Author name: Prachi

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Top Revenue Optimization Software for 2025

Top Revenue Optimization Software for 2025 RevOps 10 min Is your sales team striving for sustainable growth and profitability? Achieving these objectives requires a keen focus on optimizing revenue streams. Revenue optimization software is a critical element in achieving these goals. Comprehensive research and informed decision-making in software selection become crucial to maximize your revenue potential.  This article looks at the top revenue optimization software for 2025. We will conduct an in-depth analysis to provide you with a valuable resource. It will simplify your decision and help you implement the most effective tool for revenue enhancement. Top Revenue Optimization Software for 2024 1. Nektar 2. Clari 3. Gainsight 4. Planhat 5. Accord 6. Churnzero 7. Totango 8. Aviso 9. Vitally What is a Revenue Optimization Software? Revenue optimization software is a strategic solution that assists organizations in maximizing their revenue potential. The software leverages advanced data analytics, and artificial intelligence to provide actionable insights. You can understand finer details about pricing, demand forecasting, inventory management, sales strategies, and more.  Integrating and analyzing large datasets helps businesses make data-driven decisions that enhance revenue performance. Revenue optimization software thus serves as a critical tool for enterprises seeking to optimize their pricing strategies and boost sales. There is an added advantage of streamlined operations while maintaining a competitive edge. Overview of Top Revenue Optimization Software for 2025 Here are the ten best revenue optimization software solutions for your business in 2025. 1. Nektar Nektar is the world’s first AI for revenue operations. The platform takes an innovative approach to revenue management by harnessing the power of actionable relationship data to combat revenue churn effectively.  Nektar excels in addressing CRM data gaps, both historical and ongoing, through the application of AI time travel. It ensures organizations possess a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of their customer relationships. The software can transform popular communication platforms like Slack or MS Teams into an early warning system. It can proactively mitigate revenue risk by identifying potential issues before they arise.  Extracting valuable insights from seller conversations and tracking champion movement makes Nektar adept at surfacing new pipeline opportunities and hot leads. Your sales team can ultimately seize revenue-generating prospects. Nektar insists on the importance of CRM data accuracy as a prerequisite for unlocking its generative AI capabilities. This way, the platform ensures it is a reliable and indispensable asset for your go-to-market process. Top features and benefits: Zero rep adoption Day 1 ROI Zero change management Seamless deployment 2. Clari Clari offers a comprehensive revenue platform to enhance efficiency, predictability, and growth throughout the revenue process. With Clari, revenue teams gain unparalleled visibility into their business operations for improved buyer-seller alignment.  There’s also proactive identification of risk and opportunity within the sales pipeline. The heightened visibility significantly improves forecast accuracy and drives operational efficiency. Revenue professionals can foster better connectivity, efficiency, and predictability in their revenue processes. It will ultimately empower them to achieve sustainable growth and success. Top features and benefits: Forecasting & RevOps Conversation intelligence Sales engagement Deal inspection & management Mutual action plans & deal rooms Data capture & ingestion 3. Gainsight   Gainsight is a pioneering revenue optimization software that exemplifies the future of growth through its innovative, customer-centric technology. Gainsight empowers customer success, product, and community engagement teams to scale their operations efficiently. The platform fosters alignment and provides a comprehensive view of their customers.  A holistic approach aids in boosting product adoption and proves instrumental in preventing churn and nurturing the growth of customer communities. Gainsight CS is thus a vital asset for businesses committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences while driving revenue growth and fostering lasting customer relationships. Top features and benefits: Identify and prevent revenue leakage Drive a high-performing renewals process Identify and execute expansion opportunities to drive growth 4. Planhat Gainsight is a pioneering revenue optimization software that exemplifies the future of growth through its innovative, customer-centric technology. Gainsight empowers customer success, product, and community engagement teams to scale their operations efficiently. The platform fosters alignment and provides a comprehensive view of their customers.  A holistic approach aids in boosting product adoption and proves instrumental in preventing churn and nurturing the growth of customer communities. Gainsight CS is thus a vital asset for businesses committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences while driving revenue growth and fostering lasting customer relationships. Top features and benefits: Identify and prevent revenue leakage Drive a high-performing renewals process Identify and execute expansion opportunities to drive growth 5. Accord Accord is a revenue optimization software designed to fortify sales processes and methodologies. It helps in enhancing the predictability and efficiency of deal execution. The platform empowers organizations to directly integrate their successful sales strategies into their sales representatives’ workflows.  Accord helps sales teams with the tools to execute winning sales processes consistently. It contributes to a more efficient approach to revenue generation. The emphasis on reinforcing established methodologies and delivering them directly to the front lines makes Accord invaluable for businesses aiming to optimize revenue. Top features and benefits: Standardized best practices across reps on every deal Up-level sales execution for enhanced deal velocity and win rates Increased team efficiency through decreased rep ramp times 6. Churnzero ChurnZero helps subscription-based businesses thrive at scale. It has a comprehensive suite of tools meticulously crafted to enhance efficiency, boost revenue, and deliver unparalleled customer experiences. Leveraging cutting-edge automation, personalization, in-app communications, and the innovation of Customer Success AI™ helps the platform facilitate seamless customer engagement. The platform guides them towards realizing the total value of their investments.  ChurnZero offers varied resources, including journeys, health scoring, survey tools, segmentation, playbooks, robust reporting, real-time alerts, guided walkthroughs, collaboration centers, and more. Furthermore, ChurnZero seamlessly integrates with your CRM and technology stack. It ensures a cohesive and efficient approach to achieving sustainable revenue growth while focusing on customer satisfaction. Top features and benefits: Systematically track upcoming renewals Use health scores to gauge the likelihood of renewal Automate renewal activities Easily identify expansion opportunities Increase in-app upsell conversions 7. Totango Totango helps cross-functional enterprise teams enhance productivity and retention

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5 Tips to Build a CRM Data Governance Strategy

5 Tips to Build a CRM Data Governance Strategy RevOps 10 min CRM data governance relies on a solid system.  This includes implementing processes to ensure the data seamlessly flows in the system across departments, while simultaneously maintaining the quality, usability, and accessibility of this data. CRMs are are considered an upgrade or a quick fix to marketing, sales, and service performances. The data gathered is meant to be constantly updated and free of duplicates or copies. But most data in CRM is dirty. After encountering failures with this mindset, companies often feel discouraged and are unable to get the hang of the problem. They start blaming the CRM capabilities when in fact the underlying problem lies in their very own database. Many, if not most, business owners pay no attention to the contact rearrangement or standardization of data and run new strategies based on outdated or siloed data. CRM data governance emphasizes the best practices to tackle these problems so organizations can rely on an updated and single data source to drive business growth. Before we move on to how you can go about building a CRM data governance strategy, let’s first understand why it’s needed in the first place. How Poor CRM Data Affects Revenue Data can swoop in and save the day by helping you tackle problems, keeping an eye on performance, enhancing your processes, and unraveling the mysteries of your industry. On the other hand, poor data quality is like having a mischievous gremlin. It can wreak havoc on your business, leaving nothing but chaos and mayhem in its wake.  Here are some ways poor quality CRM data can make you bleed revenue: 1. Shakes up business processes Since data management serves as a crucial source of information for all departments within a company, any inconsistencies can significantly affect various business operations. Even a small error in the master data can trigger a domino effect that becomes challenging to mitigate once it sets in motion. Inaccurate data leads to a ripple effect of mistakes across departments and drains significant company resources. Addressing data discrepancies requires allocating corporate resources to conduct root-cause analyses and implement corrective measures, impacting the productivity of your staff in the process. 2. Hinders effective decision-making When your data is inaccurate, it can throw you off track and lead to some pretty lousy decisions. Imagine relying on faulty reports and dashboards – it’s like driving blindfolded! Without the right information, your management team will be clueless about what’s really going on in the business. And that’s a recipe for making some really risky and uninformed choices that could seriously hurt your company’s future growth. 3. Puts a wrench in business operations Consider a scenario where a manufacturing company heavily relies on inaccurate supplier data. They have outdated information about lead times, pricing, and product availability from their suppliers. As a result, they struggle with unreliable delivery schedules, unexpected price fluctuations, and limited visibility into the availability of key materials. This leads to production delays, missed deadlines, and increased costs. The company’s ability to fulfil customer orders on time is severely hindered, causing dissatisfaction and the potential loss of valuable business relationships. The poor data quality in supplier information negatively impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s business operations. 4. Drives up expenditure Referring to the above example, if the company makes decisions based on inaccurate data, it is possible to end up shipping extra materials to the wrong address at the wrong time, costing the company extra. These direct costs can put a dent in the company’s profit. Indirect costs can include outdated pricing structures, inaccurate customer segments, and staff dissatisfaction. Fixing all these will cost additional resources and time, which otherwise could have been put to more productive use. 5. Affects regulatory compliance Compliance is a big deal for any company. You see, these data privacy rules in many countries dictate how personal information should be handled. So, if a company deals with sensitive client data, they gotta go the extra mile to ensure data quality and security. When it comes to verifying your contacts, it’s important to be thorough with your data quality. You wouldn’t want to accidentally send information to the wrong person just because of a small typo in their email address. That can lead to some serious consequences.  Inaccurate data can even land organizations in hot water, with fines and all. There have been cases where companies had to pay for text messages sent to numbers that had already been given to new owners. So, it’s better to double-check and ensure your data is accurate to avoid any costly mishaps. 5 Tips to Build a CRM Data Governance Strategy Implementing this process in your CRM may seem overwhelming at first, leading many to pass the responsibility onto someone else once the data is sourced. However, by focusing on five key concepts, your team can better navigate this task and work towards achieving success. 1. Define clear data standards Establishing clear guidelines and standards for data entry is crucial to maintain data integrity and consistency. By doing so, businesses can ensure that all customer data is accurately captured and formatted correctly.  This involves defining comprehensive naming conventions, which provide a consistent format for entering customer information. Additionally, implementing data validation rules helps in preventing errors and inconsistencies by validating the accuracy and completeness of the entered data. Setting required fields ensures that essential information is not missed during data entry, enhancing the overall quality of customer data.  By enforcing these guidelines and standards, businesses can rely on a robust and reliable database, enabling better decision-making and analysis based on accurate and consistent customer information. 2. Implement role-based access controls It’s crucial to grant the right access permissions to individuals based on their specific roles and responsibilities within the organization. This ensures that everyone has the appropriate level of access to perform their tasks effectively while also safeguarding sensitive customer data. Limiting access to only authorized personnel can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches. This means

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Top 10 Chrome Extensions for Salesforce in 2025

Top 10 Chrome Extensions for Salesforce in 2025 RevOps 10 min Chrome extensions for Salesforce have become a game-changer in providing users with tools that seamlessly integrate with Salesforce. It has transformed the way professionals interact with the platform. But how do you go about picking the best Chrome extensions for Salesforce? This article is here to help you as we explore the top ten options you need to consider in 2023. Let’s understand how these tools can streamline and enhance your Salesforce experience.  10 Best Chrome Extensions for Salesforce Let’s look at the ten leading Chrome extensions for Salesforce you can consider for your team in 2023: 1. Salesforce Inspector   Salesforce Inspector is designed to cater to the needs of Salesforce administrators and developers, the extension offers productivity tools that simplify inspecting data and metadata directly from the Salesforce UI. Salesforce Inspector also adds a metadata layout on the standard Salesforce UI. The enhancement improves the productivity and joy of Salesforce configuration, development, and integration work. Overlaying the metadata layout helps users comprehensively view their Salesforce setup. It becomes easier to understand and modify various configurations. Key features: Data export and import within Salesforce Current limits consumption overview Editable data records   2. Boostr for Salesforce   Boostr for Salesforce is a Chrome extension crafted to enhance the productivity of Salesforce admins and developers. With its features, Boostr for Salesforce provides a seamless experience that simplifies common tasks and saves valuable time. When adding items to a change set, the extension can search and filter by type. The feature streamlines the change set creation process. It allows admins and developers to locate and select the specific items they need quickly. No more scrolling through long lists or manually searching for the desired elements. Key features: Search function during the addition of items to a change set Filters for a change set Display of all items of a given type on a single page   3. Salesforce Advanced Code Searcher   Salesforce Advanced Code Searcher is designed for admins and developers seeking swift code component retrieval. The free Google Chrome extension empowers users to efficiently search for various code components directly within their Salesforce instance. With the ability to search for Apex Classes, Apex Triggers, and Visualforce Pages, the extension ensures quick access to the necessary code snippets.  The extension also offers a convenient “advanced quick find” section that enables users to jump to specific classes and pages effortlessly. Incorporating Salesforce Advanced Code Searcher into their workflow allows admins and developers to expedite their coding tasks and enhance productivity. Key features: Search your code components in your Salesforce instance Advanced quick find section Developer utilities   4. Enhance Salesforce Dashboard   Enhance Salesforce Dashboard revolutionizes how users access real-time information. The powerful tool lets users stay “up to the second” with the latest data updates. It enhances their decision-making process. One of the key benefits of this extension is its ability to increase the default three columns of the dashboard to a full seven columns.  The expanded view allows for a comprehensive display of critical information. It enables users to gain deeper insights at a glance. Additionally, the extension offers the functionality to set up auto-refresh frequencies and durations. It ensures the dashboard remains continuously updated with the most current data. Key features: Auto Refresh Up to 7 columns Salesforce dashboard Customized frequency and duration of auto-refresh   5. Salesforce Gmail Integration Salesforce Gmail Integration, another reliable Chrome extension for Salesforce, offers seamless integration between Salesforce records and browsers. With Sales Cloud Everywhere, this extension enables users to work on their to-do lists, receive engagement alerts, and create new records. They can also update multiple records within the convenience of their Gmail inbox or in a standalone window alongside any web page.  The integration allows users to sell where they work and effortlessly move deals forward while navigating the web. The extension ensures users can access their Salesforce data anywhere to provide valuable context for every conversation. Moreover, Salesforce Gmail Integration accelerates deals by providing real-time buyer data.  Key features: Connect Salesforce to your Calendar Real-time notifications of engagements Create and update records directly from the browser 6. Salesforce Mass Editor Salesforce Mass Editor, a Chrome extension for Salesforce, empowers users to transform any Salesforce list view into a dynamic mass editor. It offers unparalleled efficiency in bulk record editing. The extension allows users to quickly and easily edit multiple records simultaneously. It saves valuable time and effort.  Users can perform various actions like mass insertion, cloning, updating, and deletion within a single interface. The extension supports both Classic and Lightning versions of Salesforce, ensuring compatibility across user interfaces. Additionally, Salesforce Mass Editor provides the functionality to export record data to a CSV file. Key features: Robust mass editor List view data export Mass data transfer from Excel 7. Revenue Grid for Salesforce and Gmail Revenue Grid for Salesforce and Gmail integrates the power of Salesforce and Chatter into your email inbox. With Revenue Intelligence at its core, this extension empowers sales professionals to sell smarter and enhance their sales performance. Shifting your CRM from “view mode” to “do mode” allows the extension to revolutionize how sales teams engage with their CRM data.  Advanced data capture features provide comprehensive sales data you can analyze using artificial intelligence (AI). The analysis enables Revenue Grid to offer actionable insights and empower sales professionals with guided selling capabilities. Sales teams can unlock the full potential of their CRM and make data-driven decisions to drive revenue growth. Key features: Data capture Email sidebar   Pipeline inspection  Relationship intelligence 8. Salesforce Apex Debugger Salesforce Apex Debugger, a Chrome extension for Salesforce, simplifies debugging your Salesforce code. The tool offers many valuable features that enhance the debugging experience. You can easily search for a specific string in the latest logs to locate the relevant entries swiftly.  The extension also allows you to filter logs based on size and date, making it effortless to find the necessary information. Additionally, Salesforce Apex Debugger supports keyboard shortcuts to enable quick

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Top 15 Revenue Optimization Tools to Consider in 2025

