Great Content from IRD Prospector

The world of B2B sales is changing rapidly, particularly the area of sales enablement, the strategic use of processes and technology to improve a sales team’s productivity and drive more revenue. 

55% of top performing companies are investing in technology and programs to drive sales productivity, and with measurable results directly impacting ROI, creating empowered sales teams and driving growth, it’s easy to understand the explosion of interest. 

So the question is raised, who is responsible? Should you leave this to an experienced sales manager, or is this a C-suite responsibility? 

In my experience as CEO of IRD Prospector, a business insights and sales intelligence company that has helped clients earn over a billion dollars in incremental sales over the past 16 years, the buck stops with me. Why? Because when sales systems are optimally aligned to glean the maximum intelligence, results follow. And at the end of the day, growing the business is my job. 

The CRM/ROI equation

One opportunity to see quick results is to increase the ROI associated with your CRM. With recent research stating worldwide sales of CRM software is likely to exceeded US$36bn, CRM is here to stay. And as most sales leaders I speak to agree, it can have a massive impact on profitability, productivity and customer service. 

However the level of negativity and dissatisfaction I encounter when discussions turn to CRM amazes me. CRMs are only as good as the data that’s in them, and all too often they become a graveyard of decayed data and a labor-intensive requirement resented by the busy sales reps they’re designed to help. 

In my experience, there is a simple way to overcome this – properly fuelling your CRM by plugging in a high-quality third-party database of company intelligence and contact information that constantly updates and enriches your data. By committing to this approach, tired data can be replaced, and clean new prospect data can be added to the mix, effortlessly improving targeting and accelerating growth.

Fuelling your CRM

IRD Prospector takes this a step further, identifying embryonic triggers that signal a company is about to grow or evolve, then integrating this intelligence directly into your CRM. Essentially inserting fresh data while augmenting & enriching existing data, which provides a more complete picture of your prospects and clients. This results in a clean data set of prospects, prioritised by the activity most likely indicating growth, ready for your sales team to convert into happy customers.

Simply scheduling a reminder for the relevant sales rep when such a trigger is automatically uploaded into your CRM is a simple yet incredibly effective way to increase the dollars, time and labour already invested in your CRM.  

This approach also has the flow on effect of motivating your sales team by demonstrating you are serious about enabling their success. They succeed, you succeed and the business flourishes. 

Business triggers that cut through clutter and get you a seat at the table

The most impactful business triggers that allow sufficient time for a company to pitch a solution tend to include; a company raising capital, appointment of a new CEO, a new company launching in Australia, the acquisition of a new brand or a company restructure. This sort of information can be tough to stay on top of manually – reading the news everyday usually isn’t enough. 

Which is why we built IRD, a business providing just this kind of intelligence, now available as an app that plugs directly into Salesforce and other leading CRM systems. To have a chat or find out more, why not get in touch today?

This article recently appeared in Business First Magazine.

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