Gamification makes sense for Business Software too: How Salesforce.com can learn from FourSquare!

Four Square is a great example of a social and mobile site that has gamification baked into the model. It's also a great concept from the consumer web that can be harnessed for use in business software by Salesforce.com and other providers of social CRM.

What works well with FourSquare is the immediacy in which you earn points, badges and mayorships, which encourages the check-in process. The real-time nature of a gaming engine which underlies the check-in process constitutes a core tenant of gamification. New points and progress toward mayorship are immediately shown upon check in alongside the leaderboard.

This encourages healthy competition with your friends – hence the gaming component. Outside of this, the behavioral incentive to checking in is that you can get recommendations based on your location and you can identify category experts and read their tips to help guide your decisions – which restaurant to try, what beach to go to, etc.

Dislikes: 1) The incentive to checking in could be stronger that the game and the tips alone. The Groupon and HowAboutWe (dating) might soon change this. If higher tier offers or meeting someone new we reserved for those with status (in points or badges), we could see foursquare becoming more of a traditional rewards program model akin to a SPG or AAdvantage. 2) There is different functionality and UI for the mobile and web-based apps so you cannot look up your points and the leader board on the web.

Salesforce.com Chatter is a great social use case for the web for building private social networks. Chatter is a perfect example of a site that could be enhanced through the inclusion of gamification. There are plenty of metrics that are tracked similar to Linkedin or Twitter. You can see how many posts and responses, followers, following, likes, etc. and these can be displayed through chatter analytics (reports).

As collaboration software, the goal is to motivate more interactivity. A gaming engine which encourages or rewards real-time responses will directly support this as an end. Through gamification, Chatter could give out points for posts and replies developing a teamwork leaderboard, which you can see on your profile much like the foursquare example above. Teamwork analytics can become part of a company’s DNA and incorporated into performance reviews; rewards programs; and existing chairman’s or president’s club.

Chatter collaboration has many benefits - firms more competitive, agile, build institutional knowledge, and more. But unless you encourage adoption, the solution will fall back to the “golden rule” or “you only get back what you put in.” Gamification would drive more real-time behavior. People could strive to be the top expert on MSFT or ORLC competition or the leader of an industry sector team.

Inclusion of gamification component to chatter will also help build a more powerful ROI case for selling the chatter product. Imagine being able to pitch increased collaboration in industries such as financial advisors or real estate brokers who notoriously hoard info and do not collaborate. Gamification will enhance the product and create value for these types of firms. Further, when chatter.com is opened up to more external networks – meaning customers’ customers – there will be greater potential to help increase the engagement between them.

Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone Tells Bankers to Be Authentic on Twitter by Bank Systems & Technology

Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone Tells Bankers to Be Authentic on Twitter by Bank Systems & Technology

43 uses for WD-40

OK, it's not sales but I found it really useful....

A refresher course WD40--who knew?

'I had a neighbour who had bought a new pickup. I got up very early one Sunday morning and saw that someone had spray painted red all around the sides of this beige truck (for some unknown reason). I went over, woke him up, and told him the bad news. He was very upset and was trying to figure out what to do. Probably nothing until Monday morning, since nothing was open. Another neighbor came out and told
Him to get his WD-40 and clean it off. It removed the unwanted paint beautifully and did not harm his paint job that was on the truck. I was impressed! WD-40-- who knew?'

Water Displacement #40. The product began from a search for a rust preventative solvent and degreaser to protect missile parts. WD-40 was created in 1953 by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company. Its name comes from the project that was to find water
Displacement compound. They were successful with the fortieth formulation; thus WD-40. The Corvair Company bought it in bulk to protect their atlas missile parts.

Ken East (one of the original founders) says there is nothing in WD-40 that would hurt you...'It is made from fish oil.'

When you read the 'shower door' part, try it. It's the first thing that has ever cleaned that spotty shower door. If yours is plastic, it works just as well as glass. Then try it on your stovetop. It is now shinier than it has ever been before.

1) Protects silver from tarnishing.
2) Removes road tar and grime from cars.
3) Cleans and lubricates guitar strings.
4) Gives floors that 'just-waxed' sheen without making it slippery.
5) Keeps flies off cows!
6) Restores and cleans chalkboards.
7) Removes lipstick stains.
8) Loosens stubborn zippers.
9) Untangles jewelry chains.
10) Removes stains from stainless steel sinks.
11) Removes dirt and grime from the barbecue grill.
12) Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing.
13) Removes tomato stains from clothing.
14) Keeps glass shower doors free of water spots.
15) Camouflages scratches in ceramic and marble floors.
16) Keeps scissors working smoothly.
17) Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes.
18) It removes black scuff marks from the kitchen floor! Open some windows if you have a lot of marks.
19) Bug guts will eat away the finish on your car. Removed quickly, with WD-40!
20) Gives children's play gym slide a shine for a super fast slide.
21) Lubricates gear shift on lawn mowers.
22) Rids kids' rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises.
23) Lubricates tracks in sticking home windows and makes them easier to open.
24) Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close.
25) Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles, as well as vinyl bumpers.
26) Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles.
27) Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans.
28) Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons, and bicycles for easy handling.
29) Lubricates fan belts on washers and dryers and keeps them running smoothly.
30) Keeps rust from forming on saws and saw blades, and other tools.
31) Removes splattered grease on stove.
32) Keeps bathroom mirror from fogging.
33) Lubricates prosthetic limbs.
34) Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).
35) Removes all traces of duct tape.
36) Folks even spray it on their arms, hands, and knees to relieve arthritis pain.
37) Florida's favorite use: 'cleans and removes Love Bugs from grills and bumpers.'
38) Protects the Statue of Liberty from the elements.
39) WD-40 attracts fish. Spray a LITTLE on live bait or lures and you will be catching the big one in no time.
40) Fire ant bites. It takes the sting away immediately and stops the itch.
41) WD-40 is great for removing crayon from walls. Spray on the mark and wipe with a clean rag.
42) If you've washed and dried a tube of lipstick with a load of laundry, saturate the lipstick spots with WD-40 and rewash.. Presto! Lipstick is gone!
43) If you spray WD-40 on the distributor cap, it will displace the moisture and allow the car to start.

