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.

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

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