Illumina Finds a Strategic Growth Engine in Sales Navigator
SUCCESS STORY
Illumina is a global leader in genomics and DNA sequencing. The Illumina sales team needed to keep up with the constantly evolving industry and identify significant customer events in order to keep their outreach relevant and timely. The company turned to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, which provided them with real-time customer and account insights. Sales Navigator has been almost universally adopted by the Illumina sales team, with 75% saving at least an hour per week on prospecting.
THE CHALLENGE
Staying informed in a fast changing environment
Illumina, a biotechnology research company, provides technologies that are being used to address life’s biggest health challenges such as cancer and infectious diseases, as well as social challenges like food insecurity and climate change. Their primary audiences are healthcare providers and research laboratories.
The industries Illumina targets typically experience a degree of talent fluidity, both within and between companies. It is essential that Illumina’s sales teams know when contacts change roles or move between labs.
The science of genomics is breaking new ground every day. Illumina aimed to find a way to quickly identify significant events such as: the opening of new labs, the awarding of grants, and key funding announcements so they can keep their outreach relevant and timely. In addition, Illumina needed to figure out the right people to connect with to achieve their goals. In order to meet all their goals, the team at Illumina wanted to find the right tools to identify, connect, and engage with their prospect or legacy customers.
THE SOLUTION
A tool that keeps pace with industry
Illumina’s Commercial Leadership and Inside Sales teams adopted LinkedIn Sales Navigator to meet their respective sales directives of pipeline management and new account growth.
Features like CRM contact creation and CRM contact synchronization enable Illumina to avoid duplicate work and save time.
Illumina’s sales teams stay on top of real-time account changes through features such as lead suggestions, and daily alerts. These capabilities have been invaluable according to Lauren Wigen, Executive Inside Sales Representative. “Having access to all of this data ensures that we are reaching out to the correct person and that our outreach is relevant.”
“Our industry evolves with every new discovery,” shares Vincent Brissot, Vice President Global Operations at Illumina. “Sales Navigator ensures that we have a 360-degree awareness of what's happening in this evolving market.”
THE RESULTS
Real-time customer and account insights
LinkedIn Sales Navigator integrated seamlessly into Illumina’s overarching sales strategy, providing real-time customer and account insights.
With Sales Navigator, Illumina can focus on accounts with the most white space, then identify decision makers within those accounts. From there, the sales teams are expanding their network of contacts, discovering hidden allies, and anchoring themselves with the accounts regardless of who may change roles down the line.
Sales Navigator enables Illumina to build strong partnerships due to alerts and proactive outreach opportunities.
Deep insights that spur growth
Illumina believes in customer-centricity and strives to be the most trusted Genomics provider in the industry. Brissot shares how Sales Navigator’s insights have become an instrumental part of their growth strategy: “Sales Navigator helps us understand what's happening with these accounts and informs how we can better connect, approach, and engage with customers.”
Sales Navigator’s deep insights are helping Illumina meet their strategic objective of expanding into new markets. “LinkedIn Sales Navigator enables proactive outreach which is informed by those insights and alerts,” shares Brissot, “At the end of the day we are able to build a stronger business relationship between those customers and Illumina.”
Because of the insights from LinkedIn, Illumina has strengthened the quality of their outbound communication. “With Sales Navigator,” says Wigen, “we track updates like company interest, what they’re doing, and what they’re posting about to make sure that we are reaching out with information that is relevant and useful to the customer.”
A strategic growth engine
The key to Illumina’s success, says Brissot, is in how they have framed Sales Navigator to their teams: “It’s not just another tool, it’s a strategic growth engine. We have modernized our sales force by equipping them with a digital platform that helps them connect and engage with customers where their customers are at.”
By allowing their sales team to champion the use of Sales Navigator, Illumina has seen rapid and effective adoption. Brissot offers this advice, “Demonstrate value fast – a few motivated team members will become champions. Position Sales Navigator as a sales development initiative and establish a clear path to ROI. Invest in sales enablement so your teams know best practices. Finally, highlight successes and encourage others to emulate what’s happening.”
Main features used:
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“At Illumina, we’re constantly pushing ourselves to deliver not only the leading sequencing technology, but the best possible support for our customers as they advance and change the future of human health. To enable that future and accelerate adoption to genomics, we needed to equip the best Commercial force with the most seamless modern digital capabilities, including Sales Navigator.”
Susan TousiFormer Chief Commercial Officer
Illumina -
“It’s not just another tool, it’s a strategic growth engine. We have modernized our sales force by equipping them with a digital platform that helps them connect and engage with customers where their customers are at.”
Vincent BrissotVice President of Global Operations
Illumina -
“Sales Navigator ensures that we have a 360-degree awareness of what's happening in this evolving market.”
Vincent BrissotVice President of Global Operations
Illumina
ABOUT ILLUMINA
At Illumina, our goal is to apply innovative technologies and revolutionary assays to the analysis of genetic variation and function, making studies possible that were not even imaginable just a few years ago.
INDUSTRY
Biotechnology Research
No. OF EMPLOYEES:
10,000 employees
HEADQUARTERS
San Diego, CA
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