Your Guide to Sales Analytics + The Best Sales Analytics Tools for 2024

Lindsey Plocek on January 18, 2024

Imagine asking a room full of sales leaders what their top two priorities are for the coming year. Chances are, every single person in that room would cite growing revenue and improving sales team performance as top priorities.

Sales analytics is critical to achieving those goals.

The good news is, you don’t have to be a statistics wiz to benefit from sales analytics. With a bit of knowledge – and the right tools – you’ll be well-equipped to leverage sales analytics to improve seller performance and grow revenue.

In this post, we’ll answer the question, “What is sales analytics?” We’ll also explore how sales analytics benefits sales teams and which sales analytics metrics are most important to track. We’ll close out by sharing some of the top sales analytics software options available to sales organizations.

What is sales analytics?

First off, what is sales analytics?

According to Gartner, sales analytics is “used in identifying, modeling, understanding and predicting sales trends and outcomes while aiding sales management in understanding where salespeople can improve.”

Let’s break that down.

Sales analytics describes the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting sales data. These insights can be leveraged to optimize strategies, make data-based decisions, and plan for the future.

For example, sales leaders leverage sales analytics to determine goals, optimize processes, and more accurately forecast future sales.

In addition, they help sales managers and sales enablement teams to better understand seller performance. Then, they can deliver personalized training and coaching to strengthen weak areas and improve sales performance. They can also measure the impact of those initiatives.

Four types of sales analytics

There are a few different types of sales analytics:

Describes what has happened. For example, you can see how much revenue was generated during the fourth quarter of 2023 – or how a particular sales rep performed during that same period.

Examines data to determine the “why” behind what happened.

Takes what’s happened in the past, looks for patterns, and makes predictions about what will happen in the future.

Takes the data that’s available and recommends the best course of action based on that data.

The benefits of sales analytics

Sales analytics can have a significant, positive impact on countless factors that contribute to sales success. Let’s take a look at a few.

Revenue growth
Shorter sales cycles
Training + enablement
Seller performance
Sales planning
Customer experiences
Marketing impact

Revenue growth

By understanding seller performance, you’re better equipped to improve it. When sellers close more deals, your revenue will grow.

Sales cycle

The shorter the sales cycle, the faster you can generate revenue. As such, many organizations are focused on how they can optimize the sales cycle to accelerate sales.

Sales analytics enables teams to understand how customers progress through the sales cycle – and how long it takes them to do so. Teams can identify problem areas. For example, there may be a particular stage of the sales cycle where prospects often drop off. Then, teams can make data-based optimizations to streamline (and shorten) the sales cycle.

They also enable teams to understand how customers progress through the sales cycle – and how long it takes them to do so. Teams can identify problem areas. For example, there may be a particular stage of the sales cycle where prospects often drop off. Then, teams can make data-based optimizations to streamline (and shorten) the sales cycle.

Sales training and enablement

Sales onboarding sets sellers up for success at the organization. Ongoing training and enablement ensures they are always ready to sell.

Sales analytics can inform more effective training and enablement. With sales analytics, teams can better understand how (or whether) training and enablement initiatives are impacting sales outcomes. They can use these insights to optimize programs to drive impact.

Seller performance

Sales reps need to master a certain set of skills and competencies to be successful in the field. Sales analytics can help sales leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of each seller. Then, they can deliver training and coaching to strengthen skills and improve performance. Finally, they can measure the impact of their training and coaching efforts and optimize accordingly.

Sales planning

In the world of sales, planning is key. Planning must be based on data – rather than hunches.

The right revenue intelligence enables sales leaders to more accurately forecast sales. In addition, sales analytics enables sales leaders to make other, data-based planning decisions – such as adding headcount or realigning sales territories.

Customer experiences

In today’s world, experiences matter as much as products and services. But one-size-fits all experiences won’t cut it. According to Salesforce research, 78% of business buyers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences.

According to Salesforce research

of business buyers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences.
0 %

With sales analytics, you can better understand customers’ needs and behaviors. Then, you can create sales processes that address those needs and behaviors. Customers will have better experiences – which will increase their likelihood of making a purchase.

Marketing impact

Marketing teams spend plenty of time developing campaigns and initiatives to attract prospective customers. It’s important to measure the impact of those efforts.

Sales analytics can shed light on the effectiveness of marketing initiatives. Then, the team can optimize their efforts to improve performance.

For example, a marketing campaign may generate a high volume of leads. But with sales analytics, you’re able to see that a majority of these leads drop off – usually because they aren’t a good fit for the company’s products or services. Marketing and sales can leverage these insights to create campaigns that more effectively target good-fit prospects.

11 key sales analytics metrics revenue organizations need to track

Data is foundational to sales analytics. As such, it’s important to track the right key performance indicators (KPIs). It’s also important to understand why you’re tracking those metrics.

What metrics should you track to fuel your sales analytics? It varies from company to company. However, there are some KPIs that are important for just about any company to track. Let’s take a closer look at a few.

Revenue is perhaps the most obvious metric to track. You can track the total amount of revenue for a specified period of time – such as a month or a quarter 

Of course, it’s important to track how much revenue your organization is generating. It’s also important to measure how much your revenue increases or decreases over a given period of time. For example, you may measure growth year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter.

You likely track sales overall. If you have multiple offerings, it’s also important to track sales by product or service. 

That way, you’ll understand how specific products are performing. Then, you can make decisions to optimize your product mix. 

Your conversion rate is the portion of prospects that end up making a purchase. A low conversion rate may indicate a problem (or problems), but it’s important to dig deeper.

For example, it’s easy to assume a low conversion rate is due to the ineffectiveness of sellers. But it could also be due to the fact that sellers are often interacting with leads that aren’t a good fit for what they’re selling.

This is a measure of how long it takes for buyers to move through the sales cycle – from initial contact to close. It’s a good idea to measure the average sales cycle duration across the entire team. However, it’s important to remember that this incorporates data from your very best sellers – as well as your very worst. As such, it’s also a good idea to calculate the average sales cycle duration for your top sellers.

This is a measure of how much it costs to acquire a new customer. It’s calculated by taking the total cost of sales and marketing for a specified period (for example, a quarter or a month), and then dividing it by the number of new customers that converted during that same time period.

If CAC is high, look for opportunities to optimize your sales and marketing efforts.

Average deal size is a measure of the value of sales. You can calculate your average deal size by dividing total revenue by total number of deals for a given period.

This metric provides valuable insight you can leverage to improve sales performance. For example, if you notice deal size decreasing, it’s time to dig deeper. Perhaps you have an influx of newer sales reps – and they struggle to convert larger deals. By addressing this challenge, you can start to increase average deal size – and overall sales.

Customer churn rate is the percentage of customers who stop doing business with you during a specified time period. For example, let’s say you have a 10% customer churn rate for 2023. 10% of your customers have stopped doing business with you – while 90% have stuck around.

High customer churn is problematic. It’s important to examine the reasons customers churn – and then work to address them.

In addition to measuring the aforementioned KPIS across the entire organization, many should also be measured by team. For example, a sales organization based in the United States may measure sales performance based on territory. A global sales organization may measure sales performance based on country.

Measuring performance by team can provide a lot of valuable insights. For example, you can see which areas your products and services are resonating most. You may also uncover a need to deliver additional training and coaching to sales reps in specific regions.

It’s important to track company and team sales. However, it’s also important to drill down even further to measure sales performance for each of your individual sales reps.

Rep performance can be measured for a specific time period, such as monthly or quarterly. For example, you might measure both the number of closed deals – as well as the total value of those deals – for each agent in January 2024.

Individual rep performance data can shed light on the need for additional training and coaching for a specific rep. It can also provide insights on who may be eligible for a promotion or other reward.

Sales training and sales enablement help ensure sales reps always have the skills and information they need to be successful. It’s important to track completion metrics for sales training and enablement efforts. 

 

However, it’s even more important to track the impact of your sales training and enablement efforts. For example, is a seller actually using the skills they learned in training when they’re out in the field? Conversation intelligence tools can help you determine if that’s the case. 

Or, did a particular training module have a positive impact on deal outcomes?

With these insights, you can optimize your efforts. Then, your optimized sales training and enablement initiatives will more effectively prepare your sellers for success in the field.

5 top sales analytics tools

Sales analytics is a key ingredient to improve sales performance and growing revenue. But for many people, it can be overwhelming.

There are many types of data coming in from different directions. It can be challenging to streamline this data, analyze it, and determine what actions to take based on it.

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. The right sales analytics tools will do the heavy lifting for you.

There are many sales analytics tools in the market today. But they’re not all the same. It’s important to find the sales analytics tools that fit the needs and goals of your business. When weighing your options, you’ll need to consider factors including data requirements, integrations, visualizations, use of use, and cost – among others.

There’s no single sales analytics tool that’s the right fit for every need and business. However, there are some top sales analytics tools.

Mindtickle

Sales enablement is essential to sales success. It’s important to measure and analyze sales enablement effectiveness on an ongoing basis.

