I’m constantly amazed at the calls I get.  People calling me, with little idea about who I am, what I do, what my company does.  I see this from sophisticated people in large organizations to those people dialing for dollars.

Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not my ego speaking, but I’m a really easy person to research.  Do a Google query, a lot of stuff about me pops up to the top or near the top.  In LinkedIn, there’s a complete profile with links to my blog, my company’s web site, and twitter.  So it’s really easy to find out about me and to be prepared to engage me in a conversation.

I’m not alone.  It’s easy to get insight for virtually everyone — or at least their company.  A Google query, LinkedIn, Facebook–these are just starting points.

If we are trying to connect with our prospects, if we are trying to engage them or maximize the impact of each call we make, before you pick up the phone, do some basic research.  On every call I make, even to people I know very well, I have at least two screens open on my computer, the person’s LinkedIn profile and their company’s website.  With some, I may have other information available.  Having that insight at my fingertips enables me to accomplish more in each call.

The reverse works, as well.  When I get a call from someone I don’t know, I do two things–I bring up their LinkedIn profile and their company’s website.  I quickly skim them to get some measure of them and what they do.  It’s important to understand how credible they are.

Realize, the people you are calling are doing this with you.  If you don’t have a current LinkedIn profile, you are immediately disadvantaged.  If your company doesn’t have a web presence, you may be discounted as not credible.

Selling is tough!  It’s incumbent on every sales professional to be as prepared as possible.  When we get through to a prospect, we want to maximize our impact.  The more we know about the individuals and companies we call, the more effective we can be.  We want to be as credible as possible when we reach our prospects.  Our “social” presence and that of our prospects are critical tools to enhance our productivity and impact.

Before you pick up the phone, make sure you have your prospect’s LinkedIn profile and website in front of you.

When you get a call, immediately bring up the profile of the person who is calling and their company’s website.

It’s been a while since I’ve ranted, but I’ve hit a tipping point.  It’s about LinkedIn–actually, about how people use LinkedIn.

I can’t imagine any business professional not leveraging LinkedIn as much as possible.  It’s powerful in building your own brand and people’s awareness of you.  It’s a powerful research tool, enabling us to get a little deeper insight into the people we are talking to, helping identify potential prospects.  It’s a powerful tool to exchange ideas and learn new things in many of the group discussion boards.

I tend to do all of it.  I actively start and participate in discussions in a variety of groups.  It’s great for increasing my visibility and for getting to know some very thoughtful people in the broader professional community.  I’m open to most request to connect and I actively try to expand my network.  If we’ve met at some meeting or conference, undoubtedly I’ll ask to connect.  If you’ve requested any of our eBooks or had some other engagement with us, I’ll probably be asking to connect.  Every once in a while, if we have been involved in an active interchange or discussion in one of the groups, I’ll ask to connect.  I welcome building my network in LinkedIn.

However, I’m seeing too much bad behavior in LinkedIn, and I have to whine a bit:

1.  If you reach out to connect with me, at least take the time to build a profile–let me know, through the profile, who you are, what you do, a little about your background.  Just taking the past week as an example, a large number of requests I have received have absolutely nothing (or the minimum LinkedIn allows) as a profile.

2.  It doesn’t take much effort to go beyond LinkedIn’s “Dear Occupant” invitation:   “I’d like to add you to my professional network.”  Add a sentence in front of that–personalize the invitation a little (even if it’s the same for everyone you invite).  We all know the LinkedIn default invitations.  Show that you are investing at least a moment of thought in asking to connect.

3.  Just because we are in the same group doesn’t mean I want you to send me messages selling your services or asking for help in finding a job.  There are places in most groups where you can do these things.  Sending me a direct, unsolicited message is SPAM.  If I get one, from someone I’m not directly connected with, I report it as SPAM–sorry, but I didn’t join the group to get direct emails about what you can sell me.

4.  If we are connected, be thoughtful about the direct messages you send me.   I welcome most, clearly those with whom I have a close relatinship, I’m absolutely delighted to hear from you and do anything I possibly can to respond to your request.  There are a lot more of you that are a little more “distant,” we may not have much more than a passing relationship.  Be thoughtful about your request, is it reasonable given our real relationship and knowledge of each other.  I’ll try to be helpful wherre it’s reasonable—after all, that’s what social networking is all about, but many of them are selling things or asking things that my profile would indicate that I have no interest in.  I don’t often go to my connections asking for things, but if I do, I will be thoughtful as well.

