Sales 2.0

Sales 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications that aim to improve the speed, collaboration, customer engagement and accountability of the sales process. The Internet technology now commonly known as Web 2.0 has evolved to enable a new way of interacting, collaborating, and information sharing between sales professionals and their customers with the objective of accelerating sales cycles and increasing sales team productivity.

6 Simple Steps on Preparing for Your Next Sales Meeting and How Technology Can Improve This

April 12, 2012 in Prospecting, Sales 2.0, Sales Data, Sales Intelligence, Social Selling, Software Tools, Technology by Kevin Baldacci | 1 comment

The days of asking a buyer the question, “So, what do you do?” are long gone. With so much information on the Internet these days, why is a buyer going to be perfectly fine with a meeting or phone call from a sales rep who didn’t take the extra steps to even look at their website?

Buyers expect you to know everything about their company in and out. Why? Because a buyer want a sales professional who understands their business and how it can be improved. You’ve booked the appointment with them because you know their business and believe you can help them, right? Well, please don’t ask that question otherwise you can kindly escort yourself out the door.

Preparation for a sales meeting is the beginning of the second half for sales professionals. The way you come out of that locker room is most likely going to determine the outcome of the game. With today’s buyers changing more than ever, you need to be on your A game.

According to the respondents of a recent survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan (“Americas 2010 Sales Leadership Priorities Survey”), one of the major challenges business-to-business salespeople face is responding to changing customer requirements. 

6 steps of preparation for today’s sales professional

To increase deals closed and meeting acceptance rates, you need to prepare. As the great Sun Tzu said in his book “The Art of War“:

“To rely on rustics and not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of virtues.” 

Combining the Internet with social media, here are 6 simple steps on sufficiently preparing for your next sales meeting:

  1. Visit the website and all social media profiles before the meeting. The website is there for the basic information, however, it is critical to view the social world of your account. Social media will give you a window into the day-to-day activities of the company.
  2. Check out the latest press releases to see all of their recent announcements (product launches, new executive changes, mergers or acquisitions, new partnerships). What direction is the company heading? (Usually new press releases will be on their website)
  3. Using a search engine, perform a search on each key executive’s names. You’ll discover what organizations they’re involved in, where they speak, maybe even what they do for leisure activities. Also, take a look at their social media profiles (if they have any). Like the company social profile, this will give you a look into their day-to-day activities. Maybe they went to a rival university or enjoy the same hobbies as you. This will give your meeting a little more personality.
  4. Perform a search for all news of the company (Google News is a good search engine). Also search Google for the company’s name plus the word “competitor,” to see who their competitors are (if you don’t already know) and what’s going on with them.
  5. Read the company blog. The company blog is the voice of the corporation. Most likely, they are writing on the basis of thought-leadership in their industry or information about their company (press releases, product announcements, events, etc.).
  6. Finally, an underused section: go to the “Careers” or “Jobs” section of their site to see what jobs they’re hiring for. Do the open positions offer further insight on what departments are lacking? (increases in production, what software systems they use, what they are looking for in an employee etc.)?

Doing these things will shed light on who you’re working with. You’ll be surprised at the things you can learn leveraging just Google and the company’s website.

increase preparation productivity and close more deals with technology

If you are using the previous 6 steps to prepare for a sales meeting, I can guarantee you are already on your way to closing more deals. However, what if I was to say you can accomplish these steps in only 4 steps? Like any other tedious action-item, technology can increase your productivity and help you close more deals than ever before.

“75% of IT buyers says sales doesn’t know enough about their industry.” (IDC: “The Buyer Speaks”) 

Here are four steps to finding out who’s who at an account and what’s going on using InsideView:

