This is the first post in our six-part blog series on “How Vertical IQ Supports the Sales Process,” featuring simple, concrete ways to incorporate economic and Industry Intelligence during each stage of the sales cycle.
When you think about the sales process, it’s easy to picture something linear: identify a prospect > make a call > set a sales meeting > (hopefully) close a deal. But after my years as a banker and working with business bankers from across the country, I can tell you: The sales process isn’t a straight line at all. It’s circular. Strong relationships with business owners aren’t built from one interaction but rather from an ongoing cycle of sales preparation, business conversation, and follow-up that continues over time.
That’s where Vertical IQ comes in.
In this first post of our six-part blog series, “How Vertical IQ Supports the Sales Process,” we’ll focus on the first stage of the sales process: determining which industries to call on. Let’s explore how economic and Industry Intelligence from Vertical IQ can help you refine how you approach business development by proactively selecting target industries.
‘Which industries should I call on?’
It’s a question nearly every new B2B salesperson has asked as they work to identify new targets. Early in my banking career, prospecting often meant driving around town and jotting down the names of companies I saw on storefronts or trucks. While that hustle was useful, it wasn’t exactly a strategic approach to business development.
Today’s sales professionals have a tremendous advantage compared to that old shotgun prospecting approach. Using actionable, convenient, focused Industry Intelligence, like you’ll find on Vertical IQ, you can take a smarter, more targeted, proactive approach to deciding where to focus your sales prospecting energy. Here’s how …
How to Choose the Right Industries to Target with Vertical IQ
Align with local business growth trends
It’s essential to understand the landscape in which you’re prospecting. Vertical IQ’s Local Economies data allows bankers and other sales professionals to zero in on industries that are actually growing in their specific local market.
Instead of guessing, you can use real numbers around employment trends, business formation, or SBA lending in your specific county or metro area. This means you’re not just calling on any business you happen to find (like I used to do!). Instead, you’re calling on businesses in industries where you know there’s momentum.
Evaluate industry risks and opportunities
Inside Vertical IQ, you’ll find a helpful tool called Sort & Target, which also allows you to think about industries in a more targeted manner — perhaps ones that use certain products and services or have particular financial benchmarks.
Let’s say you opt to sort industries by their Financial Benchmark Data. From there, you can select other pertinent data types like percentage of cash to total assets or EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Alternatively, you could use Sort & Target to generate a report on Industry Forecast Data, which provides a stack ranking of industries’ compound growth rates.
No matter which way you slice and dice the data on Vertical IQ, you’ll be able to see how the list of industries compares against the industries in your book of business. Then ask yourself: Where are the growth opportunities … or business risks? Who’s experiencing consolidation?
Map out the client’s buyer/supplier ecosystem
Arguably, one of the most overlooked opportunities in business development is the “client ecosystem.” Every business you call on has its own suppliers, distributors, and customers; those connections are potential prospects for you, too!
With Vertical IQ, you can quickly explore these inter-industry relationships when you use the Industry Structure chapter of the Industry Profile; it has a full list of each industry’s key buyers and suppliers. You can then go to the Industry Profiles for those interrelated verticals to learn more about them.
For instance, if you’re calling on a restaurant group, you can also identify opportunities with their food distributors, beverage distributors, or even the furnishing and fixtures companies building their locations. That ripple effect is a powerful way to expand your reach without cold prospecting.
A more focused approach to business development
Using Vertical IQ to identify specific industries to target enables you to identify niches that are well-suited to your product, your organization’s appetite, and your professional goals. It also allows you to develop industry expertise that you can use again and again with other businesses in that vertical. More importantly, a targeted approach to prospecting lays the foundation for gaining trusted advisor status and nurturing relationships that stand the test of time.
In the next post of this six-part series, we will dig into step 2 of the sales process: meeting the “right” people and networking. Until then, remember: Sales success doesn’t start with pitching a product. It starts with targeting the right industries. And that’s exactly what Vertical IQ was built to help you do!
Ready to get started? Contact us to learn more!
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