Archive for the ‘Tips and Tricks’ Category

Webinar: Using Ribbit and EchoSign to increase salesforce productivity

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 | located in Events, Productivity, Tips and Tricks | 3 Comments »

Ribbit is partnering with EchoSign and CustomerThink to provide a free webinar taking place on July 8th that will highlight how on-the-go sales reps can boost productivity. Spend your time selling, not filing paperwork.

Live demonstrations will show how reps can:

• Call in meeting notes and sales updates from the field instead of typing into Salesforce.com
• Get out of “voicemail hell” with voice-to-text call transcriptions
• Use voice integration with Chatter, a new collaboration tool from Salesforce.com
• Send contracts from Salesforce.com to increase sales productivity and…
• Enable customers to sign contracts electronically from smart phones, to shorten the contract signing process.

While demand may be picking up, competition will continue to be intense. Join us for one hour to learn how to free up more sales time to drive revenue, not busy work.

We hope you will join us for this webinar. Registration is free.

Webinar: Innovative Solutions to Help the Busy, and Increasingly Mobile, Sales Professional

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 | located in Events, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

We are pleased to co-present a free webinar with Customer Think and EchoSign on June 17th where we will share best practices to boost productivity for on-the-go sales professionals, and improve the customer experience too!

Ribbit for Salesforce.com will show:

• How to get your reps out of “voicemail hell” with voice-to-text call transcriptions
• How reps can call in meeting notes and email instead of typing
• How to use Salesforce.com to send broadcast text messages or alerts
• How management can save sales people time and get more out of Salesforce.com

EchoSign will show:

• How easy it is to get your customers to sign contracts with electronic signatures via web, fax, Blackberry or iPhone
• How to make any document a signable contract by adding fields for initials, signatures or free form content on the fly
• How to send contracts for signature directly from Salesforce.com
• How to create automatic alerts so you know when your contract was delivered, viewed and signed

If you would like to join us, please register here.

Choosing the Right Devices for Your Mobile Life

Thursday, May 13th, 2010 | located in Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

It seems like every time I turn around, there’s a shiny new gadget that promises a better, easier way to stay connected and get more done. But one person can only have so many devices… and choosing the right one(s) can make the difference between staying productive and being frustrated.

Do you ever wonder whether you should carry a smartphone, tablet, laptop – or all three? Here are a few questions I ask myself before I pull out my credit card; I hope they’ll help you, too.

• What are you going to use it for? This is the first question to ask yourself when you’re choosing a device. Does your job require special software that requires a certain type of computing environment? You need a laptop. Do you primarily use web-based services, without the need for graphics software, fast processing speeds, or a lot of available memory? All you need is a tablet. Is your business mainly conducted on the phone and in person? Get the best smartphone you can buy.
• Where are you going to use it? The environment you work in every day plays a big role in what device to buy. For instance, if you’re on a construction site, a tablet is a risky choice – a laptop in a rugged case or a smartphone that can be safely buttoned inside a jacket might be a better fit. If you’re in an office most of the day, lugging a power-hungry laptop to meetings might be overkill; a tablet will let you take notes, and has the battery life to last for most of the day. If you’re outside a lot, or in a hectic, fast-moving environment, a smartphone will keep you connected via voice, email, and text – without the worries of plugging in, finding an Internet connection, or damaging an expensive device.
• How much do you have to spend? The cost of smartphones, tablets and laptops varies widely. You’ll pay a premium for brand name and computing power – and even more if the device you have your eye on was released within the last three months. If you’re willing to be patient, and wait until the device you want has been on the market a while, you’re likely to get a better deal.

The details matter. Within each category – smartphone, tablet, and laptop – there is also a range of choices. On any device you consider, here are a few things to check for:

• Security standards. Very important if you’re sending confidential information.
• Ease of use. If you do a lot of email or texting, be sure to test out different keypads and keyboards before making your choice – it can have a lot of impact on how quickly you’re able to get work done.
• WiFi capability. Do you need to be connected on the fly? Make sure your device can connect to WiFi.
• Apps or other compatible software. Make a note of all the apps or other software you need – and make sure the device you choose works with them.

Take your time. Ask around. Read reviews from people you trust. Don’t make a rush decision – and you’re far more likely to make a smart choice.

Good luck out there!

