Before The Call FAQ

Q: How does Before the Call work?
A: Before the Call delivers an on-demand sales intelligence solution that integrates seamlessly within Salesforce.com and Oracle/Siebel On-Demand. This means that your sales teams are exposed to the best-known sales intelligence information without ever leaving the CRM system, resulting in a dramatic improvement in productivity, sales conversion rates, and the quality of the lead information captured, retained, and passed through the sales funnel.

Q: What functionality does Before the Call add that can't be achieved using a typical CRM application?
A: Before the Call delivers the only on-demand sales intelligence solution that combines external market information with a company's internal resources to quickly qualify leads and close the gap between marketing and sales. It's well known that leads are time-sensitive, and by automating the process of qualifying each lead and identifying relevant company collateral, sales teams can act more quickly while being better informed of their prospect and how to best pursue an opportunity.

Q: How does Before the Call extend the value of CRM?
A: Before the Call automates what is now a very manual lead qualification process, all within the framework of your existing CRM application. Instead of exiting Salesforce.com or SiebelonDemand.com to research each prospect (contact, company, collateral, etc.), your sales teams are now exposed to this valuable intelligence in the context of the application. The sales intelligence that you work so hard to capture is forever retained and associated with the prospect, allowing the portfolio to be shared with peers and partners.

Q: Why is Before the Call unique and why is it important?
A: By bringing together trusted market intelligence and a company's own enterprise collateral, a user is able to more accurately assess the relevancy of each lead, contact, or account. If you only have the market intelligence you only have half the story, and by effectively combining these pieces of information in a single screen, Before the Call allows sales team to dramatically increase their productivity and sales effectiveness.

Q: What information sources are included in a subscription to Before the Call? A: Before the Call exposes a diverse set of trusted information sources that enable your sales teams to capture intelligence about each prospect. Before the Call continually develops new relationships with information providers and is able to configure the solution to meet your individual information needs. Current information providers include Google, Factiva, LinkedIn, Idexec and MarketModels.

Q: How does a company's internal collateral get exposed through Before the Call, and how can Before the Call selectively expose content based on each lead?
A: Before the Call offers an out-of-the-box Microsoft Sharepoint and Interwoven WorksiteMP integration enabling the content residing in these repositories to be exposed though the Before the Call solution. Before the Call also provides services that integrate with your own unique content repositories. How we deliver selective content based on the lead variables is in our secret sauce - the value is that the sales teams are presented with only the collateral applicable to the lead, saving them time by eliminating the search for information across the sales portal or within network file systems.

Q: Is there an ongoing commitment or contract required to use Before the Call? A: Before the Call is a subscription-based service with a monthly charge per user. We request an initial 12-month contract, after which customers can sign up for another 12 months or continue on a month-to-month basis.

Q: How does Before the Call compare to licensing access to source vendor information?
A: Before the Call democratizes access to the best-known sales intelligence at a low cost per user per month - a very cost-effective and efficient method compared to licensing access to source vendor information. Sales teams gain access to the information within the context of the CRM application, which means they get the intelligence when and where they need it.

Q: What does it take to set-up and use Before the Call?
A: Before the Call has been certified as a Salesforce.com partner, meaning there is no software to install. a user simply needs to activate Before the Call within the Salesforce,com or Oracle/Siebel On-Demand setup. Sales teams can be up and running within minutes of signing-up and with no involvement from IT, however, if you would like to have access to your unique repository of sales and marketing collateral we can work with IT to quickly build that integration.

Q: What is required to ramp-up the sales teams on the Before the Call solution?
A: Before the Call has taken great measures to mirror the look and feel of Salesforce.com in order to mitigate the training required to take advantage of its unique capabilities. Before the Call also provides online training that can be accessed at anytime.

Q: What improvement in sales can I expect by implementing Before the Call?
A: Before the Call allows sales teams to focus on selling, not searching. By eliminating the tedious process of researching a sales lead and locating company collateral appropriate for each lead, sales professionals are able to spend more time engaged with their potential customers. This means that Before the Call will improve the productivity of the sales teams and increase the conversion rates within the sales funnel. In addition, marketing will improve its return on investment (ROI) on collateral since it will be exposed when and where the sales teams need it.