THE DNA OF A VALUABLE

SALES LEAD

The bulk of responsibility for growth within white space accounts lies with marketing.

Two Types of Sales Leads There are two types of marketing opportunities that can be presented to sales. The first is an opportunity from an install-based customer or customer that is currently doing an equitable share of business with you. This could be a refresh, upsell, or cross-sell opportunity. The customer is well known and likely the opportunity may already be on the sales person’s pipeline or radar. Marketing may generate an opportunity disclosure from this customer as a result of telemarketing, event attendance, or a response to an online activity or content. There is value in these marketing channels to keep the customer aware of product updates, and to make an impact on increasing the share of their business spend. There may be a debate internally between sales and marketing, with regard to who should get the larger share of credit for the additional business attained from an install-based opportunity. Most sales departments within the technology industry do a pretty good job of staying on the pulse of their client’s buying needs. So, the challenge is for marketing to get credit for these types of deals. Named enterprise account managers are focused exclusively on their assigned accounts. Account managers usually do an effective job of retaining the customer, unless something dramatic affects the balance. Therefore, the bulk of the responsibility for growth with other types of customers lies with marketing.

Global Technology Sales Solutions

The Promised Land of Whitespace Accounts

The other type of marketing opportunity is from a prospect or customer that is doing very little business with your organization or none at all. These accounts are called, “whitespace, new logo, green territory”. For the interest of simplicity, we will refer to them all as “whitespace” accounts. Regardless of the name your organization gives them, they are those who have yet to give your company your fair share of their business. In a mature industry, as the technology industry is at this time, this customer is usually not doing business with you because they have aligned their needs to your competitor. Doing business with them is a steep uphill climb to migrate to your products or solutions.

For sales, whitespace accounts represent the promised land of new business that will help them attain their quota. Most sales organizations in the major enterprise technology space divide their business development time between install-based customers and new business. The focus on whitespace can range from 15% to 30%. This means that most of the time is invested in customer retention and expansion efforts that target the install-based customers. Enterprise named accounts usually have dedicated badged sales-coded individuals assigned to these accounts. These accounts are based on the volume of business being done that warrants this level of dedication.

All other accounts that are doing less or no business at all, would fall into an emerging accounts type, which means field reps would manage multiple accounts at the same time.

The effort involved in gaining access to whitespace accounts is substantial. This is why sales chooses to be razor-focused on working with a select number of new whitespace opportunities, that they feel have a better probability to win and impact their quotas. With the increasing pressure to attain quota-on-time, sales will invest their time where the numbers will be attained. This usually means dividing the bulk of their time between current buying customers and less so on emerging prospects. For this primary reason, sales will usually strategically select marketing leads. The reality is that sales is looking for viable leads where the customer has shown an interest and signs of aligning their needs to your solution. This is a requirement that enables sales to attain their quota-on-time and to not be distracted by unqualified leads. Many experts in the industry convey that the funneling of unqualified or underqualified leads is a major obstacle for sales growth.

Whitespace accounts represent the promised land of new business.

You Can’t Rely on

Bluebirds

Bluebirds are ‘sales

ready’ business

opportunities that

marketing tends to

stumble across

during their various

activities including

telemarketing,

events, webinars,

inbound marketing,

etc.

The Blame Game

Many marketers believe that the lack of return on their marketing dollars stems from sales not giving their marketing developed leads and appointments enough attention. This translates to a blame game, which at times can be counterproductive and ineffective. This type of exchange can increase tensions as service level agreements (SLA) are negotiated between sales and marketing. Many may feel that the implementation of more stringent SLA on sales will ultimately help sales attain quotas and give marketing their desperately needed ROI. First, sales could get distracted from their focus on install-based customers, that would help them retire the larger portion of their quota. Secondly, it can also distract them from giving the right level of effort and attention to appropriate whitespace accounts needed to closed deals. Thirdly, sales could end up spinning their wheels more leading to a reduced level of morale among sales reps. The final results will be counter to what both sales and marketing wants to achieve in the end. As a result, the ROI will not be attained.

Marketing must provide sales opportunities that are ‘sales ready’. What constitutes as a ‘sales ready’ opportunity for many will vary. This is why many of the traditional call centers producing so called ‘sales ready’ leads for their technology clients are failing to see their leads and appointments convert. This is a huge problem. A ‘sales ready’ lead or opportunity is one where the customer has started to align their needs to your solution. In other words, the customer has started to give serious consideration that your solution is the one best-suited to address their needs. A small portion of marketing leads will contain these types of customers. Many call them ‘Bluebirds’. Bluebirds are ‘sales ready’ business opportunities that marketing tends to stumble across during their various activities including telemarketing, events, webinars, inbound marketing, etc.

It is these bluebirds that sales will identify within the pool and focus on. Why? Because they will help them retire quota.

There is no easy way

to get a prospect to

begin aligning their

needs to your

solution and away

from your competitor.

Ask the top 15% of

the sales force and

you will see their

success is based on

their ability to build

trust with their

prospects by gaining

insight into their

needs.

Solution Selling 101

Marketing activities such as events and online content driven vehicles including social media are powerful tools to help initiate and enhance relationships with both customers and prospects. Unfortunately, only a small portion of bluebird opportunities will come out of these activities that warrant sales’ attention.

