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9/11/06 - Developing References is Hard Work
I spent many years on the vendor side of things. And I can tell you that developing references is hard work. Very hard work. Our sales reps wanted more references. They wanted the case studies written up. They wanted the success stories publicized in the press. They wanted permission to contact these happy customers. To be more accurate, I would replace the verb "wanted" with "demanded." They were simply echoing the demands of their prospects.
Interestingly, sales reps wanted all this as long as it didn't involve their accounts. Why? It's hard work getting permission. And, more importantly, they know that once they provide access to their customers, fellow sales reps will overuse the privilege of contacting that precious reference. It's additional work for everyone that doesn't really benefit the people that have to put out.
So the few sales reps that do offer up their customers as references find their customers get over-used in a hurry. Customers are typically good sports about being references. At least for a while. The attitude of benevolence can change when they feel taken advantage of. So when you contact a reference, be sensitive to the fact that this person is doing you and the vendor a favor. There's probably nothing in it for him.
Gary Lemke, Publisher
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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KNOVA announced it has acquired Active Decisions, a provider of multi-channel Guided Selling solutions for retail, manufacturing, finance and telecommunications industries.
Verint announced the introduction of Customer Interaction Analytics (CI Analytics), a new enterprise analytics offering that helps organizations transform customer relationships through actionable intelligence.
Cincom Systems announced that Health Advocate has implemented Cincom Synchrony software as the core technology in its expanding call center.
CosmoCom announced the general availability of Version 4.6, its latest release of the CosmoCall Universe contact center software platform. The release includes enhancements in the areas of reporting, IP Centrex integration, and NAT traversal.
KANA announced a series of organizational changes in its global sales and service operations. In order to build upon its growth and customer adoption within the financial services market, KANA has established a global financial services vertical sales team.
Global Crossing announced it is introducing VoIP Professional Services, which will leverage an enhanced agreement with Avaya. Global Crossing's agreement with Avaya also would allow Global Crossing to resell Avaya's IP telephony applications, systems and services.
Panviva will be previewing the latest version of its performance solution, SupportPoint, at Workforce Performance 2006, this week in Las Vegas. SupportPoint now offers a browser-based viewer to provide remote and off-site users with anytime, anywhere access to the context-specific knowledge they need.
Aprimo and SPSS announced a partnership to offer an integrated customer data mining and EMM solution. Aprimo will resell SPSS' suite of enterprise data mining products as an integrated component of their marketing application.
GMT announced that TDS Telecom is continuing to use its GMT Planet solution, following a re-evaluation of workforce management vendor offerings.
Witness announced that Bill Byron Concevitch will join the main chief learning officer panel discussion and present a breakout session at LearnShare's "Sharing@LearnShare, Achieving Competitive Advantage" Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 50.29 |  | -0.27% |
| Dow Jones | 11,357.37 | | -0.28% |
| Nasdaq | 2,151.62 | | -0.88% |
| S&P 500 | 1,294.97 | | -0.26% |
| Top Gainers |
| Verint | 32.25 |  | 0.75 |
| Sykes | 19.2 | | 0.63 |
| Vignette | 14.39 | | 0.54 |
| Top Losers |
| HP | 35.43 | | -0.96 |
| NICE | 24.35 | | -0.95 |
| NCR | 34.05 | | -0.87 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 09/08/06 | |
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 White Papers (more)
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Empowring Faster Collections Through a Customer-Focused Open Receivables Management Environment - Let's face it: In today's environment, collection agencies or in-house accounts receivable organizations (primary credit issuers) can no longer remain satisfied with the status quo. Today's customers demand faster results, faster reporting, and better return on investment.(CR Software)
| | | The Proof is in the Call Center - Determining the ROI for contact center technologies can be a challenging task, particularly since it's so difficult to map direct correlations between a software implementation and intangible performance gains. In the paper, Richard Bucci, Associate Consultant, the Pelorus Group, interviews etalk customers to uncover tangible productivity gains specifically associated with the use of quality monitoring and recording products. (etalk)
| | | SOA Has Yet to Arrive in the Contact Center - Ventana Research believes that Service Oriented Architectures are still a ways off. Learn more why they believe that SOA is not ready and what you should do about it today.(Ventana Research)
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