Prospecting Enablement Buyer Guide

The Ultimate Buyer’s Guides forMarketing & Sales SoftwareVolume 4: Sales Prospecting Enablement

Sales Prospecting EnablementBuyer’s Guide

2011

Buyer’s Guide: Sales Prospecting Enablement@2011 Smart Selling Tools all rights reserved www.SmartSellingTools.com

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Table of Contents: Sales Prospecting Enablement

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� Sales Prospecting Enablement: The Basics 5

� The Three W’s: The Foundation for Effective Sales Prospecting 6

� The First W: Finding the “Who” 7

� The Second W: Knowing “When” to Call 8

� The Third W: Understanding “What” to Say 9

� Featured Solution Example: OneSource iSell 10

� Sales Prospecting Enablement: Buying Considerations 17

� Sales Prospecting Enablement: Feature Checklist 20

� Sales Prospecting Enablement: Vendor List 23

� Next Steps 25

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Sales Prospecting Enablement: The Basics

Sellers have a glorious bounty of information available to them on the Internet today. They can find informationon nearly anything they need, whether it’s about companies, prospects, industries, or competitors.

And you can be sure sales professionals are expected to tap into this vast resource – to do their homework beforethey make a call. Their managers demand it, but more importantly their prospective customers demand it. Goneare the days when reps can cold call a prospect armed with only a name, a title, and an audacious belief they canwing it.

The Web’s bountiful information can be a boon to sellers who need to hold credible conversations with buyers.But the Web’s information windfall has created a very serious problem. Like soldiers weighed down with a hun-dred pounds of gear, we order our reps out into the field burdened with so much information they don’t havetime or energy for their mission.

That’s because, while we don’t have an “information problem,” we certainly have an “information-filter prob-lem.” And that filter problem is what’s killing sales productivity today.

Without a solution to the information filter problem, salespeople are cursed with a conundrum: they can’t in-crease their efficiency without the right information and they can’t get the right information without negativelyimpacting their efficiency.

Indeed, the fastest path to increased sales productivity is to protect a rep’s selling time. The more time spent withreal prospects, the higher your sales will be. The more time spent researching instead of selling, the lower yoursales will be.

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That’s because, while we nolonger have an “informationproblem,” we certainly havea “filter problem.”

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Prospecting enablement should provide reps with three crucial pieces of information:

1. Who to sell to2. When to contact3. What to say

If your reps don’t have an efficient means of obtaining the 3 W’s, their productivity will suffer along with youroverall sales results and profitability. Reps can conduct their own research or instead they can spend that timetalking to a real live prospect. A rep’s time is finite. Where do you want them to spend their limited time?

How much time do your best salespeople spend on prospect research?

According to CSO Insights, the average salesperson spends 17% of his or her week conducting research. Thatrepresents nearly one full business day every week that is no longer available for selling. Knowing this, it’s easy toconclude that productivity can be increased simply by reducing time lost to research. Protecting prime sellingtime for productive sales conversations is what “Sales Prospecting Enablement” is all about.

A sales prospecting enablement solution can provide reps with the right information at the right time so they canspend more time with the right people.

Make sure the prospecting enablement solution you choose delivers the three W’s so reps can spend more timeselling.

If your reps don’t have anefficient means of obtainingthe 3 W’s, their productivitywill suffer along with youroverall sales results andprofitability.

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The 3 W’s: The Foundation for Effective Sales Prospecting

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Who are the target companies and contacts? The answer will be different for every rep depending on the territoryor target market. Whether their target market is a specific industry, company size, geographic location, job title, ora combination of traits, the first step in prospecting is to build a list of potential targets.

Here are some common methods your reps may be using to create a target list of companies and contacts:

� Search the Web using keywords� Obtain directories from relevant conferences and associations� Search the LinkedIn directory based on keyword, job title, or industry� Use a crowd-sourced contact database like Jigsaw or Netprospex to find specific contacts� Scour Websites of known target companies for the right contact� Guess at email data using the format found on a Website� Cold calling� News alert services like Google Alerts

Can you see how 17% of a rep’s time can easily be spent on these tasks? Yes, many sales managers are reluctant toinvest money in prospecting tools when “so much information is available for free on the Web.” However, theproblem isn’t a lack of free information but too much information to “filter” through. Can you afford to pay reps tomine the Web, filtering through the vast amounts of data? One hour lost to list-building each day equals a full 30days of selling time lost over the course of a year according to the 215 Principle. When you have reps search forinformation, you’re paying them not to sell.

