Friday Rant – Technology as a Silver Bullet

I’ve always heard the term “Silver Bullet” but never took the time to research it to learn the origin of this term. Thanks to Wikipedia for this definition:

“The metaphor of the silver bullet applies to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness. The phrase typically appears with an expectation that some new technology or practice will easily cure a major prevailing problem.”

Let me provide a slightly revised definition from Derek-i-Pedia:

“Holy Cow. We’ve got a HUGE problem and no idea what do do about it. Since we’ve already changed our logo, and reorganization is out of the question, let’s throw technology at the angry looking 7,000 lb. gorilla in the corner.”

Sales organizations are notorious for attempting to cure low productivity or poor win rates with technology. I just read an article in the DemandGen report which indicates that 79% of “Best in Class” organizations were using or planning to use sales analytics technologies.

These organizations will likely spend lots of money, to get a system that will take months to be implemented, which may not be adopted by the sales organization anyway. Doesn’t sound like a Silver Bullet to me.

Here’s a couple of suggestions regarding technology for sales:

1. Think Small – Need a new CRM? Organizations like SalesForce have gotten it right by providing an on-demand solution with an attainable price point for you to use and evaluate for effectiveness. Paying a nominal monthly fee for a new technology makes more sense than breaking the bank for a solution which looks great in demos, but may never work that way because of your organization’s business processes. The new world of Software as a Service (SaaS) allows you to test drive, evaluate and terminate, all for much less than the price of a purchase.

2. Think Process – No technology will magically fix the shortcomings in your sales organizations. Web Marketing Automation and Sales Force Automation tools are useless without implementing processes driven by best practices. Thinking about scoring a prospect’s activities on your website? What interaction is worth more points – visiting the pricing page (shows intent) or the careers page (shows intent to call HR for a new job)?

3. Think Realistic – The best technology isn’t going to cover up a broken system or process. Identify specific goals that you hope technology will help you resolve (e.g., Utilizing Landing Pages for my Pay Per Click advertising will improve my conversion rate by X %, or using Web Marketing Automation will allow my reps to engage X number of new clients per week because they can focus on selling rather than educating customers).

If you’re looking for technology, put the processes in place to help that technology be successful.

If you’re looking for a Silver Bullet, good luck killing that werewolf.

The Lottery Theory of Lead Prioritization?

It’s been said that the lottery is a “tax on stupid people”, however I’ve been guilty of throwing a couple of bucks into the 6-digit retirement plan…but only when it’s at a staggering number – something like $200M…because I don’t want to sacrifice my current standard of living for something small like $50M.

For organizations who don’t have a method of lead prioritization, your Sales People are playing the lottery. Guessing…hoping, that this prospect will be the lead that materializes into a sale. Organizations which have no lead scoring methodology overwhelm their representatives with a deafening amount of:

NOISE !!!!!!!!!!!

“What is Noise?” you ask, however I’m deaf from years in sales and can no longer hear you.

Noise is the overwhelming amount of information coming at sales people, particularly in the form of inbound leads. A conversion page on a website gathers the same amount of information for everyone (e.g., Name, Title, E-mail, Yada, Yada, Yada), so giving a days worth of conversion information to your sales reps is frustrating at best because you ask the rep to subjectively sort through 50 names and prioritize them based. Generally, your faithful sales person utilizes a methodology that is roughly as objective as calling them in Alphabetical order…because we all know people whose last names start with “Y” are generally tire kickers.

Why not add Objectivity to the otherwise Subjective sales process by ranking, scoring / grading / prioritizing / segmenting your leads. A couple of basic options include:

1. By Target Organization – Give higher priority to organizations who meet your “Target Organization” profile, such as selling to a particular company size or vertical.
2. By Ideal Customer – If you’ve found the VP of Sales to be more receptive to your value proposition than the COO, utilize this information to rank them accordingly.
3. By Lead Source – Treat Internet leads from Pay-Per-Click initiatives (where you can quickly identify what message resonated with the prospect) with a higher priority than someone who responded from a trade show.
4. By Customer History – Has this prospect shown interest before, or is a current customer who has up-sell potential? Data gleaned from systems such as CRM or accounting systems can raise a prospect’s score.
5. By BANTS – Everyone knows BANT, but where does the “S” come in? Brian Carroll, an expert in B2B Lead Generation says that the “S” stands for “Sales Ready” meaning the customer is open to an imminent meeting with a sales person.

Don’t forget that there are a growing number of technology providers who provide Web Marketing Automation tools that allow prospects to be graded / segmented based upon explicit factors (title, geography) to determine quality, and scored to identify implicit factors (number of pages viewed, visits to your site, downloading of content). This then allows a sales representative to focus on all the “A” or “Tier I” prospects, and then identify all the ones whose behaviors have shown more intent.

Don’t ask your sales people to gamble…give them solid information which will help them be successful.