White paper: Sales Intelligence revolutionizes B-to-B sales
Lead generation, a crucial development vector for companies, is now benefiting from innovative technologies that considerably improve sales efficiency. If yesterday's salesman lived without the Internet, today's salespeople have software to automate their prospecting: technology collects, cross-references and analyzes data from countless sources of information on the web. The era of commercial exploitation of Big Data has only just begun. It's just a short step from far-sighted lead generation to predictive lead scoring. Sparklane, the leading player in this field in France, has already taken it, and explains how Sales Intelligence is transforming B-to-B sales in its white paper. Discover a few extracts before downloading it.
Real potential for lead generation
Big Data and B-to-B sales performance
Big Data is part of the digital revolution that has been underway since the late 1990s. With digitization and the rise of the Internet, the volumes of data created every day have become considerable. Today, the exploitation of this data is made possible by cutting-edge technologies, based on innovative algorithms that enable the simultaneous and cross-processing of these enormous volumes of data of very diverse natures. Applied to digital marketing, these new Big Data technologies enable fine, targeted analysis of information from the web and social networks.
Google, Amazon and Facebook have created applications based on Big Data. A deeper understanding of the customer leads to increased sales. The precision of information on prospects and customers provided by these technologies contributes to a significant increase in the average shopping basket for companies that use them.
Companies that have integrated Big Data have seen their sales increase by 13%.
Sales Intelligence, commonly known as Sales Intelligence, enables companies to develop their commercial growth in the B-to-B sector, by exploiting Big Data for prospecting purposes.
In this white paper, Sparklane, a pioneering software publisher in the field of Sales Intelligence, reveals the secret of its success: the rich, contextualized information collected and analyzed by Sales Intelligence helps the sales team in its prospecting, and enables it to rapidly increase the quality and number of its B-to-B leads.
New business opportunities emerge thanks to new approaches to customer and company knowledge. Better identification leads to better persuasion. This greatly optimizes the salesperson's work and increases sales potential.
Sales Intelligence transforms the salesperson
This white paper also lifts the veil on the new reality of sales relationship processes. B-to-B buyers now anticipate information gathering: thanks to digital media, this has become a natural reflex. They have access to an enormous amount of information on suppliers and available solutions, and so the purchasing decision process now takes place largely even before the first contact with a salesperson. As a result, the relationship between buyer and salesperson is unbalanced, to the detriment of the latter: he or she is seen less and less as a source of added value by the buyer. Sales Intelligence can help redress the balance of power...
Without revealing all the details of the new sales techniques, we'll leave you with the essentials: by having access to perfect knowledge of their customers in real time, the sales force can address them at the most opportune moment. By providing hyper-qualified data, Sales Intelligence transforms the salesperson into the ideal partner for the buyer, because both come into contact when the timing is perfect, when the need is clearly identified and the purchasing context is favorable.
And Sales Intelligence 's expertise is not about to stop there: forward-looking studies tend to show that marketing strategy, sales and customer service are already working more and more closely together. Commitment to this path is inevitable, given the results and the compatible integration between different types of existing software (CRM, Marketing Automation, Sales Intelligence, etc.).
Are you ready to make the commercial harmony between your lead generation, targeting and CRM vibrate? In our white paper, Sparklane shows you :
- the benefits of multi-criteria hyper-targeting, taking into account the context of your prospects,
- the steps you need to take upstream for successful lead nurturing,
- why coupling the sales process with a total or partial automation solution becomes the most operational sales system.
Sales Intelligence is setting a new standard. Companies, large or small, that want to stay ahead of the pack, or at least in the race, have every interest in seeing it as a major ally in the face of the competition.
Sales Intelligence to the rescue of CRM
CRM and customer knowledge: can we do better?
Sparklane conducted a survey of 672 participants in June 2016. What emerged was that most companies are demanding more customer knowledge.
Two points particularly caught our attention:
- for 66.9% of companies surveyed, the CRM tool is not enough to improve customer knowledge,
- 77.4% want a predictive lead scoring solution.
How companies benefit from Big Data
It's a fact of life that companies that use Big Data benefit from it. Here are two revealing figures:
+ 13% increase in sales
- 16% cost reduction
Source: BARC study " Usages et pratiques des Big Data", 2015 (Europe).
If contacting relevant leads, qualified thanks to the business signals they emit, seems obvious, some alarming figures on CRM solutions make us aware of the complementary and necessary contribution of Sales Intelligence:
- 70% of the data collected by a company is not used in its CRM.
- 76% of registrations are affected by incorrect data entry.
