What is Salesforce Tech Debt? And How Can You Reduce it? RevOps 10 min Managing sales processes and customer relationships has always been tedious. Fortunately, for many of us, Salesforce and its automation tools have come as a savior. These solutions streamline and automate sales tasks and help focus on building meaningful relationships with customers.  However, with the rapidly evolving landscape of sales and technology, finding the right Salesforce automation tools that align with your business needs can take time and effort. To make it easier for you, we have compiled a list of the seven most promising Salesforce automation tools you need to consider in 2023.  What’s your goal? Enhance lead generation? Optimize sales pipelines? Improve customer interactions? We’ve got you covered with a curated list of cutting-edge solutions that are sure to drive your sales success.  So, let’s dive in and discover the tools that will empower your team to thrive and achieve your sales goals. 7 Best Salesforce Automation Tools Here are the seven best Salesforce automation solutions you should consider for your business: 1. Nektar Nektar is a leading Salesforce automation tool with advanced contact automation capabilities. It helps sales teams unlock a whole new level of efficiency and sales productivity. Nektar can generate 8 times more buyer contacts through automated contact management. It ensures no potential lead slips through the cracks—no more missed opportunities. Get a steady stream of qualified prospects that are worth your attention. If you are looking to ramp up your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaigns, Nektar has got you covered. The tool enables you to supercharge your ABM efforts by automating personalized outreach. It ensures your message reaches the right decision-makers at the right time. Nektar doesn’t just automate tasks but provides invaluable relationship intelligence. Tracking and analyzing buyer interactions allows you to gain insights into customer behavior. The newfound intelligence empowers you to tailor your sales strategies and build stronger, more meaningful relationships with your prospects. Multithreading every opportunity also becomes a breeze with Nektar. It facilitates seamless collaboration and communication across your sales team and ensures every critical touchpoint gets noticed. Stay on top of every interaction and nurture every opportunity with precision and agility. Key features: Gain detailed contact lists for every Account in your CRM Segment Account contacts and Opportunity Contact Roles (OCR) based on their affinity and involvement Automatically create the buying committee map for advanced intelligence  Get auto-updated contact details with job titles and phone numbers 2. Veloxy Veloxy is another leading Salesforce automation tool that seamlessly extends the power of Salesforce to your favorite inbox and mobile devices. The platform revolutionizes the way you capture leads and update records through intuitive features and seamless integration. Veloxy effortlessly integrates with your preferred inbox or your smartphone. The integration ensures automatic lead capturing and updating of records in Salesforce. It saves valuable time and eliminates the hassle of data entry. Furthermore, understanding customer engagement is essential for effective lead prioritization. Veloxy takes care of this by automatically tracking your customers’ email engagement. Insights into open rates for emails and click-through rates help you prioritize leads based on their level of engagement. Key features: Automatic analysis and prioritization based on buyer intent for leads and contacts Optimized field sales routes for more stop-ins and meetings Automated capturing and updates of contact information from your inbox 3. ZoomInfo ZoomInfo creates a single source of truth for your organization. With its seamless integration and comprehensive data-driven solutions, ZoomInfo enhances the Salesforce experience for your sales teams. ZoomInfo works seamlessly with Salesforce. It ensures a flawless integration that makes life easier for your teams. Native applications and ongoing lead enrichment allow ZoomInfo to empower your organization to maintain a reliable Salesforce ecosystem. From lead enrichment to ongoing data updates, ZoomInfo equips your Salesforce ecosystem with the latest and most relevant information. ZoomInfo streamlines Salesforce and provides comprehensive data-driven solutions. With accurate and up-to-date information readily available, your teams can focus their energy on productive sales activities. Key features: Build and save targeted contact lists and account details 200+ data point filters, including employee, company, and geographic location Continuously enrich Salesforce data by getting rid of discrepancies 4. Qualtrics Qualtrics, a Salesforce automation tool, seamlessly brings advanced customer feedback analytics into the Salesforce platform. It allows you to unlock invaluable customer insights and take decisive action to close more deals. With Qualtrics, you can elevate your customer experience game and drive success, all within a single, integrated platform. Qualtrics can embed advanced customer feedback analytics directly in Salesforce. The integration enables you to surface deep customer insights without switching between platforms. The power of Qualtrics’ analytics capabilities within Salesforce helps you comprehensively understand your customers and their preferences. Furthermore, Qualtrics empowers you to automate feedback requests within Salesforce. It lets you capture customer sentiment at crucial milestones throughout the sales cycle. Automating feedback requests based on account milestones helps you gain insights into customer behavior and satisfaction levels at every stage. Key features: Get new leads in Salesforce from your Qualtrics surveys  Set up email triggers with surveys to send when a specified object’s Flow conditions are met Map information from your Qualtrics survey into Salesforce records 5. LevelEleven LevelEleven is an advanced Salesforce automation tool that specializes in sales performance management. With its focus on gamification and coaching, LevelEleven helps organizations reinforce successful behaviors to drive motivation and achieve sales excellence. With personalized scorecards and intelligent goal management, LevelEleven directly brings a comprehensive sales performance solution into Salesforce. Incorporating game-like elements into the sales process allows LevelEleven to create an engaging and motivating environment for sales teams. Personalized scorecards enable individuals to track their progress, see their performance metrics, and compete against their goals or other team members. With intelligent goal management tools, LevelEleven enables organizations to set and track sales targets. It ensures alignment with business objectives. Real-time visibility into goal progress allows sales teams to stay focused and make data-driven decisions. The streamlined goal management process drives accountability and fosters a results-oriented sales culture.

