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8 Ways to Increase Sales

January 12, 2012 in Prospecting, Sales 2.0, Sales Data, Sales Intelligence by Koka Sexton | 8 comments

Pile of money on my desk

How a few shifts in your sales process can have a huge impact on sales revenue.

I read a great article on Inc. yesterday on 12 ways to increase sales. The author Geoffrey James pointed out some of the most important things a salesperson or sales manager should do to increase sales in 2012. He hit the nail on the head when it comes to why these 12 ways to increase sales revenue will work, I want to tell you how to do it in 8.

1. Reduce the number of opportunities you pursue. It’s not a numbers game. By focusing your sales energy on fewer opportunities that have a higher chance of closing, you can give these customers more of your time to move the deal along. Leveraging traditional sales drivers and trigger events you are aware of, you will know which prospects have a much higher percentage of closing.

2. Increase the percentage of time you spend selling. There will always be admin work. As a salesperson you may not have the ability to hand your busy work off to others but there are ways that you can still increase your time selling. Most sales people on average spend 10hrs a week researching prospects. By leveraging technology and sales intelligence you can cut that amount of time in half and free up some of that precious time to be talking to prospects and customers and sell more.

3. Stop buying technology because it’s cool.

Stop spending your money on the next shiny object. Invest in technology that is actually going to help you sell. Focus on tools that will provide you

  • Trigger events that effect your prospects and customers
  • Valuable connections through multiple social networks and existing business relationships
  • More personal insights that turn your CRM contacts into people you can relate to and add context around
  • Highly targeted and intelligent prospect lists

4. Terminate weak engagements–politely but immediately.

Just as your company should have a solid lead qualification process to identify new opportunities you should spend the time to disqualify deals. A sales team should know what their ideal customer looks like and focus their energy on them. If a prospect doesn’t fit the mold, quit trying to force them into it.

5. Hone your lead generation effort.

Sales people need to understand the art of lead generation is shifting to an online world. Stop waiting for your phone to ring and look for the people you can help in real time. Social networks are a goldmine for the socially savvy sales rep. If you know what you are looking for, finding new opportunities with social media isn’t difficult. For example our sales team found this update on Twitter and jumped in.

These types of updates are something your sales team needs to be on the look out for. After 24 hours, Hoovers still has not replied to Ross’s update on Twitter. Listening is key. Leveraging connections and personal insights our sales team was able to connect and help Ross with his business needs.

6. Don’t focus on the gatekeepers.

Understand who the real decision makers are. Get to know them as people instead of the contact that makes decisions at XYZ company. Stay engaged with them during the sales cycle by engaging with them outside of the actual sale. Connect with prospects on social networks and try and help them with other questions they may have and add valuable insights on their industry.

7. Stay on top of your opportunities.

Build a watchlist on your opportunities so you can be fed news and other alerts to things that are changing within their company. Leveraging technology to keep your finger on the pulse of your opportunities will insure that nothing slips by you and you can even stay a step ahead during the sales process.

8. Outflank your competition.

I say it during my speaking engagements: Be different, Be better. Your prospects are getting 100+ emails a day and called as many times a week. This tactic may work some of the time but don’t do what your competitors are doing. Stand apart from them by leveraging your connections to get the introduction, connect with the decision makers on social networks to have more engaged conversations in a medium that they are already spending time in.

It works!

Slideshare buys InsideView for Sales Intelligence

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Jump-Start the Week with These 10 Sales Posts

December 19, 2011 in Sales 2.0, Sales Data, Sales Intelligence by Kevin Baldacci | No comments

It can be a pain in the rump trying to find a couple of blog posts worth spending your morning reading and jump-starting the week. Literally hundreds and thousands of sales blogs with self-proclaimed “best sales solutions” trying to cram their way into your Twitter feed, Google search results and your existence. Fret no more as I have done the searching for you and found what I deem some great sales blog posts. Take a look and have a phenomenal week.

  1. The Secret Lesson Hiding in Nucleus Research’s ROI Study – CRM Outsiders
  2. 5 Steps to Create a Killer Google+ Business Page – BrainSell Blog
  3. Are You Lost In a B2B Sales Lead Paradox? – Marketo Blog
  4. New Study Says Customers Think Companies Don’t Give a Damn ABout Their Time…Just Their Money – Brent’s Social CRM Blog
  5. Customer Relationship Innovation for the Emergent Social Business - Brian Vellmure’s CRM Strategies Blog
  6. Eight Business Apps That Will Change the Way You Work - Emergence Capital Partners
  7. How Much Will You Sell in 2012 With Social Media? - Selling Power
  8. Video: The Biggest Mistakes Sellers Make – Selling to Big Companies
  9. Data Myth #4: Integration Ensures Cleaner CRM Data – DataMyth
  10. Three Steps to Develop Yourself – S. Anthony Iannarino; the Sales Blog

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5 Ways Sales Intelligence can Increase Revenue

December 13, 2011 in Sales 2.0, Sales Data, Sales Intelligence, Technology by Koka Sexton | 7 comments

In the last post we explained that most companies deal with some very specific business pressures that slow down the process of finding new prospects and getting them into the sales funnel. Knowledge about your customers, finding new prospects and having a sales process that takes too long is a common pain point for businesses.

