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Background & Objectives to the Survey

Chapter 1: Sales & Marketing Activities

1.1 Activities Strategy

Chapter 2: Sales Intelligence

2.1 Types of Reports generated / bought & Turn around Time’s (TAT’s)

2.2 Sales Intelligence Tools & related Spends

Chapter 3: Inside Sales

3.1 Dynamics of the Inside Sales function

3.2 Key Metrics of the Inside Sales teams

3.3 Use of Salesforce Automation

3.4 Opportunity Identification Findings

3.5 Inside Sales Rep Remunerations

3.6 Inside Sales Challenges

Chapter 4

4.1 ROI Calculation across Inside Sales & Sales Intelligence

Appendix 1: Abbreviations

Appendix 2: Charts

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Background & Objectives of the Survey2010 brings with it hope of a recovery in global markets. This hope increases the onus on the Sales & Marketing

organizations of Technology companies to penetrate markets at a much faster rate than before. Given this scenario, Inside

Sales and Sales Intelligence as activities gain criticality to the overall effectiveness of the Sales & Marketing strategies of

technology companies.

Our first report; i.e., “Sales & Marketing Best Practices 2009”, focused on the macro level indicators of a Sales & Marketing

organization of a technology company. We found that the report served as a very good benchmark for the overall structure

of a Technology company’s Sales & Marketing organization; however we felt that we needed to dwell deeper into these

activities.

As a part of deep diving into the Sales & Marketing activities of a technology company, QEDbaton embarked on this survey;

the first in a series of Sales & Marketing activity surveys, with the objective to have an insight into the following

Sales Intelligence is extremely critical to Sales & Marketing organizations as it is this activity that helps technology

companies understand market sentiment and position services while differentiating from competitors all the time.

Inside Sales is typically the first contact with every prospect and excelling in this activity gives Technology companies that

extra edge over competitors. Right from identifying opportunities before competitors to getting invited to participate in a

RFP, Inside Sales is the activity that is the heart of the Sales pipeline of a technology company.

Whether you are outsourcing these activities or you are running them in house, we at QEDbaton intend on giving readers of

this report the right benchmarks to align their Inside Sales & Sales Intelligence activities.

The established metrics around Sales Intelligence & Inside Sales

activities in Global Technology companies

The types of Sales Intelligence reports that Technology companies

need, tools subscribed to create them and subscription spends

The role the Inside Sales team plays in achievement of the

overall Revenue Goal

The quantity & quality of the leads generated by the Inside

Sales team

The challenges that global technology companies face wrt

Inside Sales

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Survey Demographics

Technology Companies Split by Size

Pie Chart- Percentage Respondents split by Size of Company

Large (US $251 Mil +)

Medium (US $51 to $250 Mil)

Small (Upto US $50 Mil)

IT Services

IT Products

IT Consulting

Engineering Services

Pie Chart- Percentage Respondents split by Size of Company

Technology Companies Split by Type

We surveyed a total of 122 Technology companies which included professionals

across the Sales, Inside Sales & Marketing functions within these organizations.

Ch t P t R d t lit b

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Chapter 1: Inside Sales & Sales Intelligence Activities Strategies

Over 40% of Global Technology Companies leveraged specialist

vendors to manage either parts of, or the complete Inside

Sales function

30% of Indian Technology Companies leveraged specialist

vendors to manage their Sales Intelligence function

47% of Global Technology Companies leveraged specialist

vendors to manage their Sales Intelligence function

IT Product Companies (ISV’s) predominantly preferred keeping

the Inside Sales function in house

Indian Tech Companies vs. Global Tech Companies

* Bar Graph- Percentage Respondents that leverage Outsourcers for their Inside

Sales & Sales Intelligence functions

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Chapter 2: Sales Intelligence

Sales Intelligence- Types of Reports

2.1 Types of Intelligence reports sought after & Turn around Time’s

Competitor Intelligence & Analysis comes across as the single largest intelligence need for

Global Technology Companies

On an average it takes 9.25 days for the Sales Intelligence team to turn around a

Competitive Intelligence & Analysis report

Credible and Deep Competitor Intelligence could be a significant differentiator for

Sales & Marketing strategies

Key Account Profiles & Market Intelligence reports emerge as the next two intelligence reports

that are critical to Global Technology Companies.

On an average it takes 9 days for the Sales Intelligence team to turn around a Key

Account Profile

On an average it takes 10.2 days for the Sales Intelligence team to turn around a

Market Intelligence Report

g yp p

* Bar Graph- Percentage Respondents that generate these Sales Intelligence reports

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Chapter 2: Sales Intelligence2.1 Types of Intelligence reports sought after & Turn around Time’s

Surprisingly only 30% of respondents were leveraging ‘CIO/ Outsourcing Decision Maker Surveys’ as a lead generation/

intelligence tool. Such surveys have emerged as a very strong tool to engage prospects in sharing intelligence, gauging

outsourcing appetite and identifying opportunities.

