Social CRM

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Hit Your Number Faster with Sales Intelligence

September 6, 2011 in Sales Intelligence, Social CRM by Koka Sexton | 9 comments

One of the best messages from Dreamforce was the realization from 45,000 attendees that data is good but it is not enough to move the revenue needle. The comments from current customers and new businesses that stopped by the booth validated that cold calling is dead and without a very targeted message with relevant information from both traditional sources and social media, a sales rep’s chances of getting contact and creating new opportunities is very slim.

With the announcement that Jigsaw and D&B are being combined to create Data.com, our customers are echoing our response that this is just further validation that data is a commodity and without a layer of intelligence to help sales, marketing and support identify the right people to contact, you may as just use last years Yellow Pages.

 Where’s the value-add? D&B and Salesforce are pitching this idea as a marriage between two classes of data: Salesforce contacts and D&B business. (For “Salesforce contacts,” read “Jigsaw.”) But Jigsaw data already associates contacts with their companies, and already contains (by Salesforce’s own estimate) over 4 million crowd-sourced corporate profiles. Of course, this calls into question the authenticity (and accuracy) of those profiles versus D&B’s professional research.

Keeping the entire company on the same page with prospects and customers is something that CRM can help with but it’s not the answer. There are so many things changing with companies on a daily, weekly and monthly basis that it’s impossible for anyone or any company to keep up with all the changes in leadership, news and events. This is why we believe that sales intelligence is the answer.

Adding a layer of intelligence to your sales process will dramatically increase sales productivity and increase your opportunity win rates. Does social media answer all the needs of every sales organization? No. But it adds an additional layer that gives sales people an edge when identifying new prospects and making that first phone call less awkward. Even marketing automation companies like Marketo see the value in leveraging social media for sales.

10 additional Articles on Data vs. Intelligence

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The Only Sales Application Recognized in the 2011 Gartner Magic Quadrant

August 2, 2011 in Sales Intelligence, Social CRM by Koka Sexton | 2 comments

We are excited that we were included for the second year running to the Gartner Research Magic Quadrant for Social CRM. InsideView is the only company in the Magic Quadrant specifically addressing the sales processes, intelligent monitoring, outreach and collaboration for sales professionals. This is only the second time that Gartner Research has addressed the growing market of Social CRM (sCRM).

In the report’s introduction, Gartner analysts mandate measurable benefits of any social CRM vendor included in the Magic Quadrant. InsideView’s integrated, seamless sales intelligence has been shown by analyst firm Aberdeen Research to improve top-line revenue by more than ten percent.

“While others focused on one-to-many marketing and service areas, we have focused on the one-to-one relationships critical for sales,”

“InsideView distinguishes itself as one of the few vendors in social CRM focused on sales processes,” reads the Gartner report, available for purchase here. The report continues, “With an emphasis on usability, InsideView has promoted a compelling vision for applying search and relationship mining technologies to aid salespeople with key informational needs around sourcing contacts and leads, as well as monitoring business events and personnel within accounts.” Ease-of-use is also praised: “…easy to set up and personalize to specific needs (i.e., list building, lead generation, lead qualification, precall research in prospecting, account research, etc.).”

The report also highlights InsideView’s ability to uncover new sales opportunities and relationships, as well as to provide real-time intelligence and social information on leads and prospects through its unique Buzz Tab. One new area of emphasis by InsideView is the establishment of broader community: just last month, InsideView launched a Lithium-powered community for its nearly 100,000 users.

“While others focused on one-to-many marketing and service areas, we have focused on the one-to-one relationships critical for sales,” said Umberto Milletti, CEO of InsideView. “It’s great to see the industry analysts agree on the importance of these one-to-one relationships. We are now expanding more into the areas of marketing and service as these recognize the need for deeper relationships. Look for some exciting announcements about our offering soon.”
Gartner Magic Quadrant

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Does Your Company Have a Social Selling Strategy?

July 27, 2011 in Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence, Social CRM, Social Selling by Koka Sexton | 2 comments

Social Media has become a staple to many companies. Recent research indicates that 80% of companies with at least 100 employees will use social media marketing this year. That’s up from about 75% last year. Based on the US Census from 2007 that’s millions of establishments that are leveraging social media.

social selling statistics

Companies have realized that a solid social media strategy is vital to the companies goals for revenue and growth. Emphasis still remains on common business goals like

  • Customer retention
  • Customer acquisition
  • Customer profitability
  • Branding

With these priorities in place, traditional methods of execution are being supplemented by social media. Even with such large numbers of companies leveraging social media, research shows that only 17% of them feel they are ahead of the curve when it comes to using social media to achieve these goals. (source)

One of the things I notice most when talking to companies about their social media strategies is that it focuses primarily around marketing and support. These have obvious benefits that can be measured and scaled to show an ROI.

What we are finding more of now are companies that want to be in that group of companies that are leveraging social media a head of the curve. This is done through the use of applications and training. Where many companies are building a more strategic focus is in their sales teams where social media is getting used to drive revenue and customer acquisition.

