Author Archives: Eric Berto

Corporate Communications Manager
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Visit us at Oracle OpenWorld

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Are you attending Oracle OpenWorld? Well, we are and we want to meet you while we’re there.

We will be set up in the main expo hall as part of the Inner Circle Partner Pavillion along with other elite partners. We’ll be demonstrating the latest application that we will be announcing shortly before the show. Of course I would love to tell you what it is, but I can’t do that just yet.

So, why should you come see us? Well, here are our top 7 reasons:

  1. You want to know what “Right90″ means. In the context of what our products do for your business, it will be quite clear once you learn more about it.
  2. You want to know how you can trust your sales forecast. While you’re at Oracle OpenWorld, we’ll help you learn about how to address a lack of objectivity and long-term visibility into your sales forecast.
  3. You want to talk about sales forecasting, not opportunity management. Are you trying to forecast existing, run-rate business in addition to your new business? If so, we can show you a very easy way to capture and analyze a complete sales forecast.
  4. You want to see what cool swag we have. Let’s be honest, some people go to trade shows to replenish their pen supply. But, this show is striving to be Green, and we’re more than happy to help the environment. Most of our data sheets are available in our resource center.
  5. You want to see the new application we’re launching. While I can’t tell you just what it is yet, I can tell you that you will want to stop by the booth and see how it will change the way you look at your forecast.
  6. You want to see how we integrate with Oracle CRM on Demand. Our seamless integration with Oracle’s CRM solution gives you the power of Right90 applications without altering your work flow.
  7. Our team is really smart, great to talk to and a joy to be around. The staffers at the Right90 booth won’t be underpaid interns or temps hired by a PR firm. You can meet, shake the hands of and talk to our CTO, our great sales team and maybe even a friendly marketer or two.

So, there you have the top 7 reasons to go to Oracle OpenWorld. Of course, these are a bit biased. But we would love for you to experience the conference for yourself. Simply go to the Oracle OpenWorld registration page and use this code: ORCZRF12EGST.

I would love to hear your top reasons to go to Oracle OpenWorld.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Right90 | 2 Comments »

Using Social Media as a Sales Tactic

Friday, July 24th, 2009

If you are a sales professional are you or your company using social marketing to help meet your goals? Are you representing a product or a brand and trying to reach a broader audience with shareable content?

I came across a post on LinkedIn asking for suggestions on how to incorporate social media and online marketing into a sales forecast.The answers were varied, from wondering about the product life cycle to making sure it’s not redundant in the marketing forecast. My answer is incorporate social media and online marketing early and often.

Using the platform

One thing I want to clear up is that direct sales uses social media as a platform through what I call social marketing. Social media allows a person to create, share and interact with people and content. Social Marketing occurs when social media is used to generate direct revenue. As an example, a blog is an element of social media. This post is social education. And, if you watch our demo, it is also social marketing.

Direct sales people can use tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube to generate leads, share information or identify new markets. Posting links in blog comments, responding to other people’s tweets or responding to questions on LinkedIn are all examples of social marketing.

Social Forecasting?

Can you convert your social media usage into actual responses? And, if you can, how do you measure those responses and interface them with your sales forecast? The other thing to consider is what is your threshold for a response? Is an exchange of contact information a response?

The main thing to remember is that sales communications through social media tend to fall in the “marketing” portion of a forecast. Those responses and the shift from opportunity to lead is a marketing action. And, from a marketing perspective, the job is done when the pipeline is filled. Then it is up to sales to close the deal.

Forecasting for social marketing depends upon the activities planned for it. URL shorteners and other metrics tools help you measure the effectiveness of a particular social marketing activity. As you progress, you can begin to forecast the effect of a tweet or a blog post.

The effects social marketing can have on a sales forecast are radically varied. Since social marketing is a recursive technology, you can only get out what you put in. By focusing intently on growing a quality and engaged community, you will see a higher conversion rate. If your exposure to social marketing is simply spamming a link to hundreds of people, you will see a lower conversion rate.

In addition, if you are doing research on a new product, using social media tools can help you filter a potential market demand and even help you discover new opportunities. Using Twitter search or RSS feeds, you can bring the conversations other people are having right to your monitor.

Closing the deal

Some good answers were given to the LinkedIn question. And the use of social marketing is an effective way to help meet a sales forecast. But I think there’s room for more than simply helping. I think proper interactions via social media can help sales people actually close a sale. The trick is to avoid high-pressure. Social marketing turns into social spamming very quickly. The key is avoiding that line.

The other important benefit of social marketing is that it can help you start conversations. The majority of your job as a sales person is education. If you can syndicate your lesson plan, you can cut down the time to close.

Are you using social marketing as part of your sales strategy? How do you account for that time and potential successes in your forecast?