Mindtickle’s revenue productivity platform incorporates robust sales enablement analytics. Of course, you can measure usage data. However, Mindtickle goes beyond usage data to help you understand how training and enablement programs are actually impacting sales team performance. Then, you can use these analytics to optimize your sales enablement programs and prioritize initiatives that are proven to improve outcomes.

Other sales analytics tools

Some other top sales analytics platforms include:

Hubspot’s platform provides sales leaders with the sales analytics they need to make strategic decisions. Users can access insights related to pipeline, performance, deal status, conversion, and other key areas.

The platform incorporates a feature that allows sales leaders to not only understand the data – but also the reasons behind the data. Then, they can use these insights to make optimizations.

Clari brings key sales data from the past, present, and future into a single platform. These insights can help teams improve performance and accurately predict future revenue.

Gong equips sales teams with sales analytics about what’s working and what’s not. Those analytics inform recommendations that can help sales reps close more deals.

Leverage sales analytics to improve your sales process

Sales performance and revenue growth are top priorities for every sales team. Sales analytics is key to achieving these goals.

The right sales analytics tools enable revenue organizations to understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what they can do to improve outcomes. These insights empower sales leaders to optimize strategies and make data-based decisions that grow revenue.

Sales enablement is essential to getting your reps ready to sell. But it’s important to have the right sales enablement analytics to optimize your program.

Sales Analytics in Mindtickle

Ready to see how Mindtickle delivers the sales enablement analytics you need to increase the impact of your program?

Get a Demo

How To Choose A Conversation Intelligence Platform

Lindsey Plocek on January 17, 2024

For B2B sales teams, meeting customers’ needs and expectations has become more challenging than ever — and also more important.

And it’s not just expectations that are growing. Tech stacks are too.

According to research, 80% of B2B buyers expect the same buying experience as B2C customers. Meanwhile, the average number of SaaS tools used by companies has increased by 1,275% since 2015.

of B2B buyers expect the same experience as B2C
0 %
increase in number of SaaS tools used by companies
0 %

However, those needs and expectations have become increasingly complicated, including personalized service, empathetic listening, consistency and connection across business departments, and more.

To meet these market demands and support revenue goals, companies must have deep insight into the front-line conversations their sales teams are having, as well as their team’s level of sales productivity.

Fortunately, you can have complete visibility into these conversations with AI-powered conversation intelligence platforms. In this article, we’ll give you a quick rundown of how these tools can boost your sales performance and how to choose the best conversation intelligence solution for your business.

What is a conversation intelligence platform?

The conversation intelligence platform is quickly becoming the cornerstone of the sales tech stack for companies who recognize the old methods are no longer sufficient. These systems use artificial intelligence and machine learning to gather and analyze sales conversation data from calls and emails; accurately measure customer sentiment; and compile insights for improved sales performance.

In fact, studies have shown conversation intelligence can drive at least a 64% increase in revenue generated by reps in their first quarter and a 50% average reduction in ramp-up time for new hires.

increase in revenue generated per rep
0 %
average reduction in ramp-up time
0 %

Conversation intelligence technology provides unparalleled insight into conversations with potential customers. It enables more accurate deal health assessment and forecasting by objectively tracking deal risk indicators across 100% of your sales pipeline interactions.

This data also gives managers and reps a single system of record to elevate rep performance during customer interactions, incorporating:

  • Call recordings
  • Call scoring and analytics
  • Customer sentiment analysis
  • In-line coaching
  • Best practices

This visibility is key to identifying opportunities to improve sellers’ skill sets while also helping you understand the tactics top performers are using, so you can ensure salespeople are equipped with the skills and best practices they need to win more deals.

Conversation intelligence helps managers create coaching blueprints to provide the right training and support for salespeople. It also supports faster and more effective hiring and onboarding of new team members.

Common conversation intelligence use cases

Conversation intelligence software works across multiple channels, improving performance and motivation throughout the organization, from sales reps to sales leadership. It enables companies to:

  • Help sales reps actively listen instead of note-take and share calls across the organization to facilitate better hand-offs
  • Improve conversion rates throughout each stage of the sales process by providing data on what interactions drive deals forward (or not!)
  • Help customer-facing roles improve the sales experience
  • Make it easier for managers to support and coach sales reps
  • Assist leaders in developing effective product and marketing strategies that drive revenue and growth

Today, two-thirds of companies feel their enablement programs fall short. For front-line sales managers, conversation intelligence platforms help them know when to have one-on-one training sessions and how to coach their salespeople in a more relevant and effective manner.

The platform’s sentiment analysis capabilities empower you to keep deals advancing through the sales process or proactively address deal risks while improving metrics like close rates and deal value.

These same capabilities can also help customer success managers improve Net Revenue Retention (NRR) as well as tailor their coaching to reps’ true needs.

For revenue leaders, conversation intelligence means improved deal intelligence — providing complete real-time visibility into the health and status of your accounts’ deals. It also empowers more accurate sales forecasting, helping leaders and teams plan, budget, hire, and allocate resources more effectively.

Lastly, conversation intelligence gives product managers easy access to user feedback so they can make data-informed decisions about product features and priorities.

How can a conversation intelligence platform help you grow your business?

No matter how knowledgeable and experienced a leader is, making effective decisions and driving growth can be challenging without the necessary data and insights. Unfortunately, these are often lacking, which weakens results across organizations.

Sales leaders often have limited visibility into how customers feel about new products and services. As a result, they struggle to pinpoint blockers that reduce productivity.

Revenue teams lack a macro view of how every program and person in the sales organization is performing. They also struggle to track customer interactions, making it difficult to align efforts across teams and develop accurate forecasts.

Enablement leaders have difficulty demonstrating examples of winning behaviors in their training programs or measuring the impact of their efforts on business outcomes.

Conversation intelligence provides the insight you need to overcome these challenges and drive growth by providing 100% visibility into calls.

This helps you improve the customer experience both during the sales process and in the successful adoption of your solutions after the deal is closed.

For sellers, productivity improves because they have access to a unified platform where they can find everything they need, including the transcript and a list of action items or next steps, as well as get immediate feedback after their calls.

And for your go-to-market strategy, conversational intelligence offers individualized, high-value analytics and reporting, insight into the voice of the customer, sentiment analysis, and suggestions to improve messaging to align with the customers’ needs.

5 tips to choose a platform for your business

When evaluating conversation intelligence software solutions, you should start by considering the criteria listed below. But there’s more than just these five tips – It’s important to dig deep to find a platform that works for you and your business. Here are our top five things to consider when choosing the best conversation intelligence platform for you.

Nearly every function at your company can benefit from and use conversation intelligence — from sales leadership to product, marketing, managers, reps, enablement, and operations. Look for a solution that makes it easy for each type of user to find the calls they need and specific moments within them without thinking.

As you’re looking for a solution, keep in mind everything your team has on its plate: seller coaching, call reviews, giving feedback, keeping tabs on pipeline performance, and making accurate forecasts. For all of these tasks, conversation intelligence does the heavy lifting.

Conversation intelligence provides powerful insights into key deals and accounts. But building a business deal by deal won’t scale. Instead, look for a solution that helps you uncover the ideal competencies that lead your top reps to crush quota and achieve sales outcomes. We call those “winning behaviors,” and we use data from real conversations to model them out.

One key to successfully implementing a new software solution is to choose a platform that adapts to your team members’ workflow rather than making them adapt to it. Finding the right fit will make collaboration between departments easier, visibility more targeted, and teams more organized and productive

To avoid unnecessary legal issues, reputation damage, or hefty fines, you need to make sure your conversation intelligence platform is secure and compliant. This allows you to safely and consistently offer top service.

Why choose Mindtickle?

Mindtickle is already recognized as the leading sales readiness platform. It also provides the conversation intelligence you need to support sales, customer success, and revenue growth.

Call AI, Mindtickle’s conversation intelligence solution is integrated with our revenue productivity platform, providing a single place for training, content, and coaching. This helps revenue teams engage the market with purpose and close deals with confidence.

Why build a complicated tech stack when you can use just one platform for your sales and revenue needs?

Mindtickle gives you one source of truth for sales enablement and training, sales content management, conversation intelligence, sales coaching, and analytics — unifying your approach to productivity.

 

Conversation Intelligence in Mindtickle

Ready to see how Mindtickle’s conversation intelligence platform can give you complete visibility into real-world interactions with customers across your organization? 

Request a Demo

This post was originally published in January 2023 and was updated in January 2024. 

Sales Methodology: What is it and How to Choose One for Your Business

Lindsey Plocek on December 29, 2023

If your teams don’t have a sales methodology, they need one — and fast.

You also aren’t alone.

According to our 2022-2023 Sales Enablement Outlook Report, less than half (43%) of respondents say their organizations have an institutionalized sales methodology.

Organizations with institutionalized sales methodology
0 %

The best sales methodologies act as a framework, guiding reps through each stage of the sales process. These approaches should be scalable, measurable and — perhaps most importantly — repeatable. But there are tons of common sales methodologies out there, and while each has its benefits, you need to know which fits your business best.

Here’s your guide to sales methodologies and how to make the right choice.