What is Salesforce Tech Debt? And How Can You Reduce it? RevOps 10 min Imagine that you are planning to build a new house but are unsure where to start. You have a basic idea of what you want but are not an expert in home construction or design. In such a situation, you would need a skilled architect who understands your needs, preferences, and budget and then guides you through designing your dream home. The architect would help you make informed decisions about your new home’s design, materials, and features. Similarly, a guided selling tool uses customer data and sales expertise to help customers navigate the purchasing process and make informed decisions. It can provide personalized recommendations based on the customer’s needs and preferences, answer questions, and offer advice to help them choose the right product or service. What is Guided Selling? Guided selling is a strategy involving a structured approach to lead potential customers through the sales process. It is the process of analyzing current sales, historical sales, and customer data to help sales reps provide tailored product recommendations to customers and increase the likelihood of conversion.  Let’s say you are shopping for a new laptop. You visit a website that offers guided selling, and you’re prompted to answer a series of questions. The questions might include things like: What will you primarily use the laptop for? Do you need a large screen or a lightweight design? How important is battery life to you? What is your budget? Based on your responses, the website would then recommend a few different laptops that meet your needs. It might provide detailed information about each laptop, such as the processor, RAM, and storage capacity, as well as customer reviews and ratings. The website might offer additional guidance, such as recommending accessories or providing information on warranties and support. Throughout the process, the focus is on helping you make an informed decision based on your unique needs and preferences. Guided selling can be particularly effective for complex or high-value products or services where customers may require more personalized guidance and support to make informed purchasing decisions. By providing a more consultative sales approach, guided selling also helps to establish long-term customer relationships. How Does Guided Selling Work in B2B SaaS In B2B SaaS, guided selling typically involves a sales representative or a customer success manager who guides the customer. The process usually begins with the customer expressing their needs and goals and the guide using that information to suggest relevant products or services. The guide may use various tools, such as a software demo, to help the customer understand the features and benefits of each option. In addition, guided selling often involves providing educational resources to the customer to help them better understand the product or service and how it can help them achieve their goals. This may include case studies, white papers, or other content that provides valuable insights into the benefits and use cases of the product. Let’s have a look at the guided selling process in detail: The Process of Guided Selling Tools The guided selling process is a customer-centric approach to sales that involves guiding potential customers through the buying process by providing personalized recommendations, advice, and support. The following are the general steps involved in a typical guided selling process: 1. Gathering customer information The first step of the process involves collecting data on the customer’s needs, preferences, budget, and any other relevant information that can help the sales process. 2. Identifying customer pain points In this stage, the sales team uses the information gathered in the previous stage to identify the customer’s pain points or areas of concern.This is typically done through a series of questions or a needs assessment. 3. Providing product recommendations Based on the customer information and pain points identified, the sales team provides recommendations on the products or services that best meet the customer’s needs. 4. Presenting solutions At this stage, the sales team presents the recommended products or services to the customer and explains how they address the customer’s pain points. The sales representative provides information about the recommended products or services, including their features, benefits, and pricing. 5. Handling objections If the customer has any objections or concerns, the sales team addresses them and provides additional information or alternative solutions as needed.  6. Closing the sale Once the customer is satisfied with the recommended product or service, the sales team closes the sale by facilitating the purchase process. 7. Follow-up and customer support After the sale is complete, the sales team provides follow-up support to ensure the customer is satisfied with their purchase and offers any additional assistance or support as needed. Examples of Guided Selling Tools in Businesses Here are some examples of techniques of guided selling tools:  1. Automate sales playbook To ensure consistent performance, sales playbooks should be automated. Guided selling relies on a solid foundation of methodologies, blueprints, and plays that facilitate the sales process. It’s important to choose a solution that simplifies the playbook for sellers, allowing them to follow the plan and consistently advance deals easily. 2. Identify specific needs In some situations, customers may need a clearer idea of what they are looking for when they visit your website. In such cases, a brief questionnaire can be used to determine and guide their specific requirements. For instance, if you run an online clothing store, you could ask customers questions about their preferred fit and fabric to steer them toward products that best match their preferences. This approach can increase the likelihood of a purchase by helping customers make informed decisions based on their needs. 3. Real-time response For a guided selling software to be effective, it needs to be adaptable and flexible, able to react to changing circumstances in real time. At a fundamental level, ensuring that sales representatives remain attentive to communication and other sales activities can reduce the time it takes to close deals and result in higher revenue velocity.

