Slight Changes

Hello, everyone. This is Mark Larson at Primary Intelligence wishing all of you a happy and productive day. I just wanted to update you on some changes that will be happening with the blog.

Chris Dalley has taken a new position here within our company and has passed the opportunity of managing this blog onto me. Chris is a more prolific writer than I, so I will be enlisting the help of my PI colleagues to continuously bring new and interesting content to these pages.

We hope to give you tidbits on the Competitive Intelligence community in general as well as exciting new developments we uncover while doing our own research.

A lot has changed in the intelligence and market research fields over the past 10 years in which we've been in business. Technology is playing a bigger role as companies want easier access to data as well as better targeted findings.

We hope to keep the information rolling that helps you in your understanding of what is available and what is on the horizon in regards to CI.

We also would love your comments as well. If you have an interesting viewpoint on a topic, or information that would be enlightening, send it to me and we'll look at posting it.

Contact me at mlarson@primary-intel.com or by phone at 801-838-9600 x5046.

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Can Sales People Sell through Change?

This week, we examine the world of sales and the importance of monitoring their performance in the sea of change we call “their world.” Science has shown that many people (sales reps included) have difficulties accepting changes and variation that are common in business life. Primary Intelligence shows a way to head of problems before attitudinal issues hurt the pipeline.

As always, if you would like to a no-cost semi-weekly subscription to the Primary Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Newsletter, send an email to info@primaryintelligence.com with your name and email address. You will receive the next issue.

Cover Story
You Moved My Cheese! How Can I Sell?
By RoxAnne Loosle, Primary Intelligence
A company's desire to reduce sales force turnover and to develop a confident sales force make tracking a company's sales force's attitudes very important. The vocal minority aren't always the best source on which to base sales initiatives or policies...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence Tip #1 for 2008 - Make Your CI Produce Revenue
Information costs money? Intelligence makes money!” Essentially, any competitive information that a business manager acts on becomes intelligence...(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Bloomington Hospital & Healthcare Selects McKesson for Its Information Needs
Originally Published in March 2005.
Bloomington Hospital & Healthcare System's contracts for its health information systems were coming up for renewal, so the organization decided to reevaluate its options. It looked for a solution that could be integrated throughout the entire enterprise...(For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Dave Stein Talks About Sales Intelligence

This week, we took the opportunity to speak with Dave Stein about the role of competitive intelligence in the world of sales training and sales performance enhancement. His insights into his experience with business leaders that “get” the intelligence side may help jump start your next conversation about strategic planning and tactical improvement.

As always, if you would like to a no-cost semi-weekly subscription to the Primary Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Newsletter, send an email to info@primaryintelligence.com with your name and email address. You will receive the next issue.

Cover Story
Competitive Intelligence Makes Sales More Effective – 5 Questions with Dave Stein
By Chris Dalley, Primary Intelligence
In today’s competitive marketplace, skills and bravado are not enough. Sales effectiveness leaders are continuing to espouse the need to understand how the competition sells, how they position themselves against you, what they offer in specific situations and where they are vulnerable...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence – Helping Sales Aim its Artillery
Only 56% of sales managers claim competitive intelligence as one of their tools. A higher percentage of sales reps (68%) say that they use competitive intelligence to sell. All this seems to beg the question… why isn’t the sales department organizing competitive intelligence initiatives more often...(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Pinnacle Systems Chooses RightNow to Satisfy Customers
Originally Published in May 2005.
When Pinnacle Systems discovered that its Asia sales region was using a sophisticated sales automation system, the company decided to evaluate technologies to implement throughout its entire operation...(For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Tips for Beginners

This week, the cover story provides some of the basics that even seasoned competitive intelligence veterans need. You’ll also find information on why sales doesn’t receive as much intelligence as you might like. Finally, a report from ES Research Group will help your sales leadership make sense of sales effectiveness enhancement companies.

