Using Content to Create Connections Among People – Shawn Callahan

Recently the CKO of a mid-size software firm directed me to the white paper, “Using Content to Create Connections Among People” by Shawn Callahan that he found through Patti Anklam’s blog, Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness. The paper discusses how blogging can help sales support people provide better assistance to the sales force and customers. My CKO friend said that Shawn's white paper has created considerable positive interest from several within his sales organization. He has had an enlightening conversation with a manager for some of the technical sales support folks who really wants to get his folks blogging internally relative to e.g. product issues and competitive intelligence. It will be interesting to see what they do.

I also recommend the white paper. Shawn suggests that the sales support people all blog and that the sales people use an RSS aggregator to subscribe to these musings and provide comments and questions in response to these blogs. He adds that the real power of the systems comes when the sales support people asks the sales people to clarify their questions so more relevant answers re provided. There is much more in the white paper. A number of firms and organizations are already using blogs for sales and customer support such as SAP, Microsoft, and within non-profits, Compassion International. These organizations are already getting the positive benefits that Shawn describes.

Shawn’s model also reminds me of a knowledge management system we implemented at Ryder in 2000. It was made from the tools of the day and consisted of a Notes-based knowledge base, Quickplace for project workspaces, and SameTime providing instant messaging, a function still fairly new at the time. The key to the success of the system was not the tools but the use of people. Knowledge Managers were assigned to promote the dialog that Shawn describes that now occurs more easily through blogs. These people were hired from the vertical marketing groups they supported and made sure the connections that Shawn described occurred. They were the glue that connected the system. Blogs now make this human touch more built-in to the system and more likely to occur.

This case is well documented with several dozen articles such as Tom Davenport’s commentary in CIO Magazine. The Ryder knowledge management system was also was named to the CIO 100 for 2002. Here is some business background from one of the articles. It comes from “Intelligence in Motion” by Mary Eisenhart from the December 2000 issue of Knowledge Management Magazine.

“Under the new model, Ryder salespeople don’t sell a straightforward commodity like truck leases; they solve transportation and inventory-management problems for clients on a global scale. To exploit the opportunity inherent in its employees’ expertise, the company needed to make its collective knowledge readily available to all of them.”

The critical nature of this requirement for enhanced and efficient sales support was certainly a motivator for Ryder to invest in the human resources to do what blogs better enable now. There was also enlightened leadership at the time to make these investments. In addition, this same leadership backed the extensive campaign to get the sales force behind the new system. Too many times the focus has been simply on technology investments. The same need to focus on the people issues is still the case with a blog based support system. While I completely support the type of system that Shawn describes, I can foresee many issues around getting a sales force and sales support staff to use such a transparent system. The exposure could be a concern to many. A careful campaign to engage their full participation is an essential requirement for success. Senior management needs to set the tone that openness is both a good thing and a requirement.

Comments

[Pamela Hawkins]

Bill, I really liked your take on this subject, namely that there are inherent concerns which need to be fully realized and addressed when using sales personnel as bloggers.

I haven't had a chance to read the White Paper you mentioned, but I'm definitely going to read it now. Thanks for the information.