Top 10 B2B SaaS RevOps Agencies in 2024 RevOps 10 min RevOps is the backbone for driving sustainable growth and maximizing revenue. By breaking down silos between sales, marketing, and customer success teams, RevOps fosters seamless collaboration and alignment, ensuring a unified approach towards revenue generation.  Even though the importance of RevOps has been largely understood by organizations, one bone of contention remains: RevOps agencies.   Top RevOps agencies claim to empower businesses to leverage data-driven insights and implement scalable processes. This can lead to improved efficiency and enhanced revenue and customer experience. However, how true are these claims? What is a RevOps agency, and what do they do? When should you consider hiring a Revenue Operations agency, and what are the top agencies in the market? We answer all this and a lot more in our exclusive blog.  Top RevOps Agencies to Consider in 2024 1. Winning by Design Winning by Design is an internationally recognized B2B revenue consulting and training firm. Their expertise lies in empowering recurring revenue teams to design sustainable growth strategies. They employ scientific frameworks and well-established models to support Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success teams in B2B companies and global enterprises, ultimately helping them achieve significant positive outcomes.  Winning by Design is dedicated to driving revenue growth throughout your portfolio by offering tailored value creation solutions designed specifically for B2B recurring revenue enterprises. Their goal is to equip your team with the necessary tools and processes to cultivate a data-driven culture that fosters sustainable revenue growth. 2. RevPartners.io RevPartners.io is a consulting firm specializing in Revenue Operations (RevOps) that focuses on supporting B2B SaaS companies in accelerating their growth. With a wealth of expertise in revenue operations, RevPartners.io offers a diverse range of services tailored to meet the specific needs of SaaS businesses. These services encompass revenue strategy development, sales and marketing alignment, process optimization, technology implementation, and data analytics. By capitalizing on their industry knowledge and time-tested methodologies, RevPartners.io aids clients in streamlining their revenue operations, enhancing efficiency, and boosting revenue generation. They collaborate closely with organizations to deliver actionable insights, implement scalable processes, and drive sustainable revenue growth in the long run. RevPartners.io is highly esteemed for its commitment to delivering tangible results and assisting SaaS companies in achieving excellence in revenue generation. 3. MatterMade Matter Made specializes in supporting B2B SaaS companies in achieving effective and enduring expansion, covering everything from marketing strategy and leadership to execution and results. Their RevOps services aid companies in managing lead and sales distribution, qualification, tracking, analysis, and closure. Apart from RevOps, they also offer services in GTM (Go-To-Market) strategy, demand generation, Product-Led Growth (PLG), and paid media. 4. Six & Flow Six and Flow, excels in driving growth and empowering businesses to achieve revenue excellence. Their combination of strategy, technology, and creativity sets them apart as a trusted partner for SaaS companies looking to streamline revenue operations and enhance sales and marketing alignment. From implementing scalable processes to maximizing lead generation and conversion rates, Six and Flow is dedicated to delivering measurable results and fostering sustainable revenue growth for B2B SaaS organizations.  5. Avidly Agency Avidly is a RevOps firm specializing in assisting B2B SaaS enterprises in optimizing revenue strategies for sustainable growth. Their comprehensive offerings encompass inbound marketing, demand generation, and consultancy in revenue operations. Avidly Agency is renowned for their extensive proficiency in harmonizing sales and marketing endeavors, establishing scalable procedures, and maximizing the rates of lead generation and conversion. Their team of skilled experts collaborates closely with clients to comprehend their distinct business requirements and devise customized solutions that stimulate revenue expansion. Avidly has built a robust reputation by delivering quantifiable outcomes and offering exceptional guidance to B2B SaaS companies aiming to elevate their revenue operations. 6. Remotish  Remotish specializes in offering HubSpot operations for revenue-generating teams. Their Monthly RevOps Program is designed to assist companies in utilizing their HubSpot portals to drive decision-making and facilitate growth. Alongside RevOps support, Remotish provides HubSpot onboarding, consulting, and WebOps support. They use existing HubSpot themes and templates to bring their clients’ ideas and visions to life. 7. New Breed New Breed offers comprehensive demand generation services, RevOps capabilities, and revenue apps that empower subscription companies worldwide to generate demand, acquire customers, and retain revenue.  