The Official Broadlook Blog

By Dan Hughes (CSO for Broadlook Technologies)

In my daily conversations with the best and brightest in sales, marketing, recruiting and sourcing, it is fascinating to see just how pleased some are with splashing around in the shallow end of the data pool. They seem satisfied with swimming in and amongst their CRM, and online database or a high traffic active candidate job boards as the safe or easiest source for the information, fully aware that it may not be the best nor most updated data needed. The general feeling is the information they get, without a great deal of effort, is all that is needed to launch a successful email campaign, a compelling initial sales call or high touch recruiting call.

Perhaps so.

But not one person I speak with dispute that “knowing more” about a particular or set of contacts would have a positive impact on their marketing, sales or recruiting activities. Not one person disputes that having multiple points of contacts in a target prospect or major account will improve their results. Nor will anyone argue against the position that knowing more about a contacts personal interests and accomplishments will not only aid in the ability to engage but differentiate from the competition.

Unless someone does not have a computer or has been playing “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks since 2000, most all of the data sets, multiple points of contacts in target organizations, personal interests, accomplishments and more, are available within and throughout the Internet. Websites, backlinks, industry directories, social networks and search engines are home to just about everything a sales, marketing or recruiting professionals need to step up their game and impact their results.

I call this the deep end of the data pool; home to the company and contact information that can make a difference.

So why don’t more go swim into the deep end to get the information that can make all the difference in their e-marketing campaigns, their sales calls or their recruiting touches? Who is afraid to swim in the deep end?

Either people are afraid to go there or they don’t know where and how to look.
It is my hope that it is the later. For those who do not know where or how best to research or source all of these real-time, dynamic Internet data sources, there is help. Broadlook has the best software applications, services and training to teach people who are brave enough to swim in the deep end, where to look and how to get the critical company and contact information quickly and effectively.

If you played games in the water as a kid, you know the most fun is in the deep end. For sales, marketing, and recruiting, it is where you can find the most up-to-date information and gain a time and information advantage over everyone else who is still playing in shallow waters.

By Dan Hughes Co-Founder and CSO of Broadlook Technologies

I remember a favorite question my father asked:  Is the horse that wins 10X the prize money, 10x faster than the others?  Often times, the winning horse wins by only a nose.

So the answer is “No”.  His lesson was that the winner only has to be a fraction better than the nearest competitor to win the prize.  What was I willing to do to be just a little stronger, faster, smarter and better than the next person in any of my endeavors?

Do not the same dynamics take place in sales?  Is the sales professional who secures the deal, make quota and achieves the financial rewards 10X better the next?  I content that it is the little things that makes the difference.  I believe a big differentiator is the ability and willingness to do the extra “Due Diligence” necessary to Know Everything possible about a company, contacts and the industry at large.

Having observed hundreds of sales operations; I am fascinated by both the hunger and satisfaction of finding a single point of contact and their email.  And that’s it.  These are the professionals who work hard to generate leads and make the persistent calls necessary to escort a sales opportunity to completion.

It’s resembles watching a mouse finding a scrap of cheese, grabbing it and turning high tail to run back to the hole to eat away…when there is a whole slice just around the corner available to be had.  If they had just looked a little more, they would have found enough to last a week.
An email by itself is a simple nibble of cheese.  Why not feast on the wealth of additional information potentially available?  Due Diligence is the differentiator between a failed campaign or a first call attempt and one that generates advances.

Why do the majority of marketing and sales professionals do this?
I am inclined to believe that we all are under the gun regarding our use of time, and are not sure where and how to look for the complimentary information that would make the difference between failure and success.

My personal “AH-HA” moment:

Back in 2005, I read of a Bay area technology company that delivers enterprise incentive management solutions to companies with direct and or distributor sale forces.  I believed the company to be a good fit for the Broadlook solutions and began my Due Diligence process.  It sounds more arduous than it was as I have the benefit of using Profiler to information mine the website and web footprint of the company.  Upon completion, Profiler found several hundred contact points including key decision makers in sales, operations and financial along with their bios and emails.  It also located the President’s contact information, including the email from a source outside the website.

I clicked the source and saw that his email was located from a chat group called Seabiscuit Live, a forum dedicated to fans of the famed racehorse Seabiscuit and the impending movie soon to be released.  My target President had written a personal note to the author of the “The Story of Seabiscuit” telling of his enjoyment of the book and his eager anticipation of the movie.

I was equally a fan and decided to leverage this information in my initial outreach to the President of this company.  My email subject line read something like this:

Subject:  Introducing Broadlook Technologies – I am also a fan of Seabiscuit the horse

I sent it off.  To me surprise, the president called me within 5 minutes and without saying “Hello…how are you?”, jumps directly to his point as asked “How in the H*ll did you know I am a fan of this book?”.