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Sales Forecasting | No Comments »

Social Media for the Sales Professional

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Have you ever been looking at a LinkedIn group and realize it’s simply sales people trying to sell to eachother? How do you stand out from the echo chamber as a sales professional? What tactics can you employ in social media that will help you make your number, but not get you labeled as a spammer?

It is impossible to ignore the daily impact social media has had on our professional and personal lives. And it is possible to harness its power for the benefit of your organization, however, there’s a tight line you must walk.

Is it social media or social marketing?

In my opinion, social media is the platform that social marketing, social awareness and social networking are built on. For the sales professional, social marketing and social networking are the two key elements to focus on.

Social marketing is using the tools and technology within social media to convert sales and leads. Answering a question on LinkedIn is great. But offering a “call me to talk” or a “can I email you with more information?” quickly becomes a sales pitch.

A great resource for companies that are doing it right is B2Bsocialmedia.com. They profiled Boeing’s use of a corporate blog to educate and inform potential customers of its commercial aviation unit.

Dell us using Twitter to sell refurbished computers and other equipment through it’s @DellOutlet account. According to Newsweek, Dell has attributed more than $3-million in sales to its Twitter channel.

Take a look at some of the groups on LinkedIn such as the Semiconductor – Sales & Marketing or Salesforce.com Professional groups for examples of some sales people sharing good ideas.

Social Networking is using the tools available to make connections. In the LinkedIn example earlier, the simple act of answering a question is social networking. Retweeting another person is social networking.

It is when a direct sales tactic is applied that it becomes social marketing.

How social should you be?

How social you should be depends on who you want to listen to. According to an article in B to B Magazine, executives are turning to the social Web:

Seventy-three percent of C-suite executives are using the Internet daily, Sebastian said, referring to new research Google conducted with Forbes of 500 executives at companies with sales of $1 billion or higher.

“They’re not delegating,” he said. “They prefer to do a lot of this stuff on their own.” Among the findings from the research, which will be formally released in the coming weeks include: 64% of C-level execs conduct six or more searches per day to locate business information.

Interestingly, 1 in 5 said they preferred to watch video rather than read text. Focusing on the impact of video, Sebastian said there are “1.5 million business searches daily on YouTube,” making it the second-most-visited destination for business searches, behind Google.

The fact is that the potential buyers of B2B products are on social networks and are consuming social media. The question for you to answer is how are you going to present your services and products to them?

So, how do you use it?

The best advice I can say is to be as genuine as possible. There seems to be a greater respect for those that practice full disclosure. So, if you are selling software, say so when you post a comment on a blog post. If you are answering questions on LinkedIn trying to gain leads, disclose that you represent a certain company.

Also, social media as a whole epitomizes the “garbage in, garbage out” mentality. You can only get out of social media what you put into it. So, in order to see great rewards, you must put in great effort. At first, it will be hard to see numbers that justify the time you’re spending. But, stick with it and soon you will be making some great contacts and earning some great leads.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Sales Forecasting | 1 Comment »

Oracle CRM Partner Video

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Our partners over at Oracle CRM on Demand put this great video together talking about the need for enhanced sales forecasting in CRM systems.

In the video Right90 CEO Kim Orumchian talks about how Right90 is a great addition for companies that are running the Oracle CRM on Demand solution. One of our other partners, Big Machines, makes an appearance as well discussing its quoting and proposal management solution:

What we hear from Right90 users is that being able to combine sales forecasting with their CRM makes the entire system more valuable. Right90 is tightly integrated with Oracle CRM on Demand, which addresses the specific sales forecasting needs of high tech companies (including account based forecasting, unit, price revenue over time). High tech companies need a simple and easy to use way to collect their forecast. And, Right90 can help close deals.

Right90 helps customers that want to maximize their Oracle deployments with an on-demand solution that helps deliver a trusted, actionable sales forecast.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Right90, Sales Forecasting | No Comments »

Announcing a Joint Webinar With salesforce.com

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Isn’t it time to put your CRM to work for you? When Right90 partners up with salesforce.com for a webinar on June 24, you can find out just how to combine a CRM with a sales forecasting application.

Learn from Patrick Morrisey, salesforce.com VP of Strategic Alliances; Southard Jones, Right90 VP of Products; Bruce Richardson, AMR Chief Research Officer; and Paul Kobos, the CFO of Cinterion, which is one of our customers.

What’s in it for you?

Ideal for companies looking to figure out how to make the most of their customer data and help establish a trusted, actionable sales forecast, this webinar brings together not only representatives from salesforce.com and Right90, but also customers and analysts to share their thoughts.

You will learn about the importance of having an effective sales forecast as part of a complete CRM strategy. Part of the goal for this is to help you make an educated decision about which applications to consider as your company grows. So, don’t hesitate, here is the webinar registration. Go on, sign up and we’ll see you on June 24.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Right90 | No Comments »