Top 15 Revenue Optimization Tools to Consider in 2025 RevOps 10 min You are all set for the new quarter. You have a dedicated sales team, a comprehensive marketing plan, and you regularly collect customer feedback.  Despite all this, you have started noticing that your revenue growth has hit the ceiling, and you just can’t identify why. What if we told you that the reasons behind this can stay hidden for months or years, draining profits and your business potential? Sounds like a nightmare, right? We will be honest with you, stagnant revenue growth can be a real challenge, and unearthing its causes can be even more challenging.  The good news is, there are strategies and tools to not just overcome but crush this challenge. In this article, we’re going to dig into how you can figure out what’s holding your business back from maximizing its revenue potential and how to address them. And don’t worry, we’re not going to leave you hanging – we’ve also compiled a list of the top revenue optimization tools you can use.  What is Revenue Optimization? Think of revenue optimization as constructing a building. Just as a building requires a strong foundation, precise measurements, and careful planning. The foundation of revenue optimization is laid with accurate data, market trend analysis, and strategic planning. A building is designed to meet the needs of its occupants, Similarly, businesses must understand and cater to the needs of their customers. Each decision to optimize revenue must be based on careful analysis and accurate data. In simple words, revenue optimization involves maximizing revenue growth over the long term by managing pricing plans, user acquisition & retention strategies, and enabling sales and support teams. It uses data analytics, user behavior analysis, and predictive modeling to identify opportunities for optimizing these elements. With the right foundation and planning, a building can stand the test of time. Similarly, a successful revenue optimization strategy is your business’ ticket to long-term revenue growth.   You now know what is revenue optimization and what needs to be done. Let us help you with the how. Pillars of Revenue Optimization Tools To keep your growth chart moving upward, you need the right strategies and tools in place. Without any further ado, let’s dive deeper into the four key strategy pillars that are critical to unlocking the full potential of your business revenue.  1. Pricing Optimizing pricing involves understanding your market data to set the right price points for your product or service, and testing different pricing strategies to find what works best.  This can involve experimenting with freemium models, usage-based pricing, or tiered pricing. Pricing strategies can vary based on factors such as competition, customer demand, and product differentiation.  However, optimizing your pricing strategy does not always require positioning your prices at a higher end to maximize revenue. Rather, it involves choosing pricing that benefits both your customers and your business, by offering value at a fair price point. For example, HubSpot, a marketing and sales automation software, optimized its pricing strategy in 2018 by introducing a more modular pricing structure and a “Starter” plan at a lower price point. This made their platform more accessible and affordable to small businesses and startups, resulting in increased customer acquisition and retention rates. 2. Product development Improving the features and functionality of your product can help increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn. This can involve gathering feedback through surveys, user testing, and customer support interactions from customers. Gathering the feedback is not enough, you must also use data analytics to identify areas for improvement  Begin by researching customer needs, then developing new products or features, and testing and iterating on those products to ensure they meet & exceed customer expectations. For example, Spotify optimizes its product development by using data on users’ listening habits to create personalized experiences They introduced “Your Daily Drive” in 2018, a feature that combines music and news podcasts to create a personalized daily audio playlist for commuting users.  3. Sales & support  Attracting new customers and retaining existing ones is an important part of optimizing your revenue. This is where optimizing the sales and support processes come into the picture.  Provide your sales and support team with the resources and tools they need to close more deals, as well as offer strong customer support. This can help you retain existing customers and generate repeat business. Sales and support enablement strategies can include training programs, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and chatbots. For instance, Freshworks optimizes its sales and support process by offering a suite of AI-powered customer engagement tools, including chatbots and intelligent email responses. These help to automate routine tasks and teams to focus on complex issues. 4. Marketing Marketing is another key pillar to implement while optimizing business revenue. This involves creating a strong brand identity and marketing campaigns that effectively reach your target audience.  The right marketing strategies can help you build brand awareness, generate leads, and convert prospects into customers. You can either bait your customer or simply earn their trust.  You may bait your customer by hosting display ads, Facebook ads and more whereas when it comes to earning their trust you may resort to a variety of tactics, such as content marketing or search engine optimization (SEO).  For example, Dropbox optimized its marketing by using referral marketing and personalized email campaigns. This resulted in significant growth in their customer base while reducing their acquisition costs. Breakdown of the Revenue Optimization Tools We now have an understanding of how revenue optimization works. Let’s walk you through the revenue optimization process step-by-step.  Step 1: Collect and analyze data  In a survey conducted by Gartner, it was found that poor data quality costs businesses an average of $15 million per year in losses. To optimize revenue, businesses must first gather and analyze ‘accurate’ data from various sources. This includes sales data, customer feedback, website traffic, social media engagement, and other sources. By analyzing this data, businesses can gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and need.  But hear us out, there are

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A Guide to Salesforce Opportunity Management

A Guide to Salesforce Opportunity Management RevOps 10 min Effective sales management is a multi-faceted process. At the heart of this crucial function lies sales opportunity management. It is a strategic approach that helps sales teams nurture and capitalize on potential sales prospects. In a competitive marketplace where every lead counts, mastering sales opportunity management is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity. This article looks at the intricacies of sales opportunity management to help you understand it holistically. We will also explore the fundamental concepts associated with it, methodologies, and software solutions. So, let’s know how effective sales opportunity management can drive revenue growth and sustainable business expansion for your organization.  What is a Salesforce Opportunity? An opportunity is a potential business deal when a prospect expresses genuine interest in a product or service. These opportunities represent a critical stage in the sales process, where the likelihood of converting the prospect into a paying customer is much higher.  Opportunities include various factors, like the prospect’s readiness to purchase and their available budget. Identifying and managing these opportunities is critical in sales management. It allows sales teams to nurture relationships effectively and drive revenue growth for the organization. How do Opportunities Differ from Leads? Opportunities and leads represent distinct stages in the sales process. Leads are prospective customers who have shown initial interest in a product or service by providing contact information or expressing interest through inquiries. They are in the early stages of the sales funnel and require further qualification to determine their potential value.  Opportunities are leads thoroughly assessed and have a higher likelihood of conversion. They meet specific criteria, like budget and alignment with the offerings. They are thus ripe for engagement by the sales team. Opportunities are a more advanced stage in the sales process, where focused efforts are directed toward closing a deal. What is Sales Opportunity Management? Sales opportunity management is a structured approach businesses employ to prioritize potential sales opportunities. As a vital component of the sales process, it helps optimize resource allocation and increase revenue. The systematic approach ensures sales teams focus on the most promising leads. It improves their chances of closing deals and achieving their sales targets. To better understand sales opportunity management in practice, let’s consider a software company specializing in customer relationship management (CRM) software. This company has a sales team selling its CRM solution to businesses from various industries. In the early stages of their sales process, they collect leads from sources like website inquiries and trade shows. These leads are diverse, ranging from small startups to established enterprises. Without sales opportunity management, the sales team might treat all these leads equally. They will invest valuable resources into each without clearly understanding their potential. However, sales opportunity management helps in this aspect, as they categorize these leads based on four parameters. These include: Company size Industry Budget Readiness to purchase For example, a lead from a medium-sized company in the software industry with a substantial budget and a pressing need for a CRM system would be a high-potential sales opportunity. In contrast, a lead from a small business in a different sector with limited resources and no immediate need for CRM software would be a lower-potential opportunity. Importance of Sales Opportunity Management Sales opportunity management holds a lot of importance within sales and business development. It plays a pivotal role in driving organizational success for the following reasons. 1. Resource optimization You can allocate your resources more efficiently by identifying and prioritizing sales opportunities. It ensures precious resources work on leads with the highest potential for conversion and reduced wastage. 2. Enhanced sales productivity Sales teams can work more effectively when they clearly understand their prospects’ needs and buying intent. Sales opportunity management equips them with insights that enable tailored sales strategies for shorter sales cycles. 3. Revenue growth Effective management of sales opportunities directly correlates with revenue growth. Focusing on high-potential opportunities helps businesses consistently close deals and boost sales figures. 4. Customer relationship building Sales opportunity management encourages a customer-centric approach. Prioritizing prospects who align closely with the organization’s offerings helps sales teams establish stronger relationships based on trust and value. It fosters customer loyalty and repeat business. 5. Data-driven decision-making The process involves meticulous tracking and analysis of prospect data. The data-driven approach empowers businesses with actionable insights. Sales teams can refine their strategies and adapt to changing market dynamics. 6. Competitive advantage In highly competitive markets, sales opportunity management provides a distinct advantage. It enables businesses to respond swiftly to emerging opportunities and challenges. 7. Long-term sustainability Sales opportunity management contributes to long-term sustainability by fostering a systematic approach to sales. It minimizes ad-hoc decision-making and promotes consistency in achieving sales targets. Steps to Manage Sales Opportunities Here are essential steps to manage sales opportunities successfully. 1. Lead qualification Thoroughly qualify leads to determine their potential value. Assess the prospect’s budget, timeline, decision-making authority, and alignment with your offerings. Based on this evaluation, categorize leads into high, medium, or low-potential opportunities. 2. Centralized database Maintain a centralized and organized database of all sales opportunities. The database should include detailed information about each prospect, including contact details, interactions, preferences, and specific needs. 3. Prioritization Prioritize opportunities based on their potential for conversion and alignment with your business objectives. High-potential prospects should receive immediate attention, while you can nurture lower-potential ones over time. 4. Effective communication Establish consistent communication channels with prospects. Regularly engage with them through personalized interactions. You can also provide them with valuable insights and address their concerns. Tailor your communication to align with the prospect’s stage in the buying process. 5. Sales pipeline management Implement a well-defined sales pipeline that maps a prospect’s stages from initial contact to closing the deal. Continuously monitor and update the progress of each opportunity within the pipeline to ensure everything runs smoothly. 6. Use of sales tools Leverage technology and sales management tools, like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, to streamline the management of sales opportunities.

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15 Best Revenue Intelligence Platforms for 2025

A Guide to Salesforce Opportunity Management RevOps 10 min Revenue intelligence tools empower you to boost revenue growth. The right revenue intelligence tools can help you nurture leads and retain customers with an exceptional experience.  And its critical role in the RevOps process is expanding as the economy progresses on a whirlwind journey.  According to Gartner’s recent report, by 2025: 70% of all B2B seller-buyer interactions will be recorded or analyzed to collect competitive, deal, and market insights using AI, ML, and NLP. 75% of B2B sales companies will switch traditional sales playbooks with AI-based guided-selling solutions. Deploying a revenue operation and intelligence (ROI&I) tool is the best next step for your business. So, let’s find out more about. What is Revenue Intelligence? Revenue Intelligence is a data-backed, AI-driven approach to selling.  It uses AI to track, analyze and forecast revenue so you can adapt to a constantly changing business environment quickly.  But, how does revenue intelligence help you survive and thrive?  It leverages raw data from multiple sources of your revenue functions (including marketing, sales, customer success, and finance). AI transforms this data into powerful insights to accelerate your sales cycles and grow revenue. RO&I tools facilitate the activity data capture from buyer-seller interactions in an increasingly complex selling process. You can easily use this information to coach reps to anticipate buyer needs. Qualitative insights, courtesy of revenue intelligence tools, direct your decision-making with the help of historical and real-time data. How do Revenue Intelligence Platforms Work in B2B Sales? (With Examples) We’ve already seen the overall impact of revenue intelligence in B2B sales. But how exactly does it create this impact? Let’s find out. 1. Integrates Siloed Data For 90% of organizations, data silos are a considerable challenge to business growth. Revenue intelligence solves the siloed data problem by integrating data from multiple sources into a single source of truth. Even better is that RO&I tools can do this continuously, in real-time, so that you can keep data silos at bay regularly. That’s impressive, considering RevOps experts advocate for ongoing data cleaning processes. I have seen a lot of companies try to clean up their data through third-parties as a one-time event. But you can’t approach your data as a one-time action. It’s an ongoing and iterative process. Rosalyn Santa Elena, Founder at The RevOps Collective In the real world, reps use multiple tools with different dashboards. Plus, data comes in from multiple sources in revenue teams—sales, marketing, and customer success.  RO&I tools can gather, clean, match, and enrich revenue information in the CRM and across the tech stack.  You can use this integrated data for informed decision-making, coaching, team alignment, revenue forecasting, and much more. Revenue intelligence ensures that clean data exists in your tech stack (particularly the CRM), which becomes a solid foundation for all your revenue activities. 2. Champions Frictionless Buying Experience A solid data foundation, in turn, ensures you can share information between revenue teams seamlessly. Each team gets complete access to integrated, unified, consistent data about customer touchpoints, interactions, and feedback. Its impact can be seen in a frictionless buying experience.  Source Without access to complete contact data across touchpoints, revenue teams—marketing, sales, and customer service–give and receive ineffective handovers. At each sales funnel stage, buyers may have to share the same information repeatedly, leaving them frustrated. Since revenue intelligence makes data available across the tech stack, it reduces friction between handoffs and aligns teams on each buyer’s journey. 3. Seals Revenue Leaks 95% of CRM users and stakeholders blame data quality issues for seriously impairing their ability to leverage the CRM fully. Revenue intelligence software straighten out the problem through automation. They automate contact data capture, thus, eliminating manual errors by those who enter information in the CRM. In the process, you get complete information on each buying group member’s requirements. This gives you insight into which leads are most likely to convert.  Revenue intelligence collectively ensures there are no blind spots or missed opportunities in the revenue pipeline. For example, without accurate contact details, reps may not have complete information on stakeholders and their needs. As a result, they reach out to the buyer group with incorrect and irrelevant information that doesn’t serve their purpose. RO&I tools can plug these revenue leaks by: Improving multithreading Giving in-depth information on buyers across the pipeline Sending deal alerts for hot opportunities  Guiding sellers with specific deal insights  4. Improves Rep Productivity Imagine a scenario where managers overestimate reps’ abilities to sell. They could assume that reps are enterprise sellers and have a well-equipped skillset.  But the fact is that even the best can get better with continued coaching and mentoring. Instead of using seller data in an interrogation-style deal review, revenue intelligence tools give you the insights to replace the approach with a guidance-style review.  You can guide reps to use the best-selling processes or motions. This not only increases conversion but also accelerates the sales cycle to close more leads faster. Plus, with revenue intelligence, you can track reps’ performance and productivity.  5. Helps Drive Predictable Revenue  As much as 80% of sales organizations miss the mark on revenue forecasting by 25% or more. The primary underlying reason—dirty data.  If you don’t have good data, you can’t forecast. If you can’t forecast, you can’t build a scalable and repeatable sales motion. You don’t know what your pipeline is going to be. Or what money is going to come in. Asia corbett, Senior Revops manager, gtm, bread financial Without an accurate forecast, your teams won’t have any direction for revenue strategies. Using revenue intelligence, you can create quality forecasts to help your team budget, strategize business growth, set long-term goals, and secure funding. Also, given their use of AI, your forecasts are void of bias resulting from less manual intervention. How to Incorporate Revenue Intelligence Tools in Operations? Incorporating revenue intelligence into your daily operations is vital but must not be hard. Here’s an 8-step process to introducing your teams to revenue intelligence tools. 1. Connect with your reps You must first figure out your reps’ needs and pain points. Once you’ve dived deep into their daily operations, you can understand better how to incorporate revenue intelligence tools in their

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Why Your Sales Tech Stack Isn’t Delivering Value

Why Your Sales Tech Stack Isn’t Delivering Value RevOps 10 min Deriving maximum value from their sales tech stack investments continues to be a frustrating challenge for revenue leaders.  With more than 1200 sales tools in the market spread over 49 categories, how do you select the right tools that can help you drive your revenue strategy? Well, the answer to this question is not a straight-forward one.  Before we get deeper to explore nuances of this question, let’s first understand what a sales tech stack is. What is a Sales Tech Stack? A sales tech stack is a set of software tools and technologies that help optimize the performance of your sales teams. The kind of sales tech stack you choose to invest in can have a significant impact on your revenue engine.  A thoughtfully selected and implemented sales tech stack helps remove bottlenecks from the sales process. By closing the existing gaps, it ultimately helps your reps close more deals. Current Landscape of Sales Tech Stack The current landscape of the sales tech market, as Gartner puts is, is absolute mayhem.  The pandemic forced sellers to move to virtual selling. Buyers quickly adapted to this new reality. 50% of buyers say that working remotely has made the purchasing process easier.  These rapid changes increased the need for technology that can enable sellers to meet the rising demands of the modern buyer. Capturing leads, reaching out to prospects, engaging or communication – all these facets of sales are harder than ever before. The right sales tech stack can help sellers optimize the buyer’s journey and thrive in today’s hyper-competitive sales environment. Let’s look at some of the top trends in the sales tech landscape as of 2022: 1. Narrow list of vendors offering multiple capabilities The biggest trend that was seen in 2021 was vendor consolidation, where large companies were seen evolving their tech stacks to more categories than ever.  The market is fast moving towards a narrow list of vendors that offer a wide portfolio of capabilities. For example, HubSpot emerged as a top player in a total of 7 categories including CRM.  Another example is ZoomInfo’s acquisition of Chorus.ai where a large data provider is now offering conversation intelligence features.  2. CRM continues to emerge as a mature category Well-established companies continue to dominate the CRM space, making this a more mature category in sales tech than others. Most CRMs also offer complimentary sales tools. For example, HubSpot continues to be a leader in the CRM space, and also offers complimentary sales tools such as email tracking and marketing automation. 3. Increase in sales budgets for sales tech investment 97% of commercial leaders plan to increase their sales tech investment for 2022.  And 25% of sales budgets are going towards tools and technologies that support the selling or buying experience. The investment in sales tech is increasing and it looks like it’s only going to increase in times to come.  4. There has been a rise in investment into AI and ML technology in sales tech AI fuelled sales and technology companies have seen more than $5 Billion in investment in 2021. 88% of Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) have already invested in or are considering investing in AI analytics tools and technologies.  Companies that adopt and build on this new technology can have a competitive advantage in their respective market.   Why Is Your Sales Tech Stack Not Delivering? There is clearly not a dearth of sales tools that companies use. 67% of sales teams use between 4 and 10 digital selling tools as part of their sales tech stacks. But 42% of sales teams fail to see a clear ROI on these tools.  The real question then is not how many tools sales teams are using. But how effective are these tools in making sales teams win more deals? Let’s look at some of the top reasons why your sales tech stack is not delivering. 1. Your tools are not built for your sales reps Most conventional sales tools are not built for sales reps. They are geared towards the sales managers and sales ops leaders.  These tools help to audit the sales reps, but do nothing to help them close more deals or make them productive.  Using these tools also lead to time wastage as sales reps have to jump multiple hoops to get their job done, be it entering data into a CRM (17% of daily time), collaborating with their peers or other functions. If your sales tools are making your reps’ lives harder and not helping them sell better, it’s clear why it is not delivering value. 2. You have way too many tools According to SBI’s research, an organization purchases 27 sales tools on an average. And the average number of planned tool purchases stand at 4. This research suggests that organizations’ tool purchases are spontaneous. Most decisions to invest in sales tools might not align with the company’s long-term growth strategy.  Because of a lack of thoughtful evaluation, most tools end up being redundant, unused or simply useless. 3. Your processes are not well-defined Most processes around the purchase and implementation of sales tech are not clearly defined. 60.67% of organizations say that they have a somewhat structured purchase process for sales tools. And only 43.82% of organizations have a clearly defined implementation process.  Having no central stakeholder to create a roadmap for the purchase, implementation and continuous reinforcement of the right processes increases the risk of a lower ROI from sales tech investment.  4. Your tools are underutilized Companies utilize less than 50% of the potential of the sales tools that they buy. Even tools that are critical for day-to-day operations have a low degree of usage. Related Blog: Components of a Modern Sales Tech Stack For example, 74% of respondents in a survey said that Account and Opportunity Management is a critical tool for their day-to-day operations. However, only 45% of companies actually end up utilizing this tool. The inability to leverage tools to their full capacity might be because companies aren’t enabling their reps to use the tool effectively. Or are failing to administer the solution in a way that its

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A Guide to Outreach Salesforce Integration

