Why conversational events build B2B sales pipeline: The power of authentic engagement
We recently hosted a dinner for a client in cybersecurity who needed to get people excited about their sometimes hard-to-understand offering. They knew who they wanted to get in front of, and we got those buyers in the room with them. But that’s not what this story is about…. In the case of this dinner, we had the CEO of the company participate as their SME and conversation moderator, asking questions and sharing real-world anecdotes of how the company has addressed similar pain points for their current customers. Halfway through the dinner, the CEO revealed that a major streaming service was producing a documentary about his life. As you can imagine, this created excitement, interest, and plenty of selfie requests. This is one of hundreds of ways our clients work with us to create authentic engagement. In today’s fast-paced, digital-first business environment, building strong relationships and fostering trust are more important than ever. As B2B companies seek new ways to connect with prospects and grow their sales pipeline, conversational events have emerged as a powerful tool for engaging potential clients and driving meaningful conversations. In this blog post, we’ll explore why conversational events are so effective in building B2B sales pipelines and how you can harness their potential for your business. Welcome to the World of Conversational Events What is a ‘conversational event’? We define it as a roundtable, workshop, panel discussion or even conference where focus is on, you guessed it, conversation. They offer a unique opportunity for B2B companies to engage potential clients in a more authentic and collaborative way. Forget those mind-numbing sales pitches – these events are all about genuine interaction, info-swapping, and teamwork. Webinars are often called “interactive” but honestly they are best suited to training or getting a marketing message out to a large group of people; the speakers in a webinar are there to speak, not listen. Trust, Credibility, and the Secret of B2B Everybody knows trust and credibility are the bread and butter of B2B relationships. Conversational events offer a unique opportunity for B2B companies to demonstrate their expertise, showcase their thought leadership, and address the specific challenges faced by their target audience. By facilitating meaningful discussions and providing valuable insights, B2B companies can position themselves as trusted partners and advisors, making it more likely that potential clients will consider their solutions. Read Our “B2B Event Marketing Playbook” and Become an Event Mastermind Connection and Collaboration: Let’s Share Ideas These events are built on good old-fashioned collaboration. By bringing together potential clients, industry experts, and thought leaders for a conversation, you create an environment where ideas can be exchanged and relationships started. The result? An atmosphere that encourages participants to share their experiences, challenges, and solutions openly, helping B2B companies better understand their target audience and tailor their offerings accordingly, further supporting their sales pipeline. High-Quality Leads: The Holy Grail Who doesn’t love top-quality leads? Conversational events are a goldmine. Since these events attract a highly engaged and targeted audience, the participants are more likely to be genuinely interested in your products or services. By engaging in meaningful conversations and providing valuable insights, you can establish a strong connection with potential clients and boost your chances of converting them into customers. It’s a Long-Term Relationship, Baby Conversational events are not just about making an immediate sale – we’re in this for the long haul. These events are all about nurturing those precious connections and building a solid foundation for future business. By fostering an environment of open dialogue and shared problem-solving, they can help B2B companies establish better and longer-lasting connections with their target audience. This ongoing engagement can lead to repeat business, referrals, and a robust sales pipeline over time. Accelerating the Sales Cycle Who knew talking could make your sales cycle move faster? By providing potential clients with valuable insights and addressing their specific challenges, these events can help move prospects through the sales funnel more quickly. As potential clients gain a deeper understanding of your products or services, see the value they can bring to their organization, and get to know reps on a personal level, they’ll be signing on the dotted line in no time. Boost Your Brand Image By showcasing your expertise and thought leadership, you can position your company as an industry authority and a go-to resource for potential clients. This enhanced brand image can lead to increased visibility and interest in your products or services, helping to grow your B2B sales pipeline on a larger scale. Putting it into Practice: How to Leverage Conversational Events for Your B2B Sales Pipeline Now