What Competitive Intelligence Does Sales Want?

Sales (and companies in general) thrives on winning business. By putting an emphasis on winning, this implies that a sale is a competitive endeavor where there is often a winner and loser. And winning every contest is not an easy task. It takes skill, effort and an understanding of the game and its players.

Losing, on the other hand, is not very difficult at all. Every sales rep has a story about the time they didn’t prepare, research the opportunity, understand the competition or work hard enough to make the right value equation. The small amount of time that went into that opportunity was lost from the beginning. There was almost no chance of winning the business and the token efforts may have been less valuable than avoiding the situation altogether.

Sales professionals have spoken to us at Primary Intelligence, telling us exactly what they want at different stages of the sales cycle. The information is very enlightening. Most people would guess that “price” and “competitor’s price” would be on the list. They would be right. However, they’re not as high on the list as you might think.

When it comes to competitive intelligence, sales people want to know the following:

Before the sale

Which companies have needs I can fulfill?

What are the primary pain-points that I can use?

How will the competitors approach the same opportunity?

What advantages do I have over the competition?

What advantages do I have over the prospect’s in-house efforts?

Does this client have the ability to pay the price I’ll have to charge?

During the sale

Which competitors am I likely to see in this deal?

What are those competitors saying about their product/service/solution?

What are those competitors saying about my product/service/solution?

How do buyers make decisions (which people have to be involved?)

Which of my features is likely to be perceived as “must have” over the competition?

What price is the competition offering?

How can I be seen as the expert in this deal?

After the sale

What did I/we do to earn this business?

Where there any trouble spots that nearly cost us the business?

(If lost) Where did we fail to communicate value?

(If lost) Which competitor won and what terms did they use?

If I wanted to re-engage, what would it take to win back the business?

How can I win this type of deal in the future?

In the future, should I avoid this type of company in favor of others? (Is there something about this type of prospect that makes them less productive?)

Recommendation: Listen to the sales leaders and ground-level sales people and design your competitive intelligence program to accommodate their needs. You might find that your program changes away from scraping websites and reading 10-Ks to actively conducting 1st person research with your marketplace, either with Win Loss, Market Needs, Target Prospecting, Post-implementation and the like.

In other words, your traditional competitive intelligence program that is built to support corporate objectives may not match up at all with what the sales people are looking for. However, considering that sales is the lifeline of your business, it might be wise to give them a little love and help them win more business. In the end, this is part of what makes top companies great.

Now is the time for sales reps and managers to speak up and tell everyone what they want. If I have missed something, please post a comment in this blog, send me an email (cdalley@primary-intel.com) or call me (801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Can Sales People Sell through Change?

This week, we examine the world of sales and the importance of monitoring their performance in the sea of change we call “their world.” Science has shown that many people (sales reps included) have difficulties accepting changes and variation that are common in business life. Primary Intelligence shows a way to head of problems before attitudinal issues hurt the pipeline.

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
You Moved My Cheese! How Can I Sell?
By RoxAnne Loosle, Primary Intelligence
A company's desire to reduce sales force turnover and to develop a confident sales force make tracking a company's sales force's attitudes very important. The vocal minority aren't always the best source on which to base sales initiatives or policies...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence Tip #1 for 2008 - Make Your CI Produce Revenue
Information costs money? Intelligence makes money!” Essentially, any competitive information that a business manager acts on becomes intelligence...(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Bloomington Hospital & Healthcare Selects McKesson for Its Information Needs
Originally Published in March 2005.
Bloomington Hospital & Healthcare System's contracts for its health information systems were coming up for renewal, so the organization decided to reevaluate its options. It looked for a solution that could be integrated throughout the entire enterprise...(For more, click here)

10 Ways to Become a Better Sales Person

Welcome to the New Year.


