Dow Jones Launches Innovative ’Social Selling’ Tool

Dow Jones Companies & Executives utilizes Sales 2.0 functionality to uncover business opportunities and make warm connections to decision makers.

NEW YORK - The newest release of Dow Jones Companies & Executives, now available, is designed to help B2B sales and marketing teams take advantage of social selling opportunities to drive sales activity. It signals an end to cold calling with tools that automatically identify reasons to call companies and easily connect to prospects with a real need.

Using unique technology, Dow Jones Companies & Executives Sales keeps sales pipelines filled by seeking out triggers, or events that signal opportunity within a specific industry. These triggers deliver sales and marketing people a steady stream of fresh, warm leads for companies that might be ready to buy. Triggers such as management moves, product launches and other significant events are sent via email, helping sales people quickly prioritize their best opportunities.

Once a sales professional receives a lead, Dow Jones Companies & Executives Sales uses patented connection technologies to tap into their social networks to identify warm introductions to target organizations, helping to shorten the sales cycle. Utilizing the power of “who you know,” Dow Jones has created a comprehensive mapping of key executives based on their work histories. When coupled with contacts listed in an organization’s in-house email such as Microsoft® Outlook® or opt-in social networks including LinkedIn, this mapping can provide a rich path of connections to influential decision makers. The relationship maps highlight connections of varying degrees of separation, from a mutual contact to a third degree relationship.

“Sales management’s key challenge is to enhance sales effectiveness to improve performance and increase revenues,” stated Simon Bradstock, vice president and managing director, Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group. “Our solution offers a new approach, enabling social selling which provides sales teams with timely, qualified reasons to call, as well as warm introductions. This drives activity and helps teams focus on the best opportunities.”

In addition to identifying companies ready to buy now, triggers also indicate potential future activity opening up further opportunities in the medium to long term. For example, based on independent research, 90% of companies that appoint a new CFO also experience other leadership changes within 12 months. This opens up selling opportunities for companies in HR or outplacement industries. Another statistic shows that 75% of companies that appoint a new CFO undergo expansion of operations within 12 months through joint ventures, partnerships and/or establishing a subsidiary, indicating future opportunities for salespeople targeting real estate, HR and benefits, IT, construction and manufacturing industries.

“Our most recent survey of over 1,000 companies found that only 39% of firms surveyed reported a conversion rate of qualified leads to first calls of greater than 50%,” said Jim Dickie, managing partner, CSO Insights. “Sales people need to come up with compelling reasons for prospects to want to talk with them. Solutions like Dow Jones Companies & Executives Sales give reps the insights into the prospect’s marketplace, the company itself, and all the key stakeholders who may be part of the decision process, which is critical if they are going develop effective strategies to get in the game and then ultimately win the game.”

Unlike other sales intelligence tools, Dow Jones Companies & Executives Sales is simple to use and helps sales forces target warm leads and close deals faster than ever before. The product will be available both as a web application and as a series of widgets for integration into the workflow of Salesforce.com and other CRM systems, and sales portals to drive lead flow, call preparation, territory management and sales management tasks.

Additional functionality of Dow Jones Companies & Executives Sales includes the ability to:

* Create precise target lists by using the extensive company and executive database;
* Nurture profitable customer relationships by using news and insight to understand customers’ business challenges and engage in more meaningful conversations;
* Manage potential risks with breaking news alerts focused on customers and prospects;
* Implement proactive territory management to improve performance of every sales task;