that you’re a conversational event enthusiast, let’s talk about how to make the most of them for your B2B sales pipeline. By following these best practices, you can maximize the impact of these events and drive meaningful results for your business. Set Clear Objectives: Know what you want, and go for it. Before you begin planning your conversational event, it’s essential to define your objectives. Consider what you want to achieve, such as generating leads, building brand awareness, establishing thought leadership (or all of the above). Having clear objectives will guide your event planning process and help you measure the success of the event. Identify Your Target Audience: To ensure your conversational event is relevant and engaging, you have to understand your target audience. Identify their needs, pain points, and interests, and use this information to guide your event’s content and format. By tailoring your event to your target audience, you can ensure it resonates with them and generates actual leads. Choose the Right Format: Conversational events can take many forms, including roundtable discussions, workshops, or panel discussions. We favor the in-depth discussions associated with a roundtable, panel or workshop format with smaller audiences. If you’d rather talk than listen, you’ll want to do a webinar–just don’t expect engagement. Curate Engaging Content: Nobody likes boring. The content of your event is crucial to its success. Keep the topic and conversation relevant, engaging, and
Engaging senior-level IT buyers: Common mistakes data infrastructure vendors make and how to avoid them
To our B2B tech marketers and salespeople: senior-level IT buyers are constantly bombarded with sales pitches for various data infrastructure solutions, making it all the more difficult for you to effectively stand out from the noise. We know how it is, as does a midsize data lakehouse company based on the west coast of the U.S. To succeed as vendors, you have to understand the unique challenges faced by your IT buyers and avoid common mistakes in your processes. The aforementioned data lakehouse company understands their audience enough to know that their offering has a stronger appeal to primary influencers than to C-levels. After consulting with BuyerForesight, they recognized that they needed to meaningfully engage both levels. Together we built a two-pronged virtual roundtable program that brought the C-suite and technical influencers to different sessions, speaking to the priorities and preferences of each group to great success. In this instance, this client avoided making Mistake #4 (read on to learn more). To find similar success, you need to do the same. In this blog post, we’ll explore additional mistakes often made by data infrastructure vendors, and how an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach can help you become more credible and fruitful in your sales efforts. Mistake #1: Babbling about Features and Not Business Impact While data infrastructure features are important, senior-level IT buyers are more interested in how a solution can deliver tangible business impact. In essence: your buyers don’t give a hoot about your product features if they can’t see legitimate ROI. How to avoid it: Demonstrate how your solution is going to make their lives easier. ocus on the specific challenges your solution can solve for their organization. Emphasize the strategic benefits, such as improved efficiency, cost savings, and scalability, and provide examples of how your solution has already positively impacted other organizations. You have to make it crystal clear what sort of ROI they and their business will gain by purchasing your product. Mistake #2: Being that clueless salesperson IT buyers expect vendors to understand their industry, organization, and pain points. Don’t be the one who waltzes in without knowing the first thing about your prospect’s business. Failing to do your research can damage your credibility, have them laugh you out of the room, and lose you the deal. How to avoid it: Do your homework. Know their industry, their company, and their problems inside out. Then, tailor your pitch. Highlighting benefits the individual leader will gain in addition to how the company will benefit can make the difference between them seeing your product as a nice-to-have one day and a need-to-have right now. Mistake #3: Trying to shove a square peg into a round hole Every organization is different. Mind-blowing, right? That one-size-fits-all sales pitch? Trash it. Each organization has unique data infrastructure needs and priorities, so a generic sales pitch is unlikely to resonate with senior-level IT buyers. How to avoid it: Listen, learn, and personalize. Don’t try to fit every possible pain point and benefit in. Craft a pitch that’s as unique as your prospect’s business. That’s where ABM comes in. We’ll get to that juicy stuff in a minute. Mistake #4: Ignoring the decision-making cabal Whether they like it or not, senior-level IT buyers often collaborate with other stakeholders when making purchasing decisions. Don’t snub them. How to