Trigger Based Selling and the Value of Social Media

Kevin Tan – Sales Director, Asia-Pacific, OneSource

Online Information – Asia-Pacific Conference March 24th, 2011

Agenda

• Framing the Challenge of Sales Executives

• Sales Triggers

• Value of Social Media

• Leveraging Social Media

– LinkedIn

– Jigsaw

– Marketing Automation

• Potential Recommendations/Actions

Daily Sales Challenge

• You need more revenue and you do not have enough leads to grow the revenue… this need never seems to end

How You May Be Addressing This Challenge

Rely on Marketing to find leads for your sales people

• Turn over your destiny to marketing department, lead gen, web sites, direct marketing etc…and its still not enough

Your sales people have to find their own leads

• The internet has made it easier for sale people to have business information on their desktop….and this increases research time and decreases selling time;

– While doing research “the sale” is not happening

– Finding leads on the internet is comparable to finding a needle in a haystack

First Mover Advantage in a Sales Opportunity

Early Position Advantages

Time of Maximum Influence

Best position to become sole-source

provider

More opportunity to expand size of deal

Entry Point in DealEarly Late

Low

High

Pro

bab

ilit

y o

f W

in

FirstMover

Domain

Active

Pursuit of

Solutions

Acquisition

Of

Solution

Recognition

Of

Need

Unarticulated

Need For

Product or

Service

Improving Sales Prospecting: a Key Component of Sales Productivity

Sales teams ranked outbound prospecting as their number one source of qualified opportunities.

2010 B2B Sales Pulse Survey by OneSource

Sales professionals spend over twenty percent of their time on lead generation and conducting research on accounts.

Jim Dickie, CSO Insights

Critical B2B Sales Prospecting Challenges

Getting to the hottest opportunities at the right time

Finding the right executive and management contacts

Crafting a compelling reason for a discussion

Triggers & Time

OneSource Company Confidential8

What was at Stake: Untold riches, prosperity

The Trigger: Gold found at Sutter’s Mill

The Technology: Telegraph, Newspaper Distribution

The Window: Days/Weeks

Triggers & Time

OneSource Company Confidential9

What was at Stake: Tickets to Disney’s Halloween Party, memories to last a lifetime

The Trigger: Disney tweet

The Technology: Internet, Social Media, Smart Phones

The Window: Minutes

Timing is Everything

Happy with current service Committed to new service

Potential buyers are in “non-buying” mode most of the time

• Calling them wastes your time and may even annoy them

Prospecting works most effectively when targeting companies in the “open to change” zone

• Sales Triggers identify those prospects most likely to be in this zone

Prospect Buying Timeline

Open to change Active buying cycle

From Shift Selling

How to Prioritize Prospects to Maximize Revenues

Company fits right into your sweet spot (target industry, size, geography, etc.)

2. Right PersonContact has the right title and role for being a key decision-maker for your offering

3. Right TimingGetting in touch with the company when they are just starting the buy cycle

4. Right IssuesFinding the most relevant business issues that the prospect is facing

Best Opportunities

1. Right Company

Sales Triggers Drive Sales Opportunities

Executive Changes

• Charged with making fast impact (e.g., 100-day plan)• Easier to change a service the last exec selected• Need help and often have resources to spend

New Funding

• Infusion of new capital to spend• Need sales/marketing services to help fuel growth• Often make investments to support growth

Hiring Initiatives

• Indicate investment in specific business areas• Opportunities for Recruiting firms• New executive/manager triggers

Executive Change Trigger

Additional Sales Triggers to Help Uncover Opportunities

Conferences, Speeches & Shows

Product Launch

Contract Win

Joint Ventures & Partnerships

Venture Capital

Mergers and Acquisitions

Public Offering

Debt & Equity

Earnings Announcement

Earnings Results

Dividends

Commercial Real Estate

Opening New Office

Legal

Bankruptcy

Divestitures

Closing Facilities

Corporate Relocations

FDA Approval

Layoffs

SEC Filings

Accounting & Regulatory Issues

Finding Triggers in Social Media is Valuable but has Challenges

43%

57%

Very or Extremely Valuable

Moderately Valuable

Challenges

•A lot of junk mixed in with the valuable discussions

•Disruptive to the sales process to jump to social media sites

•Time-consuming to follow and track relevant threads

Value of Social MediaSurvey of B2B Sales Pros

Source: B2B Sales Pulse Survey by OneSource

The Value of Social Media to the Sales Process

Leveraging LinkedIn to Business Advantage

• Find past co-workers

• Find new prospects and really ‘know’ your prospects

• Keep an eye out for people on the move

• Build your online identity

• Get new opportunities

• Learn something new

• Get some credibility

• Become an expert

• Grow your pipeline

Marketing Automation – Leverage technology

• Pardot, Marketo, Eloqua

• Monitor which web pages our clients and prospects are visiting and the content they are downloading (real-time)

• Gives hints about what work challenges our customers are facing

• Gives reps a reason to make that call – allowing us to tailor our conversations to help our customers solve the problems they face.

Four Key Pillars to Increasing Sales Productivity

•Prioritize prospects by those that are most likely to lead to sales

•Use Sales Triggers to identify potential buying opportunities

•Give sales reps the Context they need to have a compelling discussion with each prospect

•Leverage Social Media for sales opportunities

LiveContent™ Overview

Combines 4 major types of content into one service

Intelligently uses the best data elements from each source

Unique process leverages both technology and editorial research

Sales 2.0 Technology - Options

• Facebook-like feed of the latest hot prospects & triggers

• LinkedIn Integration

• Prioritize by preferences, territory and trigger events

– Executive Changes

– Product Launches

– 20+ Trigger Types

• Comprehensive Company/ Contact information

Imagine a sales team’s workday with an accurate feed of relevant, hot opportunities…