‘The Insight Selling Era’ – how buyer sophistication is forcing organizations to transform how they sell Speakers: Kevin Ryan, Marketing Manager: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevryan Matthew Kiel, Senior Director, CEB: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mpkiel

1. How Organizations Must Evolve to Counter Today’s Highly Empowered Customers
The Social & Insight Selling Era
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Matthew Kiel
Senior Director, CEB
Kevin Ryan
Marketing Manager, LinkedIn
September 23, 2014

2. Agenda for today
• Introduction and Housekeeping
• The Social Selling Era
• The Insight Selling Era
• Q&A

3. Relationships are foundational for sales success
Kevin
Company
A
Company
B
Company
C

4. Decisions involve more people than ever before
5.4
people
are now involved in the
average B2B buying decision
Boss
Peer
Direct
report
Cross-functional
Business
leader
partner
Your
target buyer
Corporate Executive Board 2013 – Winning The Consensus Purchase

5. Decision makers rely on social media to choose
between potential vendors
75%
of B2B buyers now use
social media to be more
informed on vendors
Network
referrals
target buyers
IDC 2014 – Social Buying Meets Social Selling
Your
Blog
posts
Company
pages
White
papers
websites
Social
relationships

6. Decision makers now ignore cold outreach
Your
competitor
90%
of decision makers say
they never respond to
cold outreach
Harvard Business Review 2012 – Tweet Me, Friend Me, Make Me Buy. Decision makers are C-level
You
Your
competitor
X
X
X
Your
target buyers

7. The buyer’s process has changed
5.4 75
% 90
of B2B buyers now use
social media to be more
informed on vendors
%
of decision makers say
they never respond to
cold outreach
people are now involved
in the average B2B buying
decision
Corporate Executive Board 2013 – Winning The Consensus Purchase
Corporate Executive Board 2012 – New Decision Timeline
Harvard Business Review 2012 – Tweet Me, Friend Me, Make Me Buy. Decision makers are C-level

8. How well has your team adapted to this new normal?
Are you still:
75%
of B2B buyers now use
social media to be more
informed on vendors
Relying on the buyer
to inform you on
key updates
5.4
Looking for one
all-powerful
decision maker
people are now involved
in the average B2B buying
decision
90%
of decision makers say
they never respond to
cold outreach
Cold-calling prospects
like they’re just a name
in a database
I found out a month
later the Director of
Marketing left my
account and joined
another top prospect
of mine
The VP of Marketing
went dark and now
I’m back at square one
I keep pounding –
email, phone, voicemail
– but can’t get a response
“
”
“
”
“
”

9. Building relationships with prospects and customers
is different in this new normal. You need to:
Focus on the
right people and
companies
Stay informed
on key updates at
your target accounts
Build trust with
your prospects
and customers

10. LinkedIn has a wealth of information on the people &
companies with whom you want to build relationships
Billions
of professional
relationships
313M+
members
2B+
member
updates
per week

11. Sales Navigator makes it simple to establish and
grow relationships with your prospects and customers
Relevant
news
LinkedIn’s
network data
Your accounts,
leads & preferences
Sales
Navigator

12. The Insight Selling Era
How Organizations Must Evolve to Counter
Today’s Highly Empowered Customers

13. THE TRIED AND TRUE SALES
APPROACH
13

14. CHANGING CUSTOMER BUYING BEHAVIOR
n = 1,460
14

15. MAKE ME SMARTER
n = 4,960
15

16. THE 5 PROFILES OF SALES PROFESSIONALS
Hard Worker Challenger Relationship Builder
• Always goes the
extra mile
• Doesn’t give up
easily
• Self-motivated
• Interested in
feedback and
development
• Always has a
different view of the
world
• Understands the
customer’s business
• Loves to debate
• Pushes the customer
• Reliably responds
• Ensures that all
problems are solved
• Detail oriented
• Follows own
instincts
• Self-assured
• Independent
• Builds strong
customer advocates
• Generous in giving
time to help others
• Gets along with
everyone
Lone Wolf Problem Solver
n =
10,000
© 2012 The Corporate Executive Board Company. All Rights
Reserved.

17. CHALLENGER REPS MOST LIKELY TO WIN
Percentage of Population
% of Core Performers
% of High Performers
Challenger Lone Wolf Hard Worker Problem Solver Relationship
Builder
23%
39%
15%
25%
22%
17%
14%
12%
26%
7%
n =
10,000+ 17

18. THE CHALLENGER BLUEPRINT
Challenger
•Offers unique perspective
•Two-way communication
skills
•Knows customer value
drivers
•Can ID economic drivers
•Comfortable discussing
money
•Can pressure the customer’s
thinking
Relationship Builder
•Forms good relationships
•Builds internal advocates
•Builds cross-functional
relationships
•Can work with anyone
•Is genuine
•Accessible to customers
•Gives time to help others
•Respects customer’s time
Teach Gets
Tailor
Take
Control
along
with
Others
Likeable
Generou
s with
Time
Build Constructive Tension Reduce Customer Tension
18

19. CHALLENGERS EXCEL IN COMPLEX SALES
11% 7%
20%
54%
25%
25%
26%
10%
18%
4%
Low
Complexity
Sale
High
Complexity
Sale
Relationship Builder
Problem
Solver
Hard
Worker
Lone Wolf
Challenger
Percentage of High Performers
© 2013 The Corporate Executive Board Company. All Rights
Reserved.

20. THE NEW HIGH PERFORMING SALES REP
Teach for
Differentiation
Take
Control
Tailor for
Resonance
The Challenger Rep
20

21. A REQUIRED SHIFT
21

22. • Customer buying behavior and expectations have changed
• New buying behaviors necessitate new selling behaviors
• HOW YOU SELL > WHAT YOU SELL
• Relationships are still vitally important, but they are a means to an end
• Customers want to be challenged, but generally want to avoid change
• Challenger is ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITY FIRST, INDIVIDUAL
CAPABILITY LAST
• The question should not be “How can I make all my reps Challengers?”
but rather “How can we can enable better Teach, Tailor, and Take Control
behaviors across the org?”
22
KEY TAKEAWAYS

23. 23
BECOMING A CHALLENGER
ORGANIZATION
Four Pillars of the
Challenger Journey

24. • Do we know how our customers buy?
• Do we know how many stakeholders participate in that process?
• Why should our customers buy from us over everyone else? Does it matter?
Can we prove it?
• How can we enable our sellers to have different-in-kind conversations with
customers? What are the implications for training and development?
• How do we evolve our hiring/interviewing process to screen for these skills?
• What about first-line managers? Are we arming them with the differentiated
skills they need to lead in this environment?
• How do our process and metrics need to evolve?
24
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

25. CHALLENGER IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
25
Since Challenger, CEB has continued to analyze
customer and rep behavior in an effort to gain a very
tactical, data drive understanding of how the best reps
go to market differently than most. Data shows that
high performers have very different approaches to:
• Opportunity Qualification
• Sales process
• Stakeholder targeting
• Stakeholder engagement
ceburl.com/SolutionSales

26. 26
DISMANTLING THE SALES MACHINE
As customers grow more educated and empowered,
how we need to engage them grows in complexity and
in variability.
There are massive implications to:
• Sales Process
• CRM
• Dashboards, metrics, and comp plans
• How and where we source talent
• Emerging skillsets for sales reps (IQ over EQ)
• Emerging skillsets for sales managers
(judgment and network performance)
ceburl.com/Dismantling

27. z
www.thechallengersale.com
@CEB_Challenger

28. Visit sales.linkedin.com
for more information