Seeking better information, for better connections

In sales, prospects are only as good as the information you have on them. “In the past, when I was assigned a list of accounts, I’d do some research and hope the information wasn’t out of date or incorrect,”said Rob Baldwin, Inside Corporate Sales, VES. “Even if a lead was solid, it was hard to start a conversation with just a name and a phone number.”

It wasn’t necessarily bad information – it was about a lack of context, forcing the sales team to build real connections from the ground up, without any of the help or background they needed. “The old smile-and-dial method just doesn’t work anymore,” said Brian Kaye, Principal Architect, IoT Overlay Group, VES. “You need to tie your call or message back to something relevant and credible to get a real connection going.”

 

Results driven by Sales Navigator

With VES’ primary target audience – Director and C-level IT decision-makers – already inundated with sales calls and emails, it was especially important to stand out from the crowd. “We had a need to provide a deeper database of prospect information to our salespeople,” said Baldwin.

A platform to target, understand, and engage with prospects

Today, VES is leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator to target the right prospects, understand their concerns, and engage with them more effectively. The key difference, the team says, comes down to information. “Sales Navigator adds a whole new dimension to our prospects’ contact profiles,” said Baldwin. “The insights it provides have vastly improved the quality of our calls and helped facilitate real conversations.”

Armed with more accurate information, including updates on prospects’ careers and industries, the VES sales team is now able to make faster – and stronger – connections. “Sales Navigator helps me get to know my potential clients better than any other sales tool,” said Kaye. “I get contextual information about my prospects – what’s interesting to them, who they know that I might know, and much more. All of this is essential in helping me better position myself to make a connection.”

The power of better connections

Sales Navigator has been instrumental in transforming VES’ sales operation from a traditional smile-and-dial approach to a modern, information-driven operation.

In a recent survey of the VES sales team, 93 percent said they would recommend Sales Navigator to colleagues. “We’ve seen great success so far using the platform,” said Linda DiBias, Manager, Content and Social Media Marketing, VES. “We’ve already purchased an additional 150 seats, and we’re looking into expanding the program to even more users.”

Stories from the team illustrate just how effective Sales Navigator tools are at moving deals forward. “I was really struggling getting traction with a prospect in the financial sector,” said Kaye. “Using Sales Navigator, I got some background on one of the decision-makers I was trying to reach: Based on where and when he’d gone to college, I took a guess that he had been at a famous football game I'd also attended. Thanks to that shared experience, which I referenced in my email to him, I was able to make a warm connection, get a meeting, and move the opportunity along. Sales Navigator made it possible.”

Today, instead of inefficient, often inaccurate contact lists and low-converting cold calls, the sales team at VES is using the information from Sales Navigator to make major inroads with prospects. Since VES started using Sales Navigator, they’ve uncovered nearly a thousand new prospects – 72 of which grew into opportunities, and 13 into closed deals. 

About Verizon Enterprise Solutions

Verizon Enterprise Solutions (VES) builds and operates the networks, information systems, and mobile technologies that help organizations around the globe expand reach, increase productivity, improve agility, and maintain longevity. In this highly competitive space – in an industry that provides the technology for tomorrow's markets – the VES sales team is charged with discovering and building relationships with organizations literally creating the future.