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Are Your Sales People Spending Too Much Time with Customers?

February 8, 2011 in Prospecting, Sales 2.0, Sales Data, Sales Intelligence by Koka Sexton | No comments

A new report by the Sales Executive Council (SEC) outlines that sales people are not spending enough time with customers and spending more time engaged in administrative work. Access to potential customers across the board is reported to have dropped 26%. Time spent getting ready for presentations and post-sales activities has increased 15%. [tweetmeme source= "insideview" only_single=false]

Why is this?

There has been a shift in the sales process and specifically in the customer buying process. People are being alot more careful about how they spend their money and what vendors they work with. Since customers are now in control more than they were 5 years ago, sales teams are having to adust their behavoirs and activities to customize more of their offerings to each potential customer. B2B companies have to keep pace with Customer 2.0. Companies are now in the solutions game and selling a solution is a much longer process than having a CD in a box and selling it off a shelf. Customers demand more engagement by sales people and more customized applications to solve their issues.

This data tell us that in complex sales, selling is about more than being a persuasive presenter: it’s about the hard work that happens before and after that presentation, from researching customers to pulling together internal stakeholders to planning how to grow the account over time.

Pre-call planning by sales teams has increased 15% to meet the demands of customers. Sales people may only have one chance to talk with the C-Suite and the cookie cutter presentations that worked years ago will result in a glazed over look and forgotten about before you walk out of the room. Deal complexity has increased as customers want the customized solutions that affect their business process. The increase in panning also is attributed to the lack of resources available to a sales team now versus a few years ago.

With more emphasis in pre-call planning there is a much greater need by companies to be invested with sales intelligence solutions that can cut down research time and give a sales person an advantage. Some of this information will come from conversations with the customer but decision makers are busy and discovery calls are few and far between. Using Sales 2.0 tools and harnessing aggregated news and social streams from individuals and companies can fill in much of the information gap.

It was also interesting that the report showed that post-sales activities by sales teams increased 15%. This means that sales people are not focusing on bringing in new business and working with existing business. Companies that have this issue should look into investing more sales support and relieve the burden on revenue producers.

READ The Entire report on Sales Process Trends

Sales-Process-Trends

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Inside Sales Experts Converge in San Francisco with the AA-ISP

February 1, 2011 in Conferences, Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence, Umberto Milletti by Koka Sexton | 1 comment

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If you are an Inside Sales professional or a sales leader, you should already know about the AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit 2011. This event will feature over 30 of the nation’s leading Inside Sales experts who will deliver presentations and discussions focused on the issues most critical to today’s Inside Sales Leaders and Managers.

As the only conference dedicated exclusively to the “front lines” of Inside Sales, this event will bring together Inside Sales Professionals to learn, share, and network. Inside Sales 2011 will deliver informative, thought-provoking presentations designed to help Inside Sales individuals, teams, and organizations.

This one day conference will include a variety of general sessions, interactive break-out sessions, and lively panel discussions featuring some of the nation’s leading Inside Sales experts. Focus will be on addressing issues critical to the success of today’s Inside Sales Professionals while providing key sales tactics and techniques. In addition, the Solution Provider Exhibit will offer attendees the opportunity to meet with leading inside sales vendors.

The conference will be packed full of innovative, practical ideas and best practices. Inside Sales Professionals will leave exhilarated, enthused, and armed with new knowledge, techniques, and tools designed to improve and enhance sales performance.

Umberto Milletti will be a Featured Speaker at the event along with some other great speakers like Tom Scontras of Glance Networks, Steve Richards of Vorsight Sales Training and many, many more.

Increase Inside Sales Productivity with Social Intelligence

Cold calling is changing to warm calling, as prospects are demanding more relevance from sales reps.    Find out how to harness social intelligence to increase your sales productivity and accelerate sales cycles.  Learn how to bring social selling into your sales organization to improve prospecting effectiveness and close rates.

Time: Thursday, February 10 
from 4;15 p.m – 4:45 p.m

The AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit 2011 is less than  two weeks away and it’s not too late to register. InsideView will also have a booth at the event and we look forward to talking with you about our product or ways that we have maximized our sales productivity internally to double our revenue in a record breaking year.