A Guide to Outreach Salesforce Integration RevOps 10 min For sales and marketing professionals, managing and nurturing leads and prospects is a critical function that can make or break a deal. Salesforce and Outreach, two powerful tools in their own right, have emerged as game-changers in this regard.  Outreach is a unified sales engagement platform that facilitates your sales opportunities and improves productivity. It has a wide range of applications, from intelligent sales automation to buyer sentiment analysis, and it does much more. On the other hand, Salesforce is the number one Customer Relationship Management(CRM) platform that leverages your marketing, sales, IT, and other services. When you connect Outreach to Salesforce, their benefits get multiplied. This integration creates a synergy that supercharges your sales and marketing efforts, allowing you to take a more holistic approach to customer relationship management. In this blog, you will be introduced to Salesforce and Outreach, along with their key features. Following this, you will get to know the purpose behind Salesforce Outreach Integration, their connection requirements, and the steps involved in establishing these connections. What is Salesforce Integration?  Salesforce integration refers to connecting Salesforce with other software applications or systems to enable seamless data sharing and communication between them. Integration is essential for businesses because it allows them to streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and provide a unified view of customer data across different departments and systems. Integrating Salesforce with Outreach is a strategic move for many sales and marketing teams seeking to supercharge their outreach efforts. When integrated with Salesforce, Outreach gains access to Salesforce’s rich customer data, enabling sales teams to personalize outreach efforts with up-to-date information. This integration allows for seamless lead and contact synchronization, real-time activity tracking, and automated task creation, significantly improving efficiency in managing sales workflows.  The integration between Outreach and Salesforce generates and modifies records in both systems, subsequently harmonizing the two platforms to maintain identical information. Depending on their workflow, users can employ Outreach or Salesforce as their primary front-end application. This integration allows users to engage in both inbound and outbound activities, facilitating strategic communication with Leads, Contacts, and Accounts. Moreover, it empowers organizations to maintain a cohesive view of their sales pipeline, ensuring that sales and marketing teams are aligned and can effectively nurture leads and drive conversions. Purpose of Outreach Salesforce Integration By utilizing Outreach, you can monitor your entire sales pipeline, extract more insightful data, and achieve a more comprehensive understanding of revenue attribution across all your activities. Salesforce stands out as a top-tier CRM platform renowned for its exceptional features and capabilities. When you establish a connection between Outreach and Salesforce, the advantages of both platforms are mutually shared, enhancing work quality. The integration of Salesforce and Outreach enables seamless record creation and updates on both platforms. Depending on your workflow preferences post-integration, you can use Outreach or Salesforce as your primary front-end application. This flexibility allows you to significantly improve your Inbound and Outbound strategies through well-planned communication with your Accounts, Contacts, and Leads. Integrating Outreach with Salesforce offers several benefits for sales and marketing teams, including: 1. Streamlined workflow The integration eliminates manual data entry by syncing prospect and customer information between Outreach and Salesforce. This streamlines workflow, reduces data duplication, and saves time for your sales and marketing teams. 2. Improved data accuracy By keeping data consistent across both platforms, the integration enhances data accuracy and minimizes errors, leading to more reliable insights and decision-making. 3. Enhanced lead management Sales teams can efficiently manage leads, contacts, and opportunities within Salesforce and engage with them through Outreach, ensuring that no potential lead falls through the cracks. 4. Personalized outreach Sales reps can personalize outreach efforts using up-to-date information from Salesforce, such as lead status, interactions, and historical data, leading to more effective communication and higher conversion rates. 5. Automated tasks Outreach can automatically create tasks and reminders based on Salesforce data, ensuring that follow-ups and important actions are never missed. 6. Advanced reporting Integrating the two platforms allows for comprehensive reporting and analytics, providing insights into outreach performance, lead conversions, and campaign effectiveness. 7. Sales productivity Reps can work within their preferred platform (Outreach or Salesforce) while benefiting from seamless data exchange, reducing context-switching and increasing productivity. 8. Account-based marketing (ABM) With synchronized data, marketing teams can run more targeted ABM campaigns, aligning their efforts with sales strategies to engage high-value accounts effectively. 9. Sales cadences Outreach offers customizable sales cadences for email sequences, calls, and follow-ups, allowing reps to automate and optimize their outreach strategies within Salesforce. 10. Scalability As your business grows, the integration scales with you, accommodating larger prospect and customer databases and supporting your evolving sales and marketing needs. Integrating Salesforce with Outreach enhances efficiency by automating many manual tasks, such as data entry and lead nurturing. This not only saves valuable time but also reduces the risk of errors. It also provides a 360-degree view of prospect and customer interactions by syncing data between the two platforms, enabling teams to make more informed decisions and deliver personalized outreach. Steps in Outreach Salesforce Integration Now that we have looked at the benefits of Outreach Salesforce integration let’s go through the steps and requirements for the merger: 1. Outreach requirements To establish a connection between Outreach and Salesforce, several prerequisites need to be met: As an Outreach User, you must hold the Admin role within the Outreach Platform to access the plugin settings for establishing connections. To facilitate communication and synchronization with Salesforce, REST API calls are essential. It’s important to note that REST API calls are accessible exclusively in the Enterprise and Unlimited editions, and they are not available in the Professional Edition. In the case of the Salesforce Professional Edition, it’s necessary to procure API Call Bundles and acquire Web API Packages to meet the requirements for integration. 2. Salesforce requirements To establish a connection between Salesforce and Outreach, these conditions must be met: As a Salesforce User, you should possess knowledge of the procedures for creating, modifying, and removing

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7 Elements of a Successful Deal Review

7 Elements of a Successful Deal Review RevOps 10 min Knowing the in-and-out of deals will make your revenue generation predictable. With a deal review, you can know what’s going on in your pipeline, pivot wherever necessary and get ahead of risks. But it’s easier said than done. Most deal reviews end up being futile exercises. Instead of being organized sessions that empower your reps to sell better, they end up being unplanned, ad-hoc sessions that add little to no value to your sales team. The result? Inaccurate revenue forecasts, missed targets, and a dip in rep morale.  With the right strategy, you can use your next deal review to unlock your revenue potential. And most importantly – help your reps win more. This guide covers details on how you can use a deal review to your advantage. What is a Deal Review? A deal review is a meeting between a sales manager and a sales rep about the deals in a rep’s pipeline. Sales managers and reps review engagements with accounts. The aim is to determine the probability of closing specific deals. For deals that are stuck, next-best actions are agreed upon. The primary purpose of a deal review is to help the sales person develop sales strategies to win a deal. It focuses on a myriad of factors for sales reps to help customers reach a confident buying decision. If done right, deal reviews can be a game changer for sales execution. They can usher in a culture of consistent improvement across the organization. And help sales teams deliver exceptional results.  A well-structured deal review process clarifies sales issues and uncovers reasons why a prospect might not buy, as well as assists the sales team in removing roadblocks and accelerating the opportunity.  Deal review sessions are sometimes viewed as inspection or even micromanagement by sales leaders by many vendors. But they are very important if the company wants to grow in the right direction. Aseem Kishore, CEO, AKInternetconsulting.com Why Do You Need Deal Reviews? The pandemic-induced move to virtual selling has made selling harder than ever. 40% of companies failed to meet their quota in 2021. 93% of sales reps are experiencing significant challenges with virtual selling. Sales people are only spending one-third of their time talking to prospects. It’s a crucial time for leaders to help reps navigate this complex environment and win more deals. Deal review is that tool leaders can use to address these challenges. Here are some top advantages of deal reviews. 1. Identify risks and opportunities Deal reviews enable sales teams to bring the most effective deals to the forefront. An effective deal review can warn your sales teams of deal risks early on. With the right information, reps can act fast and influence the outcome of the deal to their advantage. Sales teams can focus on deals that are most likely to close. This prevents wastage of time and energy on deals that are probably not even real. Focusing on the right deals translates to better productivity and higher win rates. 2. Align with cross-functional teams An effective deal review throws light on why some deals are stuck due to a lack of collaboration. For example, a manager might see that a rep is not going beyond the demo stage. To help add more value to the demo, the rep can take help from a solution engineer for insights. Or the marketing team can help with some collateral. The product team can help with a better understanding of your feature differentiation. Working together can help sell more. A deal review can enable such cross-functional collaborations. Customer-facing teams can support each other and work towards common goals. 3. Increase rep accountability Each deal review finishes with a list of activities for the rep to do. A regular follow-up on those activities through deal reviews makes reps more accountable. Depending on what the rep has to do next to close the deal, progress can be tracked. This regular overview makes reps more aware of their own actions. It pushes them to do their best to close the deal. 4. Gain executive support Executive deal reviews present an opportunity for reps to seek support from leadership to help them close a top deal. This can include leveraging executive connections with a champion of an account. Or provide sponsorship to close a high priority deal. Reps can leverage the expertise and network of their executives to strengthen the deal. Executives can also bring in a new perspective into approaching the deal. For example, your rep might find that the champion of the deal went to the same business school as your CEO. Reps can use an executive deal review as an opportunity to leverage this connection and take advantage of it. 5. Develop sales reps Deal reviews tell managers where reps are lacking. By knowing the areas reps need help with, managers can get straight to the point and develop reps in 1-1 sessions. Knowing where to coach on reduces time wastage and leads to action that pushes deals forward. With more action-oriented coaching, sales reps keep getting better at selling. This has a multiplier effect on win rates and revenue generated. For example, a deal review can inform a manager that the rep has not followed up with a prospect in over 30 days. The manager can focus on telling the rep to follow-up, and coach on the best ways to reach out to the prospect that might have gone cold.  A successful deal review should be able to validate and bring in more clarity to certain key areas. Are we solving the customer problem or helping them achieve their goals with our approach or product? Are we interacting with the right set of stakeholders? Have we understood the key concerns and objections? Are we prepared to handle them?Are we good on the pricing as well as the model? Is the implementation timeline good enough?In short, a good deal review should increase the chance of winning by helping to handle customer

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Don’t overpay for People.ai, get these 10 instead

Don’t overpay for People.ai, get these 10 instead RevOps 10 min Data-driven decision-making reigns supreme today for any modern sales team. And revenue intelligence solutions have emerged as essential tools for them to stay competitive and achieve their sales targets. People.ai has garnered attention as a comprehensive platform that harnesses AI to enhance revenue operations.  However, in the pursuit of optimizing their revenue strategies, prudent sales teams recognize the importance of exploring People AI alternatives that align more precisely with their specific requirements. This article looks at the best alternatives to People.ai to understand the diverse options that will help you enhance efficiency in your sales operations. What is PeopleAI? People.ai has established itself as a prominent player in sales operations . It has gained widespread recognition for its expertise in guiding enterprise sales teams toward optimal pipeline growth and revenue generation strategies. People.ai’s enterprise revenue intelligence platform is a strategic tool for organizations striving to navigate intricate sales cycles efficiently. Fueled by its proprietary AI technology, People.ai empowers sales teams to engage discerningly with critical stakeholders within targeted accounts. The platform takes a methodical approach that expedites sales cycles and positions businesses to secure high-value deals. Embedded within this approach is an acute awareness of the fundamental role of interpersonal connections in driving successful transactions. Top PeopleAI Alternatives Here are ten People AI alternatives you should consider for your business. 1. Nektar.ai Nektar is a top-tier People AI alternative focusing on revenue operations and intelligence. A cohesive contact and activity capture system, Nektar’s primary commitment revolves around maintaining CRM data integrity and cleanliness. Nektar’s driving force is seamless aggregation and proficient management of contact interactions and activities. They contribute to a comprehensive vantage point for revenue intelligence.  The systematic approach lays the foundation for organizational workflows for enhanced efficiency. Furthermore, Nektar offers an unobstructed perspective into the intricacies of revenue generation processes. The unwavering dedication to preserving CRM integrity and ensuring data hygiene solidifies Nektar’s role as an indispensable revenue intelligence platform. Key features: Actionable pipeline visibility Accurate, complete CRM data and reporting Account-based selling Targeting untapped revenue opportunities 2. Setsail Setsail is a pioneering player in sales optimization. It offers a comprehensive solution that empowers organizations to discern the winning selling behaviors propelling revenue growth. Meticulously monitoring the activities of sales representatives, deals, and accounts helps Setsail equip you with the insights necessary to maintain a competitive edge.  A cutting-edge revenue intelligence solution, it goes beyond mere sales activity tracking. It provides the means to gauge the alignment of reps’ actions with strategic objectives. With Setsail, integrating revenue intelligence into the sales process becomes a transformative step. It lets you stay informed about your sales team’s performance and ensure that suitable activities are pursued for optimal results. Key features: Analyze top reps’ activities Track behaviors that drive revenue for your business. Data-backed signals to identify prosperous areas in your sales process 3. Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) EAC introduces a fluid solution that harmonizes data interchange between Salesforce and email and calendar applications. It guarantees data precision and up-to-the-moment relevance. The tool effectively establishes a live linkage between essential platforms of your sales operations.  The intricacies of data management are effectively alleviated by EAC, allowing your sales team the liberty to channel its energies toward sales activities of greater strategic significance. This tool’s advanced data synchronization capabilities empower you to allocate your attention to pursuits contributing to revenue enhancement. Key features: Captures email and events from Microsoft or Google account  Adds events to the activity timeline of Salesforce records Captures contact data for email insights 4. MatchMyEmail MatchMyEmail is a dedicated tool working with a mission to enhance the efficiency of Salesforce users. It enables users to maximize productivity and accomplish more extraordinary feats within their designated time frames. Their offerings are a catalyst in liberating employees from the burdensome manual chore of selecting and logging customer communications into the Salesforce system. The underlying strength of automation lies at the core of this software. It effectively eradicates the time-consuming tasks associated with data entry. The dynamic feature empowers Sales professionals to redirect their efforts toward more value-driven endeavors. Seamlessly ingrained within the Salesforce framework, the platform also harmonizes the process of capturing pivotal customer interactions. Key features: Ensures accurate email and calendar data Permanently stores email and calendar data Compatible with any email client and host. 5. RevenueGrid RevenueGrid presents multifaceted capabilities that grant your sales teams an unparalleled edge. Pioneering the domain of sales strategies, Revenue Grid offers many advantages, like 360-degree pipeline visibility. This unique feature positions your team with the precision required to navigate intricate sales terrains seamlessly. Beyond this, the platform’s prowess extends to recalibrating sales forecasting accuracy. Facilitating strategic decision-making rooted in dependable insights allows Revenue Grid to empower your team to chart its course with heightened certainty. Furthermore, the platform imparts a transformative impetus to revenue teams bolstered by an unwavering dedication to elevating peak performance.  Key features: 360-degree pipeline visibility Actual and forecasted revenue match up Revenue signals to improve the sales process 6. Clari Capture Clari Capture unlocks the latent potential for revenue performance optimization across organizational echelons. It unveils dynamic tools engineered to ignite growth trajectories and catalyze tangible sales outcomes. Sales teams can harvest actionable insights and execute decisions grounded in informed acumen. Clari Capture allows you to bridge the gap between revenue generation and strategic decision-making effectively. Key features: Reduced administration time with automated data Real-time coaching in revenue-critical moments Enhanced forecasting accuracy for revenue precision 7. Collectivei Collectivei‘s platform harnesses the potency of AI-driven insights and provides an avenue for precise forecasting and assessing opportunity odds. This unique capability empowers sales professionals to refine their strategic focus rapidly. The platform automates activity and contact inputs into CRMs and associated tools. Collectivei addresses the challenge of unforeseen oversights by seamlessly integrating collaboration tools that enhance the buyer experience. Key features: AI-generated forecasting and opportunity odds Automated activity and contact input into CRM Transparency to remove unexpected misses with collaboration tools 8. Linkpoint LinkPoint catalyzes

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Watch Out for These 8 Types of Dirty Data in Your CRM in 2025

Watch Out for These 8 Types of Dirty Data in Your CRM in 2024 RevOps 10 min One of the most significant sources of business cost is dirty data – a towering $13 million on average, per year.  And it’s not just the financial impact.  With dirty data, your reps have difficulty tracking the lead’s source. They lose precious time and face the brunt of lower productivity. Not only this, it also causes resource disruptions, failed communication (both internal and external), and wasted marketing expenditures.  In contrast, high-quality data is key to a solid revenue operations function. Accessible and relevant data can help leaders gain timely and actionable insights, streamline processes, and make informed business decisions.  Since dirty data has a devastating influence on business – a sobering understatement – it’s critical to understand what it is, how it affects business, and how you can deal with it. What is Dirty Data? While data is essential to every organization, not all of it adds value to your business. One bad apple that ruins the whole marketing and sales basket is dirty data.  As much as 74% of organizations admit they need to improve data management to avoid competitive and financial disadvantages. In essence, dirty data is inaccurate information that disrupts a company’s database and impacts key functions like GTM, segmentation, personalization, lead scoring, prospecting, and ideal customer profile planning, among others. The result? Poor business decisions, inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and reputational damage.  And that’s not it. Poor data quality hits organizations where it hurts the most – on average, $15 million per year in losses.  Dirty data enters the CRM mainly through manual data recording, human error, poor inter-departmental coordination, or third-party integrations. To guarantee that every lead touchpoint is exceptional, you need to understand different types of dirty data and how to clean it. Types of Dirty Data in your CRM While dirty data comes in many forms, we’ve clubbed them under 8 categories. Let’s take a look below. 1. Duplicate Data Duplicate data is the most common type of dirty data. Repetitive leads, accounts, and contacts are just a few data points unintentionally shared with other records in the CRM. Although carbon copy duplicates are the simplest to identify and remove, partial duplicates – which are occasionally the result of human error – cause more significant issues. Duplicate data can lead to skewed analysis, inefficient workflows, overloaded storage systems, inaccurate data recovery, ineffective personalization, and repetitive customer communication. For instance, each account receives or expects a tailored interaction when it comes to ABM. If you have the same prospect listed three times in your database and repeatedly send them the same email, the prospect may feel that your campaign is automated and not personalized. It only frustrates the prospect, lowering the chances of conversion. How to clean Duplicate Data? In the current scenario, where businesses deal with enormous amounts of data daily, manual data cleansing is insufficient. Besides, manual cleaning doesn’t always get rid of partial duplicates. Invest in an automation platform that detects and cleans up data and merges or deletes duplicates. Additionally, it can sort and integrate duplicate data using criteria unique to your company. 2. Insecure Data Driven by data expansion, security regulations have transformed the marketing landscape. In parallel, significant privacy issues have disrupted consumer-firm relationships, prompting changes in both regulatory interventions and people’s privacy-protective behaviours. Important privacy and data security laws, such as GDPR and CCPA, are now in place. Data that is non-compliant with these laws, or insecure data, can attract steep financial penalties. For instance, a user may have previously provided their data without consenting to your data sharing and privacy policy. This kind of insecure data can result in serious repercussions. Today’s business environment is growing more and more consumer-focused, and digital consent, opt-ins, and privacy notifications are becoming the new standard. Being compliant with these rules becomes practically impossible without good CRM hygiene. And let’s not forget the negative impact on brand reputation. Giants like Amazon and WhatsApp have already paid hefty fines totalling more than $800 million and $270 million, respectively, for alleged GDPR non-compliance while battling public criticism. How to clean Insecure Data? Having a clean database can directly contribute to complying with data privacy laws. Best practices to clean insecure data include deleting unusable and insecure records from your CRM, merging duplicates for more up-to-date information, consolidating your data stack and automating the lead-to-account linking process, and hosting your CRM on legally compliant cloud software. 3. Outdated Data Would an old report from five years ago help your business make intelligent decisions? Data that seems significant today might no longer be relevant tomorrow. Analytics based on outdated data is like traveling with the wrong GPS Data only to drive over a ledge. Consider this. A website user fills out a form to get your resource. They turn into a prospect during the following months and interact with your company more, subscribing to newsletters and responding to emails. However, your CRM isn’t updated with this information. Therefore, the content you provide them is still geared toward a fresh lead rather than one already being nurtured. It limits their ability to proceed further down the funnel toward becoming customers. Other reasons for outdated data could be job changes, organizational reorganizations or mergers, and antiquated software systems that can’t keep up with the rapid rate of technological advancement. How to clean Outdated Data? The best way to get rid of outdated data is to purge and cleanse data before migrating it or integrating new systems. Another thing is to determine the critical period for your business. Delete any data in the system from before. While manual cleansing can take days or weeks, automation can finish this task for you in a matter of hours. So, switch to an automated tool. 4. Incomplete Data If a record is missing essential elements to process the incoming data before sales and marketing take action, it’s considered incomplete. Data gaps make the job of sales reps significantly harder. Unfortunately, incomplete data issues are pretty

