How to Make the Most of Your Sales Intelligence Investment

The issue of how a sales rep’s time is spent is not as simple as eliminating the need to do personal research by investing in sales intelligence; it is clear that the buck does not stop there. It not only takes time to do the hard research; even if the tools are paid for, there is still the issue of aggregating all of the content and making it available, easy to find, and consolidated in one place.

CRM systems solve this issue and even further reduce research and preparation time. In their study, Aberdeen found that 72% of their defined Best-in-Class companies currently have some sort of a CRM solution to “centralize” their information, compared to only 50% of the Laggard companies. Even further, 74% of Best-in-Class companies also integrate their marketing materials in the CRM system so that their sales representatives can “speak intelligently about the right products and services for their prospects.”

Clearly, centralization is important. It is not enough to just purchase contact information and company profile reports; if sales reps are actually going to use them before they make a call, it needs to be easily accessible and attached to the place where they are retrieving account and contact information. The number one priority of the rep is to hit their numbers every month if they want to keep their job. When the choice is between making more calls each day by passing over research and spending time to access information to be fully prepared, the choice is likely to be the former.

Aberdeen also looked at the most common delivery methods of sales intelligence at companies within the sample space. The majority (57%) indicated that e-mail was the method for delivering sales intelligence. While e-mail is not CRM-integrated, it is more easily accessible and convenient than accessing information on the internet, as only 31% indicated that they use a third-party web application where a login is required, and 29% indicated that their sales intelligence is aggregated on the company’s intranet. At the end of the day, a rep’s time is much better spent analyzing the information and preparing for a call than spending time looking for it, and Best-in-Class companies indicate that their reps spend “at least three to five hours a day in the CRM solution,” and therefore, their sales intelligence is best utilized when it is delivered in the CRM.

The key to sales success is not as simple as purchasing a sales intelligence tool and expecting numbers to immediately go up. The disconnect between a sales intelligence tool and a rep must be eliminated by exposing them to the tool, giving proper training, and making accessibility to the information quick, easy, and constantly present. CRM software, while occasionally expensive, is the best solution to this problem, and will increase the usage of your sales intelligence investments.

- Carolyn Sebasky
carolyn . sebasky@salesquest.com
978.749.9999 ext. 107