Cover Story
The Top Three Box Office Flops for Beginning CI Researchers
By Ron Sathoff, Primary Intelligence
For a lot of people (myself included), a good piece of Competitive Intelligence research can have all the beauty of a piece of art, such as a poem, a painting—or even a film. Like these art forms, CI can inspire or instruct those who take the time to understand it, and can even effect significant change. However, unlike a beginning filmmaker, whose poor initial efforts may only result in a bit of ridicule at a local film festival, a “flop” from a beginning CI specialist may have some significant consequences—for both the researcher and his or her organization (For more, click here)

Announcing the 2008 Sales Training Vendor Guide from ES Research Group
Corporations continue to spend a significant portion of their revenues on sales training. Unchanged from last year, enterprises spend between $4 billion and $7 billion per year training sales professionals. Of all the excellent sales training vendors out there, only a few are a fit for your organization. This ESR/InDepth™ Report is designed to help your organization increase the return on your sales training investment.
ES Research Group has compiled their findings into a 200 page report. This 3rd party evaluation is a “must read” for companies seeking sales performance enhancement.
For a free summary, CLICK HERE.

BlogCentral
Why Doesn't Competitive Intelligence Flow to Sales?
Only 56% of sales managers claim competitive intelligence as one of their tools. A higher percentage of sales reps (68%) say that they use competitive intelligence to sell. All this seems to beg the question… why isn’t the sales department organizing competitive intelligence initiatives more often (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
A-List – R-G Crown Selects S1 over Fundtech for Online Banking Services
Originally Published in June 2005.
R-G Crown Bank acquired 18 banks from SouthTrust Bank in October 2004 and wanted to implement new online banking solutions in order to provide better service to its customers and satisfy federal banking regulators (For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter: Double Your Money: Win Back Lost Sales…

In this week’s cover story, Mike Brose talks about the double benefit of winning back accounts that were never yours. And, don’t forget to download our recent webinar: Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can’t Ignore

Cover Story
Double Your Money: Win Back Lost Sales with Intelligence
By Mike Brose, Primary Intelligence
Too often, companies are willing to wave "goodbye" to lost prospects, hoping that, "Someday, they'll give us another shot." In essence, the effort that was put into selling is dismissed. Rare is the company that has a formal win back program. But these companies have learned very clearly just how profitable those programs can be... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Why is Competitive Intelligence Not Effective?
In short, does your company make changes to increase revenues and profitability based on your intelligence efforts? Based on our experience, if you are like most companies, the effect of your intelligence efforts are minimized and, often, substantially... (For more, click here)

The A-List
iLinc Wins Pfizer Contract with Mixture of Technology, Content and Customer Focus
Originally Published in December 2004.
Executives at Pfizer's Global Learning and Development Group wanted to upgrade its training and assessment tools for its pharmaceutical sales personnel. The three short-list vendors were required to submit proposals, which were evaluated by DeLosa and a team of Pfizer personnel from strategic services and healthcare systems training. Although the proposals were intended to be the main element of the evaluation process... (For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – CI for Sales, No exceptions

In this issue, you’ll find out how hunters and farmers can both use competitive intelligence to increase market share. Additionally, you can sign up for next week’s webinar (Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can’t Ignore) and take our “3 Second Survey by clicking the picture below.



Click on any of the titles below to read the story.

Cover Story
ORDER MAKERS V.S. ORDER TAKERS-Competitive Intelligence for All!
By Tony Randall, Primary Intelligence

Let me cut to the chase right up front. Yes, there is value created by both order makers and order takers. There, I've said it. Every organization which has something of value to offer to the consumer or business world via the sales process has either a sales team of order makers (outside sales usually), order takers...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
How Can You Tell if Competitive Intelligence is Effective?
Your competitive intelligence is very similar to the electricity in your wires. You can produce as much sales, market or competitive intelligence as you like, but until someone uses it to power change in your organization, it really isn't effective at all...(For more, click here)

