At NBC Universal, the Sales Cloud Makes Business Easier and More Effective

Challenge

• NBC Universal, a leading media and entertainment company, wanted to transform its advertising sales business
• The company needed to provide a more effective way for reps to sell non-traditional media buys such as product placements
• The company wanted to replace existing solutions with a single, integrated CRM and content management system
• The company required cutting-edge technology that would let sales teams focus on their clients
• The system needed to support sales of multiple properties and non-traditional media placements, improve coordination between sales and marketing, and facilitate measurement and analysis
• NBC Universal wanted a solution it could quickly deploy and easily update

Solution

• NBC Universal deployed Salesforce CRM Unlimited Edition in 2 months with help from Salesforce.com Consulting
• A six week training push drove user adoption. Ongoing training through Salesforce.com Training & Certification lets NBC Universal keep up with best practices
• Salesforce CRM content libraries make it easy for reps to find relevant documents during daily sales activities
• Marketing can create new advertising opportunities around product placement and programming content, and quickly provide sales teams with the presentations and materials to sell this inventory (for example, sales pitches can include video clips highlighting new shows, giving advertisers more confidence in what they are buying)
• Marketing analysts provide sales teams with detailed account profiles including data on historic advertising spend. This allows reps to identify and pursue targeted strategies to expand NBC Universal’s “share of wallet” at key accounts
• NBC Universal integrated Salesforce CRM with its proprietary customer database
• NBC Universal used custom tabs to capture and distribute deal opportunities within different properties, and communicate non-traditional media opportunities and marketing requests to the correct teams
• Employees create, manage, and measure targeted email campaigns with Salesforce CRM Marketing
• NBC Universal installed applications including Hoover’s, D&B Customer Data Integrator, and Crystalreports.com and Virtual Response from the AppExchange for more functionality
• The company plans to add Salesforce CRM Partners and mobile access

Results

• Salesforce CRM transforms transactional, behind-the-scenes efforts, making it easier for NBC Universal account executives to identify opportunities across all of the company’s platforms
• Increased communication and collaboration make account executives more effective
• Operations are unified
• Improved visibility lets managers focus on larger, more detailed 360-degree custom marketing projects
• The centralized communications tool enables ideas and workflows to be shared across the business and maintains knowledge base over time