You now have a specific area to share knowledge, best practices or anything you wish to support your customers with. There are numerous benefits for capturing your support content within the Google+ platform:

• Social value. Content which points back to articles on your site can continue to drive both social and SEO value. They invite opportunities for +1′s.
• Knowledge base. Email is a one-to-one, private conversation. You open up the conversation by broadcasting to a larger audience. Furthermore, the history can be searched and explored for past answers.
• Tribe building. Your customers can be part of a select audience that receives special advice, insights or offers. It revolves around your content that you provide ongoing in a private circle. It is a forum with benefits.
• Thought Leadership. Posting your content and sharing it with a select group continues to position your leadership. Share insights that help to benefit your customers – increase their health, grow their business or help them grow. It is a platform that allows you to provide value.
• Interactivity. The dialogue around a problem can be expanded to benefit a group and commenting back and forth creates passion, clarity and resolution to challenges everyone is facing.

There are lots of different systems for building support or help desk systems. However, consider using Google+ and explore the use case. The platform itself has intrinsic leverage comparatively. It makes it easy to stay connected and to deliver ongoing service and loyalty for those that pay you for your products and services while getting real feedback quickly.

What do you think?

Maybe there’s some other psychological kickback that comes from trying to cheat Google. However, here are the problems I see:

• Google is smarter. They have paid millions for their talent. They are extremely talented and insightful.
• Google is always changing. Their algorithms continually change, especially to thwart cheaters.
• Google is in control. They control what search results come up based on criteria in their algorithms.
• Google can create consequences for you. You may find it even more difficult to get found.

If you insist on looking for workarounds or paying some SEO company for so-called optimization, then your work could not only be wasted, but your future efforts may be harder.

Here is the way we look at getting found online when billions of searches are occurring for goods, services and information:

• Build information assets. There is a compound interest effect if you have a volume of information. It lives and persists online forever. It is an asset. Adwords and pay-per-click are fleeting. You get a click and pay a lot of dollars. You still don’t have an asset.
• Create valuable content. It is not good if people land on your pages and find your content worthless. The foundation for truly getting found is around having something real and valuable to share.
• Join the conversation. There are conversations online in legitimate places. Other authors, social media and sites can endorse you as legitimate thereby creating valuable equity for your online assets.
• Continually innovate. Thinking that someone will set up your SEO and you are done is naive. You have to be committed to being continually relevant and current. This requires innovation. It is today’s business. It’s not very different than seeing a bricks-and-mortar business and their continual maintenance and innovation. If they stop growing, they are opening the doors for failure.

The truth is that you have to be smart, hard-working and substantive. It’s honest and fair. Google rewards such behaviors as you can see from your own searching and consumption. Avoid the gimmicks. Pay the price and do the hard work of being truly valuable.

What do you think?

Google Apps has a feature which many may not be are of in the Google Calendar area. You can set appointment slots for your customers, partners and co-workers to use as part of a self-service process. This can prevent the back and forth associated with trying to pin down a time and coordinating with a busy schedule.

Recipients are able to find an open slot based on the availability of your own calendar. You set the time slots and your appointment function is associated with a url that you can distribute via your web sites, landing sites, inbound marketing campaigns or simply by email.

You can see the screenshot above to start the process. When making a new Google Calendar appointment, select the function for Appointment Slots. The wizard there will help you create the url with appointment times that you want available for anyone seeking to make an appointment.

Here are a few strategies to take advantage of this Google Apps feature:

• Sales Meetings. Make it convenient in your sales follow-up to set a time to meet with a prospective customer. You can edit the meeting with online conference call information later.
• Support Calls. If your customers are having issues, you can have a landing page for them to set up their own calls based on your own limited availability times.
• Office Hours. If you have visiting times as part of your management, teaching or professorship, you can set office hours this way. If the time is taken, then it will not be made available.
• Training On New Systems. To help drive success and adoption of technologies and process, you can send a calendar invitation with your appointment slots. This allows your team or customers to train when it is convenient.

Think strategically about how to incorporate this feature in your own workflow and process. It is powerful for automating the flow of your knowledge work.

How can you use this in your business?

I saw this stack of yellow pages. They were pristine and untouched in a mall after a full day. Noone took one. Why would they?

I see the yellow pages thrown out on streets when they are distributed. On a rainy day, the pages mulch up from the moisture.

Why still kill trees to get out advertising? The books look silly. The world doesn’t pick up the yellow pages to find something. It’s bulky, outdated and inconvenient now.

Here is what is convenient:

• I find you on search when I am thinking about something
• I read about you on Yelp to find out what others think or what is nearby
• A Tweet mentions you in a story
• A Facebook page is continually updated and I find it
• I see pictures and audio/visual on Google+ of your products in customers’ hands
• I look you up on my iPhone or Android device

Old channels of marketing still hold on. Most buyers of this kind of advertising are hoping something will happen. There is nothing to measure. You can get a feeling of whether it’s working, but there’s nothing analytical about it.

