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Focusing Your Profiling Efforts

by Amy Keuper, VP Sales

In an earlier post, we introduced our underlying premise that the terms “profiled” and “qualified” are not synonymous when it comes to target accounts in the complex sale. The purpose of this post is to further outline the steps involved in profiling accounts: objective targeting, high-level sorting and contact verification.

We are of the opinion that it’s better to invest getting your CRM in workable order so you can market directly to real names at the right companies than it is to spend more in order to market broadly to prospects and people you merely hope are right.

We define profiling as high-level analysis based on a prospective customer’s revenue, geography, industry, offering and (sometimes) the name and title of a person. When you buy a list from a broker (InfoUSA, ZoomInfo, Hoover's, D&B, etc…) and you narrow your results on the basic information listed above, you are beginning the profiling process by setting some objective parameters around who is a fit for you.

The next level of profiling includes a review of your target accounts’ offering(s). We have found that you can “bucket sort” and effectively eliminate about 25% of your target accounts just by reviewing their website. This step seems basic, but we have seen hours of calling wasted on accounts that, upon closer examination, were obviously never a fit. Someone should objectively ask, “From everything we can tell at this point, does this company meet our basic customer criteria?”

The final element of profiling is assembling or verifying contact names and information. Our experience is that purchased lists are typically at least 30% invalid. So, while a list may not cost much (between .10 and $1 per name), the data may not be very usable unless you invest in it further. Our recent work confirms that your cost for labor to verify a purchased name and title then secure a valid email address will run between $10-14 per contact.  Factoring in the cost of list purchase and other related expenses, the final cost per name may run up to $25.

Keep in mind these key steps in focusing your efforts occur before what we call “qualifying” begins. More in the next post.

Profiling vs. Qualifying

by Catherine Brown, President

Work within “inside sales” is challenging enough, but the lack of standardization on various important terms makes it even tougher. My firm provides what we call “inside sales” contract help to other companies. We mean this to be broad, encompassing lead qualifying, research work and lead nurturing. However, not everyone means the same thing when they say “inside sales.” For example, some people call inside sales telesales or even telemarketing.

In selling and delivering our services, we and our clients must be aligned on what certain terms mean so that we are fulfilling expectations, not just contract terms. The importance of defining words properly becomes clear when sales departments’ and marketing departments’ purposes overlap in the area of account qualification, when they ask, “Is XYZ company even a target for us to be pursuing?”

A Sales organization may think, “If marketing would only provide us with qualified leads, we could focus on winning the business….” or “We just need Marketing to profile accounts so that we can go after them.” Account qualification can be broken down into increasingly specific, ever narrowing levels, and accounts are continually qualified as they move down through the funnel. So….where does Marketing end and Sales begin?

Distinguishing account profiling from account qualifying is helpful when mapping out a lead hand-off strategy. Common definitions must underlie the use of these terms so all parties work under the same assumptions about the scope of these tasks. We would love to see standard usage on these terms adopted within our industry.

 

When we at Initial Call say, “profiled,” we mean that the information sought can be gathered primarily on the internet, without a live conversation with the Buyer on the phone. When a client is looking for more—if someone has to find and reach the Buyer to answer questions, then it’s not profiling--it’s qualifying. Qualifying is gathering key market intelligence around a specific set of criteria, uncovering information that can only be learned through conversations with the prospect.

 

The next few blog topics at Initial Call will revolve around this idea of account profiling and qualifying. In our next installment:  what a profiled account really costs.

The Power of a Well-Maintained Customer Database

by Barb Cullen, VP Client Delivery

Maintaining an accurate and current database of target customers and prospects is essential for sales and marketing success. Too often I see the state of a company’s database or CRM and understand why they may be having difficulty filling their sales pipeline. Sometimes the database is focused on capturing individual respondents to a marketing campaign rather than capturing corporate attributes about whether the target company fits the “ideal customer profile.” Other times the database is outdated with old contact names, missing email addresses, and incomplete information about the company.

The first scenario is problematic in that it profiles specific individuals and progress with one specific individual. This focus is too narrow. Individuals come and go at a company. Individuals respond to marketing campaigns for different reasons: the Amazon gift cards, the free book, tickets to a sports event, or the raffle prize, or maybe even, if you're lucky, because they have interest in the end product. Salesforce.com CRM users can work out of the “Leads” section of the database or the "Accounts" section. Leads focuses too much on individuals and not enough on Strategic Account Development. However, Accounts allows Salesforce.com users the ability to continually collect more defining information about an account as a strategic target. Creating lists through Accounts rather than Leads builds up a list of individuals who work at the target account and groups them together in the “Contact” section of the database, visible under the Account name.

The second scenario I often see is a database with outdated and/or incomplete information. This situation is problematic even if a company wants to target its existing customers. Whether being faced with competitive threats in the marketplace or employee turnover at your customer sites, you want to have a means to communicate your services and to be able to do some “maintenance marketing” to keep your message in front of your customer. Maintaining accurate contact information is essential. When your internal champion leaves a company, and your contract is nearing the end date, you don’t want to be shown to the door. To extend your customer relationship, it is important to be able to communicate to the right people – having their correct names and email addresses can help you to do that.

Lastly, it is important to be conducting some kind of marketing campaigns or activities in addition to the work that your sales people are doing. Tracking your target prospect companies and marketing to them via email or regular mail is extremely important.  Taking a multi-pronged marketing approach will help your sales team to generate more sales leads and lend more support for their direct sales efforts. Mike Gospe’s book, Marketing Campaign Development: What Marketing Executives Need to Know About Architecting Global Integrated Marketing Campaigns is a practical “how-to” resource for planning marketing campaigns. Look for a review on our blog soon.