Revenue Velocity Forum this Wednesday was full of great content and conversation. Each of our speakers offered great research, case studies, tips and advice on how to increase your revenue velocity. Here are some key points that were covered by Jim Dickie of CSO Insights, Swayne Hill of Cloud9 Analytics, Jon Miller of Marketo, and Tim Sullivan of SPI.
How You Sell Matters
There are four levels of sales processes–random, informal, formal, and dynamic. As you move through these stages from left to right, you become more predictable and more successful, and how people view you changes as well.
You’re thought of as an approved vendor, a preferred supplier, a solutions consultant, strategic consultant and finally, a trusted partner (which should be everyone’s ultimate goal).
Jim Dickie says you can stay where you are–but be aware of what “the cost of doing nothing”– he expresses this is very significant, especially if you consider how it’s compounded over time. One tip Jim suggests, is to define your Perfect Prospect Profile, or persona (not someone else’s, but yours). He says, companies that do this are very effective at finding more opportunities and becoming more successful.
Dynamic Sales Management Will Drive More Revenue
To elaborate on what Jim discussed about having a Dynamic Sales Process, Swayne talked about how a Dynamic Sales Management process will increase pipeline velocity, sales forecast accuracy and revenue.
Swayne drew attention to some CSO insights stats that prove that what we’ve been doing isn’t working, and resulting in only 44% of forecasted deals won, only about 50% of reps making quota, and sales teams generally coming up 12% short on overall plan.
Because it’s a 2.0 world Swayne explains, we have to have 2.0 management processes, and using 1.0 process in a 2.0 world is costing us lots of money. Specifically, what Swayne suggests is a process involving “detect & correct” versus “measure & punish.” Detect & correct can happen by asking yourself these three questions daily: what does the data say? should I be worried? and what should I do about it? He says leveraging pipeline velocity, monitoring variance, and taking action are the three ways to incorporate a dynamic sales management process in this 2.0 world.
Marketer’s and Revenue Performance
Jon Miller gave an excellent presentation on the new marketing-sales funnel, expressing that Marketers should be responsible for nurturing and qualifying leads throughout the sales process providing sales with great opportunities to close deals faster.
Jon talks about “names” versus “leads or prospects” and how he does not consider a “name” a prospect until they have engaged on some deeper level with the brand. Through lead scoring, and lead nurturing 50% more leads will close than without nurturing.
He also introduced the idea of marketing forecasts and how sales forecasting is extremely dependent on marketing forecasts, provided that there is a system in place to nurture score and track leads throughout the revenue cycle and enable forecasting.
Solution Selling
Tim Sullivan of SPI gave a very engaging presentation around the personalities of different sales people, the way they sell, and how the over arching sales process needs to be peppered with the techniques of your top sales people; for one, they do what they do well, so you want them involved in the process, and two, the other sales people look up to the top performers for techniques, guidance, and best practices.
Tim also talked about how to line up your sales process with the buying process, focusing on how the customer reacts to various touch points, making sure that you are dynamically aligned with them.
He expressed that you really don’t want to get to the end (won or loss) of the process, without knowing where the disconnect occurred. He suggests setting up a process that ensures customer feedback at each stage, so you are always aware of where you are.
The Revenue Velocity Forum is full of great content, speakers and tips for driving more revenue. If you are in the Boston area and would like to attend our next event please RSVP.
