Cloud9 Analytics

Sales Management 2.0: 3 Steps to Optimizing Sales Performance

Barbra Gago — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:02:42 +0000

In the recent study, Sales Management Optimization, CSO Insights found that most Sales Managers know what to do, but they are having a hard time performing. The study gathered data on over 100 metrics to try and identify sales management best practices. Here is a chart of the top 10 best practices participants identified, and how they perform against them.

This chart not only shows what you should be doing, but it emphasizes what you need to do better and the relationship between the practices. For example, the first item “dynamically detect changes in the current pipeline/forecast” directly affect the success of other practices.

This next chart shows win, loss and no decision ratters for forecasted deals in 2006 and competitively in 2010. As forecasted deals, these are opportunities that sales have moved into the pipeline and committed to close. These are the deals you need to have the most visibility into, since they are sales projections they should be used in other planning decisions. Since 2006, we have had a 5% decrease in close rates of forecasted deals.

The key is not just finding more deals, the key is to close more of the deals that are identified as opportunities. It sounds easier that it is (otherwise we wouldn’t be having this discussion). Jim Dickie of CSO Insights recommends these three steps to help with forecast accuracy and increased revenue.

1. Formalize the Process

If you can’t manage what you can’t see, then a good place to start is having visibility and getting everyone on the same page. For example, what is a “qualified lead” how is it defined by Sales and Marketing and how does it affect your sales / business process? What are the steps of your sales cycle? If there is no clearly defined process, and everyone has their own criteria for determining the probability of a deal closing, you have a problem, and will have little consistency or accuracy in your projections. Another study by CSO Insights found that formal process adoption has a direct impact on sales results (for the better).

2. Inspect the Process

Once a formal process is in place, it’s the Sales Manager’s duty to ensure the process is working. Many times, this means that there needs to be additional tools provided to help these managers coach, mentor, and manage by exception. Managers need clear visibility into the pipeline to be able to do this. The problem is that most managers currently either track the sales pipeline in excel, or through there CRM, and unfortunately neither of these tools are enough to provide the kind of visibility and flexibility a Sales Manager needs. It’s important to give these managers access to dynamic sales analytics.

3. Optimize the Process

Because the sales environment is so dynamic, it’s important to monitor, asses trends and make improvements to your process. To have an optimized process, it’s key to have strong Sales & Marketing alignment, along with an understanding of the consequences you face if you don’t evolve your process. Your goal should be to continuously improve your sales process, and linking compensation to this goal is a good way to get your team focused on it.

3 Tips: Running a Successful Weekly Sales Meeting

Barbra Gago — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:10:57 +0000

1. Know where you are.

In order to know if you are on track on or not, you need to know where you are in a given period against quota, forecast and plan. It’s ideal to have this information at the “summary” level so you can identify regions and/or reps that are on or off track. After identifying groups that aren’t on track, you should drill into the details to determine if there’s a problem, discern the root cause, then talk about remediation strategies.

2. Know where you are headed.

The goal is to avoid surprises. It’s best to review your open pipeline to determine whether your coverage is sufficient to meet your period goals and identify at risk groups. For groups/reps that are at risk, you’d need to look at “what’s changed” in your pipe, you need to have the ability to see how things are changing and moving through the pipeline since your last meeting (last week). It’s ideal to inspect individual deals to proactively identify issues and ways to meet them head on (in advance) versus realizing when it’s too late. For example, you might find that a large deal has an expired close date, or that the next steps haven’t been updated in awhile.

3. Know what’s changed.

To really know where you are and where you are headed, it’s critical to know what’s changed in your pipeline. Review what’s changed in a given period or between two periods to see historical norms and provide lightweight benchmarking. Knowing where you were, and where you are is one thing ($ in pipe) but you need to know what’s caused that change. For example, what’s been moved out of the pipe, what’s been adjusted, won, or lost. This enables you to assess potential risk in real-time. It’s hard to set goals or expectations when you don’t have a clear picture of your current situation, and a good understanding of all the factors that will affect your goals and forecasts.

If you have access to an analytics application, it can be the best way to optimize the time you spend with your reps. With deal-level “what’s changed” detail available to the managers in real-time, reps see more benefit updating the system, because it stops their managers from asking them the same question every week and they can use their meetings for coaching and discussing next steps for driving deal closure. Both of which have a direct impact on increasing pipeline velocity and bottom line revenue.

