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February 3rd, 2012
 Think of the times in life when you are barraged with a tidal wave of information, but all you really want to know is, “what do I really need to know?” That inch-thick stack of mortgage paperwork. Credit card agreements. Mobile phone instruction booklets. Automobile owner manuals. Insurance policies.
Now let’s picture the documents that tell you only what you need to know. Recipes, for instance. They tell you: Get these specific things out of the cupboard or fridge … if you don’t have some items, buy them … and this is how much you need … now do these actions in this order. Recipes walk you through only the actions needed to get the desired result.
Recipes do not tell us all information there is to know about cooking and baking and the foods we’re making. There is a reason why measurements should be precise when baking. There is a science to proper substitutions. There is a method behind why some foods are ideal paired together and others should never touch each other on the same plate. But a recipe doesn’t get into all that. If you want more information, there are plenty of books and Internet sites where you can learn.
CRM contains an entire library of information about customers and sales. But you don’t need the whole library all the time. Isn’t it counterproductive to walk into a library and face stacks and stacks of books when all you want is a book about how to train a new puppy? No one just wanders the shelves containing millions of pages of information if they’re seeking a specific solution and they need it fast. Instead, there’s a simple search method that gives a few choices, and it gives the brief information needed — in this case, a code of letters and numbers – to quickly and easily find the location of the right book.
Our vision is to do this for CRM. To deliver only the information that sales reps need each day to take action. To deliver only the most relevant information, e.g. the information that leads directly to actions that will produce sales and revenue and keep profitable customers happy.
We believe that less information is often more valuable.
So, how much information — and what kind of information – are your sales reps receiving? How can you make it actionable information, more like a recipe?
January 30th, 2012
Sourcing new outbound leads is a never-ending endeavor for sales and marketing. Prophesies of cold calling being dead have not come true if only for the simple reason that prospecting through all channels must be on the table to fuel the engine of sales growth.
Companies typically procure lead data from four main types of leads:
- Internally-generated leads: Referrals, word of mouth, events, etc.
- Intelligence-based leads: Newsfeeds, industry alerts, personnel changes, etc. InsideView is one good example of this, but we believe LinkedIn also fits this mold (the evolution of this is exciting)
- Special or vertical lists: Trade associations, commerce groups, organizations operating with a geographic charter
- Compiled lists: The likes of D&B and InfoGroup, including credit files
But as any sales or marketing manager knows, simply dumping more records on a sales rep is a thing of the past. Lead nurturing and scoring are the norm, wherein prospects are nurtured until they raise their hands as hot leads, and are then forwarded to sales. In addition, predictive modeling that identifies the most likely prospects based on the “ideal customer” profile must be part of the mix.
It’s clear that the prospects at the top of the funnel – the ones you might pay for – are not sales ready. Further criteria and filters must be added which reduce the number of truly viable sales-worthy leads. Let’s take a look at how the leads get whittled down in the pipeline – we call this the “prospect waterfall:”
The net result is, if you are paying for leads and then “throwing away” 55% of the records (typical from our experience), your true list cost goes up by almost 125%. Add the additional processing cost, sales rep fatigue and opportunity costs, and you can see why your prospecting results and ROI are not what you had hoped for!
For best ROI, pay only for what you use.
If your current processes throw away prospect records that you paid for before the sales reps see them, it is time to reassess your lead generation program. Or as one of our clients put it, “stop buying leads until you figure it out.”
January 24th, 2012
That which is scarce is precious.
That which is abundant has little value.
More or less, these are the lessons of life.
Sales organizations go through the CRM selection process with great diligence. They spend even more resources redesigning existing processes, integrating the technology and people, training and rolling out the shiny new thing with great fanfare. Making sure every sales person is empowered.
Yet adoption remains at an abysmal level by measures beyond logins, “clicking on plays” and “call blocks.” Why?
Here are three most cited reasons aggregated from numerous research:
- It is delivered primarily as a technical tool, relegating the human element.
- It is perceived as management pushing something from above.
- It is not believed to generate more value: sales, profits, targets.
In other words, it is not adding value to the life of the sales person.
One sales leader I know used to say, “if you don’t know the value of what you’re doing, then stop doing it. You will find out.” Yes, we are asking you to consider the opposite of what every expert says, everything you have heard, and even what we’ve said on these pages – stop doing SFA – if you are not sure of the value being delivered.
But wait, you say! How could we stop using SFA? Well, you start by MAKING IT SCARCE.
If you really believe you are adding value with your SFA, then start by giving it to less people. Select a team, or select reps via a lottery system. If not the entire SFA, then some components which are considered valuable should only go to a select few. Make it a privilege to get these components.
No pushing from the top management tier. If a few sales reps using the system see that their lives are better, they meet goals easier, it is intuitive to use, that data is accurate, analytics is meaningful and timely, and it flows well with their daily activities, then acceptance and adoption of the system will spread throughout the sales force.
Make the SFA about adding value, the people who are using it, and the results being delivered. And forget about adoption rates.