  1. Visit the company profile “Overview” as well as the social media profiles and blog in the “Buzz” section before the meeting. In one platform, you have the foundation as well as the social media profiles and blog. 
  2. Go to the “Smart Agent Results“ or “All News” to study and learn every aspect of the company and their recent announcements (product launches, new executive changes, mergers or acquisitions, new partnerships). Impress your prospect with the knowledge of everything that is happening with the company. Smart Agents scour the Internet daily and deliver it organized to sales professionals. Utilize every aspect of this state-of-the-art tool. 
  3. Go to the “People” section to see who’s who on the executive team. [NOTE: see what InsideView's personal profiles look like by checking out Darth Vader...you'll see what I mean] There is a world of information you can gather by doing so. Using Smart Connections you can see who in your personal network you are connected to. Also, check out their social profiles.
  4. Go to the “Competitors” and “Industry Profile” this is the final and probably the most important step. You will be presented with information you won’t be able to find anywhere else on the Internet: Challenges, Trends, Call Prep Questions and Size & Structure.

conclusion

As a sales professional, preparation is absolutely crucial prior to a sales meeting. By now in your sales career I’m sure this is nothing new. However, are you efficiently using your time to research all of the key criteria? The Internet is a great place to research and find all of the information you need. However, if you want to cut your productivity in half and find the right message in real-time, I suggest you take a look at a technology such as InsideView. As you can see, I was able to easily eliminate 2 of the 6 steps using InsideView. You can too.

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The Growing Chasm of Sales

April 3, 2012 in Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence by Koka Sexton | 1 comment

I was at the opening day of the Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco yesterday and had a great talk with Jim Keenan, you may know him as @keenan. He sent a tweet during the keynote session with his thoughts on why sales people are not embracing social media though all of the data is showing that leveraging social media for sales intelligence increases revenue.

 

I dont think he’s far off base. Sales people are developed to look for the deals they can get now and not building a pipeline that extends after a few months. For companies looking for revenue, this isnt a bad formula, you need sales to stay in business but it should be looked at with a longer telescope for real growth and social selling can help with that. Companies of all sizes are leveraging social media for marketing communication, some are even able to track revenue from it but it hasn’t scaled correctly out to the sales teams that can really make an impact.

 

The chasm is growing for sales

Keenan mentions some of this in his blog post The growing chasm between sales person 1.0 and sales person 2.0.

This post speaks directly to the content of the conference and his tweet about the adoption of social selling. The game is changed and companies need to figure it out. The ability to leverage technology to identify prospects and retain customers is not something magical, it’s as shift in how people want to do business with others. I’m not saying that phone calls and emails are dead, I’m saying that relevant conversations that turn contacts in your CRM into people you can connect with should be the directive, not the hope of a sales organization. Besides the traditional sales methods you are following and measuring, new metrics should be placed on how engaged your sales people are with tir prospects and customers.

As the chasm grows, more adaptive sales people are moving forward at a faster pace than their competitors that have not learned how to leverage sales intelligence. Knowing that a growing number of CxO or other executives are too busy to take calls and reply to email campaigns, the smart sales people are learning how to connect and engage with people in social networks that these people are spending their time in. Even if the sales person isn’t willing to communicate with their prospects in the social space, they can listen to their conversations to get a better understanding of WHO they are and form a better plan of how and what to communicate with them.

Companies that train their sales teams to think more long term when it comes to lead generation and customer retainment will reap larger rewards. A blog that a sales person writes today can generate leads for the next few years if written well. We heard during the keynote of the Sales 2.0 conference that there are sales managers that require their sales teams to blog on a reglar basis for this exact reason. Take this down to an individual sales rep level and you can see that what they post online in an answers forum or social network today can be seen by people trying to solve simular problems for a long time. This will drive relevant people to you as a sales person and it can be acted on to generate new business and be measured.

 

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Do You Treat Your Sales Teams Like The Hunger Games?

March 26, 2012 in Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence, Social Media for Sales, Social Selling by Koka Sexton | 4 comments

Professional Hunger Games - Fighting

The Hunger Games is the #1 movie in US box offices with $155 Million dollars. I haven’t seen the movie but I have read the book and I couldn’t help but think about how the Hunger Games can be applied to business environments. No one should expect camouflage training a cornucopia of weapons and supplies when they start their job but their should be some training and  tools provided.

