Achieving enterprise technology sales goals has always meant overcoming a host of unique and challenging obstacles, including withstanding a protracted decision-making process and convincing a slate of committee members of your value proposition. The average buy cycle is now more than seven months long and involves five to eight (or more) decision makers, most of whom spend only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers.

An uncertain economy and changing professional landscape have only exacerbated the situation. Gartner Distinguished VP Analyst John-David Lovelock says, “A turbulent economy has changed the context of business decisions and can cause CIOs to become more hesitant, delay decisions or reorder priorities.”

To succeed in the current marketplace, sellers have to use every tool at their disposal to understand their prospects and what drives them. Then they must craft an effective approach that will quickly convey value and lead to conversion.

While the application of artificial intelligence is ever-expanding in today’s business intelligence landscape; data mining, algorithms, and publicly available information can only take sales teams so far. Even the best computers still can’t beat the transformative power of human intelligence. Emissary was built on the core belief that people possess a valuable treasure trove of knowledge that salespeople need to successfully navigate increasingly complex buying processes. The powerful insights gained from Emissary’s network has already helped generate billions in new and expanded deals across a wide range of verticals.

 

Emissary’s Sales Intelligence Platform Turns Information into Actionable Insights

A wide-ranging hub of knowledge and expertise, Emissary increases and leverages opportunities to mine human intelligence. When a sales team subscribes, members use the platform to conveniently access the Emissary advisor network and Emissary library of insights. The information Emissary provides is an unparalleled advantage that helps sellers unearth more opportunities, shorten sales cycles, and close more deals in less time.

 

Manage and Engage with Advisors

The extensive Emissary network is now made up of over 12,000 experienced professionals who bring with them a combination of wisdom, unique insights, and experience that just can’t be found elsewhere. Subscribers have unmetered access to the Emissary database of expert Advisors who can offer the intelligence they need to succeed. They can search and view advisors by account, creating a seller-to-advisor experience that is more personalized and proactive than ever before. Even before a connection is formally initiated, users can kickstart their engagements by reviewing in-platform Recommended Advisors and can get quick insight with at-a-glance advisor summaries. Profile details include relevant expertise such as reporting relationships, geographies, teams and budgets they managed, and technologies for which the Advisor had oversight. Once an appropriate Advisor is identified, sellers can go on to schedule a 1:1 discovery conversation. Advisors typically offer information around discovery topics in five key areas:

    • People: Who are the decision makers? What are their styles? Are there company politics that could affect the progress of the deal?
    • Organization: What is the company’s culture like? What are current pain points and buying centers?
    • Technology: What products are currently in the tech stack? Where is the white space? What are decision makers biased toward or against?
    • Buying Process: What are the steps and criteria for procurement?
    • Landscape: Who are the consultants, partners, and competitors sellers need to know about?

After an Advisor interaction, sellers can bring what they’ve learned back to their team and use it to improve sales strategies, thoughtfully craft their value proposition to align with their understanding of prospect priorities, better grasp the culture and buying process of their target account, and maximize their in-person time with decision makers. In fact, after engagements with Advisors:

      • 87% defined decision-makers for an active deal
      • 85% generated strategies to grow an existing account
      • 84% clarified organizational structure on a new account
      • 82% determined how to navigate a complex account

 

Curated Insights Library

Teams also have seamless, 24/7 access to an extensive library of analysis and insights into accounts, personas, verticals, and trends — all sourced from the Emissary buyer network. By mining this library, teams can collect more detailed and actionable research in less time than previously possible. These dynamic assets provide sellers a head start on above-funnel activity, saving hours of research time. Library data can be reviewed on screen, shared with team members or downloaded for later use. Insights cover a wide range of formats and categories including:

      • Organizational buying profiles and process
      • Persona insights
      • Vertical insights
      • Research reports
      • Selling tips
      • Propensity to buy
      • Current tech stack and technology preferences
      • Buyer research
      • Roles and responsibilities within the procurement department

 

Add-Ons

There are additional options available for sales teams who want to get even more out of their Emissary subscription. For example, when preparing for an actual target meeting, subscribers can take unique advantage of Advisors’ experience by inviting them to represent a buyer point of view at Sales Kick Offs (SKOs), external marketing events, internal product focus groups, account planning workshops, and sales training exercises. Marketing and product leaders who want to expand their prospect research can survey the network to identify previously undiscovered target accounts, test their value propositions, or refine persona profiles.

 

Reporting

Call transcripts and recordings make it easy to share information among team members and collaborate on constructive sales plans. Users are always updated on the latest additions to the database. After a target list has been updated, the system will automatically notify a subscriber when a relevant advisor or resource is added. Performance reporting capability has been added to the platform at all levels, giving leaders the ability to identify and analyze the impact Emissary-made connections are making on sales motions.

 

Leveraging Human Intelligence to Gain Insight and Close Deals

When investigating a tool to boost odds of success, sales teams must be confident that they are making a choice that will offer quick and demonstrable ROI. Emissary helps users make the most of every opportunity to sell. With every engagement, sellers get the best possible information-based tools and curated intelligence they need to get inside the minds, priorities, and organizational structure of buyers.

What do sellers do with that deep knowledge? They transform it into results by entering each buyer contact armed with up-to-date insider information. By truly understanding the pain points and preferences of their target accounts, sellers can craft the most effective approaches, better prepare to address the buyer’s needs, overcome pre-identified objections, navigate their prospect’s procurement process, and deftly manage tricky buying committee meetings. Leveraging their expanded and enhanced understanding, sellers are able to put the right proposal in front of the right people at the right moment and are empowered to deliver improved outcomes at every point on the sales journey.

The results are unmistakable. Not only does our research reveals that 93% of users are strongly satisfied with Emissary intelligence but, by leveraging the insights gained through Emissary, sellers had demonstrable results:

sales intelligence platform stats

 

About Emissary

Emissary is a human intelligence network that connects enterprise sales and marketing professionals directly to a community of over 12,000 talented senior and C-level executives across a wide range of vertical markets. These industry insiders bring recent experience at your most important accounts to their conversations with you, offering unparalleled insight and advice. Leveraging Emissary’s innovative approach and effective solutions  will enable you to shorten your sales cycles, close more deals, and build positive long-lasting relationships with your clients and prospects – because you’ve gathered the tacit knowledge on their challenges and needs.

Contact us at info@emissary.io or follow us on LinkedIn to learn more about how Emissary can help you win more deals this year.