How Does Walmart Affect Your B2B Sales Opportunity?

So, you are selling a multi-million dollar health care plan covering nearly 100,000 lives and right in the middle of things, Wal-Mart throws a wrench in the works.

How can that be? Wal-Mart doesn’t sell health insurance. But, still Wal-Mart becomes the pivotal factor in a sales loss for Vision Care:

Primary Intelligence: What were the primary reasons you did not select Vision Care?
Vision Care: “We were impressed with Vision Care’s overall solution and bid, but it just did not provide that much in addition to what we had with the incumbent, FocusCare. The costs and plans were very close, but we did not really see anything in the Vision Care plan or the Vision Care pricing that would compel us to make a move.

We weren’t unhappy with FocusCare. One thing that was a bit of a concern with Vision Care was one of the major vendors that our employees use, Wal-Mart, was not in the Vision Care network. If our employees don't get much of a break, but have to change their provider, that costs the company.”

Everything else being nearly equal, Vision Care loses because it doesn’t have the right providers in its network. All other value propositions were met and the rates were competitive.

If Vision Care wants to be a serious contender, selling to multi-billion dollar enterprises, this information has to be pushed up to the executive boardroom immediately. This feedback, delivered in a timely fashion, will make a huge difference in the future.

What are you doing to consistently collect sales intelligence? How far does this information travel within your organization?

Let’s talk about Primary Intelligence’s ability to provide feedback on all of your sales opportunities. Your prospects are waiting to tell you how to win next time. (801-838-9600 x5050 - Chris)

The Essential Qualities Of Successful Sales Leadership

Any sales leader knows that leadership is a combination of science, art and skill. Jonathan Farrington published some thoughts on the idea of sales leadership (and probably, leadership in general) and I found his insights… insightful.

While the concepts certainly aren’t new, it always seem to find simple reminders of powerful concepts to be interesting and valuable.

Mr. Farrington lists the six most essential qualities as:

1. Enthusiasm
2. Courage
3. Self Confidence
4. Integrity
5. Interest
6. Humor

Personally, I enjoyed his thoughts on integrity to one’s self, the company, superiors and associates and the requirements that places on the individual to uphold that integrity:

“A leader keeps promises. They keep their promises to their associates as meticulously as those made to their superiors. They keep promises made to themselves, which are the hardest to keep and failure in this is the easiest to rationalise. They can keep all these promises because they never commit themselves rashly; but always within the limits of reality and their present capabilities in terms of personal ability. Part of this matter of integrity is certainly, unquestioned loyalty to their organisation - to its reputation as well as their own. Also they must have loyalty to their products and to their associates and loyalty to their industry.”

If you have any alternate ideas on leadership, post a comment and let me know.

A Thought on Winning More Sales from Brian Carroll

Brian Carroll of InTouch Lead Generation challenged attendees of the Sales Shebang to forget about selling and concentrate on becoming thought leaders in their field.

Today, potential buyers are really busy with a lot on their plate. They're trying to make the best decision for their company, but they don't always have the time on their own to do exhaustive research. They're also delaying meetings with sales people until the really late stages of the buying process.

For sellers, this is a problem. There's no time to nurture a potential buyer through the sales process, or even to develop trust that their product/service is the best fit for this situation.
In fact, sellers even run the risk of antagonizing their potential buyers. A friendly call to check on the buyer can easily be interpreted as pressure to buy.

Brian told attendees at the Sales Shebang that they needed to change what they know about selling.

Sellers today are more effective not when they contact someone who is ready to buy, but when they contact someone BEFORE they're ready to buy.

http://sellingtobigcompanies.blogs.com/selling/2007/11/sales-shebang-l.html

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Dave Stein Talks About Sales Intelligence

This week, we took the opportunity to speak with Dave Stein about the role of competitive intelligence in the world of sales training and sales performance enhancement. His insights into his experience with business leaders that “get” the intelligence side may help jump start your next conversation about strategic planning and tactical improvement.

As always, if you would like to a no-cost semi-weekly subscription to the Primary Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Newsletter, send an email to info@primaryintelligence.com with your name and email address. You will receive the next issue.

Cover Story
Competitive Intelligence Makes Sales More Effective – 5 Questions with Dave Stein
By Chris Dalley, Primary Intelligence
In today’s competitive marketplace, skills and bravado are not enough. Sales effectiveness leaders are continuing to espouse the need to understand how the competition sells, how they position themselves against you, what they offer in specific situations and where they are vulnerable...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence – Helping Sales Aim its Artillery
Only 56% of sales managers claim competitive intelligence as one of their tools. A higher percentage of sales reps (68%) say that they use competitive intelligence to sell. All this seems to beg the question… why isn’t the sales department organizing competitive intelligence initiatives more often...(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Pinnacle Systems Chooses RightNow to Satisfy Customers
Originally Published in May 2005.
When Pinnacle Systems discovered that its Asia sales region was using a sophisticated sales automation system, the company decided to evaluate technologies to implement throughout its entire operation...(For more, click here)

Objective Feedback for the Sales Team

The sales VP, CSO or manager is almost always in the unenviable position of having to attempt to apply science to the art of selling.

Now, that’s not quite as fair a statement as it may have been years ago. Today, plenty of science exists around the sales effort. CRM systems, consultants, performance measurements, evaluations and quota attainment are all part of the toolkit available to create improvement in sales performance.

One component that is often overlooked, or at least, measured in an inefficient manner is performance feedback taken straight from the prospect and client. Most would refer to this as win loss analysis.

Too often, sales managers conduct a debrief with a sales rep or account manager to try to understand why they lost a specific deal in their pipeline. Really, what is the incentive of a sales rep to explain where he was unable to communicate value? And, even if integrity is not an issue, how can a sales rep possibly understand all of the client-side dynamics that were in play? Is the game of sales not unlike a shell game with both parties withholding some bits of information until divulgence is absolutely necessary? Price and competitive positioning come to mind as items that may or may not be shared in complete openness.

So, even if your sales reps are willing to participate in a post-sales interview, the story is obviously going to be influenced by the sales rep’s perception of the dynamics. While something is often better than nothing, are the perceptions of a sales rep valuable enough to be productive?

For 2008, you should consider a formal feedback process such as win loss. It makes sense to understand the sales team’s performance from the only perspective that matters; the one who is in a position to write you a check.

If done properly, a win loss program will provide you with an objective point of view, comparisons with the competition, evaluation of value proposition and a measurement of the expected impact of sales and marketing ideas versus their actual outcome.

Sure, the process costs a little money and will require a bit of time to completely implement. But, the upside is very lucrative. What if this type of feedback were to increase your sales win rate by 5-10% over a year’s time? What would the additional revenues mean? What would the additional profits be? Would 5-10% increased effectiveness (with the same people) make a difference in market share?

Just some thoughts to consider as plans are being made for 2008. Look for objective feedback and learn from your prospects.

