Stock Your Technology Toolkit for Better Sales Performance. Barry Rosen The Pursuit Group, Inc.

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1 Stock Your Technology Toolkit for Better Sales Performance. Barry Rosen The Pursuit Group, Inc.

2 Stock Your Technology Toolkit for Better Sales Performance Here s a recap of last week s results: Phil Mickelson finished second in the Masters and won $800,000. The Detroit Pistons finished second in the NBA Championships and took home $2.5M. And XYZ Systems finished second in the Stryker account pitch and earned -- absolutely nothing. The difference between first and second in business-to-business sales can be painfully significant. In fact, because of the expense of selling, it s financially advantageous to lose early i.e., finish last rather than late. So, smart sales organizations seek an edge. They look for and embrace ways to increase their chance to consistently win profitable business. Fortunately for them, there is now a plethora of very useable and affordable technology that can help them develop this edge. Fortunately for you, there is not a plethora of smart sales organizations, which gives you a distinct head start, if you act now. In my company, these technology tools and their use are part of a process we call Sales Cycle Optimization -- a program we developed to maximize our clients potential to turn leads into profitable sales. We place the tools into three groups: Presentation tools that enhance your ability to differentiate and more powerfully communicate information about your company and its product/service during the sales cycle. Performance tools that boost the relevancy and persuasiveness of your communication and sales efforts. Productivity tools that increase your sales and marketing capacity by dramatically easing the burden of common activities and reducing the length and cost of the sales cycle. While there are enough useful tools for several columns, a few that are easiest to implement and provide the most immediate benefit are discussed below. Presentation Tools Most sales cycle communication is the same from seller to seller the same literature, the same basic PowerPoint presentations, the same let-me-tellyou-all-i-can-about-me proposals, and so on. If you do nothing else, make sure you address this area. The difference will be astonishing. Here are some tools to help:

3 Rich media content and distribution tools enable you to deliver more compelling communications, including audio and video, and to customize communications to individual customers. Although features vary, it can be as simple as uploading a PowerPoint presentation and recording audio as you would a voice mail message, or video with a simple webcam. Then, attach pertinent files, send your recipient an link and you re done. Not only are these unique and effective communication tools, but tracking features will alert you the moment your prospect opens the presentation, so you can plan your next step accordingly. Vendors include Brainshark, Monster Interactive, Serious Magic, and Anystream s Agility Presenter. You may also consider using Macromedia s Flash media to add pop to your message. However, producing it on your own requires special software and skilled users. Want Flash, but don t have the skill? A host of easy-to-use and inexpensive templates can be downloaded. Impact Engine and 10 Minute Flash are among a large group of vendors online. To simply add punch to PowerPoint, many vendors offer plug-ins for graphic backgrounds, 3D movement and more. Search PowerPoint templates and you ll find many vendors. Most sales people hate writing proposals, which is okay, since most don t do it well. That, and fact that less than half of business-to-business enterprises win on as many as one in four proposals they submit, leaves a distinct opportunity for improvement. Automated Proposal generating technology can orient your proposals to the individual needs of each customer, effectively organize relevant content, and drastically reduce the time required to produce a proposal. Vendors in this area include Sant Corporation and Pragmatech. If your company responds to a lot of formal Requests for Proposals, you ll also find value in their RFP systems. Performance Tools They may ban performance enhancers in sports, but all is fair in business, right? If so, tools in this category can help put your sales results on steroids. Get a week s worth of research on your prospects at the click of a button by using data extraction tools that spider out to the web for all relevant information. You ll get contact names, mailing and addresses, phone numbers, and titles that you can import directly into your CRM or contact management system. You ll also find white papers, presentations or news about your prospect that lets your sales staff hit the ground blazing. Vendors include Hoovers and Broadlook.

4 Despite its ubiquity, many business-to-business enterprises have not used communication effectively in the sales cycle. campaign management tools can help you launch communication programs that are individualized to the circumstances, interests and needs of a particular customer. Within the sales cycle, this is particularly helpful to identify and migrating high-potential prospects from a mass of suspects. Although features vary by vendor, many are easy-to-use and can be launched with minimal upfront effort. Search campaign management and you ll find many vendors. In many business-to-business sales environments, the need for the purchaser to cost-justify a decision is more critical than ever. As sellers, the extent to which you can prove and articulate your value proposition will directly influence the buyer s decision and your profit margins. ROI modeling tools can walk your sales staff through a questionnaire for a particular customer and yield a customized and powerful ROI presentation. Prior to implementation, ROI tools will typically require detailed thinking about your customers business and the value of your solutions, but once launched they can provide a simple, fast and very effective tool. Vendors include Alinean and VMC. Productivity Tools Most of us seek ways to do more with less. When applied to the sales cycle, this puts the seller ahead of the numbers game and can reduce decision times and selling costs. Here are a few quick and easy solutions. Although familiar to many, the use of web conferencing is still surprisingly limited. Web conferencing enables your sales staff to meet in real-time with customers located anywhere. They can demonstrate software, review documents, give presentations and more all while sitting at their desk. Using web conferencing won t replace face-to-face meetings, but it can reduce the number of trips needed, and circumvent the kinds of delays that occur when a key member of the selection committee misses your in-person meeting. Vendors include Webex and PlaceWare. An online store is a great solution to help organize and distribute your internal fulfillment needs to the sales force. Particularly useful for a staff spread across a large geographic region, an online store can be used to order promotional items, marketing literature, tradeshow booths, projection equipment, etc. Without such a system, the sheer volume of activity in many organizations can require full-time staff to manage. With an online store, fulfillment business rules are established in advance and orders are automatically distributed to the thirdparty or internal resource responsible for fulfillment. Stores can be created with software that requires an experienced technician, or in some cases, your key printing or incentives vendor can provide it as an extra service.

5 Help has arrived for those time-consuming print production projects like organizing 50 binders of various tabbed sections and mailing to 50 different people ahead of a large presentation, or producing a series of personalized event posters. Free print production technologies let you very quickly and easily manage the job from your desktop. See Kinkos.com or Mimeo.com, among others, for more information. The fact that many of these tools have applicability that extends beyond sales through other areas of the enterprise should only cause more immediate action on your part. You most likely have an opportunity to optimize your sales cycle efforts before your competition does. Doing so will absolutely increase your chance to consistently win profitable business. ### Barry Rosen is a founder of The Pursuit Group, Inc. an Ohio organization that specializes in Sales Cycle Optimization for business-to-business enterprises. For more information, visit to brosen@thepursuitgroup.com, or call PURSUE.