Expanding Sales In Shrinking Economy

Expanding Your Sales in a
Shrinking Economy
April 23 and 24, 2009

Hosted by NetProspex - www.netprospex.com
Presented by Chris Bucholtz, Editor, InsideCRM .com

Hoarding vs. Investing

Three points:
1: Investing now may seem
counterintuitive, but it‟s invaluable
for driving value out of your existing
investments and getting the most
from your sales team

2: Not investing will put you behind the competition –
now and especially when the economy rebounds

3: There are ways to invest in your sales and marketing
process that expand sales, even in today‟s economy

© 2009 InsideCRM.com. All rights reserved. Page 2

Sales vs. Marketing

• Can be an area of conflict  creates a drag on revenue
• Technologies are now available to make both sides of
this equation work better
• The downturn is also a great time to get to work on
synchronizing efforts


Justifying the Investment in CRM

Main justification for purchasing  CRM Buyers look for increased sales visibility
CRM system and want to make a tangible impact on
revenue with CRM.
Improve Sales
36%  Many CRM buyers mention “Improved Sales
Management
Management” as the main justification, but
Better Action On Leads 32% also to make their businesses more agile --
either to early detect risk within their
Increase Rep.
Productivity
12% business or capitalize on opportunity.
 CRM is often viewed as the “ultimate
Improve Reporting 4% business dashboard”, not just for sales but
for the entire business.
Improved Sales
4%
Forecasting  The classic gap that exists between sales and
More Sales from marketing, as evidenced by “Better Action
2%
Existing Customers on Leads”, is becoming more pervasive and
growing reason to justify a CRM purchase,
Other 10% especially for Business Decision Makers.

Q4 Buyer „s Guide Study; Sample Size: 52

© 2008 Tippit, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tools for Boosting Sales Efficiency

The Technology is Aligned with Timing
• Lead Generation tools
• “CRM 2.0”
• Sales Training Technology
• Sales Intelligence
• Sales Efficiency
• Marketing Automation


Lead Generation Tools

Best Defense  Strong Offense
• Sales & marketing - beat recession
▼ If reduced # buyers
▲ Increase # prospects

• Focus on sales fundamentals
• In B2B, we need to talk with more
customers to win their business
• Do we have the names and contact
details for all our potential buyers,
influencers and champions?


Business Contacts &
Directories Choices

• List industry
― Offline, no transparency
• Traditional online – Hoovers/InfoUSA
― C-level focus, often lack email
• Networking tools - for relationship sales
― LinkedIn/Zoominfo
― Limited by user membership or web coverage
• User generated - great for transactional sales
― Most in-depth. Look for ensured data quality

New Generation Directory Benefits

• Identify more buyers, influencers
& champions
• Direct communication via
marketing or sales
― Direct, concise personal email from
sales
― Meeting invites by email
― Webinar invites by email
― Telesales
• Online directory – enhance discovery opportunities
― Easy to find related job titles esp. at large companies
― Easy to go up or down the chain

CRM 2.0 Technologies

Build better customer relationships by being
part of the discussion

• Social media: blogs, YouTube,
Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

• Aggregation Tools: Digg,
NetProspex, InsideView, etc.


Sales Training Technology

• Intended to avoid cutting
into sales time

• Makes meetings about
the important stuff

• Some can provide sales
assistance in real time

• Example: Genius.com


Sales Intelligence

New technology gives you insight into the pipeline

• Pipeline analysis after the fact:
• Example: Xactly

• Pipeline analysis in real time:
• Examples: LucidEra and others


Sales Efficiency Tools:
Implementation

• Don‟t try to eat the pie in one bite

• Introduce efficiency
boosters in stages

• Use CRM as a Hub


Implementation

• Choice of solution

• Pick a solution that solves
the problems and pains of
the sales staff rather than
one that creates new ones.


Sales Efficiency Tools: Implementation
Ease of Use and Integration Flexibility are key for CRM buyers
Most important buying criteria for
• CRM Buyers are focused on simplicity and
CRM “plug and play” as two most important
criteria when entering the CRM considered
Ease of Use 43%
purchase process.
Integration Flexibility 38%
• CRM Buyers expect “immediate impact”
Product Features 14% from their CRM purchase.
“Shorten the gap of integration.”
Customization 14%

• User adoption can be a significant pain
Overall Price 13%
facing organizations. Vendors need to make
Ease of Implementation 11% the transition easy and day-to-day workflow
intuitive.
Reporting Functionality 10% “We need an easy-to-use product
because non-tech employees are the
Vendor Reputation 6% main users, so at the end of the day
they need to have an easy to use and
Other 2%
train solution.”
Sample base: 127 % respondents

Implementation

• Treat the sales staff
as if they were the
customers of your
CRM solution

• Training is critical


Implementation

• Monitor adoption closely
• Celebrate milestones and successes – use them to
build enthusiasm for greater adoption


Improving Marketing Efficiency

• Most leads generated by marketing are not acted
upon

• Often, leads not ready to buy are
simply discarded instead of being
nurtured until they are ready

• Many marketing organizations
don‟t know what is working and
what isn‟t


Marketing Automation

• Comes in several degrees of complexity, from email only to
multi-channel

• Can evaluate leads‟ value by
examining behavior

• Integrates with CRM

• Provides feedback on
effectiveness of
marketing campaigns


Marketing Automation

• Available in an on-demand format – you pay monthly
instead of up front, and avoid large up front costs

• You also avoid maintenance
costs – updates, backup,
security, etc.

• Examples: Marketo, Eloqua


Implementing Marketing Automation

• Look for ease of use – you want marketers to
market, not become IT experts

• Try to link all your channels

• Look for systems that help
illustrate ROI


NetProspex Offer for Webinar
Participants

• Free Trial Account & List of
100 Targeted Prospects

• By Job Title / Geo / Industry

• Includes Phone & Email

Contact: Mark Feldman – mfeldman@netprospex.com


Questions?
www.insidecrm.com
Chris Bucholtz, Editor
cbucholtz@tippit.com

www.netprospex.com
Mark Feldman, Director of Product Management
mfeldman@netprospex.com


Expanding Sales In Shrinking Economy

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