It Turns Out That CIOs Really Work in Sales

It appears that the # 1 seller of a business is their CIO. They should not go on sales calls, an allocated quota, or even up-to-date on the latest products of the business rate plans, but at the end of the day, the CIO is one who drives (or drives away) the most sales.Why, my cams , Software Can Kill A SaleIn modern times, almost every company has a fancy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application that they use to track who their customers are and what they have sold, either, my cams , for them or keep them promised, my cams , . You might think, my cams , that if your CIO is your sole obligation to the sales, my cams , team will be to the CRM application to keep running. Turns out you would be wrong.Life has changed much in recent years and the relationship between IT and the sale of a business team has the right to change, my cams , with it. This is because in today's global economy, customers of one company to be involved in the creation of your product. Your CRM software will be in the way of this.What 's wrong with the CRM software you are Customers Using the smaller number of suppliers that they are willing to do business, my cams , with a, my cams , view to their supply chain more, my cams , efficient. This means that they will want to work with your company to see that their product suggestion ideas begin to appear in your products., my cams , In a nutshell, they want you to change to better meet their needs.Your CRM software is not only no intention to do so, but it's actually going to stand in your way when you're the CIO. In the heart, your CRM software is an internal application that is designed for one thing and do good: it helps your sellers to their customers to follow and let the sales managers to track their sales. Note the absence of customers in all this.CRM software has a great job of managing your internal sales systems. What you will need if your CIO is a way to manage relationships with customers - the dialogue that takes place outside of your company walls.All that other customers have to Conversations that ManagedThe why this is now part of what Be a CIO to do because the way the sale of the company teams interact with their customers is now very much dependent on the IT department. Let me count the ways: Social Networking: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on Sales, my cams , is likely to use and stabbing with their customers. Wikis: Gone are the days of static product documentation, say hello dynamic documents that can be updated by the customers, my cams , based on their own experiences with your product. Product / Customer portals: who wants to search through a company website to find information about only the products they have bought? The era of customized portals that remove the clutter and only the information that a customer really wants is arrived. Teleconferencing: phone calls were certainly beautiful, but now we have web-cams and shared whiteboarding tools that a short dry meeting into a dynamic interactive session was. Co-Design Tools: The, my cams , old, my cams , way of designing a new product or service and then take the customer is out the door. Now customers can participate in the design and what is produced right the first time.What All Of YouAll too often this means for CIOs see the Sales Department as not part of the IT infrastructure of the company. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. A much, my cams , better way to look at things to think of the CIO as an important part of the sale of the company you are team.When CIO you will be (partly) responsible, my cams , for the success of the sales team. One, my cams , of your main tasks will be to find ways for the company IT resources be used to help sales teams develop better and deeper relationships with their, my cams , customers.The old way, my cams , just to ensure that the company's CRM system, my cams , is up and running will no longer cut. You have some homework to do and discover the many different ways your salespeople connect with customers. Once you know, you will be better positioned to leverage your IT department to help them sell the machines.