We may be used to reading a customer’s body language when they’re sitting across the table, but what about remotely when they’re browsing online? Eloqua’s Stuart Wheldon explains how to read and respond to a prospects’ buying behaviour in the web 2.0 world.

Today’s fastest-growing businesses have embraced the web as a platform and are using its strengths to connect them with prospective buyers. In addition to positioning their corporate websites as portals of relevant content, smart companies are also transforming their sales and marketing processes to take advantage of the behavioural information that the web provides.

This online behaviour – website visits, white paper downloads, email responses and more – can help businesses quickly identify buyers that are raising their hands to show interest in their solution. It is a new ‘digital body language’ that must be captured, interpreted and responded to.

Traditional transactions

The traditional B2B transaction has been almost entirely a sales function rooted in face-to-face interactions at business lunches, boardroom presentations and product demos. Once the lead had been passed to the sales team, marketing contributed little to the process.

The best sales professionals were highly adept at reading body language and buying signals revealed during in-person meetings in a conference room or over lunch. Subtle gestures such as facial expressions, eye contact, raised eyebrows, head nods or crossed arms could tell savvy sales professionals much about a prospect’s buying disposition. However, as the buying process moves online, salespeople are getting less face time with clients.

The first authorised mobile phone call from a commercial flight was made on 20 March at 30,000 feet en route to Casablanca, during Emirates flight EK751 from Dubai, reports Nick de Cent.

The Emirates Airbus A340-300 aircraft is the first in the airline’s fleet to be equipped with a new hi-tech system from British-based AeroMobile. The company is a joint venture between Norwegian telecoms group Telenor and ARINC, and is the result of a research project at Telenor.

Peter Elgar asks why CRM system implementations sometimes fail in a sales environment.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems should (note the word ‘should’) improve productivity throughout the sales cycle.

From choosing the right prospects, lead handling and appointment setting to producing quotes, converting them to orders and forecasting future sales, they should streamline the whole sales process. They should be at the heart of the majority of successful sales departments, and, once implemented, they should leave sales staff wondering how they ever coped without one.

In fact, if you believe some of the hype of the past few years, they should do almost anything a salesperson wants them to bar buying them a drink after work.

It’s that word ‘should’ that’s the problem. According to research from Gartner, as many as 60% of all CRM implementations fail. So given that CRM systems can help in many aspects of a salespersons’ role, why do they go wrong?

Marketing director at Seelogic, Mark Woodbridge points out that, when choosing CRM systems, it makes sense to take a step back and consider what your business really needs.

Alcohol, in moderation is good for you, but too much fixes nothing. Equally Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions are fantastic at solving specific business issues; just don’t expect them to fix everything. 

Certainly don’t fall for the line that XYZ CRM solution from ABC Ltd will increase your business by 25% and reduce your marketing costs by half.

A sales force automation or CRM system can turn into an expensive white elephant if the implementation is not handled properly. Editor Nick de Cent offers some advice. 

IT consultants Gartner confirm what we always knew in terms of implementing sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions – keep it simple if you are actually expecting the team to use the system.

The recently released report Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation 2007 says: ‘We see a focus on simplicity as a theme to improve adoption among salespeople. Specifically, limiting required input data fields and user interface screens enables salespeople to navigate using the SFA application.’

Choosing a CRM solution to suit your company’s needs will, no doubt, be a time-consuming process, and the moment it’s installed you’re expecting to sit back and put your feet up. Cue the great sigh of relief! Not so fast, says Sawfish Software's managing director, Steve Hull.

The first thing you should know is that this is the time when the real drive is required – from within the company as much as from the supplier.

But before we get to the implementation, let’s go right back to the beginning to make sure you ask the right questions, and get the ideal product for your business.

Choosing the right CRM software system

It is far too easy to get carried away with the whizzes and bangs that some CRM software solutions offer. Expect some wonderful promises – the ability to predict ever-shifting customer needs or identify opportunities and problems at a glance.

If Sales Force Automation doesn't solve a sales manager's problems, what does? Alan Timothy, ‘chief scientist’ at i-snapshot asks.

The world is changing at a staggering rate and technology is considered to be the key driver behind these changes by introducing automation into every aspect of the way companies do business.

One of the earliest uses of technology in the automation of business process came in the form of Sales Force Automation (SFA) tools, which were launched as a viable option for the sales support function during the 1980s. However, despite the positive response by some companies towards their success in achieving effectiveness and efficiency through sales automation, there is an increasing number of consultants and practitioners questioning whether the benefits of SFA outweigh the investment it requires.

Essentially, more and more people are finding that SFA systems (on their own) are not the panacea they hoped they would be when it comes to solving a sales manager’s problems.