Why Do Your Clients Buy? Sales Intelligence Will Tell You

In the last post, I showed you reasons why a company’s prospects did not buy from our prospect. Today, I’ll show the top reasons they purchased from anyone at all.

Below, you will see a chart of the most often mentioned reasons for selecting a vendor. While price/cost is still high on the chart, in a B2B setting, a significantly higher percentage were more interested in the ability of the solution (in this case, a technology offering) to meet their needs.

Notes to Consider
• Respondent companies were able to choose more than one reason
• Percentages don’t necessarily add to 100% due to an abbreviated list of most common responses
• The above-mentioned responses include wins and losses for our prospect

If I am involved in sales in any way, how much more encouragement do I need to make sure that my sales reps LISTEN to the clients, ASK probing questions of the prospects about their needs and then MAP my solution to as many as possible?

Once I have taken that step, I would look for intelligence on my competitors. I want to know how they are mapping their solution to those same needs. I want to take the purchase decision away from cost and other factors and straight into solving their problems as elegantly as possible. If you are able to build an individual value proposition on the things that matter most, you are likely to do much more with your pipeline in short order.

BTW, the above-mentioned results are simple to gather. Ask your clients and lost prospects. They’ll be happy to tell you how your competition performed. And, if you would like a cleaner, more consistent and reliable set of data, look into a 3rd-party vendor. Odds are, your results will provide an ROI story of multiples over the expense.

And, as usual, I’ll throw in my shameless marketing plug. Primary Intelligence is ready to serve your needs. We have done more sales intelligence work than anyone else. We’ll evaluate your business, suggest a plan and follow up with recommendations, training and change management. If you need answers, give me a call (801-838-9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)

SellingPower magazine Review of Primary Intelligence Webinar

SellingPower (the leading source of sales management information) gave Primary Intelligence top billing in its Sales Management Newsletter (Keeping Tabs On the Competition). Heather Baldwin, Contributing Editor, attended our webinar in April and provided a very thorough summary of our philosophy to create impactful competitive intelligence from your most productive information channels; your clients.

Give it a read. Most Sales Managers should recognize opportunities to quickly put simple competitive intelligence initiatives into play.

For more info, check out an early blog on our competitive intelligence, Voice of the Customer Should be Used to Collect Competitive Intelligence

Or, let's chat. (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)

The Infinitely Small Nuances of Sales Meetings

In a recent sales opportunity interviewed by Primary Intelligence, we found that a point as small as the introduction process should not be discounted. (For more on this sales opportunity, please see my post from 5/9/2007

Do you have any comments regarding the vendors’ in-person presentations?
“They were very good. It was a very tough decision. The presentations when they came in here were just fine; when we went into their facilities, things were just set up differently.

“At Trilight, we went in and we sat and chatted, but we also walked around more and met the person that we would be working with in each area there. It was like a round robin tour. At Manifesto, we did do a tour of their facility, but all of the meeting basically took place in one room. We could ask questions of the experts and they would come and go. Sometimes when you're walking around it's hard to focus because there's so much going on.

“When we did the tour with Trilight, we knew where we were going, but I don't think we realized what was coming next. When we were at Manifesto, we had an agenda, and we went through it. In hindsight, Trilight’s way seems to be a little more efficient, with Tracy answering all the questions, but I think that's where the team got the feeling that Tracy had all the knowledge, not her team.”

The most important thing here is that Trilight had information that would have told them that a sit-down meeting would be more beneficial, but the value of that information was discounted to the point that they made the wrong decision. Ultimately, this mistake essentially cost them a very large bit of business.

If you want to know the right moves to make, you need to talk to Primary Intelligence. Helping sales teams sell more is what we do. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

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)

Moving Intelligence through the Sales Force

“80% of the CI needed in an organization is resident in the heads of the salesforce at any give time.”

Makes me wonder why systems for moving the tribal wisdom through the organization are so few and far between.

But, if you believe the statement above and you want your entire sales organization to benefit from on-time delivery of the best intelligence and experience possible, you should look at streetsmarts, a product by Involve Technology:

1-The first step in the process is to search for advice in the existing content. Of course, the content library builds over time and the relevance of the information (according to users) becomes more refined.

2-The search results are displayed in a logical layout, just as they would be on the most searchable pages on the web

3-Results are displayed with a link, summary, date and other information that will provide a user with the ability to determine relevance or potential to help

a. Trophy (best practice) – This is given to a piece of advice if the advice has received positive ratings by a majority of users.
b. New – When a piece of advice is newer than the pre-established time limit
c. Fire (hot topic) – if the information has generated a lot of interest and readership, it is designated as a hot topic
d. By – The author can be referenced. The link takes the user to a profile that includes background and contact information
e. Usefulness score – Shows (with stars) how useful the information has been ranked over time. Also, shows the number of reviewers

This is just scratching the surface of their technology. Involve Technology has built in a number of different incentive systems and other knowledge bases to ensure the highest possible usage, both of readers and content generators.