Why Do Sales Teams LOSE? – Treat Strategic Accounts Like One-time Customers (10-10)

Today is the last in a 10-part series on why sales teams win and lose business. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

10. Treat your strategic accounts like one-time customers.

A final category of problems occurred when respondents felt that they were being slighted because their companies were not as large as others. The account managers in these situations failed to remember that customer relationships are not static and should not be gauged solely on the size of the account at the time, but also on its potential. It is extremely difficult to recover from the hard feelings caused by treating a customer as a “second class citizen,” as this respondent pointed out:

“The mid-sized companies need love, too. We went from platinum to a mid-sized account company and the attention [is awful]. When I was at [a larger company], if we yelled loud enough, we got problems fixed. With a mid-sized company, however, we get shuffled under the rug. I don't really understand that, but it might indicate that somebody with a bigger sale came along, so my sale wasn't important.”

An account manager can miss out on opportunities by forgetting that, just as large accounts can become mid-sized, those mid-sized accounts can also grow into the most profitable of strategic relationships. By continuing to ignore smaller accounts, there is also the very real possibility that the company and account manager will suffer from negative word-of-mouth advertising and poor references, making it difficult to win future sales in competitive situations.

Why Do Sales Teams LOSE? – Rely solely on face-to-face interactions (9-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

9. Rely solely on face-to-face interactions.

In the movie “Jerry Maguire,” a sports agent is referred to as the “King of the house calls. Master of the living room.” It seems that many sales representatives see themselves in this same light, assured that they can make the sale as soon as they can get some “face time” with the customer. However, you can’t be a master of the living room if you don’t get invited into the house, and according to many of the respondents, the most common invitation that gets lost is the RFP. The complexity of a strategic account requires a well-thought-out plan, and many customers determined the organizational skills of a supplier by the proposals that it submitted. By treating the RFP as a mere hoop that must be jumped through, account managers damaged their chances of success.

Some of the responses indicated that problems in response to an RFP were a sign that the supplier did not understand the situation or the project requirements, that the supplier did not have experience creating proposals or, as one respondent explained, that the supplier was trying to hide something:

“When we issued the RFP, [Company 1] was the only one that declined to offer pricing. It presented a nice package, but declined to give us this information. When I saw the pricing, after I threatened to reject them out of hand, I understood why it didn’t want to give it to me.”

In cases like these, the account managers would have to work extremely hard to rebuild the confidence and trust that was lost due to poorly constructed responses. Personal interactions are important. You cannot build a strong relationship without them. The opportunity for a personal interaction may never occur, however, unless you have built a strong case for why the customer should consider meeting with you in the first place.

Why Do Sales Teams LOSE? – Failing to Do Homework (8-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

8. Fail to do your homework.

Another criterion associated with the Strategic Account Manager that had a negative gap was understanding and addressing the customer’s business needs. As with responsiveness, meeting the business needs of the customer was more often noticed when something went wrong. In these cases, account managers damaged their chances of a success when they failed to take the time to research the customer’s industry, company and particular situation. As one respondent commented, the first step to understanding the business needs of a customer is asking the right questions:

“I sat down with [Company 1] and said, ’Here are the 17 technical things that I am concerned about.’ They came back and asked more questions to understand how we do business and then gave me responses, whereas when I sat down with [Company 2], they said, ’Yes we can do that,‘ and I just didn't feel that same comfort that it was really taking the time to understand how we do business.”

By choosing not to take the time to fully understand the needs and requirements of the customer, an account manager can ensure that his or her organization will not be selected, or that there will be major problems later on if the company is selected. On the other hand, account managers who do their homework about the needs of the customer and the problems it faces can address those issues directly, reinforcing the value of the offering.

Why Do Sales Teams LOSE? – Lack of Responsiveness (7-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

7. Take your time responding to requests.

One of the surprises of this study’s findings was the fact that many of the criteria associated with Strategic Account Managers (SAMs) (such as responsiveness, the relationship with the account team and presentation) showed negative gaps. From these findings, it appears as if the best account managers often go unnoticed, whereas any negative behavior in the sales process is remembered by the potential customer. Nowhere is this more evident than in responsiveness. Very few respondents mentioned the responsiveness of the SAM as a reason for selecting a supplier. Problems with responsiveness, however, were noticed and mentioned as a primary reason for eliminating a supplier from the evaluation process. An example of how to create a negative impression was provided by a respondent, who explained:

“[Company 1] was slow in getting around to pricing. The people that put on the presentation basically said, ’We will have to get back to you on that,’ and they never got back to us on that. It seemed very lethargic about getting back to us and getting us figures. It was like it was saying, ‘Let us go back and sharpen our pencils some more and take another two or three weeks.’”

The issue of responsiveness seems to be like a car engine: you don’t notice how it is performing until something goes wrong. A lack of responsiveness could quickly erode any sort of relationship that has been carefully built, regardless of other factors. Customers want to receive value sooner rather than later, and if the customer experiences responsiveness problems during the evaluation process, it can indicate that there may be problems with the supplier later in the relationship.

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Before Battle, Know Your Competition

This week, the cover story by Thayne Johnson provides an insightful look into competitive intelligence methods that show competitor movements in real time.. You’ll also find information on how Sales Intelligence matters to your success. Finally, a report from ES Research Group will help your sales leadership make sense of sales effectiveness enhancement companies.

Cover Story
Sun Tzu Says Know Your Competition
By Thayne Johnson, Primary IntelligenceThe war of business may not be carried out with weapons of war, but battles over prospects, budgets and market share are fought every day. The casualties of war are growth, personal opportunity and in some cases, companies that fall by the wayside. Just like in an army, every member of a business has to take a part in the competitive nature of the business battleground...(For more, click here)

Announcing the 2008 Sales Training Vendor Guide
Corporations continue to spend a significant portion of their revenues on sales training. Unchanged from last year, enterprises spend between $4 billion and $7 billion per year training sales professionals. Of all the excellent sales training vendors out there, only a few are a fit for your organization. This ESR/InDepth™ Report is designed to help your organization increase the return on your sales training investment.
ES Research Group has compiled their findings into a 200 page report. This 3rd party evaluation is a “must read” for companies seeking sales performance enhancement.
For a free summary, CLICK HERE.

BlogCentral
What is Sales Intelligence and Why Does it Matter?
If a business exists to make money (and really, what other purpose does the business entity have?) as efficiently as possible, and the role of sales is to create the revenue streams as effectively as possible, then isn’t sales intelligence...(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Selects Siemens. What Were the Key Value Factors?
Originally Published in December 2004.
Executives at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital wanted to enhance their medical information systems by upgrading and expanding their current technology. An evaluation of MEDITECH, Eclipsys, and Siemens resulted in the selection of a number of Siemens applications, including several from its Soarian product line. Although Siemens was the incumbent provider, this had very little to do with the decision...(For more, click here)

Why Do Sales Teams LOSE? – Clients Think “Price” Rather than “Value” (6-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.


