text: You’ve surely heard the old axiom “to be competitive, you have to be the best or the cheapest.” That was true at one point, but today’s reality is a little more complicated. With more than 100,000 IT companies in the U.S. alone and at least 6,000 martech companies contending for enterprise dollars, gaining a competitive edge over the competition is harder than ever before. In fact, the majority of sellers agree that getting in front of prospects is harder than it was just five years. But before you go out and hire a big-name branding firm to help you differentiate, why not consult with your Emissary on improving your teams’ sales readiness? Here are just a few of the ways these seasoned execs from Fortune 500 companies can help you stand out from the crowd, close more business, and hit your revenue targets.
  Navigating Org Structures
  So you got your hands on org charts for a few of your top prospects? Good for you. These certainly can be helpful—that is, if they’ve been updated in the last decade. But an even better bet is to speak to executives who’ve recently left your target accounts.
  Not only can these execs demystify the org structure, they can point out key influencers, would-be derailers, and—often—who the real decision-makers are behind the scenes. This can help you get your pitch in front of the stakeholders who matter, while also giving you insight into their pain points, personalities, and preferred presentation styles. And because our Emissaries have been through the purchasing process themselves, they can shed light on any potential obstacles you may encounter during procurement.
  All of this adds up to more successful pitches, shorter sales cycles, and a much better shot at hitting your number.
  Improving Your Messaging
  There’s a good reason fewer than 24 percent of sales emails are opened. And that’s in part because they’re created based off of assumptions about what prospects want and need, not what prospects actually want and need.
  Imagine, instead, if your sales readiness and marketing collateral had first been vetted by one of your actual buyers—before your prospects ever laid eyes on it. As it turns out, you can. Our Emissaries frequently provide insight and guidance on digital marketing and sales enablement collateral.
  This kind of candid, direct feedback can help your marketing teams build consensus, in turn enabling you to refine your language and imagery, and craft much more powerful, effective messaging. From your website to your one-pagers and even your contact forms, your team of enterprise insiders can help you fine-tune your messaging to cut through the noise and reach your prospects.
  Understanding Their Tech Stacks
  Two cloud storage providers were locked in a head-to-head competition for a lucrative contract with a major media company. One provider was attempting to renew its existing contract, while the other was making an aggressive—and persuasive—case for the media org to make the switch. To learn what it would take to overcome the competition and save the account, the company with the existing contract came to Emissary. And that turned out to be a very smart move indeed.
  We were able to pair the storage provider with the media company’s former senior director of IT, who quickly pointed out that the accounts team had been highlighting the wrong features all along. In fact, the client already had access to two critical features—the provider just didn’t realize it.
  Showcasing their existing access to these features saved the renewal and helped the client avoid a long and tedious migration process. That’s a win/win for both parties, and it only happened because of key insights the storage provider couldn’t have gotten elsewhere.
  Expanding Your Deals
  Every revenue exec knows that landing a new customer is just the beginning of a longer partnership. In fact, landing a new deal can be five to 25 percent more expensive than retaining an existing one, and expanding existing deals can be faster, cheaper, and more lucrative in the long run. But to do so, you’ll need to have the right information and intelligence from the outset.
  That’s why so many of our customers look to their Emissaries not only for guidance on which LOBs are fertile ground for expansion, but who the decision-makers really are—and how to reach them most effectively.
  Rather than pitching blindly to various stakeholders throughout the organization, your Emissaries can help you develop a strategic account plan. Plus, they’ll work with you at every stage of the process, making key account expansion easier and faster than ever.
  Executive Insights for Optimal Sales Readiness
  Cutting through the noise and gaining a competitive edge in today’s IT marketplace can feel like a Herculean task—but it doesn’t have to. In fact, it may be far easier than you think. With the right partners and the right insight into your top accounts, you can craft laser-focused messaging for the right decision-makers at key times in your buying cycles. You can also navigate procurement more nimbly, close more quickly, and expand more strategically. With Emissary Advisors, it’s not just guidance—it’s sales readiness intel that impacts your bottom line.
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  Erin Provey
  VP Products
  Erin has 20 years of experience in B2B product and service innovation and leadership roles, with a consistent focus on growth through customer-centricity. Most notably, Erin spent nearly a decade at SiriusDecisions (now part of Forrester Research) in a range of research and advisory product leadership roles, responsible for the entire innovation lifecycle: discovery, design, development, sales enablement, launch, implementation, and research/voice-of-the-customer-based iteration and enhancement. As part of this work, she was one of the most prolific commercially-viable content creators and public speakers, authoring and presenting hundreds of commercially-viable research briefs, models, frameworks, templates, tools, and one patented methodology – building world-class delivery teams and working closely with hundreds of the world’s leading B2B marketing leaders to operationalize these best practices in pursuit of revenue objectives.
  Adam Rice
  VP Engineering
  Dynamic, results-driven agile technology leader with over 12 years of leadership experience and 10 years of hands-on software development experience. Adam has significant expertise in designing, building, and running highly available software as a service. He loves being part of a team where he can be instrumental in building and running a world-class team of software practitioners based on shared cultural values including collective ownership, pragmatic mastery, and continuous improvement.
  Diana Kudajarova
  VP of Operations
  Diana has extensive experience in senior operational roles at technology startups. Before becoming VP of Operations, she was Emissary’s Chief of Staff and Head of Revenue Operations. Prior to joining Emissary, she was Director of Sales Operations for Burning Glass (a Boston-based job market analytics company). Diana has a PhD in History from Harvard University and was, in another life, a consultant for Monitor Consulting and professor of management at Moscow School of Management. Diana was also a co-founder and operator of four critically acclaimed restaurants in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts,
  Allen Mueller
  Chief Executive Officer
  Allen is the Chief Executive Officer at Emissary. For over 20 years, Allen has been a senior executive leader who has delivered multi-year, double-digit growth in complex and entrepreneurial businesses. Known for being an exceptional coach and steward of talent. Allen is also the founding member of Chief, an organization specifically designed for senior women leaders to strengthen their leadership journey, cross-pollinate ideas across industries, and effect change from the top-down.
  Meet Allen Mueller:
  What I’ve Learned (And Am Still Learning) About Sales
  What is Sales Intelligence and How Can it Help You Sell Smarter?
  John Riley
  Chief Commercial Officer
  John is responsible for Emissary’s revenue and commercial functions. He brings deep domain expertise in sales performance having led commercial teams to explosive growth over the last 20 plus years across a variety of industries. Notably, John has spent the last 9 years in the sales consulting, performance and enablement space offering clients cutting edge solutions to solve contemporary sales and marketing challenges.
  Morgan Costello
  Director, Advisor Operations
  Morgan oversees advisor operations at Emissary. Prior to joining Emissary, Morgan spent the last 9 years building and optimizing high performing operations teams from the ground up. Morgan previously ran operations at the home services network, Handy, scaling the professional platform by over 10x before being acquired by ANGI Homeservices. Having worked in professional services and consumer services, Morgan is an expert in how to scale and grow operations.
  Kate Forester
  Head of Finance and Company Operations
  Kate has led Finance & Operations in start-ups and non-profits for over 15 years. Over her career, she has worked to promote volunteerism, alleviate poverty, and connect professionals.
  Seleste Lunsford
  Chief Research and Strategy Officer
  Seleste has been a leader and consultant in the sales effectiveness space for over 20 years, running professional services, product and marketing organizations. She is a regular contributor to industry publications, a conference speaker and has written two books and countless papers on B2B revenue strategies.
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