As a sales and marketing innovator and Social Selling advocate at companies such as HootSuite and SAP AG, Darren is passionate about using social media to engage customers, manage the user experience, and drive user adoption of new technology.
MS> Darren, are you a Gamer? What types of gaming do you enjoy?
DS> I do like games. I’m extremely competitive. I’ll make a game out of the most mundane things. I’m not a gamer in the sense that I play video games till 3 AM with my friends, but I definitely like a good challenge.
MS> Do you play application-based games like Angry Birds or Words With Friends?
DS> Yes, when I have time to kill, I’ll play app-based games on my phone. I don’t actually have time for anything else!
MS> I think that’s why phone based apps have a such an appeal. There’s almost no time commitment. There is the type of gamer who will stay up until 3 AM playing Modern Warfare 3 with his friends on-line. And then you have the other type, who’s in it for a quick experience and will play Angry Birds while sitting in a doctor’s office or stuck in traffic.
DS> Exactly.
MS> Tell me about your learning style. How do you learn? When you approach a new situation, how do you learn everything that you need to know in order to get up and running? How did you approach this effort when you joined HootSuite (provider of social media management for businesses) as a leader in their sales organization?
DS> I like to learn by doing, watching, or experiencing. I usually try to put myself directly in the mix of a new situation. For example, if I’m coming into a sales team at a company like HootSuite, I’ll go in and observe. I don’t approach learning from a judgmental way. I approach it as “Show me what you’re doing.” I rarely even make comments during my observation, it’s literally just observing and soaking in how the team works. Then I follow up with questions after to make sure I fully understand the scenario with context. When I’m faced with a new situation, I approach it like I’m reading a story. I want to bring in all the information together and summarize it for myself so that I can really understand the situation. For me, practical application trumps any type of book-based academia.
MS> HootSuite’s core product offering is a social media management tool that lets a business manage multiple channels from one solution. So, obviously social media is a critical part of everything that happens at HootSuite. How do you apply social media within HootSuite?
DS> Our application of social media extends throughout all aspects of our business, from customer support and marketing, to human resources and sales. They’re all separate moving parts of one singular engine. From a sales perspective we take the torrent of information that comes at us through social and filter it into usable streams. This is gives us a a chance to break down the information and strategically engage with our customers. Which in turn, provides leads, contacts, and situational opportunities. We’ll also schedule and send messages to our market so we’re actively participating through social while monitoring the real-time conversation happening throughout the web. We use similar tactics in customer support and to enhance our customer experience.
MS> At PAKRA, we talk to a lot of clients or prospective clients who don’t have social medial strategies or “listening strategies”. We try to educate them on the amount of information that is out there in the social sphere. We tell them to go out to Twitter and type “#servicefail” and look at what their customers are saying about them, but not directly to them. If a business isn’t aware that this exists, it’s a huge missed opportunity.
DS> Absolutely. From more of a sales perspective, we’ll work with marketing if we’re going in to a new market. We’ll set up a social mechanism and establish a web footprint in that market. This starts by building a social community in that market before going in with a full sales effort. We’ll then engage and promote our culture and awareness so the market knows us before we launch. It helps give potential customers a familiar experience with us that isn’t sales focused.
MS> It’s about building brand awareness. It’s the precursor to sales.
DS> Agreed. We also encourage each of our sales reps to create a social media presence and manage a Twitter account. It’s that individuals voice, speaking on behalf of HootSuite, and it allows the associate to engage in a meaningful manner with prospective clients.
Along with encouraging our team to be active and engage with social media, we also equate listening in to the mix. By monitoring streams for our current customers, it lets us know how we can help amplify their messages.
MS> Talk to me about how you use Sales 2.0 philosophies to enhance your sales strategies.
DS> Sales 2.0 is a true focus on customer service, how they’re interacting online and transforming this information into hard leads. Companies should be having thoughtful conversations using social media that have real value. Keeping in mind that the content being shared and created should also bring the same value. Instead of focusing on traditional channels, like mail, to provide sales materials, a social business should drive information through their blog and website. This sets up an opportunity to track and analyze how people are engaging, and what is really grabing their attention. It should be common practice to collect information that gives insight into how customers are engaging online. From here, there should be a system in place to proactively follow-up on the information based on what a prospect’s interests seem to be.
MS> How do you train your sales force; from a new person coming in the door to a seasoned associate who needs on-going development?
DS> I think that it’s necessary to give every associate a baseline. Starting with a new associate, this person may not have a vast background in social media. They’ve probably been exposed to it, but may not know what to do with it. They may have Twitter but not use it. They may have LinkedIn but not monitor it. So we start with their baseline and immersion in social media and build from that.
Next, I begin to position the “who, what, and why” of HootSuite. What do we do? Where do we fit? What’s the value proposition of our product? Who is our customer base?
Then we talk about the sales process and the tactical aspects of the job. How do I get a meeting? What do I say when I get a meeting? How can we really drive the sales cycle?
From there, I’m a strong believer in ongoing development. I look at who my future leaders are. As we grow, we need to identify the next generation of leaders in the company. We need proactively address the development needs of those individuals who might be stepping leadership roles.
MS> In your experience, what are the drivers behind user adoption of a new technology?
DS> The easier it is to adopt a new experience; the more likely a user will stick with it. New technology needs to be exciting, make people inquisitive and make the consumer feel like that piece of technology is the future. It also must fill a need that has not been met, or a need that the user didn’t know existed. Ultimately, in order to achieve maximum adoption, new technology has to offer an innovative way to complete the task. There must also be ease of use and simplicity. If there isn’t ease of use, adoption will drop off.
MS> I agree. A new technology needs to be easy to use and it needs to work correctly. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be complex in what the application offers, but you’ve got to be able use it easily.
DS> If something doesn’t quite work as it should or it’s difficult manage, it’s going to be viewed as “not ready”. You can address a complex issue with technology, but it has to be user friendly.
MS> What’s your definition of immersive learning?
DS> I really have two definitions of immersive learning. First off, if something is immersive it’s also interactive. And if it’s interactive, there’s heavy involvement and stimulating all senses. Secondly, immersive learning means the environment will be rich in real world scenarios and coupled with constructive feedback.
MS> These are the two drivers behind what PAKRA does with our gaming simulation technology. We want to build our business process simulations to be fully interactive. It needs look, sound, and feel like our client’s real working environment so that an employee can learn by doing, while getting feedback every step of the way.
DS> Innovation, interaction, and ease of use are all key factors for creating new technology. When we’re talking about social media, I think that it’s important, from a business perspective, to remember to engage in different ways. Find out where your audience lives and place yourself there.
MS> Darren, it’s been really great talking to you. Thank you for your time!
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