Stay Saas Smart

I stopped watching TV years ago and I’m relieved that I don’t have to decide whether to buy an LCD or Plasma HDTV for my living room. Mark Morford’s well-written article How to stay very, very, dumb captured my sentiments on TV watching and how TV slowly destroys your brain. It’s estimated that Americans watch close to 200 billion hours of TV a year and each hour is a wasted potential.  Can you tell my daughter has heard this speech too many times before while she sits hypnotized watching America’s Next Top Model or Project Runway?

Yesterday, I learned a lot and it wasn’t in front of the TV. I checked out vendor day sponsored by the Telebusiness Alliance. This is a group of Northern California telebusiness (Inside Sales) Directors, VP’s and Managers who meet regularly to discuss and share best practices in this rapidly changing and complex Telebusiness world. So all these great vendors assembled together to present their services and solutions which perfectly complemented selling within a SaaS model.

Everyone knows that software-as-a-service(SaaS)delivery model, or on-demand software, is transforming the industry, particularly the segment that targets business users. The flag-bearers are Salesforce.com, which has redefined the market for customer relationship-management software. SaaS offers an easier way for companies to buy and use the kinds of tools that previously were too complex and required too much upfront investment for all but large corporations.

Inside sales is well positioned for selling in within this SaaS model and their role continues to evolve. The time has finally come when we are moving away from the golf, martini and frequent flyer enterprise field reps to a highly efficient cubicle inside sales warrior.

David Sterenfeld with Corporate Dynamix has been recruiting in this Telebusiness space for a long time. He is an ethical, knowledgeable and smart recruiter, who really understands and believes in inside sales. Dave has more requests in building inside sales organizations than field organizations. 

I was very impressed Roque Versace’s presentation of EchoSign. What a brilliant idea these guys have about reducing the time chasing paper to get your orders into the system, they have transformed this time consuming process.

My Phoneworks friends have paved the road for so many companies implementing and building inside sales organizations. They are always spot on with their recipe for success and I know I’m in good hands when a client says they’ve received Phoneworks’ seal of approval.

Scared of metrics? LucidEra is here to help.  Check out Ken Rudin’s Selling Power interview- when Gerhard asks him about the “shoe-maker’s shoes” and he explain how they use their own analytics for measurement. I like when companies walk their talk.