The Official Broadlook Blog

By Dan Hughes, Co-Founder and CSO of Broadlook Technologies

I just got back to the office from the American Association of Inside Sales Professional (www.aa-isp.org)

annual conference held in Minneapolis the week of May 10th. It is a good conference with a bright future attended by many professionals; executives, directors, managers and personnel who operate on or within an inside sale unit.

Like many conferences, there were speakers from various walks of business life. Some are authors, a few are “subject matter experts’, while others actively manage, oversee or operate within their own inside sales team. Many topics were covered, but often mentioned within each presentation was the point that each sales call that all sales professionals, whether inside or outside, should add-value.

Well, I should hope so. But often times this is easier said than done.

The critical part of adding value is to know what is valuable to each individual you attempt to connect with. This is particularly true if you execute your sales process via the phone, email, web-conference and the web.

So how does one accomplish the task of knowing what is valuable to the target individuals of prospect companies you wish to penetrate or major accounts within which you wish to expand?

The good sales professionals at least know the general overriding challenges that target contacts have in common and face routinely. They include these common challenges in initial conversations, establishing some knowledge and credibility, and then qualify if their target contacts experience the same challenges and are interested in hearing about how solutions to address these and possibly other challenges.

Unfortunately, most sales people don’t get this far. The good ones do. But how does one take it to the next level?

How does one begin to uncover information about the individual players, the company, their relationships, the market and industry within which they compete in order to begin to really understand what is valuable….in order to add-value.

Research. It is a simple answer, but difficult to do if you have neither the skills nor tools to do this quickly and effectively.

Within websites, press releases, social networks (linkedin profiles), blog posting and responding, twitter, tweets and retweets and many more, may reside the information necessary to begin formulating that which is important to each of your target contacts so that you can truly add-value.

It is time consuming, particularly if you do not have the right tools, but then again so is calling 50 times without a response.

I would much rather spend the extra time to “know” my target contacts as best as possible so that I can ascertain what, along with the general overriding challenges, may be most valuable to them so that I can attempt to truly add-value.

At the bare minimum, my efforts will be appreciated by my target contacts and they will know that what may be valuable to them will help me potential add-value to them.

By the way, anyone who wanted to make a sales calls and add-value to me earlier this week, would have earned a great deal of “points” could they have told me where to get a great hamburger on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

By Dan Hughes CSO and Co-Founder of Broadlook Technologies

“Closing the sale.” Where do we get this phrase? Or how did “I am about to close a big sale”, “When are you closing that deal?” or “Let’s review the pipeline to see what sales are closing this month” enter into common vernacular of the sales organization?

Probably because it is meant to represent the end of a sales cycle or the end result of a sales process well-executed. Maybe the sales systems we put in place needed an end point. But does it really? I have used it for years and have really never thought much about it up until recently.

As we continue to train and teach Sphere of Influence selling, it forces us to examine the programs we implement, as well as the mindset we wish to enforce and support that helps them (and ultimately your organization) succeed. I am slowly coming to a conclusion and am considering attempting to make a “new sales language” that is more in line with the desired outcome.

Follow my logic here:

A suspect, a lead, or a target actually begins closed. And it is our efforts as a marketing organization and through our sales professionals that begin a process of introducing our company, educating as to our value proposition, understanding their challenges and objectives, and presenting solutions that represent the slow opening of a relationship of exchange, trust, and potential transactions. The sale is actually opening. Therein lies the possibility of earning a client, and then a vendor, whereby a long term exchange of dollars for valuable services is present and the ultimate objective. Should the transaction actually take place, the event of a sale, and client, is actually opened, not closed.

This actually could change the mental state of selling organizations, particularly in the B2B world, that sees the initial transaction as the beginning of the opportunity as opposed to the closing of one. By opening opportunities to sell additional products and services, companies get referrals and build the brand.

As I see it, it would deem more appropriate to now say “I am about to open a big sale”, “When are you opening that deal?” or “let’s review the pipeline to see what sales are opening this month”.

Where is the first place to start using this new language? Right here at Broadlook. I will let you know how we decide to instill this mindset at Broadlook Technologies. Don’t be surprised in our future conversation if you hear me say “When are we opening our sale and getting you your license keys?”

By Donato Diorio, CEO of Broadlook Technologies

Warning:  This Article is not for tech guys!

Broadlook has just completed developing a new, revolutionary tool for any CRM user.  It is called CRMShield™.  CRMShield solves a serious issue faced by every business that uses a CRM: data duplication. CRMShield will be shipped in May and is included free in every Broadlook product that works with contact information.

Is your company at risk?

Some people want nothing more than to be normal, others would take exception to that description, myself included.  When it comes to your CRM, being Normal is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very good thing.  The reality is that over 30% of the information in most companies CRM is duplicates. That is not only ugly, but it causes problems for your sales team and costs your company revenue.

In simple terms, I’m talking about Clean CRM Data.  If you asked your tech guy, he would call it “Data Normalization”.  If you are a tech guy, we covered this…come up, stop reading!

