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linkedin-SAP Asia-case-study

Nicolas Levitte
Nicolas Levitte

SAP's sales team faced challenges in quickly engaging new audiences and decision makers interested in cloud solutions. They implemented LinkedIn Sales Navigator to help representatives more efficiently target and connect with these prospects. Results were positive across Asia, with reps able to find and message CXO-level contacts. Sales Navigator helped drive pipeline growth and closed several large deals worth over $300k each. It proved effective for prospecting, account penetration, and relationship mapping across diverse Asian business cultures.

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Sales Solutions What was the sales challenge? Targeting new audiences with cloud solutions has meant negotiating a new and more rapid sales cycle. Its the difference between a decision taking two years and a decision taking two weeks, explains APJ Sales Productivity & Enablement Lead, Mark Ghaderi. People buying cloud solutions dont tend to look around and talk to ten different vendors. These are younger managers, often in their 20s or 30s, who are comfortable with technology and accustomed to making quick decisions. It was absolutely essential that we could get to them quickly, and establish ourselves as subject matter experts. For the Inside Sales team, a particular focus has been nurturing leads amongst those not quite ready to buy when a sales rep 鍖rst contacts them. Careful management of this pipeline has been essential for ensuring that SAP is in pole position when a decision is ready to be taken. On the 鍖eld sales side, the transition to cloud solutions has often required expanding reps contacts within a client organisation and connecting to C-suite decision-makers. Reps needed a more advanced tool for highly tailored relationship mapping, with real-time visibility on role changes. About SAP Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with locations in more than 130 countries, SAP is the world leader in enterprise software and software-related services. SAPs considerable success has been built on its centerpiece Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which is today used by 80% of Fortune 1000 companies. In recent years however, SAP has placed an increasing focus on nimble, cloud solutions. SAP is today the worlds biggest provider of cloud solutions. Who are the target audience? The world has changed since the global 鍖nancial crisis. And so has the way companies buy. B2B purchases involve more stakeholders, many of which dont have an IT background. Tech sales executives have to engage with Line Of Business owners and business managers across the enterprise. The explosive growth of cloud solutions has introduced a new type of buyer and the need to reach out to smaller companies that may not be traditional buyers of SAPs core solutions. SAPs sales team must also guide existing clients through the transition to the cloud, providing reassurance and stressing the brands expertise in the 鍖eld. SAP Case Study
Copyright 息 2014 LinkedIn Corporation. LinkedIn, the LinkedIn logo, and InMail, are registered trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Check out lnkd.in/sales-navigator to learn more about Sales Navigator What about the results? Mark worked closely with the SAP teams to maximize value for the Sales Navigator investment from the start, using word-of-mouth to spread enthusiasm across the organisation. Results were hugely positive across the regions varied territories, from Singapore and Hong Kong to rapid-growth markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and India. Even in North Asian markets, reps were able to 鍖nd and engage CXO decision makers through LinkedIn. Inside Sales found immediate value in using Sales Navigator for high-volume but highly targeted prospecting, with reps able to engage successfully with CXO decision-makers. Field sales followed suit, realizing large-scale bene鍖ts from multi-threading and deeper account penetration. Leveraging warm introductions from expanded networks and getting real-time visibility on role changes has enabled highly tailored relationship mapping. Sales Navigator has proved equally effective across all business cultures in the region, from North Asian markets such as China, and Korea to South Asian markets like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philip- pines and India From an initial pilot of 50 seats in South East Asia, ANZ and India, SAP has scaled up to 500 seats within its 鍖rst year, and will shortly roll-out a further 1,000 licenses Reps using Sales Navigator have the highest Social Selling Index (SSI) and score nearly twice as high as industry peers What did SAP do to achieve this success? Key to success was executive sponsorship from leaders like Jose Aramburu, VP Inside Sales, and Mark Ghaderi, APJ sales productivity head. LinkedIns Instruct programme provided comprehensive train-the-trainer workshops in the US equipping Mark to take ownership of the programme. This was supported through local training, on-demand tutorials and videos, and social selling workshops. SAP leaders undertook social selling manager training to ensure they could lead by example and make social selling part of the review process. Additional training for reps and leaders included professional branding, thought leadership via targeted content sharing, blog posts, rich media content, and use of LinkedIn groups to expand networks. Quarterly social selling blitz days and town hall meetings helped to turn early adopters into regional role models. In their own words: The value delivered by LinkedIn Sales Navigator for SAP APJ: With the updated data lists on LinkedIn, its easier to target the CEOs of businesses that Im targeting for cloud solutions in China. It has really shortened the sales cycle. Charles Ruan, Account Manager, SAP China Highly tailored relationship mapping The most impressive results come when they start posting content. Search has been hugely useful, but theres also an appetite amongst our reps to take things to the next level and become thought leading contributors. Mark Ghaderi, SPJ Sales Productivity & Enablement lead, SAP I used Sales Navigators Advanced Search to locate the right contact for Telematics and Infotronics at one of India's leading auto manufacturers. The right contact came up as the very 鍖rst search result, and the executive responded to my insight led InMail to set up a meeting, uncovering a large opportunity in an emerging market space. Zubin Baben, Business Manager, SAP India Private Limited Making direct contact with decision-makers LinkedIn is hugely important for our Demand Nurturing Agents. Sales Navigator enables us to transform our sales process by 鍖nding and engaging the right decision makers with relevant content and key insights in a program- matic way and thats created a signi鍖cant number of opportunities. Mark Ghaderi, SPJ Sales Productivity & Enablement lead, SAP Nurturing leads in the pipeline The ideal content delivery platform Sales Navigator directly responsible for several individual deals of US$300K $300K+ or more Sales pipeline increased by more than 4Min revenues directly attributable to Sales Navigator in Asia from 鍖rst phase

