From the category archives:

Customer Insight

How to Have Customer Issues and Initiatives Spelled Out for You

December 6, 2010

Struggle to find time to keep current on all of your accounts?  Missed a quarterly analyst call and can’t find a recording?  No worries!  This website provides free, actionable insights and information for over 1,500 public companies’ earnings call transcripts, including the S&P 500.  Plus, the site includes edited articles from top blogs and investment [...]

Where Selling Opportunities Hide

June 3, 2010

We’re all interested in uncovering opportunities before our competitors.  But few of us have the bandwidth to process the ever-growing volume of information being pushed and pulled our way.  By way of example, Bank of America’s recent 10-K was over 750 pages.  And filled with mind-numbing language.  That’s why we recommend allowing someone else to [...]

Using Management Presentations to Gain Customer Insight

March 17, 2010

While you likely already read your customer’s annual report, specifically the Letter to Shareholders and MD&A, you may not regularly leverage management presentations to gain customer insight.   However, the increasing transparency of today’s corporate landscape has turned these presentations into highly useful sources of timely customer information.
Why This Information is So Useful
Presentations that management [...]

Quick Reference: Finding the Information

January 20, 2010

Download guide on which documents are most useful and which sections to read within those documents.
Research and preparation are critical for successfully engaging and selling with buyer’s side perspective.  Download this Finding the Information to help guide you on which documents are most useful and which sections to read within those documents.
US Letter (PDF 1,389KB) [...]

Review Your Customer’s 10-K in 4 Quick Steps

December 9, 2009

Form 10-Ks offer highly useful information about your customers.  Here’s a summary of 10-Ks and how to quickly navigate to these four sections for insights most relevant to your sales efforts.
What is a Form 10-K?
It’s an annual report that publicly-traded U.S. companies are required to file with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission [...]

Want to Know How Executives You are Targeting Are Compensated? Snoop Proxy Statements.

November 3, 2009

If you could find out how a customer executive you’re targeting is compensated, would you? Of course you would.
An insider secret: Outside of the U.S., in many parts of the world, details regarding how and why executives are compensated are spelled out in remuneration reports.
Thanks to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements that companies [...]

How to Read an Annual Report in 20 Minutes: And Get the Info You Need

October 21, 2009

If you regularly obtain your customers’ annual reports, you know that reading the entire document is impractical, if not impossible. Use the shortcuts below to help you quickly find the critical information you need.
Start with the Letter to Shareholders
The Letter to Shareholders is your best source of information about a customer’s business and written in [...]

Three Steps to Keeping Your Sales Strategies Current

October 8, 2009

Any change in your account’s business performance or an unexpected market shift may signal a new selling opportunity. So how do you stay current on the latest challenges faced by your customer’s executives? Review transcripts from the company’s quarterly earnings calls. All it takes is three easy steps.
Step 1: Find your customer’s transcripts
Many companies make [...]

Resources for Researching Government Customers

August 26, 2009

Before your next sales meeting with a government customer, do your research. Here is a list of resources for next time you’re preparing for a sales call within the public sector. And please comment below with your own suggestions.
U.S. Based Organizations
State and Local Government
Frequently updated directly of links to state and local Government information.
American Association [...]

Selling Quiz: 6 Questions to Assess a CIO’s Clout

August 11, 2009

You’re targeting a customer’s Chief Information Officer. How do you know how much clout they actually wield? When it comes to purchasing decisions, it’s not always clear how your customer’s internal executive committee views the CIO. And it’s important you know this so you don’t waste time explaining your solution’s value to a CIO who [...]

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