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CRM Data Capture: How to Deal with Missing Data from CRM

CRM Data Capture: How to Deal with Missing Data from CRM RevOps 10 min It is often said that data is the new oil in the modern business world. Companies spend millions trying to extract correct data from the appropriate resources.  The same is true for the sales team. Sales representatives often spend up to 20% of their time updating their CRM! Even after this, half of the contacts they deal with are not present in their CRM. It seems like organizations often are able to extract data but unable to use it judiciously. This is what happens when the CRM data capture is not of good quality.  In this blog, we will read about high-quality data capture, why it matters, and the best practices companies should follow to ensure high-quality CRM data collection. Why High-Quality Data Capture Matters CRM data capture is the method employed by businesses to gather and consolidate information concerning their potential and existing customers. CRM systems amass a lot of valuable data, which is leveraged by sales teams and relationship-focused dealmakers to foster prospects into customers or clients. They subsequently transform these new transactions into referral channels. The ultimate objective of effective data capture is to enhance, grow, and sustain a company’s customer base. As per IDC, inaccurate data inflicts a staggering $3.1 trillion annual cost on American businesses. Another study conducted by Experience Data Quality reveals that companies forfeit an average of 12% of their potential revenue due to data inaccuracies. The root of many data problems frequently originates during the initial phase of data collection. Given that CRM platforms often constitute a significant financial commitment for businesses, the key to obtaining a substantial return on this investment lies in the effective capture and upkeep of high-quality, precise customer data. Here are a few areas that high-quality CRM data capture can improve:  1. Bad data and lack of trust When sales representatives lack relevant information about potential customers, their interactions become less significant, resulting in overlooked opportunities and unsuccessful deals. 2. Inaccurate forecasts Inaccurate forecasting and reporting can create strategic challenges, making it challenging for management to make timely, data-driven decisions.  3. Automation errors Costly automation errors, such as segmentation mistakes that result in sending incorrect email messages to prospects can damage a company’s brand reputation.  4. Bad customer experience Erroneous contact information can adversely affect customer experiences and erode trust, potentially leading to customer dissatisfaction and loss of credibility for the company. 5. Financial pain Poor or unreliable data can also result in financial waste, such as sending materials to the same customer on multiple occasions due to duplicate records. Dysfunctional integrations with other software systems can consume valuable time and effort while causing frustration.  6. CRM issues If data-related issues are impacting your Salesforce and HubSpot tools, they can impede your team’s progress and potentially disrupt marketing and relationship-building activities until these problems are addressed. While clean data is crucial, achieving high-quality data capture can be quite demanding. Manual input into spreadsheets such as Excel or Google Sheets is susceptible to errors, including omissions, duplicate entries, or inaccuracies. Additionally, manual data entry is incredibly time-intensive, and every instance where a salesperson invests time in inputting CRM data is a missed opportunity to nurture relationships. This is where the need to automate CRM data capture arises.  Let’s have a look at a few ways that organizations can improve their CRM data collection:  Ways to Improve CRM Data Capture Improving your CRM data capture methods is a valuable investment of time and energy. When your data capture process is reliable, your team can have confidence in the accuracy of your customer data, allowing them to allocate more time to acquiring, overseeing, and finalizing deals. Here are some of the best practices to improve CRM data capture:  1. Conduct a review of your current data  You can pinpoint significant issues in your CRM data capture by conducting an audit of your existing data. Research conducted by SiriusDecisions revealed that B2B marketing databases can contain serious errors in approximately 10% to 25% of their contacts. Review your current data to detect typical errors and identify areas where data capture standardization can be enhanced. Intelligent CRM platforms also offer technology to assist in auditing your data during the onboarding process and subsequent data imports, making it easier to spot duplicate entries. During your audit, you should be on the lookout for customer- or client-related data errors such as: Data format discrepancies should be rectified to ensure uniformity in expressing phone numbers, states, and zip codes.  Address inconsistency issues in data, such as variations in job titles (e.g., “COO” and “Chief Operating Officer”).  Address missing information in certain records, such as absent email addresses, to ensure completeness. Detect records with low data quality, including those with obviously false names or free email addresses.  Identifying these and similar issues will simplify the development of more efficient data capture procedures for your CRM, enabling you to witness improvements in data quality. 2. Automate data capture When it comes to enhancing CRM data capture, automating this process stands out as the most potent action you can take. On average, professionals make approximately one error for every one hundred keystrokes. Considering that salespeople invest numerous hours each week in capturing and updating CRM data, this error rate can result in a significant volume of inaccurately recorded data in your CRM. Furthermore, certain errors carry more significant consequences than others. For instance, a one-letter mistake in a crucial prospect’s email address (e.g., the distinction between “janesmith@company.com” and “jaensmith@company.com”) could determine whether a deal is secured or an opportunity is completely missed. The most effective approach to prevent subpar data from entering your CRM is to minimize manual data entry as much as possible and replace it with automated processes. Relationship intelligence CRM platforms like Affinity excel in automatically generating and managing customer records by extracting information from inboxes and calendars and subsequently enhancing these profiles with the latest industry data. Automation serves as a solution to numerous challenges associated with data capture. Not only does it

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MEDDIC vs Challenger: What’s the Difference?

MEDDIC vs Challenger: What’s the Difference? RevOps 10 min Hitting targets is one of the topmost goals for any sales rep. Understandably, all sales teams want to perform consistently well and achieve their goals.  But if you’ve seen your teams struggle in the last few years, you’re certainly not alone.  A recent crowdsourced survey by SaaStr shows that only 18% of sales teams hit a 70%+ quota attainment level. Average quota attainment for reps is down 5 points in 2023 from 2021. Quota attainment is also down for 5 out of 7 such teams.  To change the narrative, you’re probably digging into different sales methods that more successful businesses use. Or, you may simply want to level up your sales game as organizational growth becomes stagnant.  The first few methods popping up will undoubtedly be the MEDDIC and Challenger Sale. Both are useful with proven results for different companies. But confusion may persist on MEDDIC vs Challenger Sale and which one’s the best for you.  We’ve put together a quick overview of both methods that could help you make a decision.  Understanding the MEDDIC Academy Sales Method For 71.4% of sales professionals, only 50% or less of their initial leads are a good fit for their ICP. Reps blame poor qualification of potential customers before taking them through the entire sales process for 67% of lost deals.   There’s one method that shines in these situations.  MEDDIC is a B2B sales qualification methodology used to understand the customer at each stage of the buyer journey. The process drives revenue and business growth by qualifying buyers more accurately.  Here’s how the MEDDIC Academy explains what the process stands for: 1. Metrics What is the quantifiable value of your product for the customer?  2. Economic Buyer Who has the final word on the financial decision at the buyer’s end?  3. Decision Criteria What factors or criteria influence the purchase decision?  4. Decision Process How does the buyer reach a decision?  5. Implicate Pain What is a problem serious enough for the buyer to seek an external solution?  6. Champion Who is the stakeholder most invested in onboarding your solution?  MEDDIC places the focus on customer experience instead of selling with the sole objective of making money. It works because 56% of sales leaders consider engaging and paying attention to gain a client’s trust as the best approach.  With the MEDDIC Academy method, you can: Find leads that are the right fit for you Access critical stakeholders in the buyer committee  Build better forecasts  Boost winning rates  Over time, the MEDDIC Academy has included more steps, such as MEDDPICC, where P stands for paper process and C is competition.  Understanding the Challenger Sale Method Today, 32% of B2B buyers use more sources to research and evaluate processes than before. And 31% spend more time on social media to check out vendors and their solutions.  This means customers enter into a sales transaction with preconceived notions about the product. Reps need to develop an experience going beyond features and benefits. Instead, sellers could challenge the buyer and disrupt their current thinking. This is the Challenger Sale Method. You’re a challenge seller if you: Have a unique perspective of the world Understand the customer’s business in and out Create constructive tension using a casual debate Intentionally dispute the customer’s thinking Push the customer to get out of their comfort zone  Here’s what the Challenger Sale process looks like: 1. Warm-up First up, you build credibility with prospects by researching and investigating their pain points, challenges, and needs. Then, you describe these issues to the buyer in a way they agree.  2. Reframe You reframe the problem as a growth opportunity. This switch is made by sharing an insight that the buyer may not have considered before. 3. Rational drowning You back your reframing with quantitative data and the latest statistics. Numbers illustrate the risk of leaving the problem unresolved. It uses rational thinking to appeal to the customer’s emotions.  4. Value proposition Show the buyer possibilities of a better future. Tie their value drivers with your solution’s capabilities (without explicitly introducing the product).  5. Introducing the solution After the building blocks are in place, you can introduce your product. This is when you explain exactly how it solves the buyer’s problem. With Challenger Sale, you deliver insights into an unknown problem or opportunity in the buyer’s business. Your product is uniquely positioned to solve this problem. By encouraging the buyer to consider new opportunities, a Challenger Seller offers alternative ways forward. But they need three essential skills to succeed:  Teach by providing insights on new or better ways to solve the buyer’s problem  Tailor the message to the buyer’s needs Take control of the sale and guide the customer to closure MEDDIC vs Challenger Sale: How Do They Compare? Some sales experts consider MEDDIC as a sales methodology and Challenger Sale as simply an approach. But there’s more to it.  We’ve listed each MEDDIC vs Challenger Sale comparison below.  Despite the long list of MEDDIC vs Challenger Sale differences, both methods have three things in common: 1. Buyer evolution Both methods take into account the evolving buyer. MEDDIC considers the transformation from the individual buyer to a buying committee with multiple members.  Similarly, Challenger Sale knows that buyers are gathering more information online and contacting the seller later during their journey.  2. Buyer’s drivers Both MEDDIC and Challenger Sale identify the buyer’s value and economic drivers for the selling process.  3. Cross-functional alignment  MEDDIC and Challenger Sale need alignment between revenue teams and leadership buy-in. Marketing managers and leaders provide training and resources for all reps.  Challenger vs MEDDIC Academy Process: What’s the Verdict? Here’s a list of things to keep in mind when considering MEDDIC vs Challenger Sale.   MEDDIC Use the MEDDIC Academy sales process to determine if a prospect is the right fit for your company. It helps teams that are struggling to keep up with the existing sales process and want to improve.  MEDDIC can intervene to help you: Sell to the correct buyer Identify the right stakeholders in a complex enterprise B2B buying committee Regardless of so

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Migrating your CRM to Salesforce? Don’t Leave Behind Crucial Activity Data!

Migrating your CRM to Salesforce? Don’t Leave Behind Crucial Activity Data! RevOps 10 min Salesforce data migration is a challenging project for most operations leaders. Your CRM system contains critical information about your customers that can help drive positive business outcomes. When you decide to migrate to a new CRM system like Salesforce, you don’t want to lose out on this valuable data from the old system.  But loss of critical activity data during Salesforce data migration is common. This loss directly translates to missed opportunities that already exist in your CRM. In this article, we will explore the challenges related to capture of activity data while migrating your CRM to Salesforce. And how you can avoid this major pitfall with the right data strategy.    Activity Data Loss During Salesforce Data Migration The biggest problem during Salesforce data migration is loss of historical data. This does not include data related to opportunities and accounts in the old CRM. This data loss caters to multiple fields within opportunities. Examples include email exchanges, opportunity contacts, or notes associated with deals. With such crucial activity data missing, revenue teams lose sight of many deals. With the loss of this activity data, revenue leaders miss out on finding answers to critical questions that move the revenue needs. Examples include: How many emails were exchanged? What was the context of those emails? Who were the contacts involved in the deal? What was the role these contacts were playing in the purchase process? What were the pricing related details that came up during conversations? These granular details give a clear view of the sales pipeline to revenue leaders. And armour them with information they can use to coach their reps better and lock in more deals every quarter. This data also provides leading indicators that can act as predictive measures of future performance. Despite best efforts, this revenue data gets lost during Salesforce data migration. There are different data transfer woes operations leaders face when they migrate their CRM to Salesforce. Failure to transfer the data under the right fields. For example, instead of going under the “opportunity” field, it might get fed into the “account” field. The ability to parse the metadata from Gmail to get into Salesforce remains a challenge.  Even if the data gets added to Salesforce, the activity data is mostly of the migration date and not the actual date in which the activity actually took place. This makes the information lose its relevance.  There is a chance of losing a lot of other data from the old CRM while migrating to Salesforce. While most CRMs do offer plugins to transfer activity data into Salesforce, these plugins do not work effectively under all conditions. As a result, they end up being unreliable mediums to capture data.  Most tools also require the contacts to be already in Salesforce for the activity to be captured. When nobody adds the contacts, associated activities automatically get missed out from the new CRM.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpJxlPnfIoQ&t=2727s 5 Alarming Consequences of Data Loss The consequences of activity data loss during a CRM data migration can have catastrophic effects on your business.  Data loss can cause a direct dent on your revenue engine. Let’s look at some of these alarming consequences: 1. Poor deal reviews Deal reviews form an integral part of closing more sales. It helps sales managers know what’s going on in their pipeline, and devise strategies to pivot wherever necessary to avoid risks.  Data is the fuel that runs successful deal reviews. To conduct effective reviews and 1-1 coaching sessions, sales teams need access to the right data. They also need to be able to use that data to drive intelligence across the revenue engine. But with lost data during migration, sales teams lose access to critical revenue data that can help them close more opportunities during the quarter. And with missing data, organizations fail to create those data-driven strategies that can help devise successful sales strategies.  For example, backing up data in deal reviews during CRM data migration becomes questionable. Without historical data and associated activities getting tracked, sales teams won’t know which stakeholders are a part of the buying committee.  In short, without the right data, deal reviews fail to make sales teams more successful. The results in failed campaigns to drive sales forward, more gaps in the selling process, frustrated sales teams and inability to meet quotas. 2. Inaccurate sales forecasting Sales forecast is a critical element of running a successful revenue operations function. With sales forecasting numbers, revenue leaders are in a better position to carefully align resources towards the right areas.  But less than 50% of sales leaders and sellers have high confidence in their forecasting accuracy. Without the right data at the right place, making accurate sales forecasts becomes very challenging. To be able to make an accurate forecast, revenue leaders need access to historical data to get a visibility of how the sales pipeline is progressing at an organizational level. Bit losing this critical data during a migration project translates into lack of clarity into critical questions like: Which are the deals moving towards closure this quarter? What is the stage different deals are at? Which deals are not likely to close? Longer sales cycles, missed quotas and an unclear picture of deals make predicting accurate sales figures an ambiguous exercise. And relying on human tendencies like guesswork and instinct give rise to ambiguous forecast numbers. Complete and trustworthy data in CRM and other GTM tools is the first step to achieving confidence in sales forecasts. Without this unified data visibility, sales teams fail to focus on the right deals and fall prey to risks that fail to predict the fate of their deals.  3. Surge in operational cost  The loss of data during Salesforce data migration is usually realized when the decision to migrate to Salesforce has already been taken. This puts businesses in panic mode as the possibility of significant data loss hits them in the last few days of the migration.  The second realization that hits organizations is

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Everything You Need to Know About Sales Commission Structures

