A Guide To Denver Colorado Technology Industry News

 

Colorado Technology News Leader

InnovatioNews is the brainchild of veteran news and media advertising veterans Lee Porter, Jay Jacoby and Steve Porter and aims to illuminate the Colorado innovation community. We cover innovation topics, share important / timely innovation news, provide research and business tools, and create a forum for the community and those interested in innovation–all within the State of Colorado.

With innovation news stories, beat coverage of industry verticals, videos, columns and blogs, InnovatioNews serves several purposes:

1.Economic development—By serving as a central forum for all activities innovative, it will display and feature the incredible power of innovation in our Colorado communities. New businesses, new initiatives and the people and products that drive them will be featured.

2.Information sharing—With the aim of “getting the news out,” InnovatioNews will spotlight both feature stories on organizations and businesses and a tally of the successes and needs of those organizations — funding, patents, jobs, business and collaborative opportunities — will also be included.

3.Not only the “what” but also the “ who” – Innovative companies are created and operated by innovative people with original ideas and entrepreneurial energy. By profiling innovation movers and shakers, our readers will better understand not only what innovation is but also what it means.

4.Opportunity roster—For investors, funders and interested observers, InnovatioNews will be a must-read. With leading-edge coverage, folks who are looking for the Next Big Thing will find nascent business ideas, product innovations and investment opportunities.

5.Organic news generation and sharing– As part of the InnovatioNews format, we will link social media, videos, blogs and other interactive communication forms and facilitate mobile access through responsive design.



InnovatioNews Link





Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

The State of Gigabit Internet, Top Internet Wireless Fiber Providers

Global Internet Deployments

US Leads in Gigabit Access Numbers The United States has the highest number of people with access to gigabit internet (56.4 million) with a population coverage of 17 percent. Singapore currently has the highest proportion of citizens with gigabit internet availability at 95 percent. South Korea has the second highest number of citizens with gigabit internet availability (46.7 million), representing 93 percent of its population. Of the current gigabit installations tracked by Gigabit Monitor, unsurprisingly, 91 percent are based on fiber – with cellular connections accounting for 3.65 percent, HFC accounting for 5.26 percent, and WiFi making up less than 1 percent.

However, with many launches of gigabit LTE and 5G expected in the near future, the scale of cellular gigabit connectivity is expected to change significantly. This is reflected in Viavi’s State of 5G Trials, which shows that 25 mobile operators are currently lab-testing 5G, with 12 of those reporting that they have progressed to field trials.

Dynamically Updated Infographics The new Gigabit Monitor has been upgraded to display dynamically updated infographics showing the current state of gigabit internet provision in all 41 countries where it is available. Each country’s gigabit internet profile displays the estimated population coverage, global ranking, gigabit launches over time and a listing of local gigabit providers. “2016 was a turning point for gigabit connectivity, as many cities around the world reached the point whereby gigabit internet was available to most of its residents,” said Sameh Yamany, Chief Technology Officer, Viavi Solutions. “Yet the gigabit revolution shows no signs of cooling down in 2017. As bandwidth increases, so does consumer appetite for it. Likewise new business models have been quick to take advantage of new bandwidth, as we’ve seen with streaming video and audio in the recent past – and which we believe will continue in the near future with VR, AR and the Internet of Things.”

Gigabit Link



Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

What is SD-WAN and Why Are So Many Companies Looking into This?

What is SD-WAN?

Software-defined WANs are quickly replacing traditional Wide Area Networks (WANs) as more enterprises realize the need to rethink networking for today’s cloud-centric world.

Today’s SD-WANs are providing organizations: Lower costs by eliminating reliance on expensive MPLS connections to interconnect remote sites Higher performance by leveraging multiple network paths and faster broadband connections for certain applications including cloud Increased network agility by decreasing manual configuration steps through increased programmability and automation. Deploying SD-WAN ensures your wide-area network is future-proof for cloud computing and can adapt to rapidly changing application and business requirements.

