Accelerating Sales Via Competitive Intelligence Practices

Accelerating Sales
via competitive intelligence practices

Cascade Insights
“We provide technology companies with information and comprehensive analysis to beat the competition.”
We can help you:
Reverse engineer competitor’s account bases.
Qualify prospective accounts
Prepare for sales meetings with prospects
Contact: sean@cascadeinsights.comscott@cascadeinsights.comtel: 503.898.0004
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In this presentation:
We want to take you from this
Type of Preparation…

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To This Type of Preparation…

Audience and Topics
This presentation is for
Sales Professionals who want to increase their odds in meetings, sell more effectively versus the competition, and generate new leads and opportunity
Sales Managers and Vice President’s of Sales who want to arm their sales teams with leads and information about their competitors
CEO of small and mid-market companies looking to arm sales organization
Topics Covered:
Target profiling – People and Accounts
Sales call meeting prep
Reverse engineering competitor’s customer list
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Prepping on People
Prep on individuals to prepare for meetings and increase the odds of success.
What kind of trail have they left via personal, social, and business networks?
Their LinkedIn page
Looked up their Facebook page – what are they “fans” of on Facebook, etc.
Any Twitter feeds they have
Any times they were interviewed in the past
Any presentations they may have given to industry associations, trade groups, professional networking groups.
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Prepping on People – LinkedIn Specifics
Current role, former companies, membership in groups and associations, interests
What drives and divides them from others?
Associations, Passions, Interests
Are they senior or junior in the role that they are currently in?
How long have they been in their current position, and with the current company?
Are they a “fast mover” or have they been there “forever”?
Find points of commonality between you and them that you can bring up when given an appropriate opportunity.
Have a better context for their opinions and biases about their job, their industry, and vendors and suppliers.
Gain some insight into what vendors or competitors they’ve worked with in the past by reviewing their LinkedIn connections.
Read the recommendations they’ve gathered from others about their work to gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses
Invaluable when it comes to working with them as a client – are they highly disciplined, more creatively oriented, etc.

Prepping on the AccountWhat kind of account are you selling to?
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Prepping on the Account
Is the Account “Healthy”?
Is the account buying, or are they cutting costs?
Are they laying off, unprofitable, reorganizing, etc.
Use Twitter to see if employees are communicating this type of information
Search for key employees who are twittering
Search for information about the company by name
Setup searches that regularly send you tweets about the company by 3rd parties or by company employees. (i.e. Company X + Layoffs OR Company X + Cuts)
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Silobreaker.com
Key quotes
News organized to give you a solid company snapshot
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Glassdoor.com
Employee reviews of their own company
Provides information about layoffs, low morale, cuts, or thriving product lines / business units
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Indeed.com
Job posting aggregator
Are they hiring and what type of hiring is an indicator of a growing company
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Finance.Msn.com or Finance.Google.com
Is the company profitable – a little time here can go a long way
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SeekingAlpha.com
Financial information
For public companies, earnings call transcripts can be a wealth of information regarding company health.
Review the last two to four quarters and keyword search the full text transcripts
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For smaller companies, search local news
Use Google to find local ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates
Review video and articles focused on the company.
Use Google to find local newspapers
Review local business journals
Look for “hometown company” does poor or well types of stories
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Legally and Ethically Reverse Engineering Customer Lists

Reverse Engineer Customer Lists
Customer lists are considered trade secrets and are subject to legal protections
It’s important to use legal and ethical means to determine a competitors customers
Inappropriate ways to obtain a list of accounts:
Hiring a competitor’s former employees and encouraging them to disclose a list of customers
Using a false identity or other fraudulent means to get a competitor to provide a customer list, a list of customer references, etc.
Dumpster diving
However, a fair number of customers can be identified ethically and legally using public sources
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Reverse Engineering Customer Lists
Ethical sources of competitor customer information
Competitor case studies
Resumes
Job postings
Effective use of web searches via Google or similar engines.
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Case studies reveal recent customers
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Resumes and Social Networking Profiles
Example: LinkedIn Search for XenServer customers
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Job Postings
Example: Indeed.com search for XenServer customers
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Search engines
Example: Google search for “powered by XenServer”
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Conclusion
Cascade Insights uses competitive intelligence techniques to:
Help filter companies to determine which are the best prospects
Provide insight into the key people you’re meeting with
Provide new sales leads by identifying your competitors customers
Accelerate sales
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Cascade Insights
“We provide technology companies with information and comprehensive analysis to beat the competition.”
We can help you:
Reverse engineer competitor’s account bases.
Qualify prospective accounts
Prepare for sales meetings with prospects
Contact: sean@cascadeinsights.comscott@cascadeinsights.comtel: 503.898.0004
1/11/2010
24

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Accelerating Sales Via Competitive Intelligence Practices

by Cascade Insights on Jan 11, 2010

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Accelerating Sales Via Competitive Intelligence Practices — Presentation Transcript