As a brand new sales rep for TIBCO, I was responsible for selling more than a dozen products. This was daunting, to say the least. I had to quickly learn what these products do, who knows what about the products, corresponding customer stories, and everything about competitors.
Out of my initial list of target accounts to sign on as new customers, one of them was a hi-tech manufacturer who happened to be in the market for a B2B partner management solution. This prospect had a short selection timeline of 30 days, so I needed to figure out exactly what our technology offered and how it could be positioned to them.
Like most new sales reps, we’re given a few training sessions and then we’re on our own to fill in the rest. Normally, I would spend that time interviewing other account executives on how to ramp up quickly, or sort through some sort of knowledge management system or portal (where documents usually go to die). Instead, I found myself relying on tibbr, TIBCO’s enterprise social network, to immediately find the answers I needed.
When the prospect asked for a customer referral, I found an invaluable reference from another sales rep on tibbr. When the prospect asked how long it would take to deploy the solution with their requirements, I got the answer within minutes by crowdsourcing feedback from solutions consultants.
Even still, unexpected challenges were bound to come up.
After a successful one-week proof of concept, the prospect suddenly requested technical requirements that I didn’t know we could meet. I wasn’t sure if we had the resources or the staff. But, at this point, I had already started conversations on our social platform with the product manager, who was able to confirm the answers I needed. Just before the 30-day period ended, I was able to close my first deal all through social knowledge exchange.
Without having to walk across the building to get permission to talk to some manager or asking a bunch of people before you discover who can really help, tibbr allows me find the information I need to close, when I need it most.
I need to know what customers are saying, and what competitors are doing. I need to know who knows what about the products, and the smallest details to continue to move forward and find an edge. I ask questions, and team members answer. It’s in our nature. We want to appear knowledgeable and we want to help each other. tibbr brings the latest information, the things people are saying, in. All of which, lets us be faster on our feet and at the end of the day, close more deals.
