Marketing and Sales Intelligence: close sales negotiations through Data

If you are a salesperson-or if you are in any case involved in promoting your company’s products and services-you know this very well.

The sales profession is changing profoundly, and the reason is that today “instinct” is no longer enough to be successful in sales.

Today, in a market where selling has become increasingly difficult, you need to have much sharper arrows in your bow. You need the support of Data and, in particular, so-called Marketing and Sales Intelligence.

I’m not saying this from hearsay! The application of Data Science to sales has been scientifically proven to take the management of even the most difficult sales negotiations to the next level. Toward a situation of total control.

Would you have been able to close that negotiation?

Forget for a moment all the negotiations you have successfully closed and focus on that one sale that failed. Everyone has at least one that gnaws. A wound-fresh or otherwise-that has never fully healed.

I know, looking back on it can be painful, but I don’t want to put my finger on it. In fact, I want to help you close that wound once and for all.

To accomplish this, first I need you to answer this simple question. If I had had more information on the authentic needs of that customer, how your product was really perceived, what the real business decision makers were, and a deeper understanding of the real proposals of your direct competitors, you would have been able to close that “damn” negotiation. And to answer that objection that, there and then, cut you off at the knees?

If you answered yes (or if you even have an inkling that things could have turned out for the best), let me illustrate how Marketing and Sales Intelligence may not be able to change the story of that negotiation, but of all those from now on, yes.

Conclude future negotiations successfully

Marketing and Sales Intelligence is able to Provide vendors with those relevant information and actionable insights to help them to Optimize their entire sales process, so that they never have to come to a negotiation (be it an initial visit or any subsequent meeting) thinking: “depending on how things turn out, I’ll see what to do and decide what levers to focus on to close the sale.”.

A fatalistic attitude that, in the face of an increasingly complex buying process and increasingly informed customers (who are therefore ready to make relevant and timely objections), is business suicide.

Thanks to Market Intelligence, even before you meet vis à vis (or online) with a customer you can conduct real, ongoing market research over time to understand exactly:

• What are the needs (expressed or unexpressed) of the client you are dealing with 
• Who are all the corporate decision makers involved in the negotiation
• Who are the real competitors you have to measure yourself against
• The strengths of your product/service compared to direct/indirect competitors
• And also the weaknesses.

All of this information is essential for taking control of any negotiation and increasing the chances of successfully concluding it.

To sell not… sell at all costs

The first step is to “evolve” so that you are not perceived as the classic salesperson in your industry. Evolving means returning salespeople to their one, true purpose: to help customers buy the most appropriate solution in their specific case and in their best interest. 

That’s right: to optimize your sales system, don’t try to place your product at all costs with repeated and insistent closing attempts that certainly do not convey trust and authority. 

On the contrary, thanks to Sales Intelligence you have to do your “homework” and get in front of your customer knowing perfectly your market and the customer’s perception of you… but not only that, also key information about him, his market and his problems!

At this point, instead of launching into the sale and starting to ramble about the benefits and technical features of your product and service, you need to talk to him about the benefits you can bring to him and specifically about HIS problems.

That’s right, it is completely counter-intuitive!

I assure you, though: instead of talking about YOU, you have to ask him the right questions to make him understand that you know exactly his situation and to make him say-in his own words-what you have already discovered before you met him… thanks to Sales Intelligence, indeed!

The first step in closing a sale of any kind is to be in front of the “right” customer. In fact, not all negotiations can be closed, but only those that at CMI we call “closable,” that is, in which our interlocutor actually has the problem we could solve for him, the budget to buy, and the decision-making power to sign.

Do you really know your Market and its Trends?

Well, being in front of the right client is not the result of chance! In order to choose whom to address, you need to know your market very well, the problems you solve, and the characteristics of your customers. It sounds trivial, doesn’t it?

Yet, try to answer these questions:

• Do you know exactly what stage of development your market is in? 

• Is it a mature market, saturated with competitors, and does it make sense to disinvest?

• Or is it in an expansion phase and you simply need to better understand the internal dynamics to reap immediate benefits?

• Do you know where your market will be 6 months or 1 year from now? By then will you know how to be ready to be (or remain) the go-to customer?
  
• Do you know what your customers’ real needs are today (not in the past when you took a look at the data) and do you have a clear idea of who they are and why they would buy your product/service at this precise moment?

People often insist on viewing their target market as a monolith and fail to realize that new trends and the evolution of the market itself make it, instead, something extremely mobile, within which new niches can be discovered that they were unaware existed. It’s all about knowing where to look.

Imagine if you could know a market trend in advance and could tailor your product or service to that new trend 4 or 5 months before your direct competitors. 

Try to imagine how much such a situation might make you in terms of revenue. Not to mention (though equally important) the positive spin-off in terms of your brand positioning and perception.

Do you know what channels your customers are in?

Sometimes the problem is simpler than that: you are struggling to sell because you are looking not only for the wrong customers-but through the wrong channels.

It is not enough to have (and manage) a website and a company page on one or more social media, you need to know exactly the channels that your customers use and prefer to inquire about and then preside over them, but most importantly adjust your strategies to sell more. 

By now in any industry, with the right tools and methods of listening to the network, web and social become a mine of information not only in consumer but also in market analysis for B2B.

But you can’t find this information on Google or get it through some free tool. You need a Market Intelligence system that collects data, processes it, and extracts objective (and actionable!) information that gives you exact numbers about the ideal communication channels for selling a particular product or service to target customers.

… What about your competitors?

For many entrepreneurs and managers, knowing their market means knowing who the 4-5 biggest players are, the biggest customers, and direct competitors from a geographic perspective.

It doesn’t. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Marketing and Sales Intelligence takes you to a higher level of knowledge thananalyzing your competitors, providing salespeople with more information about old, new and potential rivals, their product features, and their authentic reputation.

You need this not only to improve your ranking, but also to be more effective during sales negotiations! In fact, when you talk to a customer, you need to know what alternatives they have in mind with respect to you.

You need to know what strengths he thinks he knows and also what he thinks are your weaknesses, turning them around in your favor.

In addition, Marketing Intelligence can predict what your competitors are likely to do in the future. 

How? By studying, for example, job ads, we can find out a lot about your competitors’ product and growth strategies.

Had you ever thought about that? Scouting the Web for all the ads posted in recent months clearly reveals to us which areas your rivals are looking to invest in from a technological standpoint or which market segments they are targeting for growth.

How often should you analyze market and competitors with Marketing and Sales Intelligence

But how often should competitors be analyzed?

According to the Competitive Intelligence Trends Report 2020

✅ 29.4% of the panel companies analyze competitors once a week

✅ 15.4% do it every 2 weeks

✅ 20.6% once a month

✅ 4.4% every 2 months

✅ 19.1% do it once a quarter

✅ 5.1% every 6 months

✅ 2.2% only once a year

You don’t really think that the information (the authentic information) about your competitors is what they spread online and in print with a few press releases, do you? No, you certainly won’t be that naive. Yet, most marketers (76.5%) still look for competitor information this way!

Obviously, very few companies are able to have an in-house business unit to monitor competitors and trends in their market. But today there are still few even companies that externally purchase a Marketing Intelligence service from a specialized agency. 

Think that together they exceed just 2 percent of the companies involved in the report.

And this is fantastic news. Because it shows how Marketing and Sales Intelligence is a discipline with outstanding and untapped potential! 

There is plenty of space.

The sooner you understand your competitors’ strategies, the faster you can beat them!

Want to find out how to set up a Marketing and Sales Intelligence system tailored to your business and unlock even the most complex sales? Contact us now.