We just announced the upcoming launch of our new CRUSH Pro Platform scheduled for release on February 1^st 2011.

The new CRUSH Pro Platform now enables subscribing upgraded customers to search the content of their deep dive Fortune 1000 and Global 500 CRUSH Report data in a web portal interface. The hyper-targeted advanced search is enabled to help inside sales & field marketing reps pinpoint specific mentions of competitors, partners, or embedded technologies. In addition, the Crush Pro Platform has a new Contacts Manager, which allows users to build contact lists within the Platform aiding them in increasing technology sales leads. Users can now build Fortune 1000 contact lists based on companies, title functions, lines of business, industries and/or geographies.

Our searchable CRUSH Pro Platform continues the rapid expansion and development of the company’s portfolio of the most accurate, complete and up-to-date enterprise account intelligence solutions available in the marketplace today. This new platform will assist our clients with strategic account planning and sales intelligence in a quicker and more efficient environment.

The CRUSH Pro Platform delivers the functionality that our customers have been asking for over the past 12-18 months. The new Platform now gives users the ability to search the CRUSH Report content within their target accounts without having to download a PDF report, making information easier to access and integrate. We are excited to be able to offer an enhanced Platform that will facilitate our customers in their sales resources, business drivers and sales forecasting.

While we are currently running a beta program with our customers, the February 1, 2011 release of the CRUSH Pro Platform is the most anticipated development in our ten-year history and is expected to catapult the company to the next stratosphere.

For further information on Crush Reports, Crush Alerts and SalesQuest, please visit: http://www.salesquest.com

Ryan Murray
SalesQuest
Email: Ryan @ SalesQuest dot com
978.749.9999 ext. 102

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Finding the decision maker and getting them to respond can be one of the hardest things a sales rep faces during the sales cycle.  Sales intelligence data can give you insights on who the decision maker might be, what questions to ask, and how to respond to his or her questions. However, you can’t expect to find the decision-maker easily. You must employ tactful strategies and ask questions to qualify that person as the budget holder or if he or she is just a user or influencer that wants your solution, but can’t sign on the doted line.

The decision maker is usually a VP- or C-level employee that likely won’t be using your solution, but the people reporting to him or her will manage and work with the solution. Sales reps first need to get three types of authorities on-board: the user, the influencer and the decision maker. The decision maker holds the key to the budget and has the power to say yes or no.

These executives are typically the hardest to identify and contact. If someone refers you to someone else, the person you were referred to is usually the decision maker. If the person you contact responds saying the solution is a great fit, they’re probably not the decision maker, but rather the influencer or user who needs or wants your solution. Also, if you get pointed to the same person multiple times, than they are usually the decision maker. Contacting all three is a must, but putting more energy towards finding the decision maker and aligning their business needs with your solution is most critical.

Decision makers want specific evidence of previous success so they can clearly understand how your solution is going to solve their business problem. They need to see a measurable ROI and want reference data in order to identify how the solution can affect their bottom line. If you can or have determined that the decision maker has a budget, you’re one step closer to qualifying a prospect. But, for the prospect to meet the necessary BANT criteria, you need to have answered two out of the three remaining criteria. Using sales intelligence data can decrease your research time in trying to find the prospect’s business problems, what people’s titles and functions are, and whether or not your solution is budgeted.

Top 20 CRUSH Use Cases

The document will teach you how sales intelligence can help develop strategic account plans, identify competitors & build target account lists, and track customers, prospects, and competitors.

Download the CRUSH Use Case PDF

- Mark Kilens
mark.kilens @ salesquest.com
978.749.9999 ext. 118

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Before you start the relationship building process with prospects, you need to identify which of your prospects are hot and which ones are not. Using BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Time) criteria, you can better qualify what leads you should go after. Originally developed by IBM, BANT criteria can help you determine if there’s a budget, who holds the authority regarding the purchasing decision, their business needs, and the timeframe for the implementation. A sales rep needs to fill in three of those four criteria in order for a lead to be a sales opportunity. If sales reps can do this, they won’t be potentially wasting time with a lead that might have a need but no budget, or one that has a budget but the timing isn’t right.

