with THE ULTIMATE PLAYBOOK

Transcription

1 with THE ULTIMATE PLAYBOOK

2 LEAD QUALIFICATION WITH SALES INTELLIGENCE PART I: THE BASICS PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK 02

3 When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn. Head Coach, Dallas Cowboys,

4 PART I: THE BASICS Sales Intelligence goes beyond demographic and financial data about prospective companies to provide accurate, relevant and timely business insights on their current initiatives and urgent business challenges. Thousands of Lead Qualification and Sales Development reps empower themselves with Sales Intelligence to cut down research time, view insights and connections within companies and understand a 360-degree view of each industry. Sales Intelligence insights enable reps to learn about a prospect s key initiatives and business challenges and open the door to new opportunities and relationships with key decision makers at target companies. **InsideView Screenshot 04

5 PART I: THE BASICS Key Plays, Browns at the Ravens Sales Inquiries An inquiry is a response from a potential client. This usually follows some sort of sales promotion or advertisement. During this initial stage, the prospect is typically just gathering information from the company to help them with their decision making process. Inquiries don t usually come with much information about them, and require qualification to uncover details about their likelihood to buy. Sales Leads Marketing and Sales Accepted Leads Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are the set of leads that marketing passes to sales because marketing believes the leads are ready for sales to pursue. Sales accepted leads (SALs) are leads that sales have gone through and confirmed meet a predetermined criteria. These qualified leads are considered worthy of investing the time to pursue in an attempt to convert them into business opportunities. While a lead can be derived from an inquiry, the difference here is that we have enough information about a lead to determine whether we d like them to become a customer. We can determine this either by the source of the lead (i.e. a direct referral) or through a developed lead qualification process that has gathered enough information to identify a potential prospect. 05

6 PART I: THE BASICS Head Coach, Chicago Bears, Start building your Lead Qual team by determining a Lead Qualification Manager. This could be a proven sales rep who wants to get into management, but most companies hire full-time managers for their lead qual teams. Like any great football coach, the manager will keep the team focused on not only their tasks, but also the big picture. A Lead Quailfication Manager Should: 1. Monitor calls and conversations through CRM reports and dashboards. 2. Constantly improve the inside sales process. This means establishing metrics to measure performance, monitoring rules of engagement and managing compensation plans that make employees happy. 3. Motivate the team. Each team player may be motivated differently. Learn the motivations, and develop spiff programs tailored to the majority attitude of the team. 4. Establish quotas that the team needs to meet and present the results on a weekly basis. 06

7 PART I: THE BASICS Quarterback, St.Louis Rams, NFL st Round Draft Pick Lead qual reps may some day move to field or enterprise sales, but don t hire a team based on skills for other sales roles. Lead qual reps should exude qualities very specific to their tasks. Look for these 3 qualities in your rookies: 1. Discipline: Lead qualification reps don t typically own specific territories since they don t necessarily know into which territories their leads fall until they qualify them. They ll end up interacting with individuals from many diverse businesses, so they need the discipline to study how businesses operate. 2. Determination: Because lead qualification reps are typically young and start at an early phase in their careers, they posses a lot of growth and development potential. They get thrown right in right away, and they can t be afraid to fail. They need to constantly try harder, and possess the focus and drive to excel. 3. Curiosity: The conversation you have with a lead qualification rep is comparable to the conversation you have with a nurse before the doctor enters the room and announces your prognosis. Lead qual reps diagnose the situation so the sales reps can prescribe the solution. They find information by asking questions, and natural curiosity will guide their conversations in a smooth, approachable way. Lead qual reps also talk to a wide variety of people, and they ll pick up on the nuances that separate different types of companies if they ask a lot of questions. 07

8 PART I: THE BASICS Wide Receiver, Cincinatti Bengals, InsideView s Marketing and Sales departments use a standard Waterfall type Inbound Sales Funnel. This marks the journey of an ideal inbound lead that becomes a customer. Lead Qualification s role is in the middle of the funnel where they evaluate a Marketing Qualified Lead, accept the lead, then park or pass it to an Account Executive. The Waterfall Funnel Leads MQLs SALs Leads: Leads come from multiple sources. They are raw, product or service. Based upon a Marketing customer and ready to be addressed by a Lead Qual rep. connect with. A Lead Qual rep has connected with a lead and they are willing to evaluate the product or service. The lead is then passed and accepted by an Account Executive. An Account Executive owns the responsibility of the prospect where it is then turned into a new customer. 08