5.  I’ve seen some shockingly bad behavior in discussions.  I few of my discussion threads have been hijacked by individuals clearly selling something or trying to prove whose is bigger.  They’re called “discussions” for a purpose.  It’s great to have a vigorous discussion, to have different opinions and differing ideas, but personal attacks ruin it for everyone else.

6.  If you are participating in a discussion, you present yourself in a better light if you have paid attention to what the discussion is about.  Typically, I start discussions that are tied to my blog posts.  Some months ago, I noticed that people seemed to be responding to the title and had not looked at what the discussion was really about.  I did a test, perhaps unfairly, but I wrote a purposefully provocative title.  The body of the blog was completely different.  I also explained in the body of the blog that I was testing to see how people reacted and whether they really read or just responded to titles.  You know what the result of my little experiment was….. unfortunately.

LinkedIn is a very powerful tool.  I can’t imagine not having it.  I’m continuing to learn how to use it more effectively.  Sometimes, I make errors–sometimes in posting incorrectly on the groups, I try to fix it.  I try to be respectful of my communications to people who I am connected with or with whom I am requesting a connection.  If I’m doing something wrong, please let me know.  I’ll never send anyone a “mass email,” unless it is for a group I manage and it is an announcement relevant to the group.

What are your experiences with LinkedIn?  Any peeves about inappropriate behavior?

I was on my bike last weekend, riding to the beach to hang out with my nephew.  He’s a really cool guy, a sophomore in college, world class sailor, a surfer-dude.  What makes him even cooler, is he let’s me hang out with he and his friends every once in a while.  Saturday was one of those days, I was going to meet them at the regular surfing spot.

As I was riding down to the beach, the phone rang, it was the “family ring” so I stopped and answered it.  “Hey Uncle Dave, we’re at a new beach, the waves are much better here.  Meet us at the new beach.”  I was tempted to say, “Awesome dude, I’m stoked….” but thankfully thought better of it.

Got to the new beach, much of the normal group was there.  Through the morning, more people came, they heard we were all at a new beach, came to join us.

As I was riding back home, I reflected on how interesting the whole process was.  It wasn’t a big deal, the Saturday morning surfing group (and me) were hanging out in a new place.  Everyone figured it out and showed up.  A couple hadn’t heard, went to the old beach, but quickly found out what had changed and came to join the group.  No one was sitting at the old beach waiting for us to show up.

But it’s so different with so many sales people and managers when you start talking about social media and business, there’s genuine resistance.  I see all sorts of discussions, “Should sales people be involved in social media/business?”  When I talk to sales people, I ask, “What blogs are you reading, how are you leveraging social media?”  They look at me like I’m crazy.  I look at sales people’s LinkedIn profiles–they don’t have one, their profile is a resume, they have only a handful of connections.   Many companies restrict access to social media and networking sites, others say it’s a waste of time.

It’s odd to see the resistance to social media and business.  Increasingly, that’s where our customers are hanging out.  But there’s a resistance among sales people to hang out in the same place.  It’s kind of like showing up at the wrong beach–what’s the point, if  no one else is there, why continue to hang out there?  Why not join your customers where they are hanging out?  If we want to engage our customers, why not join them where they are at?  Seems to make sense doesn’t it?

Sure, not all your customers are there, so we have to hang out in some of the normal places.  But the point is, when the group changes beaches, if you want to hang out with them, you have to show up at the new beach.

Surf’s up dudes and dudettes, I’m stoked!  ( I just had to say that, sorry)

Referral’s are important to sales.  We want people who know us to introduce us to others who might be interested in our products or services.  Referrals are important and valued endorsements of who we are and what we do.

When someone refers me or my company, I am deeply appreciative.  I feel as though the referrer has bestowed something very valuable on me.  It’s something I will not betray, it’s something I’ll do all that I can to live up to their trust in referring our company.  Likewise, I value my relationships–when I refer someone to a colleague, I want to make sure both parties are right for each other.  For the person I am referring, I want to make sure that person has the same values, can do what I am providing the referral for, and will serve the customer as well or better than me.  For the customer or person I am giving the referral to, I want them to continue to trust me–to know that I will only refer people they can trust and who both value them and will provide valuable service.

I don’t believe referrals should be treated lightly, either in giving them or in getting a referral.