The Hunger Games in Sales

The mentality of hiring a bunch of sales people and leaving it to them to sink or swim is barbaric. Your company will not benefit in the long run if that’s how you approach driving revenue. There are career sales people (Tributes) that have been trained for years that you will have to go up against and to compete, you need training. Great sales leaders understand that in order to build a winning sales team you need to invest in them and teach them everything there is to know. Not just about the product or service but advanced selling skills that give them an edge over the rest of the sales people they are in competition with. Even if  someone is interested in what you are offering, they are extremet busy and there is a good chance you don’t even know they are a prospect if you’re not actively listening. 70% of the buying process is happening online and in order to stay ahead, sales people need to move faster and use better tools.

One that comes to mind is training from Vorsight around how to navigate company switchboards turning the switchboard into a prospect’s direct contact info. I’ve seen them train on this on numerous occasions and I have to say that it works.  There has been a shift in the sales environment as described in this post called Sales 2.0 Redux. In the post Tom explains many of the typical sales tactics and how they have been reshaped by social media and technology.

Being the Tribute Winner in Sales

Just like in the Hunger Games, only one person can win. Your prospect needs a solution to a problem and probably only enough budget to purchase one. Instead of being on the losing side of the deal, you need to have a starategy that will deliver some key messages and position you to have an advantage.

Leverage connections: Just like the Hunger Games, you will need sponsors. Who do you know that can provide support to you when working with the opportunity? Chances are you should have identified a champion in the organisation that can help you navigate and give you insights on what’s happening. Hopefully you have a connection that also knows your decision maker on a personal level since we know that these types of connections are very important and helpful.

Have the right tools: I don’t just mean your phone and your computer but those are important too. How can you use technology to do most of the research for you? Set up watchlists on your prospects, find them on social networks that can give you insights to what they are thinking and feeling. Leveraging social media for sales can accelerate the ordinary sales process. Sales intelligence gives you information that will keep you positioned to win.

Surprisingly there are still a large number of companies that do not leverage sales intelligence. The Aberdeen study on the Science of Sales Intelligence shows that most companies deal with some very specific business pressures that sales intelligence can help with.

  • 42% have insufficient knowledge of the business needs of prospects
  • 40% do not have the ability to identify the most likely buyers of their product
  • 34% complain of having a sales process that is too long
  • 21% See an increased customer churn forcing them to focus on filling the funnel

All of these point to companies needing to be more nimble and enabling their sales teams to move faster with more targeted information.

The Hunger Games as a concept seems to fit with a sales organization. Are you going to win?

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It Might Be Time for Sales Intelligence – 5 Signs That You Need It

March 8, 2012 in Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence, Social Selling by Kevin Baldacci | 4 comments

“Sales intelligence is the combination of not only business data, but social context, how you’re connected to a lead or prospect, valuable news insight, and real-time triggers that inform you when to take action. In fact, we’re delivering 35 million unique news trigger events to our users a year to help them sell better and generate more revenue.” -Umberto Miletti, CEO of InsideView

1. You are buying lists for your sales team

Last year I was interviewing for a sales position and was analyzed by how well I could cold call a list of 100 low-priority prospects. This would have been fine and dandy if the list wasn’t a year old and 20 of the 100 people had the wrong name or outdated phone number. Think about it…after one year, 1/5 of the list was deemed almost completely useless.

Organizations are changing the way they collect information and contact prospects and customers - 98 percent say they waste their budget each year on inaccurate contact data. (DataMyth.com) With data being poured into in the Internet everyday, there is no way lists of contact information should be cutting it anymore for sales professionals.

The age of lists and phonebooks are over for sales teams. The tools you need are out there on the Internet and sales intelligence can bring it to you all in one package. 

2. Social Selling is not a part of your sales cycle

Marketing should not be the only department interacting through social media – sales teams across the board need to immerse themselves in the social world as well. Buyers are turning to social media for feedback and answers to business challenges. Don’t wait for your phone to ring, generate opportunities by reaching out and answering questions or at least let them know you’re listening.

One of InsideView’s sales representatives sent this tweet the other day:

I know many people are thinking, “So what? It’s just a tweet. And great, they responded.” However, Megan is now on Xata Nation’s radar – they know she is out there listening to their success.

As Koka Sexton likes to say during a lot of his speaking engagements: Be different, Be better.

