The document discusses how credit departments can enable sales growth through three strategies: 1) Prescreening accounts and enabling instant credit decisions to shorten sales cycles, 2) Reducing credit holds and finding upsell opportunities by taking a proactive risk-based approach, and 3) Optimizing customer portfolios and segmenting them to identify the profile of the best customers for targeting. The presentation provides examples of how each strategy can be implemented, such as enabling prescreening and instant credit decisions directly in CRM systems, using corporate family information to identify upsell opportunities, and creating a best customer profile based on factors like industry, size, and credit scores.

1. Credit Enabling Sales
Presented by:
Robert Porreca
D&B – Dun & Bradstreet
June 26, 2014
Credit Departments as drivers of profitable growth
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information

2. Today’s Discussion
 Prescreen and enable instant decisions to shorten the
sales cycle
 Reduce credit holds and find upsell opportunities
 Optimize and segment your portfolio to find the profile of
your best customers
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 2

3. What are Credit Professionals Saying?
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
“Credit People need to be as
interested in growing the business
as the salespeople are”
“I look for ways to sell more product,
being creative and finding ways to
make the sale when traditional credit
extension methods are not realistic”
“Every time we set up a new
account, we send a letter
explaining the credit line/terms,
we also attach a flier
highlighting the products being
featured that month”
“We create a “good pay” list,
customers who pay on time and
underutilize their limits, then we
give this to sales to solicit
additional business”
“I am a sales person, I sell
credit offerings to keep them
engaged”
“A customer centric operating
model leverages account level
expertise along with providing
sales a single point of contact”
Source: Credit Today; NACM Elevator Speech Contest
3

4. Is the trend of “Credit Enabling Sales” real?
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Source: Key Issues Study,
The Hackett Group, 2014
CFO Agenda
Strategic Financial Priorities
4

5. Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Prescreen and
Enable Instant
Decisions to
Shorten the
Sales Cycle
1
5

6. Prescreen and shorten the sales cycle by…
 Prescreening accounts that meet your criteria for acceptance
 Enabling sales to get an instant answer directly from the
CRM system you use today
 Allowing customers to submit an order online and be instantly
notified of their acceptance
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 6

7. Making content available when and
where sales need it
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Business
Insight
Risk Prescreen
Firmographic
Data
Real-time
Location
Information
& Nearby
Companies
Industry
Information
Integration with
Custom Data
Sources
Additional
Contacts
7

8. Which prospects are worth speaking to?
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Help sales reps quickly
determine the potential
of the prospect
Create status indicators
using your own or third
party data
Sales reps can qualify
prospect based on
creditworthiness
8

9. Enable sales to get an “instant answer”
right from the CRM they work in everyday
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Credit
Manager
Sales
Person
Decision
Engine
1 Sales submit credit
application in SFDC
3
Credit Application is automatically
decisioned
Credit Applications that require
manual review is decisioned by
credit manager
4
Sales user gets the decision
automatically in SFDC
2 Sales user confirms the company matched
9

10. Shorten the sales cycle by enabling customers, sales
or service to submit via an “online application”
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Enable both 1) New customers, as well as 2) Returning Customers
10

11. Deliver back an “instant” answer to improve
efficiency and customer satisfaction
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 11

12. Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
2
Reduce Credit
Holds and Find
Upsell
Opportunities
12

13. Reduce Credit holds and find upsell
opportunities by…
 Taking a proactive approach to reduce credit holds
 Using a risk based approach to identify accounts for upsell
or cross sale
 Understanding total corporate family exposure to determine
service levels, resource allocation and cross sell/up sell
potential.
 Monitoring portfolio risk to adjust polices so you are not
leaving money on the table
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 13

14. Targeting accounts nearing or over their credit limit
provides a proactive approach to reduce credit holds
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 14

15. Target incremental revenue opportunities by looking
at score trends, focus on the accounts moving in the
right direction.
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 15

16. Segment customers based on external risk
in addition to how they are paying you
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 16

17. Use corporate family ownership to identify your biggest
and customers, so you can retain and grow them by ensuring
appropriate service levels and resourcing
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 17

18. You can also use corporate family ownership to
identify companies related to your customers, where
no current sales exist
18Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information

19. Then look to see how the overall portfolio risk is shifting
over time, ensure your polices are not leaving money on
the table
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 19

20. Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
3
Optimize and
Segment Your
Portfolio to Find
the Profile of Your
Best Customers
20

21. Optimize and Segment your Portfolio by…
 Creating a 360 degree view of your customers by combining
all internal data with external third party insight
 Segmenting your customer base by risk and opportunity to
build a profile of your best customers to enable better
targeting.
 Understanding M&A activity to identify new growth
opportunities
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 21

22. Create a 360 degree view by cleansing, integrating
and enriching data from across the company
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Your Disparate
Internal Databases
Integrated
Customer
Information
Gorman, Inc.
123 Elm St.
Bethlehem, PA 18025
Chuck Smith, President
Mary Worth
VP, Marketing
123 Elm St.
Bethlehem, PA 18025
Customer
Relationship
Management
Customer
Service
System
Gorman Plastics
P.O. Box 111
Bethlehem, PA 18055
Chris White, Controller
Third-Party
Information
A/R
System
Integrated
Customer
Information
OPTIMIZED
CUSTOMER
DATABASE
22

23. Matching the right internal records is critical, to help
determine which records across your data systems
represent the same commercial entity
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Acct # 123456
Legal Name: ABC, Inc.
Tradestyle: Alpha Plastics
Address Postal: P.O. Box 111
Bethlehem, PA 18055
Address Physical: 123 Elm St.
Bethlehem, PA 18025
Phone: 610 882-7600
SIC: 5411-0202, 5541-9901
Primary Contact: Charles Smith, President
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Year Started: 1961
Employees: 35
Additional Contacts: Mary Worth, VP Marketing
Parent: ABC Enterprise, Inc.
Number of Family Members: 3
Viability Rating: 2 1 C G
PAYDEX: 79
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Finance ID: OX20PH
Warehouse ID: A595660662
CRM ID: 001200000000wXgAAI
$3,000 credit limit
$1,100 outstanding and 12 days past due
Product code A on 7/2013
Product code B on 9/2011
SMB channel customer
Last touch point on 6/2013
A.B.C.
123 Elm St.
Bethlehem, PA 18025
(SIC) 5411-02
Chuck Smith, President
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ID: OX20PH
$3,000 credit limit
$1,100 outstanding and 12 days past due
Finance
Alpha Plastics
P.O. Box 111
Bethlehem, PA 18055
Chuck Smith, President
610 882-7600
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ID: A595660662
Product code A on 7/2013
Product code B on 9/2011
Warehouse
Charles Smith
123 Elm St.
Bethlehem, PA 18025
(SIC) 5541-99
215 882-7600
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ID: 001200000000wXgAAI
SMB channel customer
Last touch point on 6/2013
CRM
Single, more intimate and actionable
view of your customer
Hypothetical customer data from
three of your source systems
Consolidated
identity profile
with unique id
and various names
and addresses
Enriched with
things we know
Paired with things
you know
23

24. Now create a “Best Customer” profile
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Best-Customer Profile:
Industry: Plastics Manufacturer
Company Size: >100 employees
Years in Business: >10 Years
Geography: Northeast
PAYDEX: 80–100
Financial Stress Score: <3
Commercial Credit Score: <3
ProspectsYour Best Customer
24

25. Industry – Prospecting profile component
Perform an segmentation analysis by industry to generate a “best”
customer profile for new business opportunities.
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 25

26. Geography – Prospecting profile component
Perform a segmentation analysis by geography to generate a “best”
customer profile for new business opportunities.
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 26

27. Number of Employees – Prospecting profile
component
Perform a segmentation analysis by business size to generate a “best”
customer profile for new business opportunities.
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 27

28. Years In Business – Prospecting profile
component
Perform a segmentation analysis broken down by number of years
in business to generate a “best” customer profile for new business
opportunities.
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 28

29. Now create a “Best Customer” profile
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information
Best-Customer Profile:
Industry: Plastics Manufacturer
Company Size: >100 employees
Years in Business: >10 Years
Geography: Northeast
PAYDEX: 80–100
Financial Stress Score: <3
Commercial Credit Score: <3
ProspectsYour Best Customer
29

30. Today’s Discussion
 Prescreen and enable instant decisions to shorten the
sales cycle
 Reduce credit holds and find upsell opportunities
 Optimize and segment your portfolio to find the profile of
your best customers
Credit Enabling Sales - D&B Confidential & Proprietary Information 30

31. To learn more visit
www.dnb.com/dnbi