Check out The C.R.M Iceberg and Social Software post.

Very solid read on the sCRM space by Ross Mayfield at the Socialtext Blog. He makes some interesting points such as people as a platform. In my experience, organizations that have great customer relationships have always fostered information sharing within. Call it a trickle down effect.

Turkish coffee came up in conversation over this weekend. It is a great cup but requires effort.

Check out CoffeeGeek for a great how-to and many more coffee related topics than I can cover.

CoffeeGeek: Brewing Turkish Coffee

Solid read about coffee shops by Joey deVilla @ Coffee and Code. The Tragedy of the Coffee Shop covers the growing angst between coffee shop owners and cyber-squatting customers. There are cafes I prefer to meet people to talk because there is no free WiFi, and thus no laptops and other electronic distractions.

UPDATE: More reading on the topic.
WSJ: No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users

Starbucks: Stay as long as you want

This is interesting and borderline funny. Amazon has created its own URL shortener for products. See TechFlash Amazon creates its own URL shortener for products. Basically the idea is to make it easier to post product links to Twitter and other social media. It has some simple rules and looks to be pretty useful. However one of the more popular Amazon Twitter accounts, Amazondeals with over 15,000 followers is still using TinyURL.com. Seems like an opportunity for improvement for the Amazon GoldBox team.

Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, but she does not read my blog.

Happy to report that I now have more than 2 readers. Thanks for checking out 12Sided, The Blog. In the spirit of other blogs, here are the top posts of the past week.

1) Seattle Skyline Wallpaper
2) Sales Enablement
3) Getting the Gist…
4) 7 Great Interview Questions
5) Solid read on Sales Enablement

Have a great weekend!

As my 2 regular readers know, photography is a hobby bordering on obsession.

My portfolio site Salmon Bay Photography has freely available (for personal, non-commercial use) Wallpaper images for download.

Check out Salmon Bay Photography | Free Wallpaper.

Have a great weekend!

CRM solutions fail most of the time. I always wonder what is meant by fail. I have had my hand in many CRM deployments and only a 2-3 did not meet the clients expectations from initial roll-out. Those that I would consider a “fail” never aligned the technology to the business process from day one. Pretty soon they were on a road to nowhere. Having worked in Sales and having a CRM background, I know why user adoption is not higher. Sales people do not like to be tracked, measured or accounted for against anything other than quota. Think about it. What other organization is measured against a quota, that if not met, will likely result in job loss? Sales is already measured.

The sales enablement concept is very interesting because it gives sales a real reason to use a CRM system. If it does provide value, user adoption goes up, ROI goes up, and hopefully, sales go up. Then everyone will be happy. The average tenure of a Sales VP is currently 19 months. Can your organization survive with 19 months or less of sales data?

Great read on Twitter over at Forbes. Check Twenty-One Top Twitter Tips.

Is it Wednesday already?

Randy Bias’ Cloudscaling blog has a must read for anyone interested in Cloud Computing: The ‘Cloud’ Is NOT Outsourcing.

Check it out.

Two worthwhile reads for your Tuesday:

How to Network With Busy People because the people you want to be networking with are busy.

How marketers build relationships in the CPG (Consumer Packed Goods) space, but it is applicable to just about any CRM relationship.

Readers and Leaders.