
 
In the sales industry, performance optimization and achieving goals are constant, and here is where AI and ML come into play. You may program the system using machine learning to carry out particular tasks and achieve particular objectives. The same system can be made to repeatedly provide the same results by feeding it new data over time.
With each iteration, the system can learn more about what works and what doesn't. This effectively means that AI can examine the data of prospects, forecast which of them will go on to the closing phases of the sales pipeline, and suggest the most effective course of action at each step.

According to analysts, technology has the potential to add between 1.4 and 2.6 trillion dollars' worth of value to the marketing and sales industries because of AI's capacity to increase and improve sales figures. AI technology is not a toy. The experiments, which have received overwhelmingly positive reviews, demonstrate that artificial intelligence may revolutionize society as electricity did around a century ago.

By 2030, the GDP is projected to expand by $13 trillion, according to McKinsey research. Curiously, a sizable portion of this development is anticipated in industries other than the internet, such as manufacturing, education, agriculture, logistics, and energy. These numbers ought to be the right motivation for you to create your own AI plan as a sales manager.

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# How can AI help in Sales?

As McKinsey research shows, companies that have pioneered the use of AI in sales have seen benefits, including an increase in leads and appointments of more than 50%, cost reductions of 40% to 60%, and call time reductions of 60% to 70%. Here are four important ways AI and machine learning can transform sales:


## Lead Generation and Scoring

The skill of selling can occasionally be hit or miss. Sales representatives may spend ages attempting to close deals with leads with little interest in your goods and services. When this occurs, it isn't usually because the salespeople aren't good at closing deals.

According to data in the B2B sector, 61 percent of marketing teams often pass leads on to salespeople. Only 27% of the leads from this number are typically qualified.

This makes it clear that approximately 75% of the leads are a waste of time. Sales reps frequently cling to thin air since there is a lack of sufficient pertinent information about leads.
It's difficult for businesses to impact the market without a strong understanding of the market and their customers. However, the dynamics can alter with data. Your efforts in this regard shouldn't stop at gathering personal information on prospects and clients.
Data processing, with the aid of AI software, enables sales professionals to make decisions because of the technology's lead scoring feature. Overall, this data-driven strategy increases effectiveness and enables sales teams to engage in the traditional "willing-buyer, willing-seller" relationship. Since the AI algorithms are updated automatically whenever new customers make purchases, it learns more about the degree of compatibility over time. With the system continually running, you may obtain more precise results, and your sales force will spend less time thinking about whether their strategies are effective.


## Personalization

Because AI combines a good customer experience with precise targeting, selling is more straightforward than conventional techniques. Once you can tailor the content and the experience to the users in your database, this makes for a reasonably strong pitch.

As the numbers show, more than 50% of consumers are willing to share their data provided they can see content that aligns with their interests. 

Given that AI systems can assess information such as preferences, surfing history, interests, and demographics, this specific statistic is not all that shocking. It's crucial to imagine how AI will change how you sell things as you consider implementing it in your system. By doing this, you'll have time to consider what to put up for sale and what other data you can feed the algorithm to help it do a more than admirable job of bringing in the correct customers.


## Communication with Prospects

It is better to entrust chatbots with the task of connecting with customers in real time because they are equipped with the AI fuel of natural language processing. If you give chatbots these duties, you'll see that some of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be answered quickly.
Human interaction will inevitably be required sometimes; therefore, remember to account for that in your estimates. Ensuring a sales representative is knowledgeable about a prospect's demands before engaging them is critical in this situation.
It's important to note that AI-assisted communication goes far beyond chatbots. You can decide when to contact prospects at their most receptive by using AI algorithms. You can build up a trigger-based technique that detects when a website visitor begins researching a specific line of products to get started. Your sales representatives can quickly jump in once a dialogue has been started, and the interest has been determined. Sales representatives can be more prepared in their manner of approach, the tone they use, and the language they use when speaking with prospects with the correct kind of data.

## Boosting Sales Reps Efficiency

You can set up an artificial intelligence (AI) system that simplifies your manufacturing line and automates workflow instead of relying on sales representatives' abilities to "just wing it. "Delegation of tasks and priority will be automated in this fashion depending on various criteria.
Because AI can identify the most promising prospects and assign the most acceptable sales representative who can contact them immediately, it effectively increases the effectiveness of your sales representatives.
Here, the analytical component of AI systems is vitally important since it can determine which techniques are practical and which should be discarded. As a member of the decision-making hierarchy, you'll see that you can gather trustworthy information on the best course of action and choose which ones should be applied universally.

