What really drives an increase in the sales forecast??
I have always been a big believer in activity drives results. The best reps weren’t always the smartest ones, but the one’s who figured out how to get things done. Whether it was getting the client to take a meeting or getting thru the objections the customer inevitably throws at you, they always managed to get things done.
I have said earlier that most traditional Sales Force Automation solutions have focused their efforts on optimizing the opportunity side of business. Here’s my challenge to that philosophy: When I was the VP of Sales for Aprimo back in 1999 thru 2002, we had anywhere from 8 to 20 sales reps globally and on any given quarter 15 to 35 deals we were chasing. I ask you if we managed everyone of those deals to 100% efficiency and effectiveness could I turn those 15 to 35 deals into 50 or 100 deals? No. Could I grow those deals sure, but could I double or triple each one and still close each one not a chance. So my team was managing 15 to 35 deals per quarter, but we had over 50,000 people who we had touched either thru marketing activities or sales activities. If we could have figured out a way to sell to those 50,000 people in a more efficient manner – isn’t it logical that it would have been a lot easier to find 50 to 70 more deals in that universe than closing 100% of the forecast and trying to double each opportunity while we were doing it??
That fundamental philosophy is at the core of our beliefs at Jesubi. More systematic activity with analytics around what’s working and what’s not can truly help sales teams sell more. By helping clients assess which industries are responding quicker, what size of company is responding quicker, which sales rep is the most effective – by doing all these things better than can be done with traditional solutions, Jesubi does in fact help clients sell more.
Don’t take our word for it, take our customers word for it. We’ll be glad to put you in touch with those who have seen what a solution focused on helping customers sell more. We wake up every morning trying to figure out how to enhance our product so every customer benefits from new features and reports. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
Tags: growing revenue, increasing sales pipeline, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecast
Dec 27, 2009
Agree. Top of funnel metrics in a commoditized B2B IT/telecom world. When I first worked selling MITEL door to door, then at Digital, Arrow selling Novell, then Westcon, it seemed almost every VAR and/OR end user we contacted was a HPP high probability prospect, worthy of a funnel value. 10 contacts = .5 to 1 prospects. (45% hot rate on each telephone call or walk in). This had dropped a lot by the wimr I left Avaya in 2003. It seems that MOST ICT companies need large funnels, perhaps 500-1,000 companies PER REP (meeting their ideal customer profile) to net a decent flow of leads of which about 25% turn into closed sales. Even ERP, CRM etc “solutions sales” are not unique and MANY software companies are hiring Sr. “solutions” Reps, 10 yrs complexe sales experience – “must LOVE cold calling”.
This “activity” based old school management is removed from sales 2.0 reality. However many reps (65%) will call required the 4-5 hrs. per day x 110 days (to net 45 A leads @ 2.25 contacts/hr to reach a list of 1,250) IF they have the TOOLS> 1) CLEAN profiled list with IT contacts, emails, tel nos. (from Jigsaw, etc.) MARKETING has to supply this!!! 2) FRONT end prospecting leadgen tools (ie a basic spreadsheet or SFA that has company names, weblinks, contacts and BASIC fields to track CRITICAL CONTACT hits. (tel, email, FIRST conversations = A, B leads, 3) an EASY WAY to UPLOAD this csv. INTO the CRM system (for opportunity management every 2-3 days)
Excel spreadsheet works OK, but jesubi seesm to have taken this a fewsteps farther!
As in every auto factory there is a front end logistics area where raw materials are organized and work flow planned.
My 2 cts from Canada. (productive Beavers up here!)
Stuart