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linkedin-SAP Asia-case-study

  • 1. Sales Solutions What was the sales challenge? Targeting new audiences with cloud solutions has meant negotiating a new and more rapid sales cycle. Its the difference between a decision taking two years and a decision taking two weeks, explains APJ Sales Productivity & Enablement Lead, Mark Ghaderi. People buying cloud solutions dont tend to look around and talk to ten different vendors. These are younger managers, often in their 20s or 30s, who are comfortable with technology and accustomed to making quick decisions. It was absolutely essential that we could get to them quickly, and establish ourselves as subject matter experts. For the Inside Sales team, a particular focus has been nurturing leads amongst those not quite ready to buy when a sales rep 鍖rst contacts them. Careful management of this pipeline has been essential for ensuring that SAP is in pole position when a decision is ready to be taken. On the 鍖eld sales side, the transition to cloud solutions has often required expanding reps contacts within a client organisation and connecting to C-suite decision-makers. Reps needed a more advanced tool for highly tailored relationship mapping, with real-time visibility on role changes. About SAP Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with locations in more than 130 countries, SAP is the world leader in enterprise software and software-related services. SAPs considerable success has been built on its centerpiece Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which is today used by 80% of Fortune 1000 companies. In recent years however, SAP has placed an increasing focus on nimble, cloud solutions. SAP is today the worlds biggest provider of cloud solutions. Who are the target audience? The world has changed since the global 鍖nancial crisis. And so has the way companies buy. B2B purchases involve more stakeholders, many of which dont have an IT background. Tech sales executives have to engage with Line Of Business owners and business managers across the enterprise. The explosive growth of cloud solutions has introduced a new type of buyer and the need to reach out to smaller companies that may not be traditional buyers of SAPs core solutions. SAPs sales team must also guide existing clients through the transition to the cloud, providing reassurance and stressing the brands expertise in the 鍖eld. SAP Case Study
  • 2. Copyright 息 2014 LinkedIn Corporation. LinkedIn, the LinkedIn logo, and InMail, are registered trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Check out lnkd.in/sales-navigator to learn more about Sales Navigator What about the results? Mark worked closely with the SAP teams to maximize value for the Sales Navigator investment from the start, using word-of-mouth to spread enthusiasm across the organisation. Results were hugely positive across the regions varied territories, from Singapore and Hong Kong to rapid-growth markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and India. Even in North Asian markets, reps were able to 鍖nd and engage CXO decision makers through LinkedIn. Inside Sales found immediate value in using Sales Navigator for high-volume but highly targeted prospecting, with reps able to engage successfully with CXO decision-makers. Field sales followed suit, realizing large-scale bene鍖ts from multi-threading and deeper account penetration. Leveraging warm introductions from expanded networks and getting real-time visibility on role changes has enabled highly tailored relationship mapping. Sales Navigator has proved equally effective across all business cultures in the region, from North Asian markets such as China, and Korea to South Asian markets like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philip- pines and India From an initial pilot of 50 seats in South East Asia, ANZ and India, SAP has scaled up to 500 seats within its 鍖rst year, and will shortly roll-out a further 1,000 licenses Reps using Sales Navigator have the highest Social Selling Index (SSI) and score nearly twice as high as industry peers What did SAP do to achieve this success? Key to success was executive sponsorship from leaders like Jose Aramburu, VP Inside Sales, and Mark Ghaderi, APJ sales productivity head. LinkedIns Instruct programme provided comprehensive train-the-trainer workshops in the US equipping Mark to take ownership of the programme. This was supported through local training, on-demand tutorials and videos, and social selling workshops. SAP leaders undertook social selling manager training to ensure they could lead by example and make social selling part of the review process. Additional training for reps and leaders included professional branding, thought leadership via targeted content sharing, blog posts, rich media content, and use of LinkedIn groups to expand networks. Quarterly social selling blitz days and town hall meetings helped to turn early adopters into regional role models. In their own words: The value delivered by LinkedIn Sales Navigator for SAP APJ: With the updated data lists on LinkedIn, its easier to target the CEOs of businesses that Im targeting for cloud solutions in China. It has really shortened the sales cycle. Charles Ruan, Account Manager, SAP China Highly tailored relationship mapping The most impressive results come when they start posting content. Search has been hugely useful, but theres also an appetite amongst our reps to take things to the next level and become thought leading contributors. Mark Ghaderi, SPJ Sales Productivity & Enablement lead, SAP I used Sales Navigators Advanced Search to locate the right contact for Telematics and Infotronics at one of India's leading auto manufacturers. The right contact came up as the very 鍖rst search result, and the executive responded to my insight led InMail to set up a meeting, uncovering a large opportunity in an emerging market space. Zubin Baben, Business Manager, SAP India Private Limited Making direct contact with decision-makers LinkedIn is hugely important for our Demand Nurturing Agents. Sales Navigator enables us to transform our sales process by 鍖nding and engaging the right decision makers with relevant content and key insights in a program- matic way and thats created a signi鍖cant number of opportunities. Mark Ghaderi, SPJ Sales Productivity & Enablement lead, SAP Nurturing leads in the pipeline The ideal content delivery platform Sales Navigator directly responsible for several individual deals of US$300K $300K+ or more Sales pipeline increased by more than 4Min revenues directly attributable to Sales Navigator in Asia from 鍖rst phase