Over the course of our careers, we’ve had the privilege of working with dozens of sales managers. In many ways, managers hold the key to the success of their sales reps. They know each and every rep well, understand the customer and prospect mix each rep has, the market that reps are operating in, the relative difficulty of making the quota, etc. They capture and impart this knowledge during their one-on-one discussions with reps. Such tribal knowledge is often not institutionalized throughout the sales organization. The result is lack of repeatability, consistency and scalability of results – which means they are starting over with each new rep, team and division that they move into management. Certainly factors like compensation, incentives, coaching and product training play a role in this success too. But we see distinct traits in the sales managers that are attracted to work with us – they use numbers, statistics, data and models to get the best performance from their sales teams. Here are a few traits that we’ve seen, some challenges that they’ve faced and why they’ve chosen to work with us: TRAIT: They desire to “do something different this time.” As ideas like call blocks, teaming and …Read More
Tag Archives: sales data analytics
Inside sales: Playing by the numbers
One thread that ran through the sessions at AA-ISP’s inside sales conference in Chicago last week was: 1384137682395. That’s right. 1384137682395. Dollars. Percentages. Rates. Ratios. “Batting averages,” even. Numbers. The language of numbers, thinking analytically and driving decisions based on numbers was a shared language throughout the conference. And numbers don’t have to be complicated; many lessons were simple but still powerful for sales productivity. Here are a few we heard: People need to receive an average of 6-7 lead nurturing contacts by marketing before they are sales ready. The close ratio of “buying signal leads” versus “tire kicker leads” is 8:1. Buying signal leads request pricing, demos and trials. Tire kicker leads download white papers and attend webinars. LinkedIn messages can return a response rate 3x more than email; LinkedIn InMail messages can return a response rate 30x more than email. Email stretches out sales communications and sales cycles from what could have been 5 minutes to 5 days or 5 weeks or more. Don’t hide behind email. Have conversations. Test different strategies for cold calls and initial conversations. One strategy may deliver 130 product demos while another strategy may deliver 390 product demos. Implementing tests and processes that …Read More
Three ways to improve outbound lead generation
The first step to improving outbound lead generation is to better understand pipeline activity. An analytical approach can help sales managers to create efficiencies in sales rep activities, resulting in improved lead generation outcomes: Sales Activity Lead assignment to reps – Placing a manageable quantity of leads in each sales reps’ queue on a timely basis so they can start calling, qualifying and closing deals without being overwhelmed. Lead disposition by reps – The “why” of determining which leads are not qualified or worth pursuing is just as important as converting a qualified lead into an opportunity. Time spent on non-sales activity – Creating action lists that can be used to prioritize, assemble and validate actionable info How can analytics make reps more efficient with these sales activities? Lead assignment: Reps disqualify leads at a faster rate than they qualify them. The assignment of new leads can be automated based on total current active leads as a ratio of closed leads, and the relative volume of leads compared to other reps. Lead disposition: Disposition reasons that are clear, accurate and consistent can yield valuable info to fix specific problems. For example, if the reasons show bad data, go back to the vendor and get updated records …Read More
Why you should put some sales tasks on auto-pilot
For any airplane pilot, the auto-pilot is a valuable companion. It can automate routine tasks such as maintaining altitude and direction so you are free to focus on the next tasks needed to reach your goal destination. Airplane auto-pilots can handle many tasks for the pilot. They can: Follow programmed climb and descent rates to pre-set altitudes Turn the plane to a specific direction Line up for landing on the runway Execute missed runway approach procedures, like climb away from the ground if the runway approach lights are not visible But amazing as auto-pilots are, aviators are aware that the auto-pilot does not fly the plane for you. You are still always responsible for reaching the goal destination. Business analytic tools – particularly those with predictive methods – can function a lot like an auto-pilot. They reduce workload, prioritize tasks and standardize best practices so you can focus on things the auto-pilot doesn’t do: continuously improving human performance, anticipating hazards far in advance, and staying ahead of the navigation tasks. Like auto-pilots, how can analytics contribute to sales enablement and productivity? REDUCE WORKLOAD: Pilots joke that flying is a long span of boredom followed by moments of panic. Perhaps like all the sales activity during the final days of the quarter? In flying, reducing mundane workload is a …Read More
Spring Cleaning: Data hygiene tips that keep your sales data always ready for analysis
Predictive analytics needs a foundation of clean data. Here are top tips from our most recent lead gen implementation on Salesforce.com. You can use these immediately in any environment: Address standardization and change of address. Typically up to 30% of records lack complete address information. This affects both deliverability and duplicate search. If you have not done so in 3 years, run a Change of Address (NCOA) process to get your customer’s new addresses. Stay up to date on your customers because 10% of businesses move each year. When you receive a street address change, but it’s a PO Box in the same city, retain both — one for mailing and one for secondary validation. Dupes are the silent killer. Because a single comprehensive definition does not fit all, de-dupe the files using a variety of match logic. You can try a loose match logic (a few criteria, gives more duplicates) or tight match logic (more criteria, resulting in fewer duplicates). Take address elements into account, but use transactional information to determine which record to keep or drop. For example, between duplicates you might want to merge a record with multiple contacts into a record with the largest sales amount or the record with the longest …Read More