVE to be compelling story tellers. If they miss the mark they don’t get a second chance.

It reminds me of the failed Nissan campaign in the early 90’s, when Nissan launched the Acura Brand. They didn’t show the car for the first few weeks. They ran ads talking about it coming, and how great it was going to be. But they never showed it. It was a cool campaign; it had intrigue, and was hip. But it didn’t work. People couldn’t act. The story wasn’t compelling. People love cars for what they look like. And until Nissan showed you the car, it didn’t matter what else they said.

Compelling stories gives sales a hook. Think of fishing; Marketing baits the hook, finds the best fishing grounds and sets the hook. They then pass the rod to sales to real it in. A compelling story is the bait. Sales needs good bait.

3) What 3 pieces of advice would you give anyone in Sales?

Sales comprises of three simple things: Access, Influence and Delivery. Anything a sales person does MUST impact one of those. It must get them access to their customers, the people buying what they are selling. It must help them influence those they get access to, if you have access, yet can’t influence you’re dead. It must help you deliver on what you say. If you get access, wield great influence, but can’t deliver, it will be a one time sale. Knowing this the advice I give is;

1) You better know your customers business and industry as good if not better than they do. Sales people are business enablers. They provide companies with the tools and information necessary to run their business. Extensive knowledge of your customers business and industry or market gets you access AND allows you to develop tremendous influence. 2) Be an analyst. When it comes to your customer analyze EVERYTHING, their markets, their strategy, their competition, their reasons for doing what they do, the solutions, the timing, the results, the plans, the people, the motives and then ask WHY, why are they doing it that way, why that approach, why that strategy, why that person WHY . . . ask it of yourself, and your customer. Learn how to get to why. The answer is in the why. 3) Believe in what you sell. Ya, I know it’s trite, but it’s true. When someone believes to the fiber of their bones their solution, product can make a difference, it shows. 3 1/2 Be creative. Do things differently. Look at them from a different lens. Push back on the status quo. Be as creative as you can be. 3 3/4 – Bust your hump. No one is coming. Out work everyone else!

4) How has the Sales function changed as a result of the economy?

It’s pretty simple. Budgets are tighter and sales take more justification. It’s become harder. It’s simple supply and demand. Less money is being spent on fewer things therefore the competition is greater. The sales function itself hasn’t change. It’s the execution of the function that has been impacted. Those that can execute better at Access, Influence, and Deliver will be successful. I don’t think it’s anything earth shattering. The economy is just forcing people to be better at what they were doing in the first place.

5) What impact do you think Social will have on the Sales function?

Social media IS having a huge impact on sales today and will continue to have an even greater impact as it matures. Social Media is changing the game when it comes to access and influence. SM is providing new opportunities for sales people to exponentially grow their sphere of influence. Social Sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook give sales people unprecedented access to potential clients at all levels. The ability to connect and establish relationships with clients has never been easier. A new form of access is being created. This new access provides sales people with leads and opportunities once hidden from the world in person to person verbal conversations or the invisible conversation. Access to these “invisible conversations” is game changing. My favorite example of this happened back in April where an executive Tweeted about her “over the top” pushy sales rep and then tweeted 2 hours after about the pushy sales rep competitor seeing the tweet finding her number and calls to “pitch.” Get the full story here. I see cold calling also becoming an antiquated way to connect in the not to distant future. SM is also providing sales people with tremendous information about the customers, and their companies. Tools like Gist will change the information game, providing sales people with real-time, relevant information about their buyers, their companies and their competitors increasing their influence.

Sales is all about Access, Influence and Delivery and social media is changing the access and influence game.

Jim Keenan is a Sr. Sales Executive, Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 Connector, an Entrepreneur still trying to get it right, and a PSIA Certified Ski Instructor for Vail Resorts. Husband to the Big E and 4 great kids. In a nut shell, he’s a Sales Guy and life is good!

Social Media already has changed Marketing forever. You can’t attend a conference or read a blog post without hearing about the latest in this field. Marketing is still playing catch up and will be for a while since we are still at the very early stages of the Social Media game. What makes this different from the adoption of the Web or CRM is that Social Media is changing so much more than those technologies ever did. This makes it harder to keep up.

Social Media is having a big impact on Customer Service as evidenced by all the issues our teams are handling each week for Avaya. We see between 1000-2500 mentions of Avaya each week alone and engage with dozens of customers in any given week. This is very different than even 6 months ago.