avoid it: Find out who’s got a say in the purchasing process and charm them, too. Make sure you’re addressing the concerns of everyone in the room, not just the top dog. What may resonate with one role may not quite hit the mark with another. Understand their roles and priorities, and adapt your approach to address their concerns. Mistake #5: Failing to make your solution stand out Remember that sea of noise we mentioned earlier? If you don’t differentiate yourself, you’ll be lost in it forever. How to avoid it: Show off your unique sparkle, and back it up with cold, hard evidence. Case studies, testimonials, third-party evaluations – you name it. Bonus points if you can get a champion customer to sing your praises. Leveraging ABM to Increase Credibility Now that we’ve addressed the common blunders, let’s talk Account Based Marketing. ABM involves targeting specific high-value accounts with personalized content and messaging that directly addresses their unique needs and challenges. This magical approach will make senior IT buyers swoon over your personalized content and messaging. By embracing the power of ABM, you can: Increase relevance: Tailored content demonstrates your understanding of the buyer’s specific challenges and requirements, making your solution more relevant and appealing. Enhance credibility: Personalized messaging shows your commitment to addressing the buyer’s needs, positioning you as a knowledgeable and trustworthy partner. Strengthen relationships: ABM fosters stronger relationships by focusing on individual accounts, enabling you to better understand and address the buyer’s concerns. Improve efficiency: Work smarter, not harder. By concentrating your efforts on high-value accounts, you can optimize your resources and increase the likelihood of a successful sale. In conclusion Engaging senior-level IT buyers in the competitive data infrastructure market is hard, but with a little ABM magic and some common-sense tactics, you can outshine the competition and win over those hard-to-please senior IT buyers. Now go forth and conquer! Need a hand getting started? Contact BuyerForesight at grow@buyerforesight to discuss ways we can help you employ a winning engagement strategy.
Engaging CX and marketing leaders: Mistakes to avoid in the crowded customer experience solutions market
In today’s customer-centric business environment, customer experience (CX) and marketing leaders play a critical role in driving success. As vendors of customer experience solutions, it’s essential to understand the unique challenges and priorities these decision-makers face in order to effectively engage them. In this blog post, we’ll explore common mistakes and provide tips in engaging these senior technology buyers for standing out in a crowded market, as well as discuss the different evaluation and purchasing processes for contact center solutions. Mistake #1: Focusing on Features Instead of Outcomes While the features of a CX solution are important, CX and marketing leaders are more interested in the business outcomes these tools can help them achieve. How to avoid it: Emphasize the tangible business benefits your solution offers from the outset, leading with outcomes such as increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. Highlight case studies and testimonials that showcase the positive impact your product has had on other organizations. Mistake #2: Not Understanding the Buyer’s Unique Needs CX and marketing leaders are responsible for various aspects of customer experience along the customer journey, and their specific needs and priorities can vary significantly. How to avoid it: Invest time in researching the buyer’s industry, company, and specific role. Ask yourself what focus they are most likely to have, and use this knowledge to tailor your pitch, demonstrating how your solution aligns with their needs and objectives. Download our “Customer Experience & Data Analytics APAC 2022 Conference Report” To Learn Lessons From Seasoned CX Leaders You Can Apply Mistake #3: Overlooking the Differences in Contact Center Solutions Contact center solutions are a critical component of the overall customer experience, and their evaluation and purchasing processes differ from other CX solutions. How to avoid it: Recognize the unique challenges and priorities associated with contact center solutions, such as agent productivity, integration with CRM systems, and scalability. Address these concerns in your pitch and demonstrate how your solution meets the specific requirements of a contact center environment, tailoring it precisely with what you’ve learned in advance when identifying needs. Mistake #4: Failing to Stand Out in a Crowded Market With countless customer experience solutions available, it’s crucial to differentiate your product from the competition. How to avoid it: Focus on your unique selling proposition (USP) and emphasize the aspects (remember: benefits, not just features) that set your solution apart. Be prepared to articulate the value your product offers and how it addresses the specific challenges faced by CX and marketing leaders. If