Simon Bradstock.

So-called ‘social selling’ signals an end to cold calling – that’s the view of global business news and information services company, Dow Jones. Instead, sales professionals can take advantage of a suite of tools that automatically identifies reasons to call companies and connect to prospects with a real need.

Launching the latest version of Dow Jones Companies & Executives on 9 November, the company said the product is designed to help B2B sales and marketing teams take advantage of social selling opportunities to drive sales activity. Sales 2.0 functionality will allow sales professionals to uncover business opportunities and make warm connections to decision-makers, the company claims.

Key challenge

‘Sales management’s key challenge is to enhance sales effectiveness to improve performance and increase revenues,’ said vice-president and managing director of the Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group, Simon Bradstock.

‘Our solution offers a new approach, enabling social selling which provides sales teams with timely, qualified reasons to call, as well as warm introductions. This drives activity and helps teams focus on the best opportunities,’ he told ModernSelling.com.

So, how does it work? The system mines the web for defined business events and links users to those prospects via social networking.  (So basically the solution combines ‘who you know’ with ‘what you know – Ed.) The aim is to give users access to a vast, automated lead-generation engine with relevant contacts.

Helping to fill pipelines

The solution helps keep sales pipelines filled by seeking out ‘triggers’, or events that signal opportunity within a specific industry. These triggers deliver sales and marketing people a steady stream of fresh, warm leads for companies that might be ready to buy. Triggers such as management moves, product launches and other significant events are sent via email, helping sales people quickly prioritise their best opportunities. 

Once a sales professional receives a lead, the solution uses patented connection technologies to tap into their social networks to identify warm introductions to target organisations, helping to shorten the sales cycle. The system combines a comprehensive mapping of key executives, based on their work histories, with contacts listed in an organisation’s own in-house email system such as Microsoft Outlook and opt-in social networks like LinkedIn.

Future activity

This mapping can provide a rich path of connections to influential decision-makers. The relationship maps highlight connections of varying degrees of separation, from a mutual contact to a third-degree relationship.
In addition to identifying companies ready to ‘buy now’, triggers also indicate potential future activity, opening up further opportunities in the medium- to long-term. For example, based on independent research, 90% of companies that appoint a new chief financial officer (CFO) also experience other leadership changes within 12 months. This opens up selling opportunities for companies in human resources or outplacement industries.

Another statistic shows that 75% of companies that appoint a new CFO undergo expansion of operations within 12 months through joint ventures, partnerships and/or establishing a subsidiary, indicating future opportunities for salespeople targeting real estate, HR and benefits, IT, construction and manufacturing industries.

Reasons to talk

‘Our most recent survey of over 1,000 companies found that only 39% of firms surveyed reported a conversion rate of qualified leads to first calls of greater than 50%,’ said US sales research organisation CSO Insights’ managing partner, Jim Dickie.

Jim Dickie.

‘Salespeople need to come up with compelling reasons for prospects to want to talk with them. Solutions like Dow Jones Companies & Executives Sales give reps the insights into the prospect's marketplace, the company itself, and all the key stakeholders who may be part of the decision process, which is critical if they are going develop effective strategies to get in the game and then ultimately win the game.’

Simple to use

Dow Jones says that, unlike other sales intelligence tools, its solution is simple to use.  The product will be available both as a web application and as a series of widgets for integration into the workflow of Salesforce.com and other CRM systems, and sales portals to drive lead flow, call preparation, territory management and sales management tasks.

Additional functionality of Dow Jones Companies & Executives Sales includes the ability to:

• create precise target lists by using the extensive company and executive database;
• nurture profitable customer relationships by using news and insight to understand customers’ business challenges and engage in more meaningful conversations;
• manage potential risks with breaking news alerts focused on customers and prospects; and
• implement proactive territory management to improve performance of every sales task;

For more information about Dow Jones’ solutions for empowering the sales force, please visit www.dowjones.com/sales or email Joanne Lowy.

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