6. Let the customer think in terms of “price,” rather than “value.”

The number one reason for not selecting a supplier was price, which in and of itself is not particularly surprising. When examined in relationship to the criteria of “value offered,” however, an intriguing pattern emerges. Price, on its own, had a significant negative gap score, meaning that price was mentioned more often when discussing reasons why a supplier wasn’t selected. Value, on the other hand, had a positive gap score; in fact, value was only mentioned when respondents explained why a supplier was selected. In other words, when eliminating a supplier, respondents thought in terms of price. If the respondent thought in terms of value, they were more likely to select the supplier in question. This corroborates the ongoing movement in strategic account management to create value for customers.

As some of the previous examples in this article illustrate, customers were often willing to ignore the strict price of offerings if they were able to see the overall value of the partnership. Customers make decisions based on the value that can be created for the enterprise. A focus on price indicates that the customer is unsure of how the offering will create value—how it will solve a compelling need or produce a desired result. Customers who are unsure about how the product will do either of these are more likely to think in terms of price than in terms of value.

Of course, whether or not a customer thinks in terms of price or value was not entirely dependent upon the whims of the customers themselves. SAMs who do not construct a strategy based upon showing the overall value of the partnership (whether through ROI, added value or other means) do themselves a disservice, and seriously handicap their ability to develop successful accounts.

Why Do Sales Teams Win? – Fix Problems Now (5-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

5. Address needs and problems before they become disasters.

With any account, it is inevitable that problems will occur. According to the interview responses, what distinguished a strong account strategy from a weak one was how the SAM addressed these problems. Respondents indicated that openness about problems, and a proactive approach to addressing them, overcame any negative impressions that came from the problem itself.

In one set of interviews, respondents discussed how their chosen supplier addressed a serious problem. This supplier, rather than trying to hide the problems of its project or offering a bandage approach by fixing symptomatic problems only as they appeared, stopped the project so that it could address the fundamental issues completely. While this caused some initial disappointment, the supplier actually gained in credibility with its decision:

“We thought [Company 1] was showing its partnership ability by being more open than some of the other suppliers. I would rather have my suppliers say, ’OK, we have a problem and we have to fix it,’ than just pretend it is not there, which makes us suffer through it. So, I appreciate the supplier’s honesty. I feel it was the right thing to do, and that [Company 1] is the right partner.”

Respondents explained that the supplier’s openness in addressing the problem prevented a much larger delay from occurring later on. In addition, this approach demonstrated the supplier’s dedication to the success of the project and the customers’ satisfaction.

As an added benefit, using this approach also tells customers that any future difficulties will be handled in an open and professional manner, easing any fears that they may have about getting into a situation where they will not receive support. If they know that their problems will be solved, they will be more confident about the offering and the supplier, and more likely to report difficulties, which can help account managers prevent similar problems occurring with other customers.

Why Do Sales Teams Win? – Create a “Dream Team” (4-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

4. Create a “Dream Team” for the account.

One of the important criteria mentioned by respondents was developing an early relationship with the entire support team. For strategic account managers, this meant introducing key technical personnel during the evaluation process. As one respondent explained, working with the people he would be relying upon for technical support made him more confident entering into a relationship:

“[Company 1] was more than willing to send out some of their best technical guys to work with my developers. [Company 2] would not. So, [Company 1] was much more responsive. It wasn’t price; it was the people.”

By embracing a “team approach” early in the account strategy, SAMs in these cases were able to demonstrate that the totality of their organizations were dedicated to serving the customers’ needs. As with the prior principles, this strategy is based on reducing the ambiguity of the business relationship for the customer. By introducing key members early in the interaction, customers can be assured that they aren’t getting Prince Charming in the negotiations and a bunch of frogs when it comes to ongoing or technical matters.

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Tips for Beginners

This week, the cover story provides some of the basics that even seasoned competitive intelligence veterans need. You’ll also find information on why sales doesn’t receive as much intelligence as you might like. Finally, a report from ES Research Group will help your sales leadership make sense of sales effectiveness enhancement companies.

Cover Story
The Top Three Box Office Flops for Beginning CI Researchers
By Ron Sathoff, Primary Intelligence
For a lot of people (myself included), a good piece of Competitive Intelligence research can have all the beauty of a piece of art, such as a poem, a painting—or even a film. Like these art forms, CI can inspire or instruct those who take the time to understand it, and can even effect significant change. However, unlike a beginning filmmaker, whose poor initial efforts may only result in a bit of ridicule at a local film festival, a “flop” from a beginning CI specialist may have some significant consequences—for both the researcher and his or her organization (For more, click here)

Announcing the 2008 Sales Training Vendor Guide from ES Research Group
Corporations continue to spend a significant portion of their revenues on sales training. Unchanged from last year, enterprises spend between $4 billion and $7 billion per year training sales professionals. Of all the excellent sales training vendors out there, only a few are a fit for your organization. This ESR/InDepth™ Report is designed to help your organization increase the return on your sales training investment.
ES Research Group has compiled their findings into a 200 page report. This 3rd party evaluation is a “must read” for companies seeking sales performance enhancement.
For a free summary, CLICK HERE.

BlogCentral
Why Doesn't Competitive Intelligence Flow to Sales?
Only 56% of sales managers claim competitive intelligence as one of their tools. A higher percentage of sales reps (68%) say that they use competitive intelligence to sell. All this seems to beg the question… why isn’t the sales department organizing competitive intelligence initiatives more often (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
A-List – R-G Crown Selects S1 over Fundtech for Online Banking Services
Originally Published in June 2005.
R-G Crown Bank acquired 18 banks from SouthTrust Bank in October 2004 and wanted to implement new online banking solutions in order to provide better service to its customers and satisfy federal banking regulators (For more, click here)

Why Do Sales Teams Win? – Let your past success lead to future success (3-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

3. Let your past success lead to future success.

Strong relationships and successful partnerships not only lead to future sales with the customers themselves; they also serve as the foundation for accounts with other customers. Whether it is through word-of-mouth, seeing what other companies in the industry were using or by checking with reference companies that had been provided by the supplier, many respondents mentioned that the knowledge that a product was being utilized successfully in other locations was a factor in their decision to select a supplier.

References were the deciding point in several of the interviews. In one case, a supplier was chosen because of the references it provided, even though its product was significantly more expensive than its competitor’s offering:

“We narrowed it down to [Company 1] and [Company 2], and their products were almost identical. What separated [Company 1] and [Company 2] were customer support issues. Every [supplier] that we considered on the short list gave us references, and then we went out and found install sites on our own. [Company 2]’s references, including the ones that they provided to us, were terrible.”

In another example, a respondent used references as a way of obtaining direct comparisons of competing suppliers. In this case, the references were especially powerful because they came from organizations that had experience with each of the competitors:

“[Company 1]’s references were extremely strong. One reference company had actually worked with [Company 2] previously and within the previous year had moved over, so it was a good company to talk to about the two competing suppliers, and be able to really compare apples to apples.”