  • 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

I predict in 2012 that these numbers will not change too dramatically but the results from companies that are actively leveraging technology and sales intelligence as a method of combating them will. Sales managers should be constantly on the lookout for ways to solve these business pressures and based on research by the Aberdeen Group, the top performing sales organizations have built strategies that can drive measurable results in building a sales pipeline and increasing the quality of leads.

Sales Intelligence Research

  • 59% of the best in class companies have leveraged sales intelligence tools to identify or disqualify prospects with more accuracy
  • 53% of companies have been able to identify existing customers that have upsell/cross sell opportunities
  • 48% of companies have increased the quality of leads intheir pipelines
  • 28% use technology to capture and share sales knowledge internally.
  • 21% of companies reduce the amount of time doing sales research

This research is important because it’s showing that companies that are having the problems listed above are able to continue achieving results by leveraging sales intelligence in traditional and non-conventional ways. Top performers in lead qualification teams understand that moving less qualified prospects out of their view has more value than dumping a volume of under vetted opportunities on the sales team. By not relying on data but the contextual news and social profiles of the companies and people you are contacting, better decisions can be made on which prospects to pursue and which leads to abandon.

The research study on the science of sales intelligence goes a long way in showing that companies that want to increase revenue quickly with your existing sales team can do so by leveraging technology to speed up the sales process. A strategy around using sales 2.0 applications to identify strong/weak prospects should be a key focus for your 2012 sales plan.

Just a quick poll: Are the issues described above the same as for your company?

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10 Must-Read Blog Posts to Wrap Up Q4

December 2, 2011 in Sales 2.0, Sales Data, Sales Intelligence, Social Selling, Software Tools by Kevin Baldacci | 1 comment

You’ve finished your leftover turkey and the Christmas lights are starting to come up (cue Jingle Bell Rock!)…time to relax and look forward to the holidays? Wrong. At least not totally wrong. With the beginning of the holidays comes the end of the 4th Quarter. Like any team in sports, you don’t want that 4th quarter, second half or 9th inning to come down to the wire because it will shave years off your life. Here are 10 great blog posts that will get you ahead of the curve for the end of the year, allowing you to drink that egg nog a little deeper.
  1. Converting B2B Sales Data into Social Intelligence – Social Media B2B
  2. Five Ways to Measure If Facebook “Likes” Work for Your Business – Selling Power
  3. Myth #1: More Data Is Better – DataMyth.com
  4. 3 Big Data Myths for Enterprises – Smart Data Collective
  5. CEOs on Sales – What Company Leaders Want from Sales Leaders – The Sales Operations Blog
  6. Salesperson: Hunter or Farmer? – The New Sales Coach
  7. Are Your People Selling What They’re Supposed to Sell? – Partners in Excellence
  8. Social, Content & Selling – a Chief Revenue Officer’s Take – Inside Sales Expert Blog
  9. Four Keys to a Great 4th Quarter - Salesopedia
  10. Six Simple, yet Powerful Benioff-isms – The Sales 2.0 Advocate

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The Secrets of B2B Sales and Marketing

October 13, 2011 in Prospecting, Sales 2.0, Sales Data, Sales Intelligence, Social Selling by Koka Sexton | 25 comments

A study by the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carlina fond that  92% of prospects don’t take a meeting when cold-called or emailed by a sales rep. Our customers don’t report numbers this high but when looking at the bigger picture, we can understand why this is the case. Cold-calls are dead in the traditional sense. There are many reasons for this and a lot of supporting arguments to the death of cold calling but what we find is that many sales people still do not know how to call a prospect with relevant information that can make an impact and identify new opportunities. Harvard Business Review recently published a blog titled “The Worst Question a Salesperson Can Ask” and if you don’t know what is keeping your prospects up at night then you are not doing your job as a sales person. It’s that simple.

“Using competitive intelligence to sell more effectively is not a universal practice, but the Best-in-Class include it in their solution mix 36% more frequently than Industry Average companies, and 51% more than laggards”

If traditional sales and marketing methods no longer work, what do prospects respond to? How can sales and marketing reach, connect and engage with prospects effectively in today’s world?

The secrets to successful B2B sales and marketing are simple: Right Person. Right Time. Right Message.

Right Person: The first task is to identify the right person, find relevant information about them and connect with them through someone they know and respect. 84 percent of prospects usually respond to a sales rep when recommended by someone inside the company. Rather than calling a phone number from a list, identify an individual at the right level within the organization. This person should hold a position that gives them the authority to make a decision and makes them likely to have a need for the product or service. Be aware of the prospect’s work profile and recent tweets to easily establish a rapport, and know which colleague or reference customer can provide a warm introduction to the prospect.

Right Time: Know when to call a prospect. Picking up the phone right after a company secures funding, when a new executive has come on board, or when a new regulatory requirement comes into effect matters. Calling the prospect even days or weeks before a competitor does can be the difference between winning and losing a deal.

Right Message: Prospects take it in their own hands to go online to learn about vendor solutions, and they are often aware of the key features and big differences. As a result, they value reps that are more customer-focused and who can articulate how they can address the prospect’s unique business needs. The nuanced message should be about how to help a prospect be successful rather than what a product does.

A recent paper by Aberdeen titled “Understanding the Science of  Sales Intelligence” identified the key areas that companies and sales teams should be focusing on for results.

  • Executives/ People Information
  • Targeted company details; Financials; Competitors
  • Contextually relevant news
  • Analyst data on tends
  • User generated content (blogs, social media)

Aberdeen Sales Intelligence Study

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