www.kickstartall.com
End the Lead Qualification Argument
by Janet Gregory

The argument dates back to medieval times. Is this lead qualified or not? Marketing says it is qualified, and sales says it’s not. Before the Call, Inc., a customer intelligence solution provider, offers a tool that just may put an end to that argument forever, or at least allow Sales and Marketing to have a constructive conversation related to lead qualification.

Enriched Leads End the “Insufficient Information” Argument

Sales wants more company information. With one click, Before the Call searches leading market intelligence sources, such as Factiva, idEXEC, ZoomInfo and others for information. Information automatically maps to Salesforce.com and Oracle’s Siebel CRM OnDemand fields for immediate reference and retention.

Marketing wants internal collateral and other documents to be useful in pursuing sales opportunities. With one click, Before the Call searches internal resources for relevant documentation. Case studies, industry briefs, success stories, collateral, white papers and any other relevant material can be associated with the prospect for easy reference and use.

Management wants an informed briefing before contacting customers and prospects. With one click, Before the Call creates a “portfolio” of in-depth information on the company and contact. The “portfolio” is rendered in PDF format for easy review, storage, forwarding and printing. The “portfolio” is also a powerful tool for organizations that forward leads to channel partners.

Relevancy Scoring Ends the “Not My Job” Argument

Marketing wants sales to follow up on the hottest leads first. With one click, Before the Call performs relevancy scoring on a lead based on any number of significant criteria that are unique to the customer. Individual leads as well as lead lists can be scored and stack ranked for relevancy to define lead priority and to validate marketing campaign effectively.

Sales does not want to waste valuable selling time on low priority activities. With one click, Before the Call helps prioritize sales activities through prospect ranking. Relevancy scoring ranks leads so that the hottest prospects can be contacted first.Moreover, good leads that are buried at the bottom of a tradeshow list may actually see the light of day since they will be surfaced as relevant leads, driving up the marketing ROI on campaigns.

Enriched Contacts Ends the “Who Am I Calling?” Argument

“No! No! I don’t want to make a COLD call!” shrieks sales. End the trauma. With one click, Before the Call transforms a contact into a person. You call a person instead of a contact. Knowing more about the personal and professional history of a person provides the foundation for building a relationship.

Many sales situations require multi-level selling and cross-organizational selling to close the sale. With one click, Before the Call performs sales detective work by searching an organization for executive contacts and management peers. This provides multiple contacts within the organization as well as some degree of organizational mapping to enhance the sales strategy.

Do any of the following questions apply to you or your company?
  1. Are you currently using Salesforce.com, Oracle’s Siebel CRM OnDemand or NetSuite?
  2. Has sales ever complained about receiving insufficient information on leads?
  3. Would marketing like to rank leads to ensure that top priority prospects are called first?
  4. Have you ever wanted more information about the person you were contacting?
  5. Would you like to use internal collateral more effectively in the sales process?
  6. Does management want to be better prepared before making customer calls?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions it will be worth your time to contact Before the Call, Inc. at 800.357.2005, or on the web at www.beforethecall.com.

For an industry analyst perspective on CRM integrated tools for sales productivity attend a live web conference at 10:00 PT / 1:00 ET on Thursday, July 27, 2006 by the Aberdeen Group.

About Before the Call, Inc.
Before the Call is an on-demand customer intelligence solution. Before the Call has developed proprietary software that integrates with leading sales force automation systems, like Salesforce.com, Oracle’s Siebel CRM OnDemand and NetSuite. It automates research, data mapping and information retention from many leading market intelligence sources, such as Factiva, idEXEC, ZoomInfo and many others. Before the Call’s relevancy scoring ensures that sales people are working on the top priority opportunities.

About the Author:
This is just one of many tools and methods that can improve the success of your sales team. Finding ways to improve sales effectiveness has been a continuing professional quest of Janet Gregory, veteran sales executive and co-founder of KickStart Alliance. To help your sales team accelerate its effectiveness or for help with any aspect of sales operations, contact Janet.

Copyright 2006 KickStart Alliance www.kickstartall.com