Improving Lead Management: Insights from B2B Marketing University

Monday, April 12th, 2010 | located in Productivity, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Did you know that something like 70% of B2B leads don’t get followed up?  I heard this surprising statistic last week at a B2B Marketing University conference, an event addressing new processes, tools, and staffing strategies to improve marketing and sales activities. The statistic, which reflected results from a B2B survey highlighted at the conference, was so surprising because every sales and marketing organization I’ve ever worked with seems to be working overtime to gather and follow up on leads.

The conference offered these valuable insights as well:

• Buyer behavior is changing dramatically as more product information becomes available online. Prospective buyers are using the Web to create a short list of product companies, and contacting sellers directly (instead of the traditional sales model of companies contacting and nurturing buyers).
• The Internet has altered the types of media buyers use to gather purchasing information. Buyers using print media, for example, to gather information has declined 10-25% while buyer using blogs, white papers, and word-of-mouth has increased over the past few years. This implies that marketers need to shift their media buying to better align with the changes in information gathering.
• Marketing’s role needs to evolve from “batch and blast” (emails) to “lead nurturing” (delivering leads to sales when prospects are close to making a buying decision). This means emphasizing lead quality over quantity, properly qualifying opportunities, and giving buyers the right information for each stage of the decision making process.
• The sales team needs to contribute more to the lead/opportunity management process by providing ongoing, accurate insight and detail about the buyer that can be captured and shared across the sales team (using CRM and business mobility tools, for example). Better insight into the buyer’s decision-making process will give the sales team the support they need to close deals.
• Marketing automation innovations—including content management, lead scoring analytics, sales lead insight tools, campaign management, web analytics, and closed-loop analytics—can be used to more accurately target potential buyers with educational content appropriate to each stage in the decision-making process.

The conference ended with a panel discussion of sales professionals from companies that had revamped their lead management processes. My favorite takeaways from this discussion included:

• Most of the work in improving lead management happens outside of software.
• Implementing changes in phases is best. As one panelist put it: “Trying to fix everything at once is like trying to boil the ocean.”
• Improving the lead management process is well worth the effort. Panelists cited increases in sales revenue of 15-30%.

Maximizing Field Sales Productivity: New Strategies from CSO Insights and Ribbit

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 | located in Events, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

From the Field to the Office: Maximizing Sales Productivity

New research from CSO Insights and real-world examples from Ribbit reveal strategies you can use to optimize productivity and boost sales in 2010.

Join Jim Dickie, managing partner, CSO Insights and Greg Goldfarb, vp of enterprise applications, Ribbit on Thursday, March 4th, from 10:00am PST to 11:00am PST for this FREE one-hour webinar. During this webinar we will cover strategies and study findings for sales performance optimization in 2010 and give an overview of Ribbit for Salesforce that includes a demo and real-world use cases.

If you would like to join us for this free webinar, please register online and we will send over the login details prior to starting.

If there is something specific you would like to ask or make sure is covered during this webinar, feel free to post a comment below or shoot an email to sia [at] ribbit [dot] com and we will do our best to include it.

How Secure is Your Smart Phone?

Thursday, August 6th, 2009 | located in Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Have you ever put your phone down in a busy restaurant and ALMOST forgotten to pick it up again after paying the check? Or felt your pockets just before exiting a cab or airport security check and noticed you’d left your phone behind? These specific scenarios might not strike a chord of recognition with everyone, but most people I know have either lost a mobile phone or come close to losing one at one time or another.

In the past, losing a mobile phone—or worse, having yours stolen—may not have been a big deal (beyond the phone itself, would-be thieves might gain some personal phone numbers and make some unauthorized calls). But today’s era of smart phones and business mobility raises the security stakes significantly. For mobile business users, a lost or stolen mobile phone is more than just the absence of the device itself. It’s the loss of important, often competitively sensitive information—recent strategic emails and phone messages to sales contacts, for example, and even access to corporate database systems.

So how do you protect yourself? Awareness is the best defense against identity theft, fraud, and trade espionage. The more you know, the better you can prepare yourself for the unexpected. The following tips might just help keep you safer than sorrier:

1. Make sure mobile business users know the risks and understand the need to secure their devices.
2. Use passwords to secure access to your mobile phone.
3. Use encryption when possible to secure data.
4. Use software firewalls, patch management, antivirus and antispyware software.
5. Use a belt clip or purse lease to attach your phone to you physically when travelling.

Got your own ideas for protecting mobile data? Let us know your thoughts.