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Have No Fear: Why Sales Teams SHOULD Be On Social Media

February 1, 2011 in Prospecting, Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence, Social CRM, Social Media Tips, Social Selling by Koka Sexton | 12 comments

sales fear

Social media has become a defacto marketing tool for any organization, but it’s incredible how scared sales managers and teams still are of letting their sales reps join the sales 2.0 party. But the reality is, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself…oh, and not closing more and larger deals faster than ever before.

Social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn (as well as the entire blogosophere) are target-rich environments to find new opportunities and leads, and engage with prospects in a powerful and effectively intelligent new way. So what is holding companies back? Of the dozen or so objections I have heard, my conclusion is: FEAR. Fear that their sales team will not produce results, fear that the sales team will waste their time online and fear that their sales teams will do or say something online that will tarnish their brand and kill sales. The fact of the matter is, NOT letting sales professionals engage on social media is detrimental to the bottom line for the reasons below.

In addition, it always surprises me when a company pushes off any new technology based on such fear, and masks it with an excuse. Businesses that embrace innovation and new tools have a great track record of becoming leaders in their spaces. Social media is no different as it applies to sales professionals. There are very simple reasons that all of these excuses should be thrown away and sales people given a green light to social media engagement with leads and prospects.

Fact: Social selling produces results

Sirius Decisions Inc. recently said in a webinar that in most sales cycles, customers are now in control. Customers are doing 70 percent of the research online that drives the buying decisions, and then contacting a specific vendor for the purchase. The old concept of customers calling into a company to be ‘sold’ something is quickly vanishing. Since more of the buying process is happening online in discussion groups and social networks, sales people that are paying attention and, in most cases, are already a member of these networks like Twitter, will capitalize on these conversations and identify new opportunities much earlier than those without such social involvement.

Myth: Social Selling is not a time-suck

If your sales team is wasting their time online or talking to friends on the phone most of the day, stop now and reevaluate your employees. If you have talented and hard working people on your sales team, then you shouldn’t expect them to behave any different with using social media throughout the sales cycle. If your sales team is already using Twitter or other networks for personal use, they will be able to adopt a sales methodology around the same tools to produce revenue.

Myth: ‘Social Selling’ is too risky

This is an objection that comes up more often than any other, and it’s a common misunderstanding that a business can be destroyed in the matter of one status update or blog post. But, I don’t agree with this any more than I would with the idea that a poorly sent email to a customer can do the same. There was a point in time where sales people didn’t have access to email for that exact reason, but can you imagine not having email as a tool? The same will be said about social media tools in 10 years – those who embrace it will be in the drivers seat, and ultimately win out.

It all comes down to “letting go” and enabling your sales teams to be more effective. Social Selling is not fit for every sales person, but I’d bet you have a strong percentage of your sales team that would welcome the opportunity to drive opportunities through social tools in addition to traditional phone and email tactics.

This post originally appeared on Sales2.com where InsideView has regular contributions. Sales 2.0 is a site dedicated to the improvement of sales results.

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Social Selling Rules of Engagement

January 31, 2011 in Prospecting, Sales 2.0, Sales Intelligence, Social Selling by Koka Sexton | 1 comment

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Nobody will tell you that being in sales an easy gig. Only the top performers get recognized and the people who under-perform are typically passed over for promotions or asked to leave. There are actions every sales person can take that will increase their chances at success and outside of “Sales 101″ they should be investing in learning about and using every effective tool online and off to succeed. Social Selling in a B2B environment does work and there are some basic rules of social engagement every sales 2.0 leader should know and follow.

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Aim before you shoot, the spray and pray method with calls and email blasts doesn’t work. Sales people need to be smarter about who they are contacting and when they contact them. Using a sales intelligence tool and including social engagement will increase your sales performance based on a recent Aberdeen study.

Break the rules before they break you. Inside sales people should not live in a box. There are so many new tools available and sales teams should not be limited to only a phone and email as communication tools. Not using new media to connect with prospects is hurting your business.

Have a character but don’t be a character. Sales people should use social networks in a professional manner. This doesn’t mean that you need to come across as a robot, have some fun.