your USP isn’t clear or you’re uncertain how to best express it, you’re wasting outreach attempts. Mistake #5: Not Engaging Buyers in Thought Leadership Discussions One remarkably effective way to understand buyers and their concerns is by inviting them to participate in thought leadership roundtable discussions. You put yourself at a disadvantage by not doing so as you miss opportunities to learn directly from your target buyers. How to avoid it: Organize and facilitate roundtable discussions, interactive webinars, or industry events that provide a platform for CX and marketing leaders to share their insights, challenges, and best practices. This not only allows you to gain a deeper understanding of their needs but also positions you as a knowledgeable and trusted partner, and top of mind when they need help. Mistake #6: Neglecting to Follow Up Following up with CX and marketing leaders in a timely manner is essential to keep the momentum going . Neglecting this will all but guarantee you either lose, or worse, never firmly secure, their attention. How to avoid it: Create a follow-up plan that includes personalized content that speaks to the buyer’s specific challenges and needs. Be persistent but respectful, and ensure each interaction adds value and demonstrates your commitment to addressing their concerns and challenges. Conclusion Successfully engaging CX and marketing leaders requires a deep understanding of their unique needs and priorities, as well as the ability to stand out in a crowded market. By avoiding common mistakes and adopting a tailored approach, you can differentiate yourself from the competition and increase your chances of success. Investing in thought leadership initiatives and maintaining open lines of communication can help you build strong relationships with decision-makers, positioning your solution as a valuable partner in their quest to improve overall customer experience.
Navigating the congested cybersecurity market: Engaging CISOs and senior cybersecurity leaders
The cybersecurity market is like a teeming ocean of vendors, all begging to be noticed and given a spot on the boat with CISOs and other senior cybersecurity leaders. But the thing is, those execs have heard it all before. How do you rise above the noise? A small Singapore-based cyber company looking to break into the U.S. market had the same question. And they didn’t just want to break into the market – they wanted to do it right. To do so, they knew they needed to understand the differences between their buyers in Asia and buyers in the U.S. We consulted with them and came up with a strategy to help them identify those differences, and in the process, generated a good deal of sales meetings (80% conversion) and new business. By taking this approach, they avoided making six common mistakes that cyber vendors often fall victim to. This blog post will outline those mistakes, and how to steer clear. Mistake #1: Leading with Fear Cyber threats are legitimately scarier than a zombie apocalypse, and yes, they can do serious damage to businesses, governments, and infrastructure. But you can’t be a fear monger when discussing it with your prospects. CISOs are already having nightmares about it, and they don’t need you to pile on. Instead, show them how your solution will help them successfully battle hoards of the ‘undead’ (a.k.a threat actors). No More Fear: Just be cool and focus on what makes your product a game-changer. Tell your prospects how it will save the day and help them sleep at night, and you’ll have their attention. Mistake #2: The Info Dump While CISOs are highly knowledgeable about cybersecurity, they are often inundated with information. You may think that presenting them with excessive technical jargon will make you seem more like an expert, but in reality it can lead to disengagement and confusion from the CISO you’re trying to impress.Keep it simple and speak their language – the one where they actually understand the impact of your product. Cut the Fluff: Focus on the essentials and use language that connects with their needs. They don’t need to know how your product works from the inside out, just how it’ll level up their cybersecurity game. Remember, their primary concern is the strategic impact of your solution on their organization. Speak to the impact they care about. Mistake #3: Ignoring the Integration Nightmare CISOs have a massive tech stack to deal with, and adding another tool can be painful, especially when it comes to integration and interoperability. Don’t pretend it’s all sunshine and rainbows; it can make your solution less appealing. Know that you’ll need to address it at some point. Integration Salvation: Emphasize the ease of integration and compatibility of your product with existing tools in the organization’s tech stack. Be up front about it, and offer support, resources, and best practices to help streamline the integration process. If they know that they won’t have to uproot their whole stack to test out yours, you have one less potential obstacle in your way. Mistake #4: Forgetting the Decision-makers CISOs don’t