In a recessionary environment, sales and marketing managers should prepare themselves for lengthened sales cycles and decreased pipeline velocity. Tried and true tactics that have always worked — e.g. month-end discounting, bundling and promotions — will begin to sound increasingly desperate as sales reps struggle to make the quotas that were set months ago in the budgeting process. Customers — those in a buying mood — will buy on their own terms, and it is increasingly unlikely that they will be “sold to.” Therefore, price erosion will take hold as vendors struggle to adapt the new competitive conditions.

With reduced headcount and frozen budgets, organizations may be tempted to put technology and capabilities investments on hold. However, now is the time to act; below are some low- or no-cost actions organizations can immediately take to retain a competitive edge though tough times…

1. Get marketing and sales aligned through the establishment of unified goals, common metrics and aligned compensation plans. All too often, objectives and metrics are departmentally aligned. If marketing is incentivized to do one thing (such as increase quantity of leads) and sales something entirely different (focus on highest value leads), the organization is ultimately going to get what it pays for — i.e., disharmony and angst. In this tough environment, sales and marketing leadership needs to agree on a common set of organizational objectives (e.g. revenue, profit, market share, cross-selling, etc.). More specifically, sales and marketing leaders need to create and agree upon a cross-departmental definition of what constitutes a “lead.”

2. Profile both successes and failures. In a November survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group, respondents recognized a top (51 percent) strategic action as the ability to identify high-value prospects by analyzing and segmenting the characteristics of desirable customers. If the organization is not already doing so, it should immediately create processes to identify and focus resources on the most promising leads based on the newly aligned goals and objectives.

3. Go collaborative. Next, the organization should establish an iterative feedback loop between departments to continually refine the lead definition and prospect profiles. This includes putting mechanisms into place for team members to provide feedback and rate the quality leads and campaigns based on the organizational objectives and the lead definition outlined above. In the same November study referenced earlier, more than a quarter (26 percent) of the respondents had already implemented internal social media capabilities (such as a wiki) to facilitate this type of knowledge sharing. Whatever the mechanism, employees should be encouraged and incentivized to share best practices, tips and success stories. Creating an alignment and a knowledge-sharing culture will teach the organization to repeat successes and avoid mistakes of the past.

Aberdeen is currently conducting its annual State of the Market survey of key business challenges, competitive threats and technology trends for 2009. Click Here to participate.

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CNN calls it issue #1. You cannot open a newspaper, turn on the TV, or even have a conversation with friends without talking about the economy and the “r-word” - recession.

Doom and gloom are everywhere. And there is no hiding from the fact that trepidation in the market is having an impact on the paychecks of Sales Professionals across the globe. It can be depressing and people are looking for answers. Hardly a day goes by that I’m not asked by someone, “What should I do?”

While I don’t have all of the answers, and certainly don’t hold myself out as an expert on recessions, I offer salespeople five tips for prospering during a recession….

Tip #1: Play Offense. In every industry segment there is opportunity to win regardless of how hard hit. Smart salespeople go on the offense during economic downturns and take advantage of weak competitors.

Tip #2: Play Defense. At its foundation, sales, and for that matter business, is about getting and keeping customers. Smart Sales Professionals are taking steps to protect their customer base now. These leaders recognize that they have competitors who will be knocking on their customers’ doors with tempting offers to save money. Instead of putting their heads in the sand and waiting for the inevitable calls from customers to discontinue service, cancel orders, or extend payment terms, they become consultants and proactively seek ways to help their customers deal with problems that arise from economic down turn.

Tip #3: Upgrade. When the economy was strong we could afford to make mistakes or ignore bad sales habits. Things have changed now. Recessions separate the weak from the strong. It’s the ultimate “survival of the fittest” in the business world. Your skills, talents, and attitude are the real competitive edge in this market place. Smart Sales Professionals are investing in themselves.

Tip #4: Focus on Fundamentals. During the good times, when things are booming, we have a tendency to ignore the basics and we lose our discipline to execute the fundamentals - we ride the wave where even the weak can survive. However, during a recession there is no room for error. Be disciplined. Block and tackle. Go back to the basics. Do right things right repetitively.

Tip #5: Move Faster. During recessions we have the tendency to slow down. We want to take our time to ensure we make no mistakes. Frankly, in some cases we are just plain old depressed. The fact is though that prospering during a recession means taking action - especially in the 21st Century where speed is key differentiator. Now is the time to get new products to market, now is the time to hit your competitors harder, now is the time to set new goals and create a new vision for yourself.