What is a sales methodology?

A sales methodology is like a thread uniting different stages of the sales cycle. When your reps follow this thread, they know exactly what to say and when to say it, what buyers are thinking at different times and how to build better relationships. While the customers, products and teams may change, the best sales methodologies can stay consistent because they’re based on best practices.

Of course, that’s not to say that a sales methodology is “one size fits all.” These frameworks can and should scale depending on new training materials, shifting buyer expectations and what you learn in the ever-changing world of sales.

Why is a sales methodology important for any business?

Sales reps might feel they have an instinct for making all the right moves in customer communication — and they could very well be right. The best sales methodologies don’t replace those instincts, but rather build on them to create a shared, consistent approach that keeps every individual and team pushing in the same direction.

Here are a few more reasons you need a sales methodology:

 

Solid sales frameworks are flexible enough to enable accurate, personalized responses without changing your approach for every individual buyer.

Toggle ContentThese guidelines are informed by sales performance metrics and best practices, which means they’re based on what actually works instead of what should work.

A single sales methodology unites many sales processes to encompass every activity, interaction and stage for both buyers and sales reps.

Skip the guesswork and let your sales frameworks identify where and when a lead fits into your pipeline.

With the right set of guidelines, your reps will be better prepared to overcome challenges, address hesitations and build trust — the first step toward more and better deals.

As your business and customers change, your sales methodology will too. You’ll have the insight, data and tools you need to identify what’s working, what isn’t and where improvements need to be made.

What are some common sales methodologies?

When choosing the best approaches for your teams, it’s often helpful to have sales methodology examples in front of you. Here are just a few to consider:

MEDICC

MEDDIC is an acronym that represents a comprehensive sales qualification framework. Each letter in stands for a key element in the sales process.

  • Metrics refers to understanding the quantifiable goals and objectives of the customer.
  • Economic buyer refers to identifying the person who has the authority and financial power to make purchasing decisions.
  • Decision criteria involves understanding the specific requirements and criteria that the customer uses to evaluate potential solutions.
  • Decision process refers to comprehending the steps and individuals involved in the customer’s decision-making process.
  • Identify pain involves discovering and understanding the customer’s challenges, problems, and pain points.
  • Champion refers to finding an internal advocate within the customer’s organization who supports and promotes your solution.

Takeaway: Use the MEDDIC framework to thoroughly understand customer needs, decision-making process, and leverage internal champions for successful sales.

BANT

BANT is a sales qualification methodology and assesses potential customers. It stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. Each element represents a crucial aspect of determining the viability of a sales opportunity.

  • Budget refers to understanding the prospect’s financial resources and whether they have the means to make a purchase.
  • Authority involves identifying the decision-makers and influencers involved in the buying process.
  • Need refers to assessing the prospect’s specific pain points and determining how well your product or service can address them.
  • Timeline involves understanding the prospect’s urgency and when they intend to make a decision or implement a solution.

Takeaway: Assess leads effectively using BANT: Determine budget, authority, need, and timeline to prioritize sales efforts and qualify potential opportunities.

Consultative selling

The most important part of consultative selling is right in its name: the consultation. Buyers come to you because they have unanswered questions, and they need your reps to act as guides. Key processes involve listening, communicating and collaborating.

Takeaway: Consultative selling builds trust by being primarily informational instead of promotional. ​

Solution selling

Sometimes, customers already know exactly what their problem is — all you have to do is tell them what the solution can look like. Even before the first call, this sales methodology requires that your reps have a particularly solid understanding of:

  • The buyer
  • Their needs and challenges
  • The most targeted offerings for their situation

Takeaway: Solution selling is more focused on addressing a problem than selling a particular product or service.

Provocative selling

When you use this framework, your reps need to be able to identify pain points before buyers do and then provoke them to research solutions. In many ways, reps are “selling” problems first and products second.

Takeaway: Provocative selling is all about being proactive and giving customers what they didn’t even know they needed.

Challenger sales

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson developed “The Challenger Sales Method.” In their book of the same name, they discuss various seller archetypes and identify the most successful: challengers, who represented 40% of high-performing sales reps in the authors’ study.

Takeaway: Challenger sales methodologies focus on empowering other rep archetypes to teach prospects, tailor their communications and take control of sales.

Inbound selling

In this sales methodology, you acknowledge that buyers are doing more work themselves and may not contact your reps until they’re well into the pipeline. That means sales might take a back seat for your reps as they educate and advise buyers.

Takeaway: With inbound selling, qualified leads come to you instead of the other way around — so while the sales processes might look different, they may be far more efficient.

SPIN selling

Neil Rackham’s book, “SPIN Selling,” builds a sales methodology around four key kinds of questions:

  • Situation: What is the customer’s current need or challenge
  • Problem: Where is the problem coming from?
  • Implication: What happens if nothing is done?
  • Need-payoff: What are the benefits of solving the problem?

Takeaway: When strung together, these kinds of questions allow reps to lead buyers on a kind of realization journey in which they connect their problems to specific solutions.

Target account selling

This sales methodology is all about research and automation. It’s an approach that emphasizes the importance of choosing the right accounts to focus on — those that will be most responsive and easiest to sell to.

Takeaway: Research is vital in all the best sales methodologies, but it’s at the heart of target account selling — so reps must fully understand personas, key decision-makers, in-depth challenge breakdowns and more.

Sandler Selling Method

This approach is built on the concept that buyers and sellers must trust one another to have a successful relationship. That means there has to be communication, collaboration and mutual respect. This methodology is similar to consultative selling but has a more prescriptive framework: building a relationship, quantifying the lead and ultimately closing the deal.

Takeaway: The Sandler Selling Method works best when buyers want and need to be able to lean on reps as decision-making partners, not just sales experts.

How to identify and choose the right sales methodology for your business

Say you have a Software as a Service (SaaS) company. You do some research and find common approaches — but the best sales methodology for SaaS organizations isn’t the same as the best sales methodology for manufacturers, retailers, food sellers or real estate agents.

So how do you choose the right one for you?

Most common sales methodologies, among organizations who have one

Source: 2022-2023 Sales Enablement Outlook Report. 

 

#1: Evaluate your business goals and objectives

Whether you’re trying to improve sales performance, boost revenue, grow your business or hit some other goal, it’s important to keep the future in mind when deciding on a sales methodology. This helps align your sales team with your overall business objectives and makes sales activities that much more efficient.

#2: Analyze target market and customers

To find out what works best for your customers, you have to know who they are, how they think and what markets they spend time in. With this analysis at your fingertips, you can choose methodologies that will resonate with your audience instead of relying on an ill-fitting or “tone-deaf” approach.

#3: Consider business size and industry

Think about how many people and resources you can dedicate to a sales methodology. Is there too much to do, or do the tasks and approaches seem well-balanced? The size of your business will have a big influence on this, but so will your industry, which dictates much of what customers expect and how your sales processes need to work together.

#4: Experiment and evaluate

Remember that sales methodologies can be mixed, matched and combined to make them work for you. Keep track of relevant data to see whether a certain approach is working or if you need to weave in concepts, processes or theories from other frameworks.

How to get started with implementing a sales methodology for your business

Once you’ve chosen a sales methodology, it’s time to jump in. Here’s how to get started:

Evaluate current skills

It’s important to know what your reps bring to the table and what they’ll need to learn to adapt to a new sales methodology. This is also a chance to reflect on your sales training methodologies and fill in any gaps.

Create new training material

As you train reps on the new sales methodology, make sure to cover:

  • Which of their former processes are sticking around
  • Which processes will be updated
  • Which processes will be completely changed
  • What your overall philosophy is
  • What your goals look like.
  • The benefits of the new methodology

Remember to make this sales training material consistent and easily accessible — not just to the sales teams but to all departments,

Assess and provide feedback

Track your reps’ learning curves and provide support, feedback or coaching where they need it most. Remember to capture best practices and particularly helpful examples to build out your methodology going forward.

Putting your sales methodology to use

If you want to choose, implement, track and improve a sales methodology, you can’t afford to do it in disparate systems. That’s not just bad news for your business outcomes; it also creates frustration for sales reps, other teams and even customers.

Instead, unite your sales activity in a single revenue productivity platform. 

Ready to see for yourself? 

Mindtickle in action

From onboarding and training to data capture, performance reviews, and ongoing learning, Mindtickle is your best bet for getting more out of sales methodologies.

Request a Demo

This post was originally published in June 2023 and updated in December 2023. 

6 Ways To Increase Sales Acceleration

Lindsey Plocek on December 11, 2023

Whoever coined the saying “time is money” probably worked in sales. That’s why sales acceleration makes so much sense.

Sales acceleration is the process of improving your approaches and strategies to move prospects through the sales funnel more efficiently. For your company, this means more deals and fewer expended resources. For your customers, it means less wasted time and a better experience overall. Sales acceleration is your classic win-win scenario.

Here’s how to accelerate sales (and what you can expect when you do).

Does sales acceleration help grow revenue?

