1to1 Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 42) hot topics DATABASE/ANALYTICS | CUSTOMER SERVICE | SALES | MARKETING from adopting it, but says not having clear ROI shouldn’t stop them. “I tell companies that if they want to know exactly what impact this is having, they need to show me every step in their sales process and exactly how much it advances customers along,” Allen says. “Nine times out of 10 they just don’t know, so there’s no way to tell that adding one piece [of information] to the process is having.” One company seeing real results from deeper information is talent management firm Advantage. It uses software from InsideView to generate leads and better inform its sales force. The Advantage sales staff can instantly find real estate announcements, acquisition news, and private-equity funding notices that indicate a potential customer may need its services. So now a salesperson can go into a call knowing specifically how to pitch a new customer. As a result, Advantage now converts 50 percent of its leads into actual opportunities, and has increased its overall close rate from 10 percent to 50 percent. There is also a plethora of anecdotal evidence that sales departments are more effective when trained to gather information through social networks and other online outlets. “There’s a lot of good marketing automation technology out there, but at the end of the day sales is still personal,” Konrath says. “Corporate decision makers hear from dozens of people saying the same thing every day, but if they see you’ve invested the time in learning about their company’s needs then they’ll talk to you.” In today’s virtual world, where business is largely conducted via email and other impersonal means, going in with increased insight makes all the difference. “Ultimately, using the information available through these new resources builds the rapport and intimacy necessary to build that relationship and trust without a face-to-face meeting,” Allen says. > Jeremy Nedelka Manage Your Repu Social media monitoring allows companies This summer Managing Editor Mila D’Antonio had a poor customer experience on JetBlue Airways and blogged about it on 1to1 Media’s blog. Within a few hours Morgan Johnston, JetBlue’s manager of corporate communications, posted a comment apologizing for the poor experience, and explained how JetBlue is working to prevent it from happening again. What could’ve been a stain on JetBlue’s reputation turned into a positive story, thanks to Johnston’s immediate follow-up. Companies have always been concerned about what is being said about them. But in this new digital era, reputations can be boosted or broken in a matter of hours. It’s crucial to monitor and manage your reputation in real time. “The space has evolved from more mainstream media-focused monitoring into blogs, social media, and voice of the customer,” says Jeff Catlin, CEO of analytics firm Lexalytics. “[Companies] are learning what’s being said and trying to engage with customers.” The real-time nature of the Internet means that it’s no longer just a question of what people are saying, but also where and when they are saying it. “By the time it hits the mainstream media, it’s too late,” Catlin says. “Companies are trying to build a great reputation on a day-to-day basis,” adds Andy Beal, coauthor of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Your Reputation Online, and founder of Trackur.com. He says that daily reputation management, especially online, is still a fairly new concept for marketers. “We are still very much in the early days for proactive reputation management,” Beal says. “A lot of companies are just reacting. And many aren’t even aware of social media activity around their brand. But they need to be listening, at the very least.” The notion of adding social media monitoring to a marketer’s responsibilities popped up very suddenly, Beal says. “It’s very much a young industry. Only in the past two to three months have I seen a big increase in companies paying attention to the idea [of social MARKETING The Advantage of Insight The problem for salespeople today isn’t a lack of information about their prospects; it’s having the time to uncover and take advantage of what’s available online. Talent management firm Advantage discovered a way to solve that problem. The company’s marketing team aggregates and distributes information about potential customers to its sales staff, whose close rate quadrupled after switching to this gathering method. Advantage uses InsideView’s on-demand business intelligence tools to group notifications by region and distribute them directly to the appropriate sales teams, along with a note summarizing why that company was chosen as a prospect. “Essentially our marketing people use the tool to scan relevant information on the Web within the private and public sectors to come up with valid business reaAdvantage’s marketing sons for our sales force to call prospective clients,” says team aggregates and James Zagelmeyer, Advantage’s executive vice president. distributes information “We look for ERP implementation announcements, and other about potential customers to its sales staff, whose triggers that indicate a company may need our services.” close rate quadrupled All of the information found through the tool is accessible after switching to this to Advantage’s staff and their competitors, but Zagelmeyer gathering method. says searching manually is time-consuming and less timely. > “We have especially great results with our middle-market clients because they aren’t the companies getting calls,” he says. “If we can contact a human resources manager and say, ‘Congratulations on receiving your C-round of funding, how can we help you deploy that mone?,’ we’re on our way to developing a relationship with them.” Advantage plans to integrate this information within its new CRM system, making the transition from marketing team to sales staff seamless and tracking the leads from inception to closure. Right now more than 50 percent of leads become opportunities. “Half the battle is arming yourself with relevant information,” Zagelmeyer says. “Customers need to hear that you’ve taken the time to understand their business model and care about their company’s needs.” 42 1to1 magazine www.1to1media.com http://www.1to1media.com/view.aspx?ItemID=29293 http://www.Trackur.com http://www.1to1media.com
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