Potential prospects are on social media asking questions and seeking answers. You need to be out there answering these questions or showing your prospects that you are listening – otherwise your competitors will. Sales intelligence packages social media with contact information so that you are able to sell to the person rather than the business card.

3. You are spending half of your day researching prospects – “I can use search engines to do my research.” 

As a salesperson, you should never be pushing the clock researching prospects or not devoting your fullest efforts to effectively finding the right people prospects. Time is precious in the world of sales but you should never feel overwhelmed by it.

Do you really want to search for a company and get this kind of result?

751,000 is a little dramatic but I think you get the picture. Search engines are great for research but they eat up a lot of time. More than 50% of the average sales professional spends 1/4 of their day researching potential prospects. (Aberdeen)

Consider leveraging technology and sales intelligence so you can cut that amount of time in half and free up some of that precious time to be talking to prospects and customers. If InsideView were to create a contact page for Darth Vader, this is what it would look like. Imagine the sales force you would have selling to a guy like Anakin Skywalker…

4. You are shooting from the hip and not using trigger events

Identifying key triggers or reasons to get in touch with prospects at just the right time is extremely valuable. Barbara Giamanco, EVP Sales and Social Media at Social Centered Selling, wisely pointed out in a recent webinar of ours that timing is everything in sales.

Look at it this way…Give somebody a tissue in the street randomly and they’ll think you might have lost your mind. Give them a tissue after they sneeze and they’ll probably be more inclined to thank you and strike up a conversation.

Sales Intelligence brings you Watchlists that alert your sales representatives of trigger events (leadership changes, mergers, executives in the news, etc.). Imagine the effectiveness of your sales team with trigger events being delivered to each representative on a daily basis.

5. You are not hitting your sales marks

Sales intelligence is heading in the direction of changing the sales cycle forever. Remember how sales was done only a decade ago? Lists of phone numbers, cold calling, mail marketing, dialing for dollars. With today’s social revolution, you now have more weapons at your disposal as a sales professional than ever before. Sales intelligence brings you contact information as well as connections, sales alerts, social platforms and a lot more. Empower yourself with this tool and don’t be left behind.

Check out this graph below. The Best-in-Class companies utilize sales intelligence and see numbers like 28.4% average year-over-year increase in total company revenue.

To see the rest of the incredible results the Aberdeen Group found about sales intelligence, download our whitepaper: Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: Understanding the Science of Sales Intelligence

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Pushy or Persistent: Is There a Difference When it Comes to Salespeople?

February 28, 2012 in Prospecting, Sales 2.0 by Koka Sexton | 5 comments

Part of being a salesperson is having to stay on top of your prospects and active sales opportunities. This means that you need to make phone calls, send emails and even connect with them online to stay top of mind with the decision makers. Buyers are busy and they are getting hit from several different directs by the needs of their company as well as being contacted by other sales people.

I had a conversation with a few sales people about staying engaged with people and the discussion drove right into the topic of being pushy vs. persistent. I agree it’s a fine line and thought it would be best to ask our growing B2B sales community what they thought the difference was and if there really is ANY difference between being pushy or persistent when it comes to sales.

Bob MarshBob Marsh  This is probably one of the key things that differentiates the decent salesperson from the great ones. I’ve found that when done right, clients want persistence because your helping them keep you top of mind. I can’t tell you the number of times I kept calling/emailing a client with no response, and then when we eventually connected they thanked me for staying on top of them.

A persistent salesperson truly believes they are adding value for the client so are HELPING the client by following up with ideas, reminders, etc.

Grant EpsteinGrant Epstein I think it largely comes down to how your contact strategy affects the prospect. If your follow up it not intrusive, it is persistance. If it is instrusive or too frequent, it is pushy.

Michael A BrownMichael A Brown Interesting timing for your question. Last week I had to send this to a guy who didn’t know the difference: “(Name), persistence is OK, but harassment is not. I responded to an earlier message with ‘not yet.’ That directive stands.” In my experience, the problem arises most often when overanxious sales people try to “leapfrog” their prospect’s consideration process. Seldom can peristence expedite that process. Attention and diligence CAN help keep the process going and bring it to a successful “yes.” But woe to the marketer or sales person who ignores the prospect’s preferences and timing!

