My first posting

I have always been an early adopter of new technologies - back in 1993 I had one of the first wireless email systems using the Ardis network, I was one of the first developers on the Apple Newtown, I was in CRM when it was still called sales automation, I was in WiFi when it was called 802.11 and few other similar examples. I remember using Gofer on the my PC to "surf" the Internet in its early days and heck I even lost a lot of money investing in Lycos. I was always ambivalent about THE BLOG but, I decided that as part of the launch of my latest company, Salesconx, I would keep a BLOG as means of both communicating to our users and prospects but also, in the hopes of leveraging your experiences as we develop this new marketplace.

What is Salesconx?
Salesconx (pronounced 'sales-con-ex') is a marketplace for sales people to post and trade introductions to decision makers and buyers. Think of LinkedIn meets eBay. We are in alpha mode right now so go check out the site at http://alpha.salesconx.com.

Sales people have really gotten shafted throughout the evolution of the internet. eCommerce basically says, 'hey customer, I have what you want so buy directly from me'. Thus bypassing the sales person. Maybe an entry level inside sales rep handles some questions for the lead but most of the sales process is done online.

When I talk to experienced sales reps they comment that their lives really haven't changed by the Internet. They are still cold calling to gain entry into their prospective companies; sure they don't use the phone book anymore (does anyone) but use services like Hoovers, Zoominfo and Sales Genie. They are building their calling list and then working the phones.

On the other side of the bullpen, the marketing department is pressured to deliver qualified leads to the sales department (mostly the inside sales department). Yet, the tactics available to reach the target audience have gotten more and more difficult. Direct mail never reaches the decision maker. Unsolicited email gets blocks way before it reaches anyone in the company. Tradeshows have become vendor festivals with all the companies salivating over the handful of customers who actually attend. The art of bypassing a secretary to reach the executive has been replaced with the art of leaving voice mail after voice begging the executive to suggest a good time to call back. Does anyone ever return the call of someone they don't know? Let's turn our attention to PPC campaigns. It is amazing how much we (in the general sense) are spending on Google ads and PPC campaigns. The conversion rates are lower now than they were a few years ago but we still continue to spend the money to make sure our company name appears in Google.

When I was driving sales and marketing for Omnipod, I had direct responsible for producing the monthly revenue number. Thus marketing was really truly integrated into the sales process. Marketing was used to generate the leads that the sales team (we were 90% inside sales) qualified and took thru the sales process. [Let me first apologize to all those who received unsolicited email from Omnipod]. It got harder and harder to increase the lead numbers despite spending more and more money as the conversion rates decreased over time and not increased (conversion from lead to qualified lead). Just this past January, our cost per lead was approximately $350 and our cost per qualified lead was nearly $1000 - and we were considered GREAT by all standards.

It occurred to me (back in November of 2005) that wouldn't it be easier just to post an ad in Craig's list, 'hey, I'll pay you $350 if you know someone who would want to buy my product/service'. Of course, since you don't really know who is responding to you, there has to be a better mechanism of user qualification, transaction mediation and feedback - thus Salesconx was born.

For the Salesperson
Salesconx provides the sales person a vehicle for making money off the relationships that they have cultivated and nourished. It also bothered me that every time (and it occurs at least weekly) I am asked to refer a graphic designer, web site company, lawyer, etc. I never get a dime for it. Yes I know it's quid-pro-quo but, if I was a lawyer passing a client to another lawyer I would certainly get a fee. This process, while appropriate and commonplace for insurance, real estate, law and recruiters has passed over the sales profession. I know you might be thinking that the could be abused well, rest assured we have added safety controls to salesconx to minimize abuse and most of all, there is a feedback system which has succeeded for the liked of eBay and others.

For the small business or marketer
Salesconx allows the business owner or marketer to publish a "request" whether it is for an introduction or merely the contact information of a desired decision maker. A request could be "seeking introduction to building managers of NYC buildings" for a cleaning supply company or "Intros to new companies >10 employees in NJ" for a wiring or VOIP company. One CEO I have spoken to was extremely frustrated in trying to find "the right guy" at a major telco to introduce his product to. It took him over a year to finally get the right people on board who could make the introduction. It would have been much easier to post this request on Salesconx and establish a high fee for making the introduction.

Of course, there is a lot more to say about Salesconx as we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg of what a marketplace such as Salesconx could accomplish and grow into over the next few years.

Feel free to drop me a line or email esohn@salesconx.com if you have any sales experiences that you think should be worked into the Salesconx model.

All the best,

Evan