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Ending 2009 Stongly

Debbie Boucher — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:49:00 GMT

I got an email last week with the subject: "Knock Knock - It's the Fourth Quarter." That subject definitely caught my attention.

In it, Lee Levitt from IDC, lays out the case that what we do now will have huge impact on not only the 2^nd half of 2009, but future success in 2010. Lee argues:

What you accomplish in the next quarter...how your organization performs over the next couple of months...will determine not only how your year will conclude, but it will also set the stage for 2010. End this year strong and next year will go well. End this year weak and you will have less budget, less pipeline, less momentum for success in 2010.

So how can we ensure that Inside Sales is ready to meet these pressures? Here are a few tips you can implement to focus your team:

Help Them Grow and Cultivate Territories
Give your team the goal of adding 5 to 10 new contacts a day to their calling cycle. The top of the funnel is more important than every before. Reciting the same message to the same prospects just isn't going to get the job done.
Help Them Focus on High Yield Activities
Everyone gets swamped with meetings, emails and other distractions and before you know it mid morning has arrived and no one has made a single outbound call! Make sure your Reps follow this simple 10 x 10 rule; make 10 calls by 10:00 AM every day.
Help Them Maximize Leads
Your team just received a batch of leads from a recent marketing event and it's time to follow up. Many times, Reps will look at the list and see that they are all low level prospects.

So how do you satisfy Marketing, best use selling time & add to pipeline? By placing 1 call and 1 email to the low level responder and then letting them self-identify. The key to this strategy is to make sure your Reps remember to focus on the Account and not the Contact. If the account meets your Ideal Customer Profile, then Reps should target the decision makers even if they were not the ones who responded to the marketing event. You still need to talk to them right - so why wait?
Help Them Tune Up the Messaging
Make sure Reps give prospects a reason to call them back. Is their messaging clear? Is it concise? What about compelling? Lee points out that we "need to rearchitect the sales conversations. Why should a given prospect buy now? Why should a client upgrade now? (Hint - it's not because you need the revenue!)"
Help Them Be Successful
As Lee says, you are the secret weapon if you are a first line sales manager. When you spend most of your time coaching reps, rep performance soars. After all, your job really should be about coaching for success and not about data management.

As always, I'd love to hear your comments. What steps are you taking to address these issues?

Have You Mastered Sales 1.5?

Trish Bertuzzi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:57:00 GMT

Sales 2.0 is getting tons of buzz right now in the technology market. There are lots of different definitions out there, but here's mine:

Sales 2.0 is an outcome not an event. The process requires you to transform your business from one that is focused on selling to one that is focused on letting the market buy from you.

Sales 2.0 requires a change in mindset. It requires focus on buyer personas, lead nurturing, content development, social networking strategies, web 2.0 tool, etcetera, etcetera.

Pretty head spinning, right?

So how do you begin to transform your organization?

Take baby steps: you need to master Sales 1.5 before Sales 2.0. You need a solid foundation on which to initiate real change.

We all have limited resources and an organization can only absorb so much at once. Taking a measured approach will result in better outcomes than just throwing yourself into the fray and launching new initiatives, technology or otherwise.

Here are 6 recommendations on how to make sure you have mastered Sales 1.5:

Take a look at your sales goals
Are they realistic and achievable? Are they based on real world data or were they handed to you?

Now, more than ever, numbers need to be based on real world data defined by how many buyers that fit your ideal customer profile are available in each territory. The days of vanilla quotas are dead. The days of data driven quotas have arrived.

Take a look at your compensation plans
Are they driving desired behavior? Are they based on opportunity or are they based around activity?

Revenue is always the end game but what other factors drive success in your organization - new logos, increased customer retention, new verticals or products...think about those factors and include them in your compensation plans.
Take a look at your roles & responsibilities
Is each member of your sales team held accountable for specific goals? What is Inside Sales responsible for v. the Field v. Lead Generation? What are the metrics by which Marketing is measured?

Resources are precious commodities and you can't afford to squander them. Marketing and Sales need to share a common set of definitions, metrics for measurement and goals.
Take a look at your messaging & sales tools
How do you communicate with the market? Is it all about you or is it about delivering value to your buyers?

Your sales organization must have great content to use throughout the sales process. The education of buyers can't end after they deliver a product overview and a case study.
Take a look at your talent
When was the last time you profiled your best performers? Have you evaluated your recruiting and interview processes to make sure they are effective?

The economy isn't the only reason you might not be making your number. How much of your budget do you allocate to professional development for your team?
Take a look at your systems
Do they deliver value to Sales or just require admin work from them? Is the Sales Org actively using all the tools at their disposal?

Make sure Reps are given the tools they need to better understand and serve customers & prospects. Make sure your systems highlight and deliver the right tools at the right time to move Sales opportunities forward.

Okay, do you feel good about all of the above? Great! Now you are ready to start thinking about Sales 2.0 because you have a solid foundation on which to build and initiate change (a blog topic for another day perhaps).

There's no silver bullet. There's nothing but hard work, well thought out strategies and flawless execution.

But you already knew that, right? Happy Selling!

(Photo credit: maxbisschop)

Why Prospecting is Like Baseball

Trish Bertuzzi — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:37:00 GMT

Paul McCord was kind enough to invite me to participate in his Boost Your Sales Series. The following is cross-posted from the Sales and Sales Management Blog.
------

I am not a fanatical baseball fan like some of my friends. My friend Linda can quote stats and facts about the Red Sox till your head spins. She lives for the game.

Anyway, the reason I want to talk about why prospecting is like baseball is because I recently saw a quote by Mickey Mantle that struck home:

"During my 18 years in baseball, I came to bat almost 9,000 times. I struck out over 1,700 times and walked over 1,800 times. That means I played seven years in the major leagues without even hitting a baseball."

Wow - 7 years without hitting the ball! What dedication, what a positive mental attitude, what a viewpoint that you have to put in the time to get the results you need to be an all star.

Don't you wish your sales organization understood that successful prospecting needs to be based on the same positive attributes?

How many times have you heard Reps say: "I called those leads and they are terrible"? Then you go into the database and see that they lobbed out a few calls to a few of the leads and, big surprise, they got out of that effort what they put in - nothing.

Or, how many of them lament that cold calling yields no results yet they never do it? Or, and this one gets my blood boiling, how many times have you heard them call a prospect and say "Bob, I was just calling to follow-up on a whitepaper you recently downloaded"? Yeah, that's a compelling message!

So, how do you provide them with the dedication, positive mental attitude and the understanding that every prospecting exercise may not result in a home run? You coach them - every great athlete has a great coach behind them.

Coaching Step 1:
Give them the metrics against which to measure themselves.
Baseball is all about stats and so is prospecting. Set their expectations that they will connect with 20 - 25% of their dials and that 10 - 17% of those connections will result in a qualified opportunity.
Coaching Step 2:
Provide them with the equipment they need to be successful.
Give them great leads, give them accurate lists and give them great tools. Have you created elevator pitches that are about your buyer persona and not about you? Have you crafted voicemail messages and emails templates that deliver value and resonate with your prospect's issues?
Coaching Step 3:
Act like a coach.
When was the last time you swung a bat? If you lead a team, you should spend at least 4 hours a month doing their job. Get in there and prospect. There is a double benefit to this - you will walk a mile in their shoes and just as importantly, you will get to hear how the market responds to your messaging. Then take all that great knowledge and coach your team.
Coaching Step 4:
Let them compete.
Sales Reps like to compete and allowing them to compete at the level of prospecting levels the playing field. Not everyone is a superstar when it comes to revenue but everyone can be a superstar when it comes to prospecting.