Recently, they unveiled significant enhancements to Distributely, the first lead distribution application designed explicitly for HubSpot users. This innovative tool simplifies assigning new leads, deals, companies, and support tickets to the most suitable sales and service representatives for follow-up. This powerful combination enables businesses to scale efficiently by reducing overhead expenses, enhancing customer experience, and shortening their sales cycle. 8. Digitopia Digitopia Agency is known for its specialization in assisting SaaS companies to optimize revenue strategies and foster growth. With a strong emphasis on digital transformation and revenue operations excellence, Digitopia Agency offers a diverse range of services tailored to cater to the unique needs of its clients. These services encompass revenue strategy development, sales and marketing alignment, process optimization, technology implementation, and data analytics.  With a team of seasoned professionals, Digitopia Agency collaborates closely with organizations to streamline their revenue operations, enhance efficiency, and maximize revenue generation. They provide strategic guidance, implement scalable processes, and leverage technology to drive sustainable growth for their clients. Digitopia Agency has earned high acclaim for its expertise in revenue operations and unwavering commitment to aiding B2B SaaS companies in achieving revenue success. 9. RevOps Automated RevOps Automated is a specialized B2B SaaS Revenue Operations (RevOps) agency that strongly emphasizes harnessing automation and technology to optimize revenue processes. Leveraging their expertise in revenue operations and automation, RevOps Automated Agency aids SaaS companies in streamlining and scaling their revenue operations for enhanced efficiency and accelerated growth.  Their comprehensive services encompass implementing revenue systems and platforms, integrating and automating sales and marketing tools, developing data-driven strategies, and optimizing customer lifecycle management. By employing cutting-edge technology and automation solutions, RevOps Automated Agency strives to optimize revenue, improve customer experiences, and facilitate sustainable revenue growth for its clients. Their proficiency in utilizing automation to unlock the full potential of

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

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

Revenue Operations vs Sales Operations – 6 Key Differences in 2025 RevOps 10 min Imagine two departments in an organization working to increase the company’s revenue. Both affect the bottom line, eliminate departmental silos, and support business strategies and objectives. But both of them have different functions. Confused? So are most companies. The revamp of the customer lifecycle in recent years has seen a host of new revenue-related roles cropping up in organizations. So much so that most companies now struggle to differentiate between revenue operations vs. sales operations.  In this article, we differentiate the two – by definitions, use cases, features, and suitability to an organization. Let’s dive right in! You can also tune into this conversation we had with Lorena Morales, Director of Global Digital Marketing Revenue Operations at JLL, where she aptly differentiates between the two functions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1g_eUwq3Ks What is Revenue Operations (RevOps)? In simple words, RevOps aims to maximize the revenue potential of a company. It’s an integration of marketing, sales, and post-sales functions to provide better end-to-end administration for the management.  A RevOps function is designed to break down the silos between the business departments, including marketing, sales, customer success, customer support, and even finance. It uses cross-department visibility to achieve three shared objectives: identify new revenue opportunities, improve lead conversions, and cover up any revenue leakages.  What is the Role of Revenue Operations? The Revenue Operations or RevOps team aims to increase transparency and communication between all business functions – from lead generation to customer support.  The RevOps function is responsible for managing and analyzing all data points in a customer life cycle. Apart from protecting revenue, a RevOps team also identifies potential customers in the sales pipeline. Another role of the RevOps department includes bringing enablement practices. From employee onboarding to training modules, a RevOps team aims to increase visibility and drive communication by implementing various processes that result in an increase in revenue.  Now let’s have a look at Sales Operations. What is Sales Operations (SalesOps)?  Sales Operations, also known as SalesOps, aims to support sales teams to function more efficiently by providing strategic direction and reducing friction in the process. Sales operations are often referred to as sales, sales support, or business operations. SalesOps use software, engagement techniques, and strategic planning to drive business growth. They promote best practices for sales reps and provide cross departments visibility on any sales data.  