I’m disturbed by a trend toward the commoditization of referrals or even creating a “marketplace” for referrals.  Through LinkedIn, over the course of a month, I may get a dozen request for recommendations.  While they are from people that are connected to me, they are from people who I know nothing about other than their LinkedIn profile–we’ve not had any email exchanges, phone calls, nothing.  Somehow, they feel because we are linked, I should be giving them a recommendation.  Or I may get that “canned” thank you, when I accept an invitation that says, “thank you for accepting my invitation, please feel free to contact us to provide you services or refer us to others in your network.”  Does the act of accepting an invitation mean they have earned the right to ask for more in the relationship?

Over the past few months, I’ve gotten invitations to join a variety of “referral networks.”  People who I don’t know, want to refer me and for me to join a network where I might refer them.  In one, apparently if I do enough referrals, I’ll get a box of Omaha Steaks.  I have to admit I’m suspicious of these networks.  Here are people who are trying to gather referrals, offering incentives to do so.  The people providing those referrals, in hopes of earning a set of matched steak knives and a box of Omaha Steaks, must not value their customers very well.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve sent boxes of Omaha Steaks, I’ve bought lots of dinners, or done other things for people that have given me referrals–it’s always intended as thank you, as a means of showing my appreciation for their trust and confidence.  But the reward was never an expectation the person had in giving the reference.  Likewise, I’ve had people send me gifts (though I much prefer a heartfelt thank you), for referrals I have given.  Again, the expectation of the gift was not the reason for the reference.

The foundation of buying and selling is some level of trusted relationship.  Implicit in any referral is–or should be some level of trust transference.  If we state eliminating that as an element of the referral, then what’s the value of referral?  If we eliminate that as an element of  the referrals we provide, what does it say about how we value our own reputations and relationships with our customers.

The relationships I have with my customers, colleagues, advisers, and friends at too important to me to broker.  Each relationship is treasured and valued.  When I provide a referral, I expect that new relationship to be valued and treasured.  When I receive a referral, I will value and treasure that new relationship.

Social networking is great, but social networking as a tool to the commoditization of relationships and referrals is an abuse of the tools.

I’m a tremendous fan of many of the Sales 2.0 tools.  I think any high performing sales person must exploit these tools to the fullest.  They enable people to magnify their effectiveness greatly, as well as improving their efficiency.

At the same time, I really worry about these tools, they beccome crutches and faciliators of stupid behaviors, enabling people to make tragic mistakes at the speed of light.  It’s not the tools I worry about, it’s how sales people utilize them.  Too often, I’m seeing people apply them blindly–with terrible results.

Some true–but almost unbelievable stories:

Just because It’s On The Internet Doesn’t Mean It’s Accurate:  (This one may seem unbelievable, but it’s true)  A sales team asked me to review a key account strategy.  They asked me to be involved because I had extensive experience with the account.  As they begain the review, they went over the organizational structure, identifying key people they were going to develop relationships with—clearly they wanted me to introduce them to a few of the top people.  I saw a name at the top of the chart–I asked them, where they had gottent the name.  They mentioned a one of the leading tools on the market.  It’s pretty good, I actually use it for a lot of my research.  They said they had done their “research” and had identified the key execs.  They showed me the page on the web, profiling these executives.

I sighed, “Well, he certainly did have that role, I knew him well, he was a good guy.  I attended his funeral 12 years ago.  He was way too young when he passed away.”

The problem with many of these tools that collect names is they simply scrape documents on the Internet.  This gentleman’s name naturally appeared in many ole press releases, annual reports, proxy statements, so his name was added to the profile of the account.  These tools have a terrible problem with keeping accurate profiles.  There are so many changes, so much movement, that accuracy is difficult.  Many of these tools are useful starting points.  They help identify key people and profiles.  But in using them, it’s important to check to see the information is still valid–a call to the company can easily verify this.

