If salespeople have access to the right intelligence in the right tools, they can work more efficiently and have more time to focus on sales.
Bureau van Dijk’s Mint package provides professionals with the latest information on their current and potential customers, including key decision-makers for millions of companies in the UK. This avoids the issue of sales teams relying on their own records, which can be out of date, or spending time sourcing data themselves.
Using Mint sales teams can draw on constantly updated details from a central database, which pulls information from 120 providers around the world, including regulatory and proprietary sources. This information can also be integrated with organisations’ own customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
“If Mint content is integrated into a CRM, then salespeople can see fresher and richer company records with a level of detail they’d never be able to collect and maintain themselves,” says Louise Green, Bureau van Dijk group marketing director. “The package can link up with any CRM system,” she says, “including in-house packages, with simple-to-implement apps for popular CRMs, such as Salesforce and MS Dynamics.”
WIN NEW BUSINESS
Mint allows users to analyse groups of companies, which can help identify typical customer profiles. “You can very quickly work out what most of your customers look like and from there you can find other companies in the UK which also look like that,” says Ms Green. “This can help to discount particular businesses, so sales teams focus their efforts on the strongest leads,” she adds.
Once a list of target organisations has been drawn up, sales teams can further break these down by geographic location, size or sector as required. This kind of information can help organisations with sales planning and give them access to far more relevant prospects than would otherwise be the case.
If Mint content is integrated into a CRM, then salespeople can see fresher and richer company records with a level of detail they’d never be able to collect and maintain themselves
Businesses are also able to use the system to find out more about organisations, including accessing news stories, and understand their corporate structure. “An awareness of structure can help identify where the decisions are made in a company,” says Ms Green. “You don’t want to spend a lot of time selling to a subsidiary if all the decisions are made higher up the tree. And it can also help identify other opportunities, which may exist elsewhere in a group.”
PERFECT TIMING
The ability to keep track of a company’s news can help salespeople make contact at the best time, as Mint can alert them to when certain events, such as new management taking charge or successful acquisitions, have taken place. “If you find a business that has been bought by a private equity company, you know they’re going to be backed to grow, so that’s a really good opportunity,” says Ms Green.
Bureau van Dijk’s expertise as an information provider helps to set it apart from other players and this is reflected in the Mint product. “We offer a wide range of search, analysis and integration options because we really understand data, and how companies can benefit from it,” Ms Green says.
Now could be a good time to invest in such capabilities as the economy starts to pick up and new opportunities emerge. “If there are more opportunities available, it would be sensible to have a system that helps you find them more efficiently,” she concludes.
For more information on how Mint could help your business, visit www.bvdinfo.com or call 020 7549 5000