While we’re on the topic of old adages, we should address another one: What happened to “slow and steady wins the race”

That’s not the case when it comes to sales acceleration. Sure, you don’t want your reps to rush through sales discovery calls or other customer interactions — but one of the best ways to grow revenue is to take the time you do have and use it more effectively. That’s because sales acceleration allows you to better identify and take advantage of revenue opportunities that already exist.

For example, say you use one sales acceleration strategy: lead qualification. When you qualify leads before contacting them, you waste less time on people who are unlikely to buy and get better results from the same amount of resource expenditure. This leads to more revenue because you’re focused on leads that show proven interest or receptiveness.

And the faster, the better. Lead qualification success is reduced 10x when reps wait longer than five minutes to respond to a form fill or inquiry. At anything over 10 minutes, that decrease in success jumps to 400%.

Lead qualification is reduced

when reps wait more than 5 minutes to respond to a form fill
0 x

The same idea applies to all sales acceleration tools and strategies. The time, resources, and leads are out there; sales acceleration improves revenue by cutting waste and putting your focus in the right places.

6 tips to increase sales acceleration

Ready to accelerate sales? Here are just a few tips to get you started:

#1: Use the right tools

Sales acceleration tools help your reps know what to say, show or send, giving them the visibility necessary to determine which deals need particular attention. For example, the best sales acceleration software allows you to keep track of details such as:

  • Whether prospects are mentioning your competitors.
  • Whether deals are multi-threaded.
  • What messaging is used on calls and whether this aligns with your most up-to-date recommendations.

Based on this information, sales acceleration tools can surface the best training solutions and identify top revenue-driving content, helping move deals forward. This could include building digital sales rooms to set up a mutual action plan.

#2: Improve your sales onboarding and training

To accelerate sales, you need to build out your onboarding and training materials with processes that clearly connect to real-world scenarios. One of the best ways to do this is to deploy sales plays with all necessary information — including everything a rep needs to say, show and do — to sell a new product or build relationships with particular personas.

To make these trainings even more effective, consider using clips from recorded calls or top practice sessions — and don’t forget to make this content available on-demand in a training or onboarding library. 

#3: Get more from your notes

Instead of having reps waste valuable time — and potentially distract themselves — by taking notes on calls, use sales acceleration tools to automate notetaking, transcribe communications and gather voice-of-market insights. This doesn’t just make it easier to learn from every interaction and identify areas for improvement; it also helps you uncover trends that enable reps to choose the right messaging at the right time. They’ll have what they need to use revenue-driving content to win more deals.

#4: Foster better deal collaboration and coaching

To accelerate sales, perform accurate revenue forecasting and more, you need clear communication across multiple roles and departments. Fostering this collaboration requires smoothly sharing the most important content. For example, have your Business Development Representatives (BDRs) share call snippets with reps and reps share call snippets with Sales Engineers (SEs) and Customer Success Managers (CSMs) to make hand-offs simpler and more effective. You should also empower managers with a coaching workflow based on real data from multiple sources. This enables them to see how healthy their team’s deals and calls are — plus, they can make actionable plans to coach at key intervals.

#5: Consolidate everything

From data and background information to training material and sales enablement content, there’s a lot for reps to juggle when navigating a single call or communication. Give them access to everything they

need, but don’t overwhelm them with unnecessary or poorly organized information. Instead, provide a more streamlined user experience to reduce clicks and save time. This makes reps more agile and better able to respond in unfamiliar scenarios, but it also speeds up prospect communication and makes your sales funnel faster and simpler.

#6: Adjust your sales acceleration strategy regularly

A sales acceleration strategy depends heavily on best practices, up-to-date messaging, new sales enablement materials and even the latest version of your sales acceleration software. That means there are a variety of changes that can impact your strategy.

For example, you should track whether sales processes and methodologies are adopted. This can change everything from return on investment (ROI) to sales performance and revenue, so it has a big impact on sales acceleration. 

Say you use MEDDPICC — a sales qualification methodology that stands for:

  • Metrics
  • Economic buyer
  • Decision criteria
  • Decision process
  • Paper process
  • Implicate the pain
  • Champion
  • Competition 

To make sure you’re getting the most out of every MEDDPICC idea or approach, you should have a MEDDPICC score based on how much information you’re able to fill out. You would also have a playbook with best practices and practical guidance — plus trainings, daily sales report (DSR) templates and a Mutual Action Plan developed with this methodology in mind. 

Benefits of implementing a sales acceleration strategy

Once you’ve implemented all the right tips and your sales acceleration approach is well underway, you could start seeing benefits around every corner. For example:

  • Filled quotas: With a solid sales acceleration solution at your reps’ fingertips, more of them can achieve their quotas faster. That means more deals won, more experience with different persona types and — yes — more revenue.
  • Better wins: Bigger, better, faster wins are possible when you use the right sales acceleration tools. You’re connecting dots to streamline experiences, which means improving the deals themselves — not just the processes that build them.
  • Smoother hand-offs: A completed deal is a product of multiple teams and departments. Sales acceleration makes it smoother and quicker to communicate key points and create better experiences both internally and externally.
  • Reduced churn: Grow your customer base and reduce churn at the same time. It’s all possible thanks to better processes and more prepared reps.
  • Scalable sales motion: Make your sales motion both repeatable and scalable with best practices, trainings and other sales acceleration solutions. 
  • Adoption: When you accelerate sales, you can more easily adapt your sales process and methodology to a “win every stage” approach. That also means improving your stage-to-stage conversions.

Best sales acceleration software tools

With a unique blend of sales readiness, enablement, and intelligence, Mindtickle empowers sales teams with targeted training, personalized coaching, and real-time insights. Our integration of conversation intelligence and ability to set and track challenging yet achievable goals ensures a complete approach to driving sales success.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides a suite of tools for sales acceleration. Key features include lead management, opportunity tracking, and a collaborative interface for effective communication within sales teams. Integrations with various apps and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities enhance productivity and decision-making.

HubSpot Sales Hub offers a suite of sales acceleration tools focused on automating and streamlining sales processes. Features include contact and lead management, email tracking, and sales automation, providing a centralized platform for sales teams. Integration with HubSpot CRM ensures seamless communication between marketing and sales efforts.

Outreach is a sales engagement platform that automates communication with prospects. It offers tools for email sequencing, sales analytics, and task automation, improving rep efficiency. It also facilitates personalized and targeted outreach to improve engagement and conversions.

Start accelerating sales today

A sales acceleration solution may sound like a significant shift, but it doesn’t have to be. All you need is a platform that can put your processes and data side-by-side.

Mindtickle is more than sales acceleration software — it’s a single home for all your sales enablement, training, coaching and readiness content and solutions. You can even share sales data with other teams to improve collaboration and further support the customer experience.

Start Accelerating Sales Today

Set up time to see how Mindtickle combines enablement, training, coaching, content, and conversation intelligence to help reps win deals faster.

Get a Demo

This post was originally published in May 2023 and updated in December 2023. 

How Managers Can Use Conversation Intelligence For Sales

Lindsey Plocek on November 20, 2023

As conversation intelligence platforms become a cornerstone of the sales tech stack, sales leaders and their teams are exploring how sales managers can use them to boost results and create a team of top performers.

To answer this question, we’ve put together an in-depth analysis of:

  • What conversation intelligence is
  • Why we believe conversation intelligence is worth the investment
  • How conversation intelligence works
  • The benefits of this new technology for sales teams
  • How managers can use conversation intelligence to improve sales performance

What is conversation intelligence?

Conversation intelligence is a technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to review sales conversations and compile data-driven insights for improved sales performance.

It gives your managers and reps a single system of record for elevating rep performance during customer interactions, including:

  • Call recordings
  • Call scoring and analytics
  • Customer sentiment
  • In-line coaching
  • Best practices

This gives your team a single data model to identify top seller behaviors and a single compliance model that ensures everyone is on the same page, implementing best practices.

Is conversation intelligence worth the investment?

The global conversation AI market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.8%, delivering a market value of USD $18.4B by 2026, according to Markets and Markets.

$
0
B
Conversation AI market value by 2026

It gives you complete visibility into what’s happening on deals by analyzing customer conversations on calls and meetings — giving you a 64% increase in revenue generated by reps in their first quarter and a 50% average reduction in new hire onboarding time.

After reviewing these numbers, the real question is: Can you afford not to invest in conversation intelligence?

How does conversation intelligence work?

You’ve no doubt been on a call where a bot is recording the meeting. But what happens with that recording after it’s delivered to a manager’s inbox or stored in the recordings section of a sales platform?

In most organizations: nothing.

But there’s far too much valuable insight there to be ignored or, worse, forgotten about. And that’s where conversation intelligence software comes in.

With this technology, your recordings can be used for more than playbacks. It makes it easy for reps and managers to quickly find information in calls. It also does the heavy lifting of analyzing calls and providing valuable feedback for improving customer experience and overall sales performance.

For reps, it shares actionable insights that allow for self-diagnosis and self-coaching. For new reps, it leads to faster onboarding and skill development. For managers, it gives a high-level overview of the team’s performance as well as data for understanding the behaviors of top performers.

