One of the best Sales 2.0 services is not a sales service at all but one used most often by service departments do customer satisfaction surveys. I've developed a system using these services that can accelerate anyone's selling process.
There are many of these services including SurveyMonkey.com, Zoomerag.com and snapsurveys.com.The most powerful way to use these services is to measure the voice of your customer's customer. While many sales voices get drowned in the din of competition, when your customer hears your same story from THEIR OWN customers it's as if it were screamed in their ear with a bullhorn. They hear it loud and clear and will believe every word.
Years before the new survey services I developed the system I use today. On calls I would tell clients that THEIR CUSTOMERS had a strong preference for my product over competition. When skeptical I presented them with a free challenge. I pay for a survey to measure their customer's preferences. I helped them design a short survey, printed it, stuffed it in envelopes each with a return envelope, put stamps on all envelopes, and handed the whole thing over to them. The client had a secretary apply customer mailing labels and sent them out.
As a stream of filled out surveys favoring my product rolled in my future sales were assured. Even where when my competition had long term relationships I would get the business. No one argues with their own customers. Today's online survey services make this old system is a snap. I help my client develop the questions and type them into a preformatted survey form. I then have the survey service generate a link where the survey is posted to be taken. I forward that link to my client. My client simply sends an email to their customers asking them to fill it out.
The new survey software is amazing and simple to use. The process that took days to set up and weeks to get results from can now be set up in 15 minutes with complete results back in two days.If you or your organization are not doing "voice of customer" surveys you are missing one of the greatest sales accelerators of Sales 2.0.
This is powerful stuff. And please, now that you have read this post promise me you won't let the survey companies know they are really part of this Sales 2.0 movement. If they do they might raise their rates!