It’s not “business as usual” at the office this week. Everyone is quiet and focused towards a common challenge. Strange ambiance… No jokes nor passionate discussions by the coffee machine: we have something big to deliver. What makes us so professional is the next launch of the new version of IKO System. This is gonna … More >>
I remember one of the very first experimental testing I did with IKO two years ago, while we were still in pre-pre-alpha and far from proposing it to the market. I was discussing with Rodolphe (a *very* good sales rep) about attacking Bank of America to sell a specific credit card security service. He told … More >>
NINA is an easy target. When you call, it works. When you organize a diner, NINA comes. When you feel lonely, NINA opens the door. But… When you want to close the deal, NINA becomes evasive… NINA stands for “no influence - no authority”. All the mid managers or ought-to-be decision makers we all met and … More >>
The number one pain point of sales reps is time. Time lost in virtually everything but selling… After listening to hundreds of account managers, inside sales or business developers, there are a few patterns coming back and forth by waves. This is the checklist of top pain points of sales reps : Spend time in … More >>
Almost all sales reps do engage with prospects and invite their clients to connect on social networks. The gain of being in direct relationship with clients and prospects is so valuable (monitoring job updates, leverage #2 connections, …) that it outmatches the fear of exposing this relationship. It is now an habit to send invitations … More >>
(cross-posted on Business insider) Viadeo, the European counterpart of LinkedIn operating a professional social network of 35m members, is about to release its public API by the end of this month. Most of analysts or observers just do not care, considering open APIs as hacking news. They are wrong : open APIs are questions of … More >>
We just released an article on Business Insider about LinkedIn’s strategy, linking to a new IKO System study named “LinkedIn vs its European competitors“. I wrote this study while LinkedIn was preparing for its IPO (and I love IPO filings). I crunched investors’ data also from Xing during a week and conducted interviews with Viadeo … More >>
Hi,We announce today the closing of a series-A round with our customers, entrepreneurs and employees. The round was led by Groupe Revue Fiduciaire. You can read our press release related to the round. To highlight a bit the process behind, we spent about 6 months to draw attention, pitch people, arrange the legal documents, keep … More >>
Within the sales cycle, prospection is a huge part. Sometimes the core part which undoubtedly impacts customer support and loyalty. And there is no space for a corporate data provider not to have a strategy for prospection.Among the corporate or contact data providers, we find the usual suspects and leading players: Hoovers, D&B;, LexisNexis, Kompass, … More >>
For the last 8 years, LinkedIn has grown tremendously to top 100m members last month. The company has now filed for an IPO on the Nasdaq and would probably be listed before summer. According to analysts, the company may be valuated at 10+ times its annual revenues. Wow. It looks like an extraordinary valuation and … More >>
English 
Français 
Italiano