Average TAT(Turn around Time) In Number of Days

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Chapter 2: Sales Intelligence2.2 Sales Intelligence Tools & Spends

Large Technology Companies (Indian & Global) were found to spend over US $5000 a month on these reports

Forrester & Gartner emerge as the

top 2 tools that are subscribed to by

Indian Technology Companies

On an average a Mid Size Indian

Technology company spends US $1500

a month on these reports

* Bar Graph- Top Sales Intelligence Tools Indian Tech Companies

Gartner & IDC emerge as the top

2 tools subscribed to by Global

Technology companies

On an average a Mid Size Global

Technology company spends US $2000

a month on these reports

Indian Technology Companies Top Sales Intelligence Tools

Indian Technology Companies Use ofSales Intelligence Tools

Global Technology Companies Use of Sales Intelligence Tools

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Chapter 3: Inside Sales3.1 The Inside Sales function as seen by Technology Companies

Key account mapping emerges as the single most important activity that an Inside Sales rep undertakes within an Indian Technology Company

“Lead Qualification” was seen to be the second most important activity by Indian technology companies

“List Building& Contact Discovery” with “Appointment Setting” were tied as the third most important activity by Indian Technology Companies

“Appointment Setting” was seen as the

most important activity, followed by Lead

Qualification and Key Account Profiling by

Global Technology Companies

Surprisingly, only 37% of Indian Technology companies & 48% of Global Technology companies felt the need for Inside Sales teams to Nurture

leads.

Industry benchmarks suggest that over 70% of all leads go on to make a “Buy” decision in 8-12 months thus enhancing the need for effective

nurturing of leads by Inside Sales teams.

When compared to their Global counterparts…

What types of account maps do Inside Sales reps generate?

How do they go about engaging clients through the intelligence captured?

Do In-house Inside Sales teams have a mature scoring mechanism to

determine Sales ready leads?

Do In-house Inside Sales teams give different treatments to different buckets

of leafds by the scores they achieve?

What levels of sophistication do Outsourcers bring to the table vis-à-vis In-

house teams because of their specialization & ability to deploy assets, tools

or techniques across multiple clients?

In-house teams seem to be more focused on above 2 points as against

Appointment Setting in case of companies leveraging Outsourcers

Indian Technology Companies

Global Technology Companies

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Chapter 3: Inside Sales3.2 Definition of Key Metrics for the top Activities undertaken by Inside Sales Teams

Understand the Decision Making & Influencing tree

within Diverse Target Companies.

Procure hard to get information like IT Budgets, Current

IT Landscape and Vendor Landscape & Satisfaction

Levels.

Generate multiple meetings with Decision Makers &

Influencers with Target Companies.

Use Technology to mine and cross leverage account

maps over a period of time

Devise comprehensive scoring mechanisms which

facilitate a high level of classification of all leads.

Create programs that apply differential treatment to

leads by the score they achieve

Move prospects across the scoring categories

eventually creating a mechanism to consistently

deliver “Sales Ready” leads.

Come up with the right mix of different categories of

Leads; i.e., Level 1, BANT, RFP’s.

Move prospects from one bucket to the other; i.e,

Level 1 to BANT, BANT to RFP

Keep the prospect engaged using the right mix of

collaterals, case studies, white-papers, etc.

MeetingGeneration

LeadQualification

Key AccountMaps

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Chapter 3: Inside Sales3.3 Use of Salesforce Automation

Salesforce.com is the undisputed leader when it comes to Salesforce automation of a

technology company

Microsoft CRM is emerging as a competitor to Salesforce.com but still has a long way to go.

Surprisingly Zoho ranks on par with Oracle on Demand and we feel that over the next few

quarters Zoho CRM is going to start catching up with the likes of Microsoft on the CRM front.

Over 80% of respondents from Small companies indicated the non use of a SFA/ CRM tool

giving the high costs of acquiring and managing a tool.

27%

24.5%

7.50%

3%

6.40%10.

60%

8.5

0%

3%

Salesforce Automation Tools/CRM’s

* Pie Chart- Use of Salesforce Automation/ CRM’s

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Chapter 3: Inside Sales3.4 Opportunity Identification: Findings

It was observed that 2-3 Level 1 meetings were generated by every Inside Sales rep in a

month

It was observed that 2-3 BANT level meetings were identified by every inside sale rep in a

month

Over 50% of Indian technology companies indicated that an Inside Sales rep generated 1

RFP every two months. In case of Global technology companies the average number of RFP’s

identified by Inside Sales reps was 1 RFP every month.

