From lists to LinkedIn Sales Navigator

In the competitive market for business communications solutions, NewVoiceMedia has differentiated itself with its innovative cloud communications technology and its native integration with Salesforce. But as recently as 2013, the sales team was still using traditional prospecting strategies—such as event follow-up and cold-calling—to reach potential customers. Often, the information on these lists was out-of-date, and even if it was accurate, it didn’t provide the details that could help build rapport and relationships with new prospects.

With a background in social enablement at a previous employer, Doug Ruth—now Regional VP for the West Coast but hired as an Account Executive in 2013—approached his management team about giving something new a shot: LinkedIn Sales Navigator. “I was one of our first U.S. employees,” says Ruth, “and like any good salesperson, you’ve got to have your toolkit. Fundamentally, you want to understand where your prospects are. And LinkedIn has always been that baseline.”

Beyond the value prop

NewVoiceMedia saw Sales Navigator as a natural complement to its own inside sales solution and its CRM. “Because we have everything integrated,” says Mark Fellowes, SVP Sales Development and Operations, “we can see all of our prior call interactions and sales activity in Salesforce through ContactWorld. Having LinkedIn information and Sales Navigator insights visible in our CRM when we make those calls adds an extra dimension to our sales conversations— and helps create a more relevant, productive discussion.”

In the past year, the adoption and use of Sales Navigator has spread throughout NewVoiceMedia’s sales organization, and social selling has become an essential piece of the team’s operation. 

Results driven by Sales Navigator

Multi-threading salvages a deal

Unlike other social platforms, LinkedIn is focused on helping professionals as they move through every stage of their career. For NewVoiceMedia, the strength of Sales Navigator lies in identifying and building relationships with prospects throughout the deal cycle—and opening pathways into new opportunities. Ruth’s experience with a key target account is a case in point.

Ruth began prospecting into the account in late 2014. When a key contact left, the account went dark. But using Sales Navigator, Ruth was able to identify the relevant decision-makers who owned customer experience and sales. Since B2B sales cycles often involve multiple decision-makers, the ability to identify and maintain contact with a networked team of buyers—being properly “multi-threaded”—enabled Ruth to see and engage with the internal structure of the prospects’ organization and close the deal.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator also provides the connective tissue for maintaining relationships with clients who’ve moved on to new employers—a reality in today’s world, where 20% of decision-makers change roles every year.1 Since NewVoiceMedia closed the deal with this key account in 2015, seven of its contacts have left the company.

Thanks to Sales Navigator, NewVoiceMedia is notified when any of its leads or connections change jobs, and can continue following these individuals across their accounts. In the above case, one of those leads led to an additional deal at another key account.

For NewVoiceMedia, the ROI on Sales Navigator has been remarkable. Reps using the platform are seeing a 1.3x higher win rate and are closing 1.7x more revenue than reps who aren’t using it. “There’s a distinct difference in our success rate at setting up meetings and follow-up conversations depending on whether our prospects are engaged on Sales Navigator or not,” says Fellowes. “Social selling as part of our outbound lead generation approach has been invaluable in securing meetings and driving toward the close.”

Today, Sales Navigator is fully integrated into NewVoiceMedia’s sales strategy, and social selling is a must-have skill for the team. It’s easy to see why: Win rates are up 80%, and deals are 30% larger. Sales Navigator has influenced an impressive 73% of NewVoiceMedia’s revenue—a powerful testament to the influence of social selling on the bottom line.

About NewVoiceMedia

A leading global provider of cloud call center and inside sales solutions, NewVoiceMedia helps businesses sell more, serve better, and grow faster. Headquartered near London and servicing businesses around the world, the NewVoiceMedia sales team is tasked with maintaining a robust pipeline and continuously sustaining deal flow.

To help support these ambitious goals, NewVoiceMedia’s sales leadership shifted the group’s traditional sales strategy to a three-pillared approach leveraging ContactWorld, the company’s own telephony technology, its CRM, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.