make purchasing decisions in isolation. No matter how much they love you and your product, they can’t just wave a magic wand and buy. There’s a whole crew of IT leaders and execs they also need to impress, so you think that because you have the CISO on board, it’s in the bag, you may be disappointed. No More Surprises: Identify and engage the decision-making group as a whole and address their needs before they throw a wrench in your plans. This will not only increase the likelihood of a successful sale, but likely shorten the time to make it as well. Mistake #5: Being a ROI Scrooge CISOs have to justify their purchases, so make it easy for them to. Show them the gold at the end of the rainbow (ROI), and they’ll be more likely to invest in and advocate for your solution. ROI Royalty: Quantify the potential cost savings, risk reduction, and productivity improvements your solution can deliver. Give them hard numbers, case studies, testimonials, and success stories. And if you have a few champion customers, don’t be shy to ask for references. This is an area that you shouldn’t be afraid to go all in on; ROI is the key to the kingdom. Mistake #6: Ghosting CISOs are busy individuals, and it’s crucial to follow up in a timely and respectful manner to keep the momentum going. There’s always going to be another vendor trying to get their attention – once you have it, you shouldn’t take it for granted; you will lose it. Stay Connected: Create a follow-up plan that speaks to their specific challenges and needs, and don’t let up. Just remember to tread the fine line between persistence and stalking. Ensure each interaction adds value and demonstrates your commitment to addressing their concerns. In Conclusion Navigating the cybersecurity market is no joke. But by dodging these common pitfalls and showing CISOs that you’re the real deal, you’ll stand out from the crowd and win their hearts (and wallets). Spice things up by incorporating intimate, conversation-driven events into your prospect engagement plans. They can do a lot to uncover information needed to avoid making many of the mistakes above. Not only are they more fun than searching online sources hoping you find pertinent info, but you also have the opportunity to learn directly from prospects themselves and tailor follow up accordingly. Ready to dive in? Contact grow@buyerforesight.com and start planning your next event.
7 Common mistakes made when engaging senior technology buyers (and how to avoid them)
Engaging senior-level technology buyers is a challenging task for both marketers and salespeople; we’ve seen it time and again for our clients. Fact is, the intricacies of technical decision-making and the pressure to deliver value-driven solutions to these buyers can lead to common errors. For instance, one of our clients in APAC had ambitious sales and growth targets for the region. Their traditional focus was generic outreach with detailed information on all of the company’s offerings. This wasn’t working and they were struggling to figure out why. We consulted with them and came up with a strategy to avoid this common marketing mistake. Marketers and salespeople make plenty of other mistakes besides generic outreach. In this blog post, we’ll reveal the top 7 ones you’re likely to make when engaging senior technology buyers. We’ll also help out by sharing insights on how to avoid making them in the first place. By the end of this post, you’ll be better prepared to engage senior level buyers, and learn some examples of how to take that to the next level. Mistake #1: Failing to understand what they do You know what’s a fantastic way to alienate senior technology buyers? Not bothering to learn about their roles and responsibilities. This lack of understanding can lead to misguided assumptions, irrelevant messaging, and ultimately, an unsuccessful sales or marketing effort. Solution: Dive into research mode to thoroughly research senior technology buyers. Use resources like LinkedIn, company websites, and industry reports to get the scoop on their roles, goals, pain points, and challenges. This understanding will allow you to tailor your messaging and offerings to their specific needs. Mistake #2: Rambling about features instead of benefits Marketers and salespeople often focus on the features of their product or service rather than the benefits it delivers to the buyer. The sad truth is: your prospects don’t really care about your product’s bells and whistles, at least at the start. What they do care about is the value it can bring to their organization. Solution: Instead of giving them a laundry list of features, present your offering in the context of the buyer’s needs and pain points, demonstrating how your solution can address their specific challenges. Show them how your solution can improve efficiency, save them money, reduce risk, or give them a competitive edge. Most importantly show them how it can make them a rock star for their organization. Your time will be better spent, and your prospect will appreciate you not wasting theirs. Mistake #3: Drowning them in tech jargon Your prospects