Everything You Need to Know About Sales Commission Structures RevOps 10 min Compensation (of which sales commission structure is a critical part) plays a highly influential role in driving rep behavior. And it becomes particularly important when reps don’t want to stay around in one company for too long.  It takes an average of 3 months for a new seller to interact with buyers, 9 for them to perform competently, and 15 for them to become top performers. However, the average tenure that reps remain with an organization for is only 1.4 years in 2022.  This shows that once reps have learned all they can with you, they’ll move on to a new organization (most likely one that pays better).  Just hiring the best reps isn’t enough to increase sales. They should be motivated enough to stick around through the ups and down and simultaneously improve their performance.  To achieve this, you need to tailor a sales commission structure template that gives them the incentive to always come out on top.  Let’s find out how. What Is a Sales Commission Structure? “Sales commission” is the amount sales reps earn on each sale.  “Sales commission structure” outlines how you will compensate the rep with a commission and how much this amount should be, based on the sale.  It also includes the timelines for commission payment, i.e., when you’ll pay reps their commission—weekly, monthly, quarterly, or something else.  Remember, the plan you choose directly impacts your reps’ earnings. Therefore, it’s vital that you set up a fair and sufficiently rewarding sales commission structure template. How Does a Sales Commission Structure Compare to a Sales Compensation Plan? Sometimes, commission may be confused with compensation. Here’s a simple tip to differentiate between them.  A compensation plan includes the rep’s total earnings—salary (or fixed pay), commission, incentives, bonus, and on-target earnings (OTE).  As you can see, the commission is just one part of the overall compensation plan. It doesn’t denote compensation in its entirety. Types of Sales Commission Structure Templates There are several sales commission structures you can choose from. It could also be that your team or organization needs a unique sales commission structure template. So, sometimes you may need to combine a couple of these plans.  Below are 10 popular structures you can try.   1. Straight Commission This sales commission structure doesn’t include a base pay or fixed salary. Instead, reps earn 100% commission based entirely on deals they close.  For instance, if a rep closes a deal for $100,000 and the straight commission rate is 10%, the rep will earn $10,000 as commission (without any base pay).  Straight commission is gradually moving out of favor among sales organizations because retaining talent is challenging without the security of fixed pay. It only increases reps’ stress levels and may push them to partake in bad sales practices.  Also, each rep has their own set of skills and practices that make them unique. A straight sales commission structure template doesn’t account for these skills.  When to use this structure:  Shortcomings of the straight commission structure don’t completely nullify its usefulness. You can turn to this plan if you’re a startup or a small organization with limited capital. 2. Base Salary Plus Commission This structure is the most widely adopted across industries and organizations.  Typically, a rep’s compensation is split between salary and variable pay (which includes commission). The split may be 50/50 or 60/40, depending on what you can offer as a salary while still incentivizing reps.  A “base salary plus commission” structure works well because commission motivates reps to continue improving their performance, whereas salary acts as a safety net to retain them in tough situations.  When to use this structure:  You can deploy this sales commission structure template if you’re striving to maintain a good balance between your sales budget and commission. 3. Revenue Commission  In a “revenue commission” structure, reps earn a flat commission percentage on each deal won. So, if your rep closes a deal for $100,000 and the commission is set at 7%, they earn a commission of $7,000.    However, this structure again doesn’t consider each rep’s distinctive selling capabilities.  When to use this structure:  Revenue commission works well when your team is small, your product offerings aren’t too complex, or you’re selling only one product with fixed pricing. 4. Gross Margin Commission  The gross margin commission structure follows a similar approach to the revenue commission structure.  However, instead of revenue (ARR or contract value), reps earn commission on the gross revenue (or profit on sales). Say your rep sold a contract for $150,000 but incurred a cost of $25,000 for the company. These costs may include travel to meet the client or a discount for the buyer. Under the gross margin commission structure, the rep will earn a commission on $125,000 ($150,000 less $25,000). Gross margin commission motivates reps to close deals at higher margins, ultimately benefiting the organization. When to use this structure:  If you aim to ensure bottom line profitability, this sales commission structure template can help reps win deals without incurring too much expense. This may also speed up the sales cycle. 5. Tiered Commission  In tiered commission, reps earn incremental commission on each deal closed, depending on the tier in which it falls.  The bigger the deal closed, the higher the tier and the higher the commission earned.  For example, for deals under $50,000, reps earn a commission of 5%, but for deals under $100,000, the commission moves up to 7%, and so on.  Tier Deal Size Commission  A Up to $50,000 5% B $50,000 to $100,000 7% C $100,000 to $150,000 10$ Tiered commission encourages reps to continually achieve and exceed targets for higher rewards. But, to maintain your business’s profitability, you may want to cap the maximum commission a rep can take home. When to use this structure:  A tiered commission structure works best when scaling your team, as it promotes over-performance and separates top performers from low. Not just that, it also motivates average and low performers to push

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Everything You Need to Know About Gross Revenue Retention

Everything You Need to Know About Gross Revenue Retention RevOps 10 min In a world where every organization is looking to acquire new customers, an often overlooked source of revenue is – Revenue Retention. Revenue made by retaining customers is the lifeblood of a successful organization. Retained customers often have higher lifetime value, reflecting their satisfaction and loyalty. Satisfied customers also contribute to a positive brand image and word-of-mouth referrals, giving companies a competitive edge.    Moreover, long-term customer relationships offer opportunities for cross-selling and upselling, while their feedback helps businesses refine and enhance their products and services, ultimately driving sustained growth and success. Revenue retention is pivotal for companies because it signifies the ability to sustain existing customer relationships and, consequently, maintain a stable revenue flow. Retaining customers not only lowers customer acquisition costs but also bolsters long-term profitability and growth.  To measure the revenue for retained customers, companies often use a metric called Gross Revenue Retention (GRR).    What is GRR? Gross Revenue Retention refers to a business’s capacity to keep its current customers. When a business successfully holds onto its customers, it maintains its revenue. In more straightforward terms, Gross Revenue Retention is the percentage of customers a business manages to keep at their current pricing or contract value. It stands as a pivotal customer retention metric for subscription-based companies and those operating in the SaaS industry. The comprehension and monitoring of GRR enable them to assess the overall efficiency of their customer retention tactics. The significance of Gross Revenue Retention goes beyond customer retention; it also functions as a gauge for prospective investors who consider this ratio when assessing a company’s investment suitability. How to Calculate GRR The Gross Revenue Retention rate formula measures the percentage of current customers retained over a specific timeframe. You can determine it using the following GRR formula: In this equation, MRR start represents the Monthly Recurring Revenue at the beginning of the month. This figure represents the recurring revenue at the outset of any period for which we want to compute the Gross Revenue Retention. Churn signifies the decline in revenue resulting from customers canceling their subscription or terminating their contract with the company. It represents a total revenue loss. Contraction, on the other hand, denotes the reduction in revenue caused by customers switching to a less expensive subscription plan. It entails a partial revenue loss since the customer’s revenue has decreased, but the revenue stream is not completely terminated. Let’s consider a quick example to calculate GRR for company XYZ, using the following financial figures: – Monthly Recurring Revenue: $15,000 – New Sales: $2,000 – Upselling to existing customers: $2,000 – Customer Attrition (Churn): $1,000 – Customer Downgrades: $1,000 By using Gross Revenue Retention rate formula: GRR = (15,000 – (1,000 + 1,000)) / 15,000 GRR = (15,000 – 2,000) / 15,000 GRR = 13,000 / 15,000 GRR = 0.8667 (rounded to 2 decimal places) GRR = 86.67% As mentioned earlier, the calculations do not include new sales and upselling. After this calculation, we find that XYZ SaaS company has a GRR of 86.67%, indicating that it successfully retained 86.67% of its revenue from existing customers. Apart from GRR, another popular metric used by organizations to measure revenue retention is NRR.  What is NRR? Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is a customer retention metric that assesses a company’s ability to grow its revenue from existing customers. It considers the revenue generated from current customers while considering any losses due to churn, contraction, or downgrades. NRR provides insight into the overall health of a company’s customer base and its effectiveness in retaining customers and expanding revenue from those customers through upselling or cross-selling. The formula for calculating NRR is as follows: A positive NRR value indicates that a company is retaining its existing customers and increasing revenue from them. Conversely, a negative NRR suggests that losses from customer churn, contraction, and downgrades are outpacing revenue growth from the existing customer base. Gross Revenue Retention vs Net Revenue Retention Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) and Net Revenue Retention (NRR) are two important financial indicators that underscore a company’s capacity to hold onto customers and sustain its revenue. The key difference between GRR vs. NRR centers around whether expansion revenue is considered. GRR concentrates solely on revenue derived from current customers without factoring in any supplementary income stemming from upsells, cross-sells, or upgrades. This metric offers insights into your company’s ability to maintain its fundamental revenue streams over time. The greater the proximity of GRR to 100%, the more favorable the situation. However, this is contingent on the size of the customer base. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) tend to experience higher churn rates and lower retention figures. Conversely, NRR considers retained customer revenue while also incorporating growth-related activities, like opportunities for upselling and cross-selling to existing clients. NRR presents a more holistic view of your company’s overall retention performance. NRR serves as a useful tool for business owners and stakeholders to assess the business’s expansion. It functions as a growth indicator, offering insights into the effectiveness of cross-selling and upselling strategies. An NRR value greater than 100% signifies growth, while NRR at 100% denotes a static business. When NRR is below 100%, it indicates a decline. According to advisor Dave Kellogg, a solid median NRR for private companies stands at 104%. It’s important to emphasize that NRR exclusively considers existing customers. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the business’s performance, it’s advisable to combine NRR with other metrics. Now that we have understood the difference between Gross Revenue Retention vs Net Revenue Retention, let’s understand the importance of tracking GRR for companies.  Importance of GRR As mentioned before, Gross Revenue Retention serves as a stability gauge for SaaS companies, revealing the initial revenue at the start of a period and how much has been eroded by the end. SaaS firms monitor GRR to gauge how strongly customers have either severed ties with or weakened their connections to the company. A higher customer loss may signal potential problems with

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Top 4 CRM AI Use Cases

Top 4 CRM AI Use Cases RevOps 10 min 91% of companies with more than 11 employees use Customer Relationship Management (CRM). However, only 12% of them actually use an AI-powered CRM tool! A lot of users believe that AI in CRM is still in the future and the current processes don’t require automation. But is this the case? What is an AI-powered CRM, and what are its use cases? Can businesses realize real benefit by using AI in their CRM? If so, what are the processes they can automate? We discuss all this, and a lot more in this detailed blog post. Read on. What is AI in CRM? CRM manages and maintains relationships with customers, prospects, and other business contacts. AI in CRM refers to integrating AI technologies into CRM software and processes to enhance customer interactions and improve business outcomes. AI in CRM enables businesses to analyze vast amounts of customer data, predict customer behavior, automate tasks, and personalize customer experiences. It empowers companies to deliver more targeted marketing, provide proactive customer support, and make data-driven decisions, ultimately leading to better customer satisfaction and increased sales. Why is AI required in CRM in 2025? In the modern business world, organizations require AI due to the following reasons: 1. Increasing unstructured data As the number of transactions grows, so does the volume of customer data. While this presents an opportunity for businesses to gain deeper insights into their customers, it also poses the challenge of managing and extracting relevant information from the predominantly unstructured data. However, AI tools offer a solution by converting unstructured data, which accounts for approximately 90% of the total data, into structured data, enabling businesses to leverage valuable information effectively. 2. Complex processes and relationships In addition to the expanding data volume, the rise in transactions leads to more intricate business processes and relationships. This complexity hinders a clear understanding of company relationships and accurate analysis of customer patterns. According to Xant, sales representatives spend over half of their time within CRM attempting to manage tasks more efficiently. AI technology presents a solution to this challenge by automating many of these tasks and providing valuable insights. By understanding customer sentiments, businesses can promptly address issues, improve their offerings, and enhance overall customer satisfaction. Benefits of AI-powered CRM Let’s have a detailed look at the benefits of AI-powered CRM. 1. Clean CRM data AI can help you achieve comprehensive contact lists for each account in your CRM by extracting them from your representatives’ email inboxes, calendars, and Zoom meetings. You can precisely categorize Account contacts and Opportunity Contact Roles (OCR) based on their engagement and relevance to ongoing Opportunities. AI can also automatically enhance each contact with updated job titles and phone numbers that remain up-to-date whenever changes occur. 2. Qualified pipeline Detect the absence of pre-engaged contacts or leads within the CRM. Conduct campaigns targeting GDPR-compliant contacts to expand the pipeline and expedite sales cycles, and identify contact roles to enhance targeted outreach efforts. 3. Tech Stack Audit Deep dive into the existing tools that your company is using. Identify all redundancies, and find opportunities to streamline the entire tech stack. i. Map Out Tools Compile a list of all tools used by teams, noting their purpose and how they work with the CRM. ii. Evaluate Use and Cost Determine if tools are actively used or if there are duplicates. Look for cost-saving opportunities by consolidating tools when possible.   3. Supercharged ABM You can recover inactive and lost deals and impact ongoing opportunities by employing Account-based Marketing (ABM) campaigns with current first-party buyer contacts directly sourced from sellers’ email inboxes and calendars. Increase funnel conversions by precisely targeting buyers through deep insights into buyer engagement within high-priority accounts, their buying roles, and the current sales stage of each account. 4. Data analysis and insights AI can allow you to process and analyze vast amounts of customer data to identify patterns, trends, and customer preferences, allowing businesses to make data-driven decisions. 5. Predictive analytics AI algorithms can predict customer behavior, such as identifying potential churn or predicting purchase intent, helping businesses proactively address customer needs. 6. Sentiment analysis AI can analyze customer sentiments from various sources, such as social media and surveys, helping companies understand customer satisfaction levels and identify potential issues. 7. Lead scoring and nurturing Assess and prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert, optimizing sales efforts and increasing conversion rates. 8. Personalization AI Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have the capacity to customize customer engagements through the examination of valuable customer information like previous buying patterns, online activities, and demographic details. Subsequently, this data can be utilized to personalize marketing communications, suggest products, and facilitate customer support interactions, catering to the distinctive requirements and preferences of each individual customer. 9. Chatbots Chatbots can deliver immediate customer support, thereby enhancing response times. These chatbots are capable of addressing common inquiries, offering product suggestions, and handling uncomplicated transactions. Consequently, this expedites the overall process and allows human agents to concentrate on more intricate and demanding matters. 10. Omnichannel presence AI-driven CRMs have the capability to deliver smooth and uninterrupted customer support through various communication channels, including email, social media, chat, and phone. This enables customers to interact with businesses through their preferred means, leading to enhanced engagement and satisfaction. 11. Sales forecasting and performance analysis CRM can analyze historical sales data, market trends, and external factors to predict future sales performance accurately. This enables businesses to make informed decisions, allocate resources efficiently, and set realistic sales targets for their teams. 12. Churn Prediction and Customer Retention AI can analyze customer behavior and historical data to predict the likelihood of customer churn. By identifying potential churn risks, businesses can implement targeted retention strategies to reduce customer attrition and improve loyalty.  With so many benefits, it is no wonder that businesses use AI-powered CRM for various business use cases. Let’s have a look at some of them:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8-8i1LNk3k&t=624s Top AI CRM Use Cases By analyzing

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How to Stop Your Reps From Dreading CRM Data Entry

How to Stop Your Reps From Dreading CRM Data Entry RevOps 10 min CRM adoption. Two words which are enough to run a chill down a revenue leader’s spine. Less than 40% of companies have full-scale adoption of a CRM. Why?  The #1 challenge while adopting or working with a CRM is data entry leading to an even bigger problem of CRM failures. No wonder, 23% of people say that manual data entry is one of the major barriers of beginning to use a CRM or the challenges of using one regularly. This is where the revenue leaders must jump in to ensure that CRM usage is not seen as a punishment, but rather as a valuable tool that eases their sales reps’ day-to-day lives. Don’t know where to start? Fret not!  In this article, we will address the pain points of your reps while dealing with CRM data entry and how you can stop them from dreading it. In the end, we will also be sharing a tool that can take away all the data entry fatigue.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zM0jwDaP88&t=3671s Reps Dread CRM Data Entry No prizes for guessing that reps HATE CRM data entry. Yet they are inundated time and again to spend time on this manual task. Rather than helping them sell more. RevOps tech stack expert Don Otvos outlines his approach to getting rid of the data entry fear. But before we solve it for you, let’s discuss why the CRM dashboard instills dread in the minds of reps using it. 1. Disconnect from selling  When reps spend a major chunk of time punching data into the CRM system, they may feel disconnected from the core purpose of their job, which is – to sell and build relationships with customers.  Engaging in data entry tasks can pull them away from actively interacting with potential clients, leading to frustration and a sense of detachment from their primary sales goals. 2. Perceived lack of value Some reps may struggle to see the direct benefits of data entry in their day-to-day selling activities. They might question whether the time and effort invested in feeding information into the CRM actually contribute to closing deals.  This perception can make data entry feel like a mundane and non-rewarding task, resulting in reluctance and disinterest. 3. Time-consuming & tedious nature  Manual data entry is quite frustrating as its repetitive and time-consuming which further requires careful attention to detail.  Reps end up spending a significant time of their workday typing in information, updating records, and managing records which can be mentally draining and lead to reduced job satisfaction. Instead, reps prefer to invest their time & energy in more impactful sales-related activities. CRM data entry bogs down your sales as 35% of salespeople are spending over an hour a day on data entry work eating up the time they should be spending on selling. 4. Increased workload Sales reps have the most demanding schedules and on top of their schedules comes the dreadful CRM data entry.  It can feel like an additional burden creating a sense of overwhelm, as reps need to balance their selling responsibilities with the admin task of maintaining accurate and updated CRM records. 5. Data privacy concerns Dealing with customer data requires a high level of responsibility and discretion. Reps may worry about the potential consequences of mishandling sensitive customer information or accidentally sharing confidential data with unauthorized individuals.  These concerns add to the stress and anxiety of the data entry process, as reps are always trying to maintain data privacy and adhere to relevant regulations.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhp3R9b-a5s&t=1s 5 Ways to Stop your Reps from Dreading CRM Data Entry RevOps can make things easier for the reps by deploying tools and streamlining processes. We will discuss these in detail now.  1. Simplify the data entry process & use automation The first and foremost thing to do for getting rid of the reps’ fear is to make things easy for them. How? One word – automation.  By automating data entry processes, you can relieve the burden on your sales reps. The automation tools work quietly in the background, eliminating the need for reps to manually input data saving them 8+ hours of time every week.  As Don Otvos aptly puts it,  Additionally, you may use tools that are compatible with mobile devices allowing reps to update information on the go, further easing the data entry burden. 2. Incorporate voice-to-text and AI assistants Typing lengthy notes and updates can be a time-consuming task for sales reps. You may deploy voice-to-text functionality, to enable reps to dictate their interactions, follow-ups, and insights directly into the CRM.  AI-powered assistants can transcribe voice inputs accurately and categorize them appropriately, ensuring data integrity while saving valuable time for your sales team. 3. Integration with sales tools Make sure you integrate the CRM with other sales tools to improve the data entry completeness by eliminating duplicate efforts and ensuring a holistic view of customer interactions.  For instance, when a sales rep schedules a meeting in their calendar, the CRM should automatically update the relevant contact’s record with the appointment details.  Similarly, integrate email clients so that reps can easily log email interactions and track correspondence history within the CRM. Tools like HubSpot allow you to do both.  Its built-in meeting scheduler allows you to set up and keep track of upcoming calls directly within the dashboard, while its native Gmail and Outlook support lets you monitor and respond to conversations, as well as set up automatic outreach emails personalized using data from your contact records. 4. Real-time alerts To prevent data entry tasks from piling up and becoming overwhelming, implement real-time alerts and notifications.  Notify reps about essential tasks, follow-ups, or deadlines through the CRM. With timely reminders, sales reps can promptly act on essential tasks preventing any lapses in customer communication.  For instance, Nektar  pushes the right insights to the right people at the right time. The sights are directly sent to Slack or Teams so that sales teams can be alerted about deals in real-time without adopting yet another