The benefits of SD-WAN include cost-effective delivery of business applications, meeting the evolving operational requirements of the modern branch/remote site, optimizing software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud-based services such as UC&C, and improving branch-IT efficiency through automation. "As public and private cloud use continues to grow, WAN performance becomes critical to latency-sensitive and mission-critical workloads and inter-datacenter business continuity," said Rohit Mehra, Vice President, Network Infrastructure at IDC. "Accordingly, as enterprises plan and implement comprehensive cloud strategies, WAN architectures need to be considered alongside, and in conjunction with, datacenter infrastructure.

Moreover, as enterprises move business processes to the cloud, there is a greater need to fully integrate cloud-sourced services into WAN environments to ensure workload/application performance, availability, and security."

Article Links FastMode
Riverbed



Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Top Upcoming Telecommunications Conferences

MVNO World Congress 2017 April 24-27, 2017 Organizer: KNect365 Location: Nice - France

China SDN/NFV Conference 2017 April 26-27, 2017 Organizer: Infoex-World Services Location: Beijing - China

IoT Global Congress April 27, 2017 Organizer: IoT Global Location: London - United Kingdom

Loyalty Expo 2017 May 2-4, 2017 Organizer: Loyalty 360 Location: Orlando - United States

SDN & NFV India Conclave 2017 May 3, 2017 Organizer: Konnectworldwide Location: Mumbai - India

WBA Wireless Global Congress May 8-11, 2017 ENABLING NEXT GENERATION WIRELESS SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES Organizer: Wireless Broadband Alliance Location: London - United Kingdom

G.fast Summit 2017 4th Edition May 9-11, 2017 Organizer: Upperside Location: Paris - France

5G India 2017 International Conference May 12, 2017 Organizer: Bharat Exhibitions Location: New Delhi - India

TM Forum Live! May 15-18, 2017 Organizer: Juliet Media International Location: Nice - France

Insurance IoT China Summit 2017 May 18-19, 2017 Organizer: Genesis-recoursing Group Location: Beijing - China

CONNECTIONS™ 2017 May 23-25, 2017 Organizer: Parks Associates Location: San Francisco - United States

IoT Tech Expo Europe 2017 June 1-2, 2017 Organizer: IoT Tech Expo Location: Berlin - Germany

Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Double Your Sales While Working Less Than You Do Now

Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

IaaS, PaaS, SaaS to Lead $390 billion Cloud Economy in 2017

48 out of the world’s Fortune 50 companies are using or plan to use cloud services as those previously concerned about cloud environments start to invest heavily. Global cloud IT market revenues are set to more than double by 2020 with both public and private cloud hardware, software and services set to generate $390 billion in revenues by the end of this decade.

According to Bain & Company’s “The Changing Faces of the Cloud” report, market revenues accounted to ‘only’ $180bn in 2015 and are now set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% until 2020. Of the $390bn estimated cloud market, public cloud services are set to represent the largest part of the sector, with Software as a Service (SaaS) predicted to grow at a CAGR of 18%.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) are tipped for a 27% CAGR. Public cloud infrastructure and enabling services are predicted to increase at a 12% CAGR while private cloud services, including managed private clouds (MPC) and dedicated private clouds (DPC), are predicted to grow at a 25% CAGR.


Article Link




Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Global Average Connection Internet Speed Increases 26 Percent Year Over Year (Cloud & Bandwidth Traffic Reports)

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Internet connection speeds continued to show positive long-term trends around the world, with particularly strong year-over-year increases across all broadband adoption metrics, according to the 4Q, 2016 State of the Internet Report, released by Akamai Technologies, a global provider of content delivery network (CDN) services. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform, the report provides insight into key global statistics such as connection speeds, broadband adoption metrics, notable Internet disruptions, IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 implementation.