The A-List New!
AboveNet Sees the Future in Ciena's Long-Haul Communications Equipment
AboveNet, Inc, a competitor to AT&T, Level3 and Verizon evaluated a number of vendors before choosing Ciena Corporation to upgrade its legacy Lucent equipment. The decision was strongly based on Ciena's willingness to play the part of partner to AboveNet, helping AboveNet anticipate future needs, coordinate technology tools and maximize the value offered by Ciena's products. Additionally, Ciena was able to show AboveNet a compelling vision of future technology needs...(For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Make Intelligence Relevant

In this edition, Adam Dunford makes the case for intelligence that makes a difference. The blog entry backs up the idea by showing a case of intelligence that wasn’t effective, and wasn’t going to be from the start.

If you would like to subscribe to this free newsletter, simply send a request to newsletter@primaryintelligence.com with your name and email address. You can also register for the same subscription online in the margin of any of the stories below.

Cover Story
Justifying Your Existence (and CI's too!)
By Adam Dunford, Primary IntelligenceSo you've spent the last several weeks and months gathering your CI data. In your presentation, you nail every important point on each of your 40 slides and can answer every question you get asked. As you finish, you hear it's the "best CI presentation ever". A few days later, fresh off your triumph, you ask for the budget to expand your CI program, only to be told, "It's interesting stuff, but we got what we needed." Ouch.(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
You Couldn't Make Competitive Intelligence So Irrelevant if you Tried
If your idea of effective competitive intelligence is gathering a bit of information, consolidating that information into a brief doc (perhaps on an attractive company letterhead) and sending that doc off to a distribution list, please stop reading. Go back to your cube, surf some more web sites and live a happy life...(For more, click here)
The A-List Archive

Sun Microsystems Decides that Two Companies are Better than One
Originally Published in February 2005.
Sun Microsystems, which was already outsourcing many of its HR business processes, including its 401(k) plan, payroll, and benefits administration, wanted to explore the idea of outsourcing additional HR functions...(For more, click here)

PI Competitive Intelligence Newsletter

This edition features ideas on gathering competitive intelligence from some of the most fertile ground, your client and prospects. And, don’t forget to comment on the blog. Where does competitive intelligence go in your company?

To subscribe to the newsletter, click HERE or use the subscribe option on any of the newsletter pages (accessible by clicking on the links below)

Cover Story
Your Prospects Are Talking. Are You Listening?
By Mark Larson, Primary Intelligence
What's ironic is that a prospect is generally the easiest source of information about a company's products or direction. Consider this idea: the people most willing to help with anything are those that will generally benefit the most for providing feedback. (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Where does your Competitive Intelligence Go?
In some recent studies from Primary Intelligence, we have asked representatives from various industries and company sizes "Who has access to the competitive intelligence data?" For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Straightforward Pricing Helps Siebel Win Contract with Terry Hinge & Hardware
Originally Published in January 2005.
With its recent growth through acquisitions and development of new divisions, Terry Hinge & Hardware needed to standardize and integrate its sources of sales information. The President/COO explained that the Company originally evaluated Salesforce.com, Siebel, and Caritor, but eliminated the latter because evaluators believed the vendor did not have enough. (For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter - Personal Relationships Provide Better Results

Please enjoy this week's edition of the newsletter. We are very happy to bring these thoughts on Sales and Competitive Intelligence to our readers. If you would like to subscribe, simply send me an email (newsletter@primaryintelligence.com) and we'll add you. You will receive a copy of the next edition.