Understanding the problem

Nearly every CRM company and internal corporate IT department has taken a stab at solving the problem of data normalization.  Unfortunately, no one has done it right!  Why?  Think about it: when you buy a CRM, it is usually empty.  If you import dirty data from an old CRM, the new CRM will be dirty. The problem is not the result of you forgetting to turn on a feature in the new CRM. Massive duplicates and miskeyed data does not become a problem until after you start to use the CRM. When a CRM is implemented, it is typically at that time the buyer realizes there is a huge problem with the information.  Without some systematic way to start with and keep information clean, duplicates will be introduced and someone has an opportunity to make more $$ on professional services.

Dirty data is a profit center.

While dirty data can lose you revenue, it is good for service providers; you store more due to duplicates and eventually someone will need to clean that data.

An unending cycle

So, you bit the bullet and spent the money to have your data cleaned, now what?  Unless you have an enforceable, real-time strategy to keep your data clean, the cycle will continue.  Six months to a year after “cleaning” your data, it will go from pristine to ugly again and the cycle will continue. Efficiency, revenue and opportunity will be diminished.

How does data get dirty?

There are 3 ways information enters a CRM.

Hand Entered.  This is a common method that takes place literally every day.  Did you know there are over 20 ways of writing the company name “The Container Company Corporation”?   Some people are verbose and will type out the entire company name, others will take shortcuts or just mis-key the information.  We are all unique, and unfortunately for your CRM, that can lead to 20 instances or more of the same company in your CRM.

Product Imported.  Many software products have the capability to directly import data into a CRM.  What rules do those products obey?  Do the rules that they use match your company rules?  Do you even have a set of rules that your company follows? What happens when a duplicate is encountered?  Unfortunately, most of these questions are never asked.  The result: more ugly data.

Mass Imported. Mass imports are most often done by the IT department of a company or by your CRM vendor.  Guess what?  Mass imports can be the worst offenders.  In some cases, the person charged with doing the import is exceptional and it is done correctly, however, this is rare.  When I say rare, I mean 1 out of 1000 rare. The challenge is that in most cases no one has the proper tool set or has done the in-depth question asking that is necessary to do it 100% correct.  For what they have at their disposal, and by measuring the best consultants compared to their peers, many of them would get an “A” under those parameters.

I contend that most imports that are generally considered successful would get a flat “D” on my score card.  If you think your process was good, read on.

Establishing a lasting solution

Solve a problem at its source and you solve it for good.  The best way to get control of your CRM is to create and enforce a Data Plan.  This is not a minor undertaking, however, for any sales team over 5 people it is critical.  The quiz below is dual-purpose; it will teach you what you need to do and give you a scorecard of where are now.

QUIZ: Is your company at risk?

So, where does your company rank in terms of the sources and impact of duplicate data?  Take a moment to take the quiz below. How do you think you will do? I want to hear from you! Send how you did to Donato Diorio (ddiorio@broadlook.com).  Good luck.  Be honest!

Data Plan. 15 points.  Does your company have a standard format for CRM data?  If you don’t, this is where you start the entire process.  To comply with best practices, your Data Plan should be centrally stored, accessible in real-time and treated as a single-point-of-truth for your company.

Staff Training. 5 points. Has your staff has been trained on your Data Plan and is it easily accessible?  While this is a great step, it is not as important as making the CRM enforce your data plan automatically.  If your CRM does offer a feature like this, the training is most important for your IT department who can circumvent the constraints put on the average user.

CRM Cleaned. 10 points.  Has your CRM gone through a full normalization and de-duplication process?  Once you have your Data Plan developed, you need to ensure that the data you have meets the plan.

CRM Enforcement. 20 points.  Is your Data Plan enforced by your CRM?  This is tremendously important. The reality is that not one CRM provider (that I have seen) has a detailed data normalizer that can enforce your data plan like like Broadlook’s CRMShield™.  If your provider does not have this feature, it means you must either build or find an add-on to the CRM.  An even better option is to would be to provide all users to the CRM a tool like Broadlook’s Contact Capture to enter contacts into your CRM.  Contact Capture is FREE (not trying to sell anything here).

Product Enforcement. 10 points.  Do other products you use to access or bring information into your CRM comply with your Data Plan?  Beware of products that dump data to a Excel or CSV file.  Sometimes it is unavoidable, however, direct exporting systems that can comply with your Data-Plan and do de-duplication in real-time are always a superior choice.

Vendor Enforcement. 10 Points. Do your vendors that provide you with list data deliver it in compliance with your Data Plan?  Some vendors may push back at first. However, it has been my experience that the entire process will go smoother if both sides can comply with a similar format.

Import Enforcement. 20 points. Do any mass import capabilities comply with the Data Plan?  The rules that imports adhere to should not be able to be circumvented by the IT staff.  If the IT staff needs to change the rules, the Data Plan, being the single-point-of-truth for your company’s data should be modified.

URL Enforcement. 10 points.  Do you have a URL (website) field for each company in your CRM? The URL of a company is more important than a DUNS number, location or anything else.  It is the single best piece of information that can be used to update company information over time.

Less then 20 Points - F

20 - 40 Points - D

41 - 60 Points - C

61 - 80 Points - B

81 - 100 Points - A

Knowing how your data and processes rank is a great start. If your results do not make the grade, don’t worry. Broadlook’s CRMShield™ is on the way.

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.