“When Akamai first published the report in 2008, we defined ‘high broadband’ as 5 Mbps and above, which nine years ago had an adoption rate of 16 percent globally. We’re now seeing a 15 Mbps adoption rate of 25 percent worldwide,” said David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report. “The upward trends are encouraging as businesses create and deliver even richer experiences for bigger audiences across the Internet, but accentuate the need for organizations to optimize those experiences for the myriad connected devices their customers are using.”

Highlights from Akamai’s Fourth Quarter, 2016 State of the Internet Report:

Global Average Connection Speeds and Global Broadband Adoption
•Global average connection speed increased 12 percent to 7.0 Mbps in the fourth quarter, a 26 percent increase year over year.
•South Korea again had the highest average connection speed globally at 26.1 Mbps in the fourth quarter.
•At 26.7 Mbps, the District of Columbia led the United States in average connection speed.
•Global 4, 10, 15 and 25 Mbps broadband adoption rates increased 15 percent, 31 percent, 37 percent and 45 percent year over year, respectively.

IPv4 and IPv6
•In the fourth quarter of 2016, nearly 807 million unique IPv4 addresses connected to the Akamai Intelligent Platform, which is a 0.4 percent decrease as compared to the fourth quarter of 2015.
•There was significantly less IPv4 allocation/assignment activity in the fourth quarter, with 6.4 million addresses allocated/assigned versus 16 million in the third quarter.
•With 47 percent of its content requests to Akamai coming over IPv6, Belgium maintained its significant global lead in IPv6 adoption with a 20% quarter-over-quarter increase.

Mobile
•Average mobile connection speeds ranged from a high of 26.8 Mbps in the United Kingdom to a low of 2.9 Mbps in Venezuela.
•Among the qualifying surveyed countries/regions, 30 had an average mobile connection speed at or exceeding the 10 Mbps broadband threshold (up from 24 in the previous quarter), while 58 achieved average speeds at or above the 4 Mbps broadband level (up from 52).

Disruptions and Events
•During Hurricane Matthew in October, Internet traffic to the Bahamas dropped to approximately one-tenth of normal levels for the country.
•Internet traffic levels to The Gambia abruptly dropped to zero on November 30th, shortly ahead of the country’s December 1st elections, and returned to normal on December 2nd.
•On several dates, the Iraqi government continued its policy of blocking Internet access across the country to prevent cheating during middle and high school national exams.
•Technical issues at the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) were blamed for a sudden drop in traffic to the country in December.

About the Akamai State of the Internet Report
Each quarter, Akamai publishes a “State of the Internet – Connectivity” report. This report includes data gathered from across the Akamai Intelligent Platform about attack traffic, broadband adoption, mobile connectivity and other relevant topics concerning the Internet and its usage, as well as trends seen in this data over time. For additional information on the metrics in the report and how they are analyzed, please consult this blog post. To learn more and to access the archive of past reports, please visit the Quarterly Reports site. The figures from the Third Quarter, 2016 State of the Internet Report are available for download.



Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

How the New Linkedin Impacts Different User Types

Talk About Change

By now, about 50% of LinkedIn users have had their desktop interface switched over to the new mobile-inspired design. If it hasn’t, it’s expected to happen by the end of February. Here’s how to tell which one you have now. In the Old design, the primary navigation buttons were Home, Profile, My Network, Learning, Jobs, and Interests. They appeared on the upper left of the screen. In the New design, the primary navigation buttons are Home, My Network, Jobs, Messages, Notifications, and Me. They appear on the upper right of the screen.

LinkedIn is pushing for a much improved look and design it seems these days. They are changing many of the desktop features, home page layouts and other important areas that most users, including myself, find very challenging to find my way around now.

What are the Features you ask that are disappearing? Unless you have Premium these are going away.

• Advanced search
• Notes
• Tags
• View Profile as profile completeness
• How you rank
• RSS Feeds on Home page are limited

Below is a video that showcases the changes LinkedIn has put in place and to assist you on how this new format will work. If you are like the

The Sales Foundry Article Link


Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

The Annual DYN Renesys Bakers Dozen Report/The Top Global Internet Service Providers

The Bakers Dozen annual report is out highlighting the Top Internet Providers from 2016. Cogent surged to #3 showing that we are not only one of the most interconnected networks globally, but also still one of the most reliable and scalable networks out there.