Hopefully, you have been able to keep your resolutions for 3 days so far. If one of you resolutions was to improve your sales results in 2008, Jim Klein, a sales training professional, offers the following:

Being a better salesperson is more than learning new skills and techniques. Here are my top ten ways to become a better salesperson:


1. Smile and Walk Tall
Changing your physiology is a great way to feel better about everything going around you.


I want you to try an experiment. I want you to think and act as if you are totally depressed. Come on do this with me. Stand up and act like you're totally depressed. Notice how you are standing. Your shoulders are slumped. Your head is down. Your face is sad and your breathing is shallow.


Feels pretty awful doesn't it?


Okay, Now I want you to imagine a time when you felt on top of the world, when everything was going your way, you couldn't lose. How are you standing? Your shoulders are back, head is up, your breathing is deep and you've got a big smile on your face.


Feel the difference?


2. Surround Yourself with People Who Support You
One of the most important steps you can take in your life is to build relationships with people who genuinely care about you and will support you as you go through life.


I'm talking about people who will love you during hard times and celebrate with you during the good times. People who will be painfully honest and compassionately sympathetic. People who will make you laugh and motivate you and encourage you to be that person you were meant to be.

3. Read Positive Books at Least 15 Minutes Every Day
There's a wealth of information that has been written for you to absorb. What goes in your mind is what will come out. So fill it with good, positive information and good, positive things will happen in your life.


I suggest you start your own library. Go buy a bookshelf and set a goal to fill it with books you've read. Set up an account at Amazon or Barnes and Noble and invest in your education.


The UPS truck shows up regularly at my house with deliveries from Amazon.


If you don't want to buy them, get a library card. There free!


What books should you read? Start with Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.


4. Post Your Goals and Read Them Twice a Day
Post your goals where you'll see them at different times during your day. Put them on the bathroom mirror, in your car, your office, near your computer. Write them on a 3 x 5 card and pull out the card every chance you get and read them.


Make two specific times when you take them out and read them. One is first thing in the morning before you do anything else. This will start your day focused on your goals and their achievement.


The second is right before you go to bed. This practice will give your subconscious mind something positive to work on during the night.


5. Be Grateful For The Little Things
Find time every day to be grateful for all you have. We all have something we can be grateful for. Some of these are little things that we take for granted like our health, our home, our friends, the food in the refrigerator. Focusing on what you're grateful for will bring more of it in to your life.


I'm grateful every day when I wake up and my feet hit the floor.


6. Spend Time Doing What Matter Most
We waste too much time on things that bring little enjoyment into our lives. It's time to spend our time doing the things that matter most.


Have dinner with your family. Attend your child's play or baseball game. Help an elderly person cross the street. Take a walk and enjoy the view.


Some things are more important than money, status, power and prestige. Invest some of your time into those activities and see if it doesn't change the way you feel.


7. Treat Stumbling Blocks as Stepping Stones
So what if you didn't make that big sale, your girlfriend left you, your boss chewed you out or you made a big mistake?


Your life isn't over. So keep your eyes on your goals.


What did you do right? What did you learn? How can you use this to make yourself better or stronger? What will you do different the next time?


Use it as a stepping stone to take you to the next level.


I've had some of my biggest periods of growth after major setbacks.


8. Help others to succeed
When you're gone, nobody will be talking about how much money you made or how many awards you won, they will be talking about the lives you touched and the difference you made.


Success is so sweet when you can share your knowledge and caring with others. Give of yourself. It will make the people you touch feel good and I know how it will make you feel.


The sad part is when people come to the end of their lives and think about all the things they wish they'd done.


9. Reward yourself
When you sell that big account or reach a goal you set, reward yourself. Go buy something you've always wanted, take a trip, go out for an expensive dinner. Do something nice for you. You deserve it.


10. Tomorrow is a New Day
No matter what happened today, good or bad. You can go to sleep tonight knowing that tomorrow the slate is wiped clean. You get a fresh new 24 hours to accomplish any thing you want.

Article Source: ArticleYard

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.

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.

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)

Sales Reps and Management: Should You Listen to Your Prospects?