Instead, look for a sales prospecting enablement solution that allows reps to quickly and easily create a list ofcompanies that meet their territory criteria and that provides key contact data such as email and direct-dial phone

Can you afford to pay reps tomine the Web, filtering throughthe vast amounts of data?

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The First W: Finding the “Who”

http://www.smartsellingtools.com/215principle

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It’s one thing to solve the “who” problem. But reps can’t possibly contact all prospects on their target list. Thereisn’t enough time in the day, so where do they start? Often reps will simply go down the list from the top. Theymight start with the larger companies, or companies in a specific industry - if they have that information. But thatapproach only helps them pinpoint the “who,” not the “when.” The ideal method of prioritizing calls is to contacteach prospect at the right time based on a key trigger events.

Sales trigger events are anything that might cause a prospect to desire - or become more open - to change (and aneed for your products and services). In other words, trigger events indicate when the “timing is right.” What arethe trigger events that indicate good timing for your products? Are your prospect companies more open to changewhen new executives are hired? How about when new products are launched or when new plants are announced?

A great sales prospecting enablement solution will proactively alert your reps when to make contact. It will:� Automatically prioritize the most relevant, timely prospects� Send personalized trigger alerts that indicate selling opportunities and reasons to call� Offer individual dashboards to show the hottest prospects for each rep in order of “prospectability”

Choose a solution that scours multiple sources for information and that not only aggregates the data but alsoselects the most accurate content from each source. The system should also offer a live feed of trigger alerts toenable reps to take timely action.

Prospects with sales trigger events are up to 8X more likely to buy. Make sure your reps know when these triggerevents occur before your competition does.

Prospects with sales triggerevents are up to 8X morelikely to buy.

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The Second W: Knowing “When” to Call

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With the right sales prospecting enablement solution, reps can know who to call and when. The remainingquestion is, “What can reps say to get the prospect’s attention when they make the call?” The common wisdomused to be that a caller had only 20 seconds to make an impression. Now the number is pegged at 5-10 seconds. Ifa rep survives those first few seconds what will he or she say? Reps must do their homework and prepare.

It’s crucial to define an objective before making a call. Whether or not the call’s objective is reached dependsmostly on how well-prepared the caller is. It is simply no longer acceptable to pick up the phone and wing it.Prospects don’t want to hear about your solutions; they want to know why you’re calling them.

Every rep should at the very least, have a general understanding of:� The prospects’ business - what do they do� The specific challenges he or she faces especially if these challenges have been noted in the press� The common challenges of the industry and how your solutions have helped similar companies� The family-tree structure of the prospect’s organization

Reps can be significantly more effective on a call if they also know:� Important news announcements that could affect the prospect’s business� When a prospect has been quoted in a news release or online article� Changes in a prospects company or industry - trigger alerts - that indicate a relevant topic for discussion� Overall industry trends that are likely influencing prospects’ thinking and their ability/desire to buy� The prospect company’s SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)

The sales prospecting enablement solution you choose should give reps ready access to this type of information.There’s no excuse not to be well-prepared. Every call should result in a relevant, credible conversation with the

Whether or not the call’sobjective is reached dependsmostly on how well-preparedthe caller is.

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The Third W: Understanding “What” to Say

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In each buyer guide in our series, we feature one product to showcase the possibilities and to illustrate how to useit. iSell by OneSource is a great example of a sales prospecting enablement tool that is solving the informationfilter problem, making it easier for reps to sell more. iSell gives reps the 3 W’s (who, when, and what) and deliversthe information in dashboards customized for each rep’s convenience.

OneSource iSell provides each rep with an automated feed of hot prospects prioritized by:. Relevance based on target industry, company size, geography, etc.. Sales triggers, such as new funding, exec changes, or other critical events. Depth of information available on the specific contact

The suggested prioritization makes fast work of what is otherwise a tedious task: determining which leads are bestat any one point in time. iSell refers to this as the contact’s “prospectability”.

The hot-prospect feed includes contact information and the context and real-time opportunity informationneeded to initiate productive discussions.

We’ll give detailed examples of how iSell transforms the way that you sell by continuously delivering the mosttimely and relevant opportunities personalized to each rep’s specific needs.

Featured Solution: OneSource iSell

iSell gives reps the 3 W’s(who, when, and what) anddelivers the information indashboards customized foreach rep’s convenience.