Well, I am out of baseball analogies so I guess I will wrap up now, but what I hope you take away from this is that just like Mickey Mantle, your team has to invest time on the playing field if they are going win the game!

(Photo credit: dcJohn)

Cold Calling 2.0: Buyer's Side

Matt Bertuzzi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:16:00 GMT

There are most certainly very strong opinions on the status and future outlook of the Cold Call. Trish's post on Cold Calling 2.0 garnered the most comments this blog has seen in quite some time.

Coincidentally another Brit (I wish I was smart enough to orchestrate this), started an extremely active LinkedIn discussion on the topic.

Jay Powell from Business Intelligence Direct asked:

Cold calling, horrible word isn't it? When was the last time you received a "Cold Call"?

How effective was their call? Did you meet with them, agree to receive literature, or did you simply state you had no interest in their offer?

What prompted that response?

Jay received 19 answers in 21 hours. This shows me one thing: Cold Calling is as hot a topic for Buyers as for Sellers.

I ran a quick cloud analysis on the keywords used in the 19 answers. Click the image to see the larger version.

Words the buyers used frequently:

cold
company
sales
vendor

Words the buyers used infrequently:

information
listen
research
success
talking

To those that might argue that the Cold Calling 2.0 discussion is being made in a vacuum, I hope this data adds some credibility to the argument. In closing here are few highlights from comments in the LinkedIn discussion.

"The bottom line is that the caller took the time to make this "cold call" into a "warm call" by customizing the information that she presented to me. I haven't decided if I will use their service but I definitely will take the time to learn more about it."

"I have received a number of cold calls from recruiters and they have all completely failed to actually look at my resume or comprehend what it meant I could do."

"They gave no indication that they had any idea who I was, what I do, how this could be a benefit to me or worth my time. It's unlikely that a retun call to them will be a priority."

"Even if the call is truly a cold call the caller can do a better job if they know their material, are respectful of your time and continuously earn the right to go on by providing relevant information."

Thanks for listening and please let me know your thoughts!

(Photo credit: Graham_B)

Cold Calling 2.0

Trish Bertuzzi — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:42:00 GMT

Every day on Linkedin there seems to be a new discussion started on whether or not cold calling still works. I am going to say here what I say there:

There is no such thing as "cold calling" any longer. There is enough information at your disposal to know just about everything there is to know about your buyer except what they had for lunch (unless they are on Twitter!).

Nigel Edelshain just published an ebook called "Don't Cold Call. Social Call." And, he did a "bang up" job laying out this argument (I can say bang up because Nigel is British). The ebook discusses using social networks and Sales 2.0 tools to prospect.

In a nutshell, Nigel argues that:

The cold call is dead, if it means "smiling and dialing" with little-to-no-preparation on behalf of the sales person. But smart prospecting is very much alive. Sales people can execute "social calls" using the latest in Sales 2.0 tools and social networks.
There are Sales 2.0 tools now available (including social networks) that help you with the 3 most critical factors in successful prospecting:

Talking to the right people - often the hardest part of the prospecting cycle
Establishing relationships - what do we have in common with our buyers
Using changes in your buyer's environment - what trigger event just occurred that makes now the time to talk to you

Old fashioned cold calling resulted in 1 meeting for every 100 dials. Nigel contends that with social calling you get dramatically increased results - 1 meeting in 12 dials.

So, if your prospect isn't responding to your marketing efforts, "don't cold call...social call".

What do you think? Can using social networking and Sales 2.0 tools in prospecting increase the ability to "get in" dramatically? Looking forward to your comments!

The Dance Party That "Crossed the Chasm"

Matt Bertuzzi — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:57:00 GMT

I have never seen a better way to illustrate the technology adoption lifecycle than the silly video of people dancing below.

It's just over 3 minutes, but worth the view. Feel free to jump around every 30 seconds or so to save time. Here's a short synopsis:

"Crazy Guy #1" awkwardly dances alone at a music festival
19 seconds later, "Also-Crazy Guy #2" joins in
60 seconds later, there are 16 dancers
After 2:30 there is a 100+ person dance party

The technology adoption lifecycle aka Rogers curve aka the Crossing the Chasm chart:

Here are some of my notes (best effort here folks) on how the people participating in the dance party match up to the adoption lifecycle.

Innovators	Guys 1 & 2	0:01-0:54	No fear of going it alone
Early Adopters	Dancers 3-18	0:55-1:25	See the potential and aren't afraid to step forward
Early Majority	Dancers 19-60	1:26-2:00	Feel that something is starting to happen & want to be part of it
Late Majority	Dancers 61-100	2:01-2:30	Notice that something is happening & don't want to miss out
Laggards	Dancers 101-120+	2:31-3:00	Literally arriving as the song is ending

Note: Seth Godin beat me to the post on this one. But he didn't use charts! Seth argues that:

...it's guy #3 who made it a movement.

But what do you think? Does "the Chasm" notion still hold up?

Social Networking and Your Business – Part 2

Trish Bertuzzi — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:51:00 GMT

Last week, I outlined 4 approaches businesses can take towards Social Networking. Read Part 1 here. By way of a recap, here is the approach I recommended:

Approach #4 - Aim Before You Fire

You must invest some time and research in understanding your Buyer Personas and how they use Social Networking before you build out your strategy.

Now onto Part 2:

Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim (Part2)

Step 1: Know Thy Buyer Personas

People still confuse their Ideal Customer Profile with their Buyer Personas. Your Ideal Customer Profile typically looks something like this:

Verticals: Healthcare, Financial Services
Revenue: Over $1B
Role: Anyone with "security" in their title

Ideal Customer Profiles point you in the right direction and make it easy to purchase lists, size target markets, etc.

Buyer Personas, on the other hand, provide you with the information you need to communicate with your buyers in a way that is meaningful to them. Think The Bachelor - you need to make a "connection" with your buyers and that connection has to be personal, emotional & relevant.

So, how do you do that? Well, you start by fleshing out your Buyer Personas to the point that they are people with faces, names, specific challenges & goals.

Let's walk through a high level example which is a representation of Jennifer, a Director of Marketing.

What do we know about Jennifer?

We know her background
We understand her role and how she is measured
We understand the things that frustrate her
We know how she defines a "win"
We understand her expectations of vendor relationships

If you are like most companies, you will have multiple Buyer Personas and you should execute this exercise for each of them. It will provide you with the language you need to communicate with these buyers. They don't want to hear about how wonderful you are. They want to know how you are going to help them solve the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Step 2: Find the Jennifer's

Now that you know what Jennifer looks like, you can find sample Jennifer's in your customer and prospect base.

Next, go do some research to find out how they are using Social Networking. It has never been easier to conduct this research: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook - they all provide search capabilities.

The matrix displayed above is all you need to create your Social Networking strategy. That matrix will tell you where to invest your time for your specific Buyer Personas.

In this instance, the strategy is clearly laid out for you. You want to invest significant time on LinkedIn, establish a presence on Facebook and then investigate Twitter to connect with your Jennifers.

Step 3: Find the Conversation

So, now we know who to target and we know what networking sites to target. Next, find the conversations that are meaningful to Jennifer.

We already know our Jennifer's are active in LinkedIn groups so why not start there. Your research on Jennifer's groups will provide you insight into where your Buyer Personas are spending time.

Join those Groups with the goal of engaging in meaningful conversation, not indulging in self promotion. Ask questions, answer questions - establish yourself as a thought leader. This is about sharing information and becoming part of a community with your buyers.

