How Data Axle Simplifies Sales Readiness and Gains Actionable Field Insights with Mindtickle

Overview

Data Axle is a leading provider of data, technology, and marketing solutions that help businesses grow The company’s solutions and award-winning Axle Agency enable clients to acquire and retain customers and enhance their user experiences through proprietary business and consumer data, artificial intelligence/machine learning models, innovative software applications and expert professional services.

Calming the sales readiness chaos with a single-platform approach

At Data Axle, getting their reps ready to sell isn’t an easy feat. Like most sales organizations, the team at Data Axle adds new sales reps to its team on a regular basis. In addition, acquisitions over the past 40 years have made it so the company’s offerings are always evolving.

Data Axle recognized the importance of getting new sellers ramped as quickly as possible — and ensuring all sellers have the training they need to be successful. However, the company’s HR and sales readiness teams relied on a homegrown learning system with limited functionality to deliver their onboarding and training programs.

At Data Axle, “There was a desire to move toward a solution that was more modern, easier to use, and had more built-in capabilities,” said Sal Pecoraro, SVP Client Technology Solutions and Sales Readiness. In addition, the team needed a way to understand what was happening on sales calls and use the insights to deliver effective, personalized coaching that improves outcomes. “We needed to identify reps’ strengths and weaknesses,” said Pecoraro. “That way, we can figure out how to help each seller be the best version of themselves.”

Consolidating sales readiness

Data Axle was looking to solve multiple sales readiness challenges. Initially, their approach was to bring on multiple platforms. However, they ultimately chose Mindtickle — largely because the platform addresses all their readiness challenges in a single platform.

It was also important for Data Axle to find a solution that integrated with the other technologies they use. Mindtickle fit the bill there too. “Mindtickle has conversation intelligence built right into the platform,” said Pecoraro. “And, it’s integrated so it works well with the other products we use — including Salesforce.”

Consolidating sales readiness into a single platform has had a big impact on Data Axle’s ability to get new sellers up to speed quickly. In fact, the company has seen a 30-40% reduction in new rep onboarding time with their program in Mindtickle.

Shedding light on coaching opportunities

Learning is only effective if it’s applied. However, the team at Data Axle lacked visibility into what was happening in the field — and whether sellers were actually applying what they learned and applying best practices on sales calls.

Today, the team leverages Call AI to understand what’s going well (and not so well) on calls. For example, they can pinpoint when a seller isn’t asking enough questions — or if they’re too focused on pricing, rather than the customer’s pain points.

Pecoraro also compiles a monthly report that measures each team’s performance against industry benchmarks. Frontline managers can use these insights to deliver tailored coaching to sharpen sellers’ skills and improve outcomes. “Our goal is to get our reps to be better at what they do and help them to be more confident sellers,” said Pecoraro.

In addition, Data Axle looks for trends in calls, which can inform sales readiness initiatives. For example, they might notice certain competitors are mentioned more often than others. Armed with this information, they can deliver sales readiness training that helps reps tackle objections specifically related to these competitors.

Sharing the voice of the customer cross-functionally

At Data Axle, reps frequently need to involve other personnel in a deal — for example, the product team or a subject matter expert. In these instances, sellers must quickly and accurately get these teams up to speed on conversations they’ve already had with the prospect. Formerly, this was like a game of broken telephone. Sellers would forget key portions of the conversion or struggle to decipher their hand-written notes. As a result, things got lost in translation.

Today, however, sellers can share calls recorded with Call AI, which ensures internal teams can hear exactly what the customer has said. In addition, by recording calls, reps are able to focus on the conversation, rather than on taking notes. “With Call AI, we can say ‘Hey, I’ll just share the call so you can hear directly from the customer,’” said Pecoraro.

In the future, Pecoraro also plans to leverage calls for training purposes. For example, a great call might be shared with the sales team to give them something to aspire to. Or, a mediocre call can be shared with the team, with an invitation for reps to share what they would have done differently.

Defining sales excellence with the Ideal Rep Profile

Though Data Axle has been using Mindtickle for less than a year, they’ve already seen great results in terms of adoption and knowledge sharing. In the next year, however, the team plans to take things to the next level. “We have big plans for the next 12 months,” explained Pecoraro. “Our goal is to help our reps to be the best version of themselves, but first we need to figure out what ‘good’ looks like.”

Currently, Pecoraro is working with Mindtickle to develop the company’s Ideal Rep Profile (IRP), which is the core set of skills and competencies a rep needs to be successful. Then, the team will leverage the Readiness Index within Mindtickle, which will allow them to consistently measure teams and individuals against the IRP — and deliver the coaching each rep needs to close skill gaps and be ready to sell.

“Developing our IRP in Mindtickle will help us define what success looks like. Then we can determine where reps need help, whether it’s presentations, a communication skill gap, or something else. Call AI will help us identify those gaps and let us provide the coaching to close those gaps and close more deals,” concluded Pecoraro.

Call AI a Major Contributor to Sales Rep Success at Data Axle