The webinar discusses how competitive intelligence collected by salespeople can empower them and grow market share for their company. It explores challenges in collecting and using competitive intelligence from the perspective of salespeople. The webinar suggests that leadership support, clear expectations, recognition, and coaching can help motivate salespeople to collect competitive intelligence. It also notes potential issues like disrupting the sales process, opportunity costs of time spent analyzing intelligence, and risks of relying too heavily on intelligence over customer needs.

1. How Competitive Rumors and
Customer Insights Empower
the Sales Force to Grow Market
Share
A Complimentary Webinar from Aurora WDC
12:00 Noon Eastern /// 2 October 2013
~ featuring ~
Dr. Raj Agnihotri
The Intelligence Collaborative
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Dr. Craig Fleisher
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2. Questions, Commentary & Content
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3. Dr. Raj Agnihotri
Dr. Raj Agnihotri, a winner of several recent prestigious awards for his
research examining CI, marketing and sales, is currently a marketing
professor at Ohio University. At OHIO, he also serves as a Director of
Research at the Schey Sales Centre. Before entering academia, he has held a
number of sales and marketing positions with start-up ventures to major
corporations. His work has been published in leading scholarly journals and
has been presented at numerous national and international conferences. Dr.
Agnihotri actively supports the professional development programs involving
training, consulting, and research aimed to provide the sustainable sales and
sales leadership results. Regularly quoted in professional media outlets, and
is also a contributor to the Harvard Business Review blog network. Dr.
Agnihorti presents 30 minutes on how salesperson CI can impact business
performance and will be joined by webinar moderator Dr. Craig S. Fleisher,
Chief Learning Officer at Aurora WDC.
Email: agnihotr@ohio.edu
The Intelligence Collaborative is the online learning and networking
community powered by Aurora WDC, our clients, partners and other friends
and dedicated to exploring how to apply intelligence methods to solve realworld business problems.
Apply for a free 30-day trial membership at http://IntelCollab.com or learn
more about Aurora at http://AuroraWDC.com – see you next time!
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http://IntelCollab.com #IntelCollab
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4. Agenda
► Explore CI from sales force point of view
► Performance implications
► What are the challenges and how to address them
► Summary, Q&A and Discussion
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5. Sales Context
Selling strategies should be based upon reps’ understanding
of the market environment
Salespeople, if want to secure the deal, must account for
and respond to the tactics waged by their competitors
Customers want their sales reps to distinguish offerings from
competitors by drawing clear and objective comparisons
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6. Salesforce as a Resource
► Research recognizes sales force, among a firm’s
employees, as the single best internal source of
information regarding market, customer, and
competitor information.
► Salespeople, as boundary spanners, have access
to information unreachable to many others in
the firm.
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7. The Challenge
“There is a widespread notion among
salespeople that CI is a long-term organizational
process that involves bureaucratic hurdles. Given
the tactical nature of sales, this long-term
strategic process does not provide salespeople
with any immediate value. Salespeople perceive
that their time can be better utilized doing other
selling tasks rather than collecting and reporting
CI back to the organization.”
(Agnihotri and Rapp 2010)
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8. CI From Sales Force Point Of View
TIME ORIENTATION
Sales
rep
Future Sales
Interactions
Prospects/
Customers
Tactical
Strategic
Organizational
Response
Social
Interactions
Collection
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----------
Determination
Application
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9. Bring Social into Sales
► Social Networks
 Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
 Discussion/review forums
 Wikis
► Social Content
 Blogs
 Audio, video & photo sharing
 Micro blogging (Twitter)
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10. It’s More About Protecting Competitive
Advantage
False buzz
Bogus likes
Fake product reviews
Trick announcements
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11. CI Impact
LEADERSHIP
Salesperson
• Gathering CI
• Using CI
Competitive
Approach
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Behaviors
• Information
Sharing
• Adaptive
Engagement
• Satisfaction
• Loyalty
• Retention
Customer
Relationship
Performance
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12. Leadership Role
Over 500
salespoeople who
participated in the survey
with avergae age around
38 years
and average sales job
experience of
13 years
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i) Reps with conflicting roles, ambiguous
expectations will not be motivated towards
CI collection efforts
ii) Rep’s job involvement and level of
identification with the firm will have a
positive effect on CI collection efforts
iii) Recognition from managers will play a key
role
iv) Reps will be able to enhance their
performance by using CI if it is coupled with
coaching from managers.
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13. Cautionary Notes
► Sales Process Disruption
Reps trying to gather intelligence may lose track of
regular sales routine.
► Opportunity Cost
Reps trying to sift through information gathered could
end up spending immense amount of time, thereby
having less time for other activities.
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14. Cautionary Notes
► Point of Inflection
An inflection point concerning the quantity of
information, causing overload and making it difficult for
reps to sort it through and meet the client’s needs
efficiently.
► Imperial Intelligence
For reps, especially less-experienced ones, CI may
become the overriding factor in decision making.
► Unethical Approach
There exists a threat of not knowing when one has
crossed the line between right and wrong.
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15. Summary
Mechanism
Organization
Salesforce
Drivers
Marketplce
Metrics
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16. Thank you! Now how about a
little Q&A?
Email: agnihotr@ohio.edu
Dr. Raj Agnihotri
The Intelligence Collaborative is the online learning and networking
community powered by Aurora WDC, our clients, partners and other friends
and dedicated to exploring how to apply intelligence methods to solve realworld business problems.
Apply for a free 30-day trial membership at http://IntelCollab.com or learn
more about Aurora at http://AuroraWDC.com – see you next time!
The Intelligence Collaborative
http://IntelCollab.com #IntelCollab
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