Listen, listen, listen. Is there a more basic sales skill? If you don’t understand your prospect, how can you possibly solve their need?

Of course, you can’t stop listening. If you turn off the voice of your prospect, you are committing sales suicide. Not very productive in my book.

But, is the voice of your prospect telling you everything you need to know? Practitioners of analytics would tell you, “No.” In fact, there are many examples of people saying one thing, but feeling another. In research, the following example illustrates this point:

“There is much evidence to indicate that responses on importance scales can be affected by other factors that distort the accuracy of the response, i.e., the need to please, social demands, cognitive dissonance, and generic importance among others. In the entertainment industry, for example, television viewers using such scales will continually rate the value of news and information above sex or escapism. However, would anyone wish to predict, based upon these data, whether the ratings of the program Seinfeld will be lower than those of The PBS News Hour? Thus, there is a much deeper level of insight to be gained from deriving the information from the respondents’ answers rather than taking them at face value."

So, how does this apply to sales? Perhaps in the one-to-one relationship building, listening directly to the client is the only avenue for information. But, when the collective voices of your clients speak, take a little time to couple their actions with their words to determine your sales performance areas that really matter.

The quadrant below shows how actual data from our win loss studies has plotted on stated importance and derived importance:

Legend
• Stated importance is plotted on the Y-axis; it represents the average importance rating given by respondents for each influencer’s characteristic or attribute.
• Derived importance is plotted on the X-axis; it is obtained by assessing the company’s performance in each influencer and determining (through proprietary modeling techniques) the impact that each influencer had on the sales outcome. The higher the derived importance, the more impact that influencer has on the overall sales win ratio.

• Upper left quadrant—“Declared important”: This quadrant consists of items that are stated to be important, but which ultimately have little correlation to a respondent’s decision-making process.
• Upper right quadrant—“Key influencers”: This quadrant reflects attributes that the respondent both states as being important and which prove to be highly influential at a derived level.
• Lower right quadrant—“Hidden opportunities”: This quadrant consists of attributes that the respondent cannot readily identify at a stated level, but which do impact overall satisfaction at a derived level.
• Lower left quadrant—“Limited impact”: Attributes in this quadrant have both low stated importance and little influence on overall satisfaction.

Now, one caveat is in order here. Some performance areas may be ranked high in stated importance, but will be low in derived importance. This doesn’t mean that a company can cut back efforts in the areas of stated importance. They still have an effect on the sales process. When an attribute has a high stated importance, the data are saying that this is a performance area that can’t be neglected without adversely altering the win loss ratio, but significant improvement may not provide actual gains in the win loss ratio.

In the end, using the most sophisticated analytics tools to determine the key influencers will eventually provide the greatest strategic decision-making ability for your company. In so many cases, this approach has improved company performance so much more than “gut feeling,” reactive competitive intelligence programs, and stated importance measurements.

This is where Primary Intelligence makes its living; providing powerful predictive analytics to our clients in order to grow their market share. Perhaps, we should discuss how this might work for you. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Sales Intelligence that Works Better Than Employee Satisfaction Surveys

In my last post, I described a tool that help predict pipeline traffic and quota attainment through the use of sales rep generated data. The tool is called Sales Confidence Index (SCI) and it functions under the premise that “The first sale that has to occur is in the heart of the sales rep.”

A 10 minute interview with your sales group will provide you with a clear view into their collective strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to address the most important training areas right now. Over time, you track the progress of your sales groups, evolving and adapting to changes in your marketplace and company.

Of course, the results can be broken down by subgroups, geography, etc…

Because Primary Intelligence is an objective third party gathering this information and presenting the responses in a way that preserves anonymity, you can be assured that you will receive data that is more candid and honest than what you would receive through anecdotal evidence or brainstorming sessions.