In recent times, SalesOps has expanded its role to also provide insights needed by the sales team to ensure optimal and sustainable growth. Source: Forrester Sales Operations Value Model What is the Role of Sales Operations? SalesOps have two significant functions –  a. Ensure that the sales department has enough resources to maintain productivity, and  b. Enable accurate data collection to forecast revenue projections.  The structure and daily duties of a sales operations team can vary based on the industry and the size of the company. However, functions like territory planning and sales forecasting are pretty much the bread and butter for most SalesOps teams.  A SalesOps team is also commonly expected to manage sales commission data and implement incentive compensation programs for sales representatives. These individuals will likely monitor the current sales pipeline as well.  It is clear from the above statements, that even though RevOps and SalesOps operate as different entities, they go hand in hand to benefit one another and the overall revenue of the company.  What makes them different then? Let’s find out.  Revenue Operations vs. Sales Operations The major difference between revenue operations and sales operations is that SalesOps solely focuses on the sales function of a company, whereas RevOps focuses on bringing multiple departments on the same page to ensure business growth. Sales operations, therefore can be seen as a subset of revenue operations. SalesOps are more executional in nature. They take care of day-to-day administrative tasks, including collecting and managing data, tech stack, form submissions, and training. It allows your sales team to focus on approaching leads and closing deals. Revenue operations, on the other hand, take up a more holistic approach involving the entire organization. It acts as a bridge between different departments and tries to increase revenue opportunities by improving communication and aligning them with a common goal.  RevOps focuses on the entire customer journey and seeks to improve the customer experience at every touchpoint including prospecting, sales, onboarding, customer success, and renewal. By focusing on the entire customer journey, RevOps seeks to optimize revenue growth by improving the customer experience at every touchpoint. This approach helps organizations to build long-term relationships with their customers, drive customer loyalty, and ultimately, increase revenue. RevOps function of an organization: 1. Process RevOps facilitates a seamless customer journey from lead generation to cash collection by implementing various well-structured processes, which are imperative for revenue generation. These processes must be reliable and consistent. 2. Technology RevOps teams are also responsible for selecting appropriate tools from the technology stack to ensure the efficient functioning of these processes and aid revenue teams in being productive. 3. Data  Data is a critical aspect of a successful business, and accurate data in systems such as CRM is the foundation of RevOps. The insights derived from this data are vital in driving strategic decisions that aid in the growth and advancement of the business. 4. People The team in charge of managing the systems, processes, and data is the final pillar of RevOps. The size of this team varies based on the organization’s size.  Let’s have a detailed look at the difference between  Revenue Operations vs. Sales Operations in this table: We should also define the differences in team structure for both. It will vary but can we add some crowd-sourced information on that? In terms of team structure, the Sales Ops team is a simple one – they align with sales. Similar to the sales team, they are organized by region, product, or sales channel, depending on the company’s sales strategy. Sales Ops teams can also be at times organized by function, with different members

5 Reasons for Low Sales Tech Adoption (And How to Fix It) RevOps 10 min With so many tools getting added to sales tech stack, why are adoption rates so abysmal? Get to the root of it in this blog. The sales tech stack is getting taller. The average virtual selling technology stack today has as many as 13 tools! The “shiny object syndrome” is very real. Businesses add sales tools to their tech stacks to treat the symptoms of sales problems. But rarely do they identify the underlying cause of these problems.  Leaders deploy multiple tools to resolve multiple issues. The consequence is The Great Revenue Disconnect – when revenue teams are left to deal with disconnected software with disconnected data that leads to revenue leakage. And reps feel discouraged about adopting new tech.  The result? Companies have wasted $313,000, on average, on sales tools that weren’t fully adopted by reps.  Why haven’t reps warmed up to sales tech despite having so many tools in their basket? Let’s find out in this blog.  