Primary Intelligence thinks this tool is great because it allows us channel through which to put the intelligence generated by live prospects and customers. With streetsmarts, sales reps have nearly every piece of competitive intelligence and advantage at their fingertips. And, news of competitor tactics are spread throughout the organization in minutes.

If you have interest, give me a call. I can help you understand how the combination of technology and intelligence can improve your competitive success rate by up to 20% within a few months. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Even When You Win, You May Learn Something Critical to your Sales Process

In an recent sales post-mortem review, we found a case of a company that successfully sold additional product into an existing account. The sales opportunity was competitive, but the incumbent won, which was not unexpected. In fact, the client had very good things to say about the incumbent vendor:

What were the primary reasons you selected FlashNet*?
“We selected FlashNet for their New/Existing Account program, the return on investment over a five-year period, their long-standing relationship with our organization, and their commitment to service.

We’ve been working with FlashNet for four years. We’ve had a lot of success with FlashNet taking care of us as a customer, making sure were happy and that the account works smoothly. It’s very easy to work with FlashNet.”

Now, the client spoke well of the competitor. The situation was a close win for the incumbent, and the losing vendor should probably keep its eyes open for opportunities to get its foot back in the door.

But, let’s look at some feedback that the winning vendor discovered about the way its prospects and clients perceive the purchase process. I think that this feedback needs to be understood at the highest levels before it turns into too much friction for incoming clients:

Additional comments (FlashNet):
Overall cost: “The cost per unit that we currently have with FlashNet is fairly low from a market perspective. When we purchased in bulk, we found that in one case it almost increased in cost per unit, which shouldn’t happen. When you see a sticker price on a car, you know that’s for retail. When you say you’re going to buy 40 cars, you shouldn’t be paying more than retail for each one, so I was dissatisfied with that.

“That’s how their sales management works. The salesperson that is assigned to me can only offer us up to a certain level himself. Then that has to go to his sales manager who can only authorize up to, say, $100,000. That means they have to take it to their vice president of sales who can authorize anything at that point. The problem is, when you make a single purchase order of over $500,000 worth of equipment, the salesperson you’ve already negotiated with over a long period of time to give margin to has their hands tied. They can’t make recommendations for the decision and neither can the sales manager.

“So the vice presidents get involved and look at the margins, and because the margins have already been so shrunk, they hold the line. Unfortunately, not only does that represent them poorly, it increases the time for decision making and it doesn’t really help—especially when you’re looking to place a fair and reasonable order for half a million dollar’s worth of equipment. I don’t want to argue about half a percent; give me $5,000. That’s kind of how things work. You expect to see a discount from mark-and-base orders, and that doesn’t happen with FlashNet.”

If the prospects can’t purchase in a way that makes sense to them, some will leave. Fortunately, there was a bunch of goodwill built up in the existing relationship that carried the sale through. But, if loyal clients feel this way, what are the new prospects going to do when they can’t find a satisfactory way to deal with FlashNet?

This is the kind of competitive intelligence that a company should perform on itself to make sure that processes, policies, guidelines, message and all that stuff are up to snuff.

If you need a little help getting these kinds of feedback mechanisms in place or if you want to bounce some ideas off of me, let’s chat. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600)


*Names changed to maintain confidentiality.

Your Competitive Intelligence - SWOT Analysis

The usual Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat analysis provides information on you and your typical competitors. A typical SWOT is listed below:


My guess is that this data is a good start for most sales people, but not nearly enough. Sales managers and reps need more analysis.

In other words, if a sales organization acts on data, the results need to be delivered in a format that tells them the “so what.” Analysts and researchers need to provide recommendations, analysis and go-forward recommendations.

But, this is a good start that might be a foundation for the type of information your company needs.

What kind of intelligence does your company use in the sales department? What do the sales guys want that make them more effective? Let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-960o x5050)

For VP Sales Only

Some say that knowledge is power. We at Primary Intelligence believe that the right kind of knowledge is exponentially powerful.

An example of our intelligence and feedback we provide is listed below. In this example, our client is Tenscon, a software solutions provider. Now, we have changed the names to maintain confidentiality, but our customer list includes companies such as Microsoft, Avaya, Symantec and EDS are the kinds that tend to do very good work with us.

The table below shows "Tenscon's" competitive advantage against 4 competitors (again, names have been changed to maintain confidentiality, but the results are real).

The results show some competitive advantages in the company and sales, but the product has some significant weaknesses against Sistemic and Howein Partners:

Overall, Tenscon had generally higher performance ratings than the competition, especially in the company and service drivers. However, several ratings for the sales team were lower than those of the competition as a whole, indicating that some improvement in these areas may be needed.