These cases illuminate the role of references in a well-developed account strategy. They not only provided examples of satisfied customers and successful relationships; in cases where they were chosen judiciously, they demonstrated industry expertise and experience, and provided objective, third-party comparisons of the competing offerings.

Because of the importance of references, it is vital that account strategies include a carefully designed system for developing and using references. A solid reference program allows a supplier to produce powerful, compelling and current references whenever requested, and prevents the problems that will come with “crossing your fingers” and hoping that your reference will give you a good recommendation.

Why Do Sales Teams Win? – Think Relationship (2-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

2. Focus on the relationship, not the sale.

The heart of strategic account management is developing a strong connection between your company and the customer. By definition, a strategic account is designed to be a long-lasting partnership that is mutually beneficial to both parties. The importance of this relationship can be measured in terms of repeat purchases and customer loyalty. The data confirms the importance of a good relationship: prior experience with a supplier was the second most often cited reason for selection and was mentioned significantly more often in cases where the company was selected as the winning supplier.

While some of these cases of repeat sales were due to organizational inertia, or the unwillingness to change suppliers because it was prohibitively difficult or expensive, many of the comments made by respondents indicated that the repeat business was due to the relationship that had developed between the supplier and the customer. The liaison between the two, of course, was the account manager, and those who made it their job to keep in constant communication had the edge over those who only communicated during new opportunities for sales. As one respondent explained, it was important that the SAM cared about all aspects of the relationship:

“[Company 1]’s support is awesome. We have nothing but wonderful comments for the sales representative. I e-mail or call anybody and it always gets back to the sales representative and I get a call from him to make sure it was all done correctly. It gives me peace of mind.”

One aspect of the respondent’s descriptions of their relationships with suppliers that stood out was the importance of the relationship during difficult times. For example, one respondent explained why her company had created lasting relationships with two suppliers:

“We had built up a very good relationship with both agencies over the years. We have been through a couple of years of tough economic times. Both of these agencies have stuck with us. They have been through good times with us, and will stick around for the next round of good times in the near future. It would be very difficult for any other agencies to take our business away from those two.”

By maintaining the relationship, even when the customer was not be able to give as much business to the supplier as it had in the past, the SAMs were able to create a strong bond that makes it difficult for competitors to win future business opportunities with the customer. The main point of these examples is that corporations do not buy from corporations; people buy from people. As the face of the company, all the interactions with account managers, from the first meeting to the last, set the tone for the entire business relationship.

Why Do Sales Teams Win Deals? Reason 1of 10

Over the next few posts, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?”

Let’s get started.

By way of background, as part of our win loss interviews, respondents were asked for the primary reasons why they did or did not select the supplier. Ron coded and tabulated the open-ended responses, analyzing them for performance gaps, or areas where a response was more prevalent in one situation (selection or elimination) than in the other. This was done in order to determine which criteria had the largest impact for selection or elimination. The criteria with the largest gaps are presented in the table below. Positive gaps indicate that a criterion was mentioned more often as a reason for selection, and a negative gap indicates that a criterion was mentioned more often as a reason for elimination.

For example, industry usage had a positive gap of 2.8%. This indicates that respondents were slightly more likely to mention product features as a reason for selection than they were as a reason for not selecting a supplier. The largest gaps indicate where there are opportunities to stand out in areas that are most noticed by the customer, as well as areas where doing the wrong thing will have a significant impact on your chance for success.

1. Let your product speak for itself.

A product’s features and functionality had the largest positive gap, indicating that respondents were much more likely to mention product features positively, and that product features were more likely to have a positive influence than a negative one. It is therefore advantageous to point out a product’s strengths to a potential customer

Specific features of a product are especially important because the customer will often be concerned about the product’s ability to meet the precise needs of multiple users and locations, as well as the product’s ability to integrate with other systems already in place. It is therefore vital that customers are not only informed about the product’s specifications, but that they have also been shown how those specifications are translated to the reality of the company’s business needs.

One way that Strategic Account Managers (SAMs) have accomplished this is through the use of product-oriented presentations and demonstrations. When used in conjunction with technical materials, these demonstrations helped to make the product features and functionality more comprehensible, and showed that the SAM was not overstating the product’s capabilities. Most importantly, they helped to make the customer feel more comfortable that the product would meet their needs and that their staff would have the ability to use it effectively. For example, one respondent explained that the evaluation team was not confident about its first choice of product until the SAM could organize a demonstration of features and functionality for them:

“We had a demonstration, and that reassured me that we were making the right decision. For one thing, the whole layout of the computer screens was superior. There were just a lot of little things. It reassured me that we were making the right decision.”

By allaying any fears the customer may have had about the product, the SAM in this situation helped boost the customer’s confidence in both the sale and the business relationship. Customers today actively seek solutions that can create value for the organization in the shortest period of time. As a result, account managers need to do whatever they can to prove that their offering will work in the actual usage situation.

Sales Intelligence: Why Do We Win? Why Do We Lose?

A little while back, Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, wrote a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?”

Primary Intelligence, a company that specializes in competitive intelligence, sales intelligence and win loss analysis, is in the unique place of having answered the question dozens of thousands of times for hundreds of companies. At heart, our goal is to help companies increase their sales success. This might happen by discovering new markets, improving sales rep performance or showing where company improvement must take place.

(Enough advertisement… for the moment)

The foundation of intelligence that we have built over the past ten years provided Ron with the ability to distill these reasons into the 5 of each (winners and losers). Over the next few posts, I’ll look at each of the ten reasons and provide additional information where possible.

If you have to answer these same questions, stick with me and see what you can learn.

As an introduction, I’ll provide a little bit of numeric information to get whet your appetite.

As part of our win loss interviews, respondents were asked for the primary reasons why they did or did not select the supplier. Ron coded and tabulated the open-ended responses, analyzing them for performance gaps, or areas where a response was more prevalent in one situation (selection or elimination) than in the other. This was done in order to determine which criteria had the largest impact for selection or elimination. The criteria with the largest gaps are presented in the table below. Positive gaps indicate that a criterion was mentioned more often as a reason for selection, and a negative gap indicates that a criterion was mentioned more often as a reason for elimination.



For example, industry usage had a positive gap of 2.8%. This indicates that respondents were slightly more likely to mention product features as a reason for selection than they were as a reason for not selecting a supplier. The largest gaps indicate where there are opportunities to stand out in areas that are most noticed by the customer, as well as areas where doing the wrong thing will have a significant impact on your chance for success.

Over the next few posts, we’ll flesh out each of these ideas until they make lots of sense. If don’t right, you’ll have a much better view of how your company can make improvements with current resources.

Stick with me. I’ll make it worth it.