Summary

Ready...Aim...Fire is a great approach to Social Networking. Taking the time to understand your buyer is an investment that will pay off! It takes some planning (and requires some work), but would you trust any Sales & Marketing strategy that didn't?

Agree? Disagree? Please share your thoughts on getting started with Social Networking!

Social Networking and Your Business – Part 1

Trish Bertuzzi — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:02:00 GMT

I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston. I participated in a panel on Social Networking in a Sales 2.0 World. Hmmm....got me thinking.

As Inside Sales experts, we are always interested in new ways to generate leads. While I concede that Social Networking does not yet have a consistently proven ROI in "hard metrics", I speak from personal experience when I say that it certainly does have a proven ROI in "soft metrics".

I read a quote on Twitter the other day that I'm not going to do justice to, but it read something like this: "If you speak with passion on Twitter, others with a similar passion will hear you." Makes sense right?

So, where should you begin? With so much on all our plates, how do we add in Social Networking and does it even make sense to add it to our daily task lists? Well, that is what we are going to talk about.

There are really 4 options for how you pursue a Social Networking strategy for your business and I want to lay them out for you (see presentation below).

The title of my presentation is "Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim." I chose this title because before you do anything else, you have to understand how, where & why your buyers are using Social Networking.

Fishing Where Your Buyers Swim (Part1)

There are so many social networking sites out there...and this number only continues to grow. How do you figure out where to invest your energy?

Possible Approach #1 - Ignore It!
This analysis by Forrester clearly states that ignoring the phenomena is not in your best interest. Although the data is from 2007/2008 (here is the current research tool), you can see that increasingly B2B technology buyers embracing social media. This trend is changing the nature of the B2B buyer/seller realtionship at a fundamental level.

Possible Approach #2 - Let Your Reps Figure It Out
This one is a little scary to me. Your Reps are using Social Networking in their personal lives and are starting to dabble with it in their professional lives. But, not having a corporate strategy for how they do so puts you at risk in 2 areas.

First, you have no control over what they are saying about you, your product, your company and/or your competitors. Are they on message, are they being professional, are they articulate?

Second, if everyone is off doing their own thing, how do you measure what is working and what isn't? Defining repeatable, scalable success is the cornerstone of all great strategies.

Possible Approach #3 - Go For It
Build business profiles on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook and just dive in. The good news is that it gets you out there. The bad news is that you are probably going out there with a vanilla strategy that may or may not resonate with your buyers. You may also be investing time, effort and energy on social networking sites that your buyers don't frequent. This is an investment that you need to have pay off.

Possible Approach #4- Aim Before You Fire
This is the approach we recommend to our clients. You want to invest some time in research to understand your buyer personas and how they use social networking before you articulate your strategy.

You need to fish where your buyers swim!

Next week's Part 2 post will lay the groundwork for how you can use buyer personas to build your Social Networking strategy. Stay tuned....

UPDATE: Read Part 2 here.

Is Blogging Replacing The Resume? (Reader Poll)

Debbie Boucher — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:36:00 GMT

Via LinkedIn, I recently ran across a post from Ryon Harms entitled, "Your Resume Is Dead. Long Live Your Blog!" I have to admit that as a blogger, this provocative title piqued my interest and I had to immediately click through to his blog. Which ultimately achieved what he wanted, right?

Ryon argues that we are in the "hyper-competitive job market of The Great Recession" and that:

Finding a job today is about consistently hitting it out of the park. That means taking advantage of opportunities to do what most of your competitors have not. I suggest you start by rethinking your static two-page resume and starting a blog instead.

But what does this mean in the context of getting hired in Sales or Marketing?

Does having a blog compliment a resume or possibly increase the chance of getting a job? Absolutely! But I don't believe it can replace your resume.

Here's my take on what a blog does for Sales & Marketing candidates:

Gives Insight Into Expertise and Experience
This is the kind of depth that candidates have been struggling to (while more often than not failing) bring out in the "cover letter".
Shows the "Real" Candidate
A blog gives insight into a candidate's approach, personality and writing style. I cannot stress the importance of the latter enough.

Increasingly Sales is a writing intensive profession (for marketing this goes without saying). Just think of how much business is conducted via email.
Compliments the Resume
Posting your resume "live" on LinkedIn and then linking your blog postings to your Network Updates provides you with future exposure. Hey, with 40+ Million users, LinkedIn is certainly a powerful way for candidates to rise above a static 2-page resume.

Blogs can fill in this "picture" even further. Is this candidate passionate about this topic, field, industry, etc.? Can they stick with something (is the blog 6 weeks old, 6 months or 6 years)? How do they handle differing opinions?

I thought it might be interesting for everyone to take part in a quick poll:
How valuable is a Candidate's blog in your hiring decision?

Here are what a few LinkedIn commenters had to say:

"Very timely and relevant, and I agree wholeheartedly. I'm presently considering a stack of resumes for an SEO position. The ones that include blogs or Twitter accounts are very useful b/c I'm able to get a better, bigger picture of the applicant. Blogs and microblogs allow an applicant to shine in a way that a resume cannot"

"As a search veteran and a guy who reads 60-80 resumes a day I can tell you that a blog plays a very small role in the hiring process. Will it play a bigger role as time goes on? Who knows, but for now I look at the resume, cover letter or email, a LinkedIn profile and maybe a Google search to gather information, and all this only AFTER narrowing the field down to a select handful or candidates. Someone's blog might help or it may rule the candidate out depending on what is written To be honest, a bloggers time is MUCH better spent networking with those that can give me a personal referral and recommendations!"

What do you say?

Is Your Phone System Sabotaging Your Sales?

Cindy Littlefield — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:45:00 GMT

I spend 1 - 2 hours a day prospecting with the majority of that time cold calling.

In my calling, I have come across a situation that needs to be addressed: Your phone system is sabotaging your sales efforts.

The accounts you are about to read are true. No names will be mentioned to protect my future prospecting efforts......

I am armed and ready for my Power Hour of prospecting. I pick up the phone, make the call (to my VP-level prospect) and am greeted by a lovely voice that welcomes me to the company with these kind words:

"Press 1 for sales", "Press 2 if you are looking for your license key to blah blah product". "Press 3 for finance", "Press 4 for customer service", etc. Finally I hear "Press 9 for the company directory or press 0 for the operator". Excellent, I press 9 for the "Company Directory".

Almost there, but wait, you aren't listed in the directory, that's odd?! I can't tell you the number of times that has happened to me. So I press 0 for the operator. Now here is where I've experienced a very mixed bag.

Sometimes you can't press 0 to get to the operator from the directory. Sometimes I get dumped into the "general mailbox" with a message that says, "We are not available to take your call. Please leave a message in the general mailbox and we will return your call promptly". Like that is going to happen. Who ever got a call back from leaving a message in the general mailbox?

I've experienced this as well: At the end of all of the "Press x for y" the phone system suggests that you go to the website, www.newstartup.com for more information. So it's back to the web site to Contact us? What???? Just email addresses. Don't you want to ever speak with anyone?

Now any self respecting cold caller will go for the Sales prompt and ask the helpful sales person to connect you with Mr. VP. That works in some cases, but only when there is a sales answer. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the sales prompt only to find that I am leaving a message in yet again another general mailbox.

This challenge prompted me to keep some stats for myself. Here is what I came up with:

If I make a total of 20 calls.
4 of them are answered by a live person and all is well with the world.
10 of my prospects won't be found in the corporate directory.
Out of that 10, when a sales prompt is offered, I am put straight into voicemail 5 times.
That's 5 potential sales opportunities missed.