Last year saw consistent and solid gains for all the carriers in this group. But the true star of the show was Cogent, surging all the way from #5 to #3 in twelve short months. Cogent’s rise was in no small part due to broad-based gains from Asian carriers.

 Cogent’s substantial end-of-year drop was the result of losing Apple (AS714) as a customer. But they quickly began to recover with more gains in Asia, such as increased transit from PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (AS7713), Rostelecom (AS12389) and Pacnet (AS10026) to name a few, ending the year just ahead of NTT. NTT’s growth was a bit more erratic, but still about 4% over where they started the year and just a hair below Cogent at year end.

Bakers Dozen Report Link




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Top 2017 Big Data Cloud Based Technology Predictions

Looking Back On My 2016 Predictions


1.Software as a whole will drive the technology conversation - Ok, so this was a bit of a softball, but I'm going to claim victory anyway. The buzz behind SDN and NFV have continued to rise, and there's virtually no carrier out there that isn't putting them to work or to the test. Verdict: yes!

2.Fiber consolidation in the US will slow further - Until the end of October, I was ready to claim victory on this one. Then CenturyLink bought Level 3, and there followed an almost daily drumbeat of new network M&A moves. Verdict: Tackled at the 10 yard line.

3.Fiber consolidation in Europe will claim a consolidator. - Does CenturyLink/Level 3 count? Because that's the only way I win this one. I was really thinking of someone like Zayo or Level 3 buying Interoute or Colt or euNetworks or... Verdict: Just call me Stretch...

4.Sponsored data will come under increasing regulatory/political attack - This just didn't happen at all. Net neutrality didn't play in the election at all, and nobody seriously bothered to challenge sponsored data offerings. In fact, with the new Trump administration coming in, the tide has pretty much shifted the other way. Verdict: Completely off target.

5.The courts will let the FCC's Title II-based net neutrality stand for now - But this one seems to have been correct. In fact I suggested that the industry would need a shift in the balance of power at the FCC to change this, and indeed this is precisely what may be happening for next year. Verdict: On target.

6.One of the three US incumbents will sell or spin off its datacenter/cloud business - Actually, two of them did just that in the fourth quarter. Verizon sold 24 data centers to Equinix, and CenturyLink sold its data centers to private equity. Verdict: On target.

Article Link
By Rob Powell


Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Cogent Communications Internet Service Provider award!

Cogent was presented with the Best In Class Award recently at the 2017 PTC Pacific Telecommunications Council conference.

Cogent delivers high-quality, low-latency Internet, Wide Area Ethernet and colocation services to enterprise customers with its facilities-based, all-optical IP network.

Second Most Peered Network:  http://as-rank.caida.org/

Baker’s Dozen (Dyn Research):  Baker's Dozen for 2016
Checkout Cogent in the News recently: News Link





Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

5 Habits of Wildly Successful Sales Representatives

Ever look at a sales rep and think, “Man, that is one monster quota-maker!" I have been there, and I’ve learned that top-notch sellers are fundamentally different, at the DNA level. I have been fortunate to work with a number of these unicorns – people who blow their numbers out of the water quarter after quarter, year after year – at my company, SwarmSales, and have noticed five things they have in common.

In no particular order, here they are:

They constantly network: Not to sell, but to continually expand their connections. I asked quite a few of them why networking was so important, aside from the obvious reasons. The one answer that I found very interesting was, “Because it allows us to see trends. See if similar companies or people in roles are seeing the same problem. If they are, then we have a market opportunity developing."