What is Sales Tech Used For? Here are a few ways leaders are deploying sales tech: 1. Boost Sales Performance   93% of reps feel that sales tools help build better relationships with buyers. That’s owing to intent and signal-based features that come with most sales software for correctly identifying leads and their needs. 2. Gain Deeper Insights into Prospects   56% of buyers want to communicate with a salesperson five or more times before finalizing a purchase. It means that sales reps need to have more touches per lead. And each interaction should be relevant and personalized if reps want to stay ahead of the competition. 3. Drive Faster Sales   75% of B2B buyers say that the buying cycle has become longer in the last two years. The buying process is more complex and involves virtual selling. Therefore, reps use sales tech to anticipate future needs and leverage multithreading to close deals faster. A byproduct of the process is improved sales productivity. Reasons for Low Sales Tech Adoption (and How to Fix Them) While the benefits of sales tech are noteworthy, sales and RevOps leaders are still facing adoption challenges over the years. We discuss 5 key reasons for low sales tech adoption and how you can fix them. 1. The Problem: Multiple Tools Lead to Mixed Priorities   With so many tools available, selling doesn’t get easier. 86% of sales reps get confused about which tool should be used for which task. For example, if the head of sales asks for a specific report, your customer-facing teams might have to traverse through multiple tabs to get the latest report. Multiple tools trapped in silos only complicate a sales rep’s job, making it difficult to focus on their main task – selling. Adding to the issue, on average, only 28% of sales tools are integrated within organizations, despite the large sales tech stack. The result is disconnected systems between sales and other functions, leading to missed opportunities and revenue leakage from the sales pipeline. It’s no surprise that multiple tools end up stunting growth. As much as 52% of sales leaders report that their CRM costs potential revenue opportunities because the system doesn’t meet their needs. The Fix: Unified Data Solution for Better Visibility Across the GTM Team   A unified data solution automatically captures data – including contact, activity, and intent – which is otherwise spread across multiple tools. Without a unified data platform, reps have to toggle between several apps to dig out insights, miss quotas, and spend more time on training and other non-sales tasks, increasing costs. But with a unified data solution, reps can build the leads pipeline more contextually, close more deals and avoid revenue leakage. 46% of salespersons spend less time looking for information with a one-stop data platform. An added advantage of a unified dashboard is that reps access granular-level insights and consolidated leading indicators for current performance and future potential. They also have complete visibility of stakeholders within a buyer group, which helps them customize each interaction. Multiple sales tools could also cause an information overload. A unified data solution prioritizes speed with real-time insights across the pipeline. 2. The Problem: Reps Aren’t Involved in Sales Tech Purchase   For 76% of companies, poor adoption of sales tools is a top reason they miss sales quota attainment. That’s because most of these tools are purchased based on buyer needs compared to user needs. Generally, leaders (who aren’t involved in day-to-day sales) make the purchase decision for a sales tool. And consequently, vendors tailor the tool to leaders’ or managers’ insights. This also drives leadership-related reporting, analytics, forecasting, and pipeline visibility. Features that make reps’ lives easier – meeting scheduling, buyer behaviour tracking, automatic contact capture – aren’t considered. This disconnect between managers and the frontline is so wide that 42% of managers say it’s clear which tool reps can use for a given task, but only 32% of reps agree. As a result, sales tools don’t mirror how sales reps function. Your team may feel discouraged when they can’t figure out a successful way to make the tools work, resorting to conventional and slower ways. The Fix: Make Sales Tech Work for Reps and Not Vice Versa   Trust goes a long way in managing changes in the sales process. To start with, you can include reps in the sales tech evaluation process by gathering their inputs and understanding their day-to-day tasks. You can use these insights to choose a tool that works for them, not against them. Here’s a comprehensive list of questions you can ask the reps: What challenges do they face in the sales process? What’s inhibiting them from selling better? How much time do they spend on sales versus non-sales tasks? Do they feel stuck in mundane tasks like CRM data entry?  Are they confident in their sales pipeline, including visibility and opportunities? Are they successfully multithreading with buyer groups? If not, what difficulties are they facing? Is the tool sales-centric or marketing-centric? Are they effectively aligned with marketing? How much training would they need to learn the new tool?

