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Tapping Inside Sales to Address Pipeline Dysfunction

This presentation was delivered at the AAISP 2012 Leadership Summit by Donna Kent, Televerde’s SVP of Global /nSales, Marketing & Services. It features common causes of “PD”, their impact on sales pipelines, and how to /nleverage inside sales to resolve them.

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Tapping Inside Sales to Address Pipeline Dysfunction

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  1. Presenter: Donna J. Kent Senior VP of Global Sales, Marketing & Services AAISP Leadership Summit Presentation: April 17, 2012 Tapping Inside Sales toAddress Pipeline Dysfunction

  2. What Is Pipeline Dysfunction? Meet Brian: Sufferer of PD BEFORE & AFTER…

  3. What Is Pipeline Dysfunction? “PD”: A symptomatic set of issues that negatively impacts sales pipeline health. The Bad News: We all have sales pipelines and they’re not in perfect working condition. The Good News: The symptoms are all treatable by tapping into the strength of the inside sales immune system.

  4. Breaking Down PD Common Symptoms… • Lead leakage or lead waste • Stalled leads • Poor lead quality (so low volume of SAL’s) • Inaccurate targeting (top of the funnel weakness) • Incomplete and inaccurate contact data • Un-nurtured sales leads • Poor visibility into sales opportunities • Insufficient lead intelligence and insight

  5. Possible Causes Sales process complexity Average sales cycle length between initial contact-closed sale Discrete steps in sales process

  6. Possible Causes Distinguish between Marketing Qualified Lead and Sales Qualified Lead Single or multiple stakeholder sales engagement Process to obtain useful feedback from sales team on lead quality and quantity

  7. Possible Causes Account-Based Marketing programs for targeted strategic accounts Do you segment data for various marketing objectives Contact data challenges

  8. Possible Causes Most significant contact data challenges

  9. Possible Causes Distinction between how leads are nurtured based on buying cycle stage Ability and skill sets within your organization to properly analyze the relevance and effectiveness of your lead nurturing process

  10. Symptom: Lead Leakage Leads and opportunities that fall through the cracks due to poor follow-up, irrelevant messaging, lack of ongoing contact, insufficient quality and quantity of contacts. Impact: • Lost revenue and market share • Impact on brand image Inside Sales Treatment: • Training on message alignment • Alignment with field sales • Disciplined, integrated workflow (digital and dialogue) • Strategic roadmap and multiple entry points

  11. Symptom: Stalled Leads Dormant leads/opportunities that lose momentum due to lack of solution alignment, lack of sales visibility, decision postponement, wrong contacts, budget loss, competitor positioning. Impact: • Competitive displacement • Loss of future revenue opportunity Inside Sales Treatment: • Ongoing opportunity analysis • More contacts – go deeper and wider • Discover solution alignment in other places • Long-term nurture – keep it alive!

  12. Symptom: Poor Lead Quality Unqualified leads delivered without sufficient insight, outside lead definition scope, incorrect contact, no solution match. Impact: • Wasted sales time • Distracted focus from better leads Inside Sales Treatment: • Collaborative lead definition • Acquire the RPC (right-party contact) • Know the solutions and find alignment

  13. Symptom: Inaccurate Targeting Insufficient quantity and low-quality leads at the top of the funnel due to poorly targeted lead gen efforts, solution misalignment, incorrect personas, strong competitive position, unknown insight. Impact: • More wasted sales time • Inefficient use of marketing budget • Time not spent on real opportunities Inside Sales Treatment: • Leverage skills to beta test markets, accounts, personas • Use dialogue skills to discover insight and filter in/out • “Knit one pearl two”

  14. Symptom: Bad Contact Data No purchasing committee contacts, inaccurate contact information, no role-based intelligence, insufficient account insight, no relationship-mapping. Impact: • Sub-optimized lead conversions • Closed-won revenue deficiency • Unnecessarily lost opportunities • Decreased program ROI Inside Sales Treatment: • Acquire the right contacts • Map relationships and buying committee positions • Identify personas/roles and value prop alignment All other sales lead conversion practices being equal, 90% contact record usability rate vs. 75% contact record usability rate yields a closed-won delta of approximately 30%. (Within our client base we observe usability rates below 75%.)

  15. Symptom: Poor Visibility No insight into the status of the open opportunity, its momentum, its probability, competitive positioning, its alignment with your value propositions. Impact: • Inaccurate forecasting • Unresolved issues (sales rep, pricing, etc.) • No prescribed next steps Inside Sales Treatment: • Get inside and stay inside • Identify, communicate, analyze and resolve issues • Use dialogue to eliminate blind spots

  16. Symptom: Un-Nurtured Leads Insufficiently touched relationships due to lack of contact discipline or irrelevant messaging. Impact: • Deals go dormant or to competitors • Loss of sales rep and brand integrity • Decelerated revenue and pipeline momentum Inside Sales Treatment: • Design and execute an integrated touch workflow • Sustain communication with multiple contacts • Align the messaging to distinct personas

  17. Symptom: Insufficient Insight Lack of understanding about a prospect’s behaviors and interests – individually and holistically across the entire account. Impact: • Missed opportunity for full deal value • Unknown contacts – deficient mapping • Misalignment of messaging and solutions Inside Sales Treatment: • Look for cues via website behavior tracking (MAT) • Get access to same BI given to sales rep and marketing • Use the BI to inform your dialogue

  18. Key Take-Aways… • Pipeline perfection isn’t the goal, but the conditions can be significantly improved • Inside Sales has unique talents and capabilities that Sales and Marketing can leverage to improve the pipeline • It’s not just about the immediate lead; it’s about insight, nurturing, and focus on long-term opportunities • Contact data challenges are at the source of many symptoms – Inside Sales can help resolve

  19. For More Information… Discussion & Questions… Donna Kent Senior VP of Global Sales, Marketing & Services +1 888-787-2829 Donna.kent@televerde.com www.televerde.com Do you have Pipeline Dysfunction? Which of the symptoms cause you the most pain? Can your inside sales team help resolve the symptoms?

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