Salespeople: Cold-calling is passé, here’s what you need

• Singapore startup TrustSphere aiming for 70% top-line growth in 2016
• Taps analytics into employees’ corporate email, without extracting content

COLD-calling is never easy, as any salesperson would testify. There are so many variables: You have to give a good first impression and also catch the potential customer at the right time.
 
This is made all the more challenging because you have yet to build a good rapport or relationship with the customer.
 
Well, Singapore-based software developer TrustSphere Pte Ltd believes it has a solution that could help sales teams significantly, and potentially make the concept of cold-calling extinct.
 
LinksWithin helps companies identify which of its employees has the best relationship with a potential customer. For example, if a sales team from Company ABC wants to approach Company XYZ, it simply needs to key in Company XYZ’s name on the LinksWithin search bar.
 
The software will be able to reveal which Company ABC employee has the best relationship with Company XYZ. This particular employee may be in the procurement, human resource, administration, or even finance department, it really does not matter.
 
“Using our proprietary algorithms, LinksWithin identifies the colleagues that a salesperson can approach to get more information about, or an introduction to, clients or prospects,” TrustSphere chief executive officer Manish Goel told Digital News Asia (DNA) via email.
 
LinksWithin does this by analysing employees’ office emails, but it does not look into the content of these emails, nor does it look at their personal email trails.
 
It also does not look at an employee’s social media activity: Manish stressed that not only would this be breaching employees’ right to privacy, but also that social media is an ineffective way to analyse relationship strength.
 
“On social media sites, connections are often just that – mere connections. Relationships differ as they are built over time. They require actual interactions and collaborations, not just a fleeting meeting at a conference, for instance.
 
“Connections are like ‘acquaintances,’ whilst relationships are much richer. For an organisation, the problem we are looking to resolve is one of context,” he added.
 
An ecosystem of sorts
 

 
LinksWithin has been gaining good traction since it rolled out in late January, claimed Manish (pic above).
 
“We already have our first customers using it. Also, leading customer relationship management (CRM), analytics and collaboration companies have integrated and launched LinksWithin within their platforms.
 
“These include SugarCRM, Riva Insights, IBM Verse and Connections,” he added.
 
The solution has been seeing interest from financial services, government and telecommunications organisations, Manish claimed, although he was unable to share details on how many companies are using LinksWithin.
 
He however added that the product is still at an early stage and that TrustSphere was working closely with its technology partners and early adopter clients to promote the solution.
 
The company also has other analytics tools to understand sales, risks and people, with about 100 customers across its portfolio.
 
Aspirations and challenges
 
Manish is confident that LinksWithin will play a key role in helping TrustSphere achieve its financial goals for this year – it aims to grow its revenue by at least 70%, although he did not reveal the specific figure.
 
The confidence stems from the fact that LinksWithin will have a direct impact on its customers’ top-lines.
 
“Ultimately, LinksWithin will benefit sales teams the most. Cold calls typically have a 2% success rate at getting to a next meeting, while warm introductions can have a 40% success rate,” he said.
 
TrustSphere was established in 2011, and like many other tech startups, faced various challenges trying to market its products.
 
“The challenge for us was bringing an advanced technology and concept to a market that was not quite ready for digital transformation,” Manish said of the early days at TrustSphere.
 
“We overcame this challenge with a significant amount of market education and evangelism. This also involved working closely with some of the most innovative technology companies in the market to develop joint offerings.
 
“And in the past 18 months, we have seen an increasing appetite for organisation to use analytics in an impactful way, in Asia Pacific as well as North America,” he added.
 
Another challenge was in building its talent pool.
 
“We have assembled a world-class team of professionals who are now driving our technology. Many of them have worked in a startup environment themselves.
 
“We recruit for talent regardless of geography. Hence, our team is spread across the world.
 
“We have had to find talent where they reside, rather than rely on a single geographic pool of resources,” he added.
 
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