The Virtual Sales Team

New Blog Started

2005-11-28T12:35:00.004Z

I'm in the process of launching an enhanced website and have started a New Business Development Blog on our own server.

This blog will extend topics covered on the Virtual Sales Team Blog, to offline networking, books, sales resources, and tips.

They'll also be a few anecdotes from the world of telemarketing, lead generation & new business development.

I look forward to your comments on our New Business Development Blog.

Being polite still counts

2005-11-25T08:41:00.001Z

There's a poll running on Ecademy about "What's your major criterion to connect to someone on Linkedin?".

At the time of writing this blog, #1 is "Polite and customized request" with 28% of the votes. 2nd is "Introduced by a trusted referral" with 24%, which is interesting as that's the whole point of LinkedIn, isn't it?

For me, the key thing about this poll is it gives an insight into how people make these type of decisions. As someone who approaches people every day with business propositions, the poll seems to agree with my own observations.

If you take the time to make a personal approach, that is polite, relevant and tailored to the person you're contacting, and includes some reference to an individual or company that they know: the odds are good that you'll be successful. Not 100% of the time, but a good percentage.

It doesn't matter if it's a phone call, an email, or a LinkedIn request. If it's polite, relevant & tailored to them and credible (hence the reference) then you'll get good results.

There are so many people out there reeling off scripts over the phone, or just sending out junk emails, that you will stand-out just by following these simple rules.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - social networking, Linkedin, Ecademy

Ziggs - an online profile tool

2005-11-09T07:37:00.001Z

Thanks to Naina's Business Networking blog, I found out about Ziggs, a new online professional profile site.

They've already racked up an Index of 3,091,441 Professionals representing 92,642 Companies, most of which are in the US.

The site layout and features is very cool and the search facility works well (lots of my Linkedin contacts are already on there). You can setup a Ziggs profile (which I have done...take a look here) or you can direct the search result to click through to your own webpage.

I checked on a few big name corporations and they're all there. I think Ziggs is still in Beta and it will be interesting to see when it gathers an international coverage (at the moment you can only search by state, rather than country).

To me, it's a bit like ZoomInfo, in that you can manage your own profile on the web (although ZoomInfo also searches and collates other pages about you on the Web). They're offering a PPC type service where if anyone searches for your name on the major search engines you'll come up as a sponsored link. If you've already got a web presence, I'm not sure what the advantage is.

Overall, a good site and worth putting a profile up on...as it's free

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - social networking, Ziggs, ZoomInfo

Doostang - what a difference a server makes

2005-11-06T07:34:00.001Z

Doostang's own blog explains the fun they've had over the last few days. The guys have invested in a dedicated server and the site is now running smoothly.

They're still adding features so expect it to evolve over the coming months. I'm keeping a watch on this one.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - social networking, Doostang

The invite avalanche of Doostang.com

2005-11-04T19:02:00.001Z

An amusing thing is happening around Doostang.com, a new entry in the online social networking space.

Setup recently by two guys, Mareza Larizadeh and Pavel Krapivin, the site has an invite only policy and seems to set itself the goal of being the best place to find or fill a job vacancy.

Now here's the thing: they make it so easy to invite the contacts you have from Linkedin, Plaxo, etc that within a few minutes on the site you can send out thousands of invitations.

Yesterday (I think they must have hit a tipping point in the last 48 hrs) I got about 50 invites coming through and so I thought it must be worth a look.

I had a peek, thought it looked professional and pretty low maintenance so I decided to invite my contacts on LinkedIn (3000+). I chose to do this as LinkedIn has become as much about jobs as it is about social networking nowadays so I thought it could be of interest to many of my contacts.

If you take a look at many of the LinkedIn Yahoo! groups at the moment there are a few complaints from people and the word "spam" is mentioned pretty frequently. Imagine if you're connected to 500+ people on Linkedin and they all decide, as I did, to share Doostang.com with their connections.

Some of the complaints are about multiple invites which I guess could be due to some Plaxo users have multiple email addresses, or someone inviting all their Plaxo and LinkedIn contacts at the same time.

I think the guys are having some fun holding the site together as it must be growing at a phenominal rate. There's a buzz in the recruiting world about this site. Maureen Sharib's recent blog gives you a bit more background on this. Or keep an eye on Doostang's own blog.

I know many of the people I invited have said they're experiencing problems logging in, etc.

I guess it'll settle down after a few days and then we can see if the site is actually worth being a member.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - social networking, Doostang, LinkedIn, Plaxo

How good is ZoomInfo for searching?

2005-10-28T06:19:00.001Z

I've been playing recently with ZoomInfo, which at first glance seems an interesting tool for finding people online.

I used a couple of live scenarios recently where I needed to find a contact for a client; comparing the results from ZoomInfo with using Google was very interesting. Google, as always, delivered the results I wanted (searching for some background and email address), but you had to work for it over several searches.

ZoomInfo was able to display a very simple summary on one page, and came up with a few nice features for one contact which was the ability to email them (through the site, not directly). Interestingly though, some of the contact details were not up to date when I finally contacted the person (but I would have still got to the person I wanted so that wasn't a real problem)

For salespeople or recruiters without the skills to data-mine Google, I think it's a useful tool. As it gathers momentum and allows you to contact a significant number of people dirctly through the site, it will be a useful additional to the contact listing and social network space.

Like some other services, the additional features, such as Sales Intelligence, are still USA focused.