They know the internal/customer process in depth: One of the most important things, I think even more than knowing your company’s products, is knowing the process. That goes for both your company and your clients. I identify with this trait the most, as I had to know the process on both sides before I could successfully deliver the results my clients were hoping for. For example, at Oracle, selling involves a long, arduous approval process that goes all the way up to Larry Ellison’s office. When I was there I used to joke that selling the end client was only 25 percent of the effort; selling to Oracle was 75 percent. Luckily, I was able to master the internal process and use it to drive deals through with appropriate justifications. Similarly, knowing who signs or approves at an end client’s side is very important.

They constantly ask if priorities have shifted: Continuous validation and ensuring the company focus hasn’t drifted is also a great trait. Top sales reps look at initiatives they are currently focused on and continually make sure that the same metrics, economic buyers, decision-making process, decision criteria and identified pain are still valid. They ensure the champion remains absolutely supportive of the solution and feels like she owns the product. If you don’t constantly check in, you will find projects may not make it over the finishing line. You’ve burned precious resources and time.

They can multi-task: Ever do an enterprise deal at Oracle or IBM? It will put hair on your chest. These transactions are so complex and have so many moving pieces you would be absolutely amazed. A $100 million sale doesn’t just happen. It takes a vast array of coordination from one master organizer who brings together the accumulation of product specialists, technical leads, client resources, procurement, finance and legal to align toward a single goal and close the deal within the defined date. Average sales reps manage anywhere from five to 10 transactions a quarter. Top tier sellers manage on average 15 to 20 deals.

They are always looking for new products to sell: Typically a sales rep is limited to a set portfolio of product and services; however, top sellers are constantly looking at ways to be part of every initiative. There are two reasons for that. First, if a company enters their defined ecosystems yet doesn’t integrate with the existing foundation, they might end up displaced. Essentially, it may introduce a crack in the foundation. The second reason is, they don’t like to lose. Every time I sold, I looked at how much of the annual spend I could pick up, and if I didn’t have a product in my bag, I made sure I found someone within other product groups or the partner network that had an offering and brought them in. This is a great guiding light for how to spot which sales reps can be wildly successful for your business. We are excited to have them on our marketplace and look forward to sharing more of our learnings. Agree? Disagree? Think there’s a trait that I missed? Let me know in comments!

Ankur Srivastava is the CEO and co-founder of SwarmSales, a trusted global platform for targeted enterprise sales.



Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 800 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

What The Time Warner, AT&T $85 billion merger means for The Telecom Industry

Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 700 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Happy New Year and Bring on 2017!

Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 700 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Cloud Trends and Strategies for 2017

Cloud computing is in the midst of massive growth, with sales of services increasing nearly six times faster than overall IT spending. This is great news for partners who are positioned to get their clients to the cloud, then help them thrive once they arrive.

This Report looks at trends to keep in mind now and in the year ahead plus five strategies for capitalizing on opportunities – including ways for partners who aren't "cloud ready" to catch up. Takeaways for Your Business
•As cloud platforms and services mature, the market for them is still growing and rapidly evolving. •Companies are increasingly seeking to acquire IT capacity and business functionality in as-a-service models.
•Cloud sales should focus on best meeting the client's needs and not on any particular product or platform.


Article Link



Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 700 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

US Internet & Innovation Economy, Top Fiber and Internet Demand in Data Centers

The Internet has fast become a powerful platform for commerce and communication, with a vast majority of Americans connecting routinely and clamoring for next generation innovations. The growth accompanying this technological supply and demand chain has been profound, and so too have its impacts on the U.S. economy and innovation.

According to a recent U.S. News & World Report piece(link is external), businesses directly involved with the Internet generated an estimated $966 billion in 2014, accounting for 6 percent of the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, employment in the Internet sector has doubled since 2007, approaching three million total jobs. And, these jobs are comparatively higher paying than many industries, with employees earning an average of $79,184 compared to the national average of $61,547.

It’s also important to note, that the Internet sector is vast. This study focused on more than two-dozen Internet firms, including Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Uber and others. Industries from telecommunications carriers to data-focused organizations are a key part of the Internet and Information, Communications Technology (ICT) ecosystems, delivering significant economic value and high-paying jobs as well.