Keep in mind that this technology isn’t spyware for keeping tabs on your reps. It provides deep intelligence that empowers managers and reps to get more done, more efficiently, so they can hit quota and beyond.

With conversation intelligence software, teams are moving deals forward faster and quickly identifying signals that indicate they’re stalling or are ready to close.

It’s also guiding product marketing messaging and offers, so future sales conversations become easier.

The benefits of conversation intelligence for your sales team

Conversation intelligence is often mistakenly compared to a transcription tool, but the benefits go far beyond transcripts. Here are some of the top benefits of using this technology for sales.

1. Improving the buying experience

At the end of the day, conversation intelligence is about revenue and creating a better experience for the buyer or customer.

It does this by helping reps be better prepared, both before and during calls. It suggests relevant content that reps can review to prepare for calls. And it frees reps to stop taking notes so they can focus on the conversation. яндекс

Reps are able to pay more attention to their selling motions and actively listen to the buyer. As a result, the prospect feels like they’re being heard; like their issues are being addressed.

2. Improving seller experience

Conversation intelligence tools give sellers one source of record to get their job done. It provides a library of resources and training, benchmarks for their selling behaviors, and actionable metrics on their calls.

This empowers reps to evaluate and coach themselves, so they can level up quickly.

3. Boosting seller productivity

A 2023 Salesforce study found that sellers spend less than 30% of their time selling. The other two-thirds of their time is spent on everything else.

That’s why it’s vital that sellers have a single platform where they find everything they need in just one or two clicks and automation that frees up their time.

Conversation intelligence is a big step in that direction. The platform records their calls, provides feedback and links to useful content, while helping reps track prospect questions and objections.

4. Igniting self coaching and personal development

Managers don’t always have the time and resources to give personalized coaching. But with conversation intelligence, coaching is built into the platform.

Every call is scored, giving reps immediate feedback on strengths and areas for improvement. And managers can quickly add recommendations and constructive feedback when they review calls.

With this level of feedback, reps are able to coach themselves or seek peer-to-peer assistance.

5. Helping managers do their jobs

Managers need to coach sellers, perform call reviews, give feedback that impacts performance, keep tabs on pipeline, and make accurate forecasts. For all of these tasks, conversation intelligence does the heavy lifting.

It gives relevant, accurate data on performance, so managers know how to support reps. It automates call scoring, so call reviews are faster and more precise. And it flags moments in calls that signal intent, so it’s easier to keep prospects moving through the pipeline.

6. Collaboration with other teams

The insights available through conversation intelligence are key to every area of revenue, from marketing to sales enablement to customer support. The challenge has been finding an effective way to share that information.

With conversation intelligence, sales data, and competitive intelligence are readily available to any area of your organization.

7. Data-driven, real-world feedback

With the deep insights available through conversation intelligence, reps get the insights they need to become top sellers.

Call scores tell them whether their messaging landed, what the prospect sentiment was, and how they can improve to stay on message.

They can get off one call, review the feedback provided in the system, and understand where they need to improve — then apply that learning to their next call.

Conversation intelligence also helps them understand whether their messaging is landing. This helps them adjust quickly, when needed, to keep deals moving forward.

8. Filling in the gaps in your readiness programs

Conversation intelligence gives real-time data that’s invaluable for understanding what sellers need to succeed. By reviewing the metrics and call scores, you can identify the skills, competencies, and content that need your focus:

  • Content needed to move a deal forward
  • More accurate customer profiles
  • Market research and competitive intelligence
  • Pre- and post-call coaching
  • Skills exercises and role-plays

What are the best ways for managers to use conversation intelligence?

As you can see, conversation intelligence has the potential to transform your sales team. But it only works if you know how to use it. So let’s explore seven ways managers can use conversation intelligence in their day-to-day activities.

1. Leverage data for better results

Conversation intelligence scores your reps’ calls and highlights key moments, so you can manage your reps’ performance in less time. The data will tell you:

  • Are they adhering to MEDDPICC?
  • How are they handling objections?
  • What questions are they asking and receiving?
  • Which competitor mentions are they fielding?
  • How are pricing and negotiation conversations handled?
  • Are there words that need to be said or avoided?
  • Are their deals progressing smoothly?

How to use this intelligence:

Use the data provided in the conversation intelligence platform to help you understand reps’ behaviors. Then leave comments encouraging them, linking to content that can help them, and providing actionable feedback.

Stay alert for trends in calls. If all of your reps are struggling with the same issue, you may need to provide training to improve competencies or alert the leadership team of issues.

2. Study top performers and their processes

Conversation intelligence scores sales calls, so you can quickly identify the key behaviors of your A-sellers:

  • What are the themes they talk about
  • How do they handle objections and competitor takedowns?
  • How many exchanges do they have with a prospect?

This data is valuable for coaching other sellers to uplevel their skills.

How to use this intelligence:

Analyze your top sellers’ calls to identify the behaviors they use consistently to drive results. Use these insights to create a top-seller profile, so the entire team knows the behaviors they need to develop.

3. Faster (and better) onboarding of new team members

It can take six to nine months for new sellers to ramp, and another six months for them to become top performers, according to RAIN Group. And sales managers play a major role in this ramp-up period.

Conversation intelligence allows you to give quick feedback on reps’ performance and suggest content or exercises that will help them level up. By providing immediate, relevant feedback, you can reduce ramp time by as much as 45%.

How to use this intelligence:

Use call scores to identify new reps’ strengths and opportunities. After reviewing calls, add positive and constructive feedback — including inline commentary in their call recordings, so they can understand what they’re doing and how it impacts their performance. And recommend content that will help them boost their skill.

4. Create a continuous coaching culture

Your reps want to succeed. But they need a safe coaching environment, where the entire team works together to improve. With conversation intelligence, you can create that kind of environment.

It gives you a bird’s-eye view of your team’s performance as well as allows deep dives into individual sellers’ performance. It scores each call against best practices, so you understand the competencies that need work.

How to use this intelligence:

Develop quizzes, exercises, and activities that can improve your key performance metrics. Then encourage the team to work together on them.

While you may reward individual seller achievements, focus on the team’s progress. Your goal is to turn C-players into B-players and B-players into A-players.

5. Build seller confidence

Often, sellers are resistant to conversation intelligence technology because it pulls back the curtain on what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. It can feel like Big Brother is watching, making reps afraid of how that will impact their future with your organization.

But conversation intelligence isn’t a performance tracker. It’s a tool designed for sellers to help them succeed. For instance, after implementing this technology:

How to use this intelligence:

It’s important to explain to sellers why you’re implementing conversation intelligence. They need to understand its ability to:

  • Increase productivity
  • Discover self-coaching and peer-to-peer coaching opportunities
  • Gain real-world feedback on their performance
  • Collaborate better with other revenue teams

When introducing it to your team, demonstrate how the technology works, and show them how it can be used to help them get more done, in less time, and with better results.

6. Listen to the voice of the market

Conversation intelligence gives a full transcript of every call. It reveals the questions asked and received and captures prospects’ responses.

This gives you deep insight into the market’s needs. It tells you whether your messaging is landing, and reveals the features or benefits you need to lead with.

How to use this intelligence:

Mine sales calls for the specific words used by your prospects to express their needs, desires, and pain points.

As you review calls, listen to the prospect. What are they saying? What does this tell you about the market? These are points of intelligence that need to be shared with leadership, marketing teams, and other departments.

7. Review deals and base forecasts on real evidence

Ultimately, your job is to raise the sales team’s performance to drive consistent revenue growth. With conversation intelligence, you don’t have to depend on sellers’ reports of how their deals are progressing. With just a few clicks, you can review deals and see where they are in the pipeline.

How to use this intelligence:

This technology gives you a 360-degree view of your accounts and opportunities. Use it to keep your finger on the pulse of every deal where it is in the pipeline, how likely it is to move forward, and how fast.

Your forecasts won’t be guesswork. They’ll be based on in-field data. This allows you to give more accurate forecasts and hold yourself and your team accountable.

Bottom line

Conversation intelligence has transformed the sales floor, providing insights to improve onboarding, productivity, and performance.

The biggest challenge is getting sales teams to feel comfortable with this technology. Full transparency can be unnerving.

But if you focus on the benefits of conversation intelligence and the single system of record that elevates rep performance, you’ll get the buy-in you’re looking for.

Essentially, conversation intelligence is the cheat code for success — for managers and reps alike.

Conversation Intelligence in Action

Want to learn more about Mindtickle’s conversation intelligence solution, Call AI?

Request a Demo

This post was originally published in August 2022 and was updated in November 2023. 

How Paytronix’s Revenue Leaders Doubled Win Rates and Improved Conversions by 12%

Lindsey Plocek on November 17, 2023

It’s that time of year when revenue organizations are reflecting on 2023 and making plans for the year ahead.

And Mindtickle customers are setting the bar high for achieving revenue excellence.

We recently sat down with Adam Whiddon, Sales Enablement Trainer at Paytronix to learn more about his plans to boost sales performance in 2024 and beyond. Paytronix is the leading digital guest engagement platform for restaurants and convenience stores. Paytronix offers loyalty and online ordering to such brands as Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Panera Bread, and PF Chang’s,

Adam assists in enabling the 300-person organization, which includes more than 30 sales reps and customer-facing teammates.