Here is my point. I know the name of your company. I know who I want to connect with; I'm a pro and won't give up. But if I can't get through to you - will your prospects, potential partners or others be able to?

If it is difficult for me to connect with you I will move on to the next company. If it is difficult for your prospects to connect with you, won't they move on the next company as well?

If you have similar experiences, please share. As we are all in the business of making that connection I am sure we will all find your experiences helpful.

Photo Credit: eddiemcfish

Make Your LinkedIn Public Profile Sell For You

Gail Milton — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:26:00 GMT

Over the last 2 weeks I participated in the Sales Stimulus Package series from Jill Konrath. My favorite session by far was "Using LinkedIn for More Sales" delivered by Patrick O'Malley (energetic is an understatement for this guy!).

Sure, I use LinkedIn all the time, don't we all? Well, Patrick took my understanding to another level.

The highlight for me was the importance of creating a "Power" public profile and how this can help you increase sales.

Just to be clear, your Public Profile is what people who aren't logged into LinkedIn see when they Google you and LinkedIn comes up. Here's mine for example: Click for larger view.

As you can see, my public profile shows:

Current position
Summary
Experience
Websites

Now, you probably use LinkedIn to do research and gain some personal information before you make a sales call.

Patrick argues that we should also be using LinkedIn to sell our strengths and to sell our companies.

He continues that profiles must have:

A professional headline
A status that is updated on a regular basis
A summary that tells people what you do
Links to your website (SEO bonus!)

How powerful is your public profile? Take a moment to Google yourself (you can use this search phrase): Linkedin yourfirstname yourlastname

Take a look at the results. What do people learn about you & your company when they do research on you?

The key takeaway here is that every customer facing person at your company, starting with you, should have a "Power" public profile. It will help to sell your value, the value of your organization and ultimately help you to sell more.

If you are looking for tips on using LinkedIn more effectively, I recommend you visit Patrick O'Malley's blog.

So how are you marketing you on LinkedIn?

Which Star Trek’er are you?

Matt Bertuzzi — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:52:00 GMT

It's Friday afternoon and it isn't month/quarter end (yet), so I thought a Friday fun post might be in order.

This morning I caught a hilarious post by Steve Johnson, of Pragmatic Marketing, on personas in technology companies as characters from either Star Trek (the original or The Next Generation).

Warning: some of these cut deep! But I am fan of equal opportunity mockery and hope you are too.

Some highlights:

Sales People
as Captain Kirk: "action without thought, asking for the impossible and frequently violating the prime directive"

Marketing People
as Bones (Dr. McCoy): "emotion without logic, frequently complaining about what they aren't: "Damn it, Jim. I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer."

Product Managers
as Scotty the chief engineer: "tells Kirk that whatever he wants is impossible and fifteen minutes later, says, ‘Okay, you've got warp drive.'"

President / CEO
"Back at Starfleet, without a clue of what is really happening in the field"

Steve goes on to describe how these personas need to be more like The Next Generation. It's definitely a bit geeky but worth the read. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Coneee

New Rules of Sales Enablement: And Why They Matter

Matt Bertuzzi — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:45:00 GMT

We need to rethink sales enablement as something other than a one-way deposit of sales tools in a portal.

This point was really driven home for me in the ebook: The New Rules of Sales Enablement (from Jeff Ernst, Kadient's VP of Marketing).

It's not often I finish a 34-page ebook in one sitting, but I did last night and you should too.

Jeff takes an old rules v. new rules approach in laying out his case: We need to shift our mindsets in a major way if our goal is to truly enable sales success.

Here are 2 takeaways I would like to highlight:

It's not about posting more collateral to a sales portal
Sales Reps will tweak, bend & sometimes break "corporate" sales tools in the search for something that works. They are much more likely to go back through their laptop for a "proven" tool than to download the "latest, greatest & approved" copy.

Given the choice, which would you honestly chose?

A) Using what has/is working for another Rep
B) Using what's new from "corporate"

To truly enable sales, the organization needs to discover "the messages and strategies that are resonating with buyers".

"Sales enablement is about ensuring salespeople are able to have valuable conversations that help buyers advance through their buying process."

It's not about burdening reps with complex reporting requirements
Believe me, I get it - you need complete & accurate data for forecasting, deal tracking, etc. But we have to face facts - Sales Reps hate to fill in fields, period.

It's not hard to see why. Much of CRM is built for Sales Leaders to track not for Sales Reps to learn, adjust & benefit. In short, we are asking them to put data in, but not delivering value back out to them.

Jeff's solution: "Don't take from Sales, give to them." If we want our Reps to use the tools (without having to beat them with a stick) "give them content and insights that helps them to be more successful in the field".

I highly recommend you take a moment and download the ebook now. Print it out, bring it along for on-plane reading, mark it up, but most importantly really think about how what these new rules mean for your team & your organization.

I know I certainly am.

Please share, what do you think about Jeff's New Rules?

Sales 2.0 Conference Coming to Boston!

Trish Bertuzzi — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:23:00 GMT

After huge success in San Francisco in March, the Sales 2.0 Conference is heading east to Boston on May 21^st.And I'm delighted to be both presenting and participating in a panel discussion.

This event is a must attend for Senior Sales & Marketing Executives! You can find the full agenda here.

Here are a few sessions I am particularly looking forward to:

Customer Engagement Strategies
Discover the best practices of three sales leaders who openly share how they engage their customers online and by phone. The presenters will review how their salespeople can launch their own marketing campaign, how their web team reads and responds to a prospect's digital body language and how they engage customers to collaborate and co-create the sale in a collaborative setting.
(Includes audience Q&A)

Sales Lead Management 2.0
Learn how leading companies are generating sales leads and what methods they use to move new prospects through the sales funnel. Three best practice presentations review how sales organizations are moving from human speed to Internet speed. The panel discussion will revolve around specific strategies to help salespeople pursue better opportunities, cut lead acquisition cost, and cut wasted time chasing unprofitable prospects.
(Includes Audience Q&A)

Social Networking in a Sales 2.0 World (I am on this panel!)
Learn how to leverage the power of social networking to increase your sales volume and velocity. These experts will show you how to use social networking sites so you can make more money off your personal and professional connections.
(Includes audience Q&A)

This is a very interactive conference with great speakers and presenters. There will also be some of the most notable Sales 2.0 vendors strutting their stuff. Vendors include: Genius, Jigsaw, ConnectAndSell, InsideView & more. These guys are redefining how we sell and taking our game to the next level!

As an Inside Sales aficionado, I'll be in learning mode at the conference as well. I'm looking forward to understanding more about the approaches and solutions of the companies presenting and sponsoring this event, and learning from those sales leaders who will be attending it.

Want to learn more? The conference site is here or give me a call at 978.562.2623 and I would be happy to chat. Hope to see you there!

Sales Operations: Interview with Marci Reynolds

Trish Bertuzzi — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:46:00 GMT

I'm a big fan of Marci Reynolds over at the Sales Operations Blog. So I asked her a few questions about something she knows a ton about: Sales Operations ideas, trends & best practices.

----------------------------------------------------

At a high-level what is Sales Operations?
Sales Operations is a set of business activities that help Sales run more effectively and efficiently and support corporate business objectives. Sales Operations teams support Inside Sales, Outside Sales, Online Sales or a combination of all 3 groups. I often describe Sales Ops as "the backbone of a sales organization".