If The Information Is There, Wouldn’t Be A Novel Idea To Use It:  Recently a new connection at LinkedIn sent me a very nice note through LinkedIn.  It thanked me for connecting and offered me assistance in a number of areas I might be interested in.  It suggested he could make a few introductions, it also suggested he could provide a few services—helping me with developing my sales process, my sales strategies, etc.  I thought the note was interesting, clearly this individual had not looked at the information in my LinkedIn profile. Several of the people he wanted to introduce me to and link ne with were people I was already connected to.  With one, there was a series of great discussions between us on LinkedIn.  Also, in reviewing my profile, looking at my blog posts (which are linked), one could easily see that I tend to have a point of view about selling processes and sales strategies, so I might not be a good prospect for selling me services on those areas.  Clearly, the guy had not read my profile or followed a couple of links.  Clearly the “welcome” letter was a form letter he sent blindly to all his new connections.  He was trying to be “social,” but wasn’t using the information for anything other than expanding his Spam, I mean mailing list.

There is so much information available in LinkedIn, Facebook, many other tools.  Googling someone’s name and reading the information can give tremendous insight—but you have to read and analyze it.  You can’t use it blindly.

Try Reading The Information And Responding In A Relevant Manner:  Another LinkedIn attacke.  This morning I get a response to a discussion I have started in LinkedIn.  The discussion referred to my past blog post on Selling At An Inflection Point.  I get a request from a sales person, putting his “best foot forward,”  wanting to apply for the job and giving me his relevant experience.  “Huuugggh?  Did you read it?  It had nothing to do with a job position!  Is this your example of how well you are using information on the web?  Are you even relevant? Take five giant steps backwards and be ashamed to call yourself a consultative sales person.”

So You Took The Trouble To Get The Information, What Does It Mean:  A friend of mine is CEO of a mid sized organization (a few $100M).  Recently, some changes they were making appeared in a number of publications along with interviews with her about those changes.  In a meeting, she pulled out a box and showed me 10 letters.  She said, “Dave, you should see this….”  Nine of the letters went something like this, “I see the changes you are making and wanted to arrange a meeting to sell you something.”  (I’m shortening it).  She went on to say that she had received over 100 letters/emails like that. 

 Then she showed me the 10th one.  It was a thoughtful note from a sales person.  It went something like this, “I enjoyed reading about the changes your organization is going through.  In researching your markets and company, it occurred to me there might be some challenges in these areas…….”  It went on to describe three key issues very concisely, suggesting how they might be addressed.  It also described in one paragraph the person’s experience in helping others with the issues.  The email was a about a page printed out.  Her response to me was–this is the only person that went beyond the information in the press and tried to give us some insight about them.  He wouldn’t have known that we have already anticipated them and are taking the same steps he recommended to avoid them.  But he showed real insight into the things we are facing with the company—we’re meeting him next week to see if he can help us in other areas.

Too often, sales people use information they’ve seen on the web or in other announcements as a prompt to “pitch,”  not thinking about it, analyzing it, and providing deeper insight.  This one person had done this.  He demonstrated great depth in understanding the issues, my friend’s company, and their markets.  Analyzing the information, not just reacting to it set him apart and secured the meeting.

The web, many of the Sales 2.o tools provide us great capabilities.  They simplify our jobs, they give us easy access to information.  But just having the information isn’t sufficient.  As sales professionals, we have to convert it into insight and intelligence.  We have to understand what it means, we have do think about the implications.  The data is just the starting point.  It’s up to each of us about whether we use it intelligently or whether it demonstrates our stupidity.

I received an intriguing invitation to “connect” today.  Best described, I was asked to connect with a “Thing,”  Not a person.  This thing had a relatively normal first name, but then a very gimmicky “phrase” as a last name. 

Curious, I looked the person up at LinkedIn.  He went by the same name.  I went to his website, likewise, he identified himself the same way.  I had no sense of the person I was connecting with.  I felt I was connecting with a “phrase,” not a real human being.  Nothing in his site or profile gave me any indication of who he was or what he stood for.  Nothing indicated, in fact, that he was real.

I started thinking, how do I address this person?  “Mr. ‘Phrase,’”  I thought, would his wife be “Mrs. ‘Phrase,’”  are there a bunch of little “Phrases” running around at home.  If they are little “Phrases,” perhaps it would be more appropriate to address them as “Words.”

I wonder what this person was trying to achieve?  I really like to get to know people.  I think relationships are about people—though I am fond of my bicycle—I spent a lot of time riding it.

I’ve noticed a lot of this recently.  People tend to be referring to themselves as inanimate objects, perhaps a collection of adjectives and verbs, a provocative phrase.  Is that supposed to be who they are, what they value, what they stand for?

