CRM and Social Networking: A Good Mix?

Recently, new social-networking tools have emerged to help sales professionals remain connected to customers and colleagues. Tools such as Socialwok and Yammer, for example, create a Facebook-like environment that is more secure and not generally open to public scrutiny. Meanwhile, Oracle Social CRM and salesforce.com’s Chatter wed the social-networking concept to the CRM database, which makes it easier to connect the social activity with the sales cycle.

Many CRM systems also connect to broader social networks (e.g., Facebook), creating an environment where sales professionals have an array of choices, according to CRM guru Barton Goldenberg. "This really is a new way to communicate and relate to your internal employees, consumers, partners, and other stakeholders."

Sales teams that want to mix social-networking capabilities with their CRM systems should move carefully, says Adam Sarner, research director at Gartner. "Rushing into social-computing initiatives without clearly defined benefits for both the company and customer will be the biggest cause of failure," he predicts.

Sarner recommends that sales managers define a measurable business benefit before establishing any social-networking effort within a sales team. When the social-networking effort involves interacting with customers, the strategy must provide some kind of motivation so that customers will participate.

In addition, sales teams may need additional training in communication skills. For example, a key skill in social networking is the ability to influence social interactions (such as forum discussions) so that they help cultivate positive customer relationships. Sales reps planning to use social networking to sell must understand how customers interact and how their changing needs can be met – within the context of the social-networking environment.