Determining if a prospect has room for your solution in their budget is a critical step to closing a sale. The budget qualifying process usually falls into three categories: the prospect has available room in their budget; the decision maker doesn’t have room, but will find the money; it’s not currently budgeted, but may be next year. The budget is usually the most difficult part of BANT to discover, but it’s also the most integral part to the BANT equation. In order for sales reps to accurately develop their sales forecast, they must uncover the prospects that have money budgeted for their solution. It’s even more important now because of how companies’ budgets have been dramatically reduced, coupled with their capital spending plans. Fortunately for IT sales reps, there appears to be good news on the horizon. Comments from EMC’s CEO and CFO and data from CIO.com survey identifies that companies will start increasing their budgets and spending for IT infrastructures in 2010.

Sales intelligence resources can also assist you in determining the components of a prospect’s budget; what their capital spending plans are (time) and uncover their current business drivers (need). Sales steps should start the relationship building process by asking questions to better understand their problems and opportunities. By doing this, they can make a bridge to the budget discussion without forcefully asking if they have money to spend. You don’t want to be kicking tires with a prospect that has a need, but doesn’t have a budget. Identifying who owns the budget and if they currently have money for your solution will accelerate your sales cycle. If authority, need and time all meet the necessary criteria, getting your solution budgeted should be the priority for the decision-maker. Identifying the budget can be difficult, but once done, you’ll have discovered what prospects are hot, and you will be in a better position to forecast your sales.

Sales Forecasting Template

SalesQuest has created a FREE Sales Forecasting Template and Worksheet that will help you qualify your leads better and keep your sales pipeline full.

Download the FREE Sales Forecasting Template and Worksheet

- Mark Kilens
mark . kilens@salesquest.com
978.749.9999 ext. 118

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The Aberdeen Group’s PACE Model defines the methods of success of Best-in-Class sales teams and outlines their abilities in the “C” section, titled Capabilities. This list is what sets successful sales forces apart from just average or failing ones and defines their best sales strategies. It consists mostly of processes that exist within the sales department that make a rep’s job easier while also saving time, as well as making the sales process more organized.

Structure and continuity are extremely important in keeping a sales team functional and the sales process successful. Aberdeen’s defined “Best-in-Class” companies have a “formal and documented sales process” in place.  Keeping things organized and requiring a specific progression of steps in the sales cycle ensures that corners are not cut, the prospect is well-qualified and well-nurtured, as well as making sure that no information is lost. The Commence CRM Blog does a great job of defining the reasons that standardization is crucial to a successful sales department. The steps of the process must be clearly defined and simple to follow; the more you can avoid confusion and make this process visible, the more it will actually be followed.

In conjunction with a documented process, Best-in-Class companies have a process for tracking prospect engagement, from e-mail to website visits. CRM systems are a perfect example of a repository for all of this information; phone calls and other correspondences can be tracked, saved, and viewed here, and the progress from lead to customer can be clearly seen. Also, when something goes awry in the sale and it becomes a loss, this data can be analyzed to help determine why the sale was not successful and thus avoid the problem with future opportunities.

Another capability of Best-in-Class companies, not surprisingly, is also a part of most CRM systems: “a centralized repository of account, contact, and opportunity information.” Keeping track of all activity within an account is essential in avoiding making mistakes like repeated calls to the same VP, or e-mail blasting an opt-out. It is also extremely informative to be able to see an account’s history if you are looking to for win backs with a former client so you can approach it with more sensitivity than a new account. Aberdeen also cites that having a “process for unifying customer information gathered through multiple disparate ‘customer touch points’” as a quality of Best-in-Class companies, and clearly, this is a function of a CRM system.

Another less obvious, but easy step to take in order to be more successful, is to encourage communication between reps. A central system like a CRM or even a live messaging functionality on the company intranet can provide an outlet for reps to talk to each other. The ability to share tips and strategies that have helped them close deals, as well as share common gripes and then collaborate to find a solution is invaluable; a two-man effort is always better than one.

In short, there are more than a few defined capabilities (mostly provided by software or SaaS) that can help your sales force hit their quota. By nature, people are lazy; just by implementing very clear and easy-to-follow strategic processes and centralized the information and resources, you will see results.

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

©2012 Sales Intelligence Blog. All Rights Reserved.