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iSell won the 2010 Top Sales Awardfor Top Sales 2.0 Solution.

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An iSell user opening the tool the first time is prompted to configure a profile fully customized to the way he orshe sells. By selecting from criteria such as geography, company size, company, and contact type, the salespersonnarrows the focus of iSell to target only the most impactful universe of companies and contacts.

Who to Sell to

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As users learn more abouttheir sweet spot, they canfine-tune these settings.

iSell will continually look formore prospects that fit thisprofile and include them inthe list.

Users can build up to 25unique lists to suit theirvarying needs and targetcustomer profiles.

iSell users customize theirprofile to deliverinformation to fit the waythey sell.

iSell users customize their profile to deliverinformation to fit the way they sell.

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Even with a tight set of criteria, iSell could still deliver a list of thousands of potential sales prospects. In order tohelp solve the issues of who to call first and when to call, iSell prioritizes the prospect list using a prospectabilityindex. Among the key factors iSell uses in determining “prospectability” is the presence and recency of a salestrigger. iSell offers over 30 different types of trigger alerts and the user selects exactly which ones he or she wantsto include in the prospectability calculation. Each rep can select their trigger preferences based on what’s relevantfor their accounts and how they sell. iSell then prioritizes the prospects automatically and allows the rep to spendmore time selling instead of trying to find the right opportunity. iSell users can also create custom triggers basedon criteria they define.

When to Contact

In order to help solve theissue of who to call first, iSellprioritizes the list using aprospectability index.

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Once the user has configured their preferences, iSell delivers a steady stream of prioritized prospects directly tothe rep’s desktop via the “prospects feed.” The list is prioritized by “prospectability” which is indicated by index tothe left of each prospect’s name. Prospectability is iSell’s recommendation to the user of who they should contactfirst so they may optimize their selling time. The score is driven by how well the prospect meets a user’s listcriteria, whether or not iSell has direct dial and email information for that contact, and the presence of the typesof triggers selected by the rep.

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iSell provides direct dial and emailfor each prospect

The prospects feed also shows a userwhen they are connected to contactsor companies via their LinkedIncredentials.

A LinkedIn icon will let the user know ifa contact or company is on LinkedIn,and a First, Second, or Third icon willtell the user how closely they areconnected to the contact or company .

From the prospects feed, you canperform several actions for a givenprospect, including setting reminders,sending to crm, rating the prospect,and adding to new lists.

Prospectability is iSell’srecommendation to the userof who they should contactfirst so they may optimizetheir selling time.

Prospectability

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iSell's deep integration with the LinkedIn API completes the picture for a salesperson. In addition to significantlybroadening the contact universe, which helps answer the question of “who,” iSell's LinkedIn integration answersthe question of “how.” By connecting to the user's personal LinkedIn network, iSell iidentifies the rep’s connectionto the contact, or identifies his or her closest connection to the company. The salesperson can dramaticallyachieve greater success with an introduction from a common connection.

The salesperson can achievegreater success by firstgaining an introduction froma common connection.

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The user’s LinkedIn connectionsto a company, prioritized by

level of connection

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In addition to timely, trigger-basedinformation, the salesperson canrely on iSell's company profile pageto instantly gather criticalinformation pertaining to thetarget, including industry profiles,company profiles, competitorinsights, and SWOT analysis.

A list of key contacts within thecompany is shown which matchesthe user’s preference for his or hercontact type. The rep can thenimmediately understand thepersonnel landscape based oncontacts that are relevant.

Armed with a company profile, auser can review all of the key dataabout the target in one place,allowing for a deep and meaningfulconversation with a prospect.

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Company Profile Page

The salesperson can rely oniSell's company profile pageto instantly gather criticalinformation pertaining tothe target

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Buyer’s Guide: Sales Prospecting Enablement@2011 Smart Selling Tools all rights reserved www.SmartSellingTools.com 16

Ultimately, tools such as iSell aim to optimize the sales prospecting process. Without these tools, top sales repsaccessing similar types of information would have to conduct many different activities on many different sites,which would monopolize their time.

The profile of a salesperson who does the research, prepares for calls, and prioritizes activities is usually that of an“A Player.” A sales prospecting enablement tool such as iSell can give “A Players” more time to conduct revenue-closing activities, while helping “B Players” become “A Players.”

The profile of a salesperson whodoes the research, prepares forcalls, and prioritizes activities isusually that of an “A Player.”