may be more tech-savvy than most, but they’re not robots. Spare them the headache and avoid bombarding them with jargon-filled messages that’ll make their eyes glaze over. This approach can make it difficult for buyers to understand your offering and how it can benefit their organization. Solution: Communicate in clear, concise language that is easy to understand. Focus on the business impact of your solution rather than getting bogged down in technical details. If technical information is necessary, present it in a way that is easy to digest and relevant to the buyer’s needs. And for the love of all things digital, don’t use obscure or organization-specific acronyms they might not even know. Mistake #4: Lack of personalization Senior technology buyers have unique needs, challenges, and preferences, so don’t treat them like clones. Failing to personalize your approach can result in lost opportunities. Solution: Research each buyer and identify any pain points possible before your first conversation. Leverage this information to craft personalized messages and offerings that resonate with their specific needs. Bonus points if you can work in some recent industry news or events to show you’ve done your homework. This homework doesn’t have to be boring. Remember the client I mentioned at the top of this post? They used a series of virtual engagements produced by BuyerForesight as a means of getting in front of pre-qualified buyers and having a conversation where they were able to learn these pain points organically, tailoring follow up communications accordingly. Mistake #5: Ignoring the decision-making circus Some marketers and salespeople might be under the impression that senior technology buyers make decisions in a vacuum. They don’t. They’re part of larger teams that juggle factors like budget, timelines, and competing priorities. Solution: Understand and respect the decision-making process. Provide relevant information to help your buyer build a strong business case for your solution. Offer resources, such as case studies, white papers, or testimonials, that demonstrate the value and ROI of your offering. Be prepared to engage with multiple stakeholders and adjust your messaging accordingly. Mistake #6: Desperately trying to close the deal Senior technology buyers can smell desperation a mile away. An aggressive sales approach that stems from a pure focus on closing a deal can be disconcerting, and quickly damage any existing or future relationship with the buyer. Solution: Instead of focusing solely on closing the deal, approach the buyer with a genuine interest in helping them solve their challenges. Cultivate a consultative sales approach that positions you as a trusted advisor rather than a salesperson pushing a product. Focus on understanding the buyer’s needs, offering tailored solutions, and providing valuable insights that help them make informed decisions. Mistake #7: Ghosting them post-sale This point is brief, and it’s a simple reminder: the relationship doesn’t end when the contract is signed. Solution: Nurture your buyers even after the deal is closed. Keep the relationship alive by checking in, offering support, sharing relevant industry news and upcoming events, and sending them cute cat videos (though that last one should probably be case-by-case). Keep communication channels open and be proactive in addressing any issues or concerns that may arise. Maintaining a strong post-sale relationship can lead to upselling, cross-selling, and even some good old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing. Final Thoughts Avoiding these common mistakes when engaging with senior technology buyers will significantly increase your chances of success. By understanding their roles and responsibilities, focusing on benefits rather than features,
Rise & fall of a sales opportunity
How Bill Lost a Deal and Won it Back This story is true. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. Part one: Chasing the suspect Bill sells data cataloging software. He had a named account list of 25 financial services accounts. He had a sense of the sorts of challenges these companies shared related to his product. He identified 5-6 key contacts at each account and sent messages that highlighted the features he felt would be most interesting to someone in a given role. He got a whole lot of nothing for his trouble. He followed up with messages which highlighted the pain those roles are likely facing around uncategorized data. BOOM! – Response from a VP of Data Services at a large insurance company. Call scheduled! Part two: Discovery Call Bill was excited and got his sales manager (SM) & sales engineer (SE) on the call. SM & SE introduced themselves to the prospect and started qualifying. They asked questions like this: What do you do? What are your data sources? What does your tech stack look like? Tell me about your application & data infrastructure What is your pressing need? By the time they reached the pressing need they were 20 minutes into a call that’d been scheduled for 45 minutes. The prospect then asked some fairly typical questions: