Two Sales 2.0 Offerings That Enable Sales 1.0

Long time readers here know that as much as I love technology, I don’t believe that it is a substitute for the right sales attributes and behaviors. A couple of my friends from across the web, however, are getting things right by better enabling the fundamentals with some slick tools.

David Tyner at Kineticast

David Tyner (@tynerd) at Kineticast was nice enough to call me yesterday to introduce me to one of his new clients located here in the best-kept secret in the Midwest, Columbus, Ohio. David and his group at Kineticast have been very kind to me and to this blog, including my posts on their SalesAce site, and David is a serious Agent Zero.

As we were talking about sales, the conversation turned to cold calling, something that David is engaged in on a daily basis, and still one of the most effective ways to gain access to decision-makers.

The day before our call, David made eight cold calls and reached one decision-maker. The advance that David is seeking is to simply have them watch the short, customized presentation that he sends them (it is really a powerful product demonstration). He promises a follow-up call, and then he makes that follow-up call after his software notifies him that his dream client has viewed his presentation.

Of the eight calls he made, sending his follow up email resulted in four of his prospects clicking though, opening the video, and viewing his presentation. Of the four that viewed the presentation, he scheduled and closed three. That is a close ratio of 37.5%, all opened with cold calling and followed up with Kineticast’s offering.

I can’t do Kineticast’s offering justice by describing it. So, I asked David to make a short demo for readers of this blog. This demo is what helped enable David to close three deals out of eight calls. Check it out and let me know what you think, or sign up for a free trial.

Sham Sao (Chief Marketing Officer) at OneSource

This past week Sham Sao and his group at OneSource launched their new product, iSell. I like iSell for one very important reason: time management.

For my money, the most important feature in their offering is the number of databases that they have compiled in one place. iSell rolls up dozens of databases, from some of the popular user-contributed data sources to in-depth company and contact databases, with whom OneSource has contractual relationships (They showed me the shockingly complete–and expensive–list).

The big advantage here is not having to bounce from Website to Website to capture the data on your dream client or the contact you are pursuing; it’s all there, all rolled up neatly in a single interface. The layout is really clean, by the way, and it is clear that they spent some time and effort on design.

While I don’t believe the real trigger that signals an opportunity is captured in any public data, there is no reason to have Google Alerts set up if you can view the same data in your SFA. iSell also rolls up all the public information that you would capture as trigger events in one place. This means you can stay focused on selling, not on trying to find the information you need.

By rolling the data up into one slick interface, iSell allows you to better manage your time and effort when prospecting, cold calling, and nurturing your dream clients.

Both Kineticast and iSell are worth exploring.

Disclaimer: I have no commercial arrangement with either Kineticast or OneSource. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising