The Official Broadlook Blog

By Dan Hughes

Chief Sales Officer

Broadlook Technologies

Why use “Sphere of Influence” for your initial engagement? The reason is simple. The strategy behind SOI is to create engagement.

Creating engagement means creating awareness, curiosity, and an impetus to act. Sales and marketers have long known that the higher the level of awareness and curiosity, the stronger the likelihood of engagement and ultimately to close a sale.

Sphere of Influence techniques start with identifying multiple names, titles and emails. It is a due diligence step that every good sales or marketing professional should do. Those sales and marketing professionals that use Profiler or ProfilerX already know how to accomplish this step effectively, saving them time and allowing them to focus their time on selling.

Armed with the necessary contact information, the next step is to approach the target prospect company with a series of voicemails and emails designed to create a “Sphere of Influence” around the identified contacts you wish to engage.

In the communications, you want to use voicemail and email that are similar in content and call to action. Both messages should include the standard elements of a quality introductory e-mail or voice mail, but with the following exceptions;

When sending the email, clearly show that you are CCing others and make reference in the initial sentence of the email that you are doing so. When leaving the voicemail, introduce yourself and company and then mention that you are leaving similar messages for the other contacts identified as well as draw attention to the email that compliments your email.

And then the all important statement must be included in the email and voicemail.

“…I am attempting to identify who best in your organization I should discuss how my company’s (product, services, solution) can impact yours…”.

Why? Because it is true and it gives the prospect an opportunity to determine who best in their organization should engage you for further discussions related to your company’s potential value to them. At the same time, other decision makers and influencers are aware of you and will be curious as to the results of any conversations that take place.

Albeit simple, these two critical elements; the clear CC of emails and mention of other intended parties in voicemail, along with the disclaimer the you are “simply attempting to identify who best in their organization you should begin exploratory conversation with to determine mutual benefit” , are big impact items.

You can use these components of “Sphere of Influence” at any point in the sales cycle, however be cautious. Some may be tempted to use SOI with a contact you have been working with to date because they have either “gone dark” (not returning communication attempts), not making progress at the speed you wish, or says that “management does not want to do anything” and you believe otherwise. If you do, you run the risk of antagonizing what may have been your internal champion or advocate.

Performing the elements of “Sphere of Influence” at the onset of engaging a company will pay big dividends in motivating the target prospect to engage you in conversation, flush out who are decision makers and influencers and reduce wasted time on companies that are not qualified.

To learn more about Sphere of Influence, watch for our upcoming webinar entitled “Sphere of Influence Selling: Strategies that can advance your sales 9 out of 10 times.”

“What is the secret to Broadlook’s continual sales success?” That is a question that I have been asked frequently from clients over the years. Aside from using the Broadlook Suite, we use a unique sales approach I called “Sphere of Influence” selling. It is actually more of a “rules of engagement”, outlining a very effective, professional methodology to motivate prospects to engage us in a prospective sales process.

When I have explained “Sphere of Influence” selling in more detail, the response has been, “it is brilliant” and “when will you document the process.”

This article is a step in doing just that. At a high level, “Sphere of Influence” is a sales process that is most effectively used:

• when targeting new prospects for the very first time
• for further penetration of an account
• in follow up to an initial inquiry from a suspect

It uses all means of communications, and in many cases prefers email and voicemail.

“Sphere of Influence” dramatically reduces the frustrations associated with attempting to reach a particular contact just when they may be at their desk or available, as well as “tricks” to get around administrative assistants or routinely (fondly) called “gatekeepers”.

To effectively execute “Sphere of Influence”, you must have multiple points of contacts within a target organization. This is where the Broadlook Profiler and ProfilerX application plays such an important role. Once the multiple points of contacts have been identified, a series of voicemails and emails commence that clearly articulates the value proposition while at the same time applying internal office peer pressure, (or as Donato likes to call it, “school yard peer pressure”) to motivate a call to action.

When done correctly, it is by far the most effective, most professional and most efficient way to get your prospects to engage you. From there, it is up to you to be able to articulate your unique value proposition, qualify them and determine if there is a reason to do business.

We will continue to break down the components of “Sphere of Influence” over the course of subsequent newsletters throughout the year. If you want to learning more about “Sphere of Influence”, and how you can apply it in your business, join us in our upcoming education events related to the subjects. It can have a major impact on your business.

“Sphere of Influence” can bring the horse to water. You get to make them drink.

Corp Shorts recently produced this video about Broadlook Technologies Lead Generation and Recruiting Software

A few years ago, a man with a polite demeanor and accent that I couldn’t quite place made it to my extension at Broadlook. He should not have.  It was rare that my door is shut; a sign to my staff that I was not to be bothered.  I was working on the specifications for the 2.0 version of Broadlook’s Eclipse tool. On the call was Russ Moon and I decided to give him a really hard time as he broke into my fortress of solitude.  I did give him a hard time, but he was persistent and we eventually had a productive conversation once I realized he was not going to give up.

Today, I’m glad I took that call and that southern accent is well known to myself, my wife and the staff at Broadlook. Few people bring value every time they call and Russ Moon is one of those rare people.  So it is an honor to announce that Russ moon is the first non-Broadlook employee to achieve Broadlook Black Belt status.  The Black Belt is part of the Broadlook Certified Internet Researcher (BCIR) program.  As Russ will tell anyone who asks, his tool of choice is Broadlook’s Eclipse.  He’s been heard many times saying “I use Eclipse and it’s game-over”.

In order to get inducted into Black Belt status, Russ had to show my staff his proficiency with Eclipse, a tool that is easy to use the basic functionality, but requires time, ability and dedication to master.

If you’ve met Russ in person, you know that he is a larger than life character.  I joke with Russ that he is like a super hero of sourcing.  So Russ, this ones for you and thanks for breaking into my fortress of solitude.

-Donato

Anyone interested in the Broadlook Certified Internet Researcher (BCIR) program can read this post.

Internet Research is the common thread across all usage of Broadlook products.  It is NOT recruiting, sourcing, sales or marketing.   Recruiting, sourcing, sales and marketing are the functions which depend upon Internet Research.

Many of Broadlook’s recruiting clients may be surprised to know that an equal number of sales and marketing professionals use Broadlook solutions.  Conversely, sales and marketing users may be surprised to learn that recruiters have a 5 year head start over them in using the Broadlook tool set.

Irregardless of the job function,  Internet Research is a base skill set.  In addition, those base skills are transferable from a “sourcer” to a sales lead generation role and visa versa.

Over the last few years, Broadlook users have asked us to create a certification system for sourcers.  We’ve also been asked to build training classes for lead generation.  For Broadlook’s client base, this would be like teaching a class in spelling verbs while ignoring nouns and adjectives.

If you are going to learn a language,  learn it fluently.

We want to teach the world to be fluent in Internet Research.  Therefore we are proud to announce the first Broadlook certification program for Internet Research;  Broadlook Certified Internet Researcher (BCIR)

There are some so-called certifications in the recruiting space; you take a class and get certified simply for attending, irregardless of your skill level.   This is a problem for two reasons.  (1) for those individuals who have spent tremendous time and effort to sharpen their skills, it devalues the certification.  (2) For employers looking to hire skilled workers, there is no guarantee that someone certifiied is worth their salt.  A certification without a true test is meaningless.

BCIR will require researchers to pass in order to get certified.   There will be 3 levels of certification including Brown Belt, Black Belt, and Certified Trainer.

In order to facilitate the BCIR program, Broadlook has build the most robust training and certification platform that exists in the market.  Broadlook “Academy” is a platform that supports everything that a training system should have as well as built-in web conferencing to achieve a fusion of live trainings and course work.  Broadlook is also making the Academy platform available for select Broadlook partners.

Where can someone go with a BCIR?

Broadlook started in the recruiting world and has expanded into being a provider to sales, marketing,  venture capital, procurement and competitive intelligence. A BCIR will empower researchers with the core skills they need to support the Internet research function across many industries and department functions.

While BCIR training will fully cover technical topics, it will not be limited to bits and bytes technical training.  We will be teaching the underlying philosophical building blocks for performing Internet research.  In addition, there will be tracts for managers (how to manage and measure a researcher) and business consultants (when is a company ready for a researcher and how to sell it).

In summation:  BCIR will include  how to think, how to plan, how to act, how to manage, how to sell and how to measure Internet research.   One of the foundations of the course work will be the The Seven Laws of Internet Research, which premiered at SourceCon.

BCIR availability: The first BCIR class will be limited to 50 participants.  15 seats are filled as of this writing.  If you are interested in participating, contact John White, Director of Training, 262-754-8080 or jwhite@broadlook.com for curriculum, pricing and schedules.

Donato Diorio
November 17, 2008
Orlando, FL - Kennedy Conference

We are excited to announce our new Licensed Professionals Recruiting Package (LPRP).  While we are still putting the literature together on Broadlook corporate website.  Here is a preview video.   What you will see:  a high impact recruiting software for any type of recruiting that involves licensed professionals.  Physician recruiting, nurse recruiting, architect recruiting, civil engineer recruiting, physical therapist recruiting, etc.    Many people have been asking for this type of solution.  Check out the video and send me a note.

Donato Diorio
Founder & CEO
Broadlook Technologies

We at Broadlook are proud to release the new Product Video’s for various Broadlook products. In addition to having updated information about the tools, new features, and upgrades, the new video’s are designed for the user in mind.

Each video has playback controls allow you to pause, rewind, or watch over and over. Sounds simple enough, but anyone who viewed our old video’s will appreciate the additions.

Here they are:

New Broadlook Profiler Flash Demo!

New Broadlook Eclipse Flash Demo!

New Broadlook Diver Flash Demo!

New Broadlook Market Mapper Flash Demo!

New Broadlook Contact Capture Flash Demo!

New Broadlook Job Pulse Flash Demo!

If you are interested in the embed link to post these videos to your blog or site, please email cs@broadlook.com and we’ll send you over the necessary info.

This is the drawing for a TOM TOM GPS system. Congratulations to the winner