Article Link


Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 700 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

5 B2B and Enterprise Sales Trends to Watch in 2017

1. Bringing Social Into Sales Though B2C marketing puts more emphasis on social media campaigns, it’s becoming important for bringing in B2B sales as well. Skeptical? 73% of salespeople who used social selling outperformed their colleagues, according to SalesforLife. The best part? Social selling isn’t expensive or difficult to implement. Salespeople can use platforms like LinkedIn (LNKD), Twitter (TWTR), and Instagram to find, qualify, and connect with leads. Warming up those leads by engaging with them is easy on these platforms—and can make the sale that much easier.

2. Analytics and Big Data Today, we have an amazing opportunity to learn about what customers really want, instead of what we think they want, thanks to big data and analytics. Using data effectively is a great way to boost sales, get better leads, and operate more efficiently. Despite the fact that everyone is talking about the benefits of using data in sales, very few companies are actually implementing these strategies to inform their sales decisions. Why? Because it takes some patience and resources to make sense of the data available. Businesses who do invest in data see great results, however, and most companies find it’s worth the trouble. You can gain a huge competitive advantage by leveraging even just a portion of the available data to improve your B2B selling strategies. You don’t need a sophisticated big data team or system to benefit. Start using analytics to track the sources and progress of your current sales process, then use the data from successful sales to help your team strategize and focus on the aspects of the sale that matter most, whether that turns out to be lead source, demographic, or sales tactics. Only the data can give you this information!

3. Interactive Content Whitepapers and other informative content used to be enough to make sales, but the market has been flooded with these materials. B2B customers are more interested in immersive, custom content, like interactive whitepapers, videos, and podcasts. These are powerful tools for salespeople, and creating interactive content is just another way your sales and marketing team can work together to produce conversions. Start by thinking about what types of interactive content are relevant to your business. Brainstorm with the marketing and sales team about what your clients want to know—and what will convince them to decide on your product. Investing in the right interactive content will help your sales team become more effective. Don’t have an in-house marketing team yet? Consider hiring a freelancer on retainer to supply sales with the content they need to succeed.

4. Better Targeting, Better Leads Inbound marketing and sophisticated digital marketing campaigns are giving sales professionals an influx of leads so they can focus on doing what they do best: selling. However, in 2017, B2B marketers are working toward better targeting, generating higher-quality leads for sales teams to work with. This is great news for sales—the better the leads, the better the conversion rate, and quality leads allow sales teams to work more efficiently. You can harness this trend by encouraging quality over quantity in your marketing department. Encourage your team to prioritize targeted campaigns to produce higher-quality leads, and examine the results of different campaigns to see which approaches produce the best leads overall. 5. Mobile and Digital Solutions Everything is moving online—and onto our phones and tablets. Sales needs to move onto these platforms as well, adapting to the needs of a digital world. Webinars, an optimized mobile site, and options for on-the-go leads will help companies find success in 2017. Think outside the box when it comes to mobile. Aside from ensuring your site is mobile-friendly, make it easy for your leads to reach you from all their devices. Build your interactive content to be mobile-friendly, and pay attention to the feedback you’re getting.




Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 700 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Telecom Prsopect & Leads Favorite LinkedIn Sales Navigator Features

Sales Navigator is not simply an upgraded version of the free LinkedIn service like Business Plus or Executive. It’s a completely different software product, in the same way LinkedIn Recruiter is specifically tailored to the needs of HR professionals. So you actually get a lot more than a few “up-sized” LinkedIn features.

1. Listen to Peoples’ and Companies’ Signals – Think of it as LinkedIn’s version of Google Alerts. You simply save the People and Companies that you want to track and LinkedIn displays their LinkedIn activity and web mentions in the Sales Navigator Home Page. It’s like having a personal sales research assistant working 24 x 7 for you.

