I don't have a commercial arrangement to say good things about these companies but I provide the examples to show you how to make your results soar by intelligently using technology... there's no CRM here and you'll even see the phone being used! Show these to your senior executive team if they struggle to understand how selling is changing and how people using technology masterfully can be the rocket fuel for soaring results.

Inside Sales: Here's an example from InsideSales on how algorithms can work to drive productivity. It's real and their customers are using it today. This is a powerful example of how lower cost inside sellers are eating into the traditional domain of expensive field sales. The focus today is on buyer/seller alignment and creating best possible Customer eXperience (CX). We need to engage and interact the way that our prospects and customers want us to. This means online, in social, on the phone and face-to-face when they want the meeting. The ability to click a button on your website to initiate chat or a voice conversation is essential today.

The algorithms and integration that drive the level of sales execution in the video above is real and affordable. Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) is changing the game for smaller companies to be able to compete with industry giants for elegant and seamless service with efficient processes.

Field sales: This video was produced by LinkedIn in their New York office recently when they had 3 real world customers provide case studies of how they're delivering real sales transformation.

LinkedIn is without doubt the most powerful tool on the face of the planet for researching prospective customers and elevating the sales profession. The speakers here talk using social to sell and I define the term Social Selling hereincluding five pillars for execution:

Social listening and monitoring for buyer trigger events.
Social publishing for credibility and attraction content marketing.
Social research for relevance and insight to positively challenge.
Social engagement to connect in context with a trusted network.
Social collaboration for accelerating business and driving efficiency.

I've been doing work for Oracle in the last few months and their suite of CX solutions is incredibly powerful. What's your strategy to use technology to drive revenue growth, operational efficiency and better Customer eXperience?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: Jimmy Baikovicius

Everyone is seeking brand cut-through yet automation usually results in people being bombarded and blasted rather than being provided with relevant insight and assistance. Amidst all the tools for sales and marketing, which ones are right for you? The most important thing to focus on is social listening and social engagement but this migraine inducing infographic from Scott Brinker at chiefmartec.com shows the overwhelming scale of choice that befuddles many.

I believe that the key to delivering best Customer eXperience (CX) is to adopt a mash-up of technologies to listen and engage with potential and existing customers but the choice is bewildering. There are 43 categories in the infographic above and they include social media, mobile marketing, video marketing, content marketing, CRM, sales enablement, e-mail, SEO... all offering a cornucopia of choice.

I recently sat down and discussed the importance of technology tools for social engagement with Adam Fraser, founder of social media technology specialist EchoJunction, and he told me which five he uses to great effect with his clients. His wisdom will help you navigate the sea of choice to decide what's right for your social sales and marketing efforts. Here is Adam's opinion about the plethora of sales and marketing tools and how they can be harnessed.

There are a few issues worthy of note about the MarTech landscape report:

We now live in the world of the API and web services – all software companies now pretty much have to “play nicely” with partners/potential competitors alike, hence opening up their platforms for integration and development purposes.
A number of niche, specialist tools now exist across a wide range of marketing technology areas.
One tool is unlikely to be suffice for all of your marketing software needs; integration between a variety of tools is a likely outcome – think “mash-up” not ‘marketing ERP’ when developing the technology solution that is right for your business.
Maintaining “one version of the truth” and “one view of the customer” are key over-arching objectives – don’t allow data silos to form, meaning different departments would be acting on different data pools/views of the customer
Strategic planning your technology architecture is critical: don’t rush out to procure a range of tools without thinking about your overarching data integrity, security and governance needs.
No question – the worlds of the CMO and CIO are converging. The marketer of today needs to be familiar with blueprints, roadmaps, cloud solutions and data architecture. Familiarity with technology and analytics are now table stakes for marketers.

Even within the social media marketing sector (a single sub-sector in the visual above) a broad and deep range of options exists. To help make some sense of this, I segment the enterprise social media software market (at a high level) along functional lines as follows:

Social listening tools such as Brandwatch, Netbase, Radian 6 and Sysomos.
Social customer service tools such as Conversocial, Lithium and SparkCentral.
Social reporting and analytics tools such as Simply Measured and Social Bakers.
Social publishing tools such as Buffer, CoSchedule and Postplanner.
End to end social media technology platforms (which can perform all of the above) such as Tracx, Spinklr, Sendible and Hootsuite.

Of course there are many more segments, particularly in the tactical social media marketing execution area. Yes, even the social media software sector arguably needs its own segmentation and infographic! At a high level the choice comes down to ‘best of breed’ verticals connected to each other via API integration and an ‘end-to-end’ platform for all of your social media needs. With either approach, integration to a CRM system is likely to make sense to ensure that critical one view of the customer is facilitated.

Which approach and software solutions are right for your business? That of course depends. Start with the business problem you are trying to solve, develop your marketing strategy, and create specific IT requirements; then (and only then) think about the technology solutions you need to facilitate your strategic plan. Too often I see people jumping to a “shiny new toy” before they know what business or marketing objective they are trying to achieve. This is cart before the horse.

The choice can certainly seem over-whelming for digital marketers but with the right approach and strategic planning, these marketing software tools can be a great facilitator and accelerator for your business and marketing operational needs.

Useful insights above from Adam Fraser and I also asked him about which social tools he prefers. Here's his answer: Brandwatch for social listening; Conversocial for customer service; Simply Measured for social analytics; and Marketo for for lead scoring, nurturing and drip marketing. As an end-to-end tool he likes Tracx which does a bit of everything and also content scheduling to multiple social platforms. There are many other excellent tools other than these but after much research these are the ones Adam has identified as enterprise capable, high quality offerings in this space which cover the vast majority of use cases.

Adam also does a weekly podcast which makes for great listening where he recently interviewed me on the misnomer of 'social selling'.

Main image photo by Flickr: Jeff Rowley Jaws