The Seven Habits of Prospecting 2.0

Barbra Gago — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:17:52 +0000

You’ve left tons of voice mail messages followed by well-written emails and talked with an army of gatekeepers but you have yet to receive a return call. You are convinced you have lost your prospecting mojo and have started considering moving out of a sales role. Wait–don’t despair, this is one of the most exciting times to be in sales and prospecting has never been so rich and colorful-full of opportunities and special effects.

It’s time you let go of old habits–simply because they will give you the same old response–which is nada. Forget any long sales habits–sending out long emails, leaving long voice mails, asking for long meetings and having long conversations that go nowhere.

Today’s prospecting requires that you reboot and press “refresh” in your cold calling efforts. The new bite-sized, bold, confident, fresh, friendly, quick and smart sales habits have arrived. And they are here to give you the hunting superpowers you need.

7 Habits of Successful prospecting 2.0:

Set your non-negotiable time–Say No to interruptions and focus- it’s your private and focused time you dedicate to your prospecting efforts.
Do your homework–If you want to stop sounding like every other vendor, take the time to learn about your prospects pains, needs, wants and you will earn more time. A well-researched intelligent call will get response—especially if supported by a brief email.
Pump up your Tool IQ–Pump up the volume when it comes to learning your sales tools and integrating them throughout the entire sales process: from pre-call research to enhanced phone and email to web conferencing to sales intelligence that helps them calls deeper and wider.
Feed bite-sized pieces–Prospects want the lite version of everything- give them tiny morsels along the way by educating them instead of the full menu. Take the time to inventory your content and develop a lead nurturing/educating strategy—whether it’s a YouTube video, webinar, ebook, podcast, blog, or case study.
Build your Social Graph–Remember that prospects make purchase decisions based on peer recommendations and testimonials–become socially savvy and well connecting by building your networks.
Synchronize email and voice mail effort–These two must work together simultaneously for maximum response.
Move at lightning speed–Prospecting should be quick, confident and brave. Don’t be shy to quickly move through prospects listening for key opportunities and letting go of the ones that will clog your forecast. Remember to travel safe!

Guest Blogger

Josiane Feigon is author of the book, Smart Selling on the Phone and Online–the sourcebook for inside sales. Her Cubicle Chronicles blog is voted among the top 25 sales blogs. She’s founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications, a 20-year veteran and thought leader of the industry, Josiane is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on inside sales team and manager talent, providing consulting, coaching, and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies.

Terminology: Pipeline Velocity

Barbra Gago — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:45:12 +0000

Pipeline velocity is an important sales and marketing metric that is often overlooked. Knowing the details of your pipeline velocity can help you with better forecast accuracy because it measures the rate of change in your pipe, giving you a clear ideas of the overall health of your pipeline.

When you calculate your pipeline velocity, you can identify the key drivers that impact your business, letting you focus on those you can control and improve.

Pipeline velocity is the dollar over day measure of your pipeline value. It’s calculated like this:

(#of deals) x (average deal size) x (win conversion rate)

average selling time in days

Once you know your pipeline velocity, you’ll have better visibility, and better pipeline management which leads to more accurate forecasting.

5 Tips to Improve Forecast Accuracy

Barbra Gago — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:34:19 +0000

CSO Insights recently conducted a study that resulted in some startling facts. Forecasted win rates are at an all-time low–only 44.8% of deals are won, reps aren’t making their quotas–only 51.5% do, resulting in a mere 78.5% of plan attainment being accomplished (yes, if you set goals they should be informed, and you should be able to make 100% of plan). This means that there is major revenue being lost. Most companies use their CRM or other to forecast–only 21.1% using analytics, but CRM is simply not enough to give you a realistic view into the changes in your pipeline.

In order to attain all that revenue you are missing out on, you need to improve your sales and pipeline management process, and increase the accuracy of forecasts.