Well, one thing is for sure. As long as people are not picking up the old stuff, the attrition is natural and accelerating. We will always have those that hang on and hope instead of get on and do what’s relevant.

What old forms of marketing are you still finding work?

We have seen our share of businesses that fade out because they have not adapted to the extreme change and speed of the marketplace. I have seen the fortunes of small business owners change overnight because old channels of marketing and ways of selling no longer worked. They were living in the past.

One of the things we do at AscendWorks is continually question how to improve our service offerings. It keeps us pushing the boundaries. Here are some ways our process works, which may help you in your own businesses:

• Technology evaluation. We see new marketing technologies continually. We push and prod on the merits and fit for our clients. Just because something is out there does not warrant attention or application. We like to test and get feedback quickly.
• Results. When we apply a technology, we build strategy and process around it. We are looking for a signal to the noise. We want results. When we don’t see it, we iterate quickly until we find the signal.
• Focus. We say, “No,” more than we accept the latest fad. We are always looking to cut out steps to streamline processes for our clients and make things easier. Every new item that is bolted on has a management cost associated with it. We would rather work with fewer items and refine them to perfection than throw a bunch of things against a wall to see what happens.
• Knowledge Sharing. Our team reads, studies and writes. We share and look for innovation wherever we can find it. We like using Google+, our internal project management systems and collaboration tools to push on new ideas, strategies and technologies.

We used to be able to depend on the status quo. That was in an analog world where things moved slow and dependably. The exciting part of the digital revolution is that change is continual and the unimaginative and entrenched are exposed continually. Many old stalwarts and industries are overturned quickly.

Security is not going to be in finding a right answer. It is going to lie in talent and acumen to how things change and applying them quickly.

Perhaps you are looking for ideas because the old is not working. What do you think?

Trying to make marketing automation work in  your sales process starts with the IT work. However, it is only the start of what really matters. Configuring a system and ensuring data flows in and out out of your CRM is a basic element of starting the work to help you see what is happening with your leads.

If this is where your interest lies, then you can simply connect a real-time analytics program. Marketing automation may be overkill.

The real work starts with strategy. The strategy for connecting with a buyer and wooing them gently through a sequence of

steps that provide high value and build trust is what makes marketing automation valuable. The strategy is the linchpin for success. Here are some of the strategic parts of a successful marketing automation system to perfect:

• Landing page content. Your content has to serve people with inattention. They land on a specific page seeking information. They are not going to buy now. They are browsing. Ensure your content provokes thought and educates them. Invite them to go deeper. Your tone has to connect with your audience.
• Call to action content. Again, there needs to be a compelling call to action that invites a next step. At the core, your strategy should be to provide a high level of value for helping your buyer understand how your market works, the questions to be asking and stories of past problems and successes. Package this in white papers, ebooks, webinars and multimedia.
• Lead nurturing. The sequencing and timing of email communications, direct mail and sales calls needs to be coordinatedand triggered in a logical and personal sequence. Your touch points should seek to build a relationship and provide a high level of value and stay away from selling.
• Sales engagement. The timing and the conversation your sales team will be in needs to be coordinated with your content. Avoid awkward connections and ensure your personal sales engagements continue to bring value. There should be a direct call to action such as a sales meeting. Sales should be a continuum to the marketing automation process.

The strategy is critical for success. How you set up various campaigns based on buyer profiles needs to be thoroughly designed and implemented.

Your metrics will provide the feedback for continually iterating on the content and programming of your system to deliver relevant leads.

Where are you finding challenges in marketing automation?

Failing to act at the right time can cost opportunities as buyers’ attention moves towards your competitors or other distractions. Thus, your selling process has to be responsive and in sync with the way a lead moves through your inbound marketing program. Here are some points to ensure continuity:

1. Define the handoff. There should be some key events which warrant sales follow-up. Come together as a team and identify the key moments when a buyer takes specific actions. This can be from a call to action or landing page view. Ensure it would make a natural time to connect via the phone.
2. Log marketing events. Key events such as opens of content, downloads or page views should be made easy to see for your sales team. It provides context. If there is a key event, help them to see it in their CRM system and provide specific actions that should be taken like triggering a specific email, sending a personalized gift or making a call. There should be some room for being human and making judgments on how to approach the prospect.
3. Provide nurturing buckets. When sales contact occurs, the readiness of the buyer can be assessed. If they are not ready, provide a process and content streams which provide for ongoing nurturing to prepare the lead for sales engagement at a later time. A checkbox or picklist of marketing programs would be ideal from a marketing automation system.

The goal is to align your marketing and sales to continue a natural conversation. Timing and coordination are critical for a welcome call and touchpoint. Ensure your process accounts for a complete lifecycle for the various leads your team will encounter.

How is your selling process aligned today?