I don’t know if this is a trend is a misguided attempt at personal branding.  But I don’t get it.  I still believe in connecting with people, getting to know them.  I believe in looking people in the eye, when I have the chance.  I believe in shaking hands—both as a form of greeting and as a form of agreement.  I believe in talking to people, hearing their voices.  I believe in social networking, but with people.  In social networking, I am constantly amazed at how, over time, one can really get a sense of an individual.

I understand the value of establishing a personal brand, but ultimately, people buy from people.  I don’t know how to buy from a brand, frankly, I have no desire to buy from a brand.

Many of my most valued relationships are with people I initially met through social networking.  I’ve established a new business with my friend Anthony Iannarino, I first met him when I disagreed with him in a blog post.  We’ve become close friends and business partners.  I can name dozens of others—friends, business partners, professional colleagues, customers, and clients who I’ve first met through social networking.

Social networking was the means by which we were introduced.  But I know each of them as people—who they are, where they’ve come from, what their dreams and goals are, what they value.  Maybe that’s old fashioned, but people are important.

Am I missing something?

While you consider this, I have a meeting with Mr. Specialized Roubaix.  We’re off for an hour of hill climbing.  Guess I’ll ask him how the family of little bikes are doing, wonder if they’ve outgrown their training wheels?

Reminder:  Our Friday Office Hours at Future Selling Institute are becoming very exciting with great discussions on issues critical to sales leaders.  This Friday, February 18, 2011, at 1:00 EST,  we will be tackling the conroversial  topic of “Coaching Approaches and Communications Styles.”  Make sure you reserve your space in the discussion, “seats” are limited, so Enroll Today!

As I re-read the title of this post, it somehow seems a little odd to be reminding sales people that sales is about people.  We are in a people to people business, our job is to connect with people effectively. 

In working with them, we tend to focus on their role in the organization and in a specific opportunity we are pursuing.  For example, we may focus on Mary, the CIO, her priorities for providing information technology services within her organization.  We present our solutions in the context of her priorities and goals for the organization, we stay very business focused, building a professional relationship.  It’s critical, we have to do this to be successful.

Somehow, in the press of time, or in the spirit of being professional, we forget that we are dealing with people, human beings, not CIO’s, CEO’s, VP, Managers, Directors, or whatever the title is.  We also forget that we’r not just account managers, business development managers, territory managers, sales people, but we’re also human beings.  Each of us, whether we are buyers or sellers has personal goals and aspirations, we have things that we are passionate about.  We have dreams, both personal and professional.

People by from people, people sell to people, most of what we do in business is people interacting with people.  Somehow, it seems the more “human” we are the more we are able to understand and connect with each other.  For example, I just got a note from “Bonnie,” she’s an executive with a large high technology company.  I know she is passionate about photography, rescuing elephants—really a cool story, and raising money for the Susan G. Komen foundation.  I know she and her husband are moving into their dream house–and they designed and built it.  Bonnie is contacting me about some programs she wants to initiate with her company.  I have a call from Sean, he’s a close friend and CEO of a mid sized technology company.  Sean has recently taken up bicycling as a good way to keep fit.  This past weekend, he and his wife were visiting their daughter at college–she’s great in cross country and they had an important competition on the weekend.  Thursday, Sean and I will talk about his business strategy–we’ll spend a few minutes on the trip and his daughter’s race, I’ll ask how he’s doing on the bike—he and I are riding together soon.  I know these things, not because I’m a supplier to them, but because I care about them as human beings.

Next week, I’m meeting with Gunther.  I’ve not met him before, but we’ve had a couple of calls.  I know a little about his career background and what his current business priorities are.  I know he has a good sense of humor–after all he puts up with mee!  I also know that he is active in his community, and suspect he is also a bicylclist.  I’ll find out more when I see him next week.

My customers and prospects know about me.  They know I’m an avid bicyclist and that I’ve coupled my bicycling with raising money for charity.  I’ve “trained” many of my clients that I will come to them for support (donation) in a 100 + mile race I’m riding in a few weeks.  A friend, a CEO of a company in Silicon Valley sent me a note last week to ride with him next year in a 400 mile ride for his favorite charity.  My clients also know that I’m passionate about literacy and that every child can read, write, reason–and develop themselves to be competitive when they graduate from high school or college.  Finally, all my clients know that I have an oddly bizarre sense of humor, love puns, and laugh at my own jokes (usually because no one else does).