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter: Double Your Money: Win Back Lost Sales…

In this week’s cover story, Mike Brose talks about the double benefit of winning back accounts that were never yours. And, don’t forget to download our recent webinar: Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can’t Ignore

Cover Story
Double Your Money: Win Back Lost Sales with Intelligence
By Mike Brose, Primary Intelligence
Too often, companies are willing to wave "goodbye" to lost prospects, hoping that, "Someday, they'll give us another shot." In essence, the effort that was put into selling is dismissed. Rare is the company that has a formal win back program. But these companies have learned very clearly just how profitable those programs can be... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Why is Competitive Intelligence Not Effective?
In short, does your company make changes to increase revenues and profitability based on your intelligence efforts? Based on our experience, if you are like most companies, the effect of your intelligence efforts are minimized and, often, substantially... (For more, click here)

The A-List
iLinc Wins Pfizer Contract with Mixture of Technology, Content and Customer Focus
Originally Published in December 2004.
Executives at Pfizer's Global Learning and Development Group wanted to upgrade its training and assessment tools for its pharmaceutical sales personnel. The three short-list vendors were required to submit proposals, which were evaluated by DeLosa and a team of Pfizer personnel from strategic services and healthcare systems training. Although the proposals were intended to be the main element of the evaluation process... (For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Webinar Wrap-up – Three Benefits of Win Loss

Last Thursday, Ron Sathoff and I co-hosted a webinar on the topic of Win Loss. Over the years, Primary Intelligence has conducted dozens of thousands of sales debriefs for our clients and some major benefits have bubbled to the surface. Yesterday, we took time to discuss each of the following topics:

1. Actionable Competitive Intelligence


2. Analytics to predict ROI


3. Win back programs

Of course, one of the prime benefits of Win Loss analysis is the fact that your sales teams can sell more effectively with intelligence. But, the benefits extend much deeper than that. When Win Loss is done properly, the competitive intelligence that it generates can improve marketing, product development and corporate strategy just while providing the competitive boost for sales.

You may also want to consider a test run of two free win loss reports, based on your own sales opportunities. If you are new to PI, you might qualify for a test drive. If you have some interested in this, send me an email and let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

If you would like to download a copy of the presentation, please click HERE

Another Endorsement for Win Loss Analysis

One of our clients in the Blue Cross Blue Shield network was kind enough to provide an assessment of the success of their win loss program, which they have outsourced to Primary Intelligence:

“The real value of the Primary Intelligence System to us, is their uncanny ability to drill through Producers directly to Group Leaders and Group Decision makers and engage them at a level denied to us over and over again.

At that level, Primary Intelligence uncovered the truth, the real drivers of decisions on healthcare, and gave us the opportunity to address those directly the following year.

We won back 7 of the 30 losses the previous year and those wins were driven by knowing the truth.” - Senior Healthcare Intelligence Analyst

If you are considering a win loss program, you might consider the following:

How much more successful would your company be at selling new deals if you really knew why you win and lose?

How much revenue would you gain if your company could win back 23% of lost sales within 12-24 months?

What would the ROI be if you were able to create a more solid “win” and increase the likelihood that your current client base would stay with you longer?

These are the results that Primary Intelligence delivers daily. If you are missing out, let’s chat.

You can join our webinar tomorrow (2PM ET, Regiester HERE) or we can talk. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Protect Yourself from Mystery Shopping CI Efforts

Your company has to be prepared for major and minor efforts to infiltrate your confidential and proprietary information.

I'll share a couple of stories that touch on this topic.

Mostly, Sales Leaders HAVE to understand how much intelligence can be accidentally shared by their sales reps and how often it happens. Mystery shoppers are employed every day to drill into companies and discover everything they can.

I’ll start with a story and follow-up comment:

"In the spring of 2005, Guy Enright, an accountant at KPMG Financial Advisory Services Ltd. in Bermuda, got a call from a man identifying himself in a crisp British accent as Nick Hamilton. Hamilton said he needed to see Enright about matters of utmost importance.

"Over the course of two meetings, Hamilton led Enright to believe he was a British intelligence officer, according to a person familiar with the encounters. He told Enright he wanted information about a KPMG project that Hamilton said had national security implications for Britain. Soon, Enright, who was born in Britain, was depositing confidential audit documents in plastic containers at drop-off points designated by Hamilton.

"But Nick Hamilton was not an agent of Her Majesty's secret service, and the documents never found their way to the British government..." (Continue Reading the Article)

Den Taylor, Strategic Insights, added his comments to the article:

"As a strategic intelligence professional, I am often asked to provide counter-intelligence counsel to deal with similar circumstances. What is invariably found in such cases is in today's global economy, intelligence gathering by any means is a simple fact of life.

"Unfortunately, many organizations do not convey this to their employees, making them easy prey to the entreaties of individuals utilizing simple forms of pretext. Interestingly, we have found that dealing with this problem is relatively simple.

"We recommend that clients conduct periodic education programs that cover the means by which outsiders gather intelligence. Such programs are often coupled with designating a knowledgeable intelligence person who can provide advice on how best to deal with unsolicited contacts. Although taking this step does not guarantee that valuable internal intelligence is never compromised, it does make the pursuit of such information much more difficult."

As a sales leader, have you thought about educating your company on the tactics employed by your competitors? You can start by identifying the behaviors of a mystery shopper and then branch out into other possible areas of espionage. Your company’s employees don’t have to be experts on espionage. They just have to be able to sense suspicious activity and notify the right people.

In short:

Your company has to have a plan to combat espionage and potentially harmful intelligence efforts

As a market, sales or competitive intelligence professional, you should have input into that plan, if you don’t manage it outright.

A list of suspicious activities needs to be prepared and distributed

Your employees need to know how to handle a suspicious call or activity. Do they escalate it to a manager or contact your department?

Be ready to prosecute. Illegal activity needs to be punished. (Your legal department should get a kick out of this)

If you have ideas or questions, let’s chat. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – CI for Sales, No exceptions

In this issue, you’ll find out how hunters and farmers can both use competitive intelligence to increase market share. Additionally, you can sign up for next week’s webinar (Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can’t Ignore) and take our “3 Second Survey by clicking the picture below.



Click on any of the titles below to read the story.

Cover Story
ORDER MAKERS V.S. ORDER TAKERS-Competitive Intelligence for All!
By Tony Randall, Primary Intelligence

Let me cut to the chase right up front. Yes, there is value created by both order makers and order takers. There, I've said it. Every organization which has something of value to offer to the consumer or business world via the sales process has either a sales team of order makers (outside sales usually), order takers...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
How Can You Tell if Competitive Intelligence is Effective?
Your competitive intelligence is very similar to the electricity in your wires. You can produce as much sales, market or competitive intelligence as you like, but until someone uses it to power change in your organization, it really isn't effective at all...(For more, click here)

The A-List New!
AboveNet Sees the Future in Ciena's Long-Haul Communications Equipment
AboveNet, Inc, a competitor to AT&T, Level3 and Verizon evaluated a number of vendors before choosing Ciena Corporation to upgrade its legacy Lucent equipment. The decision was strongly based on Ciena's willingness to play the part of partner to AboveNet, helping AboveNet anticipate future needs, coordinate technology tools and maximize the value offered by Ciena's products. Additionally, Ciena was able to show AboveNet a compelling vision of future technology needs...(For more, click here)

Sales Intelligence and Competitive Performance Comparisons

It is no secret that your competition wants the sales as badly as you do. Sometimes, they may want a particular account even more than you. They are going to put forth their best effort, just as you would expect your team to do the same.