Engineering Services companies have a low ratio (7.5%) of Level 1 to BANT level opportunities

conversion. It is noted that this is probably due to the complexity of the sale (high Customer

Retention rates, Deal Sizes, etc)

Large Indian IT Companies with diversified services (5bn+) had over 50% conversion ratio

from Level 1 to BANT level opportunities. This is probably because their lead scoring

mechanisms and definition of a Level 1 lead is more stringent.

Across Service categories, it was observed that the average conversion ratio from Level

1 to BANT stands at 31% for Indian Technology Companies. In case of Global Technology

companies this conversion ratio goes up to 42%.

Across Service categories, it was observed that the average conversion ratio from BANT

to RFP stands at 30.75% for Indian Technology Companies. In case of Global Technology

companies this conversion ratio goes up to 34%.

Companies that outsource the Inside Sales function to specialist vendors were seen to have a

marginally better conversion ratio from Level 1 to BANT level opportunities and BANT to RFP

level opportunities. It is noted that this is probably due to the fact that specialist vendors

have structured Lead Nurturing programs in place to maximize their return from a campaign.

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Chapter 3: Inside Sales3.5 Inside Sales Rep Remunerations

3.6 Inside Sales Challenges

It was found that salaries inclusive of commissions range from 25k to 55k INR monthly

It was found that the average fixed salary for an Inside Sales rep was 30.5k INR per month

and the average variable (incentive) was 13k INR per month

It was observed that Inside Sales reps make an average of 30% of their income through

Incentives & Commissions.

70% of respondents felt that Quantity & Quality of leads were challenges that could be

managed

-Do Inside Sales teams have clearly defined metrics to measure the Quality of a lead

All respondents in the Indian IT Service Companies segment felt that “Alignment to Revenue

Goals” was a challenge that could be managed.

Hiring, Training & Retaining Inside Sales reps was seen as a challenge that could be managed

by over 70% of respondents

It was found that salaries inclusive of commission range average around USD 45k a year

It was found that the average fixed salary for an Inside Sales rep was USD 27k a year and the

average variable (incentive) was USD 18k a year

It was observed that Inside Sales reps make an average of 40% of their income through

Incentives & Commissions.

Indian Technology Companies

Global Technology Companies

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Chapter 4: Assessing ROI

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As anticipated, Large Technology Companies have

better salary & compensation structures (55k+)

when compared to Medium sized technology

companies (37.5k+)

However, the Inside Sales teams of Medium sized

tech companies generated a higher number of L1

Opportunities (4.7 meetings per rep per month) and

a higher number of RFP’s (2.55 RFP’s per rep per

month) as compared to Large technology companies

which generated 4.5 Level 1 opportunities and 2

RFP’s per rep per month.

We did not find evidence of higher sales intelligence

spends resulting in better RFP conversion or more

BANT opportunities. It is our assessment that Sales

Intelligence spends beyond a particular limit does

not result in better ROI.

In our view the ROI is not only a direct function

of spends on Inside Sales & Sales Intelligence but

the process maturity, use of specialized technology

and continuous skills development of specialists

executing your Inside Sales & Sales intelligence

strategy. Inside Sales & Sales Intelligence as

activities needs to be aligned to the Sales pipeline

for a technology company to derive maximum ROI.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

RFP- Request for Proposals

ISV’s- Independent Software Vendors

TAT- Turn around Times

CIO- Chief Information Officer

Level 1/ L1 – Introductory Meetings where the primary purpose is to exchange information

BANT- Meetings with Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe of Opportunities identified

ROI- Return on Investment

Figure 1 Pie Chart: Survey Base by Size of Companies

Figure 2 Pie Chart: Survey Base by Type of Companies

Figure 3 Bar Graph: Percentage Companies leveraging specialist

vendors for their Inside Sales & Sales Intelligence functions

Figure 4 Bar Graph: Types of Sales Intelligence reports that

Technology companies generate

Figure 5 Line Graph: Average Turn around Times for Sales

Intelligence Reports that Technology companies generate

Figure 6 Bar Graph: Sales Intelligence Tools that Indian

Technology Companies use

Figure 7 Bar Graph: Sales Intelligence Tools that Global

Technology Companies use

Figure 8 Bar Graph: Responsibilities of an Inside Sales rep.

Global Tech companies vs Indian Tech companies

Figure 9 Pie Chart: Use of Salesforce Automation/ CRM

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