9 PART I: THE BASICS Corporate Sales Manager, InsideView Ralph Barsi is a Corporate Sales Manager, B2B Sales Speaker and leader of InsideView s Lead Qualification team. He is responsible for developing and maintaining the lead qualification and lead generation teams, which streamline top of the funnel stages for InsideView's corporate and enterprise sales executives. Every one of Ralph s hires are responsible for reading these seven books during their time at InsideView. 09

10 Set your goals till you get there. Running Back, Los Angeles Raiders,

11

12 PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Initial 4 Criteria to Look At With a New Prospect There is no silver bullet to scoring a lead in B2B Marketing. Not every well-scored lead is perfect. A Lead Qual rep needs to be certain they are dealing with a prospect that will benefit their product or service. Sales Intelligence delivers 4 important pieces of criteria every Lead Qual rep should be aware of before each call. Check off these 4 pieces of criteria as a first step to lead qualification: 1. Size of Company 2. Location 3. Industry 4. What they sell 23 **InsideView Screenshot 12

13 PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Quarterback, New England Patriots Using Sales Intelligence, Lead Qual reps can access Smart Agents, or trigger events, that are collected into each company record. Use specific Smart Agents such as cost cutting, leaderships changes or new offerings to tailor an effective message with key relevancy or to make sure the buyer is ready for your product. As Lead Qual reps review trigger events or Smart Agents, make sure they ask the following questions: 1. Is the buyer ready to buy our product? 2. How can I use this information for my sales call or initial ? 3. What pain points are suggested by current events? 4. Is the company seeing recent success and looking to expand, or underperforming and cannot afford any new products? **InsideView Screenshot: Smart agent results for Google 13

14 PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Wide Receiver, Baltimore Ravens Leverage Your Network Make sure Lead Qual reps set up their connections with Sales Intelligence. Lead Qual reps can see who they are connected to within each organization. This should be one of the first things to check for when researching a prospect. Unlike social networks, reps don t have to build their connections to see how vast their network truly is. Sales Intelligence delivers connections from current employers, customers, alumni, previous employers, Facebook, Outlook and LinkedIn. Sellers experience lower response rates with cold s and calls than they do with warm referrals: executives deflect 92% of cold s and calls without consideration. 14

15 PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Field 60% of decision makers use social media. Social Strategy for B2B Marketing 2011 Monitor Social Media Networks Social Media is the hidden gem of information for Lead Qual reps. Most work at 110mph and don t have the time to leave their CRM. Sales Intelligence delivers to Lead Qual reps all corporate social media channels right inside their CRM or Sales Intelligence platform, which is where they need them most. Decision makers for companies are some of the most socially engaged in the world when compared to average internet users. This Social Intelligence will holds some of the most essential qualification criteria. When Lead Qual reps make the first call or write the first to a prospect, they can build a rapport faster the more stories and insights they have. **InsideView Screenshot Magic Street Journal 15

16 PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Offense The next step in the process is to choose an engagement approach to connect with a prospect. Strategize, craft messaging, and begin the outreach. InsideView s Lead Qualification team uses three primary steps to connect with and qualify a lead. The most important part for a Lead Qual rep is to be prepared and bring relevance to any form of connection. Asking So what do you do at your company? is the quickest way to lose a potential sale. Do not get locked into using just one approach. Change it up. Earn the right Middle Apply info and gather more Close 16

17 PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Running Back, Jacksonville Jaguars The final and most important step to lead qualification is turning a lead into an opportunity and passing it off to an Account Executive. Sales and marketing leaders embrace lead qualification to prevent wasting an Account Executive s time with garbage leads, so this is a pretty crucial step in Lead Qualification. A popular approach to making sure a lead is qualified and ready for an Account Executive is using BANT. Need Intelligence to see if any of the challenges or trends address pain points. 17

18 PART II: OFFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Quarterback, Washington Redskins 18

19 substitute for guts. Head Coach, University of Alabama,

20

21 PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Linebacker, Houston Texans Use Sales Intelligence to Not Spend Time on Bad Leads An Account Executive s worst nightmare is a prospect that looks great on paper, but has no control over the budget and whose business needs are not remotely aligned with their products or services. Do not let Lead Qualification teams jump out at every Vice President or C-Level Executive that appears in their CRM or datasheet. Not every company is a fit and not every executive is a decision maker. Make sure they know to whom they are selling. Lead Qualification reps need to use Sales Intelligence to make sure the prospect and company are a fit. Once again, there is no silver bullet to perfectly scoring a lead in B2B Marketing. A well-scored lead or name from a data list may appear to be interested, however, you always need to do a background check so that reps are not spending precious time on bad leads. Is this is a targeted industry? Is this company in any shape to buy a new product or service? Can our product or service help with what they are selling? **InsideView Screenshot 21