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10 Ways to Improve Sales Efficiency

10 Ways to Improve Sales Efficiency in 2025 RevOps 10 min In every business, strategies are crafted, deals are made, and profits are pursued,  But there exists a hidden force that can make or break a business’ journey toward success.  Efficiency. That’s right!  Efficiency in business is like the wind beneath the wings of a soaring eagle, pushing it to new heights with minimal effort.  To be precise, efficiency is the ability to achieve maximum output with minimal wasted resources, time, or effort.  And within sales, efficiency is a pretty important aspect of a healthy sales pipeline. It is the guiding star that illuminates the way to increased revenue, more conversions, and sustainable growth.  In this blog, we will delve into the impact of sales efficiency, actionable insights to boost it, calculation methods, and the metrics you need to track. Let’s get started with the basics.  What is Sales Efficiency? Sales efficiency refers to the ability of a sales team/rep to generate better results with the least amount of resources, time, and effort.  It is about finding ways to simplify and optimize every stage of the sales cycle, from lead generation and prospecting to qualification, presentation, negotiation, and closing.  That doesn’t mean your reps have to constantly make more calls or send more emails. Instead, they must focus on high-quality leads, prioritize activities that have better ROI, and eliminate unnecessary steps without hampering sales success. In a nutshell, sales efficiency is about focusing on the right activities, with the right people, at the right time. But, isn’t this sales effectiveness?  Definitely not! Read on. Sales Efficiency vs. Sales Effectiveness Businesses often use sales efficiency and sales effectiveness interchangeably. While they are closely related, they focus on different aspects of the sales process.  Sales efficiency is working optimally towards achieving the sales goals while sales effectiveness is more about setting the right goals and making sure progress is made in that direction.  Think of the concept of sales efficiency as a car’s speed, while sales effectiveness is the destination the car is trying to reach. Sales efficiency involves optimizing the car’s speed, fuel, and minimizing stops, allowing it to reach its destination faster and with less cost.  In contrast, sales effectiveness is all about choosing the right route, navigating through traffic, and making necessary adjustments to ensure the car reaches its desired destination. Sales effectiveness is the quality of the actions, while efficiency is the speed of the actions. Julie Thomas, President and CEO at Value Selling Associates To achieve success in sales, it’s essential to prioritize both efficiency and effectiveness.  Neglecting efficiency could result in a sales team struggling to achieve its goals within the required timeframe. Meanwhile, ignoring effectiveness could lead to a lot of effort being put in without making any progress toward the right goals. Enough of pessimism! Let’s shift our perspective to how sales efficiency can positively impact your business outcomes.  How Does Sales Efficiency Boost Revenue? Sales efficiency can indeed make a significant difference in the success and growth of a business. Here are some ways in which sales efficiency can have a positive impact: 1. Resource optimization Sales efficiency plays an integral role in optimizing resources within the sales function. By identifying areas of inefficiency and eliminating low-impact activities, businesses can allocate their resources effectively.  This includes streamlining sales processes, automating routine tasks, and leveraging tech to introduce productivity in processes. It also helps to identify the most effective sales channels and optimize human resources by aligning suitable responsibilities with the reps’ skill sets. Optimal resource allocation helps businesses create a lean and effective sales operation. 2. Identify improvement areas & refine sales performance As a company strives for sales efficiency, it carries out a thorough evaluation of its sales processes and team performance, exposing multiple areas for improvement and growth opportunities. By analyzing data and metrics, companies are able to pinpoint bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas of underperformance. This then allows them to correct measures for increasing productivity, optimizing workflows, and eliminating blockers.  3. Improved customer experience Sales efficiency goes beyond just closing deals; it also focuses on delivering an exceptional customer experience throughout the sales journey.  Efficient sales processes ensure that every interaction with customers is meaningful, valuable, and tailored to their specific requirements, leading to higher customer satisfaction, retention, and ultimately, efficient growth. Eric Welsh, Director of RevOps at Demostack defines efficient growth as “every team in a go-to-market function working towards the same objective.” Check out his full conversation with us below.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQL_wSyj9mE&t=716s 4. Improved sales forecasting Sales efficiency empowers businesses to improve their sales forecasting capabilities as well. With streamlined processes, data analysis, historical trends, and market insights, businesses can collect relevant data points consistently and promptly, facilitating more accurate sales forecasting.  This enables them to allocate resources effectively, set realistic targets, and make informed business decisions. 5. Adaptability to market changes Sales efficiency equips businesses with the agility and flexibility to adapt to dynamic market conditions.  By continuously monitoring market trends, customer behavior, and competitor activities, companies can proactively adjust their sales strategies and approaches. This allows them to seize emerging opportunities and overcome challenges.  Efficient sales processes also help them to quickly respond to changing customer needs, competitive landscape, and tech advancements, ensuring sustained growth.  Measuring Sales Efficiency Measuring sales efficiency is a must for businesses to assess their performance and identify areas where improvement is needed.  One commonly used formula to measure sales efficiency is: Sales Efficiency = (Revenue / Sales & Marketing Costs) x 100 This formula calculates the ratio of revenue generated to the costs incurred in sales and marketing activities. It provides a quantitative measure of how effectively a company is utilizing its resources to generate revenue.  A higher sales efficiency ratio indicates that the business is generating more revenue relative to its sales and marketing costs, suggesting a more efficient and effective sales operations. Now, you may want to ask – what is a good sales efficiency ratio? A high sales efficiency ratio generally indicates a strong sales performance,

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20 Best Revenue Forecast Tools for 2025

Top 20 Revenue Forecasting Tools for 2025 RevOps 10 min It’s no secret that every business owner wants to know what the future holds for their company. After all, it’s hard to plan for the future without a clear idea of what lies ahead.  And that is where revenue forecast tools come in. You must have also made revenue predictions for your business. But, have you ever found that the actual results are vastly different from what you anticipated? It’s a common challenge for many revenue operations teams out there. In fact, a report says 93% of leaders are unable to forecast revenue within 5 percent, even with two weeks left in the quarter.  From revenue leakages to disastrous business decisions, things can go south in no time when predictions don’t align with reality. So, what can revenue operations teams do to reduce this gap between revenue predictions and actual results?  In this article, we will talk about all things revenue forecasting and the 15 best revenue forecast tools you can leverage for accurate forecasting.    What is Revenue Forecasting? Revenue forecasting is the process of predicting the future revenue of a business based on historical data and current market trends.  As George Santayana once said, “To know the future, you must know the past.” This statement rings true when it comes to revenue forecasting in the business world. Think of revenue forecasting as trying to make informed guesses about how much money you’ll make next year based on how much you made this year and what you think might change in the market or with your customers. For example, let’s say a business sees that its sales have been steadily increasing over the past few years. Based on this trend, they might forecast that they’ll continue to see growth in the coming years. With this information, they could make strategic decisions about how to allocate their resources and investments to fuel that growth. Revenue Forecasting in the Changing Landscape for 2025 Although the definition above may sound straightforward, revenue forecasting comes with a number of challenges for RevOps teams to navigate. Here are a few:  1. Market fluctuations In recent years, we’ve seen lots of ups and downs in the market due to the global pandemic, political instability, and economic downturns. Besides, 73% of CEOs around the world believe global economic growth will decline over the next 12 months. This volatility can make it challenging to predict future revenue accurately, as market conditions can change rapidly and unpredictably. 2. Technological evolution  Technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace so much so that the emerging tech will experience a growth rate of 104% between 2018 and 2023. This rapid pace of technological change can make it difficult for RevOps teams to forecast revenue accurately, as new products and services may have unpredictable impacts on revenue. 3. Data quality issues 41% of companies cite inconsistent data across technologies, as their biggest challenge. This can be a significant issue for revenue forecasting, as inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to unreliable forecasts. This can further drive failed strategies and wasted resources.  4. Intensified market competition  The rate at which new businesses have been entering the market has generally been rising over the past decade. With so many companies in the market, the competition becomes intense leading to pricing pressure and changes in consumer behavior. This makes it challenging for RevOps tea,s to forecast revenue accurately. 5. Shifting consumer trends The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by several years. This rapid shift in the consumer behavior can make it difficult to predict how customers will respond to new products, services, and marketing campaigns. As you just read, revenue forecasting can be a wild ride, but don’t worry! With the right tools and solutions, you can make it through safely. We’ve got your back and have rounded up a list of the best revenue forecasting tools out there to help you make a lucrative decision.  But, before we get to the juicy part of the article, let us understand the process.  Decoding the Revenue Forecasting Process It’s a world where numbers reign supreme, and insights are king. But don’t let the math intimidate you – revenue forecasting is not just about crunching numbers.  It’s more than that. Let us walk you through the entire process.  Step 1: Define the forecasting period The first step is to determine the specific time frame for which you want to forecast revenue. Make sure the period aligns with your business goals and objectives. For example, if you are planning an important marketing campaign, you may opt to forecast revenue for the next quarter. Alternatively, if you are developing a long-term business plan, you may choose to forecast revenue for the next several years. Step 2: Gather historical data Collect past sales data, financial reports, and other relevant information that can help identify trends and patterns in revenue over time. Such data may include sales revenue, profits, expenses, customer demographics, and other metrics that hold relevance to your business. Step 3: Analyze current market trends Examine the present market conditions, competition, and other external factors that could influence the revenue of your business. This may involve analyzing changes in consumer behavior, technological advancements, and economic conditions. Use this information to identify potential opportunities and threats that could impact revenue. Step 4: Identify key revenue drivers Identify the major drivers that have an impact on the revenue of your business, such as product pricing, marketing campaigns, and sales strategies. This may necessitate analyzing data from previous periods and leads to determine which factors had the most significant influence on revenue. These factors are called leading indicators.  Keeping an eye on these leading indicators is nothing but simply monitoring sales pipeline, conversion rates, and customer engagement to get a better idea of where your leads are headed and make informed predictions.  Step 5: Develop a forecast model Leverage the previously gathered historical data, market trends, and key drivers to develop a revenue forecast model. This model should take into account all the relevant

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Multithreading in Sales: The Modern Secret to Winning More Deals

Multithreading in Sales: The Modern Secret to Winning More Deals RevOps 10 min B2B buying is no longer a solo act. Today’s B2B buyer is not an individual but a “buying group.” According to a Forrester survey, 94% of respondents sold to a group of three or more individuals, while 38% sold to groups of 10 or more buyers. Gartner also found that the number of buyers has increased from 5 to 20 in the last ten years.  This illustrates that the decision to invest in a product or service is not a single person’s job. Instead, it takes multiple rounds of discussions with different stakeholders across departments to make a purchase decision. As high as 82% of decisions are made by a buying group. Let’s consider technology sellers as an example.  The sales process for technology has moved beyond the IT function. Those outside IT influence 63% of technology purchase decisions. Decision-making now includes other departments such as finance, business development, legal, and compliance.  Digital transformation has put buyers at the center of the process, leading to the buying committee becoming more extensive and diverse. As technology moves beyond functional silos, sellers need to adapt, too.  So, for a successful sale, you’ll need to have the C-suite, marketing, and other stakeholders on board. And remember, all of them value different things. What does it take to achieve consensus within the buying group? An effective deal closure with “multithreading.” What is Multithreading in Sales? Multithreading is when sales reps connect and build relationships with multiple stakeholders in the buying committee of an account. It effectively increases the chances of closing deals even if the champion leaves the buyer organization.  Let’s understand with an example.  Your sales rep has directly connected with the person in charge of implementing your solution (commonly called the “champion”) within their organization. This relationship took several months to nurture and build trust. Suddenly, the champion quits their job for a better opportunity.  What’s your rep’s next point of action? Your rep may reach out to the new champion. But they have to nurture this relationship for a few more weeks or months to close the deal. There you have it. A lower deal momentum and an increased sales cycle. In another scenario, there’s no immediate replacement champion identified by your rep yet, and in the meanwhile, the buying committee decides to go ahead with another solution. This turns into a lost deal.  But if your rep multithreads with all the stakeholders of the buying committee, they have a higher chance of closing the deal even when a key stakeholder quits an organization. Risks of Single Threading Despite its effectiveness, most sales reps end up choosing single threading. That is, reps connect and sell to only one person from the buying organization. A LinkedIn study shows that 78% of the sales reps are single-threaded. The single-threading approach appears less complicated on the surface and may create a stronger relationship with one client. But there are significant downsides to it.  Single threading is the conventional way of one seller interacting with one buyer. It overly relies on one individual from each side (buyer and seller) to see the deal through. But the moment one of them leaves, the sales process is disrupted. Moreover, a seller loses solid rapport with the buyer when one of them exits the deal. They need to start the process from scratch, leading to longer sales cycles, higher churn rates, and lower win rates.  Take this for numbers. As per LinkedIn, around 25% of buyers change their jobs every year. The result? 80% of sellers admit that at least one deal was lost or delayed due to a prospect or key stakeholder changing jobs. These numbers become significant when considering the loss in revenue.  But you can combat this with a multithreaded approach.   Deploy Multithreading in Sales  Here are six things to check off your list for successful multithreading in sales. 1. Get visibility into your buying committees Gone are the days when you’d call up Gary from the marketing department, invite him over for lunch and close a deal within the week. Today, it’s the entire buying committee – Gary plus others. A buying committee comprises of individuals who wield influence in the buying process, spanning multiple departments, roles, and personas. To successfully close deals, understanding the key roles and personas within each buying committee is paramount So, how do you identify which stakeholders concern you and their priorities? Taking a manual route to getting these contacts into your CRM is a lost cause. Your sales reps talk to several people on a daily basis. Not all these contacts are fed into the CRM. Worse – only 2-4 contacts make their way into Salesforce. Which means sales managers have no visibility into buying committees. This gap in contact data, also known as “contact blindness” significantly puts your deals at risk. Not only will reps miss out on building relationships with the right stakeholders, sales managers will be missing crucial insights to coach them on how to move a deal forward. The first step hence is to make sure you have visibility into the entire buying committee of every deal. You can achieve this with Nektar’s zero adoption contact and activity capture solution. Nektar automatically captures all your hidden contacts from your reps’ sales inboxes and calendars. And feeds it into Salesforce. Nektar’s AI capability also links contacts to the right accounts and opportunities in Salesforce. It enhances contacts with job titles and buying roles, so that your sales teams have unprecedented visibility into buying committees. Once you know what your buying committee looks like, you can build an account map and visualize connections between various stakeholder pain points and your solution. An example of an account map Next, understand their pain points that could drive demand for your solution. If they have an existing solution, what’s their need for a new one, and why they must consider you. It’s also helpful to understand the influence a given stakeholder has on the overall decision-making process, how long the organization’s buying

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10 Revenue Operations KPIs You Must Measure

10 Revenue Operations KPIs You Must Measure RevOps 10 min If you have set up a revenue operations function in your organization and wondering what KPIs to track, this guide is for you. Tracking the right revenue operations KPIs can have a massive impact on your revenue. Setting up KPIs plays a crucial role in improving workflows. Not just that, but they also provide you with the means to create an unforgettable customer experience.  So, how can you maximize RevOps KPIs for profitability? And more importantly, which ones should you measure?  In this blog, we’ll dive into revenue operations KPIs with insights from our conversation with Cliff Simon, CRO at Carabiner Group.  You can listen to the full conversation here: Revenue Operations KPIs and Their Role in Cross-Functional Alignment Before we move on to KPIs, let’s get the basics right. That starts with understanding what RevOps is precisely.  Cliff says it’s about following the dollar’s value through the revenue funnel.  Notice how he doesn’t mention sales explicitly? That’s because RevOps is a much larger process than sales operations. It doesn’t just cover the sales touchpoint but tracks the entire customer journey.  What’s important to note is that alignment between teams is the key driving force behind RevOps. Sadly, cross-functional misalignment is also a big pain point for SaaS businesses.  This misalignment leads to a lack of communication between teams, manifesting siloed data.  Companies have tons of data, but it sits in separate data lakes. These lakes don’t have any connecting bridges and don’t come together into a unified source. Because the lakes are separated, organizations have no idea about meaningfully using insights from siloed data.  That’s the reason why achieving alignment is the first step. And from there, it’s about maintaining this alignment between teams as you scale.  But how do you track alignment and revenue growth as a result of it? Using revenue operations KPIs.  Why Should You Measure Revenue Operations KPIs? Companies can only improve or innovate if they know where they’re going wrong. RevOps KPIs help you track your customers’ progress and team performance throughout the buyer journey. This includes all revenue-generating teams—marketing, sales, customer success, product, finance, and more.  These KPIs are particularly important today when aligning workflows between multiple teams is a complex process.  Revenue operations KPIs measure the progress of shared workflows to determine if they’re catering to customer needs. They also measure performance at each customer touchpoint. You can go granular with KPIs to improve efficiency, eliminate friction and maximize revenue for growth.  From an overarching perspective, revenue operations KPIs are your strategic guide to achieving business goals through revenue operations.  Let’s move to the next most important question—what RevOps KPIs should you be tracking?  10 Essential Revenue Operations KPIs You Must Measure If you’re new to the RevOps journey and are just beginning to pay attention to KPIs, this list will help you pinpoint the correct revenue operations KPIs to measure.  The remaining KPIs can be added as you scale your business. So, let’s dive in.  1. Revenue  This is a no-brainer KPI, to begin with, but it’s also obviously critical.  Revenue is the amount generated by your business.  Measuring this KPI helps you figure out: If you have a consistent revenue stream over a given period What are the ups and downs How to adapt your pricing What’s your progress against business goals  Typically, you must look at recurring revenue—subscriptions, membership fees, and license fees— in terms of Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).  As the name suggests, MRR gives you a monthly overview. The formula for MRR is: ARR, an annual KPI, can be used for more important business goals, measuring growth, and sales forecasting. There are two ways to calculate ARR, which you can see below:  2. Sales Pipeline Velocity Sales pipeline velocity measures the time a customer takes to move through the pipeline from lead to conversion. However, it’s stated in terms of revenue, not time.  While sales pipeline velocity can differ widely from company to company, a usual B2B sales cycle could take as much as a year.  It can be used to determine how much time your reps take to convert a lead. And if you should introduce any changes in the sales workflow.  A higher velocity signifies that your sales process is organized and structured. This solid process pushes leads through the revenue funnel via frictionless handoffs. MQLs quickly become SQLs which, in turn, become closed or won opportunities.  However, if your velocity is low, your revenue process may have bottlenecks that must be removed. You must identify these bumps and eliminate them to sustain growth.  3. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) You have to spend a certain amount of money to get new customers over a given period. For instance, money spent on running digital ad campaigns is a cost to acquire new customers.  That’s CAC for you.  Other costs associated with converting leads to revenue could fall under:  Advertising Sales hiring Commission Sales rep coaching Overheads, and more. CAC is calculated as below. CAC measures your ROI on the investment made to acquire customers. It determines if you’re getting your money’s worth through new customers to improve profitability.  This revenue operations KPI also reflects your marketing and sales success. It shows if you’re on the right track with your campaigns, messaging, and communication.  If your ROI is low, you can strategize on reducing your CAC without affecting the quality of buyer-seller interactions for your company.  4. Conversion Rate Conversion rate (sometimes known as “win rate” or “opportunities to close ratio” in SaaS) is the number of opportunities that you turn into closed deals. It shows the percentage of leads that moved through your revenue funnel and became customers.  If your conversion rate is low, you’re not doing something right in the revenue process. This revenue operations KPI provides a big-picture overview of why you couldn’t close more deals.  Then, you can dive into questions such as: Does marketing need to provide the sales team with high-intent MQLs?  Are you more focused on the volume of MQLs and SQLs, rather

