What Do You REALLY Know About Your Customer or Prospect?
If you are in a sales role where you are working to grow specific accounts continually or, working to break into accounts with larger opportunities, one of the most important tools you can have ready at your side is information.
By doing some research ahead of time you can be prepared not just to have meaningful conversations, but you can also have better insight on potential areas where your product or service may help impact an organization in a positive way and, as a result, gain sales and increased revenues for you and your company.
Remember that it is never a "one and done" task when researching and obtaining information.
Your company and product(s) most likely change over time and so do the organizations you are selling to, so you will need to stay up to date with your information if you intend to be relevant and retain insight over time.
So what type of information should you work to obtain? Four of the important ones are People, Mission, Competitive and News.
And gathering this information shouldn't take you that long - remember you are looking for relevant information for your meeting(s) and not "information overload".
You would be surprised how much you uncover in thirty minutes to an hour.
For People, find out who you are meeting with (or working to meet with), their title(s), what departments/areas they oversee, tenure with their organization and industry experience.
Also find out who they report to and how long they have been in their current position.
If you know you are meeting with a brand new manager or even a new CFO that has no industry experience you will approach that meeting differently than if you are meeting with a respected President that used your competitor at the last place they worked.
For Mission, find out what the company does but also what they are exploring getting into.
Find out if they have received any awards or have had new products struggling or that have failed.
If you can connect your product or service to a company's mission, or can help impact profitability or success for them then your are far more likely to have smoother inroads and access to growing the account.
For Competitive, find out what competitor of yours (if any) they use currently and know their strengths and weaknesses.
Also find out who that organization faces for competitors in their industry and work to find a way that your product or service can give them an edge.
If you are proposing a brand new idea then find out what obstacles you may face internally as you work to change the way someone executes a process or does business.
Also find out if your company has ever done or attempted to do business with them as that can be excellent insight.
For News, look to the internet and search for recent new articles within the past year that may give you details on successes and challenges the organization has experienced.
Use clipping services to get automatic alerts when news on that organization comes out.
Join and search Social Media sites for updates and broadcasts they send out.
Check the organizations website as they will often have sections in it on news, recent events or media.
And, if the organization is publicly traded, annual reports and investor information can be excellent sources of insight on company strengths, projects and focus.
By taking some time to do a little bit of research up front and gather some information, you will be better prepared to position yourself and your product or service to benefit the organization and show value in what you are offering.
Besides that, if the account is worth going after and is important to you, then it is equally worth making the investment of time before you pursue them to give yourself that extra edge.
By doing some research ahead of time you can be prepared not just to have meaningful conversations, but you can also have better insight on potential areas where your product or service may help impact an organization in a positive way and, as a result, gain sales and increased revenues for you and your company.
Remember that it is never a "one and done" task when researching and obtaining information.
Your company and product(s) most likely change over time and so do the organizations you are selling to, so you will need to stay up to date with your information if you intend to be relevant and retain insight over time.
So what type of information should you work to obtain? Four of the important ones are People, Mission, Competitive and News.
And gathering this information shouldn't take you that long - remember you are looking for relevant information for your meeting(s) and not "information overload".
You would be surprised how much you uncover in thirty minutes to an hour.
For People, find out who you are meeting with (or working to meet with), their title(s), what departments/areas they oversee, tenure with their organization and industry experience.
Also find out who they report to and how long they have been in their current position.
If you know you are meeting with a brand new manager or even a new CFO that has no industry experience you will approach that meeting differently than if you are meeting with a respected President that used your competitor at the last place they worked.
For Mission, find out what the company does but also what they are exploring getting into.
Find out if they have received any awards or have had new products struggling or that have failed.
If you can connect your product or service to a company's mission, or can help impact profitability or success for them then your are far more likely to have smoother inroads and access to growing the account.
For Competitive, find out what competitor of yours (if any) they use currently and know their strengths and weaknesses.
Also find out who that organization faces for competitors in their industry and work to find a way that your product or service can give them an edge.
If you are proposing a brand new idea then find out what obstacles you may face internally as you work to change the way someone executes a process or does business.
Also find out if your company has ever done or attempted to do business with them as that can be excellent insight.
For News, look to the internet and search for recent new articles within the past year that may give you details on successes and challenges the organization has experienced.
Use clipping services to get automatic alerts when news on that organization comes out.
Join and search Social Media sites for updates and broadcasts they send out.
Check the organizations website as they will often have sections in it on news, recent events or media.
And, if the organization is publicly traded, annual reports and investor information can be excellent sources of insight on company strengths, projects and focus.
By taking some time to do a little bit of research up front and gather some information, you will be better prepared to position yourself and your product or service to benefit the organization and show value in what you are offering.
Besides that, if the account is worth going after and is important to you, then it is equally worth making the investment of time before you pursue them to give yourself that extra edge.
