Apple this week unveiled the latest version of its iconic iPhone – now a wi-fi video phone – complete with an all-new design and hailing it as the thinnest smartphone ever. The iPhone 4 will be available in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan on 24 June.

Meanwhile, the new Retina display, the highest-resolution display ever built into a phone, offers ‘super crisp text, images and video’. The iPhone 4 also features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 processor, a three-axis gyro and up to 40% longer talk time, all built into ‘beautiful all-new design of glass and stainless steel that is the thinnest smartphone in the world’.

It runs on iOS 4, the newest version of the ‘world’s most advanced mobile operating system, which includes over 100 new features and 1,500 new APIs for developers’. iOS 4 features multitasking, folders, enhanced mail, deeper enterprise support and Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform.

How many people do you know who have made or continue to make decisions on sales training, system implementation and sales strategy without first looking at the bigger picture? That’s the question being asked by Alan Timothy, boss of sales technology company i-snapshot.

He reckons you’ve probably seen this sort of thing happening quite often and that, apart from on a few fortunate occasions, these decisions have been quite costly to the business without leading to much success. The problem is that it’s precisely these choices which have not been well thought-through that really do give sales tools or solutions a bad name, resulting in current business rules of thumb like ‘90% of training only lasts 90 days’ and ‘50% of CRM (customer relationship management) projects fail’.

A new era of ‘customer managed relationships’ is set to replace traditional customer relationship management (CRM), which is in deep trouble, delegates at the Gartner CRM Summit in London heard this week.

Vice-president Steve Prentice told delegates that issues relating to data, reputation, trust and customer empowerment are all undermining traditional CRM systems. He warned that CRM’s days may be numbered if it fails to adapt to the new realities of the marketplace.

The digital age doesn’t spell the death of ‘offline’ marketing, argues ROBERT KEITCH of the Direct Marketing Association.

Research recently published by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has highlighted the fact that consumers continue to rate email as their preferred channel for receiving marketing messages. According to the findings of the 2009 Marketing GAP Report, 51% of consumers state that email is their favoured means of being contacted by companies, pushing direct mail into second place with the support of 38% of consumers.

Evangelists of digital marketing will probably cite this statistic as confirmation that online channels are usurping the more traditional modes of direct marketing. However, dig a little deeper into the GAP report and you’ll find that the rise of email is most certainly not the death knell for direct mail. The overall popularity of email has actually dropped 5% since 2008, but direct mail’s popularity has risen by 6% over the same period of time. Indeed, as the study reports, when it comes to promoting things like supermarkets and shops, direct mail remains the preferred medium by which consumers like to be contacted.

Newspapers  and television are set to undergo some far-reaching changes this year, as new technologies pave the way for changes in how people receive and access information. Accountants BDO point to a continuing shift online by the media industry.

Partner and head of TMT in the firm’s Southampton office, Paul Anthony told ModernSelling.com: ‘Newspapers are having to revise their business models in order to meet changing consumer demands.’

He added: ‘This requires investment and long-term planning. The stronger well-capitalised players will be able to re-invent their offerings while the weaker, more highly leveraged players will find it more difficult. It may also be the case that, if we have a change of government in 2010, a new and more flexible regulatory regime could alter the playing field.’

Amid signs of economic recovery, 2010 will be the year when mobile operators worldwide protect their existing revenue channels while exploring new ones, says technology company Synchronica’s chief executive officer Carsten Brinkschulte.

Data services will play an even more important role in 2010, supported by an enlarged mobile messaging landscape that, in addition to SMS, will also encompass mobile email, mobile social networking, and instant messaging (IM). Contrary to many analysts’ belief, the device platform landscape will not consolidate, but further diversify as new platforms like Maemo, LiMo and Android take their market share.

As the battle between operators, device manufacturers, and internet portals for value-added services (VAS) intensifies, operators will play their strongest card - their billing relationship with the user.

How a Canadian publishing giant is boosting the effectiveness of its sales team with the help of a British field sales reporting system.

Canadian regional magazine and newspaper publisher, Metroland Media Group is to implement a revolutionary field sales reporting system, in a move designed to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of the field sales force working for its Gold Book directory division.

As sales systems have evolved down the years, they have become cumbersome and over-complex. Richard Nolan advocates a return to basics but using the advantages of ‘the cloud’ if we’re ever to get our sales teams to love technology.

I have been involved with sales since the early 1980s where almost every year I had to meet or exceed pretty aggressive sales targets. This has meant working in a highly structured manner along with using the best tools available to help me achieve my goals, and yes it did mean moving away from my Rolodex!

Sales-related information systems are not just about CRM, as Nick de Cent found out when he chaired a recent field sales management seminar.

While CRM systems may have been getting a bad press of late, it’s important that we don’t tar all technology with the same brush. What if you could implement a sales management system that is almost guaranteed to boost productivity – a 33% increase in call rate in one case – with a consequent uplift in orders and revenue?
Headquartered in Middlesbrough, i-snapshot is starting to build a global reputation as pioneer in the field sales management technology sector with its simple-to-use sales management tool designed to improve visibility of the sales force, while also reducing the admin burden.

Effective driver of revenue and business efficiencies or ‘emperor’s new clothes? There’s been much recent talk about CRM systems’ failure to deliver on their promise to create meaningful ROI and transform the way we manage our interactions with customers. ModernSelling.com puts things into perspective.