If you want to be found on ZoonInfo, you can also create an account and update your details to make it easier for people to find you.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, social networking, ZoomInfo

Is the phone still king?

2005-10-20T07:41:00.002Z

I had a conversation the other day with a head-hunter who used Linkedin daily as part of his search for candidates. We were chatting about how I also used Linkedin for similar ends and it was interesting how we both had adopted the same strategies.

We both agreed that Linkedin was an excellent resource for searching and finding exactly the person you wanted, so that you could make a high quality approach. In some circumstances we both used the introduction or InMail approach but usually we just picked up the phone and called the contact.

I was working on a project recently and, using Linkedin, I was able to pin-point a contact within a $multi-billion global company and, with a single phone call, arrange a meeting for my client. Without Linkedin my approach would have been less surgical; I was able to use the person's profile to construct a value proposition. However, I suspect that if had used Linkedin to contact the person (they were a 3rd degree in my network)it would have taken at least a couple of weeks and probably would have a 50% chance of success (for reasons I'll go into on another blog)

The key thing here is that I was able to find the right person who really saw value in what my client was offering. This isn't the scatter-gun approach of many outbound telemarketing and lead generation companies. And, the final point is that the person I contacted was delighted I had called.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, social networking, Linkedin

So what is this AppExchange all about?

2005-10-18T05:17:00.001Z

Anyone who uses Salesforce.com cannot have failed to notice all the hype over AppExchange. For a start, it's in your face everytime you log on, right?

Well, after all the hype, here's an article, Rights and wrongs of Salesforce's 'eBay' play, by ZDNet's Phil Wainewright which presents a more balanced view.

What does it all mean to The Virtual Sales Team? Well, if it promotes the expansion of interesting and useful third-party apps that enhance the core application then it's got to be good.

Time will tell I guess, I'm still waiting for someone from Before the Call to call me with pricing ;-)

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, Salesforce.com

LinkedIn & Salesforce.com

2005-10-13T13:20:00.002Z

A really interesting development picked up from LinkedIn Bloggers is the possibility of seamlessly accessing the LinkedIn network from Before the Call's sales intelligence solution. You can read a PDF press release here

I hadn't yet come across Before the Call so I've put a request in for a demo of their software. They seem to offer on-demand Sales Intelligence, which is critical for when our clients want us to open doors for them at C-level.

Like many Salesforce.com add-ons, it'll be interesting to see how this one maps over to the UK market, which is where we are most active, but if it is utilising our own LinkedIn connections then it really could deliver.

I'll keep you posted when I've had the opportunity to evaluate it.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, social networking, Linkedin, Salesforce.com

Linkedin & AOL (part 2)

2005-10-11T12:07:00.001Z

Out of interest I posted a quick blog on Ecademy to ask how may people are using AIM. Julian Bond confirmed that he had 698 members using it and out of those 118 were using Skype also, so there's a good chance that they've migrated over.

So, whilst AIM is very popular in the US, it seems that it hasn't wide-spread usage in networking and business circles elsewhere.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, Social Networking, Linkedin, AOL, Ecademy

Linkedin & AOL

2005-10-10T20:23:00.001Z

I picked up on this from Bill Liao's post on OpenBLOG, regarding the announcement that Linkedin was teaming up with AOL for profile integration.

What interests me here is that users of AIM, AOL's IM service, will be able to see when their Linkedin contacts (that also use AIM) are online and available to be contacted via IM.

As someone who uses Linkedin daily, I can see how this could help me develop closer networking links with my contacts. According to Reid Hoffman, Linkedin "chose AIM as it is already the most popular instant messaging service among our user base of 3.8 million business professionals".

I'm not sure how many of my contacts are using AIM for their IM; to me, Skype is the preferred option for most of my contacts.

However, I always want to keep my options open so I signed up for an AIM Screen Name and added it to my Trillian settings. Trillian is a IM client that allows you to talk to Yahoo, MSN & AIM users in one program. The basic program is free and you can get it here.

If you want to communicate with me via AIM my screen name is Davidregler1

Let's see how this one develops and I'll be interested to see how embedded IM can improve the LinkedIn experience.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, social networking, Linkedin, AOL

New Application for Skype

2005-10-10T07:05:00.001Z

I'm testing a new application add-on for Skype. It's called Festoon and it promises to allow up to 200 people to share a video call, plus allows you to share your desktop with them. I'm thinking presentations, sales meetings, client project meetings...

I'll let you know how I get on trialling it and report back on another blog. If anyone has some direct experience of this product, I'd love to hear about it.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, Skype, Festoon

Where to start?

2005-10-09T17:57:00.001Z

Well here's a little about me and what you can expect from my blog.

My name is David Regler and I run a small outsourced business development consultancy.

A what? You can think of us as a Virtual Sales Team that clients engage to help them find and win new business.

This means that I spend nearly all my time online, searching for contacts, researching markets and prospects, networking, managing contacts and sales activities through salesforce.com, emailing and, with Skype, phoning people online.

In fact, I'm using every online resource and tool I can to seek out and find new business for my clients.

So in this blog I'm going to share my thoughts and strategies on all these areas. I'll comment on other blogs, on major changes with the technology and how to best exploit it, and also my general thoughts on the area of sales and finding new business opportunities.

I'm planning to post around once a week or more frequently if there's something interesting to say.

David Regler
Maine Associates Ltd

Technorati Tags - Business Development, Sales Outsourcing, Social Networking,