Emerging Market for Refurbished Smartphones Offers Mobile Businesses An Opportunity to Upgrade AND Save Cash

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 | located in Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Companies I’ve worked with have been buying refurbished laptops for years, and not because they can’t afford to buy a new one. With technology changing so fast, you can get a great laptop with nearly the same state-of-the-art capabilities as a brand new laptop, but for a lot less money. To me it just makes good business sense to buy one that’s slightly used.

I see the same phenomenon happening with mobile phones, and the trend is likely to accelerate as 3G connectivity becomes standard. Prices for smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone and Blackberry’s Bold and Curve models are now a third less than they once were. When Apple introduced its iPhone 3GS last month, it slashed the price for its iPhone 3G to $99—brand new. (I remember people paying upwards of $400 for this phone when it first came out two years ago).  Just like with refurbished laptops, the vast majority of Apple’s new 3.0 features run well on both the original 3G and the new 3GS.

Interestingly, AT&T is the only major wireless carrier openly promoting refurbished devices.  It’s odd considering that carriers’ main business focus is increasing service revenues rather than device revenues.  Beyond a $79 refurbished iPhone and Blackberry, AT&T is currently promoting six or so highly capable, refurbished 3G phones and smartphones for under $50!

For many small and mid-sized businesses, this trend toward selling refurbished smartphones clearly lowers the barriers to entry of many new mobile data and Web capabilities.  If your organization is mobile, this is a high ROI time to upgrade.  For the price of one iPhone two years ago, you can now outfit an entire team with eight Samsung Black Jacks, for instance.

There are also some interesting channels emerging in this space.  On the sell side: Traditional, pre-owned devices channel like Cellular Country. On the buy side: A new, eco-friendly phones-for-cash organization called Flipswap. With hundreds of millions of devices turning over each year and a slowing curve of hardware innovation, it only stands to reason that this market is poised for significant growth.

Even older generation smart phones bring mobile workforces invaluable capabilities and technology considered bleeding-edge less than 12 months ago. With such a viable secondary market emerging for smart phones that connect mobile business users to email and the Web, it makes sense for companies to make these refurbished phones standard issue for new employees. In terms of productivity, the cost for NOT outfitting mobile workforces with smart phones could be much, much higher.

Which devices do you consider critical for business use? Have you found other interesting sources of pre-owned smartphones?  We would love to hear what you think.

Salesforce Data Loader: Voicemail 
Archiving Made Easy

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | located in Salesforce, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »

For reasons ranging from disaster recovery to regulatory compliance, everyone should regularly back up their data. A handful of companies are making a fortune selling subscription-based services to make it easy to backup our documents, email, even our music, right to the cloud. (I’m a big fan of Box.net and Google Docs, which is where most of my data currently lives). Why should backing up voice messages be any different?
Ribbit for Salesforce has given us a new way to generate voice-enabled content and save it as both text and MP3 files. Unlike voice messages that live within Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint, messages that get stored within Ribbit are yours to keep for as long as you want.

As a sales guy, I get a lot of voice messages that are account-related, and that are associated with leads, contacts, or opportunities. I realized I had hundreds of voice messages I wanted to remove from Ribbit without actually deleting them.

While I completely trust Ribbit to backups my voice messages, (which of course Ribbit does by hosting at OpSource), I wanted to keep soft copies of my voice messages myself.
 This is where the Salesforce Data Loader comes in.

If you aren’t familiar with it, the Salesforce Data Loader is a fantastic admin tool for exporting, inserting, and updating data within the Salesforce database. Since all my voice messages were converted into text and sent to Salesforce.com, I’m now able to extract and backup my voicemail. (Note: This is an administrator function only. Ask your Salesforce or Ribbit systems administrator to help you with your backup.)

Here’s how to perform the backup:

1. Find and copy your Salesforce User ID. To find your user ID, click on your name within the Salesforce user’s list. The ID is found in the URL as shown below:

2. Download, install, and launch the Data Loader. Click Export to export the voice messages to Excel.

3. Select Message (Ribbit1_Message_c) and then select an output location for your file:

4. Filter the Data Loader to remove only your voice messages. Select OwnerID from the Fields section to Equals as the Operation, and Value to your Salesforce User ID (from step 1). Then click Finish:

5. Confirm your intent to export this data by clicking Yes:

6. Your export is now complete. All voice messages have now been backed up to Excel.

Open your Excel file and back it up to an external drive, shared file server, or upload it to Google Docs for storage. Enjoy your new-found peace of mind!