Selecting the Right Software; Five Sources
Results are not where you need them to be. You know your approach can be improved. You decide you’ve got to do something about this.
You search the web and discover potential solutions to your problem.
You ask colleagues and post a question on your social media groups.
However, there are so many tools out there; it is hard to know which one will be best for you.
Don’t despair, there is help!
This help comes from five types of sources;
- Industry analysts
- Industry and technology sites and newsletters
- Platform and tool vendor sites
- Third party reviews
- User reviews, forums and social platforms
Industry analysts, such as Gartner, Forrester, IDC, etc. have long been helpful in analyzing and positioning product offerings by segment. They provide a very helpful big picture view and help you shape your thinking re what to look for in a tool in a category.
Industry and technology review sites and newsletters provide valuable perspective, including overview and in-depth product reviews. These include Techcrunch, Cnet, PC and software magazine sites and industry newsletters, such as the one from Sandhill.com.
Platform vendors often provide marketplaces of tools that run in on their platform by category. Two examples of this are CRM vendors (i.e. Salesforce.com’s AppExchange) and the Apple Store. This makes it easy to find tools that do what you’re looking for. Most of them also provide user ratings. Tool vendors themselves often provide product positioning and comparisons as well as testimonials and case studies.
Another very helpful resource is third-party reviews. There are sites that review software tools in specific categories and sum up each tool’s strengths and where they best fit. A good example of this is SmartSellingTools.com .
Finally, there are user reviews, forums and user perspectives posted on social sites. Naturally these are very helpful, provided the user’s perspective is representative of your needs. It is often hard to know the person’s perspective and what issues they were trying to resolve.
As you go through this process, these resources help you deepen your understanding of what is out there and what criteria will enable you to make the best selection and produce the results you need. They make it much easier to make a good decision in a world of increasing choices.
Guerilla Sales: 3 Key Account Research Steps Your Competitor Is Not Doing
So, your hard work in prospecting has paid off and you’ve landed an appointment with a big, publicly traded company.
To prepare, you’ve scanned through the latest press releases and the annual report, but you want to go one level deeper to make sure you stand well ahead any competitors.
Your extra effort will be well worth it. If you close this account, it could mean becoming the next sales superstar at your company!
That’s why we wrote this article. By following these three non-conventional steps, you’re going to show your prospect that you’ve done your homework and you merit their business.
Step 1: Study the Latest Investor Presentations
Public companies are required to present to shareholders and analysts at least every quarter. Many do it more than once a quarter.
These presentations are usually available to the general public for free. To access them, simply go to the company’s website and click on the Investors tab (or equivalent). Presentations to investors can be found on the “Presentations” tab (or similar).
Read one or two of their latest presentations (usually in PDF format). While these presentations highlight financial information, they will also be great resources for information on strategies and goals.
See an example of McKesson Corporation’s recent investor presentation by clicking here (PDF document).
Step 2: Read the Company’s Latest Earnings Call Transcript
Second, read the company’s latest one (or two) earnings call transcripts. These written transcripts can be a BIG eye-opener.
That’s because during the call, CEO’s typically share their latest strategies as well as their biggest challenges and pains. This information can be like digging up gold for a savvy salesperson, so make sure you do this step. It can pay off in a huge way.
Earnings call transcripts can be found for free at Seeking Alpha. Simply type the company name in the search box on the top right. As an example, here is the last earnings call transcript for McKesson’s Q4 2011 Results.
Step 3: Read The wikinvest Profile
Lastly, you can read the company profile on wikivest. This is a gem of a website that provides you with a good snapshot of a company’s basic information, strategies and challenges – for free! Simply type the company name in the search box on the upper left.
As an example, take a look at the wikinvest profile for McKesson Corp.
Conclusion:
These steps may take a little bit more work on your part, but it can pay off exponentially. Think about it: just one intelligent question on your part can make the difference between getting blown off and taking the opportunity to the next level.
The extra digging will also put you head and shoulders above any competitor going after the same deal (who did zero or minimal research).
Thanks for reading and we wish you happy hunting!
This was written by Silvia Quintanilla; this month’s guest author.
About Silvia Quintanilla
Silvia Quintanilla is President and Chief Sales Detective of Industry Gems, a custom sales intelligence company dedicated to helping salespeople win large deals with Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies. Learn more about us at www.industrygems.com.
If you sell solutions to the Fortune 1000, Silvia invites you to sign up for our Sales Gems Triggered Events newsletter at www.industrygems.com (subscription box on top left hand corner). In each report, we highlight the best “door opening” news that can help you get your foot in the door at a big account.
Copyright © 2011, Silvia Quintanilla & Industry Gems
Please include this copyright notice when reprinting this article. Please link back to this site when reprinting or quoting.
Reduce your sales “Drag Coefficient”
There is a pretty good webinar coming up that you should attend, and not because I am doing it. You should attend because of the people that I am going to be with presenting. These guys are rock stars and I plan on having a ball. The details are:
Date: Tuesday, March. 16th
Time: 1:00-1:45 EST. 10:00-10:45 PST
The world almost ended in 2009…but the strong survived! As 2010 kicks into high gear, 85% of the companies are raising quotas and budgets are starting to come back, Inside Sales is taking on a greater significance and facing great challenges – a much smarter approach to sales is required to win as we come out of the worst down turn in decades.