With sales enablement and sales intelligence applications the ability to turn social media into a sales tool becomes a reality and even a necessity to many companies that see the financial benefit of them.

When companies become active in social networks with the goals listed above, the actions should not stop with the marketing department. Sales teams should be trained and active in the networks where marketing has identified new prospects. The goal is to bring the prospects from a virtual environment into a live conversation with the sales team. This may be easier with some prospects than others but some prospects will gladly take a demo or a call with the sales team but want an active engagement online as well during the buying process.

If your company is not activating the sales team members to engage in social media where the prospects are responsive (that’s where you found them originally) then you risk losing them. Your sales team may lose them in the sea of other emails and calls that they receive on a daily basis.

When a prospect is engaged online and sales or lead qualification gets involved there should be an effort to incorporate a social selling strategy that blends common sales process with an online one. You’ll find more engaged buyers and customers that communicate with you in many channels and become advocates for your company during the buying process and throughout their time as a customer.

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We Make SugarCRM Just a Bit Sweeter

July 15, 2011 in Mash-ups, Sales Intelligence, Social CRM by Koka Sexton | 1 comment

As of today we are excited to announce that EVERY SugarCRM customer has access to InsideView. We talked in April about our commitment to the SugarCRM customers that had requested a more integrated mashup of our sales intelligence application. After a bit of development and customization, we have completed the project and have started deploying InsideView to nearly 70,000 SugarCRM customers. This is the largest instant deployment of InsideView across a CRM customer base ever. Another 500,000 will see InsideView as they voluntarily upgrade to the newest release of SugarCRM throughout the rest of the year. [tweetmeme source= "insideview" only_single=false]

Things have changed for B2B sales

The availability of information for both buyer and seller has increased dramatically. Most of your customers are leveraging the internet and social networks to research and validate product choices. Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and forums have given prospects easy access to your existing customers and people are talking about you, your products and your competitors. It’s impossible to analyze all of this data on your own and make the best decisions on who the best people are to contact and provide value to them by solving their problems. That’s where sales intelligence comes in and saves the day while you’re closing the deal.

InsideView helps reps connect with prospects through their personal and extended professional networks including colleagues, ex-colleagues, and reference customers. Building relationships and trust with your customers and prospects has become more important than ever in a virtual environment. Phone calls and email work well but when you combine those with connecting on social networks for a more complete communication path, you can be sure to always know and be in touch with the people that are making the decisions.

We are excited about this announcement. Working with the SugarCRM teams has been wonderful.

AA-ISP Announces Key Sponsorship Affiliation With InsideView

June 10, 2011 in Prospecting, Sales Intelligence, Social CRM by Koka Sexton | 1 comment

The American Association of inside sales Professionals (AA-ISP) announced today that InsideView, has become an “Underwriter“ level sponsor of the association in support of its many conferences, webinars, and other educational forums. As part of its sponsorship of the AA-ISP, InsideView will participate as presenters at the annual Leadership Summit and the association’s regional conferences. In addition, they will provide support for various nation-wide chapter meetings and other educational forums such as the AA-ISP webinar series.

“We are truly excited that InsideView will be supporting the AA-ISP’s mission of helping inside sales reach new levels of professionalism, recognition, and performance,” said Larry Reeves, AA-ISP Chief Operating Officer. “The sales world is changing, and Inside Sales is taking on an ever increasing role in the success of organizations. Recent studies indicate that corporate America is growing their year-over-year inside sales positions by 15%, while field sales are flat or decreasing. Today’s Inside Sales Professionals are top notch individuals proficient in a wide variety of skills that were never part of the sales role a few years ago. The face of sales is changing, and Inside Sales Professionals are leading the way,” Reeves commented.

“InsideView is an ideal social selling tool for inside sales professionals who rely on research prior to making contact with a prospect. It’s an ideal fit for inside reps who need immediate access to customer intelligence between the hundreds of calls they make each week. Besides being an excellent tool for inside sales, they support our vision for the growth of inside sales, and are an ideal supporter of what our association is all about,” stated Bob Perkins, AA-ISP’s Founder & CEO.

“Recent studies indicate that corporate America is growing their year-over-year inside sales positions by 15%, while field sales are flat or decreasing. Today’s Inside Sales Professionals are top notch individuals proficient in a wide variety of skills that were never part of the sales role a few years ago. The face of sales is changing, and Inside Sales Professionals are leading the way,”

“We are pleased to be supporting the AA-ISP, the industry’s leading association dedicated to advancing the profession of inside sales,” noted Greg Brush, InsideView’s VP of Sales & Customer Success. “We share a common vision to help take inside sales to the next level. Both of our teams are looking forward to the continued growth of inside sales and remain passionate about improving the productivity of inside sales professionals.”

About the AA-ISP
The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (”AA-ISP”) is dedicated exclusively to advancing the profession of Inside Sales. As the only association of its kind, the AA-ISP serves as an authoritative resource to leaders and individual sales representatives who want to take their organization and careers to the next level of professionalism and performance. Our mission is accomplished through an industry-specific focus on leadership and individual development, member forums and networking, best practice sharing, individual training, career development, sales accreditation and annual conferences.

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