Forecast Accuracy Tips

Leverage Pipeline Analytics – analytics are critical to success since they allow you to proactively determine which forecasted deals have changed, and why. Also, they let you see, in real-time, which deals are slipping and why?
Extend Visibility – since Sales managers spend most of their time coaching reps, or helping them close deals, it’s important to be proactive in identifying which reps need extra coaching (based on their pipeline) and coach them on how to qualify out bad leads earlier.
Standardize Your Process Management – the CSO Insights study found that only 23% of companies have a dynamic process, but those companies that do have arrived at the “trusted partner” stage with their customers, and it shows in their bottom line. Dynamic sales processes are those informed by real-time analytics–and actionable forecasts.
Increase Efficacy in Pipe – because sales managers only spend on about 15% of their time on pipeline management and forecasting, it’s extremely important to make sure that the time spent is effective and efficient. Again, pipeline analytics are the best way to see an understand what’s happening (using historical data) now compared to yesterday, or last week. This will allow you to be efficient with your time and effective with your coaching, mentoring and planning.
Escalate CRM Adoption – To have a clear view of what’s going on in your pipeline, you need to have up to date data that’s accurate. The “detect and correct” is more effective that “measure and punish” it’s more like using a carrot rather than a stick. You want to show the value analytics has in the use of CRM, when sales reps can see how it affects their bottom line, it will become important to them as well. Jim Dickie of CSO Insights even suggests having a Reps forecast accuracy be somehow tied to their pay so they care as much about accurate data as you do.

9 Social CRM Experts You Should Follow

Barbra Gago — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:14:08 +0000

Here are 9 Social CRM Experts you should follow. Each are constantly blogging, sharing researching, presenting new ideas and conversing in dialogue about the evolution of CRM, social technologies, how technology affects customer-brand relationships and how to use or integrate Social CRM. You can follow the entire list here: Cloud9Analytics/SocialCRM

R “Ray” Wang is a founding partner and research analyst for enterprise strategy at Altimeter Group and the author of the popular enterprise software blog “A Software Insider’s Point of View” which provides insight into how disruptive technologies and new business models impact the enterprise. @rwang0

Jacob Morgan is the Principal of Chess Media Group, a social business consultancy that works with medium and enterprise companies on developing Enterprise 2.0, Social CRM, and Social Media strategies. Jacob is also the co-author of Twittfaced, a social media 101 book for business. @jacobm

Jill Dyché is a partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting. Her role at Baseline is a combination of best-practice expert, industry gadfly, key client advisor, and all-around thought leader. She is responsible for key client strategies and market analysis in the areas of data governance, business intelligence, master data management, and customer relationship management. @jilldyche

Paul Greenberg is author of the best-selling CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century and President of The 56 Group, LLC, an enterprise applications consulting services firm, focused on CRM strategic services including go-to-market strategies for vendors and integrators, CRM strategic planning and vendor selection. @pgreenbe

Esteban Kolsky helps organizations of all sizes understand how to approach their customer initiatives to succeed. He has over twenty years experience working with Customers across all areas; marketing, sales, customer service, operations, help desks, call centers and contact centers. He writes a blog on CRM intelligence & strategy. @ekolsky

Bob Thompson is CEO of CustomerThink Corp., an independent research and publishing firm focused on customer-centric business management, and founder of CustomerThink.com. Thompson is a popular keynote speaker, blogger and author of CrowdService: Harnessing the Wisdom of Crowds in Customer Service and Support. @bob_thompson

Umberto Milletti is the CEO and founder of InsideView, a Sales 2.0, Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0 leader. Umberto has been a thought leader in the convergence of technology and content for the last 10 years. He’s a pioneer if the SaaS, Content and CRM industries. He’s also a board member at Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). @umbertom

Mitch Lieberman is expert at customer experiences next generation CRM and the intersection of Social Media, Enterprise 2.0 and CRM, or Social CRM. He’s an advisor with Comity Technology Advisors who provides analysis and strategic advice to companies–helping them leverage social technology to better manage their customer relationships. @mjayliebs

Brian Vellmure is an experienced business leader, futurist, consultant, sales executive, writer, and speaker. He’s directed hundreds of organizations and individuals to increase profitability through strategic customer focused initiatives. His expertise is in CRM, Social CRM, Enterprise 2.0, Social Business, Web 2.0 and Enterprise Software. @CRMStrategies

Terminology: The [Social] Sales Funnel

Barbra Gago — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:28:54 +0000

Traditionally, the sales funnel starts with “awareness” or outbound marketing to drive unqualified leads into the top of funnel, then, after a series of qualifying steps, ends with fewer “customers” exiting through the bottom.

Social media has affected traditional funnel in a number of ways. First, the traditional funnel starts with “awareness” then moves straight into qualifying, then ends with either customers or retention. In this new funnel, businesses identify “qualified” prospects sooner by first understanding user personas and then by joining or building community around the industry in which it wishes to converse, engage and educate prospects. Once community is established either by building or joining, awareness then happens through more traditional means such as marketing, direct marketing, events, trade shows, social media, blogging, white papers, eBook and other campaigns.