Why should companies invest in Sales Ops?
When companies invest in the right level of Sales Operations support and resources, they reap incredible benefits in the areas of:

sales productivity
efficiency
strengthening customer relationships
improving employee morale

In these difficult economic times, many companies are looking for areas to cut back on- and unfortunately the support areas, like sales operations are often effected. However... this is the worst time for a company to cut back on Sales Operations!

Sales Operations activities can help give your company a competitive edge. New technologies, new processes and new methods to enable your sales teams- will help your firm drive more sales in a more efficient manner.

Specifically what does Sales Ops do?
The activities vary from company to company, but often include 8 categories:

Sales Strategy: Design, Planning & Execution
Measurement of Results: Reporting, Analytics & Sales Data
Compensation, Quota, Policies
Technology & Tools, including CRM
Training & Sales Communication
Territory Design & Optimization
Contests/Spiffs
Lead Generation/Sales Programs

Can you give me some examples of how Sales Ops support Sales Management?
When Sales Leaders are also tasked with functions like reporting or territory design, their time is diverted from coaching and selling. In this challenging economy, we can't afford to waste a moment! We need Sales Leaders 100% engaged in selling activities.

Here's another example: have you ever had to wait for months to get a new "Management Dashboard" KPI report? Do your Sales Reps continually ask for tweaks to your CRM screens and data elements, but nothing gets done?

Many of these tasks require a very unique and specialized skill set that your Sales Operations team members will have - From expert level Excel skills, to technical savvy to business writing. Your Sales Operations personnel should also have strong relationships with IT, Marketing and Product.

If you are serious about raising the bar and transforming your sales organizations, hire experts for key sales operations roles. And hire enough of them. i.e. the right number of resources aligned with the amount of work required to complete.

Sales operations tasks will get done faster, stronger, better! And, as mentioned above, sales productivity will increase.

What were some of the more interesting Sales Ops projects you've been involved with?
I've had the opportunity to participate in two different sales reorganizations- one for a Business Services firm and another for an Internet Services firm. In both cases, Sales Ops partnered with Sales Leadership to define a new "go to market" strategy then worked together on the planning and implementation. Some of the specific actions included redesigning sales territories and aligning the right resources to the right opportunities, implementing new CRM systems and launching a new Sales Intranet site and internal communication work flow.

These were very strategic initiatives that had a direct and positive impact on the company's performance.

How does Sales Ops support Executive Management?
A pet peeve of many business leaders is when you ask a few different employees a quantitative business question, ex. "What were last week's sales revenue numbers?" you get many different answers. The Sales Manager answers $5M. The Finance guy answers $4.7M. The Sales Reps add their individual sales and end up with $5.5M. Each has their own method of calculating and could be pulling from different data sources.

In order to make sound business decisions and lead sales departments effectively, Sales Leaders must have good data. By centralizing and streamlining data and reporting functions, integrity and consistency will improve.

Why should companies invest in Sales Ops now?
[Marci was kind enough to record a short video with her take.]

Remote Inside Sales Teams: Friend or Foe?

Debbie Boucher — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:43:00 GMT

Managing remote Inside Sales teams was a hot topic of discussion on LinkedIn last month. As a remote Inside Sales person, I thought it was important to add my two cents about telecommuting or should I say, "working virtually".

For the past 8 years I have sold remotely. I was presented with a wonderful opportunity to transition from working a traditional 8 to 5 job as an Account Executive to working from home. So I took the plunge! It provided me with flexibility; challenging work & good pay . . . (I was also able to save on gas, car maintenance . . . and the commute's a breeze).

Here are some ideas to make the transition work for both the Rep & Manager:

Have a Designated Home Office
And I don't mean the kitchen table. This is important so that you have a place to call home or should I say work. A place where you "clock in" every day at the normal work time and are able to have conference calls without the dog barking, etc.
Designate a Phone Line For Work
Your customer, partners & co-workers don't want to leave a voicemail for The Smith Family, they want you! Need I say more?
Collaboration Software & Monitoring Tools
This is critical to the success of remote teams. It is very important that management provide the right tools to make sure their Reps are successful BUT also are able to measure performance and activity. For example, Salesforce.com is a great for tracking calls and measuring performance. Microsoft's Groove is a great collaboration tool so you feel connected to your team. Make sure you provide for IM capabilities in case you need technical assistance on a call.
Weekly Sales Meetings. . . Or should I say conference calls.
From a management perspective, it is very important to continue weekly support of your remote inside sales rep(s) to discuss pipeline opportunities and challenges they are encountering.

Ben Howell, Director, Business Development at Adaptive Planning, shared his insight recently on LinkedIn. Here's an excerpt:

"I have been running teams with some/all remote ISR's for 5+ years now, and I am a huge proponent of it. I get more productivity out of most of my full time remote heads, as they tend to work more hours in the day (and are 'in the office' all the time ;-)). The trick is to set the expectations clearly right out of the gate, that this is a huge privilege, and you will be monitoring/managing remote reps with a very high level of detail initially."

Stoney Reynolds, Territory Account Manager at Trend Micro, added the following suggestions:

"I have found that structure, planning, good org skills and communication is really all that is needed to manage a team remotely. Have regular meetings to discuss strategy, tactics, direction, etc. "

What great advice! I would add that remote Reps NEED to be self-starters and have the ability to work independently; key traits in making the transition a success. If this is something you are considering and would like to talk in more detail about this topic, feel free to call me at 603-672-6418.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments; please feel free to post!

Photo Credit .Fabio

Periodic Table of Inside Sales Metrics

Trish Bertuzzi — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:34:00 GMT

This is a guest post by Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions cross posted from her Marketing Interactions blog. You can find Ardath on twitter at @ardath421.

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Trish Bertuzzi and The Bridge Group have been doing some great research on what makes inside sales tick. But they've taken it a step farther and produced a really useful tool for comparing your company's metrics against benchmark metrics.

Because this is such a cool tool, I asked Trish to share a few insights salespeople can extract from the information in the table and apply to their company's inside sales efforts.

Ardath: Can you tell us the basis for the Periodic Table of Inside Sales?

Trish: The Periodic table is a summary sheet based on the data we collected from our Inside Sales and LeadGen Metrics and Compensation reports. They are the result of surveys with 125 technology companies in North America. The reports are 30 some odd pages long and executives often prefer the short version and that is what this is - a cheat sheet so to speak.

[You'll find both the reports available for download on the same page as the table.]

Ardath: There's a lot of meaty information in this table. Can you highlight what you see as the top 5 challenges facing inside sales teams today?

Trish: Here's where I see companies struggling in today's selling environment.

Productivity - Companies are being forced to do more with less. Reps are caught in the trap of trying to be everything to everyone. Farmers are forced to hunt and hunters are forced to prospect more than they ever have before.

We no longer have the luxury of specialized sales teams and are forced to have our teams become "jack of all trades". This is impacting productivity dramatically as the reps fumble to acquire skills they either don't have or have not used in a while.
Performance - 64% of all inside sales teams and 72% of all leadgen teams achieve quota. Doesn't sound bad BUT you have to remember...these are averages and there are quite a number of reps that perform below acceptable rates.

The real question is why and there are two possible explanations - either the goal was wrong to begin with or the reps are not being provided with the tools and training they need to adapt in this selling climate. Each company has to figure out which it is and make changes and investments accordingly.
Motivation - Selling is not for sissy's - now more than ever. How do you keep your team motivated when they not only suffer massive rejection every day but also lose deals because of layoffs and budget cuts? It is not an easy task especially with limited funds for traditional spifs and contests.

