Featuring Stuart Long, Vice President of Sales, North America, Capsule Technologies 

As part of our Sales & Marketing Executive Insight Series, Televerde is please to publish the following interview with Stuart Long, Vice President of Sales, North America, Capsule Technologies. Based in Paris, France and Andover, Massachusetts, Capsule is the leading, vendor-neutral medical device connectivity provider, and has been for over 12 years. Their proven solution is FDA 510(k) cleared and features the largest number of installed medical devices.  Over 500 hospitals worldwide have chosen Capsule for their device integration needs. 

What company or companies do you admire most (besides your own) and why?

REI because of how they are committed to the environment and their employees, their business model, and their passion for outdoors. 

When customers and prospects consider the Capsule brand and the key value proposition of your products and services, what is that you want to come to their minds and resonate?

Nursing efficiency and patient safety through bio-medical device connectivity. 

What are the three most important topics of discussion currently taking place within your sales and marketing organization?

Achieving quarterly quota, demand generation, sales methodology and reporting via salesforce.com. 

Why are these topics important?

Prior to my arrival, we had a record of inconsistent sales performance, or at least not well-documented performance. I’m building a world-class sales team so this topic has taken on significant importance and is being addressed. In addition, my funnel to quota is currently 1:1 and I need it to be at least 3:1. 

What are the most important metrics that your sales and marketing organization cares about and why?

Order intake and invoicing, performance against plan and previous years, qualified lead generation and market awareness. These metrics are important to drive market penetration and increase sales. 

Recognizing that all sales and marketing organizations occasionally have “relationship issues,” how are you overcoming them?

Weekly integrated meetings, revamping marketing’s mindset that sales is their customer and everything they do must relate or convert into a sale. Weekly ‘what’s working & what’s not working’ deep dives. Implementation of inside sales and integrating marketing to create effective lead conversions and lead nurturing programs. 

What are some of the practices you’re using that are effectively enabling a stronger flow of better quality leads for your sales organization?

Televerde profiling campaigns, lead generation, as well as the above mentioned processes. Ideally treating converted leads to unqualified opportunities and using inside sales to get them to qualified at 10% or even 25% before turning over to the field. Ensuring no opportunity is neglected, or in other words, No Lead Left Behind! 

What is the biggest impact you’re seeing from your social media activities?

Excellent marketing awareness. Our CNO is now named in top 10 nurses to follow on Twitter. Numerous blog and tweets bring many leads now from hospitals and surprisingly many consulting firms. Additionally, viral video distribution via YouTube is bringing about greater awareness. We track and measure everything social media does for us. 

What specific impact has the economic adjustment had on your sales and marketing strategies and programs?

Reduction in awareness programs and a highlighted need to focus dollars on increasing qualified funnel. 

What are some of the biggest changes that have taken place in your sales and marketing organization over the past three years and why have these changes occurred?

We’ve seen significant growth, even in a downturned economy. To me this demonstrates that technology that truly aids in efficiency, productivity and ROI will remain top of mind in our industry as healthcare institutions are driven to increase patient safety, do more with less and adopt government mandates for electronic healthcare records. Interestingly, much of our view has changed from demonstrating our ability to enable meeting these demands to creating a new market segment where we see new competitive pressure from upstarts and validation of major healthcare vendors. This has caused a spin-off of division and/or solutions to meet these developing market demands. In summary, we’ve seen not only growth, we’re seeing different buying behaviors and learning how to market and sell to a very dynamic market keeps us on our toes. 

In terms of allocation of energy and resources to sales demand creation and sales pipeline acceleration, which area is getting most of your focus and why?

Both have our highest attention with awareness campaigns directly behind that. I have a probablized funnel that is 40% of my annual quota. I absolutely must increase the funnel with qualified opportunities as well as mature my lowest percentage probabilities as just over 50% of my funnel is in the 10% stage.

What is your process for evaluating demand creation activities in your organization and determining what changes are necessary?

None, I have used Televerde at four different companies for many years – I simply make a call. 

The term “lead nurturing” is sometimes tossed around too easily without clear definition. When you discuss the topic internally with your sales and marketing staff, what parameters do you put around it?

Two steps: 1) Converting a marketing lead (irrespective of source) to an unqualified opportunity and using inside sales to determine the right party contact (RPC) and buying analysis. Mature the opportunity to ‘qualified’ and either hand it to field sales at a hot 10% or warm 25%. (Eliminating much of the ‘busy work’ from field sales and give them a pure license to hunt real deals.) 2) Determine lead/opportunity viability, if not viable as an opportunity then convert to marketing for a process in which the lead is tracked and we create a relationship with that prospect in numerous ways (Tier 1 through 5) like email campaigns, white papers, blogs, social media, webinars, etc. The goal is to convert those leads back to opportunities in the future. Ideally, we will increase conversion and close rates of what would have been abandoned leads to opportunities and ultimately won deals. 

With increasing industry attention on marketing automation and social media tools, do you feel that the impact of and need for traditional human dialogues between vendors and their customers and prospects will diminish?

No, I think it will increase. Social media creates a ‘convenient’ method of communication, in which prospects and companies can respond to methods (and at their convenience) that are best suited for them. 

What do you feel is the strategic-focused thought process that companies should go through when considering to outsource their demand center activities?

Proof is in the pudding – find a company that has walked the walk and can prove it. 

Recognizing the critical importance of marketing data to the success of your demand creation and lead nurturing programs, what key talking points would we hear in your “State of the Data” speech to your sales and marketing organization?

Utilize best practices. Study leaders vs. laggards and implement what the leaders do. Excellent is as Excellent does. 

What is your crystal ball revealing to you about the future state – let’s say 2-3 years from now – of your sales and marketing organization?

We’re a small company. If we were to be looked at for an acquisition, our processes, data, methodology, discipline and proven success is what would raise eyebrows. 

What book are you reading now or have you recently read that you would recommend to others?

“Why Work Sucks, and How To Fix It”