A precise leading indicator of future sales success
Primary Intelligence’s SCI Web-based application provides index scores on 19 key factors that influence your sales team’s confidence and performance. These scores, and the metrics derived from them, give you precise indicators of future risk and opportunity—allowing you to allocate your resources, time, money, and training to those areas that will give you the greatest return on investment. This analysis gives you a three- to six-month window to make any necessary changes before potential risks become actual issues that will negatively impact your sales efforts.



Monitor the pulse of your sales channels, direct and indirect
Primary Intelligence’s Sales Confidence Index is the only technology solution that gives you a comprehensive understanding of your sales team’s level of engagement. Through SCI’s customizable dashboard, you can rapidly progress from taking a general “temperature reading” of your sales team’s morale to tracking and trending their confidence in 55 discrete areas—giving you the information to tailor your training and sales initiatives to those areas that will have the greatest impact on your bottom line.

Sales Confidence Index, as a key component of your sales intelligence efforts, provides your organization with the objective data you need to make informed decisions about how to enable your sales team to be more confident and generate greater revenue.

If you're ready to have a predictor of sales success, maybe you should take a 2 month test drive of the tool. It may make a ton of difference. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Should You Always be Closing?

In a recent interview conducted with a current customer of our client, we found the following feedback about the ongoing relationship with the sales team:

“Each time they talk with a different person in my company, it always seems like they are trying to sell something else. You always get that sales aspect even though we've already passed that point. I would like them to be more personable and conversational, and deal with the reason we called the meeting. Let’s talk more about what we are trying to do as a company. If I don’t have any needs right now, don’t push me. When I do have a need, you’ll be the first one I call.”

While selling skills are always important, this example tells me that one must take care to be a trusted resource first, sales rep second.
Just a little lesson learned from feedback gathered

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter

In this issue, we attempt to cross the chasm between Sales and Marketing, make Competitive Intelligence part of your current VOC programs and show how a major technology deal was won.

Cover Story
The Bridge Between Sales and Marketing - Sales Intelligence
By Mike Brose, Primary Intelligence Inc.The conflict between sales and marketing is an age-old story that will probably never end. The misunderstanding between the two departments is often based on pride rather than collaboration and results. At its core, Marketing is more effective when its efforts bring qualified prospects to the sales organization. Sales wants nothing more than to close business... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence from Clients - What Should I Ask?
If you want to win more business, you have to take it from the competition. I know that's obvious, but generating competitive intelligence that actually helps you compete more effectively is a surprising low priority of too many companies (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
How HP Canada Won a $10 Million Contract with Carleton University
Originally Published in June 2005.
To ensure that it could meet the needs of its students and research programs, Carleton University decided to upgrade its network infrastructure. From a list of 10 initial responses, the short list was narrowed to HP Canada and... (For more, click here)

Sales Intelligence – Elucidation on the Cognitive Aspect

I stumbled across a blog by Dr. Greg Chapman. In one of his entries, he quotes an article by Jim Prigg that contains some ideas on Sales Intelligence that I might not have otherwise considered.

While I usually think about sales intelligence as information that provides a competitive advantage or makes a sales individual more effective, Mr. Prigg talks about Sales Intelligence as a cognitive skill.

I’ll let you decide if this is useful for you. Personally, I enjoyed the different perspective.

What of the binding glue of Sales Intelligence in the world? This is indeed a rare ability to bring buyer and seller, protagonist and antagonist and
negotiator and purchaser together?

This unique skill is most evident in the sale of intangibles (insurance), concepts (wealth creation), ideas (aged care) and ideologiesSo often in our society academics, bureaucrats, legislators and consumerists fail to understand that there is a real demand for Sales Intelligence.

So often people don’t want to face reality and purchase the product that solves their problem. Case in point: Insurance. Yet our capitalist economy depends on it to keep the wheels of industry, commerce and society rolling.

Sales Intelligence is absolutely essential to the success of our corporate, business and personal life. Yet, scant regard is given to this skill by those who wish to frame our consumerist laws and social mores today.

Sales Intelligence draws its strength and resilience from across all the intelligences. Yet people who are illiterate, blindly ignorant, stubborn, deaf and dumb, devoid of analytically skills and numerically challenged can be make tremendous sales people. Perhaps that irks the intellectuals?

