It was really uncomfortable.  There had been an awful lot of buzz in the room about how exciting things were and it all got really quiet.

He then showed a video that was some pretty blatant political propaganda.  The theme was “mobilize because America is not very good anymore!”. The idea was (I’m paraphrasing) “We have to beat those foreigners and take our industry back by pushing partisan politics”.   I sat and wondered, exactly how does this help the CEA?   How does it help anyone sell anything? 

I also wondered how annoyed would I be if I was Sony, Research In Motion, or any one of hundreds of international companies that had spent their money to be here.  I thought that I would not have felt welcome. 

He then said “I will be signing copies of my book out front after the keynote”.  People laughed at that, then were surprised that it was really true.  So it got a bit more uncomfortable.

The tagline to this very long and frankly baffling US protectionism as international trade show rally was, “and of course we also have 25,000 international visitors registered here, more than ever before, we welcome them”. 

Fortunately things got much better with the Verizon kickoff.  My takeaway was that I am very glad that I don’t belong to CEA I’m not comfortable supporting this organization.

I confess that I like to start up conversations with strangers. This is especially true if you happen to be stuck next to me on airplanes, trains, or what have you.  On my flight out to the CES show, I sat next to two very different kinds of people, and we were stuck on the runway for a long time.

I sat next to a professional photographer that has a really nice business doing pet and family photos.  More interesting to me, he is a Canon representative and really knows his stuff when it comes to technology for photography.  Photography is one of my passions, and he is an expert.  He was going to be part of the Canon exhibit at CES.

I also sat next to Angie Simmons, a senior management executive from Liberty Media Interactive. As it turned out, in the new Fortune magazine, which I was reading on the plane, one of the analysts in their investor’s guide recommended buying them because are breaking out their interactive media into its own business unit.  I think that makes sense both financially and operationally.  

I often get envious reading about Silicon Valley and its ecosystem.  There are all of these vibrant interconnected new media companies springing up out there with what seems to be unlimited energy and potential.  I often forget that the Mid-Atlantic region as a flourishing interactive media community established as well. 

I called Mac and told him that I had been referred to him by a colleague. Mac recognized him at once “Jim Cary!  He is a true professional.”  I agreed, and was impressed that Mac remembered him and could put him into proper context.

We spoke for a while about a variety of sales related topics.  I have recently begun research on sales systems dynamics, and have been interested in merging that research with more practical sales methodologies.  Solution selling was established in 1991 and has established itself as one of the leading methods around. 

Here were a couple of the points that jumped out at me from our conversation. 

#1.  He answered the phone.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise when people that are “open for business” actually answer their phone, but it does. 

#2.  The customer’s buying process should drive the selling process not the other way around.  He commented that in addition to Solution Selling, Huthwaite got that part right. 

#3.   A common sales process is a critical component of any systematic approach to improving sales across an organization. 

#4.  Research has shown a strong correlation between the quantity of sales interviews during a complex sale and the overall close rate.  That is as expected.  What is interesting is that there is also a strong correlation between the quantity of interviews and a reduction in the sales cycle!  The sales interview process also serves to spread the knowledge within a customer’s organization.

#5.  It is essential to summarize and “checkpoint” your progress with the customer and get their investment to move to the next stage in the process.

I explained that part of the research that I am working on is to use systems dynamics to create simulators to identify and model optimal processes for particular business strategies.  He pushed the point that he did not personally believe that you can successfully “play Switzerland” and adopt multiple sales methodologies, rather that you should pick a single methodology and stick to it.  As you would expect, Mac is a big proponent of Solution Selling.  I confessed that I had not read through it in a lot longer time than I wanted to admit. 

He also explained that their methods support different processes based on the size and complexity of a sales process.  We agreed in the end that I would re-read Solution Selling and let him know how I thought it would fit into the system framework that I am working on.

A couple of other comments in closing.  Mac asked me for my contact information and specifically asked me to thank Jim for referring me to him.  I did both, adding my own thanks to Jim on top of Mac’s. 

Chetan Sharma notes that the average industry percentage contribution of data to overall ARPU is now 27 percent, with the U.S. market likely to close in on the 30 percent mark in 2009. Overall ARPU decreased by $0.23 as sverage voice ARPU declined by $0.45 and average data ARPU grew by $0.68. Sprint led in data ARPU with $15.50, followed by Verizon at $14.96. In terms of percentage contribution, Verizon is tops at 29.28 percent, followed by AT&T at 28.74 percent.

As of the end of the second quarter, 65 percent of all U.S. subscribers now use some form of data services. Messaging volume grew 15 percent in Q2, and messaging revenue increased 11 percent over Q1.Subscribers now average nearly 540 messages per month, which translates to close to one message per hour per subscriber. Non-messaging services continue to represent between 50 percent and 65 percent of U.S. operator data revenues.

“Given the strong growth in data revenues shown by the top carriers and the increase in service revenues overall, the worst is over for the U.S. mobile industry,” Sharma writes. “In summary, the recession has been all but a tiny blip in its growth trend and the U.S. mobile market has weathered the downward spiral in economy better than its counterparts in other developed nations.”

For more on the Chetan Sharma report:
- read this release

Related articles:
U.S. mobile data revenues grow to $34 billion in Q2
Forecast: Data revenues growing to $347B by 2013
Mobile data now 20% of worldwide operator revenues

There is so much practical advice in Tamar Weinberg’s new book that I found myself immediately putting her concepts into practice as I read it.  “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web” provides an overview of the different types of online social media that are available.   It provides practical guidance on how to best use them to achieve your specific goals.  The book should be valuable to product managers, bloggers, consultants, or anyone that is interested in a cheaper alternative to traditional marketing.

I was delighted to see a marketing / technology book that starts with setting goals and creating a plan because setting  goals and objectives are the key to choosing the right technologies and strategies for social media marketing.  Is your goal to increase traffic to your website?  Do you need to increase brand awareness?  Are you focused on improving search engine rankings or reputation management?  Social Media Marketing is also good for increasing sales or for establishing thought leadership. Each of these objectives will drive a different mix of social media technology and messaging. 

Tamar introduces social media marketing by establishing its relevance through some pretty impressive numbers.  Globally, the market for social media is measured in hundreds of millions of users.  She references a recent 2008 study showing that 346 million users read blogs, 307 million users visit friends’ social network profile pages, and 303 million users share video clips.  Social media marketing is a systematic approach to marketing to this audience.

The book takes scenarios based on different objectives such as “you have a product and want to get the word out”, then provides an overview of the different types of social media available, then lists out specific rules for how to use them to achieve your goals.  The technology overviews provide examples of the market leaders, promising new companies, as well as, free alternatives.  Each example includes screenshots and practical “how-to” analysis. 

The technology groups include blogs, micro-blogging, social networks, social bookmarking, social news, photography, video, and podcasting.  Each of these provide different sets of tools that allow to you communicate, influence, and learn from your constituents.  For example, she recommends a tool that allows you to check your name availability across multiple social media outlets.  I was pleased to see that my ID was registered on 19 of the 120 social media outlets listed. Looking deeper, it also reinforced Tamar’s point that managing your social media presence requires a consistent investment in time. I had not visited some of the sites in the last 3 or 4 years, although the sites have continued to become increasingly relevant and powerful. 

“The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web” makes good on its promise of providing clear advice on how social web technologies work.  If you are interested in learning the art of conversation marketing as it is evolving today, I cannot think of a better resource.  It combines a good technology overview with best practices for using them.  It strikes a very good balance between a high level overview to help you get up to speed with in depth recommended guidance that you can adopt to reach your marketing objectives.