In the end, the prospect has to decipher substance from fluff and make a decision. What are the factors in play? Nearly everything. Whether conscious or subconscious, the prospect is evaluating dozens of dimensions of combinations of influencers and decision-making drivers. These might include:

Company
Financial Viability
Industry experience
Reputation
Company Size

Product
Overall solution cost
Ease of use
Scalability
Solution flexibility
Complete solution set
Functionality
Integration
Turnaround time

Sales
Demonstration
Existing Relationship
Integrity
Product knowledge
Responsiveness
Sales relationship (relationship with the sales team)
Presentation
Professionalism
Understanding needs (grasp of business)


The prospect is spending a ton of time evaluating your performance and that of the competitors in each of these dimensions, again, whether or not they recognize it consciously.

How well are you able to identify the prospects’ perception of your company and the competition in each of the following performance areas?

Benefits
A great company is one that is willing to accept the brutal facts. Individually or in aggregate, how does your company perform versus the competition in the most essential performance areas? The answers to these questions, coupled with analytics to show the areas of greatest impact and highest ROI, will provide your company with sustainable competitive advantages.

Marketing
You can’t improve that which you don’t measure. Convert your reports of competitive strengths and weaknesses from anecdotal to reliable measurements. Predictive analytics provide the illumination necessary to make the best use of the data.

Sales
Measurements of sales performance will provide quantitative data to sales management. Future training will be focused more directly on the current problems and identified strengths can be emphasized. Most importantly, the performance of the “eagles” can be measured and, with proper help, broadcasted to lower performing sales professionals.

Recommendations

Measure your performance scores and competitive gaps over time to track changes in competitive advantage.

Employ analytics to determine areas of highest impact on your future market share.

Create lists to measure company, solution, and sales performance.

Primary Intelligence offers both win loss and account retention services to measure your company’s performance in high-impact areas.

…not to mention predictive analytics that add ROI projections to all of these measurements.

Webinar Invitation - Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can't Ignore

In the last five years, Win Loss analysis has gone from a little known niche project to a recognized best practice. In the most progressive companies, executives demand that sales, marketing, and product development listen to Win Loss feedback and work together to become more competitive.

The opportunity to increase your sales and marketing success sits right at your doorstep. But, do you have everything you need to achieve the greatest potential? Can you make simple changes that will result in gargantuan increases?

Primary Intelligence would like to invite you to a presentation that will show:
• How to increase market share with predictive analytics
• Competitive Intelligence with insight rarely seen
• Win back programs that really work

Date:
Thursday, October 25, 2007

Time:
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
1:00 PM - 2:00 CDT
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM MDT
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT

REGISTER HERE

Those that will benefit include:
• Marketing leaders
• Market research managers
• Market and Industry analysts
• Product development managers
• Sales leaders
• Corporate leadership positions (CEO, CMO, CSO)

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now

https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/913347113

Sales Intelligence and Win Back Campaigns

There is always an element of uncertainty in the purchase decision. Prospects are always concerned that they are being sold a bill of goods rather than a real solution. Of course, there are many processes in place to evaluate competing vendors and their products, but it is difficult to be 100% certain until the product, service, or solution is completely installed and integrated with all of the other processes in the company.

You know this is true. A certain percentage of your clients wonder why they chose you. Sometimes, it takes Herculean efforts to keep new clients happy until they can realize the potential of your offering.

If this happens to you, it must also happen to your competitors. And within that reality resides the opportunity.

New prospects can be very tender, having not yet built up a loyalty toward their new vendor. It is during this time that they may be most susceptible to a renewed sales effort from your company. At the least, you should procure as much feedback as possible to understand how you can compete more effectively next time around with the same company. After a lost sales attempt, how capable are you of knowing your chances of reacquiring that prospect in the near future?

Benefits
A large percentage of buyers surveyed who recently dismissed a key supplier reported choosing another supplier that offered basically the same product or service. This finding indicates that the lost account’s needs have not changed and can still be filled by the dismissed supplier.

Importantly, buyers also report their dismissed suppliers do not even attempt to win them back. Only 25% reported the dismissed supplier offered an apology and only 14% of buyers said dismissed suppliers adopted a keep-in-touch strategy with them.



Marketing
Proper post-decision systems will reveal whether a “prospect that got away” is content with its new vendor. While most prospects make the “right decision” for their company, a surprisingly large group are either disenchanted or outright disgusted with their new vendor. With this in mind, identifying these companies while the sales relationship has not yet cooled may provide greater opportunities once the existing contract ends.

Sales
Provide a sales professional with a list of companies that would likely defect from their current vendor and you’ll have a friend for life. After all, your sales organization already has a relationship with the prospect and probably made it to the final cut. If your company can assure the prospect that you were all set to deliver on the sales promises, the sales success rate increases.

Recommendations
Make a consistent effort to capitalize on spent sales efforts. A win-back program based on those sales opportunities that were almost yours may be a productive source of business in the near future.
Use a third-party vendor to consistently gather post-sales data and improve response rates.
Consider how unbiased feedback will provide realistic expectations for your company.

Sales Intelligence: Post-implementation Analysis and Client Loyalty

Your new client just finished an install of your product, service or solution. They are ramping up on understanding how to gain the ROI that was promised during the sales pitch.

Or, in a different company, they chose your competitor’s product. Your former prospect is trying to figure out what they have purchased and whether it will actually function as promised.

In either case, it is imperative that you gather feedback from the prospect to understand how they feel about their new vendor and the odds that they will stick with you or defect from the competitor. This type of loyalty information will help you understand where problem areas may exist with your current client base and with those of your competitors. In the end, if you can keep 10% more clients in the fold, your revenues and profitability have increased significantly. And, if you can steal away 10% more of your competitors’ defectors, you have gained market share at their expense.

So, after a lost sales attempt, how well could you say how pleased your former prospect is with their vendor selection?

Benefits
Post-implementation analysis will uncover discrepancies between your competitors’ sales messages and the reality of their solution. Arming your sales professionals with this knowledge will provide them with ammunition to direct the prospects’ questions during reference calls.



Marketing
Asking these questions of both your lost prospects and newly won clients will help solidify your position as an industry leader. With this intelligence, you will be able to identify and fix areas where your company falls short versus the client’s expectations. You will also be able to identify problem areas in the competition’s execution. Never underestimate the power of this type of intelligence.