So what are some of the components of this Sales Intelligence?

Compassion.........................Solving problems
A competitive spirit...........Enthusiastically wanting to achieve
Empathy..............................Single minded focus to see as others do
Goals definition..................Rewards for effort
Emotional strength...........Record keeping
Self analysis.......................Skills practice
Call persistence.................Profitable productivity
Self belief............................A sense of humour
Resilience...........................Persistence
Diagnostic analysis..........Sharing

One of the remarkable things about Sales Intelligence is that you never stop learning. There are always new challenges and there is always a constant and universal demand for the skill.

Any other thoughts on the topic? If so, please share. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Sales / Competitive Intelligence – Know Thy Enemy

Anecdotally, you know who the competitors are around you. You have a pretty good idea of how often you run up against certain vendors. But, unless you actually quantify the landscape, you run the risk of being surprised by up-and-comers.

One of the things that we do at Primary Intelligence is help our clients identify their competition landscape. Over time, we show how the landscape is changing and how competitive situations may evolve into the future.

For example, in the case of a heath insurance provider, we collected data from their recent won and lost sales opportunities. Below, you’ll see a table of data, with all vendors’ names changed to provide confidentiality:


While our client expected to see National Health Coverage most of the time, they were surprised at the prevalence of Squirrels Health Plans. In the previous round of intelligence, we found that Squirrels was encountered in approximately 20% of the sales opportunities. The fact that this percentage had increased to 64% indicated a very big change in the competitive landscape.

Turns out, Squirrels was starting to win a larger percentage of the deals than before, too. The competitive threat level was increasing faster than anecdotal information or analyst recommendations could keep track. Without this type of view into the landscape, our client was destined to miss critical competitive warnings until the situation progressed too far. As it turned out, Primary Intelligence was able to use this intelligence as a jumping-off point and find out:

Why Squirrels was appearing so often

What they were offering to get into the same kind of deals as our client

How to combat their value proposition effectively and maintain existing accounts while selling more productively against them

While I will admit that intuition, experience and gut-feelings are important parts of the sales process, wise companies combined those factors with hard intelligence to apply resources to the most productive markets; no reason to be surprised when reasonable options exist.

If you need an idea of how this would work in your company, leave me a post, call (801-838-9600 x5050) or send an email (cdalley@primary-intel.com).

New Sales Effectiveness Best Practices Study

CSO Insights recent survey of over 1,300 companies worldwide showed that increasing sales effectiveness was the top objective for Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) for 2007 as they look to hit their revenue targets. But what exactly does sales effectiveness look like? Is it hiring more reps or different reps? Is it more or better training for our sales teams? Is CRM a way to increase effectiveness or is it a distraction for sales reps? And what role does marketing play in optimizing the performance of sales teams?

To help answer questions like these, CSO Insights is doing a follow-on study to determine what sales strategies and tactics are really improving sales effectiveness, and also how consistently are sales organizations adopting these best practices.

If you will take 15 minutes to share your experiences regarding what is working or not working in regards to increasing the sales effectiveness of your sales force, CSO Insights will send you a copy of the aggregated study analysis when it is compiled. To take part in this online survey just click on the following link:

CLICK HERE

As an added benefit, immediately after you complete the survey you will be able to download CSO Insights’ latest analysis on Proactive Sales Intelligence.

If you have any questions about this study or concerns about confidentiality feel free to contact Jim Dickie, Managing Partner, CSO Insights (303) 530 6930 or jim.dickie@csoinsights.com. CSO Insights is an independent research and benchmarking firm and holds respondents’ answers in strictest confidence. I encourage you to participate in the 2007 Sales Effectiveness Best Practices survey or direct it to the appropriate person on your staff to do so.