Conversion improvement
0 %
Win rate
0 x

As someone who helped lead Paytronix to double its win rates and improve stage conversions by 12% on key deals, Adam can help guide other revenue leaders to the same success.

Here are Adam’s top learnings using Mindtickle to assist in Paytronix’s revenue transformation:

1. Drive cross-functional revenue team alignment

Paytronix’s leadership team was clear on its intentions: they needed to transform revenue operations in many areas all at once digitally. Everything from improving win rates to streamlining onboarding, increasing deal velocity, growing pipeline, reducing time to contribution, and consolidating its tech stack was on the table.

To do so, Paytronix sought out an easy-to-use centralized hub for all sales training and sales content that could also double as an LMS for the entire company, including customer onboarding.

At the same time, they needed to roll out some of the company’s first formal training programs, drive the adoption of a new sales qualification framework – MEDDICC – and provide scalable, data-driven ways for sales leaders to provide personalized coaching.

Pretty massive change, right?

That was only possible by engaging every level of its revenue leadership team in the process of identifying a revenue transformation partner, including the CEO, CRO, CMO, CPO, VP of Sales, and Sr. Director of Enablement and Strategy.

2. Focus on increasing buyer & customer engagement

As part of the effort to consolidate its tech stack, Paytronix prioritized capabilities that would help the team improve the buyer journey and engagement. This included implementing revenue intelligence to score deal health and provide a full picture of all of the activity taking place within accounts and deals; conversation intelligence to validate that reps were utilizing the MEDDICC framework on calls; and Digital Sales Rooms to arm customers with mutual action plans and provide personalized, educational content experiences.

On deals that leveraged Digital Sales Rooms and had visits, Paytronix saw their win rate double and an average of 12% stage-by-stage conversion rate. The Digital Sales Rooms were particularly successful with high engagement at and after stage two of their sales cycle.

3. Streamline the sales tech stack

In the past, Adam and others on the Paytronix team tried virtually every LMS and well-known sales technology solution to measure and improve revenue performance.

But more tech did not necessarily result in better sales. In fact, tool sprawl not only drove up sales tech costs but also made it more difficult for reps to find things.

To remedy this, the Paytronix team sought out a revenue enablement platform that would provide all the LMS and content management capabilities he needed and include things like conversation and revenue intelligence to inspect calls and deals. This would enable Paytronix to lay the groundwork for a culture built on data-driven coaching.

Consolidation not only saved Paytronix a sizable amount of money but enabled them to provide every rep with a personalized home page that suggested the top training, content, and calls that were most valuable to their book of business and skillset.

As for his plans for next year? Adam aims to help the sales team increase win rates by another 2%+ in 2024, drive greater accountability to sales best practices, and make it even easier for sales reps to engage buyers at every stage in the sales cycle effectively.

See it in action

Ready to see how Mindtickle can help you improve conversion and win rates? 

Request a Demo

What Is Sales Intelligence and How Could It Increase Your Revenue?

Lindsey Plocek on November 7, 2023

Business intelligence.

Demand intelligence.

Data intelligence.

These days, business-to-business (B2B) interactions are all about having the right information at the right time — and to make it happen, you need intuitive insights at your fingertips.

Naturally, the sales department is no exception. In fact, sales intelligence tools are a great way to increase revenue and give your teams the information they need to thrive.

But what do sales data tools look like? How do you leverage them in B2B interactions?

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is sales intelligence?

“Sales intelligence” is a term that broadly refers to the tools, processes, and systems used to gather information about sales — including potential customers, pipeline health, sales rep best practices, and more.

All B2B sales intelligence solutions are designed to help you make better use of key data. Their benefits can be summarized in two ways:

Sales effectiveness

This is the overall success of each interaction — not measured by dollars or minutes, but by real human connections. If a sale is effective, it’s hitting all the right emotional and logical notes.

A sales intelligence platform helps boost sales effectiveness by helping reps make more informed decisions. With the right data at the right times, your teams always know just what to say to build rapport and develop trust with potential customers.

Sales efficiency

This is the more quantitative measurement of sales. It’s based on speed and accuracy.

Fortunately, sales intelligence solutions help boost efficiency, too. These tools make it easier for reps to boost sales performance by learning from their own habits and comparing them to best practices across the business.

Sales intelligence vs. business intelligence

Although sales data tools might sound a lot like business intelligence, there are actually some key differences. Check it out:

Sales intelligence

Business intelligence

  • Focuses on “why did this happen” data
  • Helps inform sales-related decisions
  • Often looks outward
  • May be built around immediate action
  • Focuses on “what happened” data
  • Helps inform decisions across the business
  • Often looks inward
  • May be built on slower, longer-term growth and planning

Keep in mind that both kinds of intelligence are about gathering and using data in smarter ways — the main differences are:

  • The type of data gathered.
  • The way that data is analyzed and used.
  • The teams that gather insight from that data.

Key components of sales intelligence

Want to jump into the world of data intelligence solutions for sales? You’ll need to take these important steps:

Use real-time data to learn what your potential customers want, why they want it, and when.

Keep a close eye on ups and downs in your industry and maneuver your sales team accordingly.

Use analytics software and other sales enablement tools to get the information you need about the future.

Gather the right statistics from the right sources. (Hint: Automated data entry helps eliminate redundancy, minimize human error, and save valuable time for your teams.)

Review the nuts and bolts of your sales cycle to see where you can make improvements based on evolving customer and employee needs.

Learn from other businesses’ successes and mistakes — and recognize that they’ll do the same to you, particularly if you leverage sales intelligence in all the smartest ways.

Best sales intelligence tools

If you want sales intelligence data, you need sales intelligence software. Here are a few of the best options on the market in 2023:

Mindtickle helps you rethink revenue productivity.

Our conversation intelligence solutions help highlight best practices in real interactions, while our revenue intelligence tools help put that data to work by empowering you with insights about deal health, buyer sentiment, and more.

Zoominfo vector logo

Zoominfo provides a platform for recruiting and operations, prospecting, data management, and more. It also helps analyze conversation data for rich sales intelligence insights.

If you want lead generation, Apollo is a great option. Enriched with decision-maker data and automatic alerts when a change occurs, this platform keeps you ready for anything.

Clearbit is all about timing. It helps your teams tailor individual decisions and entire campaigns based on lead scoring, a huge range of data points, and more.

How to increase revenue with sales intelligence

How can sales intelligence help you boost revenue, increase sales, and empower your team? Here are just a few ways to leverage this approach:

#1: Improve your sales forecasting

Don’t rely on guesswork. The best sales intelligence tools give you data and insights that inform decisions in the immediate future and help you build more effective long-term strategies.

#2: Personalize messaging

No B2B sales intelligence solution is complete without a little personalization. Use the data you uncover to make messages more meaningful, powerful, and memorable to different audiences.

#3: Foster a culture of data-driven sales decision-making

Build your sales decisions around real-time insights and data that provide an in-depth, comprehensive view of your market, your customers, and even your sales reps.

#4: Track performance with the right KPIs

Key performance indicators (KPIs) tell a lot of different stories when they’re on their own. Use sales intelligence software to track these KPIs and combine them into a clear, cohesive view of your entire sales department.

Looking for B2B sales intelligence tools that can help you do all this and more? Mindtickle is here to help. From sales coaching and enablement to forecasting, intelligence, and everything in between, this is the all-in-one platform your sales teams have been waiting for.

Sales intelligence at your fingertips

Ready to see how Mindtickle's revenue productivity platform gives you actionable intelligence to make sure every seller is productive? 

Get a Demo

4 Must-Have 2023 Sales Technologies for CROs and RevOps Leaders

Lindsey Plocek on November 1, 2023

Over the last few months, I’ve met with dozens of CROs and RevOps leaders to understand their biggest pain points, all of which have been amplified by the current market conditions. These companies ranged from F500s to high-growth commercial companies in markets like B2B tech, education, finance, insurance, and consumer healthcare. Most had a minimum of 25 revenue-generating reps on their team, but some had several thousand. As I learned about their challenges, it became clear there are some recurring themes when it comes to the sales technologies in their stack.

Here’s what I heard during my tour:

  • “We simply don’t have enough repeatability built into our sales org.”
  • “We need to get better at timing deals and knowing why they’re won or lost.”
  • “One or two over-performers won’t cover our delta. We need the team to scale.”
  • “Too much of our pipeline is high-risk and disengaged. We’ve got to change that.”
  • “My sales team has premature presentation syndrome. How do I get them personalizing and building better business cases?”
  • “An annual SKO is not enough. How do I get my team ‘microdosing’ sales training every day?”
  • “We can’t keep creating enablement from scratch. It’s breaking us.”
  • “How do we get managers to coach more and reps to self-improve?”

These challenges are validated by industry research. We know that the sales process has gotten more complex – 63% of purchases now have four decision-makers involved and the number of buyer interactions has jumped to more than 27. At the same time, sellers have become less productive. Only 32% of a sales reps’ time is actually spent selling and on top of that, according to our 2022-2023 Sales Enablement Outlook Report, the average organization uses more than 10+ sales tools.

