This will be my final posting on this journey topic, not because it's done but because I am now getting into the tree's of this, what I learn will refine and change, part of that I want to keep private, other parts aren't germain to this story.
As a wrap up here are some of the other things I learned along the way so far.
- CRM is important to support this type of initiative. We choose a Canadian provider Luxor CRM instead of the market leader Salesforce.com or the others we short listed. You will have your important factors to judge which is best for you, Luxor was our winner.
- Social Marketing is not about selling, it's about being part of the conversation.
- Social Marketing is not about Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, My Space, etc. although those tools may be used as part of your social marketing efforts. For the record Yes people do business on facebook.
- Finding a strong network to help you shape your idea's and perhaps filter what you want to do versus what you should do is necessary. I found The Community Roundtable as an unbelievable source not only for social marketing and community management but also a great depth of experience regarding other marketing efforts also.
- Don't under estimate the effort required to formalize a sales/marketing process. Going from an ad hoc approach to a focused and strategic approach is taken a lot of effort, getting it right is the difference between being dismissed by a future customer, or engaging in a conversation that enters the sales cycle.
- One of the ways we have learned to be better at our approach is engage an expert and friend of the organization. We found that with Engaged Innovations. If you want to make sales/marketing strategic these folks do it right..
- While there are many folks that I like and trust and wish to engage in helping me learn, one thing is clear. Some providers believe that what they know is "national security" and they believe that by doing it for you is the value they deliver. It is clear to me that by sharing and allowing me to decide what part of the process I wish to own, I can decide when I am able to spend money, who I will spend it with. This does NOT mean I want to learn for free but I use our own principles in approaching a customer to win their trust before the meter starts ticking.
I hope those of you reading this series have enjoyed it, I have had little feedback so unless I get anything further, I will continue to post occassionaly updates but not a large focus on the journey story.
Thanks for listening . . . .
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