‘A’ Player’s know the 3 W’s

WhoWho WhenWhen WhatWhat

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Buying Considerations: Questions to Ask Yourself

There should be no question that sales prospecting enablement solutions provide an ROI. Eliminating the timelost to research and call preparation alone can save up to 17% of a rep’s time - or nearly one full day – eachweek. Reps can spend that time instead in front of clients selling. But the time-saving is only half of the story.Knowing when to call and what to say can increase sales.

Using iSell as an example, we showed how easy sales prospecting can be. If you’re still unsure whether you needor would benefit from implementing a sales prospecting enablement solution, ask yourself the buyer consider-ation questions on the next two pages.

Using iSell as an example,we showed how easy salesprospecting can be.

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Buying Considerations: Questions to Ask YourselfPage 1 of 2

DownloadSpreadsheet

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Buying Decision What is the projected timeline for deciding on a solution? Who should be involved?

Buying Decision What are the main problems you're looking to solve? How are these problems affecting your profitability andproductivity?

Buying Decision Have you asked your reps what they need to prospect more efficiently?

Credibility How important is it for reps to be prepared and knowledgeable about the prospect before they call?

Credibility How much time do our reps currently spend researching a prospect ahead of the call? Is it enough? If not, why?

Prospect Identification How much time is wasted each week searching for the name of the right prospect?

Prospect Identification What are the main methods used by your team to find the name of the person to call? How often are theysuccessful?

Prospect Identification How much time is wasted each week searching for the prospect's contact details?

Prospect Identification When reps discover a hot prospect, how easy is it for them to search for and find similar-type companies/people?

Prospect Identification When reps schedule in-person meetings, can they easily identify accounts in the same vicinity?

Sales Effectiveness Do our reps make enough cold-calls? Why not? Do they know who to call?

Sales Effectiveness Do our reps know all of the key players within an organization they are selling to?

Sales Effectiveness Could reps sell position our products and services better, and ultimately sell more, if they understood theirprospect's industry better?

http://www.smartsellingtools.com/prospecting/prospecting_buyer_considerations.xls

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Buying Considerations: Questions to Ask YourselfPage 2 of 2

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Sales Effectiveness Do our reps know what to say to appeal to and capture the prospect's attention?

Sales Effectiveness Based on the 215 Principle, how is the time lost to prospect research affecting productivity and revenue?

Sales Effectiveness Do certain events or "triggers" (new plant openings, product announcements, new hires etc.) signify an opportunityfor our product/s?

Sales Effectiveness Are reps aware when these events happen? How and how quickly? Could our competitors be acting on these"trigger" alerts before we are?

Sales Effectiveness Do we give reps the information they need to prioritize their prospecting efforts or do they mostly "go-down-the-list"when making their calls?

Sales Effectiveness Do reps hear far too many "no's" when attempting to schedule appointments? If so, why?

Sales Effectiveness When cold-calling, what's the ratio of "yes's" to "no's"? Is that ratio high enough?

Sales Effectiveness Are reps calling the right prospects at the right time?

Sales Effectiveness What would the impact on profitability be if reps called more of the right people at the right time?

Sales Effectiveness What would the impact on salespeople’s morale be if they called on more of the right people at the right time?

Sales Effectiveness Do our reps have easy access to an organizations "family tree" (subsidiaries, branch offices, etc.) so they can cross-sell?

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Sales Prospecting Enablement: Feature Checklist

One of the hardest things to do when shopping for any solution is to compare features across vendors. Onereason is that vendors often call features by different names. Another reason is that vendors often have differentversions, each with varying feature sets.

The amount of effort required to gather information goes up exponentially as you add more vendors to yourresearch list.

What we recommend instead is to create your own list of needed features, then make the vendors do the work.Ask yourself the buying consideration questions on page 18. Then review the checklist on the next two pages.

The checklist is also available as a downloadable spreadsheet so you can modify it as needed. The downloadablechecklist will give you the ability to mark the appropriate column: don’t need, nice-to-have, must-have. Perhapsyou’ll even want to add additional columns such as: don’t need now, will need in the future. Have each of yourconstituents complete the checklist so everyone’s requirements and priorities are considered.

As you talk with vendors, share your requirements with them. Instead of having to match vendors to yourrequirements, let the vendors match their software to your needs. You’ll find out quickly which vendors are trulycustomer-oriented by the way they respond.

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The amount of effortrequired to gatherinformation goes upexponentially as you addmore vendors to yourresearch list.