Purchases with 4 decision-makers
0 %
Number of buyer interactions
0 +
Time spent selling
0 %

But when it comes to addressing these challenges, which technologies are actually worth using and materially impact revenue? This blog post outlines where to start when you’re looking to build an efficient, seamless sales tech stack and technologies to consider.

Your sales tech stack: Where to start

The biggest mistake CROs and RevOps leaders make is that they throw tools at problems instead of first outlining their pain points, use cases, and desired workflows. This will lead to a bloated, expensive tech stack that doesn’t get used.

Instead, focus on finding solutions that address the following critical use cases:

  • Know which customers to engage, when, and how
  • Capture emails, calls, meetings, and contacts to get insights on how to improve buyer engagement
  • Help sellers know who to follow up with, and which content to send
  • Research relevant topics like products and competitors to personalize your pitch
  • Effectively prepare for meetings and follow-up

Get really clear about outlining the specific things your reps need to do. Some examples include:

  • Logging activities faster, easier, and more accurately (or better yet, automate it all)
  • Managing and prioritizing accounts, leads, and opportunities
  • Managing contacts and auto-syncing them to the CRM
  • Measuring buyer engagement
  • Making sense of their sales performance & coaching opportunities
  • Managing and automating pipeline and forecasting

Conversation & revenue intelligence

This year, it’s all about saving time for your sellers. Conversation and revenue intelligence tools help sellers manage opportunities intuitively and update the CRM without thinking. These solutions automatically sync call notes, contacts, emails, and call recordings to systems like Salesforce so sellers can focus on active listening more.

With a conversation or revenue intelligence solution in place, it’s easier to hand over deal and account history, as well as score deal health or uncover risks within opportunities.

Forecast automation

As I mentioned, making sense of pipeline gaps and forecasting with higher accuracy are two things keeping CROs and RevOps teams up at night. These leaders need complete control of the forecasting process, and to be able to trust the data their team inputs.

With AI forecasting tools, provided by companies like our partner BoostUp.AI, AI can predict which deals will close on time or not. At the same time, it can uncover risks in your pipeline and challenges your team faces driving buyer engagement at specific “problem stages” in your sales cycle.

Buyer/seller engagement platforms

With a buyer and seller engagement solution in place, sellers send more and better emails, make more and better calls, stay focused, and win more deals. These tools guide task prioritization while capturing and matching activity to the CRM.

For example, companies like Lavendar.AI and Regis.AI use generative AI to write emails for you. At Mindtickle, we use tools like LinkedIn Navigator, ZoomIQ, DemandBase, G2 intent data, Walnut, and Databook to drive better, more personalized buyer engagement.

We also offer Digital Sales Rooms so reps can build a personalized deal room for customers filled with content, call recordings, and action plans. DSRs allow you to track which customers engaged, and what content piqued their interest.

Enablement & templates for sales methodology adoption

Most organizations have put a new sales methodology in place to drive consistency in the current market. That might include MEDDPICC, BANT, Sandler, or one of many more.

But if you don’t have the ability to properly enable your team on these methodologies and no data on who is adopting them or not, that’s a problem.

Here at Mindtickle we can see what percentage of every opportunity our sales team creates has followed our preferred sales methodology as well as information gaps. We also offer off-the-shelf templates, sales plays, and other content to enable teams around the latest methodologies.

Some additional tips to consider

If you’re looking to improve and streamline your sales tech stack, it’s important that you consider the following tips.

  • Conduct a seller time assessment to see who is spending time on what topics
  • Examine your current workflow and see if there is an opportunity to reduce or streamline siloed tools
  • Carefully research the click path to not only access insights, but actually do something to move a deal forward, or coach a rep
  • Document the unique nuances of the fields and customization within your CRM
  • Aim to first capture necessary data around pipeline management, forecasting, deals, and calls
  • Build playbooks and enablement that help your sellers act on data. Where possible, empower them with AI-enabled workflows.

 

What's in your tech stack?

Connect with our team to see how Mindtickle fits into (and might replace) some tools in your current tech stack. 

Get a Demo

(This post was originally published in March 2023 and was updated in November 2023. )

7 Sales Pitch Examples (+ 10 Tips for A Winning Sales Pitch)

Lindsey Plocek on September 28, 2023

There’s no overestimating the importance of a good sales pitch — but where do the best pitch ideas come from? Do you always have to use sales pitch templates or is it better to do what feels best? And is there even a “right” way to sell something?

At the end of the day, it’s up to you and your teams to perfect your approach. Fortunately, there are plenty of good sales pitch examples out there to light the way.

Here’s how to make a sales pitch that really shines.

  1.  What is a sales pitch and why is it important?
  2.  What makes a good sales pitch?
  3.  Types of sales pitch
  4.  Mistakes to avoid while creating your sales pitch
  5.  Craft your perfect sales pitch

What is a sales pitch and why is it important?

According to Merriam-Webster, a sales pitch is “a speech that is given […] to persuade someone to buy something.” Seems simple, right?

Not so fast.

The complexity comes in when you consider a few key parts of that definition:

How long should this pitch be? What format should it take?

Should you be talking the whole time, or can customers ask questions?

What words do you use to establish trust, credibility, and persuade someone? How much pressure is the right amount of pressure? What stats, testimonials, and other validation can you use to build trust?

Who is the customer? What do they want? What do they not want?

What are you selling, what problem does it solve and how are you going to frame that?

That’s why it can be so difficult to know how to pitch a product: These variables mean there’s no “magic bullet” that will always win you a sale. Still, pitches are vital to customer experiences, relationships and potential transactions — so you can’t afford to wing it.

Instead, you need to find a template or approach that can be changed on the fly. The bones stay the same, but you dress them up in different ways depending on factors such as “who,” “what,” “why” and “how.”

Your mission is to build good bones — and that requires knowing what makes a good sales pitch.

What makes a good sales pitch?

There are just a few factors standing between compelling, memorable sales pitch ideas and totally forgettable ones:

If you want to master the “who” and “why” elements of your pitch, it’s critical to research your target audience and create buyer personas. This helps you know how to tailor your message depending on buyer intent, job description, pain points and more.

Your unique selling proposition, or USP, is the thing that makes you stand out from the crowd; it’s the “what” and “how.” In many ways, all sales pitch templates should be built around your USP — because otherwise, you could be selling any product or service in the world.

Clear goals and objectives help keep your pitch on track. They also give you an easy way to judge success after the conversation — and to make improvements where necessary.

A sales pitch should always follow some kind of structure, for the same reason good stories have clear plots: You don’t want to lose your listener. The most basic example is:

  • Opening statement: This is your hook, where you get the customer’s attention or pique their curiosity.
  • Body: Here, you’ll share specific details, stats, use cases or benefits that highlight your USP and put your product or service in the spotlight.
  • CTA: The call to action inspires the customer to — you guessed it — take a specific action.

 

7 good sales pitch types

Need an example of a sales pitch? Look no further:

#1: Email sales pitch

All good sales pitch email examples have one thing in common: brevity. Here, powerful subject lines and preview text can work wonders — and simple, compelling body copy (ideally with bullet points) is your best friend. Most of the power rests on an eye-catching CTA button with clear value for your reader.

Example:

Hey [Recipient’s Name],
Hope you’re doing well. I came across your [work/article/profile] recently and was genuinely impressed. Would love to chat and share some ideas around [helping you solve Y problem]. Are you up for a virtual coffee next week?

Cheers, [Your Name]

#2: Phone pitch/cold call script for B2B sales

Business-to-business or B2B sales pitch examples are a little more difficult to pin down, particularly when they’re done over the phone. Cold calls can still work — they should just be highly personalized, relevant, and full of immediate value.

“Hey [Recipient’s Name], it’s [Your Name] here from [Your Company/Organization]. I stumbled upon your [work/profile/website] recently, and [X specific thing] caught my attention. Got a quick moment to chat?”

#3: Sales presentation pitch

If you go looking for sales pitch presentation examples, you’ll probably find a whole lot of PowerPoint. That’s not a problem, but it can be a limitation if you don’t follow best practices. Focus on creativity and clarity, keep your customer’s attention, and use the format to your advantage (that is, don’t just read exactly what’s written on your slides — let the media enhance your message).

What a great sales deck should include:

Capture your audience’s attention immediately. Start with a compelling customer story or fact related to your product or service.

Clearly identify the problem your product or service solves.

Clearly identify the problem your product or service solves.

Highlight the key benefits of your product or service, and how it stands out from competitors.

Showcase success stories or quotes from happy customers.

If applicable, visually demonstrate how your product works.

 Clearly lay out the cost and what’s included.

Introduce key team members and their credentials, especially if they add credibility to your offering.

End with a clear CTA, whether that’s scheduling a follow-up meeting, starting a free trial, or another desired next step.

Always include an easy way for potential clients or investors to reach out.

