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

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

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 Based on 179 Respondents
process complexity
Multi-stage Average sales cycle length between
&
somewhat Multi-stage
& very
initial contact-closed sale
complex
complex
19%
41%
Custom
multi-stage
selling
Fairly model &
simple & extremely
basic complex
20% 20%
Discrete steps in sales process

6. Possible Causes
Distinguish between Marketing Qualified Single or multiple
Lead and Sales Qualified Lead 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. All other sales lead
conversion practices
being equal, 90%
Impact: contact record usability
 Sub-optimized lead conversions rate vs. 75% contact
record usability rate
 Closed-won revenue deficiency yields a closed-won
delta of approximately
 Unnecessarily lost opportunities 30%.
 Decreased program ROI (Within our client base we
observe usability rates
below 75%.)
Inside Sales Treatment:
 Acquire the right contacts
 Map relationships and buying committee positions
 Identify personas/roles and value prop alignment

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