The $50 Million Deal That Your Reps Can Close Today

In the 1980s, a $50 million account (a lot of money back then) was up for grabs. A vendor CEO booked a ticket on the same cross country flight as the prospect. As the plane boarded, he handed the prospect a pitch deck and took a nearby seat.

You know what happened next. Seats were traded; the leaders spoke. By the time the plane landed, it was just a matter of details and formalities until the deal was closed.

Here’s how today’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can help your reps reach and close prospects, with the same panache.

Focus on the deals that are worth the time and effort.

The CEO obviously didn’t go to this effort for every high value prospect. He had good reason to believe he could close this one. Maybe they had mutual friends. Maybe the prospect fit the profile of another satisfied customer. In other words, he scored this lead based on experience and input.

Today, your reps have something that’s every bit as good, maybe better: the lead scoring algorithms and tools in Salesforce. These AI engines can analyze your existing customers’ profiles and identify targets worthy of the most resources. Spear Marketing reports that 68% of B2B marketers employ both behavioral and demographic scoring.[1] You can have the same edge.

Get to the decision maker before anyone else.

Who’s the decision maker? That’s one of the first question you ask when you qualify a prospect. AI can help reps scope that information out even if they don’t have a warm lead on the phone. Even if you haven’t made it to the short list.

AI can dig through social media, official Websites, search engines, and other sources and come back with amazingly accurate – sets of contact information. You can find out which conferences, seminars or even cocktail parties the prospect plans to attend.

A first-class plane ticket may be out of the question, but your reps may be able to buy the prospect lunch or a cup of coffee.

Reach out to prospects in the prospect’s voice.

The vendor CEO’s pitch deck and conversation weren’t the usual corporate blah-di-dah. He and his team read magazine profiles, interviews, annual reports—and hit every hot button they could find. They used favorite words that the prospect himself didn’t know he had.

Today, Twitter and LinkedIn can reveal even more about a prospect’s background and interests. Search engines turn up some surprising details (little-known charity work). AI tools can scout out this online information, build a personality profile, and then recommend the words and tone of voice they’re most likely to respond to.

Keep every possible prospect engaged, even when they’re not looking.

There were over a hundred companies on the CEO’s radar that might have been strong prospects for his offering. He devoted significant manpower to contacting these prospects regularly and keeping his firm top of mind, while the team focused on active, high-probability deals.

That’s why today’s sales/marketing partnerships are so important.

Marketing automation can keep prospects engaged, even when they’re not ready to buy. 80% of marketing automation users saw their number of leads increase, and 77% saw the number of conversions increase.[2] Also, AI-based sales assistants can engage potential customers in natural, two-way conversations, as often and for as long as necessary. Always persistent. always polite.

Getting down the details.

The vendor and prospect exchanged a lot of information on that flight. But there were lots of details and formalities to work out. When they parted ways, the CEO telephoned his office and laid out every detail from that conversation.

Today, that CEO might would park himself in a Starbucks or airport business lounge and spend the next two or three hours updating the CRM. Yeah, right. More likely, your CEO would revert to 1980s technology and call their assistant.

Or they’d launch Rollio.

Rollio is the Salesforce.com partner who’s built the first AI Assistant that can automate Salesforce data entry. Reps can auto-populate any Salesforce field with a simple text or voice message, just like they are talking to a personal assistant.

Companies that use Rollio report that they gain an extra 100 hours of selling time per year, per rep. And in many companies, that can add up to more profits than any deal on any plane ride.

For more information about how you can make updating Salesforce.com more effective watch our video.

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About the author: Jake Soffer is CEO and founder of Rollio. Rollio is the, AI powered, salesperson’s personal assistant that allows them to talk or text Salesforce updates just as they would talk to a human. For more information visit gorollio.com or follow Rollio on LinkedIn and Twitter.

[1] http://info.spearmarketing.com/marketing-automation-survey-report.html

[2] http://www.emailmonday.com/marketing-automation-statistics-overview#Results