Managing the environmental impacts and benefits of IT is vital for companies in today’s world. Not only does it benefit the environment, it also benefits the financial bottom line. Here’s some Top 10 Initiatives happening mostly in the Fortune 1000 and Global 500:

1. LG Electronics USA to Cut Carbon Footprint in Half by 2020

2. Toyota and BMW to work together on green technology

3. Capital Retail Group Announces Strategic Green Initiative

4. AT&T is Developing Home Energy Management Solution

5. Novo Nordisk Retrofits US Headquarters for Sustainability

6. Facebook, Yahoo!, QTS Data Centers Land LEED Ratings

7. Kohl’s Department Stores Recognized as 2011 EPA Green Power Partner of the Year

8. Coca-Cola Uses Energy Efficiency to Earn Best Carbon Trust Score

9. Marriott Selects Constellation Energy to Provide Load Response, Automated Curtailment and Energy Management Capabilities

10. HP Leads Greenpeace’s Relaunched Green Electronics Rankings

Find more Green IT Initiatives in our NewsPro app and CRUSH Alerts app as well as 30 other sales trigger events from 4,500+ companies:

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
Trisha.ellis@salesquest.com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Author, Speaker and Strategist Jill Konrath recently did a series of articles whereby she compared sales stories to safari animals.

As she rotated through the giraffes and rhinos, I was personally waiting to hear from the King of Beasts, which of course, finally appeared right on queue:

King of Beasts

And my hunch was right; it was all about being prepared to sell.

About the same time this article came out, Mike Damphousse of Green Leads called asking me how he could use CRUSH data to get a focused list of contacts for his client.  It made me think information gathering is a lot like hunting.

He was about to do some very specific campaigns, drive new leads, deliver juicy appointments and he needed some sales intelligence to get the job done.  First, he needed a list of the top companies who had recently implemented specific SAP modules within specific verticals.  While most companies dwell on the experience of their callers or the level of sales intelligence they gather, Mike was focused on saving time and heading into a fertile hunting ground.  Why not hunt where the most prey are gathered in the first place?

That was just the beginning of the sales creativity.  The next campaign was taking the challenge up a notch.  Rather than focus on technology, he wanted to know how he could get a list of the top Fortune 1000 ranked companies with current and specific initiatives around “Disaster Recovery” and “Business Continuity”.  And while you’re at it, get me only contacts which are VP and Director Level titles in the network and security technology areas.  Wow, now you are talking focus.

Green Leads is clearly a leader in creative campaigns to help their customers find the best, hottest and ready-to-strike leads and sets their clients’ reps in for the killing.

When I asked Mike what differentiates Green Leads from the pack, I was not surprised to hear his response.

• Start with the hottest and best targets
• Go in with a customized approach to each prospect/target
• Qualify and shoot to close

Sounds to me like the right company to engage if you have some sales hunting to do this quarter!

If you want to know more about the CRUSH Data and sales intelligence used in these searches, contact us at www.salesquest.com.

Mimi Evans
SalesQuest
mevans @ Salesquest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

In today’s highly competitive economy, sales and marketing departments really have to stand out amongst the crowd. The messaging has to be personalized and clearly state what you have to offer that can save them time and money.

One of the worst approaches in sales and marketing today is the “data dump”  of product features. Understanding the customer is vital in today’s society. What challenges are they facing? Are they focused on specific initiatives? Knowing the answer to these questions allows messaging to be tailored and specific to your prospect and will help grab their attention.

The best way to truly understand what is going on within the company is by research and understanding your prospect’s business drivers. As defined by BusinessDictionary.com, business drivers are, “People, knowledge, and conditions (such as market forces) that initiate and support activities for which the business was designed.” Understanding the people within a company, their knowledge and the conditions of their current business strategy will help sales and marketing reps get compelling messaging across the right people.

Our analysts have created a section in our Fortune 1000 CRUSH Reports called Technology Business Drivers. These initiatives, problems or challenges are pulled from earnings calls, annual reports, executive presentations and interviews. They are based on corporate strategies, business initiatives and projects directly tied to IT architectures, IT budgets, executive management changes and new investments in enterprise technology.

Our customers use this section as sales leads, so they can align their business solution to the relevant business problems, opportunities and initatives. This kind of customized approach to business needs is the key to gaining trust and outselling your competitors.

