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. Continue reading…