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Salesforce Lead vs. Opportunity: Explore the Difference

Salesforce Lead vs. Opportunity: Explore the Difference RevOps 10 min Salesforce leads and Salesforce opportunities. These terms might be the first to welcome you as you enter the Salesforce world.  However, comprehending these terms is nothing short of vital. This article takes a deep dive into these two crucial terms within Salesforce to help you understand their roles, distinctions, and tips to make the most of them.  We will also explore the conversion process and understand when to convert a lead into an opportunity and why it matters.  Let’s begin. What is a Salesforce Lead? A lead is the initial stage in the customer acquisition process in Salesforce. It represents a potential customer or business entity interested in your product or service.  However, their interest has yet to evolve into a concrete sales opportunity. Leads are often individuals or organizations that have interacted with your company somehow. Some common examples include filling out a contact form on your website or attending a webinar. Let’s consider a software company, XYZ Tech, offering a project management tool. They launched a marketing campaign, and as a result, several professionals expressed interest in the product by signing up for a free demo on the website.  At this stage, these individuals are considered leads within Salesforce. The company has their basic information, like name, email address, and the source of their interest (the marketing campaign), recorded in the CRM system. However, being leads, these individuals have yet to reach the point where they are ready to purchase. They may need further nurturing, information, or engagement to evaluate whether XYZ Tech’s project management tool aligns with their needs.  As XYZ Tech’s sales and marketing teams interact with these leads, providing insights and addressing queries, some may gradually progress to the next stage: becoming opportunities.  What is an Opportunity in Salesforce? An opportunity reflects a distinct stage in the sales pipeline of the Salesforce CRM ecosystem. At this stage, a lead or potential customer has advanced beyond initial interest and is now a qualified prospect with a real chance of making a purchase.  Opportunities are critical in tracking and managing the sales process, as they provide a structured framework for sales teams to pursue and close deals. Each option includes the potential revenue, probability of closing the deal, sales stage, and expected closing date. All these aspects provide a comprehensive overview of the sales potential associated with a prospect. To illustrate the concept of better, let’s return to our example with XYZ Tech. After some time nurturing the leads generated from their marketing campaign, the sales team at XYZ Tech identified a lead named John Smith, who has shown interest in their product. John has held multiple discussions with the sales representatives and attended a product demonstration. He has also expressed his intent to implement the software for his organization. At this point, John transitions from being a lead to becoming an opportunity within Salesforce. The CRM system may now contain the following information about the potential sale:  Estimated deal value,  The stage of the sales process (e.g., “Proposal Sent”) The probability of closing the deal based on historical data and the current circumstances (e.g., 70% chance of closing) The expected closing date (e.g., within the next 30 days). Salesforce Leads vs. Opportunities Understanding the distinctions between leads and opportunities is critical to managing and nurturing potential customers through the sales cycle. While both play pivotal roles in customer relationship management, they serve different purposes within the sales process. Here are some critical differences between Salesforce leads vs. opportunities. Difference 1: Stage of the sales cycle Leads Leads represent the earliest stage in the sales cycle. They are potential customers who have shown initial interest but have yet to be fully qualified or ready for direct sales engagement. Opportunities Opportunities reflect a more advanced stage in the sales process. They indicate that a lead has progressed to the point where there is a genuine potential for a sale. Difference 2: Information depth Leads Leads contain basic contact information, like name and email address. It also includes the source of their interest. They may also have limited data on their specific needs. Opportunities Opportunities include more comprehensive information. They include details on the potential deal size, probability of closing, current sales stage, and expected closing date. The depth of data helps track and forecast revenue. Difference 3: Purpose Leads Leads serve as a starting point for identifying potential customers. They require further nurturing and qualification to determine if they are genuinely interested and their needs align with the offered product or service. Opportunities Opportunities are actionable prospects that have passed the initial qualification phase. Sales teams focus on opportunities to pursue a sale and close deals actively. Difference 4: Conversion process Leads You can convert leads into contacts, accounts, or opportunities when they meet specified criteria and exhibit higher interest or readiness. Opportunities Opportunities come from leads that have undergone a qualification process and are now considered promising prospects. They don’t convert into other Salesforce entities but are worked upon to reach a successful sale. Difference 5: Sales tracking Leads Leads help track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and lead-generation efforts. This is because they represent the starting point of customer interaction. Opportunities Opportunities provide critical insights into the progress of potential sales. They help sales teams prioritize deals and forecast revenue more accurately. When Does a Lead Convert into an Opportunity? The decision to convert a lead into an opportunity in Salesforce is critical in the sales process. It requires careful consideration and strategic judgment.  While the specific criteria for conversion may vary, here are some best practices that should guide this decision-making process. 1. Qualification and engagement Before converting a lead, assess its level of qualification and engagement. Has the lead demonstrated a genuine interest in your product or service? Have they engaged in meaningful interactions with your sales or marketing teams? Qualification may involve the lead’s budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT). 2. Information

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7 Salesforce Data Quality Tools for 2025

7 Salesforce Data Quality Tools for 2025 RevOps 10 min Salesforce data quality tools are like trusty detectives for your business data.  They carefully inspect and analyze your data to make sure it’s accurate, consistent, and reliable. With these tools, you can confidently make important business decisions based on high-quality data that you can trust.  When it comes to handling data from different sources like social media, logs, email, and databases, you need a reliable solution that can effectively scrub, manage, and analyze all that information.  With the right tools in place, you’ll be equipped to tackle any data challenge that comes your way and make the most out of your diverse data sources. What is Data Quality? Data quality is all about having good, reliable data that you can trust. It’s like having a sturdy foundation for your business decisions.  That means no more errors, duplicates, or messy data that can lead you astray. When your data is accurate, complete, and consistent, you can make confident choices and take actions that will drive your business forward. Related Blog: Do You Trust Your Salesforce Data? To ensure data quality, essential processes include data ingestion, profiling, parsing, cleansing, standardization, matching, execution, deduplication, merging, and exporting. Each step contributes to refining and improving the data for effective analysis and utilization. Why Do you Need Salesforce Data Quality Tools? Having high-quality data is a game-changer for organizations.  When you can rely on accurate and reliable insights, it becomes a catalyst for smarter business processes and decision-making. Not only does it save valuable resources, but it also boosts your organization’s efficiency and profitability.  But what are the consequences of bad data? When you’re working with data that’s inaccurate, incomplete, or unreliable, it’s like walking on thin ice. You run the risk of making poor business decisions, flawed strategies, and unreliable analytics. Related Blog: 5 Salesforce Products to Boost ROI in 2023 Inaccurate data can wreak havoc on your business, leading to a multitude of issues like incorrect customer addresses, incomplete records, missed sales opportunities, unreliable financial reporting, and more. These missteps can have a significant impact on your bottom line, reputation, and overall success. By leveraging good data quality software, you can ensure that your business maintains high-quality data, meeting both international and local regulatory requirements. This, in turn, enhances your business agility and efficiency, enabling you to make informed decisions and drive better outcomes. Check the gaps in your salesforce reports, with an no-obligation free CRM scan report. Scan my CRMDownload Sample Report Top 7 Salesforce Data Quality Tools 1. Nektar Nektar is an AI for RevOps that automates all customer information and contact and brings them together, revealing insights that are normally not visible in CRMs. With AI-powered CRM automation, Nektar revolutionizes the Salesforce experience and delivers unmatched return on investment (ROI). Sellers simply forget to update the CRM. This lack of adoption leads to poor data quality, which means revenue leaders don’t get the insights they need. It’s a waste of money. That’s where Nektar comes in. Pricing: Nektar’s pricing is flexible depending on the business and solutions required. Nektar also offers a free CRM checkup to identify key gaps on where revenue is being lost in the sales process. 2. ZoomInfo ZoomInfo is a tool that provides comprehensive sales and marketing intelligence. It offers accurate contact information, deep insights into companies, and the ability to identify buying intent. With ZoomInfo, you can personalize your outreach, stay updated on target accounts, and integrate seamlessly with other systems. It empowers sales and marketing teams to find, engage, and close deals with their ideal customers. Pricing: ZoomInfo offers various pricing packages tailored to different business needs, and they can provide customized pricing based on your specific requirements. 3. Ambition Ambition is a performance management and gamification tool designed to help organizations drive employee productivity and achieve their goals. It provides a range of features and functionalities to motivate and engage employees, track performance metrics, and provide real-time visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs). Pricing: The pricing details for Ambition can be obtained from the software provider or through publicly accessible pricing materials. To make a purchase of Ambition, it is recommended to engage in final cost negotiations with the seller. 4. CirrusInsights CirrusInsights is a tool that integrates Salesforce with your email and calendar, providing a seamless experience for sales professionals. It offers a range of features to enhance productivity and streamline workflows. Pricing: Cirrus Insight offers four pricing editions ranging from $4 to $29, with a free trial available. Explore the editions to find the one that fits your needs and budget. Salesforce Sync $10/year/user Pro  $21/year/user Expert $29/year/user Sync+ $4/month/user 5. HelloSign (Dropbox Sign) Hellosign is an electronic signature platform that allows businesses to securely sign and send documents online. It simplifies the signature process, eliminates the need for paper-based workflows, and enables businesses to streamline their document management. Pricing: Free $0 Essential $15/month Dropbox +eSign $24.99/month Standard Starting at $25/month 6. Ringlead Ringlead is a comprehensive data management platform that helps businesses improve the quality and accuracy of their customer data. It offers a wide range of features and functionalities to enhance data management processes and ensure data integrity.  Pricing: Pricing information for Ringlead may vary depending on the specific needs and requirements of your business. It’s recommended to reach out to the Ringlead team for detailed pricing information and to discuss the best plan for your organization. 7. Clearbit Clearbit is a data enrichment and intelligence platform that helps businesses gain valuable insights about their customers. It provides a wide range of features and functionalities to enhance data quality and drive personalized experiences. Pricing: Clearbit’s pricing may vary depending on the specific needs and requirements of your business. It’s recommended to reach out to the Clearbit team for detailed pricing information and to discuss the best plan for your organization. Make your Salesforce a self-healing data-packed CRM with Nektar! Get a demo! Conclusion Salesforce is one of the steepest investments in your tech stack. But low adoption rates and poor

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Unlocking Efficient Growth With a RevOps Function

Unlocking Efficient Growth With a RevOps Function In this blog, we discuss with Eric Welsh how you can give up the hunt and turn to RevOps to drive efficient growth. RevOps 10 min The hype for “growth at all costs” has died down in the last year. Budget freezes across organizations have pushed leaders to drive efficiency with the resources at hand.  Now, it’s all about doing more with less. And the concept is quickly gaining ground among leaders because they can drive efficient growth by keeping costs low.  But how exactly are they doing it? And is it efficient enough with limited funds?  Those are the questions we sought answers to in our conversation with Eric Welsh. Eric is the Director of RevOps at Demostack and has been in RevOps and its adjacent spaces for nearly a decade.  This blog digs into his wealth of experience to bring you insightful nuggets for driving efficient growth. You can also view the full conversation below.  Ep #7: Driving Efficient Growth With RevOps ft. Eric Welsh Defining Efficient Growth for Businesses Today We’ve witnessed, in the last few years, that market conditions can change instantly. At the same time, aggressive growth encouraged companies to raise funds, invest, hire, and innovate quickly.  But when following an efficient growth mindset, the primary question you need to ask yourself is—are you growing in a way that constantly needs funds to survive and thrive? And if the answer’s “yes,” your growth isn’t efficient.  Instead of solely focusing on raising funds, your goals must adapt to the evolving business environment. That means you should be able to drive efficient growth even when the funds dry up with the resources you have so far in your journey.  It begins with paying attention to early cost warnings, allocating and reallocating resources as needed, and facilitating transformational growth (as opposed to just rapid growth).  You need to push for cleaner, more transparent, and standardized process flows that avoid a lag in scaling. It also means you may have to turn to digitization and automation to maximize your resources.  What Makes Revops the Perfect Choice to Drive Efficient Growth? Revenue operations or RevOps is an end-to-end operating model that helps organizations run their business in an interconnected way across GTM functions like sales, marketing and customer success. The function’s primary responsibility is driving visibility and accountability among leaders, stakeholders, and teams to: Identify new opportunities  Improve win rate and conversions  Plug data and revenue leaks Optimize workflows and processes Boost profitability Refine the customer experience  As Eric points out, RevOps is based on 4 key pillars—Process, Data, Platforms, and People.  Given that it advocates and strives for efficiency in every single action, it’s no wonder the function is becoming increasingly popular for businesses: B2B companies investing in RevOps have experienced 10-20% increases in sales productivity. If your reps are productive, your revenue process is more efficient and has a better chance of succeeding. Leadership positions in RevOps topped the list of fastest-growing job titles in the US this year. And Gartner predicts that 75% of the highest-growth businesses globally will deploy a RevOps model by 2025.  RevOps moves beyond a conventional approach that segments individual teams. Instead, it strives to create balance, better communication, and collaboration among functions—bringing them together.  The result? It maximizes your revenue while simultaneously minimizing costs.  Problems That Revops Solves for Today’s Efficiency-Focused Businesses Businesses face prevailing challenges that snowball into revenue leaks and inefficiency. Here are 3 key challenges that could affect efficient growth.  1. Buyers Want More, but Are You Ready for It? 85% of sales reps met or exceeded their sales goals in 2021. That number dropped a little in 2022 to 82%. While that may seem like a small figure, it’s a big jump in 12 months.  The underlying cause is that buyers want more, but not all sellers can live up to these expectations.  Buyers want more solution-based pitches showing how the product aligns with their use cases. But your reps may focus on the old-fashioned product approach (which comes across as more sales-y). Customers also want sellers to personalize their pitches and have more interactions to discuss the solution. In comparison, reps may be caught up with finishing non-selling tasks and filling up the pipeline.  A lack of effort and understanding at the rep’s end could cost you a long-term customer. 2. Pipeline Visibility Is Poor As much as 71% of revenue professionals report that their marketing, sales, and customer success functions are not fully aligned. That translates into a lack of visibility into the customer journey through the sales pipeline.  Poor quality data is to blame here, primarily data that remains stuck in silos between revenue teams. If they don’t have access to complete and accurate data across the funnel, they can’t talk to each other and exchange information. Subsequently, you miss profitable opportunities. 3. Inaccurate Predictions Slide Into Forecasts 16% of salespeople attribute unrealistic quotas as one of the top reasons for sales job turnover. But where do these unrealistic quotas come from? Inaccurate forecasts.  As much as 80% of organizations don’t have a forecast accuracy greater than 75%.  To sum it up, inaccurate forecasts cost you earnings and employees. In the larger scheme of things, this may also ruin your reputation among customers and job seekers alike.  Faced with the above 3 challenges and limited funds, businesses are now looking to invest in solutions that are hard-wired for efficiency. Subsequently, this efficiency evolves into effective revenue growth.  We’ll see, in more detail, how RevOps has massive potential to drive efficient growth and business profitability.   How Revops Drives Efficient Growth for Businesses Eric sums up RevOps’s purpose so clearly. It’s the problem-solver, troubleshooter, and growth-focused sibling of all operations functions.  This ability to solve problems and do it with resources at hand is what makes RevOps a frontrunner for navigating efficient growth. Here are 8 ways RevOps can help: Data hygiene & orchestration Refined alignment Streamlined tech stack Better forecasting Leadership buy-in Consistent performance tracking Improved rep productivity Happy customers  Let’s dive into each one of them below. 1. Data Hygiene & Orchestration You can make the

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Nektar.ai Recognized as a High Performer in G2’s Summer 2023 Report