I want to know my customers and prospects as people, as human beings.  I want them to know me as a person.  We all want this, not because we are looking to do a business transaction, but because we care about each other as people.  We know we each have goals and aspirations, we each have vulnerabilities.  We do this because we care about each other and our mutual success.  They don’t always makes decisions for me, but I still care about them.  Likewise, I work for their competitors or make decisions against what they are trying to sell me, but I know they still care for and respect me.  I know we can talk honestly and open with each other.  We can agree to disagree and still respect each other.

Business is about people working together.  It’s about relationships, it’s about being human.  Too often we forget that, it gets in the way of getting to know people and really contributing to them and their success.  It gets in the way of their helping us be successful.

How are you doing in being human to your customers and prospects?  Do you know their dreams and aspirations–professionally and personally?  Do you know their passions?  Do you care about them?  Do they know who you are?  Take the time to be human–you’ll be amazed at what it does for you and for your customers!

___________________________________________________

It’s easy to learn about your prospects and customers.  There are great tools like LinkedIn and Facebook that you should be using.  I always “Google” the names of the people I am talking to and meeting with.  Before I meet them, I try to get to “know”  them as much as possible.

I’m very excited about a new offering to help you do this, it”s called Intro Mojo, it’s a new company headed by my friend Daniel Waldschmidt.  In one place, you can start to get to know your prospects and customers.  You can get LinkedIn profiles, Twitter, other social media links.  You can see their likes in music—I was surprised when Dan was showing me his profile—he really needs to get off that pop stuff and get to more indie rock and hip hop!

It’s a great tool and save so much time over the Google Search!  You get everything in one spot.  Go try it, tell Dan and his folks that I sent you:   http://intromojo.go2jump.org/SHM

Try it out, tell me what you think!

The other day I was having dinner with a close friend.  He’s the President of a division of a company.  Eventually, the conversation got around to social media (is it something about me?).  He said, “Dave, I just don’t get it, you keep talking about social media and how important it is, but I just don’t get it, I don’t have time for it, my customers aren’t using it.

As we continued our conversation, he started saying, “I don’t have time to blog, I don’t have time to read blogs—even yours—and I really like your stuff (my ego was bruised a little), I don’t get twitter, Facebook is for kids….,”  he went on, “I’m overwhelmed by information, I don’t need more….,” the litany went on.  I just let him vent.

He is not unusual, I hear this from many senior executives.  I think it’s a result of not understanding what social media is and how they participate.  I think some of what causes this confusion is a caused by some of us who are relatively active in social media.

One of the problems with social media is there is too much of it… and there is too much junk.  I can see how executives and others get frustrated when they dip their toes into the social media pool.  There is a bit of a learning curve to figure out what you should be doing. 

However social media cannot be ignored—primarily because customers aren’t ignoring social media—not just consumers, but B2B customers.

Let me go on with my conversation.  We spoke a little about information overload.  I asked him, “How do you learn what’s on your customers’ minds?”  He jumped all over that, “It’s important to me, I talk to our sales guys, our applications engineers; I try to talk to customers as frequently as possible.”

“That’s great, “ I replied, “How many customers do you talk to a week?”

“Maybe 2-3, if I’m lucky,”  he responded.

“What trade events do you attend and publications do you read?”  I asked.

“Well, I try to make 1-2 of the key shows, every once in a while I skim one of the trade rags, but I really don’t have much time for them,” he responded.

I started to see a problem—and a potential for demonstrating the value of social media.

This executive is like many others I meet.  Somehow, everyday problems and events overtake us.  As much as we want to, we don’t get to spend as much time with customers, learning about customers, immersing ourselves in the industry and our markets, as we should.  We are overwhelmed with information, much of which does not increase our knowledge and understanding.

Nothing can take the place of getting information directly from customers, either in meetings or in calls.  The sales organization and others involved with customers on a daily basis are important sources of information.  The reality, however, is this ultimately provides a very limited perspective.  Top executives need to cast a wider net.

In the “old days—remember way back to the turn of the century—2000,” I would consume as many trade magazines I could.  Since I was on planes a lot, I always carried a bag filled with them.  I’d skim them on the plane and leave them in the pocket of the seat in front of me for the reading pleasure of the next passenger.  In those “old days,”  I’d subscribe to these specialized clipping services—they’d aggregate news and stories, based on my criteria.  I’d attend conferences and trade shows, I’d do everything I could to be listening to the markets, industry, customers.

