Forming long term relationships is key to success in business. This cliché certainly holds true in a recent success of Infinityn’s client: a global software solution-provider in the manufacturing, chemicals, energy, oil and gas industries. The case of unseating a competitor in a challenging market was initiated by a well-maintained relationship on behalf of Infinityn’s sales development representative (SDR), with practically flawless follow-through from the client’s sales.
The essence of sales development is the art of converting prospecting activity into real, lasting relationships. In this case, a well-nurtured prospect from a previous engagement became an influencer at the same account, and reached out to the SDR.
BACKGROUND, CHALLENGE
Our client is battling the largest companies in the world in the industrial automation industry. In a market where great products are the standard and selling on features yields little result, relationships and sophisticated sales activity play an even greater role, than in less mature markets.
Having recognized this, our client has been placing great emphasis on value-based sales development and relationship-based selling, which really proved its value in the acquisition of this $600.000+ deal.
OUR SOLUTION
The client uses Infinityn’s Agile Account-Based Growth (Agile ABG) service. In Agile ABG, we undertake sophisticated market research, align our findings with the client’s marketing department for better account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns and even assist in the sales development process with human outreach.
In this case, our sales development input was what initiated the new opportunity: our sales development representative, acting on behalf of our client, made sure that he maintains relationships even with prospects who ended up in a closed lost status.
It turned out that the prospect who, in his previous position did not advance with our client to contract, was very interested in our client’s solution in a newly acquired position - so he reached out to the SDR. The SDR (provided by Infinityn) used his relational capital to initiate a sales play involving several meetings and a workshop.
The deal closed in 8 months from the point of initial contact.
IMPACT
What made this win even sweeter for our client was that it involved unseating a global competitor at the facility. The solution of this competitor had already been applied by the buyer quite some time ago in the past, but instead of rolling that solution out in that specific facility/country as well, they opted for our client's solution.
This makes the case a good starting point for our client to use this example and approach other large facilities/countries of the buyer, where we’d potentially "unseat" that competitor globally.
LEARNINGS
CONCLUSION
Besides the undeniable importance of building real relationships that transcend deals, it’s important to highlight the - perhaps less visible - role of a sound account-based growth strategy. This process starts with uncovering intent and blending it with insight from existing technology platforms our client already runs, such as the CRM or an ABM platform.
When the foundations are executed properly - such as the research - the sales development representative is well equipped to make a powerful entrance at the prospect. She will display competence in the early stages and make the perfect handover to sales, who will enjoy the momentum from the start. In this acquisition’s case, our client’s buyer did not even pursue a tender, presumably for this very reason.
If you would like to discuss how our agile account-based growth service could get your technology company its next $600K client, please book a time with us.