Nektar.ai Recognized as a High Performer in G2’s Summer 2023 Report Celebrate Nektar.ai’s success! Explore why they’re a High Performer in G2’s Summer 2023 Report. Discover their exceptional offerings today. Product In G2’s Summer 2023 Grid Reports, Nektar.ai has been recognized as a High Performer in the ‘AI Sales Assistant’ category. Less than 4 quarters since our global launch and less than 2 quarters since we’ve been listed on G2, this is a testament to the value and impact our customers have experienced with Nektar. Being an AI-enabled revenue efficiency platform, Nektar helps eliminate the problem of: Siloed revenue data across marketing, sales, customer success tools Stale, incomplete, and incorrect contact and activity data in Salesforce Broken visibility and monitoring of the customer journey and lifecycle (because of the data siloed in function-specific tools) Navigating multiple dashboards and spreadsheets to get meaningful insights   Outperforming the Average Rating Across Every Parameter Nektar is one of the few solutions in the category that has outperformed the average rating across all parameters. 100% agreed Nektar offers high-quality customer support (category average 96%) 100% affirmed Nektar is easy to do business with (category average 96%) 99% believe Nektar met their business requirements (category average 95%) 98% said Nektar is easy to set up (category average 94%) 97% agreed Nektar is easy to use (category average 95%) 96% said Nektar is easy to manage (category average 95%) What our Customers Say What our customers love about Nektar: Nektar filled in a major gap when migrating from Hubspot to SFDC by retrieving historical emails. Instead of starting out w/ bad data in SFDC, we had extremely accurate activity and contact data. Beyond that, Nektar captures all email communication in SFDC without requiring a plugin or our reps to take any action. No longer do we have to remind reps to log things or instruct them to download a plugin. – Ben K., Director of Sales, ArmorCode Nektar.ai has been a game-changer for us in terms of capturing and utilizing buyer and activity data to make better decisions and close deals faster. – K. Hastu, Vice President of Growth, MoEngage The fact that our Salesforce today is filled with contacts and activities that would have been otherwise remained buried in inboxes and calendars is a gift. All this with zero need for adoption – literally, nobody in Zluri had to do anything. This powerful automation by Nektar is remarkable.  – Rohit R, Marketing, Zluri Nektar offered a more direct sync into our CRM that was less error-prone and didn’t require setup by our customer-facing reps. Thanks to the historical sync, we saw Day 1 benefits across functions and systems.  – Alex Dyson, Senior Manager of Revenue Operations, Signifyd Nektar came in and automated data capture, preventing data leaks and saved hours of sales reps’ time, thus enriching the database and leading to better insights that we can trust.  – Manohar Nandigam, Sales Enablement Lead, MoEngage Inc What problems is Nektar solving for its customers? Nektar has allowed us to make more informed decisions and unlock the true potential of our sales pipeline.  – K. Hastu, Vice President of Growth, MoEngage We were dealing with a significant leakage of our activity data in our CRM and Nektar helped add 3000+ activity and 150+ contacts during our seamless onboarding process, without any user adoption needed.  – Bryant Krieger, Director of Revenue Operations, Archipelago  Getting all of our Prospect and Customer data into Salesforce.com. Nektar helps fill in our data gaps which saves us valuable time. In the past, I’ve seen sales teams struggle to update Salesforce.com, Nektar makes capturing every Contact and Activity simple for us via automation. No more waiting on sales reps to update Salesforce!  – John Aguilar, Senior Director Sales Operations, Lily.ai Nektar helps to get all the buyer data into Salesforce and fills in the gaps that would have taken 50+ weekly revenue-generating productive hours from the sales team on a weekly basis. No more waiting on anyone to update Salesforce!  – Karthik Rajaram, Senior Sales Operations Manager, MoEngage Inc With Nektar we were able to identify 2000+ contacts that was buried across communication channels and 70% of our buyer activity got added back to SFDC.  – Raghu R., Sales Ops Manager If you’re solving for revenue leaks and struggling with bad CRM data, you need Nektar. Come talk to us. In this blog

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How to grow to 10 Mn ARR faster!

How to grow to 10 Mn ARR faster! Master the art of accelerating growth to $10M ARR smoothly and avoid common pitfalls on your startup journey! Sales Sales Leadership You started with a great idea, managed to put the funds and founding team together, went through weeks and months of burning midnight oil, endless iterations, deep frustrations and necessary pivots. You have reached a point where you are now part of the lucky few (less than 10%) startups that hit that elusive product market fit and potentially graduate from seed to series A stage. You are looking to move up the gear now and push the growth pedal. Perfect! Nothing seems to be in your way and you are nearing that definitive $1Mn ARR mark, that seemed “impossible” at some point in time, and can’t wait to scale your business to a 10X from there. You see the demand for your product, you see the opportunity ahead. Boosted by the success you have had so far in building the product and your team, you want to accelerate the rocket ship, but a lot can go wrong as one pushes this growth pedal. There is a treacherous path that awaits you, what you do now can easily turn the intended blitz scale into a blitz fail.   What not to do? Lose focus & spread yourself thin!   #1 biggest mistake founders make at this stage is chasing new shiny things that they see or get introduced to, be it new market segments, new categories, new areas where you have zero or almost no traction. It’s easy to get swayed in trying a lot of things to grow faster and lose the focus which got you to your product-market fit. We all want to grow faster. Almost none of the founders and their investors are happy with the monthly growth rate once they hit the $1Mn ARR mark. And that’s when mistakes happen aplenty. Skip stages & put fire on fuel! A lot of founders skip stages to hit the $1Mn mark faster. The number is not as important as the learning and experience in identifying the problem that resonates with the customers and users and solves them in a way that’s differentiated from other options out there. The point to push the growth pedal will come soon but before that one needs to be able to create a scalable sales playbook and processes which are backed by a solid understanding of your customer’s needs, where and how to find your customers, how to approach them, how to engage them in a conversation, gain a deep understanding of the value offered, and the ability to help solve a customer’s problem. Scaling too soon will result in putting the fuel on the fire. The proven route to scale from $1Mn to $10Mn efficiently! Double down on what is working. Period. If SMBs are your core, stay there, at least until $10m ARR. Do not chase customer segments where you have zero, or only a token, traction. It’s too late to make these segments work as you’ve already established your initial, organic customer traction and segmentation. Segment & analyze your customer and put proportionate effort into your customer segments that work. Break your customers into say small, medium and larger segments and calculate the revenue breakdown. If 50% of your revenue is smaller customers, 30% medium and 20% large, align your energy and efforts proportionately. Go with your solution to similar customers who have the same “Hair on Fire” problem that you originally solved to hit the product market fit. Optimize effort of your resources on what matters most. Align your marketing budgets, product time, development resources, sales headcount in line with the proportion of business from successful customer segment and the identified sweet spot. Don’t go after super enterprise customers if that’s not your core. Same way, don’t go for a freemium model if that didn’t work before $1Mn ARR. Don’t get distracted. Adding anything new that did not work before is just going to distract everyone now. Continue to do Step 1. Invest in customer success: Go all-in on customer success. Get your net promoter score above 60. Done well, customer success will become the second-order revenue and convert your startup into a mini-brand that drives revenue acceleration. Make your existing customers happy and they will both buy more from you, and get you more customers. Hire a real management team. Every startup hits a wall around $4-$5 Mn ARR and it’s needed to have your VPs join in by this time. In term of the sequence, hire a VP Marketing definitely before or by the time you hit $1Mn, followed by VP Customer Success, VP Sales, VP Product, VP Engineering, VP Finance. As a rule of thumb, get a VP for an additional $1Mn in ARR is a safe strategy. Always be looking for great candidates, spend 20% of your time on hiring. Raise prices, definitely for the new customers while you grandfather early adopters(get them to give you references, reviews and testimonials). Your value delivered goes up and thus should be your price. Most startups have a problem with their product being underprice until they hit $1Mn ARR. Justify the premium pricing you would want your new customers to pay by becoming a stronger brand, delivering better value and offering a wider feature set. Move to value selling model. Measure what works & what doesn’t. Build an operational cadence and rigour to run all initiatives and functions through data. You will get a lot of questions answered if you look at data first. Get others in the team to do the same. Align the team on strategy: Set ambitious goals but make sure you align the whole company behind that. It’s important to maintain the culture of transparency and support with your team while you get onto the scaleup journey. Build foundation pillars. Make sure you can transition to self-serve solution which is sales assisted and not get onto the debate of self serve vs sales assisted. Providing a great

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Discover Hidden Revenue by Restoring Salesforce Historical Data

Discover Hidden Revenue by Restoring Salesforce Historical Data Missing historical data from Salesforce leads is a big pain. Discover how you can restore your Salesforce historical data with this guide. Salesforce 2023 is transforming how businesses approach ‘growth’. For the last 10-15 years, capital flowed freely. Businesses received funding effortlessly. The only focus was ‘growth at all costs’. Profitability was only considered during the very late stages or when preparing to go public. But today, with capital becoming expensive, there’s a shift in mindset when it comes to ‘growth’. Businesses, big and small, new and old, are being measured on capital efficiency. There’s a tremendous focus on ‘efficient growth’. And how does efficiency work? Efficiency works on the concept of doing more with less.  This is exactly why companies are focusing more on customer success-led growth and account expansions to achieve efficient growth instead of traditional sales and marketing channels. However, there’s yet another channel that is being overlooked – a company’s Salesforce historical data. Unfortunately, most of this data is either missing, incomplete, or outdated. The Problem of Missing Salesforce Historical Data GTM data should be available in your Salesforce CRM. However, a major pain point that businesses often encounter is the incomplete availability of data in Salesforce. While it is crucial for all essential information such as contacts, emails, and meetings to reside in Salesforce CRM, 50-70% of this data is frequently missing.  There are several reasons contributing to this issue.  Firstly, customer-facing teams are typically not incentivized to update the CRM beyond their primary goal of generating leads. Consequently, they may neglect to input crucial details and updates into the system, leading to gaps in the data.  Secondly, although there are existing tools designed to assist businesses and customer-facing teams in capturing activity, they vary in their level of automation. Some tools are fully automated, while others are only semi-automated.  However, since activity capture is not the primary focus or “hero product” of these companies, the functionality of these tools may be limited. As a result, not all data is captured, leading to incomplete information and missing data.  Lastly, as businesses grow and teams expand, the amount of missing data becomes even more significant. For instance, if one person in the team fails to add data to Salesforce, there will be a certain amount of missing data, let’s call it “x”.  However, if the team expands, and there are now five people who neglect to input data, the missing data increases to five times “x”. This accumulation of missing data over time creates substantial Salesforce historical data gaps, which can hinder decision-making processes and prevent businesses from leveraging valuable insights. Restore your Salesforce Historical Data with AI and Automation Given this looming problem of missing data, the real question is – Can Salesforce track historical data?  Absolutely! Nektar can help you restore your Salesforce historical data in the following ways: 1. Salesforce Historical Data Sync Nektar’s Historical Data Capture capabilities provide businesses with exceptional control over their buried historical contacts and activities in Salesforce. From the moment of implementation, users can select their desired time period and effortlessly restore relevant historical data, unlocking a treasure chest of insights. Typically, Nektar helps restore 4-6 times more contacts and 5-10 times more emails and meeting data in the CRM – and this is offered as a ‘welcome gift’ on day 1. The historical data captured by Nektar plays a pivotal role in reviving closed-lost and dropped opportunities. Marketing teams can run more effective account-based campaigns by accessing accounts filled with first-party, pre-engaged contacts. Sellers, especially those who recently joined, benefit from increased context and contacts for every account, even if they weren’t previously managing those accounts. Furthermore, the historical data enables the identification of success patterns and opportunities for process optimization. Nektar empowers businesses to answer critical questions such as the number of contacts required to win a deal, the engagement level of buyers in each deal, essential personas or job titles for winning deals, and the number of meetings it takes to secure a deal. Whatever insights customers require, they can be captured within their data-packed Salesforce, powered by Nektar. Check the gaps in your salesforce reports, with an no-obligation free CRM scan report.   Scan my CRMDownload Sample Report    2. Time Travel Nektar also helps customer-facing teams restore historical data ‘on demand’. We call this ‘Time Travel’. For example, let’s consider Jane, an Account Executive from SellMore, who prospects Molly for Acme and creates an Account in Salesforce. Through Nektar, Molly is automatically added to the account. However, Nektar goes beyond that. It creates four additional contacts associated with Molly, along with emails exchanged in 2021. Among these emails, Jane discovers the name lee@sellmore.com, an ex-SellMore AE whom she doesn’t know. Nonetheless, Jane gains valuable insights about the Acme account by accessing these pre-engaged contacts. This additional context and access to contacts increase Jane’s chances of winning the deal.  Nektar’s AI-driven Time Travel feature identifies contacts and activities related to the Acme account that remained buried in the inbox and calendar of an ex-employee. Nektar’s AI retrieves this data on-demand and seamlessly integrates it into the Acme account. This empowers users with enhanced context and more contacts to effectively manage their accounts.  Notably, Time Travel by Nektar is not restricted to the time period defined for Historical Data Capture. Whether Salesforce Historical Data Capture was configured for 2021 to present or any other range, Time Travel can retrieve data from before 2021, reaching back to the initial implementation of Salesforce in the company if required.  Tap into your Salesforce Historical Data for Efficient Growth Nektar’s Historical Data Capture capabilities offer businesses a powerful solution to address the pain points associated with missing data in CRM systems. With Nektar, companies can regain control of buried historical contacts and activities in Salesforce, unlocking a treasure trove of insights and experiencing ROI from day one. By restoring Salesforce historical data, businesses can revive ghosted or closed-lost deals by accessing pre-engaged, first-party contacts associated with those accounts. Nektar

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What is CRM Data Leakage?

What is CRM Data Leakage? This article explains what is CRM data leakage and why it needs to be addressed immediately within organizations to drive the revenue engine. CRM RevOps It’s routine to check in on your pipeline and team performance in the CRM everyday. But did you ever stop to second guess if the data that facilitates crucial sales decisions is really all that reliable?  Your sales data determines your team’s daily course of action on every account, powers forecasts, and in turn upholds stakeholder trust. It keeps the bottom line moving. Yet half of all companies using CRMs lose 10% of their revenue just to poor data quality management.  In this article, we go over why your CRM’s data quality is pivotal, how to diagnose data leakage and fix it for good.  What is CRM Data Leakage? CRM data leakage happens when low-quality or faulty sales data creeps its way into your systems –  hampering productivity, forecasting, customer satisfaction and overall reliability of the CRM for the revenue teams. It’s simply bad CRM data quality costing you valuable time and money. Reps missing out on high-potential opportunities to data leakage is more common than you think. If your CRM isn’t constantly checked for bad data and updated with new and enriched data – It’s just going to start working against you.  If your team doesn’t have a clear set of protocols for CRM data entry or it’s just low on the priority list – you’re probably losing a good chunk of revenue to it. According to a Gartner survey, companies lose an average of $14.2 million to data leakage annually.  Outdated lead contact data wasting your team’s time / human error in form entries are a couple of common examples.  Read more about the different ways leakage manifests itself in your CRM here.  Data leakage is fatal. Alright – you might be missing some data in your CRM.  Is it really a ‘drop everything and fix this!’ problem?  Well, yes – it very much is.  Data leaks in your CRM cripple your entire sales function’s backbone – from missed follow-ups and wrong renewal information, all the way to skewed forecasting that affects your strategy going forward. Most importantly – your customers stop trusting your service.  Here’s an interesting account of how Blackberry lost millions of customers’ trust to bad CRM data hygiene. This marked the beginning of the end for them – like many other companies that overlooked data leakages.  Let’s see how bad data affects your sales effectiveness:  1. Wrong and missing intel Make-or-break discovery insights that never made its way to the lead’s records. Outdated contract details, opportunities with little to no historical data. The CRM gives your reps the context they need to close deals with confidence. If they can’t rely on it, they’re on their own – and at a higher risk of losing out on revenue.   2. Forecasting horrors Bad data in sales records will inevitably give you skewed forecasts, causing a huge ripple effect across your hiring, budgeting, risk management and business decisions at large.  3. Huge waste of time Hubspot’s study found that 72% of reps spend at least an hour everyday entering and sorting through CRM data. Imagine the time they spend trying to fix data leakages on top of that. This makes them dread the CRM and dismiss it as busywork. It directly reduces adoption rates – which make the leakages worse. It’s a vicious circle of bad data. 4. Sky-high churn rates You can’t properly assess churn risks in your current accounts without air-tight CRM data. Leakages cost you repeat business, which is the lifeline of any SaaS business. Only about one in four customer success reps use CRM data to understand their customers’ needs – mostly because they can’t trust it enough to base next steps on the insights.  While we’re talking about current customers, let’s also look into how much expansion revenue you lose to CRM data leakages.  5. Lost morale and leadership credibility in teams   Making key business decisions off of unreliable CRM data is like driving with faulty tires – there’s no way it doesn’t hurt the passengers. Over a third of all revenue leaders in this study said they can’t trust their CRM data, despite their company’s being ‘data-driven’.  If you make a bad call, it causes a domino effect all the way down to the junior reps in your revenue teams – hurting their performance and track records.  The Lurking Monster Bungling up your CRM Duplicate records, invalid emails, decayed lead and opportunity info.  Phew! It’s a lot to weed through – but how did it get there in the first place?  Unless you know where the problem is stemming from, any solution is just slapping a band-aid on it. Poor governance is almost always one of the major drivers of data screw-ups as a company scales, but the problem could be much deeper than that.  Some common reasons you can look out for while diagnosing:  1. Siloed tools that have minds of their own All tools plugged into your CRM via legacy connections gather data differently. While API connectors make them easy to access in one place, they don’t make them speak the same language – which is vital to make sure there are no data leakages. The problem worsens infinitely with less IT involvement in management of more no-techie friendly applications that let reps, sales team leads and CS teams configure core data settings to create even more inconsistencies in the CRM.  2. Poor data governance  What’s your usual frequency for a good old CRM data cleansing? Does the operations team have a solid governance process they follow? There is thousands of fields worth of data making its way into your CRM everyday. Without proper governance, you’re all but doomed to a bad case of leakage.  https://youtu.be/xSIEH5__oRE?si=rMdpHuGUOuxwMGHC 3. Activity capture gaps There’s only one thing worse than having bad data. It’s having NO data. Missing data is probably the most detrimental leakage to have.  Sales communication happens all over the place – Zoom, LinkedIn, phone, text

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