Webinar Wrapup - Does Your Sales Team Have Heart

Yesterday, Adam Dunford (VP Product Development) and I presented an answer to that very question through our webinar. The idea is that the performance of the sales team, how they think and feel about their products, services, and management team clearly impacts their efforts, success, and $$$. It is common sense that if the sales team is demoralized, win rates and pipelines are bound to suffer.


In response to that idea, Primary Intelligence has developed a product called Sales Confidence Index. The following description will help you understand the purpose of this system:

• Consumer Confidence Index - The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is defined as the degree of optimism on the state of the economy that consumers are expressing through their activities of savings and spending Economists closely track consumer confidence because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity.

• Sales Confidence Index - Companies closely track salesperson confidence because sales team efforts account for the economic activity of the firm. The confidence of the salesperson, loyalty, his or her competitiveness, confidence in the strategic direction, value delivery, and innovativeness measures the sales person’s outlook over the next six months.

If you would like to watch a reply of the webinar, the recorded version is available here. If you’re willing to watch that demo, talk to me about the possibility of the offer extended at the end of the presentation. (801-838-9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Do You Know Why You Win Sales Opportunities?

It is very common that companies approach us at Primary Intelligence requesting the answer to “why do we lose?”

At Primary Intelligence, we strongly recommend analyzing won sales opportunities with the same diligence as your losses. The benefits are too strong to ignore:

• Without win information , it is difficult to understand what you are doing right. How can you replicate your best practices if you don’t really know what they are?



• Good information on your wins will provide a story you can tell to other prospects in similar situations.



• You can increase your library of reference information with some detailed win information.



• Using the same interview guide, you can measure performance gaps between the wins and losses. Eventually, you will identify consistent weaknesses that can be addressed.



• With wins and losses, you can populate predictive analytics to create strategic plans.

In one of our recent wins, we were pleased to find that part of our selling cycle differentiated us from our competitor:

QAD recently chose to contract with Primary Intelligence for win loss and competitive intelligence service because of its familiarity and positive prior experience with the vendor. The Company also considered [a competitor], but Rod Sidrow, competitive strategy manager, said that there was not much of a sales cycle involved and that selecting Primary Intelligence was a straightforward choice. He recognized the strength of PI’s product, asserting that once he had seen what it had to offer, “[He] didn’t need to look any further.”

Part of what made Primary Intelligence’s offering so appealing was that Sidrow got to experience what the actual product would look like before making the purchase. Primary Intelligence offered him two free sample opportunities written specifically for his business to review, but Sidrow had trouble even obtaining a sample of [the competitor’s] past work.

Sales and Marketing were both pleased to find that the sales tools and messages worked even better than anticipated. This type of feedback (along with hundreds of other data points) have helped move Primary Intelligence into a leadership position in Win Loss, Account Retention, Target Profiling and Customer Loyalty. With information from our wins, we understand what our clients value and how we can leverage our strengths to make the strongest sales case possible.

I recommend that losses be studied, lessons learned and corrective action taken. But, don’t ignore the wins. They can teach you just as much.

Let’s chat about this sometime. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Getting to the Root of Your Sales Success (Win Loss Analysis)

Many companies want to know the best way to collect win loss information from their recent completed sales opportunities. While Primary Intelligence is happy to do this work for you, feel free to take away the following information and use it in your organization. These ideas (along with the past few posts) have provided information that should help anyone to successfully organize their first sales intelligence campaign:

Which accounts and how many accounts will be targeted for Win Loss analysis?
The accounts to be targeted for Win Loss review will be determined by you. Some companies choose to select specific key accounts for review, while most others elect to review a percentage of all their opportunities within a given time period.

Typically the number of accounts analyzed for a company in a given quarter range from a low of 10 to a high of 500. Ultimately the number selected should be based on your available budget or available resources for Win Loss and the goals you’re hoping to accomplish with this program.

How is the information collected?
For most Win Loss projects, the information is primarily collected via telephone interviews. We find this method to be the most effective. In some cases, a web-administered interview may be implemented, but the level of qualitative data ends up being almost nonexistent.