Lead from the front. Using social media for sales let’s you find and connect with more relevant people than any prospect list will allow. Connecting with people in the networks that they are already active in will get you more exposure and leave more lasting impressions.

Don’t confuse planning with training or talking with selling. Starting off with using social media for sales takes some planning and it has a learning curve. If you start off with just using LinkedIn and perfecting the process you will begin to understand how much of an impact social media can have on lead generation and identifying new opportunities. Don’t focus on the number of people you are connecting with, having a large network doesn’t mean anything if it’s not translating into new business.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The path to success is littered with failures. The most important skill any sales person can learn is that not every deal will be won. Getting up and working on the next opportunity is the name of the game and sales members need to learn from the mistakes they make. “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

Take risks and then more risks. The safe and easy route is a quick way to nowhere. Sales people that are strategic in thought and can execute effectively will have to assume extra risks. Maybe your plan was flawed or you zigged when you should have zagged with that new opportunity, regardless of what the situation is, you took a risk and you should own it. Continuing to take risks will force you to be smarter about your sales tactics and have the most impact on your career.

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InsideView More Than Doubles Revenue in Record-Breaking Year

January 12, 2011 in Notifications, Sales 2.0, Social CRM, Technology by Koka Sexton | 1 comment

InsideView today announced that it finished 2010 on a record-breaking note, growing revenue more than 135 percent. During 2010, InsideView announced multiple record quarters, more than 50 new partners, multiple industry accolades, and the launch of social selling capabilities. In March 2010, InsideView also closed a Series B Round of funding for $11.5 million.

Sales Intelligence and Social Selling Become The New Must-Haves
InsideView’s rapid growth in 2010 was driven by increasing numbers of large and medium enterprises that are adopting sales intelligence and social selling as core capabilities to improve their sales execution. [tweetmeme source= "insideview" only_single=false]

In 2010, sales organizations were looking to work smarter, not just harder. Gaining critical insights on not just who to call, but knowing when and why to call customers, sets apart top performing sales organizations from competitors. InsideView now boasts more than 60,000 end users. New customers include Avaya, AIG, Riverbed Technologies and Workday.

InsideView continued to invest substantially in R&D by doubling its development team in 2010. InsideView maintained its substantial lead in product innovation, with several new capabilities including:

  • Social Profiles: View rich social profile information from dozens of social networks to gain unique insights into customers and prospects
  • Social Search: Search for contacts on specific social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to better target prospects and engage via multiple channels
  • Social Connections: Tap into existing relationships to leverage connections into a prospect or customer via the Facebook and LinkedIn APIs
  • Social Mentions: Access a filtered, relevant stream of social media mentions to understand what is being said about customers and prospects
  • Automated Watchlists: Automatically track and monitor key CRM accounts to ensure that potential opportunities and threats are never missed
  • New User Interface: Access key insights with fewer clicks to streamline the most common B2B sales activities such as lead qualification and pre-call research

InsideView also won numerous awards for product innovation and market leadership:

InsideView’s success was shared by its customers. InsideView customers, including Adobe Omniture Business Unit, Brainshark, Inc., BigMachines, Inc. and Unisfair, dominated 2010′s Sales and Marketing 2.0 Awards for innovative use of technologies to drive sales and marketing excellence.

Ecosystem Grows Substantially

InsideView’s ecosystem of partners grew exponentially in 2010 to more than 50 partners. This growth is a testament to more companies looking to get more out of their CRM investments, by investing in sales intelligence and social selling initiatives.

The top companies in Sales Effectiveness and CRM Implementation selected InsideView as their primary sales intelligence partner, recognizing the value InsideView provides in several key areas: increased sales productivity, higher lead conversion rates, higher opportunity win rates and rapid CRM adoption.

InsideView has also become the most popular and highest rated sales intelligence solution on all the leading CRM marketplaces and/or ecosystems, including:

“InsideView’s growth in 2010 is a proof-point that enterprises of all sizes are increasingly looking to sales intelligence and social selling as must-haves, in order to compete and win,” said Umberto Milletti, founder and CEO of InsideView. “InsideView enables enterprises to quickly increase sales productivity and get measurable ROI. We are extremely proud of our success in 2010, and look forward to continuing our rapid growth in 2011.”

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