Check out Caffeine and Calories. True coffee aficionados will be towards the espresso/double espresso side of the buzz versus bulge equation.

Happy Friday.

Microsoft to mobile developers: Your app is worth more than 99¢

The business model of 99 cent applications is not good for application developers. There are many other issues with the iPhone development. It is refreshing to see another vendor take it on. Competition is good. Check the above link from TechFlash.

Is This the Cure for the Common CRM?

Review of CureCRM from Read Write Web. No mystery that Sales like to use email and email based tools are very popular. The “dead simple” play should attract attention.

98 seconds of xRM sizzle.

Social Media University Reading List: Solid reading @ 800ceoread. Worth checking out these titles.

The post also mentions Six Pixels of Separation. I have been a fan of that blog for some time. Check it out.

Happy Tuesday.

How Twitter works in theory is an interesting post on the Epeus’ epigone blog that I have been digesting over the last few days. Check it out.

The Sales Enablement space players are currently focused on the marketing to sales side of the CRM equation. No doubt that these tools have the ability to increase user adoption. I have been a part of enough CRM deployments (over 30 to date) to know. As few weeks ago, I was asked in conversation about where I thought the CRM market was headed. Sales enablement and other productivity tools came to mind. One such application is Gist. In a nutshell, Gist allows to to keep up with your contacts, their blogs, tweets, and news. It is powerful stuff. I have used for meeting prep and background research. Example, I am meeting a CEO this week. Turns out that we had traded a few emails on a tech forum over the past couple of years. Gist highlighted those emails. They were in a nested folder. I would have missed them otherwise. Now, I can incorporate those threads into the conversation.

The Gist business model may be the Sales Enablement pitch. The ability to provide clarity around contacts, prospects and clients will be a powerful selling point to the enterprise. No need to “clone” your best reps. Your best reps already do what Gist does.

They get the Gist. Pun intended.

iGoogle is Now Social: Google Launches Social Gadgets

Google Gadgets now have social features. This will be very interesting. I have developed Google Gadgets. Making them social is a great move. Like the linked Read Write Web article states, it will be a little while before the developer community makes most of these new features.

Gadgets are a great way to drive traffic. The two gadgets for my photography portfolio site drive 80% of the traffic. The Google Gadget above can be found at http://www.salmonbay.net.

Solid blog post at Sales Enablement provider BizSphere. The Need to Understand the Context B2B Sales People Are Operating In makes several good points.

First, the way customers buy today has changed.
Second, Marketing now owns the early phases of the traditional sales cycle.
Third, sales will spend more time adding value than selling the value proposition.

Tying solutions to real business problems has always been at the heart of the complex sale. In today’s B2B sales environment, sales needs to have the skills for that complex sell.

I have been digging into the Sales Enablement space lately. Initially my focus was on user adoption of CRM systems. Sales Enablement implemented properly will boost user adoption of sales force automation tools under the CRM fold. One concern I have is how sales enablement systems are being sold. “Clone your best reps” is the general gist. Too many companies try to increase sales by hiring more reps. Check any sales job posting. Terms like “Possess strong relationships” or “Rolodex” are common. Too often too little is done to full arm those reps with the passion for the product and company. The company is looking for a Rolodex and the sales rep supplies it. It may even lead to increased sales and revenue, but it is no guarantee. Many in sales cannot answer the simple question, “Why is the prospect going to buy?”

So is Sales strategic or a means to an end?