Product companies will have a strong social approach to product development using Social Media. Pure Service companies will work with virtual teams to source and deliver work from far flung parts of the world. Finance teams will be getting tweets on billing and finance issues directly from the socialsphere rather than from the traditional channels. Recruiters are clearly already using Social Networks like LinkedIn as their first source of candidates. HR is checking the background of those new hires on Social Networks looking to see what this new hire is all about. IT was already on the scene with Web 2.0 technologies when Social Media hit. And Legal has been working and reworking policies on Social to adapt to the changes. And finally, Learning and Development teams will be harnessing social tools internally to train and enable everyone from new hires to sales teams and beyond.

If you think Social Media is just for marketing – think again. Social is impacting and beginning its reinvention of every area within your company. The question is – are you helping do your share to educate them?

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You go crazy making your business case based on the idea that people will be so much more productive. You sweat the long nights and the hard work that it takes to get your new platform stood up within your organization so that everyone can begin to collaborate. Productivity gains are now at everyone’s fingertips …

So you begin recruiting your internal employees, getting them to join, asking them to get others to join, and placing reminders to join in the company newsletter – you whole organization is a buzz with the news. You are a hero.

But where is the productivity?

Jacob Nielsen coined a theory called the 1-9-90 theory that says out of every hundred people who join a community or network – 1% actively contribute – 9% contribute from time to time – and 90% are lurkers.

It’s almost like answering 1 out of every 100 emails!

The cycle of this theory has to be broken when it comes to internal collaboration sites. You can’t put out a request for help from an internal team and everyone misses the tweet or posting.

I think as Social Media marketers we have to get better at training. And setting the expectation that if you join you are expected to contribute. Maybe even go so far as making it a requirement in your yearly performance review. Not just a ‘check the box’ type of – did you contribute back to the community – but if you didn’t contribute tangibly back to the community – it may impact your bonus potential!

This is the type of approach it will take to really flip that theory on its head.

1) Product led innovations – here companies like Dell and Salesforce have led the charge in using tools to help them prioritize new product features with IdeaStorm and IdeaExchange (respectfully). These are great for engaging your user base and getting them exactly what they request on a schedule that they can see and influence.

But that’s only going to get you so far.

The reason for this is they are commenting on an existing product and helping to evolve the product. But this doesn’t protect Dell or SalesForce from someone leapfrogging them. Sure it would be hard but look at the iPod. MP3 players were around for a while before the iPod came out and cleaned their clocks.

Therefore I think the second type of innovation you can get from Social Media is Problem led innovation.

2) Problem led innovations – this is where companies like Dell or Salesforce gets outside of their 4 virtual walls and listen to customers in other virtual places for new product ideas. Things they haven’t thought of yet. Then they engage with the users and vow to help bring that product to market. Perhaps even recruit them to become part of a virtual product development team.

Social Media holds a lot of promise for companies both small and large especially when it comes to Product innovation. We have yet to see the full impact of all of this inter-connectedness. But it will take someone who truly studies and understands the landscape to navigate the waters to successfully find leapfrog opportunities.

But there are challenges to this happening that were not apparent when email rolled out across the enterprise.

The issue is Brand “voice”.

Sure some people are funnier than other people when it comes to witty emails. Some people like to write tombs and some are masters of the one-liners (like myself).

But in Social Media that approach wont work. You cant have some people being long Tweeters – it just wont work – and you cant have some people being fast and pithy. I think it presents a real challenge for a brand. And you run the risk of dilution of the brand.

Now factor in your Contact Center …

They can’t go from super nice phone personas, then whitty Twitter/Facebook personas and then over to long detailed email personas. That would be a very hard thing to do and few people are qualified to do that. And most likely those few would be reserved for high profile escalations of customer service.

I think organizations are going to need a lot of training on successful Social Media situations that resulted in a very positive experience for the brand. Some of this training will be generic to all companies and some will have to be very specific to each company.

The reason being is that each Social Media site has its own “norms” of behaviors that go with them. Learning them are key to success in each of them. So a Social Media content repository (ok that sounds weird) perhaps a Social Media Knowledge Management system (most likely a Wiki) will need to be in place so people can study what has happened, get up to speed fast and go out and get Social!