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Social Signals: Capturing Demand Instead of Simply Generating Leads heinzmkt.in/Halbcc via @robert_ns #s20c
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InsideView Announces Social Intelligence Alliance with Microsoft and Native Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Joint Offering Provides Insights to Help Customer-Facing Professionals Reach the Right Person, at the Right Time, with the Right Message
InsideView, the only social intelligence provider to reveal the person behind the contact, today announced that they have finalized a Social Intelligence Alliance whereby Microsoft will integrate InsideView’s social selling solution into Microsoft Dynamics CRM. InsideView analyzes data from social media, news, and company sources and alerts sales professionals when opportunities for relevant engagement arise. InsideView helps sales professionals reach the right person, with the right message, at the right time. InsideView provides relevant information that can dramatically improve sales results for Microsoft Dynamics CRM users.
“The integration of InsideView with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the result of the two companies’ focus on reimagining CRM to create a fantastic and productive experience by providing useful, actionable insights about customers and prospects to sales professionals,” said Dennis Michalis, General Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “Social CRM is changing the way our customers succeed. InsideView has a unique and powerful solution that reveals important insights that help our users have more powerful interactions with their customers and prospects.”
“Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers meaningful productivity results in terms of sales effectiveness, client relationships, sales team organization, and visibility across our teams’ activities,” said Barb Potter, Director of Marketing KnowledgeLake, a SharePoint ECM Company. “The addition of InsideView makes Dynamics an even more comprehensive solution for us because it not only provides the full complement of CRM capabilities, but also company information, contact details, and relevant connections. Getting all of that in a single place has made our teams more productive. The integration of InsideView with Dynamics CRM is a great step forward for both companies’ customers.”
Industry research shows that 90% of executives never respond to cold calls or unsolicited emails, yet 84% will engage with a sales person when they are connected through a friend, colleague, customer, or industry peer*. Through the alliance, Microsoft Dynamics CRM users will have native access to InsideView right within Dynamics CRM at no additional charge. They will also have the option to upgrade to the premium version of InsideView at a special price. To turn cold calls into successful introductions, Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers can license full InsideView capabilities that allow:
- Enterprise-wide Connection Sharing—extends connections beyond social networking sites to automatically leverage the network of coworkers, executives and board members, previous employers, and customers. This allows all sales team members, even new hires, to instantly leverage their company’s extended network of professional relationships.
- New social and key business content—real-time content from social sources including Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, blogs, and other sources creates deeper insights for building profitable sales relationships. Key business content including industry trends, rich financial details, and competitive information gives Dynamics CRM users a strong advantage over less informed competitors.
- People and Company Alerts—track key people and companies so that the sales and customer management teams are the first to be notified about job changes, news mentions, social media chatter, and other key developments. These alerts are integrated with email and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM suite so that sales professionals always know the right time to make contact.
- Sharing Within Collaboration Streams—share breaking news and key business events about companies and people of interest within internal collaboration streams. A single click allows a user to push external news alerts about leadership changes, mergers, funding developments and more into the Dynamics CRM Activity Feeds. These alerts give everyone following a specific account the most up-to-date insights.
“Today’s leading companies are becoming social enterprises,” said Umberto Milletti, CEO of InsideView. “As a leading force in business, our partnership with Microsoft allows more businesses than ever before to benefit from the rich insights provided by Microsoft Dynamics CRM and InsideView. Together, we are helping these companies participate in and benefit from the social transformation we are experiencing today.”
InsideView is the Dynamics Marketplace Solution partner of the year, and has been certified by Microsoft for Dynamics CRM interoperability.
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…and it worked. Craig replied to the email because of relevance.
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Question #1
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Question #3
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Part of being a salesperson is having to stay on top of your prospects and active sales opportunities. This means that you need to make phone calls, send emails and even connect with them online to stay top of mind with the decision makers. Buyers are busy and they are getting hit from several different directs by the needs of their company as well as being contacted by other sales people.
I had a conversation with a few sales people about staying engaged with people and the discussion drove right into the topic of being pushy vs. persistent. I agree it’s a fine line and thought it would be best to ask our growing B2B sales community what they thought the difference was and if there really is ANY difference between being pushy or persistent when it comes to sales.
Bob Marsh This is probably one of the key things that differentiates the decent salesperson from the great ones. I’ve found that when done right, clients want persistence because your helping them keep you top of mind. I can’t tell you the number of times I kept calling/emailing a client with no response, and then when we eventually connected they thanked me for staying on top of them.
A persistent salesperson truly believes they are adding value for the client so are HELPING the client by following up with ideas, reminders, etc.