How many wins versus losses do we include?
Most companies use an equal number of wins and losses. The actual number of interviews will vary based on your specific project goals and your available data. While a few companies have chosen to focus on their losses, our experience has shown that it is very difficult to uncover best practices and seperate them from the weaknesses if you don't have quantitative proof of what is working well.

Can we get every account we win or lose to participate?
In some cases all opportunities targeted for review have participated, but in other projects it has proven impossible. The actual participation in every project varies based on a number of factors including, your sales relationship with the prospect, the amount of lapsed time since the decision was made, turnover and relocation of key persons in the accounts, types of questions asked, and the actual time to complete the interview.

Therefore, we have determined that a 50% response rate is a fair expectation. The final participation rate could be much higher or lower. The participation rate generally increases over time as your prospects and customers free up time on their schedule.

(And now, the plug for using Primary Intelligence...)

Why select Primary Intelligence to perform the Win Loss Analyses?
We understand the unique challenges faced by companies in today’s economy. Business as usual is no longer an option. Primary Intelligence solutions are based on structured, systematic, repeatable methodologies. Our extensive experience in performing Win Loss Analyses, execution ability and the quality of our work ensure the success of every program.

A few of our happy sales intelligence clients include companies such as Avaya, Microsoft, and Symantec among many others. The data collection methodologies and analytical tools used by Primary Intelligence provide a solid foundation upon which to conduct Win Loss Analyses in any industry. Additional references can be provided upon request.

We're here to help you be more successful. If you have any ideas, thoughts or a specific need, talk to me. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Know Your Prospect and Sell More

Primary Intelligence has recently introduced a new product called Target Prospecting. Our goal is to provide our clients with the strongest chance to win business and outmaneuver the competition.

It’s the salesperson who has the clearest understanding of an opportunity who has the greatest advantage. Imagine speaking with a prospect, already knowing their specific needs and having a clear understanding of what it will take to win the sale – while your competition is still struggling to determine the best person to talk to.

The key issue brought to us by our Target Prospecting clients is simple: they have a list of potential customers they want to reach out to, but they don’t know anything about those prospects. Going to the Web and grabbing demographic information on the company may tell you whether or not they are in your “sweet spot,” but it doesn’t tell you anything about what they are looking to buy, how they make their decisions, or what their unique needs may be. Without this information, our clients’ sales teams were going in cold, wasting valuable time simply trying to get a sense of the opportunity, oftentimes finding out that it wasn’t even a good fit for their solutions.

Primary Intelligence’s Target Prospecting does all this initial groundwork for our clients. All they have to do is provide us with their “wish list” of prospects and, using our proprietary methodologies, we will conduct in-depth interviews with these potential customers to gain a better understanding of their plans, their needs, and what they are looking for in a product or provider.

With Primary Intelligence’s Target Prospecting, our clients now have the information they need to understand the opportunity as they enter it, and can address prospects’ unique needs. Specifically, from the prospect interview profiles, our clients learn:

• What features/functions are most important in the minds of their prospects
• When their prospects will be looking to buy
• The nuances of their prospects’ decision making processes
• Which competitors their prospects have used, and which ones they are considering
• The factors that might lead their prospects to change vendors
• The products and services their prospects are looking to implement

With the information they’ve gained, our clients have not only been able to qualify and prioritize their prospective customers; they have been able to strategize the way they approach individual prospects, giving them a much greater chance of winning these accounts.

Download a SAMPLE or talk to me. I can tell you more. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Win Loss Makes Selling Easier

If you found a surefire way to make your company grow, you would have to consider the ROI potential of the program, initiative, solution, right?

Well, I did a little digging today with a couple of clients to find recent ROI success stories. The results were surprising. I’ll share a couple of experiences here:

“We did a round of win loss analysis with Primary Intelligence. The process included interviews with our newly won accounts and lost prospects from the past 6 months. Primary Intelligence provided us with individual opportunity profiles for each sales engagement.

