You’ve surely heard the old axiom “to be competitive, you have to be the best or the cheapest.” That was true at one point, but today’s reality is a little more complicated. With more than 100,000 IT companies in the U.S. alone and at least 6,000 martech companies contending for enterprise dollars, gaining a competitive edge over the competition is harder than ever before. In fact, the majority of sellers agree that getting in front of prospects is harder than it was just five years. But before you go out and hire a big-name branding firm to help you differentiate, why not consult with your Emissary on improving your teams’ sales readiness? Here are just a few of the ways these seasoned execs from Fortune 500 companies can help you stand out from the crowd, close more business, and hit your revenue targets.

Navigating Org Structures

So you got your hands on org charts for a few of your top prospects? Good for you. These certainly can be helpful—that is, if they’ve been updated in the last decade. But an even better bet is to speak to executives who’ve recently left your target accounts.

Not only can these execs demystify the org structure, they can point out key influencers, would-be derailers, and—often—who the real decision-makers are behind the scenes. This can help you get your pitch in front of the stakeholders who matter, while also giving you insight into their pain points, personalities, and preferred presentation styles. And because our Emissaries have been through the purchasing process themselves, they can shed light on any potential obstacles you may encounter during procurement.

All of this adds up to more successful pitches, shorter sales cycles, and a much better shot at hitting your number.

Improving Your Messaging

There’s a good reason fewer than 24 percent of sales emails are opened. And that’s in part because they’re created based off of assumptions about what prospects want and need, not what prospects actually want and need.

Imagine, instead, if your sales readiness and marketing collateral had first been vetted by one of your actual buyers—before your prospects ever laid eyes on it. As it turns out, you can. Our Emissaries frequently provide insight and guidance on digital marketing and sales enablement collateral.

This kind of candid, direct feedback can help your marketing teams build consensus, in turn enabling you to refine your language and imagery, and craft much more powerful, effective messaging. From your website to your one-pagers and even your contact forms, your team of enterprise insiders can help you fine-tune your messaging to cut through the noise and reach your prospects.

Understanding Their Tech Stacks

Two cloud storage providers were locked in a head-to-head competition for a lucrative contract with a major media company. One provider was attempting to renew its existing contract, while the other was making an aggressive—and persuasive—case for the media org to make the switch. To learn what it would take to overcome the competition and save the account, the company with the existing contract came to Emissary. And that turned out to be a very smart move indeed.

We were able to pair the storage provider with the media company’s former senior director of IT, who quickly pointed out that the accounts team had been highlighting the wrong features all along. In fact, the client already had access to two critical features—the provider just didn’t realize it.

Showcasing their existing access to these features saved the renewal and helped the client avoid a long and tedious migration process. That’s a win/win for both parties, and it only happened because of key insights the storage provider couldn’t have gotten elsewhere.

Expanding Your Deals

Every revenue exec knows that landing a new customer is just the beginning of a longer partnership. In fact, landing a new deal can be five to 25 percent more expensive than retaining an existing one, and expanding existing deals can be faster, cheaper, and more lucrative in the long run. But to do so, you’ll need to have the right information and intelligence from the outset.

That’s why so many of our customers look to their Emissaries not only for guidance on which LOBs are fertile ground for expansion, but who the decision-makers really are—and how to reach them most effectively.

Rather than pitching blindly to various stakeholders throughout the organization, your Emissaries can help you develop a strategic account plan. Plus, they’ll work with you at every stage of the process, making key account expansion easier and faster than ever.

Executive Insights for Optimal Sales Readiness

Cutting through the noise and gaining a competitive edge in today’s IT marketplace can feel like a Herculean task—but it doesn’t have to. In fact, it may be far easier than you think. With the right partners and the right insight into your top accounts, you can craft laser-focused messaging for the right decision-makers at key times in your buying cycles. You can also navigate procurement more nimbly, close more quickly, and expand more strategically. With Emissary Advisors, it’s not just guidance—it’s sales readiness intel that impacts your bottom line.