What you can do is get creative. All reps want to learn - invest time in mentoring and coaching. You have the skills to share so take the time to do so and it will pay off in spades.
Training - What is the one thing that gets cut when times are tough - training. What is the one thing that shouldn't get cut when times are tough - training. Need I say more?
Systems - Implementing your CRM used to be a daunting task but with the advent of SAAS, it has become a non-issue, well almost anyway. But what has emerged as a problem is integrating your CRM with all the great Sales 2.0 technologies that are out there.

The tools that are meant to increase productivity are starting to impact productivity because of lack of integration. On a daily basis, our team uses: salesforce.com, InsideView, Zoominfo, Jjigsaw and LinkedIn just for pre-call planning!

Each and every one of these tools is amazing, but how do you seamlessly link them and develop a process so that your reps are efficiently selling and not spending too much time in research mode? That is the challenge. Add to it all the back office systems that need to be integrated and you can see the problem.

Ardath: I can see how each of these challenges plays off another. If you had to choose, what would you say are the top metrics that inside sales should start focusing on to improve their outcomes?

Trish: I'd suggest starting with these three metrics to increase productivity:

Make sure your reps are using live conversations with your prospects to drive the sales process. Email is not a substitute and does not allow for effective qualification or closing to take place.
It takes multiple touches to move a suspect to a prospect and a prospect to a win. Not all of these have to be "human" touches so make sure sales and marketing have developed an integrated strategy for getting it done.
Pay attention to your conversion ratios. If you don't have a grasp on the numbers detailed in the Periodic Table then you can't control your results.

Ardath: That's some great information for us to use in conjunction with your Periodic Table for Inside Sales. Any final words for my readers?

Trish: Inside Sales is not magic...it's not art...it is science. You need to create the formula that works for your organization and then execute flawlessly!

***
Go get your copy of the Periodic Table for Inside Sales. And, while you're there, get copies of the research reports that go with the tool.

After you review it, let me know your thoughts.
Did you find metrics that surprised you?
Are there any your company is beating?
Which ones do you find the most challenging to address?

Thanks to Trish for the great information!

"Pricing Isn't the Problem": Spin Selling on the Recession

Laurie Page — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:22:00 GMT

On a daily basis I am asked "Given the current economic downturn, what changes are you seeing in how companies sell?"

I was preparing to comment on this question when I came across an interview that Neil Rackham, author of Spin Selling, gave to Gerhard Gschwandtner, of Selling Power. The topic was "What's the best strategy for selling in a recession?"

I agreed with many of the points made during the discussion and have summarized them below. The interview highlighted 3 courses of action:

Focus on high probability accounts rather than high activity.
Focus on accounts you can win, don't just open more opportunities. Many Sales Reps think if they aren't making their number, the answer is simple - increase activity and add more opportunities to the sales funnel. Neil calls this "half selling to twice as many people". Certainly activity is important, however, many reps actually waste time on accounts that will never buy a thing just to show an increase in activity.

Reps should spend more time with high probability accounts, but in order to do so they need to have a well defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) supported by fleshed out Buyer Personas (BP). They are ready to shoot, they just need to spend some time aiming first.

Now is the time to refine your ICP and BP's by placing an extra emphasis on industries that are still buying and have not been as affected by the economy. Neil comments that successful companies, which do well in a recession, will "focus on fewer opportunities, put more resources to them, outsell the competitors & win."
Sales Leaders need to become very involved in key sales!
This is a fabulous point. Sales Reps need to know that management is involved and committed to their success. Customers need to know it's safe to make a decision to go with your company. Inserting Sales Leaders into the process can accomplish both these goals.
Pricing isn't the problem; it's about mitigating the perceived risk of buying from you.
Neil points out that in the last recession, Sales Leaders did everything they could to get to a lower price. This "didn't help them, it just cut their margins."

Sales reps feeling pressure will revert to discounts as opposed to re-crafting the vision of the prospect around why buying from them is the safer bet. In this selling climate, sales reps need modified messaging and training on how to convey this important point to the prospect.

As I said, it's a great interview. View the video interview here (runtime 4:30).

How Actionable is your Prospect Feedback?

Matt Bertuzzi — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:56:00 GMT

So, the other day I was presenting on actionable data from prospect feedback. I threw in this graphic, which I thought was hilarious:

I put it up on the screen and waited...and waited....and...nothing. Now either I'm not as funny as I think I am (more likely than not) or garbage results like these are all too common.

Opportunity results tracked via CRM
Q1 - 2009

I mean 82% of wins resulting from "Superior Salesmanship" (!) - that doesn't set off your BS meter?! Well, maybe it doesn't.

Think about the last time a Rep came to you with a lost a deal that didn't result from "price" or "missing features." Did it sound like this?

It turns out I poorly qualified the business influencers. The incumbent really drove the process and we never had a strong internal champion. I learned a ton about myself and my process while working this opportunity that I ultimately lost because I didn't do my job well.

I'm guessing this is the reality that you don't hear - and truth be told - it probably doesn't happen that often, but when it does, it impacts your bottom line.

The point of my little story is that anecdotal feedback on sales opportunities is next-to useless for determining:

strategic course corrections
resonance of marketing tools
effectiveness of sales process
etc.

But the anecdotal stuff, that comes out of a drop down box in our CRMs, is all most of have to work with. No wonder my little joke failed so hard.

I recently read a post on MarketingProfs from Laura Patterson on this very topic. She argues that:

The upside of anecdotal information is that it's very affordable; the downside is that it tends to be reactive, it lacks objectivity and in-depth insights, and it tends to be too narrow-merely what the field thinks it needs to close a deal.

Now this is not to bash Sales Reps. They talk to more prospects than almost anyone else in the organization. But to play off a recent Hollywood film: Who watches the Watchmen?

We are all guilty of making choices based on gut feelings and anecdotal evidence. But today more than ever, we have the tools, technologies & opportunity to really learn for our prospects.

Please share your thoughts. How do you gather prospect feedback and how do you make sure it's actionable? Thanks!

Part 2: Executive Interview Q2 '09

Trish Bertuzzi — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:59:00 GMT

This is the 2nd half of our interview on Inside Sales methods, metrics & strategies with Bob Memmer, Director of Sales for Jigsaw, (read the first part).

----------------------------------------------------

What technologies are in place to support your team's efforts?

Lucidera for reporting
Salesforce.com for CRM
Echosign for signature
Conga Merge for document management
Clicktools for customer satisfaction surveys
Salesgenius for prospect tracking

Bob, how do you motivate your reps? What is their career path?

We have a great culture. We are very focused on awards and once a month we take out everyone who made their quota to a reward luncheon. We don't do many spifs anymore as I feel like they lost their charm and that recognition is now a better motivator.

As far as career path, an ADR can progress from that role to an AE and then out to the field. We are fans of promotion from within.

Jigsaw did something interesting in that they chose to build their Sales and Customer Service team in Idaho. How did that come about?

Interesting story... Jim Fowler, one of our founders, actually ran a ski resort in this area many years ago. He became familiar with the area and loved it. When they were thinking about building a strong Inside Sales team, they did research and found that was a very strong location for IS talent and that a lower cost of operation could be found here. So, we built Sales and Customer Service here in Post Falls, Idaho. We are about 25 minutes outside Spokane, Washington.

How and how often do you communicate with executive management about your challenges and achievements?

Lots of communication at Jigsaw. We have a Board meeting every 6 weeks so that is like the "state of the union". On a weekly basis I speak with our CEO and COO and every morning everyone can check our sales dashboards for snapshots of activity and performance.

Bob, what issues would you be interested in brainstorming with your peers about?

How do you keep up with the evolving world of sales...what is new and improved? Are there things out there in terms of efficiencies, what is the latest and greatest?

