 OUR TAKE -
Just Add Credibility
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That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
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William J. H. Boetcker
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If this whole CRM 2.0 (Social CRM) thing is going to work, a big dose of credibility complete with assurances is going to have to enter the picture. Sure, it is great to ponder about how consumer-to-consumer interactions can be a driving force in your marketing and sales strategies. But it is another thing for it to be a positive driving force. (Read Healthy Skepticism, Paid to Pitch, and Wag the Dog Surveying for more background on the subject.)
I can't say that I have a universal suggestion on how to create a body of trusted reviews by customers. And that can be expanded to reviews by others too - analysts, writers, celebrities, etc. However, let me offer a few general examples that might prompt more thought on your own products and markets.
Example one: what if the analyst community would publish disclosure of how much money they received from vendors in their vendor reviews as well as how much money they received from vendors not included? Can you imagine a "Magic Quadrant" with a financial figure next to each dot in the matrix?
I will provide more examples later this week. But I would like to include suggestions on what you think would add credibility to the recommendation eco-systems that exist today. That's my take. What's your take?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
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| Astea | 2.37 |  | 0.28 |
| Selectica | 0.44 | | 0.02 |
| eLoyalty | 6.54 | | 0.29 |
| NetSuite | 12.05 | | 0.3 |
| LivePerson | 2.55 | | 0.05 |
| Salesforce | 40.65 | | 0.48 |
| Pegasystems | 17.91 | | 0.11 |
| APAC | 4.2 | | 0.01 |
| Tekelc | 15.1 | | 0.02 |
| Rainmaker | 1.01 | | 0 |
| Oracle | 19.77 |  | -0.02 |
| SPSS | 30.96 | | -0.12 |
| Teletech | 13.07 | | -0.08 |
| ATG | 2.92 | | -0.02 |
| NICE | 25.09 | | -0.18 |
| Convergys | 9.67 | | -0.09 |
| HP | 35.45 | | -0.35 |
| Sykes | 18.44 | | -0.23 |
| Jacada | 2.53 | | -0.04 |
| Vignette | 7.5 | | -0.12 |
| Amdocs | 20.72 | | -0.49 |
| NCR | 9.03 | | -0.24 |
| Unica | 4.38 | | -0.12 |
| Epicor | 5.19 | | -0.15 |
| CDC | 1.18 | | -0.04 |
| Interactive | 11.06 | | -0.39 |
| Chordiant | 3.15 | | -0.12 |
| SAP | 39.89 | | -1.67 |
| RightNow | 7 | | -0.37 |
| ClickSoftware | 3.17 | | -0.18 |
| SupportSoft | 2.15 | | -0.18 |
| ICT | 6.34 | | -0.57 |
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As of 3:59 p.m. on 4/27/09 |
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 NEW IN CRM
News: BatchBook Social CRM Integrates With FreshBooks, Shoeboxed
BatchBlue Software announced BatchBook now integrates with FreshBooks, an online invoicing and time tracking service and Shoeboxed, a receipt and business card scanning service. The integration of these applications, along with an existing sync with e-mail services company MailChimp, are part of the launch of the Small Business Web partnership, a movement that brings together like-minded software companies to assimilate their products. The integrated applications support the Small Business Web’s mission to simplify access between products and services that benefit entrepreneurs and smaller organizations and to help them succeed. The Small Business Web was born when representatives of the founding companies met up at this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival. (BatchBlue
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News: Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Adoption Slow and Steady
The Fortune 500 are farther along in their adoption of public-facing corporate blogs than previous data has suggested. This was the key finding of a new research study, “The Fortune 500 and Blogging: Slow and Steady" conducted by Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Research Chair of the Society for New Communications Research and Chancellor Professor of Marketing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Eric Mattson, CEO of Financial Insite Inc., a Seattle-based research firm. Key findings include: 81 of the Fortune 500 or 16% currently have public-facing blogs. Also, 28 percent of the Fortune 500’s blogs link to Twitter accounts. (SCNR
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Article: CRM Today: Complex Needs, Challenging Responses
Growing interest by customers in SaaS delivery and competition from pure-play vendors has led traditional CRM vendors to respond with their own SaaS offerings, such as the Oracle On Demand and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online solutions. Also, Sage Software now offers SageCRM as both an on-premise and SaaS solution.(CRM Daily
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News: Inova Health System Benefits From Robust CRM Solution
Serving more than 1 million individuals every year, Inova Health System (Inova) is Northern Virginia’s leading not-for-profit healthcare provider. To measure and improve results, the organization turns to Strategic Sales Systems and Sage SalesLogix. Physicians are the number one referral source for Inova’s hospitals, so their satisfaction is of critical importance to the organization. Inova employs Physician Liaisons who work to strengthen these physician relationships through active communication and responsive action. Just one year ago, though, Inova had no formal tools in place to track these valuable relationships. (Sage
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Article: Designing the Perfect Territory
Sales executives focus on getting better "per-rep" (and therefore, total sales force) results for the least amount of cost in salaries, commissions, and travel. While most are leveraging wise investments in CRM and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, what many companies have overlooked is that what any given rep can produce, even leveraging these tools, is highly dependent on his or her territory. With efforts geared toward maximizing results for the entire sales force, sales executives often look at why successful reps are successful and then try to replicate best practices.(DestinationCRM
)
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