January 16th, 2012
 In this post we look at solving the critical business problem of managing the customer buying cycle, and how tools — simple to advanced — can help sales people support their customers.
In a repeat run rate business, customers are buying many categories of products and replenishing supplies and inventory on a weekly basis. With so many transactions from customer orders that reps must contend with, it is easy to forget about the customers who are NOT ordering, who are ordering less or not ordering the core high-value products any more.
While we are a predictive analytics company and have a solution to offer here, we also explore with customers and prospects who are starting out this question: What is the right fit for their needs? Here are three options in the order of features, scale and cost, with pros and cons we’ve discussed with them:
SALES PROCESS SOFTWARE
Primarily focuses on mechanically guiding rep actions through a rules engine: “call today … email next week … follow-up in 3 days.” Stand-alone or blends with CRM.
Pros: Most simple/easy to follow, ideal for a small team within a larger sales force.
Cons: Does not consider customer attributes and responses or historical sales data, and is not predictive.
MARKETING AUTOMATION SOFTWARE
Tracks frequency of contacts for communication, which is another way to stay on top of the buying cycle.
Pros: Maps to a pre-thought-out contact strategy, multi-channel, captures customer preferences and responses, and increasingly sophisticated. Ideal for 50-100 reps.
Cons: No historical sales data used, is not predictive, cannot blend external data, may not incorporate sales rep actions, does not identify cause and effect.
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS SOFTWARE
This niche fits what we do. It is the most costly of the three because of data consolidation, involving expert statisticians with domain expertise, etc. But this process can scale indefinitely, it is predictive, and it can prove generation of incremental sales.
Pros: Support multiple sales channels, extensive data crunching, most accurate, provides cause/effect drivers. Ideal for 200+ reps, integrates with CRM seamlessly, best ROI.
Cons: Generally more expensive, more time to calibrate and start using, involves more people and technology (need expertise).
So there you have it. While we sell the hammers, aka predictive analytics software, we don’t see every problem as a nail that needs to be pounded. These tools all have a place in the sales arsenal, so take the time to determine what’s right for your organization.
January 9th, 2012
 It’s no secret that sales force automation (SFA) was dreaded not too long back, but has now become an indispensable friend to the sales person. There are many who may still be leery of it, but that number is certainly dwindling. Lauren Carlson’s blog at Software Advice reflects on this sales force automation evolution over the past 15 years, and identifies four factors that explain the change. While we agree with those, here’s our take on where this … Continue reading entire post on next page … »
January 2nd, 2012
 Our CRM trends to watch in 2011 were among the most-read words here, all year. Now let’s look forward to what’s in store for sales and marketing data in 2012 …
FUSION OF SFA WITH EMA = TRUE CRM:
With continuing innovation, sales force automation systems (SFA) have been transformed into a sales rep’s best friend, as discussed in an insightful blog post at Software Advice: easier implementation, data accessibility and now the benefits of analytics and marketing automation are aiding the success of sales teams … Continue reading entire post on next page … »
October 24th, 2011
 For any airplane pilot, the auto-pilot is a valuable companion. It can automate routine tasks such as maintaining altitude and direction so you are free to focus on the next tasks needed to reach your goal destination.
Airplane auto-pilots can handle many tasks for the pilot. They can:
Follow programmed climb and descent rates to pre-set altitudes
Turn the plane to a specific direction
Line up for landing on the runway
Execute missed runway approach procedures, like climb away from the ground if the runway approach lights are not … Continue reading entire post on next page … »
September 23rd, 2011
The movie Moneyball opens today to some great reviews such as this one at Sports Illustrated. I read the book by Michael Lewis soon after it was released and as a quant I found the story fascinating. What a great pair Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta were that came together at the right time!
What I liked about the story was just like predictive analytics, all the statistics focused on solving one problem, and that is getting the best trade-off against a precise outcome. In this case, get the most wins with … Continue reading entire post on next page … »
August 25th, 2011
Yesterday we posted the first tip of how to use predictive analytics to make your CRM system even more valuable. Today we share several more tips …
Retain focus on business objectives
The excitement of implementing a tool that solves basic operational problems is understandable. The front-end responsibility of reliability, inter-operability and security is clearly with IT. These challenges are significant.
But it is important to go beyond the technology’s bells and whistles. By establishing a vision for analytics – metrics, measurement methods, forward-looking indicators … Continue reading entire post on next page … »
August 24th, 2011
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are the currency of customer-sales interactions. Effective, simple CRM software helps sales reps to focus on content of conversations rather than the mechanics of conversations, resulting in sales empowerment and productivity gains.
A CRM system can be a boon to sales people. CRM helps overcome the technology hurdle of accessing information over disparate systems. CRM systems help improve collaboration within, above and across the entire organization, allowing the company to speak with one voice. And from a governance perspective, these systems help elevate the customer relationship from individual dependencies to an … Continue reading entire post on next page … »
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We make life easier for sales professionals, by using predictive analytics to get more revenue and more profitable results from sales data.
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