Guerilla Sales: 3 Key Account Research Steps Your Competitor Is Not Doing
Posted by Ron Snyder in Sales planning | 0 comments
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. 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 article on guerilla sales 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.
Territory & Account Planning for the New Year
Posted by Ron Snyder in Territory planning | 1 comments
“Thanks for what you did last year… now, what have you done for me lately?” Does that sound familiar? The beginning of the year means a new number to make. This is the time to reflect on the changes in your industry, geography, technology, product offering and competition. It is time for a new plan. Regardless of how good and knowledgeable you are, a good plan will enable you to make better use of your time and resources and produce better results… as long as you implement it! A successful approach to account planning includes: An insightful plan • Understand the trends • Develop your strategy • Determine high leverage:
- Customers to grow
- Target prospects that fit “best customer profile”
- Target prospects in high potential segments
- Partners to work with
How to write a Territory Sales Plan
Posted by Steven in Territory planning | 0 comments
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, 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?
Creating an Account Strategy in Salesforce.com
Posted by Steven in Sales planning | 0 comments
As difficult a sales environment it is today, every sales rep needs a good strategy and a good plan. That is why we are excited to bring the newest 
version of P2W products to the Force.com CRM cloud . We are committed to helping sales people build trusted relationships with their clients and prospects. (See the curve above)
Opportunity strategy, and Relationship strategies. If you are interested in being a Beta test site for free for your entire team, drop me an email at sharper at territoryplan dot com.
Good selling!
Steve
How to Write a Territory Plan
Posted by Steven in Best Practices | 2 comments
There are many aspects to creating a full blown territory 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, 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?
- First, analyze your territory / quota / business
- What are my accounts? How much have they spent? What else could they or should they buy?
- How am I doing against quota? Where did I get my business?
- How is my pipeline? What are my targets?
- create a good list to prospect from including prospects, customers and targets
- Next, look for patterns
- Are there verticals that i am winning more than others? (marketing may dictate this)
- is there common "Pain" or business issues I am solving? (this may be specific based on the product suite)
- Are there common buyers that I am getting to?
- Are there specific products that I am selling more than others?
- Are these because of the market or because I am more comfortable selling these accounts?
- Next, identify the help that you need
- Internal resources
- External resources (Partners etc.)
- Resources inside a prospect or customer
- Now, identify that actions / activities you need to complete
- Look at things like meetings / demos / conversations / dials
- If it takes 5 dials to have a conversation, and 2 conversations to get a demo and 2 demos to get a meeting and 4 meetings to get a deal... Now you can see how much activity it will take to hit your number
- Look at things like meetings / demos / conversations / dials
- Now, build the plan
- What activities when with what desired outcome?
- What next steps and how many activities by when?
- Why are you doing all of these actions?
- Write it out and let someone read it
- Make sure you can follow it
- Look at it everyday or week