Webinar Technical Difficulties
Yesterday, we attempted to host a webinar about making business change with intelligence. However, our conference call provider experienced a phone outage in the area code we were using for the organizer line. For those that were effected, please accept our apologies. We'll reschedule the webinar soon and send invitations to those that were interested. If any that read this blog are interested in the topic, email me and I'll add you to the list of invitees (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Cover Story
When In Doubt, Choose the Personal Touch for Intelligence
By Lan Bui, Primary Intelligence
If you want to make sure that your intelligence is effective (in other words, that it provides the power to increase market share or create new market opportunities), you need to make the right decision... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence, Right Under Your Nose
The fact of the matter is that your customers know nearly as much about the competition as they do about you. They evaluated the competition before selecting you as their vendor. They are regularly courted by the competition and many of your best clients also have purchased from your competitors, either in the past or currently... (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
How Salesforce.com Won a 1,500-Seat CRM Contract with Staples
Originally Published in Feb. 2005.
Based on concerns voiced by sales representatives, executives at Staples decided to reassess the Company's CRM solution and look at possible alternative solutions. Staples began by creating a short list of competitors that included Salesforce.com and Siebel Systems... (For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter

In this issue, we attempt to cross the chasm between Sales and Marketing, make Competitive Intelligence part of your current VOC programs and show how a major technology deal was won.

Cover Story
The Bridge Between Sales and Marketing - Sales Intelligence
By Mike Brose, Primary Intelligence Inc.The conflict between sales and marketing is an age-old story that will probably never end. The misunderstanding between the two departments is often based on pride rather than collaboration and results. At its core, Marketing is more effective when its efforts bring qualified prospects to the sales organization. Sales wants nothing more than to close business... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence from Clients - What Should I Ask?
If you want to win more business, you have to take it from the competition. I know that's obvious, but generating competitive intelligence that actually helps you compete more effectively is a surprising low priority of too many companies (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
How HP Canada Won a $10 Million Contract with Carleton University
Originally Published in June 2005.
To ensure that it could meet the needs of its students and research programs, Carleton University decided to upgrade its network infrastructure. From a list of 10 initial responses, the short list was narrowed to HP Canada and... (For more, click here)

Primary Intelligence Newsletter - Living Inside the Prospect's Head

The newsletter is out again. We would enjoy feedback. If you want to subscribe, simply use the subscription option on the individual article pages (accessed by clicking on each of the links below)

Cover Story
Experts Corner: Living Inside the Prospect's Head
By Glen Remy, Primary Intelligence Inc.
Memo to sales: Company X is strongly in the market for our product. Their current contract with Competitor Y will expire in four months and they are highly likely to evaluate alternate programs. Their biggest unmet needs are integration with current programs, individual configurability... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence and Too Much Data!
In a recent study by Advertising Age, middle managers aired their opinions about the effectiveness of Competitive Intelligence and identified specific problems that cause intelligence in general to be ignored. (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
3rd-party Review of Keane's Sale into Alliance Hospital
Originally Published in December 2004.Alliance Hospital, a small, physician-run facility in Odessa, Texas, needed to replace its inadequate information and billing system. Because the hospital was losing revenue, and because it did not have a large IT staff, Alliance sought a solution that would meet its needs while still being quick and easy to implement.(For more, click here)

Primary Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Newsletter

The most recent issue is posted below. If you like the information, please forward it to a friend. That would be the biggest compliment of our work.

If you would like to be added to our subscription list, send me an email and I'll make sure you are added for the next edition (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Cover Story
Expert's Corner - Sponsorship: To Disclose or Not to Disclose, That is the Question
By Ralph Nielsen, Primary Intelligence Inc.
When conducting primary research, one of the hot topics in the competitive intelligence business is whether and when to disclose the sponsorship of the research. The balancing act that has to be considered is whether unbiased information can be accurately produced in a non-biased fashion if sponsorship is divulged vs. skepticism from the respondent when sponsorship is not revealed... (For more, click here)


CSO Insights Needs Your Opinion
CSO Insights' recent survey of over 1,300 companies showed that increasing sales effectiveness was the top objective. CSO Insights is conducting a follow-on study to determine what sales strategies are improving sales effectiveness

If you are a sales leader, please click here to take the survey. If not, please forward this information to your company's sales leaders. A free report download is available to all survey participants.


