Increase Sales Pipeline
Title: SVP of Sales
Industry: Network security
software solutions
Company: Venture backed
growth stage
Goal: Increase sales pipeline
health and volume
Result: Increased sales pipeline by 350%
Specializing in network access control solutions the Company helps firms decrease costs and downtime associated with network disruption caused by unauthorized access through unknown or unsecured endpoints. Following a successful round of funding, the Company hired a new SVP of Sales to build and lead the sales team required to meet the company’s top line revenue projections. The new SVP conducted a brief assessment of the current sales staff and selling practices and reached the following conclusions:
- The Company lacked a defined sales process;
- Forecasting was inaccurate because opportunity qualification and pipeline grading varied with by salesperson;
- Sales cycles involving pilots dragged on for six to twelve months with no end in sight and required the support of expensive technical personnel; and
- The Company typically initiated sales cycles through technical buyers (evaluators) rather than business executives resulting in a high percentage of opportunities that continued indefinitely without the buyer making a decision.
In light of these conclusions, the SVP of Sales, together with the company’s executive team, determined that the most efficient way to increase sales performance and revenue generation was the introduction of a consistent, repeatable sales process. Specifically, he wished to use the sales process to generate the following capabilities within the company’s sales and marketing teams:
- Establish a consistent sales methodology for use by all sales and marketing personnel;
- Improve the consistency of sales execution through skills training and reinforcement;
- Provide sales persons with the sales messaging and related tools that helped them translate technical discussions into discussions of business value with senior executives and technical personnel; and
- Establish a centralized source of sales information within the current CRM system to improve pipeline management and forecasting.
BizLogx provided the Company with the capabilities required to achieve its goals. BizLogx conducted a customized CustomerCentric Selling® workshop for the entire sales, marketing and executive staff. During the six month period following the workshop, the Company achieved the following results:
- The sales pipeline increased by 350%.
- The average length of a sales cycle involving a pilot decreased by 30%.
- The sales forecast was 100% accurate for two quarters in a row.
- Gross sales revenues increased by 150% compared to the prior six month period.
When asked to comment on the improved performance, the SVP said, "CustomerCentric Selling® is a great methodology to control the investment in our company’s valuable sales resources. The process enabled us to better manage expectations within our management team and focus scarce sales and technical resources on those opportunities most likely to result in a buying decision. Our CCS execution continues to improve every quarter and so do our results.”
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