Bonus Tip: The problem for many Sales Professionals during tough economic times is that they begin looking for magic pills. The reality is there are no magic pills. The best way to prosper is a strict focus on the fundamentals.

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Viral marketing, a colloquial name given to a subset of social media marketing, is growing like a wild weed. Traditional marketing giants like Unilever and Comcast, to name a few, are increasingly active in using the SMM tools to promote their brands and interact with consumers.

One has to wonder: is it just a flu or has the virus spread so deep as to become a reality?

I firmly believe we are on the way to a pandemic, and SMM will rule modern marketing. Yes, we are infected (in a good way) and there is no vaccination. However, I still feel the virus is just showing its symptoms, and a few things need to happen before it settles in and becomes reality. Let me give you the reasons why I believe we will get irremediably sick, why that is a very good thing, and what I think will have to happen for us to get there.

There are plenty of reasons to explain why SMM will be huge. I know everyone has favorites, so I will dare to give you mine…

Word of Mouth: Every marketer’s dream (especially traditional marketers) is for their product, brand or campaign to generate WOM. It is one of marketing’s basic rules for success. The best way to get the message through effectively is by having people recommend it to one another. The problem has always been the cost of generating high volume WOM. With the internet, this problem is pretty much solved. One example of this is bloggers, who have become a trustworthy source for information. If you get a big blogger to talk about your product, the impact this may have on sales can be greater than a regular TV campaign.

Targeting: So far I have not seen a more effective targeting tool than the internet. Advertisers are confident their message is reaching relevant audience, which makes each hit more efficient in delivering a message.

Engagement: With the possibility of better interaction with the audience, marketers now have the obligation to change the way they approach their target market. New marketing has to be engaging for the audience to stick with it. And by engaging, I mean it has to add value to the consumer either by being funny, instructive, informative, or whatever it is that makes it worth the audience’s time.

Cost: Please bear in mind that by cost I don’t mean cheap. However, SMM is not exclusively for deep-pocketed advertisers. SMM can be ideal for any kind of budget. Advertising is now within reach of everyone, and for the first time quality will be what differentiates good marketing from average marketing.

It would look like infection is imminent. However, I think some things need to be accomplished for SMM to settle in as one of the most important trends in marketing:

Involve Traditional Marketing: For SSM to become big, it is imperative that the big brands get involved with it, understand the benefits of using it, and help to further develop it. SMM has been making big efforts to differentiate itself from traditional marketing, but I fear this has also led to traditional marketers not understanding this new language and therefore not engaging with it.

Metrics: The SMM community needs to agree on the way impact is measured. Just as traditional media’s metrics are standard (GRP’s, SOV, TRP’s, etc.), Social Media needs standard ways to measure the impact of different campaigns. We need to be able to tell advertisers how their money is doing, and they need to be able to compare these results both against what their competitors are doing, and against what other agencies offer.

Academia: It is important for this new trend to start teaching and researching; to unify concepts, debate them, and generate new ones. Social Media Marketing can no longer be an empiric subject, and we need to make sure we get it into universities and colleges.

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Community and collaboration are wonderful things.

Fourteen great minds on social media have shared thoughts on what 2009 may have in store for us.  Here’s some of what a few of them are thinking:

• “Although it is now cheaper to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology - it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful.” - David Armano
• “Intimacy touches emotion; emotion powers conversation.” - Pete Blackshaw
• The tipping point has not only *not* been reached, but could still tilt *away* from Social Media.” - Todd Defren
• “Dwindling budgets suddenly make low-cost social media look like the pretty girl at the ball.” - Ann Handley
• “Companies that focus on earning love will thrive during hard times, and kick ass when good times return.” - Andy Sernovitz

Everyone’s thoughts have been assembled in a free PDF download. Or you can read the entire report within the original post.  Also, these predictions are now posted on Slinkset, where you can vote on your favorites and submit your own.

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With the number of online retail sales expected to grow to a whopping $271.6 billion by the year 2011, companies simply can’t afford to fall out of favor with their Web shoppers. Here’s what businesses need to bear in mind as they strive to keep their customers happy during the holiday crunch:

Manage your inventory. “Adequate inventory is something e-tailers can have difficulties with if they experience a spike in demand,” warned Michelle Warren, a senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group.