BlogCentral
Be the Consultant, Not the Waitress
Last night, my family went to dinner to celebrate the birthday of my oldest son. As a family with five children (and two grandmas present), we kept our waitress very busy with requests for drinks, napkins, condiments and the like... (For more, click here)


The A-List Archive
Eagle Investment Systems, SunGard and Advent Software Battle for U.S. Bancorp Fund Services (Originally Published in April 2005)
U.S. Bancorp Fund Services wanted to implement a portfolio accounting solution that would help it manage the complexities of its securities and investment accounting requirements. After researching 10 vendors initially, the Company narrowed its short list to Eagle Investment Systems, SunGard, and Advent Software... (For more, click here)

Primary Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – 6/12/07

We’re receiving good feedback on our newsletter. It is our hope to cover topics that will help companies sell more. Now.

The most recent issue is posted below. If you like the information, please forward it to a friend. That would be the biggest compliment of our work.

If you would like to be added to our subscription list, send me an email and I'll make sure you are added for the next edition (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Cover Story
Sales Teams: Making "Second Half Adjustments" to Win the 2007 Sales Game
By Tony Randall, Primary Intelligence Inc.These "dog days of summer" are actually more important than many sales teams may realize. Sure, we all want to take a break and head to the beach or the mountains to get recharged. And we will. But lest we forget that while you may be ignoring your current clients or targeted prospects, someone out there may be courting them in your absence. So, how do we prepare for that all important second half push. (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Voice of the Customer Should Be Used to Collect Competitive Intelligence
You would be very surprised by how much your clients actually do know about your competitors. They may have purchased from you, but they have evaluated many other vendors over time... (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Why Did Overstock.com Choose Oracle over IBM?
Originally Published in 2004.
Executives at Overstock.com, an online retailer of discount and closeout merchandise, wanted to create a “data strategy” for the Company that would guide its future solution purchases. Vice President of Technology Shawn Schwegman said that Overstock.com did not look at any marketing materials and considered only the technology that potential vendors could provide. The Company evaluated IBM, MySQL (an open-source database solution), and Oracle.(For more, click here)


If you have feedback or comments, let me know. I am interested to know what you think about our publication. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Primary Intelligence Newsletter Launches!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Yesterday, we launched the Primary Intelligence Weekly Newsletter, which was a very big deal for our company. A number of events came together lately to encourage us to share our ideas and the newsletter seems to be the best tool for our purposes.

Our newsletter will be dedicated to the promotion of sales and competitive intelligence. If you have spent any time reading this blog, you'll know that we lean heavily toward intelligence that is most likely to provide ROI. We will discuss current topics, provide case studies and bring you techniques that are likely to help your company move ahead of the competitors. In brief we will:

• Promote competitive intelligence
• Create a forum of likeminded people
• Solicit viewpoints from practitioners and academics

If you would like to be added to our subscription list, send me an email and I'll make sure you are added for the next edition (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Take a look at the stories from our first edition:

Cover Story

Million Dollar Competitive Intelligence for Pennies a Day

By Ron Sathoff, Primary Intelligence Inc.

My Dad always used to say, "Leveraging all that you already have in an efficient way can bring about unexpected benefits." Of course, he phrased it as "Make the most of what you have," or "No, you can't have any more money," but the sentiment is similar. Enhancing your Competitive Intelligence does not mean you have to launch a whole new set of research initiatives. (For more, click here)

BlogCentral

It Really Isn't About Price

Recently, we interviewed a lost sales opportunity for one of our vision care providers. They had battled it out with two other providers and in the end, they weren't selected, but it wasn't about price. (For more, click here)

The Big Deal

The A-List: 7-Eleven Selects HP Technology

7-Eleven needed to upgrade the information technology that it had in its stores to provide them with the data they needed to run their systems faster. After sending out RFPs to several companies, 7-Eleven narrowed its short list to two alternatives: a Hewlett-Packard solution, and a combined solution from NEC and NCR, with NEC providing the hardware and NCR providing the service for the solution. (For more, click here)

If you have feedback or comments, let me know. I am interested to know what you think about our publication. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)