Last question - is Garth as funny in person as he is on his blog?

Funnier - he is the best story teller ever!

Thanks for this and I hope it drives both interest and business your way!

Thanks Bob. You have shared great information and we really appreciate your time!

...

A note from Bob:
As a special offer for reading this post, you'll get 25% off any Jigsaw Enterprise Solution. To learn more about Jigsaw or take advantage of this discount Click here. Offer valid through April 30^th. Happy Selling!

Meet the 2009 Elevator Pitch Champions

Matt Bertuzzi — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:39:00 GMT

The votes are in and I am extremely proud to present the 1st through 4th place finishers. Thanks to everyone who participated for making this contest such a success.

Without further ado, I am proud to present the 2009 March Madness 'Elevator Pitch' Champions:

1st Place: Phil Bernstein of Clear Channel Radio & Online

The Pitch
I'm in the attention-rental business. If you want to deliver your sales message to thousands of prospects at once, I can help you rent their attention -- 30 or 60 seconds at a time.

A word from Judge Rick Roberge
Phil Bernstein's elevator pitch is a good example of ‘walking the talk'. So many salespeople try to do too much too quickly. Phil gives us one line that hooks us and makes us want more. He rents our attention and in a few seconds, and we have to believe that he can teach us to do the same.
2nd Place: Dan Harding of ConnectAndSell

The Pitch
If you are a B2B sales rep and have experienced the frustration of trying to get to a decision maker on the phone. Now there is a solution for you. It's a technology that can help get the right people on the phone time and time again. In fact you can speak with as many prospects in one hour on the ConnectAndSell service as you would in an entire day of manual dialing. The system is simple to deploy, integrates with most CRM tools, and provides a strong ROI that your organization will benefit from on day one of using the service.

A word from Judge Trish Bertuzzi
I like this pitch because it paints a picture of a day in the life of a B2B sales rep. It uses words to create a kind of video in your head about what it is like to sit down at your desk and experience the frustration of not being able to talk to your prospects in a timely fashion. It also does a great job of giving an ROI example: “you can speak with as many prospects in one hour as you would in an entire day of manual dialing” – who wouldn’t want that?
3rd Place: Dominic Serafini of Brafton Custom News

The Pitch
Brafton Custom News helps companies increase their visibility online by publishing unique content to their websites, purpose-built to be relevant, engaging for their target audiences, and then helping to drive those visitors to online revenue streams. Brafton helps websites stay fresh & updated, with interesting news content that is found nowhere else online, so it is incredibly attractive to search engines & online visitors alike.

A word from Judge Mike Volpe
I think this pitch is excellent because it focuses on the benefits (increase online visibility and drive visitors to revenue) while still explaining how they do it (publishing unique, engaging content). I cannot tell you how many pitches I get that just tell the "what" and completely ignore the "how". This pitch is clear and concise. After reading it I totally understand both the benefit to me and how it is delivered, so I can easily decide what the next steps should be.
4th Place: Roger Llamas of Central Desktop

The Pitch
Central Desktop delivers a Web Based Collaboration software (Saas) for progressive business teams to interact, share and manage their daily work activities from anywhere at any time. It's also been designed to serve as a Company Intranet and Project Management tool as well..

A word from Judge Trish Bertuzzi
I love the first sentence in this pitch. It uses lots of visual verbs like "interact, share, manage" so it draws the listener in. The use of the phrase "progressive business teams" is great because who doesn't want to be viewed as progressive? I also like the pitch because it is succinct. As a matter of fact, in my opinion, I don't think they need the second sentence. I think they tell a great story in just the first sentence and should leave it at that.

Thanks again to all who entered, all who voted & to the judges. Please join me in congratulating Phil Bernstein and the other contest winners.

Who would you have voted for? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Inside Sales Executive Interview- Q2 '09

Trish Bertuzzi — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:47:00 GMT

This is the 3rd in a series of interviews we are conducting with Inside Sales Executives on metrics, methods & strategies for inside sales teams.

----------------------------------------------------

Featured Executive:

Bob Memmer is the Director of Sales for Jigsaw and has been with the company for 4 years.

For those of you that aren't familiar, Jigsaw is an online directory of free, downloadable company information and more than 12 million business contacts. Every Jigsaw business contact is complete with hard-to-find direct dials and email addresses, while each company record gives the low down on company size, location, and industry.

Bob, how did you get into the sales game?

Right after college in the mid 90's I went to work for Cabletron. They were very Inside Sales focused and, at that time, had 220 reps pounding the phones in the Northwest alone. Cabletron was a great learning environment for me because they were very process and metrics focused and provided great training. That, combined with my later experience in the field and management, laid the foundation for what we have built here at Jigsaw.

What does your current sales model look like?

We sell primarily through Inside Sales and are a direct sales organization although we do also use sales agents. Our current structure is:

5 Account Development Reps (ADRs) doing lead generation and qualification
17 Account Executives (ISRs) in geography based territories
4 Enterprise Reps focused on larger accounts
2 Sales Managers

You are metrics focused, how have you integrated metrics into your strategy?

First let me lay the groundwork. We get about 1500 signups a day from a variety of sources: webinars, Google SEO/SEM efforts, email campaigns, shows etc. We use lead scoring to determine who is truly in the buying cycle and, based on their lead score determine who should go to the ADRs. In addition to inbound leads, the AEs assign their ADR 20 target accounts.

We use salesforce.com and have customized it to accommodate our "Dirty Dozen" which is the qualification questions we would like the ADRs to answer. Once they get most, if not all, of that information they set up an appointment for their AE or do a direct transfer of the lead.

Now, to answer your question about metrics...

Account Development Reps

ADRs are partnered with 3 AEs
Drive 50 dials a day
Minimum talk time 2 hours
Typically it takes 2 touches for us to convert a suspect to a prospect
Quota is 25 corporate leads per month but we are far exceeding that number as we don't cap their compensation.
100% of the team makes goal

Account Executives

Drive 40 dials a day
Minimum talk time 2 hours
We evaluate Reps based on how well they respond to leads so based on lead scoring there are parameters for response time
We use LucidEra to manage pipeline velocity so we can track movement through the sales stages
We also track closing percentages by rep - target is 30%
Our rule of thumb for pipeline is 4x quota so if a rep needs to cold call to get there it happens
Quota is based on a simple formula - 10x target income. So if your target income is $100K, your quota is $1M
65% of the team makes goal

...
Note to readers: We will be publishing the 2nd Part of this interview next week.
...

A note from Bob:
As a special offer for reading this post, you'll get 25% off any Jigsaw Enterprise Solution. To learn more about Jigsaw or take advantage of this discount Click here. Offer valid through April 30^th. Happy Selling!

Round 3 (Final Readers Vote): Elevator Pitch Contest!

Matt Bertuzzi — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:39:00 GMT

UPDATE: Your March Madness 'Elevator Pitch' final 4 are:

Roger Llamas of Central Desktop
Dan Harding of ConnectAndSell
Dominic Serafini of Brafton Custom News
Phil Bernstein of Clear Channel Radio & Online

Congratulations to the 4 finalists. Now it's all up to the judges. Stay tuned as we will announce the 1st through 4th place standings next week. Thanks to all who participated and made this contest such a success.

Welcome to the 3rd Round of the Elevator Pitch Contest Final 16! In this round, the victors from Rounds 1 & 2 go head-to-head.

This will be the last round of reader voting. You will decide the final 4.

You can see the brackets here. So let's get to it. Please vote for the pitches that you think are most effective.

