Digital Prospecting

1. Executive Summary
Mitalio Software Inc, an enterprise business software provider, is pursuing a new
Marketing and Sales plan to increase its revenue. Due to a loss of its market share, Mitalio needs
to change the way their sales reps are engaging with the customers and the way the Marketing
department is advertising their products.
Mitalio failed to recognize the shift in the behavior of their buyers. At the time, Mitalio
had virtually no online presence. In other words, they had no channels in place to allow
information to flow between themselves and their prospects. At the end, their potential customers
were being acquired by competitors that were actively engaging them using the right market
channel.
After an extensive strategic analysis, three potential solutions were discovered: (1)
integrating a social tracking software such as LinkedIn navigator, (2) assigning social media
quotas, and (3) implementing a social selling bonus reward system.
Implementing LinkedIn Navigator will enable management to monitor salespeople’s
activity on LinkedIn and will enable the sales team to find better leads. On the other hand, the
implementation process will take a significant amount of time, there will be a steep learning
curve towards, and will be relatively expensive since every license cost $100 per month.
Assigning social media quotas will require Mitalio’s sales people to use social selling to
reach their quota and improve the engagement experience between sales rep and customer. On
the other hand, management will not be able monitor salespeople’s activity on social media, and
there will not be any incentive to move to this system from the
sales team standpoint.

2. Implementing a social selling bonus reward system will motivate the sales team to use
social selling,improve the engagement of the customer with the sales rep, and increase revenue.
On the other hand, management will not be able monitor salespeople’s performance on social
media which could lead to foul play.
We think that the best course of action is Implementing LinkedIn Navigator. This process
will involve: (1) purchase of licences, (2) training of employees with web seminars and online
modules, and (3) implement reward system. We chose this approach because it will
maintain/generate leads, provide an environment for B2B engagement and will be highly
profitable with an estimated ROI of 123.91.
Analysis:
Mitalio had a problem connecting with their customers, this much is obvious, but less
obvious are the reasons behind their failures. As a company they were well positioned within in
their industry, offering top tier solutions as well as the ability to truly understand their customers
needs and adapt their offerings to fulfill those needs. Normally, this scenario could be described
as a recipe for success but that was not the case for Mitalio. Their competitors were outpacing
them and gaining more and more market share.
The problem, Mitalio failed to recognize the shift in the behavior of their buyers. Relying
on tried and true methods from their past marketing and sales successes they fell behind the
curve. Mitalio had virtually no online presence to speak of and this is where their competitors
were making the gains. We now know that approximately 57% of the buyer's journey is
completed before a buyer reaches out to make contact with a seller. Where do consumers get
their information… the internet and Mitalio was conspicuously absent in the marketplace.

3. They had no channels in place to allow information to flow back and forth between
themselves and their prospects. Modern buyers want to learn, connect, and engage with the
companies that they are doing business with. Without the means to do so with Mitalio their
potential customers were gravitating towards the competitors that were actively engaging them in
the marketplace.
Proposed Solutions:
Mitalio’s plan of becoming a “Thought leader” in social media marketing can also be
applied in the social selling space. Allowing Mitalio’s salespeople to become social sellers would
have an equally beneficial performance as the social media marketing campaign.
A strategic way to for Mitalio to advance their salespeople into the social selling space
would involve: integrating a social tracking software such as LinkedIn navigator. This would not
only allow management to track salespeople on LinkedIn to make sure they are demonstrating
the thought leadership culture of Mitalio as portrayed on company social media, but LinkedIn
navigator would also give the salespeople the ability to find higher quality leads on LinkedIn
providing a benefit to management as well as salespeople. This solution would push salespeople
to use LinkedIn, and engage in social selling, while allowing management to track activity to
find out what is working for the company’s sales team. The disadvantage to this proposed
solution is that LinkedIn navigator is $100 per license, which is a significant price when
considering outfitting the whole sales team.
Another Option to engage Mitalio’s salespeople in social selling could be assigning social
media quotas, where a certain number of the salesperson’s sales must be generated using a
professional social media. A strategy like this would require Mitalio’s sales people to use social
selling to reach their quota for the quarter or year. The advantage to this plan is it is relatively

4. inexpensive to implement, but the disadvantages are: management cannot track salespeople’s
performance on social media, and there is very little motivation for the salespeople to embrace
the idea of social selling.
Finally, a strategy that is relatively less expensive, but provides motivation to salespeople
would be, a social selling bonus. Increasing the commission for a sales person who has used
social selling to generate the sale. The increase in expense as far as implementation would be the
larger percentage of commission paid to the salesperson, and this creates motivation for the
salespeople to use social selling to create more sales. The disadvantage is once again
management cannot track the salespeople’s social media presence, and performance which could
lead to foul play.
Recommendation
The world is interconnected in mass media more than ever before; not only are the trends
seen changing the way we communicate, they are also changing the ways business is being done
between companies and clients. Through the great amount of information that social media has
made available, buyers can now research and educate themselves; giving them more power than
ever before. Before meeting with a salesperson to make a decision, the buyer is more than likely
already in the advanced stages of the buying process. Effective social selling strategies would
realize early connection with the client before meeting. As more information has become
available through social media, conventional approaches of communication including email and
cold-calling have proven to be more obsolete. More companies are seeking to reach out to their
current and prospective customers in not only innovative and creative ways, but also en masse.
This ever-growing trend saw the creation of social selling.

5. In evaluating which course of action is best to enhance Mitalio’s social selling capacities
and ultimately position it up to pace with the online trends that greatly influence sales today, we
gathered that the best solution would be to integrate LinkedIn Sales Navigator as a main platform
for online presence. To achieve success in connecting with clients, it is more important than ever
for companies to maintain a social online presence. Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator makes it
possible to maintain/generate leads and provide for the optimum environment for B2B
engagement; connecting companies and salespeople to other prospective companies and buyers
sharing communication, brand, and product; ultimately placing Mitalio where it needs to be in
the emerging trends we are seeing today and making it a “thought leader” in the industry. In
achieving 20% expected revenue growth, we will see a return on investment of 123.91.
To begin the implementation of this recommendation, we will begin by purchasing
licenses of LinkedIn Sales Navigator for all employees, managers, and executives. The cost of
the licenses per user is $100.00. Once licenses are purchased and users have access, all will
begin training to navigate the site and learn to use it for their respective functions including
advertising and prospecting. We will be using the site:
https://lss.csod.com/LMS/catalog/Welcome.aspx?tab_page_id=-67&tab_id=-1.
Here users can attend live web seminars and/or complete self-paced modules. Once the users are
fully acquainted with the medium and are actively using it in their sales work, we may have
discussions on how to motivate the users to engage in social selling with the site to research,
prospect, and sell. This may include metric-specific compensation, commission, etc.
ROI Analysis

6. Total Revenue in Software
(2010)
$ 22,485,000,000.00
Cost (30000 employees) $ 36,000,000.00
20% expected revenue growth $ 4,497,000,000.00
ROI 123.91
Info from: IBM Annual Report (2010)
Note: Since Mitalio does not exist, we used financial statements of one of the main companies at the
enterprise business software industry (IBM) as a reference.
ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/annualreport/2010/2010_ibm_annual.pdf