The rest must be further developed before they can be introduced to sales for engagement. Underdeveloped leads must go through a business development process that helps turn that prospect’s interest into a serious consideration for your solutions or products. There is no easy way to get a prospect to begin aligning their needs to your solution and away from your competitor.

Ask the top 15% of the sales force and you will see their success is based on their ability to build trust with their prospects by gaining insight into their needs. Then at the right time positioning the alternative solution in the framework of the customer’s need using the customer’s language. It is called “solution selling 101”. In order to bring a whitespace account to the table with serious consideration, a complex relationship building process involving many layers is needed.

Some in marketing may be of the opinion that sales own the responsibility of developing leads into serious consideration. Perhaps they do, and they are certainly doing so with a select group of targeted prospects they feel will help them attain quota-on-time. It is truly a function of time vs return. Sales can’t afford to spin their wheels on every opportunity presented by marketing, because in the end they will lose by not attaining quota-on-time. Sales leadership would not allow this to happen and the most senior executive branch of enterprise technology firms will support the revenue producers on this debate. The only solution to help marketing align with sales is to begin communicating “sales ready” opportunities, which means the customers have begun to align their needs to your solution. For all other leads, marketing owns the responsibility to develop the relationship to a level that sales can engage on.

Introducing GTSS DNA Demand Generation™ Process We are customer acquisition and expansion experts for the technology industry. We help sales and marketing leaders attain quota on-time by delivering sales ready business opportunities that convert higher than traditional leads and appointments by as much as 300%. We do this through our DNA Demand Generation™ process of engagements that delivers highly qualified business opportunities with key decision makers that have begun to align their pains to your solutions. The results are business opportunities that your sales teams can then convert at much higher rates than they are currently delivering. There are no secrets or gimmicks to our process. Most lead generation firms rely on brute force and high volume. They employ inexpensive, poorly trained workers to chase as many prospects as possible. We take a far more intelligent approach. Our DNA Demand Generation™ process for customer engagement and opportunity development starts with customer needs and then aligns these needs to key solutions. Here’s how it works...

Global Technology Sales Solutions trademarked DNA Demand Generation™ Process for Business Development

Building Trust

The DNA Demand Generation™ Process is all about creating a trusted advisor relationship, first with our consultant and then with your sales team. It builds on conversation, collaboration and shared knowledge. It produces vastly better results because it is a vastly better process. In each case, we bring a highly professional approach that vastly exceeds the standards of most lead generation firms. Our role is to spark a relationship that your team can then expand into a long-term, highly profitable relationship.

Discover

All business development opportunities start at the discover stage of the process. Our skilled consultants engage identified mid to high level business and technology titles with the initial goal of building rapport and thereby gaining a solid understanding of their business needs, challenges, roadblocks and drivers. At this initial stage, our consultants are razor focused on learning about your potential customer’s needs and priorities, not pushing any solution. This is a much more powerful way to forge a relationship. This is the step that most firms skip. Our consultants identify the basic decision making structures related to the various business priorities. The business intelligence gathered during the discover stage will form the basis for determining the direction for the next level of engagement in the DNA Demand Generation™ process.

Navigate

The navigate stage of the DNA Demand Generation™ process is designed to expand the level of business intelligence around qualified opportunities identified during the discover stage. Armed with the details obtained during the discover stage, our skilled consultants re-engage identified decision makers with a direct role of influence on the identified business opportunities. The goal is to strengthen the rapport and expand the depth of understanding around the challenges, roadblocks and drivers related to the identified business opportunity. With an in-depth understanding of the customer’s pains coupled with a clear line of visibility into the decision making process related to the business opportunity, our trained consultants can begin to formulate the basis for determining the direction for the next level of engagement in the DNA Demand Generation™ process.

Align The align stage of the DNA Demand Generation™ process is designed to help establish a situational alignment between your solutions and the key decision maker’s needs. During this critical stage in the sales process our trained consultants will position your solutions based on the business intelligence gained during the Discover and Navigate stages of the DNA Demand Generation™ process. They will gauge your potential customer’s propensity to consider your solutions. Your solutions will have a better likeliness of being considered as your potential customers’ begin to align their needs with your solutions. Once we establish a situational alignment between your solutions and the key decision maker’s needs, your sales team can take over. In doing so, they will be armed with all the detailed information gathered during our previous discussions and learnings.

Global Technology Sales Solutions

(888) 549-4877 (GTSS)

Info@GTSSDNA.com

www.GTSSDNA.com

Our Services Our DNA Demand Generation™ process can be applied across a wide range of sales and marketing activities as an integral supplement and catalyst within your existing business development ecosystem. Our process is designed to help accelerate conversion rates and improve the alignment between sales and marketing. We provide a complete solution set comprised of best-in-class people, process and technology. Our services include: • Sales, Marketing and Business Process Outsourcing & Optimization • Cloud Based CRM and Channel Management • Business Intelligence & Customer Knowledge Data Mart Development

How to Learn More

Our experienced consultants are all seasoned executives who have extensive experience driving sales and marketing campaigns for some of the largest technology companies in the world. Let us help you attain quota on-time by accelerating revenue and conversion rates, and get your marketing and sales organization on the path to closer alignment.