Ditching ‘Extra is Extra’ to Enhance Gross sales Group Effectiveness by 50%: Teamwork.com’s Story

How do you go from placing out fires to operating like a well-oiled machine? Nicely, the trick could be so simple as prioritizing high quality over amount.

If you happen to’re rolling your eyes at your display screen proper now, simply hear us out. For eons, salespeople have been instructed to make extra calls, ship extra emails, and take extra conferences. However being busy doesn’t go away time for considering strategically, nurturing buyer relationships, or ensuring your crew has the whole lot they want — particularly if your organization is rising at lightning velocity.

Learn on to learn the way Teamwork.com elevated gross sales effectivity by 50% once they ditched “extra is best” in favor of “higher is best.”

Teamwork.com’s Gross sales Story

Who’re you and what’s Teamwork.com all about?

My identify is Beau Brooks and I’m the International VP of Gross sales at Teamwork.com, a venture administration software for shopper work. It’s an all-in-one platform that helps companies and shopper groups ship tasks on time and on price range in a single centralized place.

What’s the backstory? How did Teamwork.com get its begin?

The story is fairly cool. In 2007, our founders began an internet company, constructing web sites and different options for purchasers. As their company began to develop, they struggled to maintain up with the venture administration facet of issues. They began searching for software program that will assist handle the shopper facet of the enterprise, however the product they had been searching for didn’t exist. So, they determined to construct one.

The software they constructed ended up being such an enormous success that the founders pivoted the company to give attention to the platform.

How has the corporate grown since then?

The unique product is now a part of a complete venture administration platform. However, that OG product nonetheless exists right this moment as Teamwork.com (formally generally known as “Teamwork Tasks”). Because the platform grew, so did the corporate. In the present day, Teamwork.com has over 350 workers and 13 workplaces in over six nations. And within the final 3 years, we’ve undergone a ton of development and alter.

What was the gross sales strategy like within the early levels of the enterprise?

Within the early levels, our founders had been doing all of it. Together with the promoting. However they had been product guys, so the gross sales technique was very product centric. The draw back of that’s that when all you’re doing is promoting clients on a product or characteristic, you’re not constructing deep relationships or serving to clients perceive the purposeful and emotional advantages of the platform.

Finally, they employed gross sales leaders from enterprise backgrounds, and their strategy was to

give folks somewhat coaching, throw them in, and begin promoting. They figured folks would swim, however as a substitute, they had been drowning. It’s arduous to remain on observe if you’re undecided how you can handle each day duties and it’s even more durable to show prospects into clients when you do not absolutely perceive how or why the product you’re promoting helps remedy their issues and desires.

Stroll us by way of what occurred when the corporate began experiencing speedy development?

Nicely, after we went from an organization of 30 to over 300 folks, the gross sales crew simply couldn’t sustain with the amount of leads. We had been caught in that previous “Extra, extra, extra. Promote, promote, promote” form of mentality and we obtained caught in a vicious cycle the place we might ramp up the closing enterprise, get it closed, after which have to start out yet again each month. It was unscalable.

We needed to hold hiring extra folks, however we weren‘t getting essentially the most out of the folks we had, so we had been principally throwing away revenue by not optimizing productiveness. Together with that, we weren’t utilizing a consultative strategy. That meant we weren’t closing as many offers as we may have, as a result of we had been specializing in pushing options moderately than connecting with prospects.

These issues, mixed with the truth that our homegrown gross sales instruments didn’t present automation or visibility into the pipeline for a corporation of our dimension, meant we had been continually placing out fires. It was actually exhausting.

How did you progress out of the firefighting stage and right into a extra strategic part?

To attain scalable, long-term development, I knew that we needed to cease specializing in amount of leads and begin specializing in high quality — however not simply the standard of our buyer relationships. We additionally wanted to give attention to the standard of our course of, our technique, even the best way we prepare our reps.

We took strides like constructing automation within the deal movement and guiding reps by way of the mandatory steps to progress clients ahead. We leveraged AI assets to foretell lead and deal outcomes, utilizing the info from previous offers to tell extra refined, correct forecasting and utilizing insights about our greatest clients to arrange a more practical qualification course of.

We began spending further time creating related gross sales content material that was particular to our prospects, as a substitute of enrolling contacts in sequences with generic emails. We created a brand new compensation plan for BDRs, the place they solely obtain bonuses for the standard leads they generate. And we construct a contemporary quoting course of with approval steps to make sure correct pricing, low cost administration and create robust alignment with our Deal Desk crew.

Accessing HubSpot and Gross sales Hub gave us the automation, visibility, and options we wanted to give attention to bettering the best way we had been approaching and doing issues. With extra time and higher processes in place, the complete gross sales crew can now work extra strategically and effectively than ever earlier than.

How did you get the crew on board?

Earlier than we rolled out the platform to the complete firm, gross sales management chosen a number of reps to function HubSpot Champions. The reps got the pre-training and training they wanted to champion the rollout throughout the org.