“After we (sales leadership) received the profiles, we identified the 10 biggest losses (based on opportunity size). We reviewed the feedback, needs and perceptions that caused the prospect to choose our competitor. Then, we created a plan to reengage each of those 10 lost prospects. Since this was our first attempt at a formal post-sales reengagement, we didn’t have any expectations of success. We just wanted to see what was possible.

“So far, based on the intelligence we received, we have won 3 of those 10 losses. These were multi-million dollar accounts that potentially stretch out over long-term
contracts.

“This is just one way we are using our Sales Intelligence provided by Primary Intelligence. The ROI potential of this sales intelligence is mind-boggling.”

A second client of Primary Intelligence described their ROI experience in this manner:

“When we perform win loss analysis with Primary Intelligence, we provide PI with a list of our recent wins and losses. These sales opportunities are pulled from our SFA and are based on the best information that our sales reps have.

“Primary Intelligence calls through the list of opportunities, setting up appointments for interviews and weeding out opportunities that don’t qualify for analysis. While engaged in this activity, PI regularly finds a few opportunities that were categorized by our company as losses, but are still in consideration. These opportunities may be lukewarm to very warm, but they are not dead.

“PI immediately calls us to let us know when they have discovered a ‘nugget,’ or a potential opportunity that needs immediate attention. We send that information directly back to the sales rep and our conversion rates in these instances is surprisingly high.

“We more than pay for our entire sales intelligence effort based on these nuggets alone. The strategic and tactical data we use to create new business is actually just frosting on the cake after you consider the revenue that PI creates for us.”

Primary Intelligence provides data and consulting to help companies in over 45 industries create strategic and tactical improvement. Our work extends from the executive boardroom to sales, marketing and product leadership and down to each individual sales rep. We have a methodology to improve the performance of the most key departments in your company.

If you would like to know a little more about these experiences or specific information about the companies that have achieved these results, call me. (801-838-9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Win Loss and SellingPower

Last year, SellingPower interviewed me (on behalf of Primary Intelligence) to understand the potential of intelligence in the sales organization. (Click here for the article)

In brief, SellingPower was interested in how an organization can grow sales through competitive intelligence, sales intelligence and, specifically, win loss.

"The power of sales intelligence is driving more and more companies to take a hard look at Win/Loss analysis and what it can do for them. Dalley predicts that within five years, most organizations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue will have a formal Win/Loss program in place. They’re realizing, Dalley concludes, that while they’ve always relied on feedback from their sales reps, it’s ultimately the prospect’s perception that matters."

Primary Intelligence specializes in producing intelligence to make your company more competitive. We have systems, tools and programs to distribute intelligence and make each individual sales rep more effective.

Read the article (click here if you didn't click on the link above) and let me know what you think of the ROI potential of win loss, Primary Intelligence style... (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Same Vision Insurance Plan, Different Model

It was easy for our client to go into the sales opportunity. They were pitching a comprehensive vision plan to a multi-billion dollar computer systems vendor. They had the right people. They said the right things. They had a price advantage of six figures.

But, (based on this opportunity review by Primary Intelligence) it wasn’t enough to knock out the incumbent:

What were the primary reasons you did not select VisionPlan?
“Network disruption was the primary reason. The business model for VisionPlan is strategically different than the business model for RIGHTEYE. RIGHTEYE’s model relies on incorporating individual, independent ophthalmologists and optometrists across the nation. VisionPlan utilizes chains like Optical Mart. When we did a network comparison between the physicians within the respective zip codes of our employees, the disruption was more than 80 percent. That would mean, if I were currently a patient of Dr. Jones and we selected VisionPlan, Dr. Jones may not be a part of the VisionPlan network. The cost model was very compelling, but we weren’t willing to disrupt 28,000 people and their family members to save a couple hundred thousand dollars.”

Was this a case of not having the right service, communicating poorly or staying in deal too long when the chances of winning were too slim?

What do you think? (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801.838.9600 x5050)