Here’s a sample list of the type of fortune 1000 business drivers that we include in the CRUSH Reports:

• Strategic initiatives
• Expiring contracts
• Restructuring initiatives
• Acquisition integration
• Technology investments
• Data center changes
• Corporate collaboration
• Cost saving initiatives
• Customer service initiatives

Click here to find out more about Technology Business Drivers. Or go to our eStore and download sample CRUSH Reports and see the Technology Business Drivers section.

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
Trisha.ellis @ salesquest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Insurance remains to be a very competitive industry. Companies, like Nationwide, are focused on the data analytics surrounding the insurance industry. The real competition is based around that data and how to analyze it and use it to their advantage to surpass the competition and create space between them and the rest of the pack.

Rebecca Amoroso, the Vice Chairman and insurance sector leader for Deloitte is convinced that insurance carriers will quickly move to data analytics to improve their predictive modeling to use the information that is freely provided by its customers to make improvement to their organization and product.

The question now becomes how does a company like Nationwide catch up to Progressive and GEICO who have proactively published apps that have engorged their databases?

Nationwide’s problem may be with not having the right analytical software as it currently employs several data analytics solutions including Oracle, SAP, and TIBCO.  Nationwide seems to think its problem is data. More specifically, not having enough of it.

In 2011, Nationwide will be in process with three different projects to up its data collection.  With mobility being a hot topic in any industry, Nationwide has been eagerly expanding its customer facing solutions to improve the ease of data collections as well the quality being collected.  Dennis Giglio, Associate VP, Distribution Marketing comments that, “We wanted to build on this success by expanding the reach of our mobile capabilities to a wider range of customers by adding an Android app and improving our mobile Web site.”

Nationwide is also targeting customer service as a point of data collection, which needed improvement. Their 2011 customer service directive will focus on programs that help to understand the customer and evolve consumer preferences.

Since Nationwide has the tools to analyze all this new information there was likely only one piece left that they needed, a place for this information to call home. In December of 2011, they will open a new Albany data center to help them handle all this information.

Data analytics is a trend that will not soon fade into the limelight. With the leaders, Progressive and GEICO, trudging forward, others must look to quickly catch up. Some companies will need to invest in data analytics software to meet their needs while their competitors, like Nationwide, need to make sure they have the information to analyze.

For detailed industry profiles and account intelligence reports on the Fortune 1000 and Global 500, check out the CRUSH Reports for Nationwide, GEICO and Progressive featuring org charts, IT landscapes, major initiatives and contacts on our eStore.

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
Trisha.ellis @ salesquest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Companies in the pharmaceutical industry are beginning to change their Research & Development strategies as they brace themselves for the upcoming “patent cliff” trend. Pharmaceutical sales will significantly decrease as their blockbuster drug patents expire and lose protection against generic competitors.

As a result, drug research and their scientists are the ones feeling the burden. Pfizer is just one of several companies changing their R&D strategy in order to compensate for their potential decline in sales. They recently announced plans to cut their R&D spending by billions and get rid of thousands of jobs. More specifically, 2400 employees are expected to lose their jobs as Pfizer closes its research facility in the UK. All in all they plan to cut R&D expenditures by nearly $2.0 billion for 2012. While they have little intention to completely abandon promising candidate drugs, Pfizer has ultimately decided to focus their new research on neuroscience, oncology, vaccines, and cardiovascular and inflammation treatments.

Pfizer isn’t the only big pharmaceutical company facing these threats. Rival companies that face large sales losses are reluctant to invest their money into the R&D pipelines generally because of the slow nature of yielding new drugs. Alternatively, money is going towards buying back shares and outsourcing R&D. GlaxoSmithKline is a prime example as they have recently stated their intention to spend between $1.6 billion and $3.2 billion in 2011 as part of a “long-term share buy-back program”. They made a point to add that they have also made “fundamental changes to how we allocate our R&D expenditure”. The company plans to focus its work on getting the most promising drugs to market and will cut costs and risk “through externalizing parts of early-stage discovery; dismantling infrastructure; and terminating development in areas with low financial and scientific return”.

With the patent cliff quickly approaching, now would be a great time to contact Fortune 1000 pharma companies like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline with your cost saving solutions. Find out who the key decision makers are with our Pfizer CRUSH Report, which includes additional sales strategies, org charts and contact information. For more information visit: http://estore.salesquest.com/category/available-reports

Melissa Tetreau
SalesQuest
Melissa.Tetreau @ SalesQuest dot com

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.