It was useful to create a gross sales sandbox that allowed reps to check drive the software, apply operating our gross sales course of, with out being afraid to make errors. Gross sales Ops additionally held each day stand-ups with the crew to assessment the implementation course of and focus on any challenges that had been popping up. It was actually highly effective to have inside voices praising the platform and it was an ideal alternative for extra peer-to-peer interplay and profession growth.

We had been fast to attach offers to our chat by way of automation which triggered actual time celebration bulletins for closed received offers throughout the complete crew. You might be positive the crew was excited to start out closing offers and getting acknowledged throughout the group!

Stroll us by way of the evolution of your gross sales course of.

The best course of is clearly outlined, repeatable and designed to show extra prospects into clients. However with the main focus shifting to high quality, the method wanted to assist us establish our most beneficial prospects, pinpoint inefficiencies, optimize our groups, and nurture buyer relationships. Gross sales Hub gave us full visibility into our gross sales pipeline, which meant we may observe buyer interactions, establish priceless alternatives, and pinpoint inefficiencies so we may work out how you can begin bettering our course of.

We checked out what number of SQLs a salesman must be efficient in a given month, and what number of actions they should tackle these results in be efficient. We tracked the typical variety of touchpoints, after we wanted to take motion, and what number of interactions had been wanted to shut a deal.

Accessing that knowledge in HubSpot made it potential for us to strategy prospecting as a science and optimize our gross sales course of to make it clear, repeatable, and scalable — which has helped improve the gross sales crew’s effectivity by 50%.

How did you optimize your gross sales crew?

Earlier than, we had been hiring folks simply to fulfill the rising variety of leads. And it wasn’t helpful or sustainable. So, as a substitute of placing extra butts in seats, spending extra time doing tedious admin duties, and placing extra effort into each potential prospect, we began specializing in doing extra with much less — by benefiting from the crew we already had.

Gross sales Hub helped us optimize the crew by giving us visibility into how our present reps had been functioning and figuring out in the event that they had been promoting successfully. As soon as the crew was optimized, we had been in a position to decide if we wanted extra folks. Once we did want to rent, we had been ready to usher in the proper folks and supply them with efficient onboarding.

For the reason that key to environment friendly rep ramp up is consistency, we began customizing our gross sales software program to require sure inputs when creating or updating information. For instance, when new alternatives are created, reps must fill in required fields like “firm dimension” — to assist set up robust practices, proper out of the gate.

We additionally arrange reusable playbooks and electronic mail sequences for widespread processes and buyer interactions. The impact has been enormous. Within the first six months, alone we had been in a position to scale back the typical deal size by 10%.

Inform us about your enablement course of. How has that helped the crew?

We’ve come a good distance from the “throw them in and see in the event that they swim” days. Even the strongest salesperson goes to battle in the event that they don’t have entry to nice coaching or steering. As soon as we had entry to HubSpot we had the time and assets to make enablement a precedence — throughout onboarding and after.

Now, our managers use Gross sales Hub to verify in and see what’s working for the crew, and step in if one thing isn’t. It’s been nice to construct shared pipeline dashboards throughout the crew which have created widespread understanding and expectations in any respect ranges and assist managers laser in to assist with teaching precisely the place it’s wanted. Having perception into efficiency means they’ll present reps with personalised steering and related suggestions to assist our folks develop and succeed.

The strong nature of the forecasting software in Hubspot has upped our recreation. Our weekly crew forecasting conferences are environment friendly and floor the precise offers to debate. Managers can simply observe modifications in crew forecast and coach reps with persistently pushed offers. We now have extremely seen forecasting that’s out there all the best way to the board degree.

For the reason that shift, what’s helped you deepen buyer relationships?

I discover that individuals do not care about what your product can do till they know the way a lot you care about them. And if you’re a salesman, the important thing to doing that’s understanding your clients’ issues and how one can assist remedy them.

Prior to now, we didn’t have the bandwidth or instruments to do this. Gross sales Hub modified that. We used playbooks to construct a sequence of triggers and checks into our system that tracks clients’ ache factors and information reps in aggressive deal conditions. Now we have additionally added product playbooks in Hubspot making it very quick for reps to entry wanted info. Our crew is ready to assessment these points and modify their promoting technique to offer every buyer with options tailor-made to their wants. It’s helped us construct deeper relationships, improve our common promoting value by 18% and amp up our win price by 11%.

How has the crew benefitted from the less-is-more philosophy?

Ditching the ‘extra is extra’ mentality has essentially modified the sport for our reps and managers. It’s helped us improve productiveness, effectivity, and profitability — quick. Lately, our crew is working like surgeons as a substitute of firefighters — and the high-quality visibility, automation and options that Gross sales Hub has given us has performed a big position in that.

Any recommendation for different rapidly-growing gross sales groups?

Evolve your technique and gross sales course of to give attention to scalability, effectivity, and long run development. Optimize your crew. Prioritize coaching and discovery and search out the precise instruments to amp up gross sales and empower your crew. And don’t overlook to seek out enjoyable methods to have a good time crew wins!