What does your platform do? How do you compare against your competitors? (Prospect name dropped a few competitors) Onboarding time etc. SE answered most of the questions with general overview and promised to get back to the prospect with specific information. At that point the 45 minutes were up, and the call ended Next steps: More info & time for demo via email CRM status: Hot opportunity + SQL What Bill didn’t know: This insurance company had recently raised $150 million for M&A. At the time of the call the prospect was trying to integrate data from 12 acquisitions made over past 6 months. Clearly there was ample opportunity for Bill’s product; the company’s data environment was a train wreck. The prospect knew he had a problem and was evaluating 4 competing vendors. Part three: Multiple follow up for next steps Bill diligently followed up with no success, even with the SE/SM pitching in to help. Here’s what he sent: Post call note (after 2 days) – with capability statement & financial services case study 1st follow up asking for time (4 days later) 2nd follow up asking for data needed for demo (3 days later) 3rd follow up asking for time (7 days later) 4th follow up with a white paper (4 days later) 5th follow up with an analyst report (7 days later) 6th follow up asking to confirm interest (7 days later) Redemption stage one Months later Bill looked at this account again and decided to see if he could make something happen. Here’s what he did: Listened to and made notes about the discovery call Looked at company’s current structure – saw the acquisition number had grown to 23 in the last 6 months. Researched the acquired companies, understanding their business models, partnership structure and data infrastructure Bill researched on LinkedIn for a couple of days to understand the different data roles present in the parent company and the acquired companies Looked into the competitors whose names the prospect had mentioned and created a capabilities matrix matched with his offering He found out what incumbent vendors they were using to address their data categorization challenges After 3-4 days of effort, Bill had amassed a pretty good amount of sales intelligence: Prospect company strategic priorities – current and future acquisition plan Current and anticipated data infrastructure Complete behind the firewall tech stack How Bill’s company compared to competitors (not only the 3 names prospect mentioned but also 3 incumbent vendors) Bill could not find a published case study that was a close match, so he went to the delivery team to find past clients with similar data categorization & integration challenges. He came up with 3 past clients with unique & complex requirements similar to the insurance company. Bill spoke with his customer success & delivery team to understand the onboarding challenges they had with those existing clients and took notes on how his team overcame those challenges. Redemption stage two: Contact Bill sent a casual note asking how the prospect was doing and how his projects are going. He also slipped in 2 sentences about the onboarding challenges he’d picked up from his delivery team and asked if he was facing similar challenges with his latest acquisition. BOOM! – Prospect responded within 3 hours and Bill shared some of the methods his team used to overcome the onboarding challenges After 6 back & forth emails Bill was ready to ask if the prospect would like to spend 30 minutes on a call with his delivery head and get some feedback. The prospect agreed. Redemption stage three: Discovery round II The delivery head used the first 5 minutes of the call to reiterate the problems the prospect was facing. In the following 15 minutes the prospect gave a deep dive on where he was and the challenges they were struggling with. Bill’s team suggested some options and asked for sample data to show a demo with their data. Prospect agreed and the demo was scheduled before they ended the call. Redemption stage four: Demo, POC + Contract The prospect invited 3 other team members for an exhaustive 2 hour demo. Bill’s delivery head answered every question they had, and they walked through the deployment scenarios in their live environment. The prospect signed an SOW within 24 hours Lessons Bill Learned: Earn the prospect’s attention by incorporating research about their situation and their challenges into our prospecting Don’t expect the client to connect all the dots for us; if we solve these problems, we should lead, not follow Reduce prospect’s anxiety and resistance by consistently demonstrating that we’ll make their life easier, not harder
The AI trap