I responded, “funny you should ask, come to my desktop and I will show you Profiler”.

Subsequent comments required me to teach this “due diligence differentiator” to each of his sales professionals and Profiler for every sales personnel at the company.  They have been one of Broadlook Technologies longest running clients with tremendous productivity and quality of information improvements throughout their entire sales operation.

Now, had I just grabbed his email at first site and fired off a whole bunch of email and phone calls without regards to this additional information, I doubt the results would be the same.

What do you think?

What are you missing that could the due diligence differentiator between a successful engagement with a prospect, candidate, company, market influencers.

Steven Covey published The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People and it was a great book.

When Dr. Covey came out with a new book, The 8th Habit, I was skeptical. Why didn’t he think up the 8th habit right from the start?

Now I understand it. Ideas evolve. We are the sum total of your experiences at any point in time. You create a set of rules that you believe are universal. In my case, I am the author of The Seven Laws of Internet Search.

It has been about a year and a half and now, guess what? I came up with another Law of Internet Search. The 8th law could not have been created by me…unless I was able to observe people learning and implementing the first seven laws in their Internet search activity.

Here is what I observed: The Internet is “non-homogeneous”. The idea of homogeneity also resonated with me as I wrote the original seven laws. I played with the idea of a Law of Non-homogeneity. This means that the Internet exists in many different formats and there is no way to query everything, with a single method or game plan.

“Non-Homogeneous” sounds ugly. To define something with “non” in front of it…it would be like cheating. Each of the seven laws of Internet Search is meant to be a simple axiom of advice. I failed to get my concept of Homogeneity into the laws.

Why did I fail? It is simple.  Each of the seven laws is a solution. Whereas “non-homogeneous” or “non-homogeneity” was talking about a problem.

What was I trying to get at? It is also simple. The Internet is not homogeneous, therefore, many different methods are needed to search it. It is those very search mechanisms that the 8th Law takes into account. The 8th law is The Law of Environment.

In fact, the 8th Law is so important, I have moved it the top spot in The Laws of Internet Search. It is now The 1st Law of Internet Search.

To understand the Law of Environment.  Get your mind around the concept of the Internet having many modalities. Many sites, each with it’s own set of rules or search environment.

Next.  There are some simple questions to ask.   What is the access method?  What are the sites restrictions?  Etc

In addition to the simple questions about the environment, the more advanced Internet search may want to dive into further understand the full capabilities of the search environment.

Once the simple questions about the environment are answered, the Internet search can proceed with quantifiable expectations on what to expect from their chosen search medium.

For example, it is important to understand that Google will only give you a maximum of 1000 results from any search.  Even if Google reports that their are 2450 results, you only have access to the first 1000.  Understanding this is understanding the limitation of the environment.

Here are the The Laws of Internet Search, Reloaded

1.  Environment
2. Permutation
3. Completeness
4. Iteration
5. Frequency
6. Process
7. Taxonomy
8. Measurable Results

Dr. Steven Covey, now I understand. Looking forward to the ninth law.

By Dan Hughes – Chief Sales Officer, Broadlook

In October, we featured a discussion of best practices from both sales professionals and recruiters. By learning from and adopting the mind sets behind these practices, either profession can reap significant improvements in their results.
For November, we will dive into two more key areas where recruiters and sales can learn from one another.

Observation: Gold is found below the surface– a best practice from Recruiters

Recruiters understand the value of research. In the process of sourcing candidate, they understand that the best information – the pieces that give you an edge on the competition – is typically not found on the surface. They know that if you are using a search engine to find information, the most highly ranked results may only mean something is popular, not valuable.

In sales, spending time to find the nuggets of gold (information) that are below the surface can give you the edge. Simply going to a few surface pages on a company’s website or looking at the first ten results from a search engine will not necessarily bring you the information that you need to successfully execute a sales effort. (Click on link to read more)

Observation: To find your way, you need a map – a best practice from Sales

In the world of large, complex organizations, sales have learned that you need to map out the organization and understand relationships (i.e. influencer, decision maker, administrator, etc) and that this is more important that a specific title or role. As you understand the lay of the land, you can be much more effective in getting your goal accomplished.

In the world of recruiting, if you want to find and contact the best passive candidates, you need to map out the organization. Knowing the title of the type of person you need is helpful, but the best person may not have the title you expect. By mapping out an organization, having multiple points of contact, you will be able to find and connect with the best passive candidates.

The Net: In the current market, if you are in sales, you need to get deeper information to get an edge. Taking a quick review of the website or the top Google results won’t give you the depth of insight you need. On the flips side, if you are in recruiting, getting to know the lay of the land will help you more quickly make the valuable connections you need to navigate your way to the best passive talent. For both, turning up to date information into knowledge is the key to accelerating your results.

Sales Advances!  The 7 Keys for Communications That Will Get A Response

If you want to get advances in 9 out of 10 of your communications, it’s time to stop and take a look at the level of influence you are using.