Round 3: Match 1

Roger Llamas of Central Desktop

Central Desktop delivers a Web Based Collaboration software (Saas) for progressive business teams to interact, share and manage their daily work activities from anywhere at any time. It's also been designed to serve as a Company Intranet and Project Management tool as well.

Caroline Margozzi of Market2Lead

Market2Lead helps marketers at BtoB companies to increase revenue while decreasing the sales cycle by: * automating relevant marketing messages & campaigns to a targeted audience * scoring leads according to your business rules * routing 'sales ready' leads to sales in real-time * assess results and effectiveness improving future sales & marketing performance.

Cast your vote in Match 1

Round 3: Match 2

Jonathan Morse of Tripleseat Software

Tripleseat helps restaurants capture and book more private dining business. We connect Restaurants private dining space to the Internet with Tripleseat's Booking Maitre' D. This powerful connection enables restaurants to take real-time booking inquires from their own website 24/7 and close business faster. Now restaurants can book more business in less time with automated web private dining inquires.

Dan Harding of ConnectAndSell

If you are a B2B sales rep and have experienced the frustration of trying to get to a decision maker on the phone. Now there is a solution for you. It's a technology that can help get the right people on the phone time and time again. In fact you can speak with as many prospects in one hour on the ConnectAndSell service as you would in an entire day of manual dialing. The system is simple to deploy, integrates with most CRM tools, and provides a strong ROI that your organization will benefit from on day one of using the service.

Cast your vote in Match 2

Round 3: Match 3

Sean Gildea of PTC

PTC specializes in product development and can enable your business to develop products 50% faster, collaborate 90% more effectively, and increase time-to-market by 75%.

Dominic Serafini of Brafton Custom News

Brafton Custom News helps companies increase their visibility online by publishing unique content to their websites, purpose-built to be relevant, engaging for their target audiences, and then helping to drive those visitors to online revenue streams. Brafton helps websites stay fresh & updated, with interesting news content that is found nowhere else online, so it is incredibly attractive to search engines & online visitors alike.

Cast your vote in Match 3

Round 3: Match 4

Lon Orenstein of pinpointtools

GetLoaded will move ALL of your ACT! data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the least cost, the fewest clicks, and the least hassles of any process available.

Phil Bernstein of Clear Channel Radio & Online

I'm in the attention-rental business. If you want to deliver your sales message to thousands of prospects at once, I can help you rent their attention -- 30 or 60 seconds at a time.

Cast your vote in Match 4

Polling with remain open for 48 hours. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the entries in the comments.

Round 2: Elevator Pitch Readers Vote!

Matt Bertuzzi — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:21:00 GMT

UPDATE: The winners moving on to the next round are:

Sean Gildea of PTC
Lon Orenstein of pinpointtools
Dominic Serafini of Brafton Custom News
Phil Bernstein of Clear Channel Radio & Online

Welcome to the 2nd Round of the Elevator Pitch Contest Final 16!
You can see the brackets here.

In this round, we will see:

4 matches
each with 2 pitches going head-to-head
and you the readers voting for the winners
the 4 advancing pitches will take on the winner from Round 1

So let's get to it. Please vote for the pitches that you think are most effective.

Round 2: Match 1

Kevin Savage of Bowser-Morner

My firm is a construction materials quality control testing company. We work with general contractors who are upset because they are paying for multiple field technicians who are not cross-trained, are frustrated because their field or laboratory testing is not being completed properly, or they are losing money when projects go over-budget because of testing-related change orders.

Sean Gildea of PTC

PTC specializes in product development and can enable your business to develop products 50% faster, collaborate 90% more effectively, and increase time-to-market by 75%.

Cast your vote in Match 1

Round 2: Match 2

Najaf Husain of AppAssure

How would you feel when your BlackBerry or email service goes down? What impact does it have on your company? It happens all too often and its costs companies tons of dollars. Our solution, Replay AppImage, is like TEVO for your e-mail servers. If the companies e-mail servers fail, just rewind it to the last know good point and push play, The email service is restored instantly and your BlackBerry is live again.

Lon Orenstein of pinpointtools

GetLoaded will move ALL of your ACT! data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the least cost, the fewest clicks, and the least hassles of any process available.

Cast your vote in Match 2

Round 2: Match 3

Nate of Ping Identity

Ping Identity provides secure Internet single sign-on solutions for over 300 enterprise customers, government agencies, and service providers worldwide. Our software enables secure access to Internet applications through a single logon. No matter what your Internet SSO requirements are, we have the product portfolio and expertise to meet your needs. Our Internet SSO solutions offer a choice of on-premise software (PingFederate) or an on-demand option (PingConnect).

Dominic Serafini of Brafton Custom News

Cast your vote in Match 3

Round 2: Match 4

Joseph Kupstas of GoodFellas Construction

We at GoodFellas help homeowners who are frustrated with their homes current condition, space and design. We help our customers by updating, adding on and making their homes more fun!

Phil Bernstein of Clear Channel Radio & Online

I'm in the attention-rental business. If you want to deliver your sales message to thousands of prospects at once, I can help you rent their attention -- 30 or 60 seconds at a time.

Cast your vote in Match 4

Polling with remain open for 72 hours. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the entries in the comments.

What’s Your Stimulus Marketing Plan?

Trish Bertuzzi — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:40:00 GMT

This guest post is from Nancy Langmeyer, Principal of The Write Words, a business and marketing communications freelance writing consultancy. You can email Nancy here.

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The definition of ‘stimulus' according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Something that rouses or incites to activity: as a: incentive b: stimulant 1 c: an agent (as an environmental change) that directly influences the activity of a living organism or one of its parts (as by exciting a sensory organ or evoking muscular contraction or glandular secretion).

As we all adjust to current realities, we are searching for new ways to do business.

This is particularly evident in marketing organizations, who are reinventing themselves once again. After all, they have smaller, often skeletal staffs, a fraction of the budgets they used to have, and what they did before just doesn't work any more.

It's time for the Stimulus Marketing Plan!

What, you might ask, is this? Well, if you review the definition of "stimulus" above, you'll see that it means to "incite activity," which is what, by the nature of their function, marketing folks do anyway. They incite prospects to consider buying.

So how can marketers incite prospects to respond in this economy? The answer is to create new messages that pretty much align with the nation's recovery plan. I'm sure you're starting to see some of these filter through already....

The "Do More with Less" message.
Your prospects are now looking for ways to recover some of their losses - such as market share and profitability. They want to continue to do what they did before, only better and more effectively. If you can offer a service that helps your prospects function more efficiently - with promises of such things as increasing online traffic with minimal investment or reducing IT overhead - exploit these messages now.
Green it up.
Take the time now to show how you can help a prospect be more environmentally friendly. Whether it's cutting down on energy, saving materials, reducing waste, or improving air quality, add a green perspective to your story. There are typically cost savings benefits that go along with this story too, something that everyone wants to hear right now. Also, telling the story about how your own company is working to become more sustainable will appeal to the growing number of planet-friendly consumers.
The proof is in the details.
Buyers are demanding more and more evidence that investing in your solution is worthwhile. So tell the story any way you can. Case studies used to be a pivotal element here, but now people are doing "industry profiles" because the quotable person who raved about how much his company saved with your product is no longer in that position. An industry profile can provide a credible story, with facts and statistics on benefits such as improved ROI, decreased cost of sales, and improved customer service that will make up for not having the awesome testimonial.

Know that the prospects that needed your services before still need them now. People are still buying, but they are buying differently.

So tell a different story, with different messages, and you'll find once again that you can stimulate prospects into becoming buyers.