An analysis of the responses from clients yields the following key findings concerning Tenscon’s performance:

-Tenscon was seen as a strong and solid company, but was not generally seen as an innovator. As a senior vice president from Dillent explained, “I don’t think they showed as much innovation in their solution. I think they took a much more conservative approach, a much more introverted approach rather than an innovative approach.” The CIO from ABC Aerolineas echoed this sentiment by saying, “We have some applications that we expected to be technologically advanced, but what they offered us was delayed during the delivery process. By this I mean that some applications were not as innovative as we expected them to be.”

-Some clients were concerned that Tenscon was not offering a unified solution, but rather a set of pre-packaged offerings. For instance, a respondent from ABC Aerolineas said that the initial Tenscon team did “have a real understanding of our model, and they just trying to sell us stand-alone systems. This was the idea. The idea was a cost-effective strategy, and people from Tenscon did not understand our model, our strategy, the market, or our needs. They just about systems and stand-alone processes.” A representative from Flentic Crendall explained, “One of
complexities of [Tenscon] is it is five separate businesses that have been swept into one company. It’s trying get them to work as one company with one approach. don’t think that there was a perfect solution.”

-While a majority (66 percent) of clients believed that Tenscon put the right people in front of them, there were some concerns that decision makers were not involved in the negotiation process. A vice president at JNPD expressed this sentiment, saying, “As some of these things escalate, or we run across impasses, there might be opportunities in the future that if we were
able to talk directly to the true decision makers, then it might expedite the process.” A senior vice president from Fiserv also said, “It took a while to get the right representatives from the healthcare side and from the financial side [of Tenscon] to be on our team.”

-Understanding the clients’ needs and business requirements was a theme throughout the interviews, and an area where respondents believed Tenscon could improve. Tenscon’s ratings in this area were slightly lower than the average for other bidding companies, indicating an area of advantage for Tenscon’s competitors. As the CIO of Coles Meyer explained, “Sometimes I was worried [that they gave] affirmative answers without really understanding what the issues were. At
times I felt they didn’t understand how big and complicated the work was going to be. ‘Let’s make the sale and then afterwards worry about how we are going to deliver it.’ There was a lack of business and delivery knowledge with the up front sales team. With other vendors we don’t experience that.”

If you have any ideas of how to make these data come to life in your organization, drop me a line. (801.838.9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Tactical Sales Intelligence - Creating Competitive Advantages for Sales Teams

For a sales rep who deals in the tactical world, an objective measurement of strengths and weaknesses may be the difference between winning and losing a deal.

At Primary Intelligence we provide a view into the prospects’ perception of your sales efforts. We measure their perception of the sales team, company performance and product fit. These three areas are almost always considered in complex sales.

In a more transactional setting, we find that product and sales performance are the most important.

Recently, we completed a competitive intelligence analysis for a client and found that they had a number of competitive strengths. Their list of competitive weaknesses was relatively short, which was no surprise considering their prominent market position.


However, if there was an area of concern, it was in the performance of the sales team. There were a number of areas where, compared to the competition, their scores did not measure up.

Presentations, Subject Matter Knowledge and Understanding Business Requirements are all areas of some concern. The recommendation to the sales group was to improve the presentation style and delivery. Additionally, the sales team should spend a little more time practicing their listening and understanding skills. If they were to listen better to requirements, the presentations would probably improve as they became more targeted to the specific needs of the prospect.

Again, these are tactical improvements that need to be addressed right now to level the playing field. These are not strategic recommendations. For more insight on the data needed to make strategic plans at the executive level, see my other blog regarding impact-based competitive intelligence.

Do you see something in the data here that I’m missing? Let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Skills + Knowledge = Power

I read a sales newsletter by Shamus Brown. He sends a topic each day, which is pretty ambitious if he is writing all of his content himself.

On March 21st, he wrote about The 3 Biggest Assets of Your Sales Career

He lists Selling Skills, Industry Knowledge and Customer Contacts. I wouldn't dare argue with the value of any of those 3.

I would expand on the second point, Industry Knowledge. There are so many facets to this idea and you can't rely on yourself to explore them all. I mean, if you spent your time collecting all of the data that could be categorized as "useful for gaining an advantage, when would you sell?

Value selling makes the most sense to me. Identify a pain that is causing grief (or a benefit that would be VERY significant) and show the solution. Make your clients/prospects repeat back to you the benefit to be gained and the consequence of not using your solution.

And, if you really want to move ahead, make sure that your organization supports you with additional marketing data to tell you precisely how you can most effectively differentiate yourself.

If you are serious about improving your effectiveness, don't forget the benefit of intelligence.

(Primary Intelligence would be happy to help you)