Sales
While sales should not be a mudslinging contest, sales professionals are always on the lookout for information that will help destabilize the faith a prospect may have in a competitor. Sometimes, a prospect needs a little coaching on the types of questions to ask the competitor’s references. These tidbits can be a great benefit.

Recommendations

Be willing to listen to the feedback from your clients and prospects about your company’s ability to deliver according to the expectations set during the sales process

Develop an executive champion that will make improvements based on this feedback.

Review the objectivity of a Primary Intelligence Win Loss Analysis opportunity analysis and determine the relevance to current strategic objectives.

Sales Intelligence – Increase Market Share (Learn from Past Mistakes)

The sales world is an interesting place, especially in a complex sales environment. So much effort on the part of so many people comes together to accomplish the goal of selling a measure of value to a prospective company. In reality, the only thing a business can do is create revenue and profit. The services and products offered are the tools to accomplish the goal of the business entity.

But things don’t always work out as you would like. Prospects often zig when you expect them to zag. Sometimes, a lost sales opportunity looks like wasted time and expense. But, there is much more to a lost sale than lost time. There are lessons to be learned. Improvements in performance should be made. If mistakes caused the sales opportunity to die, those errors should be corrected. Otherwise, they will end up being very costly mistakes indeed.

Most companies perform some sort of sales debrief with the sales reps involved in the lost opportunity. That’s a start, I suppose. But, really? Shouldn’t you spend your time with the prospect, understanding your company’s performance from their point of view? After all, they have the money. Who cares what the sales reps say? The only perception that matters is that of the prospect. So, ask yourself, “How well would you be able to understand how to win a similar account in the future based on your experience in this recent opportunity?”

Benefits
Market share is built one account at a time. An increase in sales win rate today will equate to significant increases in market share in the near future. Great companies are those that learn from past experiences and translate them into future successes.


Marketing
Understanding those things that work most consistently in different industries and segments ultimately provides your company with the ability to execute more effectively. Would you rather be a company that follows best practices in your industry or that establishes them?

Sales
The least likely outcome of most sales losses is a thorough, honest debrief from the prospect. By the time most deals are done, the sales professional has moved on to the next opportunities and the prospect is unlikely to proactively reach out on their own to provide feedback on the sales performance. However, a consistent feedback program has the potential to show a sales professional how to be more effective next time around.

Recommendations

Make time to follow up on a large percentage of recent sales opportunities

Establish an expectation with sales management that these efforts will be distributed to the sales professionals

Review sample win loss opportunity profiles from Primary Intelligence to determine whether the intelligence is useful and packaged in a professional format.

Sales Intelligence: Fixing the Pain Points with Value

It is said that a company makes a purchase decision for one of two reasons. Either, the company has a problem that is painful enough to be solved or the presented solution offers so much value that it would be foolish not to purchase. This is the most basic of sales. But, the problem that exists over time is that marketing believes it understands what the value proposition SHOULD be when, in fact, the prospect sees things in an entirely different light. In fact, the prospect could not care less what you think the value of your solution is. They are only concerned with how the solution will apply to their own problems within the workings of their own company.

Have you ever undertaken a 3rd-party evaluation of your value proposition and compared the findings with your current messages? How often are you able to identify the factors that were most important to the prospect in the decision-making process?
Benefits
At their root, businesses don’t make purchases (especially substantial purchases) without either having a strong pain that needs to be fixed or pursing a vision that will bring great benefit. The vendor that solves the problem most elegantly is likely to win the value proposition battle.


Marketing
While most marketing departments focus their message on the accepted value proposition, few of them look to recent sales successes to discover those specific nuggets that are making the difference for their company right now. It’s one thing to understand which messages play well among the marketplace. It’s another level completely to know what is tipping the prospects’ decisions in your favor.

Sales
With this intelligence, sales can bring pressure to bear directly on the pain points. Communication will revolve around the highest areas of value with peripheral differentiators being brought into play. The best sales professionals know how to communicate value. Now, you can provide more consistency.

Recommendations

Look to your current new client base and understand what caused them to choose you over the competition.

Interview those companies that chose the competition. Discover their perceptions of all value propositions in play and refine your message. Then, push it down to every sales professional in the organization

Consider the fact that Primary Intelligence generates more sale intelligence with measurable ROI.

And, if you have an thoughts along these lines, let's chat. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801.838.9600 x5050)

Sales Intelligence - Misalignment between You and Your Prospect

The greatest chance of sales success for your company is to propose a solution that clearly matches the needs of your prospect. In a perfect world, the only thing that would matter would be the product, service or solution your company offers. But often, the sales process hits a snag.

Where you thought an opportunity was headed down the right path, suddenly, it is stalled, or worse… you are informed that your role in the sales process has ended. This is a reality of sales, but do you ever really get the feedback you need to understand what happened and why? How well is your sales management able to identify when something unusual happens during the sales process to help or hinder your chances of success?

Benefits
For an organization to succeed, intensely managing service quality is absolutely essential. It is only through customer alignment that the organization is on track toward a single, shared vision of customer focus and customer value—a vision that energizes people and the organization to accomplish extraordinary things. The point at which your company ceases to show tight alignment with the prospect during the sales process is likely to be accompanied by the sound of a door closing.

Marketing
Alignment is one of the most important goals of marketing. When marketing can show how the company’s solutions parallel the needs of the prospect, lead generation efforts will function more efficiently, competitive forces will be weakened and commoditization avoided.

Sales
Sales professionals often know when they have lost a sales opportunity, but they rarely receive consistent, straightforward feedback telling them where their effort weakened and the competition surged ahead. Feedback on the moment of truth will help increase the likelihood of a positive result in a similar future situation.



Recommendations

Provide new clients and lost prospects the opportunity to discuss the event horizon of the opportunity.

Be ready to listen without defending misunderstood messages.

Primary Intelligence typically includes this question line in its Win Loss Analysis solution.

Perhaps, we should chat about a process that would help you find answers to this type of question. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Make Intelligence Relevant

In this edition, Adam Dunford makes the case for intelligence that makes a difference. The blog entry backs up the idea by showing a case of intelligence that wasn’t effective, and wasn’t going to be from the start.

If you would like to subscribe to this free newsletter, simply send a request to newsletter@primaryintelligence.com with your name and email address. You can also register for the same subscription online in the margin of any of the stories below.