 

#4: In-person sales pitch

In-person pitches present unique opportunities for connection. You can use tone indicators and body language cues that might not work as well in other formats — plus, you can read these same things from your customer. Build these pitches around real-time interactions and physical examples or visual aids where possible.

Utilize face-to-face interactions to create a personal connection. Start with small talk, read body language, and establish trust.

Take advantage of tangible materials like brochures, samples, or prototypes.

Live product demos can be more interactive. Let prospects touch, use, or experience your product/service.

Observe audience reactions and adjust your pitch on-the-fly based on their body language and facial expressions

Spontaneous questions can arise, and you have the opportunity to address concerns immediately.

Think about the location’s logistics, seating arrangements, audio/visual capabilities, and potential distractions.

#5: Elevator pitch

An elevator pitch summarizes a lot of details in a short period of time — which means it has to be informative and compelling at the same time. Prioritize the most important, interesting, or valuable parts of your story and leave the details for a longer conversation.

Here’s an example of an elevator pitch you can use in your own outreach:

“Hi, I’m Alex from AquaPure.

Did you know that over 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water? Our portable, eco-friendly water purification system can purify any freshwater source in just 30 seconds, making it safe to drink.

We envision a world where clean drinking water is always within reach, no matter where you are. Imagine the impact we could make together!”

This pitch is effective because it:

  • States the problem: Highlights a significant global issue.
  • Introduces a solution: Describes the product’s unique selling point.
  • Invokes emotion: The idea of making a positive change in the world.
  • Ends with a Call to Action: Invites the listener to be part of the solution

#6: Follow-up sales pitch

When making a follow-up sales pitch, the focus is on continuing, expanding, and enriching a conversation to close more deals. That means you want to recall specific details from the previous interaction and respond intuitively to approaches that worked.

Subject: Thank you for Yesterday’s Discussion – Next Steps for [Your Product/Service]

Hello [Recipient’s Name],

I hope this email finds you well. Firstly, thank you for taking the time yesterday to discuss [Your Product/Service]. I appreciate your insights and feedback on how it aligns with [Recipient’s Company’s objectives/needs].

To recap our conversation:

  • Benefit A of our product can address [specific challenge they have].
  • Our recent success with [similar company or case study] showcases the results you can anticipate.
  • I’ve attached [a case study, product specs, trial version, etc.] for your further consideration, as discussed.

You had a great question about [specific question]. I’ve looked into this and [provide a detailed answer or solution].

#7: Social media pitch

With internet users worldwide spending an average of 151 minutes per day on social media, this is a perfect chance to reach customers where they’re at. Social media pitches should be slightly less formal, more action-oriented and — above all — brief.

Here’s an example of a social media pitch:

Hi [Recipient’s Name],

I hope this message finds you well. I’ve been following [Company’s Name] and am truly impressed with your recent [specific campaign or content piece, e.g., “brand relaunch”]. As a Content Marketing Strategist with over 7 years in the industry, I’ve assisted brands like [Brand A, Brand B] in boosting their online engagement by an average of 40%.

I see potential areas where [Company’s Name] could further enhance its content reach and engagement, especially in [specific area, e.g., “interactive content” or “SEO-driven blog posts”]. I’d love to discuss a few strategies that could align with your current efforts and drive tangible results.

Would you be open to a brief call or discussion next week? I promise to keep it concise and value-packed.

Best regards,
[Your Name]

Mistakes to avoid while creating your sales pitch

Fine-tune your sales pitch templates with these 10 tips:

Dos

Don'ts

  • Personalize

Build your sales pitch around the customer’s unique needs, pain points, questions and experiences.

  • Tell Your Story

Your USP and differentiators should come across in every part of your pitch, from the hook to the CTA.

  • Ask Questions

Choose relevant, valuable questions that provide important information or set you up for a particular statement.

  • Be Specific

Specifics help customers remember what you’re offering and why it matters. Use stats and numbers where you can.

  • Connect

Anecdotes and personal background can help build rapport and make your listeners more comfortable.

  • Copy and paste

Never “copy and paste” templates across different formats, customers or products. Your listeners can tell when you’re reading a standard script.

  • Dump all the details

If you do your job right, there will be time for more detail in future conversations. Keep sales pitches focused and powerful.

  • Make customers lead

Questions can be helpful, but they shouldn’t make listeners feel like you don’t know what your goal is or what you’re supposed to be doing.

  • Complicate everything

Speak the customer’s language. That means using industry terms they’re comfortable with but skipping complex jargon.

  • Make it all about you

Don’t spend too much time talking about yourself. Even when “selling” the company, product, or service, focus on why this matters for the customer.

 

Craft your perfect sales pitch

At the end of the day, all the B2B sales pitch examples in the world won’t make a difference if you don’t have the right content management and sales enablement solutions on your side. Fortunately, Mindtickle is here to help.

By providing the perfect coaching and training to your reps, Mindtickle helps you master the “who,” “what,” “why” and “how.” Deliver the right content at the right time, learn from previous conversations, and help your teams bring sales pitch templates to life.

Train all your sellers on the perfect pitch

Connect with our team to see how Mindtickle will help you build a team of sellers who can deliver the perfect pitch each time.

Get a Demo

Video: Why CROs are Focused on Revenue Intelligence

Lindsey Plocek on June 6, 2023

 

Episode summary

In this video, Mindtickle’s Lindsey Plocek shares three different use cases for why CROs are focused on revenue intelligence. She explains the different ways sales leaders and CROs now have visibility into deal health and can more accurately forecast with revenue intelligence. She also outlines how sales coaching is data-driven with managers now able to have more impactful coaching conversations with more reps. Finally, talks about focusing on the entire customer journey rather than just deal closing. Watch this video if you’re a CRO curious to know more about how organizations can use revenue intelligence or if you’re another leader trying to make a business case for investing in it.

Key highlights

  • CROs can now address known deal risks and identify low customer engagement. Reps and managers can see things like where they need to multithread or when competitors are mentioned.
  • Leaders can now forecast based on reality rather than opinions. Historical performance and deal nuances go into deal health scores so CROs can more confidently and accurately forecast.
  • More reliable data means managers can do more accurate, holistic deal reviews.
  • Fewer managers can manage more reps and have data-driven conversations about each deal.
  • Orgs are now focused on the entire customer journey – not just closing a deal. Every single handoff in the process now has full transparency and visibility.


Video transcription

Hi, everyone, I’m Lindsay Plocek with Mindtickle and I’m going to be talking about why CROs are focused on revenue intelligence right now. Let’s start with a couple of use cases and what revenue intelligence even means.

The first is really solving buyer engagement issues at every stage in your sales cycle. Revenue intelligence will basically transcribe and score every email meeting and call so that you can really focus on those truly engaged winnable deals. Your team can go in and they can address known deal risks, or issues of ghosting or low customer engagement to really win more.

This is a little bit of what it looks like. Our reps like to go in and, and self-coach or get some guidance from their manager on where prospects are unresponsive, where they need to multithread, where a competitor was mentioned. And so that is the first use case.

The second solves meeting to forecast on reality and not opinions. So a lot of folks, forecasts historically in CRM data was very inaccurate. With revenue intelligence, we can forecast with 95% or higher accuracy, because we take into account each rep and team’s historical performance and some of the unique nuances of each deal by scoring deal health. And that helps us forecast with more confidence.

The third use case is really about improving pipeline gen and win rate by building a data-driven coaching culture. So historically, people wanted to do dealing call reviews. But it was a little difficult to scale when you didn’t have that single pane of glass view when you didn’t have really great data. Now we’re seeing more managers, or excuse me, fewer managers can manage more reps. And they can do two or three times more deal and call reviews by leveraging revenue intelligence.

Some of the other reasons why I think this is happening now at this moment in the market. The first is really alignment. So we’re moving away from a world where people are just focused on revenue and sales to one where they’re focused on that entire customer journey. Every single handoff and every single stage in that process needs to provide full transparency and visibility and a follow-up playbook.

Increasingly, we’re also seeing that more people are involved in closing a deal. So there’s a bigger need for collaboration. And this can play a big role in that data and insights specifically on how people are performing in the field, not just the activities they’re doing, but the quality of their communication with customers whether the engagement is real or not.

Perhaps even more importantly, unlocking those really great customer insights on what customers are saying or doing or responding to. So that you can ultimately improve that customer experience and really personalize it.

And as I mentioned, a culture of coaching is a really important one. And this helps with that. So we at Mindtickle recently put out a report [The 2023 State of Sales Productivity Report] on this whole topic of driving revenue productivity. We interviewed CEOs and executives from 400-plus companies, so you can go and check that out.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with us, we offer a revenue productivity platform. We give reps all of the training content and insights they need to drive deals forward. And those that include solutions for sales enablement as well as sales operations. So please, if you have questions, drop them in the comments and we’re happy to answer them.

Share this post with your own networks!

Revenue Intelligence Fundametnals

Behind its shiny wrapper and market buzz, we’ve boiled down revenue intelligence into 4 fundamental elements that actually matter.

Read More

Get free access to the best sales-readiness content.

© 2024 Mindtickle Inc. All rights reserved.