“Our team is securing prospect meetings, and valuable opportunities thanks to LinkedIn’s

Sales Solutions. Currently 18 deals sitting in the pipeline were sourced by LinkedIn”

Jeremy Harpham Product Marketing Manager

*LinkedIn internal member data Dec 2013

LinkedIn Sales Solutions is helping the global software provider to improve awareness, negotiate complex buying committees, and replace cold calls with warm, qualified leads.

The sales challenge:Despite being one of the world’s top 100 software providers, Pitney Bowes has a relatively low profile within the space, with a brand name traditionally associated with mailing solutions and franking machines. The challenge for its global sales teams centres on raising awareness and negotiating the complex, extended IT committees involved in buying decisions.

With a broad range of potential customers for its enterprise location intelligence, customer information and customer engagement management solutions, the team must also identify decision-makers across very different roles. To succeed, sales managers need to embrace a multi-threading approach and think laterally about where the final purchase decision may sit.

With social media increasingly empowering IT buyers, sales teams have seen declines in the effectiveness of traditional cold-calling and outbound marketing. In an environment where buyers increasingly conduct their own research and are reluctant to reach out to vendors, winning required a new approach.

Sales Solutions

Results

• LinkedIn Sales Solutions closed its first deals for Pitney Bowes within six months of being adopted, faster than the business’s average sales cycle.

• LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions are delivering return on investment, no less than 18 deals in the pipeline have been sourced by LinkedIn.

• The sales team is fully engaged with LinkedIn Sales Solutions - 80% have over 300 connections, they average 150 people searches per user each month, and nearly 70% are using the platform 5+ days per week.*

• Pitney Bowes’ Social Selling Index (SSI) – an aggregate measure of how active and effective reps are at social selling - increased from 63 to 71 in 6 months (vs. 40-44 for non-LinkedIn Sales Solutions users). Research has shown that a higher SSI correlates with higher sales performance and likelihood of exceeding quota.

To learn more please visit sales.linkedin.com to find out how you can reach your target prospects on LinkedIn

Copyright © 2014 LinkedIn Corporation. LinkedIn, the LinkedIn logo, and InMail are registered trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

The LinkedIn Solution:“The trigger for us adopting LinkedIn Sales Solutions across sales and marketing came from a sales kick-off event, when a customer on one of our panels explained how much he valued LinkedIn as a source of buying insight,” recalls Product Marketing Manager, Jeremy Harpham. “That was when we realised we needed to get serious about how we used the platform.”

A few of the most astute members of the sales team had already upgraded to individual LinkedIn Premium accounts, but adopting LinkedIn Sales Solutions helped transform the team from a collection of individuals leveraging their own networks, to a team leveraging a company-wide network.

Identifying key decision-makers through Lead Builder & Premium Search

“Our sales teams are making good use of Lead Builder to identify the right contacts within organisations,” says Jeremy. “When they have success with a contact at one organisation they are able to explore people with similar job functions in the same sector, which is a great way of mapping out opportunities.“

Sharing connections through TeamLink

LinkedIn Sales Solutions TeamLink capability, which shares connections across all Pitney Bowes employees, is one of the team’s most powerful tools for navigating buying committees successfully. “It’s helped us to join everybody up, and get them working effectively to generate business together,” says Jeremy. “Getting our senior executives onto TeamLink was particularly valuable. They are the ones with connections to the senior decision-makers and having access to those is a powerful asset for the sales teams.”

Sharing intelligence through Salesforce integration

The integration of LinkedIn with Salesforce adds another dimension to its role for the business. The ability to access LinkedIn contacts from within the Salesforce interface has increased team members’ use of the tool and encouraging them to record sales contacts through it.

Generating awareness and leads through content

Supporting LinkedIn Sales Solutions with broader marketing activity on LinkedIn has raised awareness of Pitney Bowes’s products whilst generating leads directly. “We’ve populated our company page and we’ve got a member of the team posting regular updates on there,” explains Jeremy. “We’re getting employees really engaged with that process as well.”

“Getting our senior executives onto TeamLink was particularly valuable. They are the ones with connections to the senior decision-makers and having access to those is a powerful asset for the sales teams.”

Jeremy Harpham Product Marketing Manager,Pitney Bowes