How to Sell to Customer 2.0

Watch out sales and marketing teams: Customers are in the process of reinventing the buying process. Thanks to the democratization of sales intelligence due to the explosion of data on the Internet as well as easy access to "social conversations about businesses", Customer 2.0 has nearly unlimited access to information on companies, products and people they are considering doing business with. As a result, customer 2.0 has all but stopped listening to vendors...and customer-to-customer conversations are becoming far more influential to the buying decision than traditional sales and marketing efforts. A new era has begun and the buying cycle is quickly replacing the sales cycle.

In this prospect-driven buying process, how do you synchronize the sales cycle with the buying cycle? The key is relevance. And, relevance requires knowledge. Get smarter about your prospect's business to find the unique angle on how you can address their urgent needs and challenges. Use social media and social network profiles to actively "listen" to and learn about potential buyers to drive them into deeper engagement with your company. Since prospects and customers are more educated than ever about the strengths and weaknesses of your products and services, they will only value the conversation if you can bring something timely, relevant and meaningful to the table.

At the end of the day, Sales 2.0 has to be about successfully maneuvering the new buying cycle mandated by the smarter and more informed Customer 2.0. While sales may always remain a relationship-driven business, the power of just "who you know" is already being trumped by "what you know about who you know." Customer 2.0 is demanding relevance in any sales engagement. It is imperative for sales organization to leverage the social web to arm themselves with the deep customer insights required to thrive in this rapidly evolving selling environment.