Of course, this may exist for heart surgeons and transmission specialists. They are in the buy now business. Statistics support their business. When something breaks, people call and pay quick.

For everyone else, buyers have several luxuries:

• Time. There is a timeframe that is not today. It is likely a distribution curve across your prospective buyers. Few are ready now. Most are ready in a few months.
• Choice. You are one mouse click away from irrelevance. Google search has opened up the world for buyers to find an alternative and springboard off of your site, information and pricing. Choice allows for comparison and commoditization.
• Referrals. Social media has opened up the playing field for what others think. Portal sites allow buyers to see ratings of their choices before they proceed. We use opinions on sites like Facebook, Ebay and Yelp. Opinions and referrals build confidence or tell us to beware. We take these into account when everyone looks the same.
• Price Comparison. Our mobile devices can tell us if we can get it cheaper somewhere else while out shopping. We can hit Amazon to see if it’s cheaper. It’s all easy and convenient.

When we buy, there is little friction for us to get information and educate ourselves. It helps us with the buy later process we are accustomed to. We can turn it into a process.

Now, if you could just stop selling and help people buy, you might work with their process by:

• Being different. Don’t blend in. Stop hoping to be picked and pick yourself. Push forth your differentiators and lead. Proclaim your leadership in your category.
• Having credibility. If you know more about your industry than the average customer, then lead them. Package your knowledge and give much value way up front. Build trust and make your name mean something.
• Building systems. If buying is done all day then you need a system to support what people are naturally looking for and doing. If you have a better, more intentional system, then you can court strangers and make friends. It goes beyond just making a pretty Facebook page just because everyone else is doing it.

The game is in the buying and assuming that everyone is buying later. It means suppressing the urge to sell and push the buy now agenda. Attract and nurture your buyers and help them trust you and pick you. You will be living in today’s reality instead of yesterday’s myths.

How can you apply this for your business?

Managing systems is not a part of our business.  It is a cost, not a benefit.  We want to be in the business of making money, getting things done and promoting our brand.  The more a system becomes transparent to our execution, the more we can focus on what matters.

In the Google Apps world, we get to live in the new reality of executing and communicating in real-time.  The system can scale to allow for virtual workforces and accessible, secure information access.  Teams today rely on an integrated architecture in Google Apps to focus on business problems and get away from the IT issues of the past.  The measure of a business’ success can arguably be about its scalability and ability to adapt to change.  Your systems today afford you the opportunity to pace with the demands of the new economy.

Perhaps you want to grow and feel the friction from old systems. Why continue to settle for old ways of doing business? Commit to a cloud strategy and use Google Apps to launch your core communications systems for growing your team and providing the balance of security and flexibility to grow.

If your systems could help you grow, what would it look like?

Identify A Strong Internal Champion

By nature, insiders have more vested in the outcomes of a new system than outsiders.  Furthermore, there are numerous cultural issues which every organization has.  Culture is the glue which allows for getting things done in a complex environment.  It is a great asset.

You must have a strong champion that aligns with the organization and knows how to influence for change.  Furthermore, the champion is the one that must master Salesforce.com with the processes built into the organization’s implementation.  They have to be technical and business minded to overcome objections and communicate benefits.  Their guidance becomes important for how fast and how much to change during the course of training, support and requirements gathering.

Develop A Mantra Which Sticks

Mantras are powerful shorthand for focusing action.  A mantra sticks in the minds of people.  Instructions and authoritarian policies on the other hand create resistance and do not connect emotionally.

Our mantra with users is, “If it’s not in Salesforce.com, it did not happen!”  Salesforce.com is not a magic bullet in and of itself to solve business process issues.  It is the culture and habits of the team using Salesforce.com.  Thus, capturing every task, communication and field item creates the inherent value to the organization.  Without commitment to the system, it becomes nothing more than a glorified database.    Ensure your organization has a mantra which can be stated between people at meetings and at the water cooler easily.  It helps drive enthusiasm and adoption.

Create A Support Outlet

There should be a framework for how a business process is executed in the Salesforce.com implementation and customization.  However, there are always specific scenarios that need answers quickly and precisely for users.  Forward momentum needs to be maintained and a great way to do this is to provide a responsive support process.  This can be done with FAQ’s via a wiki, Salesforce.com Case management, or a variety of integrated tools which help to build a knowledge base.

Over time, facilitate knowledge sharing by pointing users continually to this resource and have them self-moderate.  This helps the organization to own the system they are vested in.

Salesforce.com Adoption Is A Challenging Road

We are creatures of habit.  If a person is determined not to change, there is little any person can do to thwart such a strong position of resistance.  Users want to have easier ways of doing things.  A well-designed system should provide the context for work to get done faster and more productively.  The adoption phase should focus on helping with the emotional resistance to change.  Strong leadership, a focused mantra and responsive support are three ingredients to drive success.

Feel free to comment on areas you have seen in change management and how you have seen these in action below.