5 Strategic Benefits of Improving CRM Data Quality RevOps 10 min Your CRM data quality has a direct impact on how your B2B business scales. Explore 5 strategic benefits of making CRM data quality a priority. The market for CRM systems is exploding. The global market for CRMs is expected to reach $63.91 billion this year. While this says a lot about the increasing demand for CRMs, it does not give a true picture of how valuable CRMs really are. When it comes to realizing the true value of a CRM system, it’s not about the CRM itself. It is about the quality of data that resides in it. Despite this fact, CRM data quality continues to be a significant challenge for businesses. As a result, they fail to harness the true ROI that CRMs promise to bring with it. What kind of quality issues does CRM data face? For starters, 91% of CRM data is incomplete, stale or duplicated each year. And 70% of the data in a CRM decays annually. These inefficiencies wreak havoc on a company’s bottom line, costing companies over 10% of their annual revenue! This problem keeps increasing as more data gets added to a CRM system over time. And before you know it, your CRM turns into a mess with piles of dirty data that adds no value to your business.  Improving and enriching data quality is the first step to realizing a CRM’s true potential. High quality CRM data can open multiple doors for any revenue leader to steer their businesses forward, no matter how the waters are outside. It is a solid foundation that can protect businesses from uncertainties like downturns, recession etc. This article will take you through some of the perils of poor quality data in your CRM. And some top use cases of high quality CRM data driving ROI for a business. Low Quality CRM Data Leads to High Costs According to Gartner, poor data quality makes organizations lose an average of $15 million per year.  The obvious cost of poor quality CRM data comes with paying extra for CRM storage containing stale, incorrect or missing data. But there are also a lot of hidden costs that might be causing serious revenue leakage such as: Increased cost per customer Lower conversion rates Reduced revenue Dip in profits  Forrester Research has found that the persistence of low-quality data throughout enterprise systems robs business leaders of productivity, as they must continuously vet data to ensure it remains accurate. Ignoring these side effects of poor quality data can cause irreparable damages to revenue generation in the long term. To put it simply, any business decision made with poor quality data becomes risky. Be it your marketing campaigns, sales and marketing alignment, pipeline overview or details about your buying committee, poor quality data gives you an even poorer view of your business in all these critical areas. ​​Such data inefficiencies are causing revenues to leak through your funnel in myriad ways. Some of them include: 1. Frustrated sales reps   53% of salespeople have a love/hate relationship with their CRM. They hate manual data entry. 64% of sales teams say they would leave their current role if organizations don’t invest resources in a CRM data quality plan.  CRM systems are taking away valuable productive hours from your sales reps which can be spent on building relationships with customers. This has a direct impact on their quota and makes selling harder for them than it already is.  2. Incorrect sales forecasting   An accurate sales forecast allows revenue leaders to allocate resources efficiently and maximize returns for the future. But poor quality data leads to incorrect forecasts that can lead to massive revenue leakage. The result is wasted resources on avenues that lead to no result. 3. Poor ROI from CRM   CRM systems continue to be one of the biggest investments for businesses. But most businesses fail to extract maximum value out of this investment because CRM data is riddled with inefficiencies. With more time, CRMs end up becoming a major source of revenue drain, and end up adding little to no value to overall business goals.  4. Failed marketing campaigns   In an era where customers demand real-time and personalized messaging, relying on poor quality CRM data to drive such campaigns can end up as disasters. Bad data leads to a string of campaign failures that can damage the reputation of a brand. For example, basing a marketing campaign on a list of stale contacts only ends up spending money on an idea that will never convert.  How To Improve CRM Data Quality Having high-quality CRM data addresses and fixes revenue leakage at its roots. For revenue leaders who want to set up systems, processes and operations that lead to GTM alignment, the first-step is to fix the CRM data quality problem.  And to make sure the data in your CRM is trustworthy, complete and accurate, you must invest in technology that does not put additional pressure on your sales, marketing or customer success teams. Instead, it must enable them to do their job better while the tool silently works its magic in the background. A great example in point here is CRM data entry. It continues to be a largely manual exercise, taking away so much time from sales reps. Manual data entry also leads to higher chance of error in data entry or missing to enter key information that could lead to more deals.  What needs to be done here is not only find a way that automates CRM data entry, but also enriches that data from various GTM tools like CRM systems. This way GTM teams always have correct and updated data to work with. And with a layer of intelligence added on top of this clean data can drive revenue teams towards successful scaling initiatives.  5 Strategic Benefits of Improving CRM Data Quality Fixing your CRM data quality can have a direct impact on your bottom line and fix several unknown revenue gaps.  Here are some use top cases we have seen on how actionable insights from superior