It has become fashionable of late for people to knock CRM (customer relationship management) systems.
Salespeople, by and large, have never liked anything they perceive as adding to their admin burden or, worse, that allows ‘head office’ to keep too close an eye on their activities. So the fact that the business community is now recognising that many CRM implementations fail to live up to expectations is, for some, the perfect opportunity to pull the plug on such systems.

Death threats and multi-million dollar lawsuits – just some of the consequences of a poorly conceived or ill-managed bonus scheme. Editor Nick de Cent explores the relatively new discipline of sales compensation management.

There’s no doubt that the subject of bonuses provokes strong emotions. I doubt that there’s a pub in the land that hasn’t played host to an argument about the rights and wrongs of Fred the Shred’s (that’s Sir Fred the Shred to you – Ed!) high-rolling lifestyle during his tenure as chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Sir Fred Goodwin’s house in Edinburgh was recently vandalised: windows were smashed at his £3m villa in the Morningside area of the city, as were the windows of a £100,000 Mercedes S600 parked in the driveway. Sir Fred, who recently took his children out of their private school over fears of bullying, is believed to be in Spain with his family and is said to be ‘shaken’ by news of the attack.

The Aberdeen Group report: Optimizing Sales Performance Management through Data Integration and Analytics is available to ModernSelling.com Registered Readers.

OpenSymmetry director of sales, Anthony Hutchins offers a guide to the SPM vendors in the UK.

The top Sales Performance Management (SPM) vendors all offer very similar product features and functions. However, like all software, understanding what you need it to do is key to ensuring the software is the right fit. Choosing the right vendor and, indeed, the right implementation team is crucial in finding a successful fit with your business needs.

The new sound of the business jungle or a gathering of headless chickens? Nobody seems quite certain about Twitter. One thing’s for sure: it’s not just bird brains flocking to the latest social networking phenomenon. Jeremy Spiller explains what to do when you have something to crow about.

With the UK in the grip of Twitter fever, after Stephen Fry’s now legendary tweets while stuck in a lift, now would seem a good time to offer a few tips on how to get started with Twitter.

For those who are not quite sure what all the commotion is about, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform which asks participants one simple question: ‘What are you doing?’ You can post information on what you’re doing, watching, reading, listening to or, even, thinking but all answers must be within 140 characters. Your posts can be sent via mobile phone text, instant message, or the web.

‘Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter's success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple,’ according to the sites founders, who sum up the concept like this: ‘In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens – from breaking world news to updates from friends.’

Here are ten tips on how to get started. 

Sometimes the biggest resistance to innovation comes from the person who should benefit most from it – the customer, writes Paul Sloane.

Customers can be very conservative. When you come along with an unorthodox new product or service they are often initially unimpressed. Why should the buyer take a risk with your unproven new gismo? He knows that new products often have bugs and he does not want to be the guinea pig on which you experiment. He is familiar with the current method – why should he change?

Indeed, who would want to have been the first customer for a fax machine or, indeed, for a telephone? It seems ridiculous now but selling the first few telephones must have been really difficult. And how about laser eye treatment? How would you find the first person to try it this safe alternative in a pair of spectacles?

It used to be all about the mobile phone, the PDA (personal digital assistant) or the SatNav, but these days the ultimate gadget in road warriors’ pockets is a miniature projector.

Presentations and displays are being revolutionised with the launch of a new generation of pocket projectors, according to Personal Projector, a company specialising in these devices which are now capable of offering clear static and video images while still small enough to fit into the palm of your hand.

Reducing the size of the equipment needed to display a PowerPoint presentation, spreadsheet or video is leading to innovative approaches to company pitches, meetings and reports. Advances in battery life and electronics now make it possible to carry everything needed for a presentation in your pocket.

Director of business development at OpenSymmetry, John Stuart argues there is scope for up to a 12% saving on sales force compensation plans.

I recently read a story about a customer who went into a shop to buy a pair of shoes. After deciding which pair he wanted, he went to the till. Half way there, one of the sales assistants handed him shoe polish, saying that it was free that day.

At home, the proud new shoe owner checked his receipt, only to discover that he had in fact paid for the shoe polish but received a discount on the shoes in turn.

So why had the sales assistant said the shoe polish was free? What had probably happened was that the shoe polish offered the highest profit margins, so the retailer incentivised its sales staff to drive the shoe polish sales.

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.

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.

Dow Jones vice-president, Corporate Products, Simon Bradstock explains how sales teams can build strong customer relationships through the effective use of business intelligence. 

It might be the Scout movement’s motto but it should be the salesperson’s mantra: ‘be prepared’. Three out of four senior executives feel that sales calls are a waste of time because salespeople aren’t adequately prepared. Why the lack of preparation? Because 45% of sales professionals say they have unmet needs for company, competitive and executive information.

Information is key in gaining competitive advantage. It can transform the way salespeople compete in today’s marketplace and provide them with reliable information to make calls and prospecting more effective. In today’s fiercely competitive environment – where products and services are no longer the only differentiator – strong customer relationships have never been more important.

Before laptops and Blackberries a salesperson's most important asset was the Rolodex. More recently, contact management systems such as Act and Goldmine, and CRM systems like Salesforce.com have begun to change how salespeople work, declares Mark Patron.

Today, a company's most important asset is often its marketing or customer database. As databases, contact management and CRM systems become linked together and, with companies increasingly selling direct, does this represent a threat or an opportunity for salespeople?

To understand how companies use their databases, we should first look at direct marketing. David Ogilvy - perhaps the greatest advertising man of all time - summed up direct marketing?s role quite succinctly: 'We sell. Or else.'