Zendesk Drives Enterprise Sales Success with Sales Navigator
SUCCESS STORY
Zendesk’s Enterprise Sales team pivoted to virtual selling at the onset of the COVID pandemic. By using Sales Navigator, they were able to uncover deep insights about their target customers, which led them to an expansion of LinkedIn connections, new meetings, and successful internal buy-in.
THE CHALLENGE
Enterprise sales interrupted
San Francisco, CA-based software developer Zendesk provides customer experience solutions
for businesses.
When the pandemic hit, Zendesk had to make the change from selling in person to selling online. This tactic was a huge change for all sales teams. Anand Jameson, Senior Manager, Global GTM Enablement, discusses, “Our real challenge, was how do we, in a virtual selling environment, drive pipeline numbers and increase our ability to get out to different prospects and customers?"
Marilee Bear, Senior Vice President, North America Enterprise Sales highlights the challenges facing Enterprise sellers. Her team was used to frequent travel and in-person meetings to ensure they were multi-threading at accounts and finding the right solution for their customers. “It takes a lot to deliver an enterprise sale,” explains Bear, “At the end of the day, it’s really about drawing parallels between the solutions Zendesk delivers and the business value the customer is looking to achieve.”
THE SOLUTION
Sales enablement powered tech
As Jameson was considering how to boost performance in the face of travel restrictions, he realized they already had access to the right tool – they just weren’t fully utilizing it. “We knew the value of LinkedIn, but we just weren’t capitalizing on it. And so this is where we had this great opportunity to train people to drive that usage.”
The enablement professionals at Zendesk developed a support strategy for the sales team, to get them ready for virtual selling. “We really examined how to drive that change, how to train people, and how to get them excited about using this tool.”
THE RESULTS
Research that guides relevance
When approaching Enterprise clients, Zendesk believes research is key. Jameson explains the challenges, “Enterprise selling is about working with the largest corporations in the world. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator we focused on: how do we drive this rigor around researching and understanding our accounts so deeply that we position ourselves as trusted advisors and far more relevant to our customers?”
Jameson and the Enablement team used LinkedIn Sales Navigator to uncover the insights and data that would help them target their customer’s needs. “LinkedIn provides the only data set that allows us to understand the intricacies of a person’s professional career, their interests, their aspirations, to help us focus on what they care about at the end of the day.”
“It’s so important to have a deep knowledge of the customer’s business and their challenges,” says Bear. “LinkedIn Sales Navigator helped us do a lot of research upfront so when we showed up for a meeting, we had a list of questions that were uniquely focused on the customer. It demonstrated to the customer that we’re there to meet their needs.”
Jameson notes that the self-generated nature of data on LinkedIn means they’re getting insights that aren’t available anywhere else. “That is an amazing amount of information our team can use to understand what really matters to our customers.”
New connections, New bookings
Bear was delighted by the Zendesk Enterprise Sales team’s response to their training. “One of the best metrics we saw was the satisfaction our reps had with this particular enablement program. 97% of them said it was a game changer for their everyday business. Once we got the team up to speed on how to use the tool, our metrics around lead development and qualified leads moving into our top of funnel changed dramatically.”
Bear shares some outstanding results: “6500 new connections that we made via LinkedIn Sales Navigator netted out to 100 qualified meetings, which helped produce over 100K of MRR in that particular quarter.”
Jameson credits the sweeping success with the value sales team members saw in the interaction they were having and the responses they were getting from their customers. “I heard from a few team members how they’d been previously trying to get in touch with a prospect to no avail, but the second they reached out via LinkedIn, that prospect re-engaged.”
Bear continues: “Sales Navigator is our number one tool, and the best investment we’ve made in our sales team. It not only helps us prospect and look for new business, but it also helps our reps be the best prepared they can be when working with their clients.”
Main features used:
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“LinkedIn Sales Navigator is our number one tool, and the best investment we’ve made in our sales team. It not only helps us prospect and look for new business, but it also helps our reps be the best prepared they can be when working with their clients.”
Marilee BearSenior Vice President
North America Enterprise Sales
Zendesk -
“LinkedIn provides the only data set that allows us to understand the intricacies of a person’s professional career, their interests, their aspirations, to help us really focus on what they care about.”
Anand JamesonSenior Manager
Global GTM Enablement
ABOUT ZENDESK
Zendesk started the customer experience revolution in 2007 by enabling any business around the world to take their customer service online. Today, Zendesk is the champion of great service everywhere for everyone, and powers billions of conversations, connecting more than 100,000 brands with hundreds of millions of customers over telephony, chat, email, messaging, social channels, communities, review sites and help centers. Zendesk products are built with love to be loved.
INDUSTRY
Software development
No. OF EMPLOYEES:
5,860 Employees
HEADQUARTERS
San Francisco, CA
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