In this fast paced webinar you’ll learn how to use Sales 2.0 tools to:
· Prospect more efficiently & effectively
· Have a “killer” opening
· Know your “sweet spot”
- Focusing on leads you can “win”https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/742475882
This is Hosted by AA-ISP and Sponsored by Inside View
I hope to see / hear you next week on this webinar. I really think you will enjoy it. I am pretty sure I will.
Inside Sales Best Practices
Last week I spoke at the AA-ISP (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals) along with Michael Damphousse, CEO of Green Leads, (@damphoux) and our Host Trish Bertuzzi of The Bridge Group (@bridgegroupinc). I talked about the best practices in training and coaching your team, while Michael talked about outbound dialing.
What I really enjoyed was that I learned some really good stuff from Michael that I am going to use and steal. But first, what are the best practices in outbound dialing? You can get the entire slide deck here, but I learned 2 significant things:
- Dial at between 8 – 10 in the morning local time, or 4 – 6 in the afternoon (people are at their desks)… Lunch works too
- Dial at the top of the hour, 10 minutes of until 5 minutes after the hour. The prospect is just out of a meeting, and hasn’t headed to the next one.
There were a number of significant best practices (more…)
2010 resolution – Up sell and Cross sell
Want to sell more to your customers? Re-Prospect
More and more I hear sales leaders talk about up sell and cross sell with their team. The situation as we all know is that it costs 80% less and takes 50% less time to sell more to people who are buying from you, than to acquire new customers. The problem is that few sales people really know how to accomplish this task. The method that I have found to work is simply to re-prospect.
What the hell is re-prospecting you ask? It is simple, but not easy. Simply approach your customers as if you know nothing about them and have honest conversations about them and their business. (more…)
Great tips you can use
Welcome to Happy Friday! It is a rainy and raw Autumn day in New Hampshire… But we love this time of year. I have broken out the sweaters, and the leaves are spectacular! Here are some ideas for your long weekend.
You are probably sitting there trying to look busy before the Holiday weekend. Well, guess what… Your competitor may not be. And that executive that you have been trying to reach is probably working hard trying to finish stuff so he can actually take Monday off. This might be a good time to catch him at his desk and have a quick conversation about how you can help him solve some of those issues that may keep him from playing with the kids this weekend. But…
Since it is Friday, I wanted to share a few blog postings from others that I found useful and I thought you would too.
Matt Bertuzzi at the Bridge Group writes about leaving effective voice mails. I like this one since it is exactly my method and I 100% agree with him.
Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot had a great post at the HubSpot Blog about searching Google effectively.
Brian Halligan another HubSpot guy had a great post at On StartUps Blog about the impact that the Internet and new technologies are having on Selling. Who moved my customer?
Have a great weekend and Good Selling!
Death of the Outside Salesman?
This Thursday October 8, 2009 I will be speaking on a Free webinar about Inside Sales and selling SaaS in today’s world. The event is hosted and sponsored by Glance Networks. The reality is that inside sales is taking a bigger and bigger role in selling today. In Fact IDC says it will continue to grow. Whether or not you are and outside or inside sales person, the ability to use the telephone and web based meeting technologies is key to being successful and hitting your number.
So.. is the outside salesman going the way of Willy Loman? Think ab
out it. How easy is it to get meetings? How much time do executives and buyers have to spend in face to face? With so much information and data available online, we already know that the “first” sales call is dead… So, how much longer is the meeting going to live?
Will it die completely? Yes… No… Maybe. Frankly in some instances, yes, it will. In others, no. What we as Sales professionals have to realize is, when can a phone call replace a drive? When can a screen share work?
If you schedule demos, and show your screen… You should attend this free webinar.
Register Here
How to write a Territory Sales Plan
There are many aspects to creating a full blown territory sales plan. However, if you have never written one, where and how to start many be confusing. While a full blown plan description is longer than a blog post, (Download this tool kit for help and a detailed White paper) I will try and hit the highlights.
Whether you use slides, spreadsheet, or a document is up to you, but the key is the data that you need to turn into information. So where do you start? (more…)
Q4 Sales Plannning for Sales Effectiveness
Okay… Here we are. We are getting on close to fourth quarter. We have 3 months to complete the year and hit our number. Fortunately, this looks to be a less tough selling environment. So how are you going to approach your sales territory in the fourth quarter? How are you going to increase your personal sales effectiveness? Are you going to make more sales calls? More cold calls? Are you going to sell more to your existing customers? Try everything, all of above? Here are some ideas.. (more…)
Selling in Turbulent Times
I was on a great webinar last week presented by Dow Jones and CSO Insights, and I recommend that you listen to the replay. You can click here to watch the “Successful Sales Strategies” replay. We can talk about Sales 2.0, and sales effectiveness, or even sales optimization. But a lot of what is making sales people successful in this economy is a) having good sales intelligence and b) having an effective sales plan or an account plan!
Why did I like this so much? First, they based the strategies not only on the sales truths that don’t change, but on the completely changed realities of selling today.
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