Keep tabs on your technology. Unanticipated spikes in online traffic can send an e-tailer’s servers crashing — and Web shoppers running elsewhere. For this reason, Warren advised to “consider working with your solution provider to ensure that you have the right amount of technology in place.”

Reach out to consumers. With an increasing number of retailers taking their wares to the Web, companies must reach out to consumers as the holiday season approaches. Marketing initiatives from email blasts to direct-mail campaigns remind shoppers of a company’s online presence and can help drive traffic to a Web site.

Enhance customer support. With more online transactions taking place, more questions and concerns from consumers are likely to arise. E-tailers can prepare themselves by bolstering their customer-support channels. A seasonally-augmented contact center for example, can ensure customers’ queries are addressed within a reasonable amount of time.

Hold off on experimenting. If there’s one thing experts can’t seem to agree on, it’s whether or not companies should introduce brand-new CRM capabilities during the holiday rush. “That’s a big debate,” Warren said. “There’s a whole line of thinking that Christmas is the ideal time to test out new technology, but there’s another line of thought that says test it out when it’s not so busy.” Warren recommended companies err on the side of caution and hold off on deploying that new “live chat” feature, for example, until customer demands have tapered off. If, however, the temptation is too hard to resist, be sure to thoroughly investigate the difficulties that can arise.

Prepare for returns. Christmas festivities are only the beginning of the holiday crunch for today’s e-tailers. After all those orders have been placed and packages shipped, e-tailers should be prepared for a steady flow of product returns.

With the right precautionary measures and technologies in place, e-tailers can secure a permanent spot on Web shoppers’ “nice” — rather than “naughty” — lists.

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Industry analysis firm Forrester Research has been placing heavy emphasis of late on the emergence of CRM 2.0, the confluence of social computing and business. In its latest report on the topic, William Band, a principal analyst at the firm and one of CRM magazine’s 2007 influential leaders, examines how early adopters are implementing strategies for the social customer.

“Leading-edge organizations are actively using social technologies to forge new and tighter relationships with their buyer communities, and social technologies are driving business results,” Band writes in CRM 2.0: Fantasy or Reality? How Trail-Blazing Companies Are Implementing Social Customer Strategies. “Now is the time to take action to start gaining the practical experience you need to break out of old mindsets and grasp new opportunities. Those who wait to join in will find it increasingly hard to catch up.”

According to the research, which is part of Forrester’s “CRM 2.0 Imperative,” the social Web is making CRM professionals think beyond the two-way relationship between business and customer — and far beyond the one-way communication that characterizes a non-customer-centric mindset — and include the simultaneous interactions that customers have among themselves. “CRM is evolving from its traditional focus on optimizing customer-facing transactional processes to include the strategies and technologies to develop collaborative and social connections with customers, suppliers, and even competitors,” Band writes.

Band adds that, while traditional CRM solutions will continue to aggregate customer data, analyze that data, and automate workflows to optimize business processes, “CRM professionals must find innovative new solutions to engage with emerging social consumers, enrich the customer experience through community-based interactions, and architect solutions that are flexible and foster strong intra-organization and customer collaboration.”

Readers of CRM magazine may find it jarring to see social CRM discussed as something still most commonly found with early adopters, but it is still a new field, as Band explained in a follow-on interview. “I get a lot of clients who are calling about traditional CRM initiatives and solutions,” Band says. “When I mention social or 2.0, the vast majority says it’s not really in their thinking.” While industry insiders have been watching this area for some time, the real capabilities that are available can still surprise people. “To the broader world it’s still very new,” he says.

Often, Band adds, Forrester’s clients don’t even come to CRM 2.0 on purpose. “In a lot of cases, the clients are saying, ‘We needed to improve how we handled marketing communications or [how we] solicit feedback.’ Then it became a question of how to get that information into transactional CRM,” he says. “Their next question is, ‘How do I participate in the new consumer behavior?’ “

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I’ve seen so many posts about how to fight the negative impacts of a recession on  business success that it’s making me crazy. Why is it that people wait until it’s announced that we’re finally in a recession before they start doing what they could’ve been doing all along?

Customer-focused lead nurturing is one of the best ways to prevent experiencing an adverse impact to customer acquisition during a recession.

