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CHAPTER NEWS SCIP SW Ohio and Mercyhurst College Chapters Present: Sales: A Gold Mine for CI
On February 7, SCIP’s SW Ohio Chapter and the Mercyhurst College Student Chapter participated in an onsite eLearning Webinar entitled, “Sales: A Gold Mine for Competitive Intelligence.” Speaker Ellen Naylor, Founder, Business Intelligence Source, shared with meeting attendees in Ohio and Pennsylvania how her past experience as a sales person has enabled her to help sales teams boost their close rates. “Connect with sales and you gain access to one of the best sources of ongoing tactical competitive information available.” Naylor emphasized that sales teams are talking and meeting with customers everyday. Yet many CI practitioners fail to regularly connect with Sales to gather critical data from this invaluable source. Sharing practical tips on how to connect and learn more about your customers through win/loss interviews with sale personnel and/or sales’ customer contacts is something she’s been doing since 1985. This practice provides critical competitive information back to your sales team that can help boost their close rates! An end result that keeps Sales engaged! Hosted by IBM and Mercyhurst College, nearly 30 participants—CI professionals from a wide range of industries, and students—gathered in the two locations for Naylor’s presentation which was offered via SCIP’s new onsite eLearning webinar format. Naylor discussed using sales as a way to sustain the CI process. Emphasizing the importance of understanding how the company is doing in terms of ROI, Naylor told the audience that communication, organization, and recognition of sales within the CI process will maximize the effectiveness of your intelligence operations. She provided practical tips such as utilizing blogs, E-Mail, Skype, sales conferences, and informal meetings to help insert oneself into the sales process. Naylor highlighted the importance of being accessible to the sales division and demonstrating an understanding of their challenges. Communication should involve all levels of sales personnel including the VP of Sales, managers, directors, account executives, and contract administrators. Win/Loss analyses have both tactical and strategic benefits; for example it helps sales win more business resulting in increased profit and revenues. To conduct an effective win/loss interview, Naylor stressed that the interview should be a systematic and planned effort where the interviewer has a clear understanding of the process and parties involved. The questionnaire should focus on sales attributes, company reputation, product attributes, and service issues. To achieve the best results for more actionable intelligence, the win/loss interviews should be conducted with sales or by sales. Naylor added that the questions people ask and decisions they make are affected by their biases. As such, the interviewer needs to be aware of personal and professional biases to ensure that the interviewee does not withhold valuable information. Participants made good use of the Q&A period, drilling down on the details of implementation, and seized the opportunity to network post-presentation. Seasoned CI professionals in both locations offered assistance to attendees newer to the profession, helping to move them up the learning curve. Julie Webb, SCIP SW Ohio Chairperson, said the presentation was excellent and offered attendees the opportunity to share practical knowledge and pearls of wisdom relative to actual implementation. “There’s real value in the opportunity to network with all levels of CI professionals locally and in other areas through SCIP’s eLearning format.” Webb indicated that the SW Ohio chapter—which serves Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus—plans to add onsite locations in each city so more CI professionals have the opportunity to participate and network locally. Naylor’s webinar was the first in a 4-part eLearning series that the chapter has committed to. And, the folks at Mercyhurst College are looking forward to hosting more SCIP eLearning webinars in the future as well. About the speaker Ellen Naylor is the founder of Business Intelligence Source (BIS), a marketing company particularly known for the sales-marketing aspects of competitive intelligence and opportunity analysis. A 20-year veteran at SCIP, she is a sought after as a global speaker and thought leader as evidenced through her CI Magazine articles and her blog. About the authors Julie Webb, is the SCIP SW Ohio Chapter Chairperson and a senior research analyst with IBM. Prior to joining IBM, Webb worked with OCLC and Symix/FrontStep. She holds a B.A. in Marketing from Ohio State University and an M.B.A. in Technology Management from Franklin University. Bridget Finn is a junior at Mercyhurst College specializing in competitive intelligence. She was a volunteer at the SCIP 2010 International Annual Conference and Exhibition in Washington D.C. Though Finn was unable to attend last year's conference due to studies abroad (Ireland), she looks forward to attending the 2012 SCIP Conference in Philadelphia. She is currently the president of the Mercyhurst College Competitive Intelligence Club. Devin Langan is a senior in the Intelligence Studies department at Mercyhurst College. He is a past president of the Mercyhurst Competitive Intelligence Club and is the primary liaison for the Mercyhurst SCIP Student Chapter.
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