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DownloadSpreadsheet

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Category Feature Don'tNeed

Nice toHave

MustHave

Database Effectiveness Multiple sources for updating and maintaining quality data

Database Effectiveness System extracts the best data from multiple data sources for a complete and up-to-datepicture

Database Effectiveness Data on both public and private companies

Database Effectiveness Social Media Monitoring and automatic intelligence-gathering

Database Effectiveness Automatic prioritization of the hottest prospects based on relevancy, sales triggers, anddegree of information

Database Effectiveness Ability to tag or otherwise create your own contact database within the system

Database Effectiveness Ability to download company reports, corporate organizational structure (Family Trees),contacts, and contact lists.

Database Effectiveness Integration with major CRM software like Salesforce.com, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics

Database Effectiveness Automatic ratings so sales can see at-a-glance which contacts to prioritize

Prospecting Effectiveness Drag-and-drop user interface to easily organize and customize each user's display

Prospecting Effectiveness Ability to save lists

Prospecting Effectiveness Ability to save search criteria

Sales Prospecting Enablement: Checklist

http://www.smartsellingtools.com/prospecting/prospecting_feature_checklist.xls

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Category Feature Don'tNeed

Nice toHave

MustHave

Prospecting Effectiveness Ability to search by location: city, state, country, zip, area code

Prospecting Effectiveness Ability to search for contacts by: Job title, company name, industry, location, SIC codes

Prospecting Effectiveness CRM-like functionality built-in for keeping notes, activities and pipeline

Prospecting Effectiveness Users can manage their own profiles and preferences

Prospecting Effectiveness Mobile access to the database

Prospecting Effectiveness Additional mobile functionality like directions and searches for companies in the area you'revisiting

Prospecting Effectiveness Company Profiles include; company description, history, products, locations, and more.

Prospecting Effectiveness Detailed contact data including phone, job title, address, and email

Prospecting Effectiveness Automatic SWOT reports (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats)

Prospecting Effectiveness Access to key research on a prospect's industry such as; Industry overview, trends, Industrychallenges, Industry forecasts

Prospecting Effectiveness Access to contact's work history including past companies and job titles

Prospecting Effectiveness Ability to view a companies "family tree" to understand parent, branch locations, andsubsidiaries

Prospecting Effectiveness Customize email trigger alerts for companies, people, and industries you care about

Prospecting Effectiveness Social Media integration for quick access to a contact's social network links

Sales Prospecting Enablement: Checklist

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Because it’s difficult to differentiate a long list of vendors, we thought “why not use their own words?” So thefollowing list of vendors (in alphabetical order) states the main message we found on their Website home pages.

Get a feel for their positioning by what they themselves choose to emphasize. We visited the Website of eachcompany on the list and made note of (what we interpreted to be) their homepage main marketing message.

Next, we list the lowest and the highest pricing found on their site. We’ve provided a link to their Website as well.

Sales Prospecting Enablement: Vendor Listing

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Sales Prospecting Enablement

Company Name URL From Website

DiscoverOrg www.discoverorg.com Access IT Decision Makers at Fortune Ranked and Mid-Market Companies

Dow Jones Companies& Executives

www.dowjones.com/product-djce.asp Business Information You Can Act On

Hoover's www.hoovers.com We Make It Easier

InsideView www.insideview.com Sales Intelligence, Social Selling, Sales Productivity

Jigsaw www.jigsaw.com The Easiest Way to Instantly Reach Business Professionals

NetProspex www.netprospex.com Crowd-sourced Prospects Verified for accuracy

OneSource iSell www.onesource.com iSell: Personalized Prospecting, Real-Time Sales Triggers & Social Selling

Zapdata www.zapdata.com Find New Customers and Grow Your Sales

ZoomInfo www.zoominfo.com The World's Most Dynamic Database of People and Companies

Vendor ListingClick here to request your free iSell trial

http://www.discoverorg.com

http://www.dowjones.com/product-djce.asp

http://www.hoovers.com

http://www.insideview.com

http://www.jigsaw.com

http://www.netprospex.com

http://www.onesource.com/micro_sites/iSell.aspx

http://www.zapdata.com

http://www.zoominfo.com


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Keep this Buyer’s Guide handy: print a copy, bookmark it, or save it to your computerDownload and complete the Buyer Considerations spreadsheet.Download and complete the Sales Prospecting Enablement Feature check-list.Learn more or schedule an introductory call: visit the iSell Website

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