22 PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Tight End, New England Patriots How do you know everything is correct? Do your Lead Qual Reps work in a CRM? One of the biggest pain points for any sales professional is inaccurate data or lack thereof. (Your CRM) Sales Intelligence goes beyond data by aggregating 30,000 sources to bring the most accurate contact and business information in the industry. One of the key features is that it can be integrated with nearly every CRM on the market. If data is missing or inaccurate, Lead Qual reps need to be the response team to clean it up. Use the Sales Intelligence mashup within a CRM to sync clean, accurate data. **InsideView Screenshot 22

23 PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Running Back, Houston Texans The average amount of "non-productive time" a sales rep spends each week in search of customer data: 3 Hours SALES REPS THAT DEPLOY SALES INTELLIGENCE 4 Hours THE INDUSTRY AVERAGE 4.5 Hours SALES REPS THAT DO NOT USE ANY SALES ENABLEMENT TOOLS 23

24 PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Defense The Faster Lead Qual Reps Are, the Higher the Conversion Rates Will Be Sales Intelligence is a phenomenal resource for a Lead Qualification team s productivity. Make sure they burn the phone lines - especially when there is a website inquiry. Speed is critical with Lead Qualificatiton. Do not let reps waste precious time scouring the Internet or social networks looking up leads. Sales Intelligence provides all of the criteria needed to check the quality of the lead and make the call. Use these tools to quickly look up the lead, prepare, then make the call. When a lead submits an inquiry on your website, the faster the response the better. A lead response means you are than a. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in versus drops. LeadResponseManagement.org **InsideView Screenshot 24

25 PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Quarterback, Carolina Panthers Study the Industries Lead Qual reps MUST always study their targeted industries. Sales intelligence provides a number of insights reps can study to get to know an industry inside and out: Quick Overview, Challenges, Trends, Call Prep questions and Size and Structure diagrams. Going into a call or cold can be daunting as well as nerve-racking. If Lead Qual reps always study and learn about industries across the board, they will be more confident and build a better rapport with each lead. A 2008 survey by International Data Group found that the chance of closing a sale was when the content of the sales message was not pressing questions. **InsideView Screenshot 25

26 PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Quarterback, New Orleans Saints This behavioral study from LeadResponseManagement.Org successfully called and sold to web-generated leads. To find these facts, we looked at leads that were captured through a web form, and attempted or called at least one time. Summarized below are some of the more interesting findings around to speed and timing when responding to web-generated leads: 1. Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact (by 49.7% over the worst day) and qualify (by 24.9% over the worst day) leads. Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead (by 19.1% better than the worst day [Tuesday]) to 6pm is the best time to call to make contact with a lead (by 114% over the worst time block). 8-9am and 4-5pm are the best times to call to qualify a lead (by 164% better 1-2pm, the worst time of the day). 4-5pm is the best time to contact a lead to qualify over 11-12am by 109%). 3. The odds of calling to contact a lead decrease by over 10 times in the 1st hour. The odds of calling to qualify a lead decrease by over 6 times in the 1st hour. After 20 hours every additional dial your salespeople makes actually hurts your ability to make contact to qualify a lead. 4. The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times. **LeadResponseManagement.Org, The Lead Response Management Study Overview **Data provided by InsideSales.com 26

27 PART III: DEFENSIVE PLAYBOOK Linebacker, Baltimore Ravens 27

28 The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will. Head Coach, Green Bay Packers,

29 PART IV: GET IN AND WIN Superbowl XLV Champions InsideView gives our sales reps everything they need in one place. It also provides quick and in-depth access to important sources of social sales intelligence from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and many other sources. Ryan Smith, Director of Sales Operations, Dyn Before InsideView, our sales reps had to rely on different websites and applications to research each account. Now, they can research prospects in just minutes using InsideView! Caroline Durham, Director of Sales Operations, Sales Performance International "When you have a team dedicated to multiple locations and business sizes its critically important to have accurate data in a single source built into CRM. Inside View allows my Sales Development Reps to be more productive by spending less time trying to determine headquarters, employee size and subsidiary status and more time connecting, qualifying and passing leads. Matt Amundson, Sales Development Manager, Marketo Increase Lead-to-Opportunity conversion rates 30%-50% Increase Win Rates 10%-15% Increase sales rep productivity by reducing research time 70%+ Reduce sales cycle time 20%-50% 29

30 PART IV: GET IN AND WIN Want to see Sales Intelligence in action? CHECK OUT A PUBLIC DEMO Already a customer? Check out our resources in the Community to learn more. Kevin Baldacci Lisa Fugere Ralph Barsi Heather Bartron 30