Grant Epstein I think it largely comes down to how your contact strategy affects the prospect. If your follow up it not intrusive, it is persistance. If it is instrusive or too frequent, it is pushy.
Michael A Brown Interesting timing for your question. Last week I had to send this to a guy who didn’t know the difference: “(Name), persistence is OK, but harassment is not. I responded to an earlier message with ‘not yet.’ That directive stands.” In my experience, the problem arises most often when overanxious sales people try to “leapfrog” their prospect’s consideration process. Seldom can peristence expedite that process. Attention and diligence CAN help keep the process going and bring it to a successful “yes.” But woe to the marketer or sales person who ignores the prospect’s preferences and timing!
Flyn Penoyer Yes, one is a positive trait, the other a negative. Pushy simply indicates disrespect an and improper approach.Persistence is a necessary and respected trait in nearly everything including selling. If you are truly persistent in your selling, you will get complemented on that trait.The clue is you don’t need to be persistent to be pushy.
Dan Nordquist A good deal of sheer “pushiness” comes from unrealistic sales quotas and other managerial browbeating in “boiler-room” environments. ( Such boiler rooms can exist in environments that are quite professional looking. ) Nevertheless, most cold callers have run up against the prospect who keeps postponing making a decision, and is giving mixed signals about the process of exchanging benefit info / priorities etc. If you sense that you are possibly overstepping your bounds in terms of intrusiveness, in a situation like this, you can either back off and put it in the tickler file, or say something like “If I seem aggressive it’s because you’re important” and then follow up with a question relative to something the prospect said was crucial to him/her, which has been left unresolved. Its a judgement call, based on how often you have received conflicting information, their perceived mood that day, etc.
Linda Bennett Hello: Pushy is obvious and redundant; persistence just shows good business drive and concern. You could develop a script that would cast your persistence in a good light.
Marc Zazeela Koka – Most Definitely. I think it is similar to the difference between aggressive and assertive. One is powerful, the other is annoying.
Barbara Giamanco Absolutely! And as soon as I said it, I was thinking to myself and what is the difference. How do you spot it? What are the characteristics? If someone is following up with me on a regular basis – say every couple of weeks – because I expressed interest in their service, I’m ok with it. That to me is persistence. After all, you can’t close business if you don’t follow up consistently. Pushy for me is the salesperson who uses tactics to try and “close” me, or, as in the case of one vendor they were calling me 2 times a day. Seriously! I finally complained to the owner. Pushy feels like it is all about their agenda and not what is best for me.Not sure if I’ve defined it well enough, so look forward to what others have to say.
Jacco van der Kooij It sits with the client to distinguish between the two, but in general I see it as follows; Persistent is when you act in the best interest of your client and sell in a way that shows empathy to him/her (e.g. do proper research, talk in her lingo, address his problem) Pushy is when you sell primarily in the best interest of yourself/your company on a timeline that suits you (this is what I got to sell, this is the benefit, have you secured budget yet?) Great interview question btw. will add it to my interview list for client facing professionals.
Ramon Garcia With your awesome pre-call planning you know that there’s a reason you think it’s a good fit. I feel as though if I don’t get a “NO” it’s still a “MAYBE”. So you can be persistent until they say “NO.” If its not a good fit you’re just being pushy.
Rini Das Perseverance is the characteristic you should look for. Nobody has lost a sales deal because the salesperson was persistent and/or pushy and persevered. If they did not buy its because they did not like value prop or perhaps usually was not a priority. If they bought it its not because of pushy and/or persistent. suggest focus on what makes the salesperson persevere. #justsaying.
Han Geskes CTC I consider this a difficult issue- you have no direct contact which makes it difficult to determine how your prospect or client views your message and options. I would like to a lead with a personal call and limit my e-messages.
Barbara Giamanco @Rini – I disagree slightly. Pushy can cause someone to lose a sale. Unless maybe they are the only one who sells that particular product or service, which would be rare. Pushy to the point of “pain in the backside” has caused me to say no to someone trying to sell me something. Persistent, I respect. Pushy (as in it is all about their agenda) is offensive.
MICHAEL F. CONTI reposting original response: I have said often that some sales people do not know when they are winning or losing. This can cause frustration for buyers if a) sales people keep calling and email and it is unwanted or b) sales people keep calling and have no agenda or clean reason for calling. If you not gotten signs of interest or buying and you continue to try and make contact that is frustrating for both parties. If there is an opportunity, you have a good offering and interested buyers, following up persistently and respectfully is fine.