Influence is the power to affect persons or events.  The bottom line is that if you want to get people to engage, you need to get their attention.  Below are the 7 keys to get attention and maximize your sphere of influence (SOI).

1)    Who Do You Know?  Before you create your e-mail or phone script, you need to know who you are trying to connect with.  Find out who are their peers.  At a minimum you need to have at least two of their peers as well as their phone numbers, e-mails, and any other venues of contacts you can gather.

2)    Is there a Hook?  To use a fishing term, you need to “hook” the person to grab their interest.  As you think about your subject line, it needs to stand out, to compel the person you want to influence to open your e-mail or to listen to what you are going to say.  Decide on a subject that contains something they have to have, or want to avoid in their business.

3)    Who Cares: You or Them?  Your message, whether an e-mail, a phone script, or a presentation needs to be focused on them, not you.  They don’t need to hear about how great you are, they need you to connect with a need they have.  If you can solve a problem they have, they will be interested in learning more.

4)    Will They Talk?  Bringing in spheres of influence:  carbon copying peers, naming them in your message, referencing them in your message, mentioning a competitive situation or a customer they may have are all ways that will stir conversation.  In e-mail and voice mail, the fact that your contacts peers are getting the same message will get then talking amongst themselves.

5)    Are you on Purpose?  We are all busy.  If you want to get an advance, you need to reveal the purpose or impact of your communication early.  Without a purpose or impact, you will be quickly dismissed.

6)    Are They Thirsty?  Especially with a letter or e-mail, you need to get interest and keep it so they will read further.  If you have ever eaten salty popcorn at a movie theater, you know if makes you long for something to drink?  The same should be true of your communication.  You want to make them thirsty, so they want more - sell them the soda.

7)    What’s Next?  If you have answered all the other questions, you now have interest, and have created influence.  To get an advance, you need to have a call to action that is clear and easy for the person you are contacting.  Whether it is a return call, and e-mail introduction, or to set a time to talk, it needs to be clear what is next.

Do you want to get 9 out of 10 advances?  Integrate the answers to the 7 key questions into your communications, and you will see a message impact in your ability to get you next advance.

What Sales Professionals and Recruiters can learn from one another

Having sold Broadlook’s solutions for over 7 years to 1000’s of recruiting operations and to B2B sales organizations, I have observed several things that both the seasoned recruiter and the experienced sales professional could learn from one another.

Over the course of the next several newsletters, I will share these observations – with the desire to identify ways that our readers can learn these best practices from each other.

Observation:  There is more than one door into the building – a best practice from Sales

Recruiters can get fixated on finding “the person” with a specific title, a specific skill set, from a specific company, geography or with specific certifications, education, qualifications.  It is what recruiters are paid to do.  It is the job.  And a lucrative job if done well.  That is not the problem.

The challenge is often in how they look for “the person”.  Recruiters can get trapped looking for that “magic well” of information where everything is lined up nice, neat and easily accessible.   In the past, the Job Boards made looking for “active job seekers” easy.   But in today’s competitive market, the hunt is to find the best, brightest (and passive) talent for their clients, which poses a whole different set of challenges.

Many recruiters will say; “I am looking for the Director of Inside Sales, with 10 years experience, ERP systems, working for or has worked for Oracle, and lives in Texas.  I can’t find that person.  All my research efforts did not find that person, what do I do?”

Here is where its time to take a page out of sales playbook.  The good Sales Professional seldom engages a company with a singular contact target in mind.  They expand their research efforts to identify and call other people in target organization(s).  Their goal is to learn some information and network their way to the best person(s).

It seems simple and logical, yet many recruiters seem reluctant to have to start peripherally and move towards their target.

Observation:  It helps to aim before you shoot a gun – a best practice from Recruiters

Sales people can get fixated on activity.  They know they need to find companies to work with.  Contacting people and getting on the phones are one of the mantras of sales.  It is one of the things sales people are measured on.  The activity is not the problem.

The challenge is in an effort to “get on the phones”, they often do not take the time to understand the type of people they need to target, find out what challenges they may be facing, and know the right group of players to contact to get the client’s attention.

Here is where sales can take a page out of the recruiters playbook.  The best recruiters know how to perform research.  They have invested in learning to tap into all the data sources, especially the Internet, to determine what the needs are, and then to find the best “fit” to solve the need.  For the recruiter, finding just anyone will not do.

Again, simple and logical.  Yet many sales people seem reluctant to step back, plan their approach, and take aim before they start taking action.

The Net: In the current market, if you are a recruiter, it is a necessity to expand and engage more targets.  You can’t just focus on “the one person”.  On the flips side, if you are in sales, you need to slow down in order to speed up.  For both, it is critical to identify the points of influence that will get you to your goal and then take action.

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.