AI is Magic! (Actually, no) Can artificial intelligence solve the hard problem of finding your next customer for you? We all WANT this to be true, because it would be truly game-changing. In fact, we want it so much that we’re willing to accept “black box” solutions that claim to be able to discern buying intent or ideal customer profile fit. It’s the “black box” part of this you should be wary of. Vendors are naturally reluctant to share proprietary IP, but if they won’t tell you how their algorithm works after you’re under NDA, it’s appropriate to wonder why. Maybe they’ve developed a statistical model that has predictive value for a given dataset. That’s great, but if it doesn’t learn and get better as it encounters new data, it’s just a statistical model dressed up with “AI”. Is your AI a picky eater? Anyone who has tried to apply AI or machine learning to complex, unstructured data can encounter this problem. If your data isn’t clean and in the right format, it will probably fail to return a valid result (or any result at all). Information that points to real buying intent is inherently messy Many systems get around this by simplifying, like ascribing buying intent to simple content consumption. Yes, there is some predictive value here, but it’s pretty weak. Many AI systems, particularly deep learning systems, learn to recognize things in the real world by ingesting huge amounts of training data. Facial recognition is an example of this. There are now AI systems that can learn with far smaller amounts of training data, but it’s still early days. The most compelling applications of AI are those that incorporate human subject matter experts into their process. “Human-in-the-loop” AI is what you should be focusing on. It’s certainly where we see the most near-term promise, and it’s the model we’re using to build our own AI-augmented software platform for sales & marketing intelligence. In the meantime, finding (and more importantly, closing) your next prospect doesn’t actually require AI. It just takes a good researcher who understands how to connect the dots that predict a sales opportunity. We wrote about how one salesperson figured this out in another blog post. You might want to check it out here
Sorry, that’s not sales intelligence
Terms like “sales intelligence” and “actionable insights” get tossed around a lot, and frankly, most of it is BS. There are some big, respected data companies claiming that they offer sales intelligence to power account-based sales campaigns. Just query their database and like magic they’ll show you a list of people who have a certain job title in a certain kind of company. They’ll include a lot of “insights” like a feed of articles about the company, scraped LinkedIn profiles, info about their tech stack, and firmographic data. They may even share the unicorn-like holy grail of sales – buying intent. As in, the prospect downloaded 3 white papers on something broadly relevant to what you sell in the past 6 months. Well, I might as well raise my forecast right now with that kind of predictive power. /sarcasm Seriously, it’s not that the data is bad, it’s just data. It’s a collection of stand-alone information that you must parse and interpret to figure out if they are likely to respond to a pitch for your particular IoT application platform. Once you’ve parsed, interpreted and reached defensible conclusions about what all that data means for what you’re trying to sell, we can safely call it “sales intelligence”. A feed of press releases is not intelligence. A categorized list of technologies used by IT is not intelligence. A dump of all open positions at a company is not intelligence. A search result from Sales Navigator of people with “IoT” or “Blockchain” in their titles is not intelligence. However, what if I look deeper and see Press releases by a Global 2000 consumer electronics manufacturer trumpeting an innovation center of excellence focused on improving quality and reducing costs Individuals whose roles are to evaluate vendors even though they don’t have traditional operations or IoT titles. Open positions for manufacturing engineers familiar with Blockchain in support of a current project focused on unified factory wide communications via RFID. A recently opened, highly-automated manufacturing plant which would require predictive maintenance and distributed security. This looks like a real opportunity for my IoT secure analytics platform. THAT is sales intelligence. Sales Intelligence examples for an HRIS vendor Signals: There is no HR practice in the company or dedicated HR leader. Company is struggling with high turnover in each department Focused on mass hiring Has engaged 3 agencies to deliver on recruitment targets. Current employees are complaining of lack of growth opportunities. Hired recruitment manager 2 months back Sales Intelligence: As there’s no internal HR, CEO and COO are spending time and attention on HR issues Needs a consultant to define both a recruiting strategy and an employee engagement strategy Company has clear pain points that can be solved with ATS and employee engagement platforms Vendor should focus on the lack of time and high growth in sales causing the expectations misalignment, so some on-boarding and professional services should be budgeted into the pitch. If your BDRs are producing this level of sales intelligence, congratulations! If they aren’t, they’ll need to be trained and closely mentored to develop the ability to turn signals into sales intelligence. BuyerForesight can produce sales intelligence for you, and format it for upload into your CRM.