The CIO’s that we have interviewed have  consistently told us that companies should not only focus on selling directly to them (CIO title) but to definitely market and sell to other recommenders, influencers, decision makers and champions within the account. Selling deeper and wider into F1000 and G500 accounts is the biggest key to success. Here are 9 additional ideas for getting the best ROI from these giants.

1. Research your targeted Fortune Company thoroughly. Understand their business, the vertical market position they occupy, the organizations they compete with, and their corporate culture. 

2. Build an organizational chart of your target Fortune Company. Map the relationship of the Decision-Makers to the Influencers to the Recommenders. Finish this map before you approach the decision-maker and aim to schedule a meeting or conference call. We recommended that you conduct at least two informational interviews prior to making direct contact with the Decision-Maker.
 

3. Prepare your value proposition and strategic message thoughtfully. Customize your message based on the referrals and the information you’ve gathered. Map out and rehearse every detail of what you will say and do when you meet with executives at your prospective new F500 customer. 

4. Identify a problem your solution will solve. Being able to explain the Fortune Company’s problem and how your solution will solve it is a great way to show you have done your homework. Especially in today’s economy where people are looking to create greater efficiencies through consolidation and reduce costs. 

5. Use a policy of exclusion. You must accept the fact that some companies and or individuals won’t require your solution or see the vision. We recommend that you identify those companies and individuals as early in the process as possible. Set them aside and move on. 

6. Never accept one executives’ statement or reply as fact until it has been verified and supported by other executives. Always remember that organizations of this size and breadth make decisions by committee, not by an individual.
 

7. Use customer success stories to sell more effectively. Once you have identified there is a need to satisfy, and/or a problem to rectify, then you need to associate other success stories to their situation. The association must be as clear and precise to the new customer’s situation in order to obtain maximum impact.
 

8. Find Multiple Contacts and Multiple Champions. Who are they? Where are they positioned in the organization? What value can your company bring to them specifically? The more value you can bring across the organization, the more money they will SPEND and the bigger your deal will be.


9. Use Sales Intelligence Tools that are made available to you. Hoovers, One Source and CRUSH Reports are all tools that are created to help you find decision makers faster and reduce sales cycles. Make sure you are using them to their full potential.

Make sure to check out the SalesQuest demos to ensure you are getting the most out of your CRUSH Reports and the Online Platform’s Advanced Search sales intelligence tools.

Or E-mail your questions to tdavenport@salesquest.com

It is often said that 50% of marketing dollars are wasted on marketing activities that produce no results. Here at SalesQuest we have found that there are a handful of critical success factors to any sales and marketing program. Before launching a marketing program these 5 factors are considered:

 1) What’s in it for me (WIFM)? - This message must resonate personally within your target audience and draw them to take action in a situation where they wouldn’t have otherwise acted. Short of giving something away for free, you need to offer something to the customer or prospect that has a measurable value. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your prospects. Ask yourself if someone presented your marketing campaign to you, would you be interested? 

2) Brand Name Recognition -There must be some brand name recognition whether it is through your own brand, the brand of your customers, or the brand of your business partners. Today, more than ever, customers want to do business with trusted household names. Companies are risk adverse by nature and want to do business with companies they know and trust. Find out how to leverage your brand and use it to your advantage.

 3) Credibility – Our jobs here at SalesQuest are to be experts on our field of service. In B2B sales, the person reaching out to the executive better know their business, the corporate objectives, the competitive landscape, and their products and services. The caller needs to know how to speak with a chief executive and a technical manager and know that the topics of discussion are generally different. To make an impact and leave a positive impression, there must be a peer-to-peer discussion. These days peer-to-peer discussions can take place in a variety of forms thanks to E-mail, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

 4) Target Database – You can save a lot of wasted marketing dollars by segmenting your target markets properly. Our successful customers segment their target markets by vertical industry, geography, and annual revenue figures. Understand how they are going to approach each unique market and craft a message that addresses the specific needs and issues affecting them individually. Understand their solution and how it impacts each market segment.

 5) Follow up - We understand that our long-term success hinges upon what our clients do with our product after we complete the sale. It is critical that we show our clients how to use our intelligence reports to close deals faster and drive revenue. Our clients must realize the long-term benefits that our product has to offer for them to return as a customer. The follow up activity by sales and marketing determines how significant a return is realized on marketing dollars invested.

What do you think of our 5 keys to success? What factors do you depend on before launching your marketing and sales campaign?

Forget about finding new customers in the down economy; let’s make sure we are keeping the ones we have now! How are you and your team doing in this first line of defense?

I recently interviewed a VP Sales for a multi-billion dollar communications company who gave me some great ideas to pass along to other sales leaders. This VP had a basic business problem to solve for his company: CUSTOMER RETENTION NUMBERS WERE DOWN causing line losses to creep into the negative column.

Step One: Go into the Battlefield and Listen to the Soldiers. His first task was to devote his time to over 100 interviews with his sales managers, sales people and customers with the problem statement: WHY ARE WE LOSING CUSTOMERS? What he found was that

a.) They had too many customers to be able to service all of them and that

b.) Customers were spending so much time complaining about the current issues that these reps were spending a lot of time working but not much time selling.

Step Two: Get Resources to Fill the Gaps. He procured a team of customer service/inside sales reps to focus on “problem resolution” so that the sales people could focus on selling. This team was dedicated to the reps to provide accountability, visibility, responsibility and ownership for any issues the customer had with the current products and services the company was providing. Their goal was to exceed customer expectations and lay the ground work for future conversations.

Step Three: Add Discipline to the Sales Process: 2 Call Selling. Armed with these new resources, this VP created and implemented a “2 Call Selling” approach based on the input from his field. They would now approach customers by first listening and solving their issues and secondly by finding out what other needs they had to uncover a sales opportunity and close new business. In the first visit with the customer, they were not allowed to sell anything – they had to listen to problems and use the new team to get those problems solved. When that was accomplished only then could they go back in and have a conversation about the company’s new products and services.

Results. A large percentage of this sales team executed the program resulting in 56% fewer customer losses as well as an up-selling number of over $75,000/month into these accounts.

Article Written By Mimi Evans, CEO, SalesQuest