Every executive needs to “listen” as much as possible—understanding what’s happening with customers, their problems, where they are going, what’s happening.  Every executives needs to make time to listen.

However, this is where social media comes in, there are so many powerful tools that help you listen.  There are tools to that help fit your information consumption needs to your own personal style and time commitments.  There are great news consolidators like InsideView and Hoovers.  There are numerous blogs—covering every topic imaginable, some consolidating industry and market information, others by industry thought leaders.  There are all sorts of readers that enable you to consolidate much of this information, presenting  a custom, real time clipping service.  Even tools like Twitter, searching on certain topics, key words, give an interesting snapshot of the conversations happening among your customers and competitors.

What about the issue, “my customers” are not there—using social media?  I think this is really wrong!  In this specific case, I had an unfair advantage with this client.  I had spoken to his marketing, product management, sales, and support people.  They said all their customers were all over the web.  They cited all sorts of discussion groups, news sites, activity at their own web site, and other things.  Their customers are technical people who leverage the web for gathering information on issues, solutions, suppliers….  While my experience base may be limited, I have not found an industry in which similar things are happening.  It may not be the CXO blogging, writing, or being interviewed, but in every sector I look, people are leveraging the web as a primary source of information and to screen potential suppliers.

Listening to customers is critical for every business professional—first we have to make the time to listen and immerse ourselves in our customers.  Social media provides a tremendous tool to leverage your listening—but it’s just a starting point. 

My advice to this executive and all others in the same situation is social media is critical in leveraging your listening productivity.  There is a bit of ramp up time in discovering the credible sources and sorting through the junk, but once you’ve done that, it gives tremendous insight.  Start with listening, over time you will also see more that social media can do.

Dave Kurlan wrote an outstanding post:  Bench Strength – The Key To Replacing Salespeople.  He mentioned that managers must always be recruiting.  It’s such a simple concept, but I am constantly amazed at how few managers–at all levels do this.

Here’s how the cycle goes.  We have a bad performer in place, we worry about firing the person, because it leaves an open territory….too often we think coverage is more important than quality.  Maybe the manager might start looking casually for someone, but the normal day to day events slow the process down, consequently nothing is done for too long.

Or it may go like this:  One day, our star performer walks in and resigns.  We panic–she’s going to leave a huge gap in our organization.  We immediately look to back-fill the position.  In our haste to fill the position, we may reduce our standards recruiting the wrong person.  The death spiral accelerates…..

Recruiting high quality people–even in this candidate rich job market takes time.  In my world, B2B, finding top notch sales people takes at least 90 days, often longer.  Add to that the onboarding time and you have a cycle of as much as 18 months before a person gets fully productive.  Great managers significantly reduce that time by always having candidates to back fill jobs in their back pockets (and by having great on boarding programs—but I’ll write about that later.)

Organizations like GE and IBM have long been famous for the succession planning.  For every role–at least in the executive and senior management levels, they have identified candidates that can potentially fill the each job.  In every managerial or executive role I have held, I maintained a list of people that could back fill me (as well as succession plans for all the managers reporting to me).  With each of those people, I had a development plan in place—I wanted to prepare them to be able to step into the new role when and if the time came.  That development plan included not only coaching, but developmental experiences (e.g. special projects), training and other activities.  Every manager must have a succession plan in place–not only for managers, but for everyone in the organization—”who will I bring in if I need to replace a sales person?”

Managers must always be recruiting–even if they don’t have the headcount or a “req.”  By recruiting, I don’t mean a formal posting of a job or engaging a head hunter.  The manager should always be networking, looking for great talent.  At conferences, in meetings, maybe through tools like LinkedIn.  A manager should always have at least half a dozen people they would like to hire, if the occasion presents itself.  This doesn’t mean offering them a job, it just means getting to know them well, understanding what their strengths and weaknesses are, exploring their own aspirations, exploring how well they might fit into your organization.  When the time comes (it is never if), you will be able to pick up the phone and call one of these people.  Some may be happy in their current roles and not willing to move, but several may be interested in a new opportunity.  You get a great replacement, months sooner than you normally would.

Great managers have succession plans in place for every role in their organization.  Great managers are always recruiting.  If you lost one of your key people today, can you pick up the phone and call half a dozen potential replacements tomorrow?  If you can’t, you need to start recruiting.