Here are a few meaty reasons why lead nurturing is a recession buster…

• You’re already growing a relationship with people who’ve given you their permission to contact them with relevant content.

1. This means you can reach out with proactive dialogue to both learn about what’s keeping them up at night due to this economic shift and then ease their concerns by helping them make the best choices during risky times.
2. You can create marketing content to address these concerns and give them helpful ideas for riding out the storm so they’re in a better position when the winds change.

• Providing continuity of experience during tough times raises your viability as a long-term partner choice.

1. Whatever you do, don’t stop now. If you cut and run to save budget you’re not only wasting leads, but you’re showing them you’ll jump ship when the going gets tough.
2. Do NOT start panicking and use hard-sell tactics. Stick to your story. Your confidence and stability during a downturn does a lot for your company’s reputation, not to mention showing people they can trust you to stay focused on what’s best for them.

If your leads were interested in your product offerings before the recession, they probably need you now, more than ever. Keep in mind that they’ll buy eventually and your goal is to have them buy from your company. Don’t be pushy, be helpful. Prove to your leads that you’re the trusted advisor they’ve been looking for.

If nothing else, a recession gives you the perfect venue for proving you’re focused on them. Nurturing an audience you already have is much more lucrative than flailing about for short-term sales.

In fact, if you go to the trouble to find out how the economy is conflicting with their decision to buy, you’ve got the opportunity to show them the pros and cons of putting off a decision that can deliver a business value they can’t afford to put off.

Lead nurturing belongs in your marketing strategy mix—recession or not.

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According to B2B Marketing Trends 2010, a report by the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the #1 trend getting the attention of B2B marketers is:

Develop approaches and methods to better understand what CUSTOMERS REALLY NEED, beyond what they can say or articulate. Opportunities to CREATE REAL VALUE.”

Here are a few points to consider when sussing out the needs of your customers…

• It’s not your product, it’s the outcome they get by using it.
• The words and phrases you use when you talk about your products, and what they do, are likely not the words and phrases your customers use.
• Issues you think are simple to solve—because you know how your products work—is probably overwhelming to your potential customers. Otherwise they’d have solved those issues already.
• Your customers don’t have time to think strategically - they’re running too fast with all their daily ToDo lists. Helping them learn how to think about solving their issues is a critical skill marketers need to hone.
• There’s a fine line between jargon and helpful, easy-to-understand terminology—which are you using?
• Your customers are smarter than you think. They can smell self-serving sales hype a mile away. Are you focused on helping or hyping?
• People digest things in chunks, not all at once, so give them a little at a time and build the concept within a context that makes sense to them.

In order to align your thinking with your customers’ needs you need to get to know them. And know them well. Guessing won’t cut it. Extrapolating what you think onto them will fall on deaf ears. This is why changing the way you think about your customers requires that you change the way you think about marketing.

Marketing must be reformed into a conversation that has more pull than push. However you market, you need to involve your potential customers. Not just by getting them to click on a link in an email, but by monitoring and reacting to their responses in ways that generate ongoing dialogue about things they’re interested in today. Things they may be interested in next month are too far off their radar, run off by other high priorities that come first.

Marketing Automation systems can help. In fact, I’d stipulate they’re critical to helping marketers develop the intelligence they need to learn about their prospect’s and customer’s interests. As well as in assisting you to establish an ongoing dialogue.

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Generation Y: those born between 1980 and 2000 are here, as customers and as contact center agents, and that has major impacts and implications for customer service.

The Gen-Yers, numbering 70 million in the U.S., are the replacements for the now-retiring and fading Baby Boom generation, from whom they are descended. They are also known as the ‘Baby Boom Echo. Their ranks are nearly twice as large as Gen-X, which are those individuals born between 1964 and 1980.

Bill Durr, Principal, Global Market Consultant, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions, points to several key characteristics of Gen-Y that will affect contact center customer service and CRM strategies…

• This is the first completely electronic generation, immersed in computing and communications technology
• Gen-Yers rely on texting i.e. SMS rather than voice, either wireless or landline
• Gen-Yers are “re-tribalized” i.e. they rely on testimony from those in their networks and that they interact with to get information rather than on advertising and mass media. 28 percent post to their own blogs while 44 percent read blogs on top of participating in social networks.

“Corporations used to be in control of information flow, but that’s all gone,” explains Durr. “This is a profound shift from the mass media and advertising that has been dominant since the 1950s. Those corporations that don’t realize that are going to get blindsided.”

