Sales People And Blogs
Radiant Digital lists the top 10 reasons you need a sales blog (via Business Blogs for Business Applications).
Two points are specifically related to sales:
6. Online Proposals - The web is your platform to create your proposal. Wouldn't your client prefer to login and view your proposal rather than thumbing through pages?
7. Cross-selling opportunities - Invariably, your client will ask, "How did you create this?".
I can agree to #7, but not #6. I sure wouldn't build any barriers - in this case, a login procedure - for my customers. I'll be happy to carve the proposal in stone as long as it's easy to read (pdf works fine for me...).
But Radiant Digital also writes this, which is interesting: "One of the toughest groups to win over when deploying technology has always been the sales force. Let's face it, sales folks are cut from a different mold and everyone has their own 'modus operandi.'"
He's right. Sales people aren't that easily impressed with technology. But that's not a bad thing. That's why we need them in every business development project (including communications, blogs). With the sales department you always have to answer the question "Where's the money?". If you can't show how an investment will pay off, you wont persuade them. Speaking for myself and a lot of professional communicators I've met and worked with - that's the best thing that can happen to us.