In the sales world, deep, bespoke account knowledge is the key to unlocking major opportunities, or missing them entirely. At Emissary, we pride ourselves on being that knowledge source.
One sales executive recently gained invaluable insights from one of our more than 7k advisors; a former executive with more than 14 years of experience at their previous organization. Let’s explore this interaction in more depth.
Note: For privacy reasons, identifying information from the below transcript has been redacted.
What did the seller want to know prior to the call?
I currently do not have an active opportunity with [Target Company]. I’d love to:
- Understand who’s who within the organization
- Identify the organization’s key challenges
- Understand messaging themes that might resonate or fall flat
- Understand the relevant partner ecosystem, if applicable
Seller question: I’m trying to understand the landscape of [Company]. What type of systems are they looking at and where are they going?
“I know they were starting to look at an SAP reimplementation. I was there for the SAP implementation in 2015, we’re approaching 10 years on the platform.”
“When I left, we had just finished implementing a big PLM system. That was actually the
3rd time we implemented a PLM system in the 14 years that we were there. So I know
from that experience a lot of it was all on prem. But I know there was also a lot of discussion about, hey, why are we doing on prem? Why isn’t this stuff in the cloud?”
“[Person 1] is now a VP and deals mainly with a lot of the hardware and a lot of the servers.
She sets the tone and the strategy around where they want to go. So, knowing that she’s already starting to look at that about a year and a half ago, I would imagine that there’s probably a lot there.”
Seller question: What exactly would move them toward a new platform? Who would lead that?
“We had a new CIO come in, she came in from [Company]. So if you’re familiar with [Company] and how they are situated, she’s the CIO that can do that, that was transferred
over into [Target Company].”
“She started talking about how she wanted to remake how the IT space operated with
[Target Company]. An example there is, are you guys familiar with the product
management way of doing things? So, in the future state, if I was still around, I basically
would become a product manager and be the one that sits down and looks at a certain specific area. So she had her entire staff take a book and read the book and, and to learn
about product management.”
Seller question: What about the lower level folks?
“Sometimes some lower level folks will actually be doing the work and be influencing
the upper level folks… they’re like, ‘I’m happy somebody’s talking to me!'”
Seller question: Where’s the data and what’s the workflow of the data?
“You’ve got years and years of like information that’s just been thrown together. You got groups all over the place trying to, you know, set up these systems, but they’re not talking to each other. Like, how does it get to your point like, how does the information start to flow?”
Seller question: How focused is the org on cost savings?
“We did this really bad deal with [Competitor]… [Target Company] overpaid and because
of that, a lot of money was gone, hence why a lot of focus in that area is on cost savings.”
In Conclusion
Armed with these insights, this seller can approach this account with a deeper understanding of its IT landscape, strategic priorities, and key decision-makers, enabling more meaningful engagements in his top of funnel account.
