ExSIGHTing Sales

Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Revenue in a down economy

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Courtesy of Jesse Lefkowitz

What business or salesperson wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to increase sales? Vorsight (www.vorsight.com), based in Arlington, is doing just that, thanks to the vision of co-founder and CEO David Stillman and co-founder and chief content officer Steve Richard. Their clear corporate mission has allowed Vorsight the same type of substantial growth they are providing their clients.

The company launched in 2005, initially as an outsourced meeting scheduling firm for business-to-business sales meetings and business-to-government meetings. Their clients were so impressed with the results that they asked Vorsight if they could train them as well as set their appointments.

“We started as an outsourcer, but people came back to us and said, ‘Wow, you are outperforming our sales team,’” says Richard. “Customers began to ask, ‘What are you doing over there? Can you teach us what you are doing?’ When we started training people on prospecting, people kept telling us, ‘This is the best sales training I’ve ever been to.’”

Six years and 33 employees later, Vorsight offers five services: meeting scheduling, sales prospecting training, sales coaching, inside sales consulting and speaking engagements. Their customers span a wide array of industries including: legal, consulting, software, biotech, telecom and professional services.

What exactly can Vorsight do for you? They will set your sales appointments. Their clients boast a 25- to 100-percent increase in first sales meetings. They will also train your sales force so that they can harness the same results. They have helped hundreds of companies and trained thousands of sales representatives. They will even hire and train a sales team for you.

With 40 percent of their business coming from referrals of satisfied customers it is easy to see why in 2010 Steve Richard was named one of the “Top 25 Most Influential People in Inside Sales” by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP). It also reinforces that Stillman and Richard are correct in their belief that the initial part of the sales cycle must be mastered in order for the outside sales to translate. This is the most captivating aspect from a business perspective. Vorsight has focused intently on the beginning of the sales cycle and, in doing so, they have not only perfected it but they have shed significant light on the sales process.

Many companies traditionally combine marketing, inside sales and outside sales, but does this combined effort translate effectively into sustainable, qualified sales leads that generate into viable sales? By taking a step back and focusing on what Vorsight considers the most critical aspect of the sales cycle—the beginning—they may be changing the way businesses conduct their sales organizations.

Vorsight also utilizes an exceptional approach to that beginning process. They hire young Gen Y’ers to connect the dots between traditional sales and social media-impacted sales. Richard explains: “One thing that is really different is they grew up in a world of transparency and sharing, and that comes back to the interconnectivity of this generation.” In essence, Vorsight is harnessing the skills of the younger generation and their strong ability to connect with others. Uncovering the strengths of a more modern sales climate rather than fighting it, they’re increasing outside sales appointments.

“Most people approach social media from a marketing standpoint,” says Richard. “We approach social media from a selling perspective. There are salespeople who are getting this, and those salespeople are getting rich.”

(October 2011)

Toilets to Technology

Posted by Eunice / Monday, March 21st, 2011

Facility Maintenance’s future

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Chad MacDonald, CEO of Dulles-based ServiceForce USA, a leader in facility maintenance services, is once again championing his industry.

A business prodigy who began his first facility maintenance business at the age of 18, he continues to possess insight that keeps him ahead of the competition. A “thought leader,” MacDonald is known for continually creating and developing the next generation of service and supply chain technologies and business models to create and sustain his company’s position as the preferred provider to many of the Fortune 500 corporations in North America.

With a 97-percent customer retention rate, ServiceForce USA is a testimony to understanding its own industry’s wants and needs. Listed as one of Washington Business Journal’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies, ServiceForce employs more than 1,100 employees and a vendor network of 8,000-plus, generating tens of millions in annual revenues.

With his impressive 26-year track record of building both public and private facility service, distribution and supply chain technology companies, what innovative concept could MacDonald be bringing to the facility maintenance industry now? He has leveraged $5 million of his own capital, and years of institutional knowledge, to transform this typically manual labor-driven industry toward a remarkable technological marriage.

Who would think that cleaning toilets, mopping floors, changing light bulbs and replacing filters could benefit greatly from sophisticated technology?

MacDonald, of course. “We took our lessons learned from years of managing a very transaction-intensive business and built a very robust service management and procurement platform.”

Hence, MacDonald developed the proprietary Connected-Services Technology (CST) Platform—incredibly sophisticated, yet affordable, easy-to-use software that mobilizes the next generation of integrated facility management services. The optimal word being integrated. The software allows their customers to connect and procure all service providers, product suppliers and managers with real-time business intelligence and immediate, accurate responses to maintenance, repair and operation service events.

“Fifteen years ago at a comparably sized operation of today, ServiceForce would have had 60 people in the back office managing customer relationships, accounts payable, receivable, etc,” MacDonald explains. “Today with the same revenue, they have 15 employees in the back office as a result of the CST platform. We have built a business tool that not only supports our customers’ need for real-time data but also creates enormous cost savings for them too.

“The common mistake most software companies make in our industry is to try to utilize technology to replace people and not understand the nature of our business and the complexities involved. When in fact, to be successful and create sustainability, you need to empower people with technology, not replace them.

“Our system was designed, developed, managed and maintained by industry professionals, not programmers. Our tagline reads, that we are ‘The optimal integration of People, Processes and Technology … People are not first by accident.’”

MacDonald adds, “Every industry is rapidly changing. In a society today where customers are younger and more Internet savvy, we clearly have a first-mover advantage in an enormous and very inefficient industry.”

Who’s using it?
A list of Fortune 500 companies using the Connected-Services Technology Platform:
- Home Depot
- Starbucks
- Sears
- K-Mart
- Petco
- Food Lion
- Cricket Communications
- Office Depot
- Borders Books
- Morton’s Steak Houses
- Petsmart
- National Vision Centers
- Bealls Department Stores
- Lego Brands

Source: ServiceForce USA

Juno Talks Turkey

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, March 8th, 2010

I don’t get a lot of celebrity ads.

For instance, it’s beyond me why Cisco has hitched their wagon to Ellen Page. Is she a closet networking genius?

I mean, at least get one of the faux dorks from The Big Bang Theory or Attack of the Show’s Olivia Munn if you want to appeal to both casual observers and Interweb cognescenti.

Page, however, comes off as refreshingly blunt in some recent Take Part spots:

(Video: Take Part)

The advocacy campaign seeks to build on the popularity of Oscar-nominated Food, Inc. by challenging people to take full responsibility of their eating habits and challenge the status quo of commercial food production.

To that end, Page also weighs in on healthy school lunches and local farmers markets.

Activist eating?

Now, that’s something an indie film starlet MIGHT know something about.

–Warren