The quality and accuracy of information are therefore essential to successful prospecting. By connecting to CRMs, Sales Intelligence tools ensure the completeness and accuracy of the information provided. The CRM can then play its full role with the sales person.
The development of predictive lead generation
What is predictive lead scoring?
By assigning a score to a lead, we can determine whether the prospect is warm or cold. The predictive aspect of lead scoring makes it possible to identify, upstream of a sales approach, companies likely to become customers, based on the business signals they emit via their communications (website, press, social networks, etc.). It enables B2B sales reps to define a target ripe for purchase.
Predictive lead scoring enables companies in a target market to be scored according to their purchasing potential, assessed by cross-referencing a whole range of segmentation criteria with business signals captured on the web. This technology optimizes the targeting of business prospects. In fact, Big Data and predictive techniques provide access to rich, real-time information from the company, enabling sales reps to generate targeted, informed prospecting lists.
Technology aids and supports the manager's decision-making process, defining future customers:
- it monitors and defines the market perimeter,
- It gathers information on each company,
- it analyzes the context to assess whether it is conducive to purchasing,
- it classifies companies by identifying the hottest business leads,
- it provides sales staff with all the information they need to make contact.
According to Sirius Decision, 90% of users find predictive scoring more effective than the traditional approach.
Sirius Decision, “Predictive Lead Scoring Study”, 2014.
How can you better target your prospects throughout the sales funnel? How can you implement a performance strategy based on business signals?
As you read this white paper, you'll discover how Sales Intelligence guides you to the hottest leads, using infallible predictive lead scoring. Additional benefits for the user include considerable time and cost savings.
Insightful business signals
Still on the subject of sales prospecting, Sparklane 's survey puts the assessment of a company's buying potential in 2nd place, just behind the identification of contacts. In descending order, the next most important factors are
- information on the business sector,
- companies similar to the target,
- the company's internal organization chart,
- company financial data.
What types of information sources can you draw on for your sales prospecting? Which corporate events can generate opportunities? There's a wealth of information and indicators to draw on for any complex B2B sale: Sparklane has compiled a must-read list in the white paper.
Will digital technology take over?
While Sparklane doesn't have a clear-cut opinion on the matter, the sales and marketing intelligence solutions provider does make the following observation: the traditional, or "old-fashioned", salesperson no longer has a future. Every type of company is concerned: Data is predominant! For SMEs, mid-sized companies and key accounts, it's a question of knowing how to exploit it operationally, using Sales Intelligence.
But let's make no mistake. While Sales Intelligence, marketing automation and predictive analysis are essential tools for managing and solving many sales problems, they cannot replace human decision-making, the sales relationship, or the act of selling itself. The aim of this white paper is to highlight the advantages of solutions that make B2B sales and sales performance more effective.
And, to enlighten you, the Sparklane platform has enriched its white paper with fundamental elements...
Expert interviews to bring you up to date
In this white paper, valuable testimonials back up the facts and arguments, and confirm the survey figures. Here's a brief overview.
Marc Chemin, Global Insights & Data Consulting Leader at Capgemini Consulting, takes a look at the current state of Sales Intelligence, and what's on the horizon: where do we stand in terms of Sales Intelligence adoption? How will it evolve? Are all business sectors equal when it comes to this technological revolution?
In a second interview, we discover how a cognitive service works, and what it can bring to B2B sales. Thierry Lelievre, Director of Sales at Watson Group (IBM), discusses artificial intelligence and its future in sales, as well as how it can be used in Sale Intelligence. The question of total automation of B-to-B sales is also addressed.
Finally, who is Sales Intelligence designed for? Michael R. Levy, Sales Intelligence expert, answers the question. A senior consultant at GZ Consulting in the USA, he describes Sales Intelligence and its specific application to the B2B sector in a comprehensive and informative interview.
A multitude of reference sources cited
As a complement to its survey, Sparklane also presents figures from worldwide studies, including numerous references to the B-to-B industry. To illustrate this commitment to rigorous information processing, here are a few examples:
- IDC study for SAP: " Using Big Data + Analytics to drive business transformation", 2015,
- Gartner report: " Big Data Industry Insights", 2015,
- IDG Enterprise study: " Big Data and Analytics Survey", 2015,
- BARC study: " Usages et pratiques des Big Data: Tirer profit de la valeur des données", 2015,
- Radius study: " B2B Demand Generation & Predictive Marketing", 2016.
How can B-to-B sales be made more effective with Sales Intelligence?
All the answers and guidelines are just a click away: download the Sparklane white paper!
Article translated from French