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The CUSTOMeR COLLeCTIVe | Web 2.0 AND SALeS PROCeSS MANAgeMeNT
A Whitepaper Sponsored by The Customer Collective and Oracle
Web 2.0 and Sales
Process Management
WhiTepAper Survey
by Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D.
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The CUSTOMeR COLLeCTIVe | Web 2.0 AND SALeS PROCeSS MANAgeMeNT
INTRODUCTION
ThIS RePORT DISCUSSeS hOW Web 2.0 SySTeMS
AND APPLICATIONS CAN SUPPORT MANAgeMeNT
Of SALeS PROCeSSeS.
instead of focusing on specific technologies
such as social networking, blogs, wikis, or other
technologies, it focuses on business processes
and addresses the following questions:
1. how satisfied are sales managers with the
different processes currently involved in locating,
managing, and closing sales?
2. What can this tell us about where Web 2.0
applications would provide the most benefit
to the overall sales process?
input to this report was provided by a special online
survey (Appendix A) and by telephone interviews
(Appendix b). Appendix C explains the project’s
organizing concepts. Appendix D provides defini-
tions for “sales processes” and “Web 2.0.” To see
the Overview of findings from this project Appendix e.
Findings:
SUMMARy Of fINDINgS
1. The most immediate perceived benefits of
applying Web 2.0 techniques to sales are pro-
vided by improving the outcomes of prospect-
ing and customer qualification.
2. When addressing Web 2.0 support for sales-
related communication and collaboration, it’s
important to distinguish whether participants
or processes being considered are internal or
external to the sales team’s organization. For
example, while involvement with the social and
professional communities surrounding business
prospects may improve market intelligence
about business prospects, such communica-
tions are not as controllable as traditional one-
to-one communications between buyer and
sellers. internally, collaboration that cuts across
organizational boundaries might be impacted by
existing organizational rivalries.
3. Some within-sales-force collaboration may be