2.Extra Advanced Search Filters – All premium (paid) versions of LinkedIn included extra search filters like Company Size, Function, and Groups. Sales Navigator has even more. The ones I find most valuable don’t even show in the Lead Builder screen. They are applied on the search results screen:

3. Sales Navigator Chrome Extension for Gmail – We all live in our email Inbox, and Gmail is one of the most popular platforms. Now there is a Chrome extension that shows LinkedIn information along side email messages. If you’re connected to the sender, you can easily access their contact information. (see image). If you’re not, you can invite them into your network. In either case, LinkedIn provides some “Icebreaker” opportunities based on commonalities like Connections and Groups.



Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks. With 700 POP Data Center locations, over 200 markets throughout 41 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 60,000 route miles of long-haul fiber.

Happy Thanksgiving, Take Time Off From Selling!

Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks with over 190 markets throughout 38 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 57,900 route miles of long-haul fiber and over 27,400 miles of metropolitan fiber.

It’s in the Numbers: Building High-Performance Sales Teams Through Data Analytics

 

Data-Built Sales Teams

While every organization has a different set of metrics to define success, there are things you can do to use data analytics to build a more successful sales team. The following can help you get started:

1. Leverage assessment tools. Personality tests such as Myers-Briggs have been around for decades. But there’s been an explosion over the past few years of new assessment tools that can help identify a person’s natural tendencies. They provide insights into whether a recruit is up to the task at hand. Will the candidate like the job? Will he or she be successful in the role? Using these kinds of assessment tools is critical to your recruiting efforts.

2.  Refine candidate profiles. After hiring your first wave of recruits, make small changes to your assessments based on your top performers. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t necessarily want a homogeneous group of people. Differences in skills and personalities can boost productivity and improve the bottom line.

But staff performance can provide further insights into where to direct your recruitment efforts. You have a better idea of the types of people who won’t be successful in the role or at the company. Adjust the evaluation process to reflect this.

3. Build custom coaching plans. Assessment tools are critical in not only hiring, but also managing employees. On day one, you have many of the necessary insights to build a more effective coaching plan. You know what will resonate with the candidate and how he or she would best be coached.
Take our coaching plans, for example. They’re based on behaviors we’ve identified as essential to succeed in each sales role. Let’s say a new hire isn’t comfortable in a certain area. We can monitor his or her behavior closely and work on building comfort in that area. It’s all about supporting the person throughout the training process.

4. Involve sales managers. HR is crucial for identifying prospects and conducting initial screenings, but that’s where its role should end. Sales managers tasked with managing these people need to make the final call.

Don’t, however, assume they know how to conduct interviews. Make sure sales managers recognize the importance of asking questions related to job performance. Provide a list of desired skills and attributes. Develop a series of interview questions. Even go so far as building evaluation sheets, making it easier to compare candidates.

Over time, you might find that certain sales managers excel at the interview process. You can rely on them to conduct the final interviews for those sales managers who aren’t great at picking new hires. Just make sure everyone is aligned in finding people who will fit the role and the organization.

5. Make trainers part of the ecosystem. You don’t want to think of training as a separate department — one that comes in, trains, and disappears. These people will spend the first critical months with your new hires, so they should be a part of the sales management infrastructure.

Utilize trainers all the way through the life cycle of a salesperson to make sure you’re focusing on what works and doesn’t work for that individual employee. Look at it from a coaching perspective, always working toward improving the skills of your sales force.

In our experience, a high-performing sales team should have at least two-thirds of its members meeting or exceeding sales quotas. By using assessment tools and predictive analytics to identify the right candidates and develop a training program around them, you’re well on your way to improving your bottom line.



Contact me at tduggan(@)Cogentco.com at Cogent for more Info or to Network. Cogent delivers customers with Highly Reliable, Secure and Scalable IP Networks with over 190 markets throughout 38 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with over 57,900 route miles of long-haul fiber and over 27,400 miles of metropolitan fiber.