Strategic Business Information

How to Close More Deals and Increase Revenues

Today’s Speaker

James Rogers is the founding editor of B2B Buzz. He has been a leader in the business information industry for more than two decades. Previously, James edited Architecture and Governance Magazine. James is also a team leader at Hoover’s.

James Rogers

Agenda

• Understanding the Cost of Information• Different Challenges for Sales, Marketing and

Small Business• The ‘Top 10 Ways’• Three Case Studies• Assessing Where You Stand• Recommendations and Next Steps• Q&A

James Rogers

Understanding the Cost of Information

• The cost of information is decreasing

• It’s easier for everyone to have the same information

• You have to differentiate yourself by targeting, process, intelligence

James Rogers

Different Challenges

• Sales professionals – provide strategies to sales professionals on how to use B2B information and available tools to sell more.

• Marketing professionals – provide advice to marketing professionals on how to accelerate their customer acquisition and retention activities.

• Small business executives – provide counsel to small business executives on how to efficiently find and convert prospects into customers.

James Rogers

Maturity Model

• The goal is to apply strategic information to improve maturity of processes for all roles

James Rogers

Top 10 Strategies(1-5)

1.Whom Should I Target?

2.How do I Find New Customers?

3.Who (what roles) Should We Be Talking to at a Company and What Should We Say?

4.Finding an In

5.Knowing Your Customer

James Rogers

Top 10 Strategies(6-10)

6. Managing Risk of Prospects and Customers

7. Workflow Strategies for Efficiency

8. Keeping an Eye on the Competition

9. Be an Advisor to Your Customers

10. Real-time ListeningJames Rogers

Finding New CustomersRoadblock

– Traditionally, customers have come to them.

– Have to find the right prospects who want appreciate the benefits of advertising on non-commercial radio

Solution– Territory lead organization (by zip code for

800 stations)– Contacting multiple team members at

each prospect to find a champion

Results

NPR took a two-pronged approach. They found a high quality data source that had comprehensive prospect data. Secondly, they used advanced tools to find multiple contacts within each prospect.

Company: National Public RadioOperations: Non-commercial Radio Programming Web site: www.npr.org

Company Overview:NPR is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. A privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization, NPR serves a growing audience of 26 million Americans each week in partnership with more than 800 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations.

James Rogers

Automating Lead ResearchRoadblock

– Disconnected data– Leads cleansing and

augmentation not tied to Salesforce.com

Solution– 3rd party data sources– API integration

Results

By connecting their leads supplier data with their CRM system, the sales team has boosted its research capabilities and shaved weeks off the time it previously spent on due diligence. Now the support staff is creating more detailed review documents on prospects, and the sales representatives are going into sales meetings more prepared than ever.

James Rogers

Keeping an Eye on the CompetitionRoadblock

– Tracking competitor moves is time and resource intensive

– Tracking what the social graph says about competitors is challenging.

Solution– Automated alerting on industry,

company and individuals

Results

Piryx implemented a “listening strategy” to track competitor moves before they caused issues. Piryx developed a series of early warning systems, using tools from Google, Hoovers, Workstreamer and search.twitter.com.

Company: Piryx Inc.Operations: Software and services for non-profitsWeb site: www.piryx.com

Company OverviewPiryx is a fast growing software company. Thousands of non-profits and political parties use their software to connect with donors and raise funds online. The company has grown over the last several years through innovative products. Now they want to develop a process for keeping an eye on the competition.

James Rogers

Success Metrics

• Are our efforts generating a higher response rate?• Are our efforts yielding more “qualified’’ leads?• Are we driving more traffic to website, webinars and events?• Are we creating “communities” and achieving active participation?• Are the bloggers and analysts adopting our concepts?• Are prospects and customers asking for advice from us?• Are our competitors stealing our talking points?• Are analysts and partners asking us to participate in their thought

leadership activities?• Are we increasing media and social media coverage?• Are we increasing our relative position and score with analysts?

James Rogers

The Assessment Process

James Rogers

Next Steps

• Take the assessment on B2Bbuzz.org• Read the blog• Follow us on Twitter: @b2bbuzz• Join our LinkedIn group: B2B Buzz• Like us on Facebook• Ask us about processes and tools

James Rogers

Questions

James Rogers