Sales Intelligence Blog by Lattice Engines

SAN FRANCISCO – October 5, 2011 – Lattice Engines, the leader in B2B sales intelligence software, announced today that it will be presenting at the Sales and Marketing 2.0 conference on October 18^th.  Lattice Engines SVP of Marketing, Andrew Somosi, will present with Kevin Walker, Marketing Director for Dell.

The session, “Analytics in Action: How Predictive Sales Intelligence Accelerates B2B Sales Growth,” will show how Fortune 5000 companies, like Dell, are harnessing the power of data and predictive analytics to achieve double-digit gains in sales productivity.

“We’ve entered the age of data-driven selling. Predictive sales intelligence enables reps to connect individual data dots into a cohesive picture about the customer’s needs and objectives,” says Andrew Somosi.  “Data-driven selling means knowing whom to contact, when to contact and how to engage. It is a ‘must-have’ capability for B2B companies seeking the next horizon of sales productivity growth. We’re honored to have Kevin discuss his experience in deploying sales intelligence software to Dell’s marketing and sales teams.”

“In an environment where I was struggling on how to best bridge the gap between our sales and marketing organizations, Lattice Engines provided a software platform that both the sales and marketing teams could get behind, driving more than just the double-digit improvement in our outbound selling efforts.  I’m looking forward to telling our story at the Sales and Marketing 2.0 Conference,” says Kevin Walker.

Lattice Engines’ sales intelligence software, salesPRISM, helps B2B sales professionals become more productive. Thousands of reps at Fortune 5000 companies rely on salesPRISM to predict which of their accounts are most likely to purchase and determine which messaging will improve the odds of closing the deal.

salesPRISM combines a company’s internal view of its customers and prospects (e.g., purchase histories, product usage data, customer service records) with external information about these accounts and decision-makers (e.g., news sources, company websites, social media). Since salesPRISM is embedded directly within CRM systems, reps stay focused on the most qualified leads in the pipeline without changing their workflows.

About Lattice Engines

Lattice Engines is the leader in B2B sales intelligence software enabling Fortune 5000 companies to Sell Smarter and achieve double-digit increases in sales productivity within one year of deployment through Intelligent Targeting, Contextual Conversations and Measurable Execution. Lattice Engines software integrates internal, external and Lattice Engines proprietary data to identify customer patterns and predictive events that influence buying decisions. To learn more about Lattice Engines visit www.lattice-engines.com.

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Recently, we hosted a webinar with the Aberdeen Group and Dell, on why B2B sales organizations are turning to sales intelligence solutions to accelerate growth. For those who missed the live session, you can now access the recorded version online.

The session began by defining what sales intelligence means.  Sales intelligence is defined as insight about customer business goals, problems and needs that enable reps to prioritize and target accounts at the right time with a contextually-relevant approach and messaging.

The Imperative for Sales Intelligence

Peter Ostrow, Research Director of Sales Effectiveness at the Aberdeen Group shared his findings on what is driving the imperative for B2B sales organizations to use sales intelligence:

• In a recent survey conducted by Aberdeen, respondents indicated the key business issues driving the need for sales intelligence including: 54% of sales reps are not meeting quota and 24% of a sales person’s day is spent on research.
• 42% of respondents list “Insufficient knowledge of the business needs of prospective buyers as a top business pressure, while 40% said it was the inability to identify the most likely buyers of their products and services.
• 70% of respondents find value in social media based sales intelligence. 13% say it’s absolutely vital.
• Benefits of deploying sales intelligence include increase in average deal size, reduction in sales rep search time and reduction in sales cycle.

As Peter indicated, “It is important to have the right message, delivered to the right person, at the right time. Being able to do that requires the development and nurturing of a relationship with your prospect, and with your customer. You can only do that by having conversations and insights — into their needs, their business and their market– that are heavily influenced by the kind of sales intelligence deliverables that we discussed.”

Sales Intelligence: The Impact for Dell

Jennifer Webb, Marketing Programs Manager at Dell Large Enterprise, shared how Dell reps rely on sales intelligence to increase sales team efficiency and effectiveness, “What we did as a business was agree that we wanted to drive growth and revenue and expand our customer reach, but we also wanted to increase our customer participation and improve our customer experience. So we brought in Lattice Engines to help drive that ‘more effective solutions’ conversation to increase productivity.”

There were 3 reasons why Dell decided to deploy a sales intelligence solution:

• Predictive intent: Dell has a growing volume of data about customers and prospects and wanted to leverage that to identify patterns that reveal insight about customer intent to purchase
• Contextual Conversations: It’s tough to be the expert in every customer situation.  Dell wanted to give sales reps dynamically updated and relevant talking points to enable them to sound credible and compelling with different types of customers and products
• Efficiency: With Dell’s increasing portfolio of products and the increasing availability of internal and external data about customers and prospects, their sales teams needed to have the most relevant information at the right time, all in one place.

Dell decided to implement salesPRISM sales intelligence software from Lattice Engines.   Since implementing, their sales productivity has increased:

• Reps are aligned against their top account opportunities
• They engage decision-makers with more compelling messaging
• Time savings: the account intelligence is available in one place

Watch the webinar now to learn more about how sales intelligence software enables sales teams to maximize productivity.

To follow this conversation on twitter, please use the hashtag: #b2bsalesimperative

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Dell serves the technology needs of millions of customers with a portfolio of solutions, hardware, software and professional services.   In the ongoing quest to drive sales productivity, Dell deployed salesPRISM sales intelligence software to thousands of front-line sales people across all major B2B operating divisions.

We recently spoke with Jennifer Webb (Datacenter Solutions Marketing, Large Enterprise) about Dell’s experience with salesPRISM. In this excerpt from our interview Jennifer discusses:

• Why Dell chose salesPRISM sales intelligence software from Lattice Engines
• salesPRISM’s impact on Dell’s sales productivity and customer experience
• Why deploying salesPRISM was quick and easy

To read more about Dell’s success in using sales intelligence, please download the full Success Story here.

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