Attempts by firms to employ traditional one-way communications tactics through blogs and social networking sites, such as whitewashing negative comments “will get thrown off the Island,” Durr points out. “Instead they have to put in two-way communications and listen and respond with a genuine authentic voice. If they do then people will buy into it.”

To respond to the demand by Gen-Yers to be listened to and taken seriously in order to get their business, enterprises need to make more recordings more often, listen closer to them, and employ speech analytics to find out the intelligence in the information.

“It is not longer adequate to rely on quality monitoring, whose function is to protect the corporate brand,” Durr explains. “Organizations must understand what customers want and that is the role of speech analytics.

When asked, Durr has not seen firms apply analytics to SMS, given the popularity of this channel amongst Gen-Yers though there is nothing to prevent firms from doing it.

“There are no suppliers that I know of that are offering such a solution but I’m certain that one is coming as this need grows,” says Durr.

Gen-Yers affect customer service from another aspect: agent quality. Unlike previous generations this group accepts that there is no longer any loyalty between employers and employees. They are demanding career advancement and training or else they leave.

At the same time, many Gen-Y workers are not well educated, lack formality in their business communications and do not take kindly to criticism in workplaces because they have rarely been criticized in their growing up.

This is creating a scenario where at a time there has never been a greater need for superior customer service the ability, professionalism, and will of agents is less.

“The entry of the Gen-Y workforce is going to increase training requirements to overcome poor education, including grammar,” explains Durr. “They also need to be taught how to promote the brands correctly. They will also need a lot of more internal quality monitoring to ensure excellent service.”

That leaves open an intriguing question: will demanding Gen-Yers accept the poor quality delivered by other Gen-Yers, or accept it, especially casual conversation, as long as it is sincere? Or will organizations have to adapt in both directions?

The answer may more than likely be the last choice.

“I just had a fairly decent conversation with a young contact center agent the other day, and as we ended it I said ‘Goodbye’ and the agent replied: ‘Goodbye, dude’. And as I hung up I smiled. It didn’t offend me but it is very different from an organization point of view.”

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Customer service may seem like a never-ending process — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In the morning keynote at the RightNow Summit 2008 here yesterday, one speaker explained that, for consumers, a superior experience is never intended to be the ultimate destination, but rather like an ongoing journey.

Jim Ferron knows a thing or two about sending consumers on journeys. As senior director of customer operations for Expedia, the Bellevue, Wash.–based provider of travel products and services, Ferron had some real-world stories to share about the importance of creating a multichannel strategy.

“Interactions are not a series of disconnected events. They are part of the overall journey in moving from one place to the next.”

To Ferron, this means being cognizant of the entire customer lifecycle, which includes need, browse, shop, buy, and consume.

That knowledge, he explained, is essential if you want to have any hope of controlling the cycle to the best of your abilities. But it’s important to realize, he warned, that you cannot be perfect every single time. “The faultless journey is rarely [so],” he admitted. “Much of what we’ve done is put work in place to make it ‘as error-free as possible.’ “

While the pursuit of perfection is always a goal of customer service organizations, it is how a company deals with hiccups that will determine its ultimate success. “We need to create escape hatches, so when faults occur we give the customer an opportunity to escape from that fault,” he said.

The way to accomplish this, according to Fellon, is by creating a systematic multichannel strategy allowing customers to be able to find the information they need when and how they want it. However, before spreading out information across multiple channels, it’s imperative to ensure that the information you have is accurate, and to realize that it must be continuously updated. “All knowledge expires,” he matter-of-factly pointed out. “We need to be on the path of constantly learning, and imparting that to our customers.”

Another point of emphasis for Ferron was that companies should look to implement one channel at a time — whether it be chat, email, phone, or Web. “A lot of organizational change has to take place that’s incremental to the actual technology implementation,” he explained. “You need to make sure your processes are buttoned down. By doing it this way, it allows you to pace yourself and learn valuable lessons as you move forward.”

Ultimately, Ferron said, companies must leave the choice to the consumers: How do they want to interact and pursue this journey of customer service? “I hate the term ‘call deflection,’ ” he declared. “We must increase the choice our consumers have in regard to how to contact us. You can’t force customers into a [given] channel…. Give them knowledge that’s dispensable in a way that they want to [access it].”

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