Keep a can of WD-40 in your kitchen cabinet over the stove. It is good for oven burns or any other type of burn. It takes the burned feeling away and heals with NO scarring.

Remember, the basic ingredient is FISH OIL!.

great design tools

Great summary of great web design tools - font creator, tile motifs, etc
http://tinyurl.com/m6ftdp

Account Executive Interview Questions

In addition to asking an Account executive to outline their process for targeting, engaging, and developing prospects, I like to have them role play a sales call. In the past we had a HR team generate questions based on the characteristics we wanted to see in hunters. I found the questions to be a bit, ummm obvious, like describe a situation where you were persuasive, so the hiring managers generally ignored them. Anyway, here are the questions:

1. LISTENING
a. Are you familiar with the term “active listening?” How would you define it? What would coworkers say regarding how often and how effectively you use active listening?

2. COMMUNICATIONS – ORAL
a. How would you rate yourself in public speaking? If we had a videotape of your most recent presentation, what would we see?

b. Describe the last time you put your “foot in your mouth.”

c. How do you communicate with your organization?

3. ASSERTIVENESS
a. How would you describe your level of assertiveness?

b. When there is a difference of opinion, do you tend to confront people directly, indirectly, or tend to let the situation resolve itself? (get specifics)
c. Please give a couple of recent specific examples in which you were highly assertive, one in which the outcome was favorable, and one where it wasn’t.

4. PERSUASION
a. Describe a situation in which your persuasion skills proved effective.
b. Describe situations in which your persuasion skills proved ineffective.


5. TENACITY
a. What are examples of the biggest challenges you have faced and overcome?
b. What will references say is your general level of urgency?

Our firms does get involved in Inside Team development and can help build a team of hunters. Also we are available as your outside inside team. Feel free to ring me if that is something you'd like to explore.

Salesforce Integrates Twitter

Many companies are using Twitter to listen to the voice of their customer by searching for mentions of their brand or products. Salesforce.com has once again leaped at the opportunity to stay ahead of the fray by building an enterprise product built upon the Twitter platform.

"Salesforce CRM for Twitter - Leverage the Service Cloud to Join the Conversations on Twitter

Twitter provides a free platform for users to answer the question "What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less and broadcast the answer to a broader community. These "tweets" can cover any topic area, including specific companies, brands and products. Twitter's incredible growth has attracted the attention of many enterprises that want to leverage and participate in this increasingly influential community. Twitter enables a direct connection between end-users and enterprises in the more casual world of Twitter conversations. Salesforce CRM for Twitter and the Service Cloud give companies an easy way to join conversations happening on Twitter by enabling:

• Search: Salesforce CRM for Twitter helps companies search through the millions of "tweets" happening on Twitter every day to find the relevant conversations - all from within the Service Cloud.
• Monitor: After identifying an appropriate "tweet," a company can capture and monitor the conversation by creating a record in the Service Cloud that tracks the original post and all subsequent replies.
• Join: Salesforce CRM for Twitter empowers enterprises to be active participants on Twitter by enabling them to funnel relevant solutions from the Service Cloud knowledge base into a Twitter post, effectively joining the conversation.

"Customers are already sharing knowledge and having conversations about our company on Twitter. Therefore, we are excited about being able to track these conversations and engage with the Twitter community through the Service Cloud," said Dennis Martin of NJ TRANSIT. "Salesforce CRM for Twitter and the Service Cloud would allow us to reach our customers beyond traditional avenues of communication."

"Today, customers are looking to the cloud for experts to help answer their service questions. With more than eight million users, Twitter is a new destination for customer conversations, yet most companies don't have a strategy for joining those conversations. Salesforce CRM for Twitter and the Service Cloud provides companies of all sizes an efficient and effective way to join the Twitter conversation," said Rebecca Wettemann, VP Research, Nucleus Research."

Customer Relationship Management is a whole big thing that companies worldwide use Salesforce for to run smarter businesses. Salesforce CRM for Twitter makes it easy for companies to connect with customers from within the Salesforce Service Cloud—which is also a whole big thing. If you use Salesforce then you know about this stuff."

How are you using Twitter to enhance your customer interactions?

Top Ten Signs You're a Blackberry Addict

10. After a cross-country flight you wait for all your new messages to download before you alert loved ones you’re still alive.

9. You try to use BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts in Outlook. (No, you can’t hit the space bar to type “@”)

8. You think the iPhone would be much better if it only had a physical keyboard–and a trackball smackdab in the middle of the touch screen.

7. Your BlackBerry keeps you regular. Go to the bathroom without it and you’d have to “push” on your own.

6. You joined Facebook just so you could try the BlackBerry app. (No friends? The “I have a BlackBerry, I’m out of your league” group has 4,409 members.)

5. You’ve learned to drive with your knees.

4. Five or more consecutive vibrating alerts is on par with an orgasm.

3. You swap service outage stories with other “victims.”

2. You’ve completely forgotten that a blackberry is a fruit.

1. You’re reading this on your…..

http://blog.laptopmag.com/top-ten-signs-youre-a-blackberry-addict