Part II
RD> So far, we discussed social media in the context of marketing. What does Sales 2.0 mean to you?
NR> To me, Sales 2.0 is how-to use new tools and technology innovations to do something in a more predicted way. A sales professional who uses and leverages new technology such as social media can do their Sales 1.0 style consultative selling better. I might be wrong but the process of sales is still 75% what happens face-to-face and the ability to read non-verbals. That will not change. However, with Skype and new phones that do video, at the end of the day, we can do it without field sales. Also in Sales 2.0, a salesperson by using social media can get and leverage information about the prospect that these face-to-face virtual interaction better and more timely.
RD> When you first go into an organization, how do you evaluate the resistance you will see in user adoption of social media in day-to-day work?
NR> Everybody wants to do everything and the kitchen sink. My suggestion is always focus and do something well – that works in social media strategy too. Having said that, you have to also evaluate upfront if the company has to change the paradigm and how to encourage the culture adoption. My most successful company is the contact center in Canton, OH. They first answered the question: what the image of their employees will be to the world, then they went about creating the brand using social media. Typically, I first meet with the leadership and determine what they are about. Michael Hyatt is a perfect example. His company Thomas Nelson Publishers is a culture of innovation, but it began with Michael setting that direction.
As a consultant, I also look for silos and power struggles. 9 times out of 10, I find that there is power struggle between the old and new school.
I am not making a path-breaking observation here and such struggles existed since beginning of humankind. However, the interesting part that I find is who makes the old school folks: they are folks who from mid 1980s to end of 1990s innovated and successfully embraced technology. Now, they hold the key accounts, money and the tenure. Yet they forgot that power of experimentation, they once indulged in. The new school folks are those who got to work in 2000 to now. They want to experiment and do the new innovative stuff. The conflict starts when the old school promotes agendas with things that they are more comfortable with. Meanwhile, the business leader gets caught in the middle and playing both sides. I am learning to manage and influence both these groups of stakeholders.
RD> Do you see the opportunity of games as a solution to manage the resistance and increase user adoption?
NR> I see enormous opportunity. But I also think that you might encounter the chicken and egg problem. Game is very powerful in increasing adoption. If the business is a culture of early adopters, then they will naturally embrace the games and we will never find out if games were the deciding factor to impact user adoption. If the culture is not a culture of early adopters, the games will just work to move them towards the faster adoptions side on the curve of adoption. Dennis Crowley and folks at foursquare nailed it. The idea of badge and point system got people hooked. Four times a week I check my points and compete one week a month crazily and I will beat someone in Columbus called Ben H. one of these days. I must say, I do it because of the points. To me the badge does not do much. The badges are only visual indicators of the human behavior. Gowalla has great badges and some say better user interfaces. But in my opinion, user interface alone cannot create dependency. The game mechanics of points does it for foursquare. Games are motivators. When companies are ready to implement social media and do social selling – games that teach them how and games that help adopt and embrace it – will be an awesome fit.
Having said that, one has to figure out how to address the two issues that will surface with a game: (a) someone will figure out how to cheat and (b) if monetary awards are provided to winners then there is a likelihood of decreasing returns on the intended value. If the game addresses these in the design, then I think there is awesome opportunity to increase adoption for any new change – be it in new technology, new initiative or new leadership.
RD> Thanks Nate. It has been really interesting chatting with you. Good luck beating Ben H.
NR> Let us continue to pick the appropriate strategies.
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