Flyn PenoyerFlyn Penoyer  Yes, one is a positive trait, the other a negative. Pushy simply indicates disrespect an and improper approach.Persistence is a necessary and respected trait in nearly everything including selling. If you are truly persistent in your selling, you will get complemented on that trait.The clue is you don’t need to be persistent to be pushy.

Dan NordquistDan Nordquist  A good deal of sheer “pushiness” comes from unrealistic sales quotas and other managerial browbeating in “boiler-room” environments. ( Such boiler rooms can exist in environments that are quite professional looking. ) Nevertheless, most cold callers have run up against the prospect who keeps postponing making a decision, and is giving mixed signals about the process of exchanging benefit info / priorities etc. If you sense that you are possibly overstepping your bounds in terms of intrusiveness, in a situation like this, you can either back off and put it in the tickler file, or say something like “If I seem aggressive it’s because you’re important” and then follow up with a question relative to something the prospect said was crucial to him/her, which has been left unresolved. Its a judgement call, based on how often you have received conflicting information, their perceived mood that day, etc.

Linda BennettLinda Bennett Hello: Pushy is obvious and redundant; persistence just shows good business drive and concern. You could develop a script that would cast your persistence in a good light.

Marc ZazeelaMarc Zazeela  Koka – Most Definitely. I think it is similar to the difference between aggressive and assertive. One is powerful, the other is annoying.

Barbara GiamancoBarbara Giamanco Absolutely! And as soon as I said it, I was thinking to myself and what is the difference. How do you spot it? What are the characteristics? If someone is following up with me on a regular basis – say every couple of weeks – because I expressed interest in their service, I’m ok with it. That to me is persistence. After all, you can’t close business if you don’t follow up consistently. Pushy for me is the salesperson who uses tactics to try and “close” me, or, as in the case of one vendor they were calling me 2 times a day. Seriously! I finally complained to the owner. Pushy feels like it is all about their agenda and not what is best for me.Not sure if I’ve defined it well enough, so look forward to what others have to say.

Jacco van der KooijJacco van der Kooij  It sits with the client to distinguish between the two, but in general I see it as follows; Persistent is when you act in the best interest of your client and sell in a way that shows empathy to him/her (e.g. do proper research, talk in her lingo, address his problem) Pushy is when you sell primarily in the best interest of yourself/your company on a timeline that suits you (this is what I got to sell, this is the benefit, have you secured budget yet?) Great interview question btw. will add it to my interview list for client facing professionals.

Ramon GarciaRamon Garcia  With your awesome pre-call planning you know that there’s a reason you think it’s a good fit. I feel as though if I don’t get a “NO” it’s still a “MAYBE”. So you can be persistent until they say “NO.” If its not a good fit you’re just being pushy.

Rini DasRini Das  Perseverance is the characteristic you should look for. Nobody has lost a sales deal because the salesperson was persistent and/or pushy and persevered. If they did not buy its because they did not like value prop or perhaps usually was not a priority. If they bought it its not because of pushy and/or persistent. suggest focus on what makes the salesperson persevere. #justsaying.

Han Geskes CTCHan Geskes CTC I consider this a difficult issue- you have no direct contact which makes it difficult to determine how your prospect or client views your message and options. I would like to a lead with a personal call and limit my e-messages.

Barbara GiamancoBarbara Giamanco @Rini – I disagree slightly. Pushy can cause someone to lose a sale. Unless maybe they are the only one who sells that particular product or service, which would be rare. Pushy to the point of “pain in the backside” has caused me to say no to someone trying to sell me something. Persistent, I respect. Pushy (as in it is all about their agenda) is offensive.

MICHAEL F. CONTI - Contact Center / UC EnthusiastMICHAEL F. CONTI reposting original response: I have said often that some sales people do not know when they are winning or losing. This can cause frustration for buyers if a) sales people keep calling and email and it is unwanted or b) sales people keep calling and have no agenda or clean reason for calling. If you not gotten signs of interest or buying and you continue to try and make contact that is frustrating for both parties. If there is an opportunity, you have a good offering and interested buyers, following up persistently and respectfully is fine.

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