Cover Story
Justifying Your Existence (and CI's too!)
By Adam Dunford, Primary IntelligenceSo you've spent the last several weeks and months gathering your CI data. In your presentation, you nail every important point on each of your 40 slides and can answer every question you get asked. As you finish, you hear it's the "best CI presentation ever". A few days later, fresh off your triumph, you ask for the budget to expand your CI program, only to be told, "It's interesting stuff, but we got what we needed." Ouch.(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
You Couldn't Make Competitive Intelligence So Irrelevant if you Tried
If your idea of effective competitive intelligence is gathering a bit of information, consolidating that information into a brief doc (perhaps on an attractive company letterhead) and sending that doc off to a distribution list, please stop reading. Go back to your cube, surf some more web sites and live a happy life...(For more, click here)
The A-List Archive

Sun Microsystems Decides that Two Companies are Better than One
Originally Published in February 2005.
Sun Microsystems, which was already outsourcing many of its HR business processes, including its 401(k) plan, payroll, and benefits administration, wanted to explore the idea of outsourcing additional HR functions...(For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence and Decision Cycles

How long has a prospect been in your pipeline? What are the odds that your company will make the sale after time has elapsed and is the likelihood increasing? And, do you even know how long it takes the average prospect in a given industry to make a decision? Your CRM/SFA doesn’t really tell you. You only know from the point that you are engaged; not the actual moment that the evaluation begins.

Benefits
How does a prospect make a decision? Do different industries or company segments take different amounts of time to come to a conclusion? How does your company decide when to maintain an engagement or withdraw from a low probability opportunity? The answer to these questions can save your sales department large sums by identifying those opportunities that are likely to move to decision vs. eternal shoppers.

Marketing
With a constant flux of prospects in a dynamic marketplace, it is difficult to remember that each prospect begins with the end in mind. To each company, the buying process is a discreet event that needs to be completed to solve a specific problem. If Marketing can shed light on this aspect of the buying process, your company can work to more effectively meet the evaluation needs of different companies in various industries.

Sales
The advantages are twofold: First, knowing the window of time when an opportunity is likely to close in your favor helps to identify when the pipeline is too full of non-producing fluff. Second, with this type of information, you can identify key events in the sales process that correlate with positive decisions.

Recommendations

Communicate with prospects to determine their start/end points in the buying process

The prospect may have engaged your company later in the sales cycle. Data from your CRM/SFA may not be accurate enough to show evaluation cycles.

Talk to Primary Intelligence. Our Win Loss Analysis and Account Retention solutions typically demonstrate where the key decision points occur in different industry and company size segments.

Sales Intelligence - Competitive Positioning

Especially in B2B sales, most companies that sell products, services or solutions have to compete against other vendors to gain a new client. Everyone in the deal works to differentiate themselves. Not only do you need to know how to position your product in the prospect’s company. You should also know how to anticipate the messages provided by competitive vendors in order to give your efforts the best chance. In your sales opportunities, how well are you able to identify what the competition says to position itself specifically against you?

Benefits
Differentiation: the first step in avoiding the curse of commoditization. Your company seeks to demonstrate value propositions that help move price further down the decision chain, but that’s not all. Proper positioning of your company and offering provide an advantage over the competition. Just remember that each of your competitors has the same goal. Knowing how each competitor positions itself against you reveals strategic direction, differentiation, and their perception of the current “hot buttons.”

Marketing
Gauge the effectiveness of your message versus the competition’s. Watch for changes in their positioning over time while monitoring the effectiveness of your value proposition. Understanding how your prospects react to your message and that of the competition provides an immediate tactical advantage.

Sales
What is the word on the street about you and the competition? With intelligence geared toward revealing the positioning of your competition, you gain the upper hand. Use this knowledge to beat the competition to the punch and steal their thunder. Know how to weaken their position before they arrive to the opportunity.

Recommendations

1. Use primary research methods to communicate with prospects
2. Prospects may not think like marketers or business intelligence specialists. Make sure to ask specific questions
3. “When [competitor] demonstrated its [feature], what did it say to justify the ROI?”
4. “What kind of emphasis did [competitor] put on its new [solution]?”
5. Engage Primary Intelligence to work with recent prospects to uncover the real message. A third-party vendor can usually approach this topic more easily than your company.

Let me know if I can help. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Sales Intelligence - Competitive Positioning

Especially in B2B sales, most companies that sell products, services or solutions have to compete against other vendors to gain a new client. Everyone in the deal works to differentiate themselves. Not only do you need to know how to position your product in the prospect’s company. You should also know how to anticipate the messages provided by competitive vendors in order to give your efforts the best chance. In your sales opportunities, how well are you able to identify what the competition says to position itself specifically against you?

Benefits
Differentiation: the first step in avoiding the curse of commoditization. Your company seeks to demonstrate value propositions that help move price further down the decision chain, but that’s not all. Proper positioning of your company and offering provide an advantage over the competition. Just remember that each of your competitors has the same goal. Knowing how each competitor positions itself against you reveals strategic direction, differentiation, and their perception of the current “hot buttons.”

Marketing
Gauge the effectiveness of your message versus the competition’s. Watch for changes in their positioning over time while monitoring the effectiveness of your value proposition. Understanding how your prospects react to your message and that of the competition provides an immediate tactical advantage.

Sales
What is the word on the street about you and the competition? With intelligence geared toward revealing the positioning of your competition, you gain the upper hand. Use this knowledge to beat the competition to the punch and steal their thunder. Know how to weaken their position before they arrive to the opportunity.

Recommendations

1. Use primary research methods to communicate with prospects
2. Prospects may not think like marketers or business intelligence specialists. Make sure to ask specific questions
3. “When [competitor] demonstrated its [feature], what did it say to justify the ROI?”
4. “What kind of emphasis did [competitor] put on its new [solution]?”
5. Engage Primary Intelligence to work with recent prospects to uncover the real message. A third-party vendor can usually approach this topic more easily than your company.

Let me know if I can help. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Sales Intelligence - What Problem are You Expected to Solve?

As a sales professional, your solution is only as valuable as the problem it solves. In a given opportunity, how well are you personally able to identify the business need that prompted them to shop for a new or replacement coverage plan?

Benefits
Addressing the cores needs and values of potential clients has a direct impact on sales success. It’s one thing for a client to face a choice between a group of competitors and quite another if one of the options is presented with an understanding of her core needs. This approach gives sales people a definite competitive advantage.

Marketing
Individually or in aggregate, do you understand what the prospect wants? Marketing organizations that do their homework on this point outperform those that don’t by presenting a solution that helps to define the need.

Sales
The sales organization tends to live squarely in the middle of understanding needs. Sales organizations that don’t practice this part of their craft flounder, failing to understand the need before attempting to provide a “square peg in round hole” solution. Understanding why similar companies decided to evaluate vendors helps sales professionals with context for future discussions.

Recommendations

Use post-decision interviews with recent opportunities that entered the pipeline to understand what your prospects want and what they are not receiving.

Using the same audience, find out why they include BCBS on their initial vendor list. What are the signals that BCBS send that create a general level of interest in the marketplace.

Be cautious of relying too heavily on sales professionals, agents or brokers for this information. Their attention is usually focused more on the middle and endgame than these initial sales stages.

If you can't consistently answer this question about all of your accounts, consider Win Loss Analysis from Primary Intelligence to create a consistent flow of information. Let me know if I can help. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)