What are the best methods to effectively communicate online with Sales Professionals?
A Q4 ’09, “website enhancement” survey from SalesProfile.com, confirmed that sales professionals in the U.S. prefer to read their online content, versus listening or watching. Sales professionals also value variety, quality, and relevance.
SalesProfile.com is an evolving tool for sales professionals and businesses and was founded in 2009 by Jason Dumois and A.J. Conyers IV.
In November and December 2009, SalesProfile.com surveyed 100 sales professionals and entrepreneurs in the Unites States to gather feedback on how the website could be enhanced to add more value. Questions were focused in three areas:
- Website content
- Content delivery
- Website features/functionality
The goal was to uncover what sales professionals find most valuable and how they prefer to access their online content. The 100 people that participated in the survey were a combination of field sales reps, inside sales reps, sales managers, sales executives, and entrepreneurs.
Survey Conclusions
1) Website Content: Sales professionals were asked to provide input on what type of online information and content they find most interesting and valuable.
The survey showed that sales professionals value variety, quality, and relevance. The specific content categories that received the highest ranking in terms of interest were:
√ Sales Tips & Advice
√ Sales Information by Industry
√ Access to a Database of Business Profiles
√ Sales Operations Information
When asked to provide qualitative comments about content, sales professionals continually reinforced that high quality and relevance is most important. There was also particular interest in accessing information on sales compensation plans and best practices.
2) Content Delivery: Sales professionals were asked to provide input on how they like to receive or view their online information.
Overwhelmingly, sales professionals prefer to read their content, versus listening or watching. There is particular interest in receiving content via email. Here is a recap of specific survey data:
√ 77% prefer Email
√ 69% prefer Articles
√ 49% prefer Websites
√ 48% prefer Groups/Forums/Discussions
√ 46% prefer Blogs
√ 40% prefer White Papers
Delivery methods that sales professionals gave the lowest rankings to were Text Messages, eBooks, Podcasts, Status Updates, Tweets, and Videos.
3) Website Features & Functionality: Sales professionals were asked to rank their interest level in a variety of website features, functions and technology.
The survey results indicated that sales professionals most value features that would allow them to interact with other sales professionals, save them time, help them sell more, and develop their skills and abilities.
Overall, the website features that garnered the most interest were the ability to exchange sales referrals, the ability to contact other sales professionals and the ability to participate in eLearning and mentoring programs.
When discussing their sales profile features and functions, survey participants were very interested in the ability to automatically populate their sales profile information and sync status updates with other social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. There was also significant interest in the ability to showcase their product(s) and/or service(s), such as adding images, descriptions, links, and demos.
Interestingly, there was very little interest in including a video or audio clip in their individual sales profile. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, since sales professionals tend to be very outgoing and spend much of their professional time talking or presenting to clients.
SalesProfile.com Co-Founder, Jason Dumois, shared that “We are very satisfied with the results of our survey. We plan to use this information to make enhancements to our website and service offerings. We want our website to add tremendous value to sales professionals and businesses and are thankful for the wonderful feedback we received from each and every person who completed our survey.”
For more information about the Q4 ’09 ”website enhancement” survey or to provide additional suggestions/ideas, please contact Jason Dumois at jason@salesprofile.com.