Top 5 CRM Automation Use Cases RevOps 10 min CRM is the soul of every modern business today. It serves as the epicenter for managing customer relationships and sales processes.  But, what gives it that special edge?  CRM automation – that’s right! The automation capabilities take it to a whole new level.  With automation, businesses have stopped wasting resources on repetitive tasks that have minimal to no impact on their revenues. Instead, they just let the CRM take care of these tasks helping them streamline operations, facilitate efficiency, and allocate more time to meaningful customer interactions.  And, that’s not all – CRM and its automation features can do much more.  In this article, we will keep CRM automation at the forefront and discuss the top five use cases through which you can maximize the ROI from your CRM. What is CRM Automation? CRM automation refers to leveraging technology to streamline and simplify various tasks and workflows of your business. It automates repetitive, manual tasks that otherwise hamper productivity. And truth be told, AI is simply upping the game now. Who doesn’t want a helping hand that takes care of data entry, sends personalized follow-up emails, and even reminds when it’s time to reach out to a customer? 94% of employees say they perform repetitive, time-consuming tasks in their role. With CRM automation, your teams can leave behind repetitive tasks and focus on high-value activities such as building relationships and delivering personalized experiences.  But there’s more to it, which is why we will now delve into why exactly CRM automation has become omnipotent today.  Why Do You Need CRM Automation? CRM automation has the potential to turn your business outcomes upside down. Here’s how.  1. Improved sales productivity Free up precious resources and automate repetitive processes. Let technology handle data entry, lead tracking, and follow-ups, allowing your team to focus on revenue-driving sales activities that push your business forward.  According to McKinsey, automation can boost global productivity growth by 0.8-1.4 % every year.  2. Better team collaboration CRM automation facilitates seamless collaboration between teams. Sales, marketing, and customer service departments can access real-time customer data, track interactions, and coordinate efforts. This collaboration ensures a harmonious approach, leading to satisfactory customer experiences and streamlined operations. 3. Data-driven culture Data is everywhere, constantly present and ever-growing, but analyzing it manually can be overwhelming. Since 85% of data is unstructured, automation is critical for a business to save time and minimize mistakes.  CRM automation captures and organizes data, providing you with valuable insights at your fingertips. Make data-driven decisions, identify trends, and uncover opportunities for optimization and growth.   4. Deeper personalization Whether you’re selling, marketing, or supporting your customers, personalization is the new black and for that, you probably don’t want to miss any details. CRM automation enables you to deliver tailored and timely interactions with customers. Automated workflows ensure that no leads fall through the cracks and that every customer receives the attention they deserve, resulting in more satisfaction and loyalty. 5. Sustainable revenue generation At the end of the day, it’s all about the bottom line. CRM automation empowers you to optimize your revenue operations, identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and nurture leads effectively. By aligning your teams and processes, you create a well-oiled revenue engine. It comes as no surprise that 61% of businesses leveraging automation reported exceeding revenue targets in 2020.  5 Use Cases of CRM Automation A CRM comes with a wealth of possibilities for your business. We will now explore the top 5 use cases to improve your CRM’s ROI. 1. Contact automation  Don’t let the important contact data sit idle. Use a CRM to automate contact data capture from your reps’ inboxes, calendars, and Zoom meetings. The platform can efficiently organize contacts by segmenting them according to their affinity and level of involvement in current opportunities. The CRM can also automatically build buying committees and keep the contact information updated. The numbers say it all. Companies that incorporate high-level automation into their sales process generate around 16% more leads compared to those that incorporate low-level or no automation. 2. Personalize customer service & onboarding  60% of consumers say they’ll become repeat customers after a personalized experience. If you want to offer personalized support right from the beginning of the customer journey, you need the right data. And what better source than CRM to gather all the data required for personalizing the customer experiences? All relevant customer information stored in one centralized hub which is your CRM helps automate customer onboarding workflows, guide customers through each step, and offer them necessary resources proactively. A complete view of each customer’s history, preferences, and interactions in the CRM empowers businesses with the data they need to address customer needs promptly thereby delivering consistent and personalized experiences. 3. Run lucrative marketing campaigns The top marketing priority of 44% of businesses is increasing revenue from current customers. To yield such results, a CRM becomes vital for businesses to run effective marketing campaigns. They can use the customer data in the CRM for targeting and segmentation of their audience.  Businesses can further personalize their messaging to resonate with specific customer segments, improving the conversion rate. CRM automation also plays a pivotal role by simplifying campaign workflows and automating email sequences for timely customer engagement.  To go one step ahead, you can also integrate CRM with marketing tools to enhance reach and enable cross-channel campaigns. Robust tracking and analytics of CRM provide businesses with insights into campaign performance, enabling them to optimize strategies for higher campaign returns.  4. Identify business opportunities and trends  Harness CRM analytics to dive deep into customer behavior, trends, and campaign performance. Understand hidden patterns, identify opportunities, and make data-backed decisions that will certainly take your business forward.  The analytics are important to identify high-potential prospects, understand their pain points, and tailor your sales pitches accordingly. With a CRM, you also get a detailed view of the sales pipeline, allowing your team to identify bottlenecks and optimize the sales process. The impact is evidently huge as 62% of retailers have stated that using big data gives them a competitive advantage. 5. Reliable sales

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

How a Revenue Intelligence System Eliminates CRM Data Challenges RevOps 10 min In this blog

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

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