Guerilla Sales: 3 Key Account Research Steps Your Competitor Is Not Doing
So, your hard work in prospecting has paid off and you’ve landed an appointment with a big, publicly traded company.
To prepare, you’ve scanned through the latest press releases and the annual report, but you want to go one level deeper to make sure you stand well ahead any competitors.
Your extra effort will be well worth it. If you close this account, it could mean becoming the next sales superstar at your company!
That’s why we wrote this article. By following these three non-conventional steps, you’re going to show your prospect that you’ve done your homework and you merit their business.
Step 1: Study the Latest Investor Presentations
Public companies are required to present to shareholders and analysts at least every quarter. Many do it more than once a quarter.
These presentations are usually available to the general public for free. To access them, simply go to the company’s website and click on the Investors tab (or equivalent). Presentations to investors can be found on the “Presentations” tab (or similar).
Read one or two of their latest presentations (usually in PDF format). While these presentations highlight financial information, they will also be great resources for information on strategies and goals.
See an example of McKesson Corporation’s recent investor presentation by clicking here (PDF document).
Step 2: Read the Company’s Latest Earnings Call Transcript
Second, read the company’s latest one (or two) earnings call transcripts. These written transcripts can be a BIG eye-opener.
That’s because during the call, CEO’s typically share their latest strategies as well as their biggest challenges and pains. This information can be like digging up gold for a savvy salesperson, so make sure you do this step. It can pay off in a huge way.
Earnings call transcripts can be found for free at Seeking Alpha. Simply type the company name in the search box on the top right. As an example, here is the last earnings call transcript for McKesson’s Q4 2011 Results.
Step 3: Read The wikinvest Profile
Lastly, you can read the company profile on wikivest. This is a gem of a website that provides you with a good snapshot of a company’s basic information, strategies and challenges – for free! Simply type the company name in the search box on the upper left.
As an example, take a look at the wikinvest profile for McKesson Corp.
Conclusion:
These steps may take a little bit more work on your part, but it can pay off exponentially. Think about it: just one intelligent question on your part can make the difference between getting blown off and taking the opportunity to the next level.
The extra digging will also put you head and shoulders above any competitor going after the same deal (who did zero or minimal research).
Thanks for reading and we wish you happy hunting!
This was written by Silvia Quintanilla; this month’s guest author.
About Silvia Quintanilla
Silvia Quintanilla is President and Chief Sales Detective of Industry Gems, a custom sales intelligence company dedicated to helping salespeople win large deals with Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies. Learn more about us at www.industrygems.com.
If you sell solutions to the Fortune 1000, Silvia invites you to sign up for our Sales Gems Triggered Events newsletter at www.industrygems.com (subscription box on top left hand corner). In each report, we highlight the best “door opening” news that can help you get your foot in the door at a big account.
Copyright © 2011, Silvia Quintanilla & Industry Gems
Please include this copyright notice when reprinting this article. Please link back to this site when reprinting or quoting.
Creating an Account Strategy in Salesforce.com
As difficult a sales environment it is today, every sales rep needs a good strategy and a good plan. That is why we are excited to bring the newest 
version of P2W products to the Force.com CRM cloud . We are committed to helping sales people build trusted relationships with their clients and prospects. (See the curve above)
Being successful as a sales rep today is tough. As a manager, it is our job to give our team the sales tools that will increase their sales effectiveness without burdening them with additional software or forms. That is why we are developing in the Salesforce.com cloud infrastructure. If you are already using salesforce.com as your CRM system, check out the app exchange. There are plenty of apps that can help your team.
As managers we have to constantly be asking: “What am I doing to help and develop my team?”
Account Plan Pro 1.0 for salesforce.com is now released as a Beta product. Building on the success of the Account Plan 2008 method, we have now released the Beta version of Account Plan pro for salesforce.com. Integrated into the Salesforce CRM, the team can now create an Account strategy,
Opportunity strategy, and Relationship strategies. If you are interested in being a Beta test site for free for your entire team, drop me an email at sharper at territoryplan dot com.
Good selling!
Steve
Free Territory Planning Webinar
I have been asked by a partner to speak on a webinar for Salesforce.com users next week. If you are interested, Harvest Solutions is hosting the call. I will be talking about Territory Planning in general and Territory Planning within Salesforce.com specifically. To register click here!
Most sales experts will tell you that one of the keys to a successful sales person is a good plan of action. “Plan the work, work the plan”.
- Are your sales team planning their 2009
Territory Strategies? - Are each of the sales managers using a different template?
- Are all of the teams plans on power point slides?
The problem with that kind of a system is that often the plan is presented and forgotten.
Event: Building a Territory Plan within Salesforce.com
When: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:00 am-10:30 am
Where: Webinar
So who is Harvest Solutions? Take a look at their website. These guys know more about Salesforce.com implementation than most people I know.
I hope you can join us, and if you think someone else that you know may want to take advantage of this free webinar, feel free to pass it along.
Have a great day, and I hope to hear you on the call!
Steve
Territory Planning with Salesforce.com
We have now launched Territory Plan Pro for Salesforce.com!
As of today the application is generally available on the Salesforce.com Application Exchange. This is a similar application to the windows based sales planning tool, however, since it is a native application built on the Force.com platform, all of your contacts, accounts and opportunities are available to
simply click and pick to add to your plan. Additionally, tasks and events are created in the app and they roll into your normal task lists. With workflow, you can even submit the plan to your manager for review. We are pretty excited about this and have already started on the Account Plan Pro product. If you are interested in the app, the Datasheet and a quick video for the SFDC Version are at this link Territory Plan Pro.