Second, the traditional funnel starts with Marketing and ends with Sales. In the social affected funnel, marketing follows customers deeper into the funnel (through to qualified lead, sometime more) and Sales may engage prospects sooner (like prospecting via LinkedIn), plus, social media facilitates greater engagement with a brand, and calls for multi-dimensional contact (meaning it’s not just Sales and Marketing talking to customers at the top of the funnel, it’s also Executives, Customer Success and Support). This means that more organizations may be involved in engagement, nurturing or qualifying leads.

Anther way social has affected the funnel, is at the bottom. The traditional funnel ends shortly after the prospect becomes a customer, but as you will see in this version, the bottom half of the funnel is as important as the top. Social media is a way for businesses to continuously grow relationships with customers, provide additional value, and support. With this new funnel there is additional emphasis put on nurturing customers into evangelists, much like we nurtured prospects into customers at the top end.

Ultimately, community and evangelism will over lap, as community members become customers, and customers become evangelists within the community. If you really focus on knowing your community (prospects) well, it will be easier to engage them, and easier to provide value to them which means that the prospects entering in at the top of the funnel, will already be more qualified than before. Then if you really spend time on helping your customers grow and be successful you will create evangelists who will help drive leads into the funnel for you!

[Download Cloud9 Sales Funnel]

New Best Practices for CRM

Barbra Gago — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:33:33 +0000

Jill Dyché, partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting, performs advisory services in customer and data strategy delivery, recently published an article in Baseline Magazine preparing people for the next wave of CRM. Learning from the mistakes of our past, Jill covers some new best practices to consider when implementing your CRM and how you think of CRM not as technology but as the process or methodology of how you manage you’re customer’s experience.

Here are 5 things to think about:

Don’t Call it CRM – Now it’s more like CEM. Customer Relationship Management has transformed into Customer Experience Management.
Don’t Forget You’re Business Model
Keep Social Media in Perspective – You’re brand and dialogue with customers transcend social media
Consider the Cloud – Don’t let your existing technology infrastructure – or lack thereof, be an excuse not to launch new CRM efforts.
Don’t forget about the data – Jill says “The litmus test is the answer to this question: What’s your system of record for customer data? If the answer is, “We have more than one system of record for customer data,” then there is actually no system of record for customer data. There’s a good chance that data quality is being compromised and that there are, in fact, multiple versions of the truth”

Some tips for getting started:

Where possible align your CRM & Corporate Strategy, this will help you cement top down support
Start CRM with your business customers, remember 20-80 rule
Be open to changing measurements, this can help ensure everyone is on board
Don’t forget to manage expectations, help everyone understand the value of improving customer experience

Here is the original article: Jill Dyche CRM Next Wave

Forecasting Clouds: CRM Experts in Their Own Words

Barbra Gago — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:29:52 +0000

Chris Bucholtz of Forecasting Clouds Interviewed our very own Karen Steele at the CRM Evolution Event a couple of weeks ago. In this clip Karen talks about avoiding the hazards of inflexible sales forecasting, how Cloud9 can help you optimize your CRM and help Sales Managers manage change in the pipeline. She also touche on Cloud9′s plans to integrate collaborative tools and a new marketing application.

Terminology: Qualified Lead

Barbra Gago — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:09:02 +0000

It used to be that a qualified lead simply meant a potential customer that has expressed interest in your product or brand, and that meets some general buying criteria.

While that’s still true, a qualified lead must accompany a lot more information before it is prioritized for contact. In order to achieve “qualified lead” status, it must first adhere to the criteria of both the sales and marketing departments. With technologies such as CRM and Marketing Automation the process of setting criteria and organizing leads accordingly has never been easier, but the key of course is the Sales and Marketing Alignment–the agreement of what a “qualified lead” actually is to both parities.

In order to attract more qualified leads, it’s important that you understand your buyer, and speak their language–avoiding gobbledygook (or marketing jargon). Also, nurturing plays a large role in the process of qualifying leads, a job that both Sales and Marketing are responsible for. When initial leads aren’t “qualified” or ready to be passed to a Sales person, or contacted, nurturing is a way for you to help educate them through their buying process, while keeping in touch and supporting them until they meet the criteria of a qualified lead, and are contacted by Sales.

Increasing qualified leads comes from knowing your buyer, providing value to them at various stages of the cycle, and addressing their needs at the appropriate time. Because of Sales 2.0, we are able to identify not-sales ready and qualified leads sooner, and take action faster.

To converse about this topic, please join the Revenue Accelerator Group on LinkedIn