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# Challenges With Implementing AI and its solutions

Although AI-enabled solutions are becoming widely accepted, enterprises still face difficulties deploying them. The following are possible locations for roadblocks to appear:

- **Data:**  
Data is the energy source for AI and ML systems. Businesses should ensure they have access to suitable data sources to get a complete picture of their consumers. The pursuit of flawless data availability, however, can sometimes provide challenges. Working with specialized data subsets for modest process goals can be a helpful first step when combined with initiatives to enhance data collection and quality.

- **Processes:**  
It's crucial for sales teams to build data-driven processes and break down silos between departments that interact with customers. Vendors of AI-enabled platforms can offer the infrastructure and advisory skills necessary for such alignment and behavior transformation. While investigating viable solutions, organizations should prioritize simplicity of integration and uptake. Additionally, they should spend money on the training sales teams require to adjust to more data-driven, AI-enabled procedures.

- **Management:**  
Successful AI/ML implementation can be significantly hampered by a limited budget and a lack of executive support. Building demonstrable use cases is vital to persuade doubters within the organization. Starting with a carefully thought-out pilot that shows quantifiable advantages can go a long way toward gaining support and funding.

- **People:**  
Fears of job loss and redundancy always accompany discussions of artificial intelligence. Even in cases where these worries are unfounded, sales teams may be reluctant to make significant process changes. To overcome these challenges, decision-making processes must be open and inclusive, and sales reps must be provided with the tools they need to adjust to their new positions.

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## *AI-Enabled Sales is already a Reality!!*

It's not a far-off dream; currently, highly efficient sales processes supported by AI and machine learning techniques exist. Intelligent, integrated AI-enabled sales solutions may enhance decision-making, raise sales representatives' productivity, and enhance sales processes' effectiveness to deliver an exceptional client experience.



Alexa! Play the music, Alexa switch off the light. It’s the effect and standard of ease AI has created in our day-to-day life. For Sales to be so challenging, i.e., dealing with humans, Al can act as a boon to reduce its intricacies.

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Integrating AI in Sales

A sales conversation is any communication between a potential buyer and a seller with the aim of influencing the prospect to eventually acquire a good or service.
But is it enough to get on call with them? What about the first impression? It is necessary to connect with the prospect to keep them engaged and eventually make them believe that your services can bring an impact to their business.


# How to Start a Sales Conversation

A sales conversation should never start with a sales pitch. Every time someone accepts a new connection on a communication network, they get those annoying pitches straight away. The majority of us would immediately delete or disregard those messages. It only takes a couple of seconds for the consumer to lose interest, which is why it is important to lead the conversations where the prospect can easily visualize the possible amalgamation of your services into their current operations to solve their problems. It is no longer effective to repeat a scripted pitch for the product you are selling with a general call to action. This strategy will only overload the buyer and make them feel obligated, neither of which are effective ways to attract new customers and close a deal. 



## Tips For A Great First Meeting


### **Be prepared - Know about your customers**

No matter what you sell, be sure to be familiar with what your prospect's business offers. This is so apparent and yet so effective because, regrettably, many sellers choose to ignore it.
Clients are not interested in the flashy patents you own, they are interested in the products that can relieve their pain points. Allow clients to speak most of the time, pay close attention to their concerns, and tailor your comments to how your product will be of assistance.


### **Build rapport**

Never undervalue the effectiveness of small conversation, your opening statement, or simply conversing with a new potential companion. Prior to making their pitch, salespeople should establish a rapport with the prospect by learning about their interests. Once a potential customer has decided to make a purchase, you may increase the likelihood that they will return to your vendors for additional purchases because of the connection you have built with them.

### **Create decks**

Decks demonstrate readiness and can pique a potential partner's interest. Make slide one of the agenda your topic. It should contain a section where you discuss your research and the reasons you believe the prospect will benefit from spending time with you. If you must include a slide about you, make it about one of your clients who closely resembles your prospect's company. Doing this will show clients that they are in safe hands and that the company understands their business.


### **Don’t lose buyer’s interest**

Sellers shouldn't be hesitant to start the conversation with a question or to ask questions throughout. It's crucial for the consumer to believe that their ideas and opinions are valuable as well. Additionally, it is a fantastic opportunity to learn additional details from prospective buyers so that your sellers can build a stronger connection and relationship. When utilized properly, open-ended inquiries are very effective at keeping a prospect interested.


### **Make the impact clear**
You won't close the deal if you don't present a convincing business case. Even if you accomplish everything else well, the prospect won't buy your solution if they don't understand its value (and you must be very clear about what that value is).


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# How To Get People To Buy Your Product


- ***Sell the dream***  
In this world, everyone cares about themselves even if they aren’t interested in your product or your services. An excellent place to start is by creating a vision of what the prospect's life would be like after buying your goods.


- ***Pique their curiosity***  
Once you have connected with a potential customer, you should focus on keeping the person in loop, ask them questions which force them to figure out the product’s application in their daily life.


- ***Guide by past successes rather than setbacks***  
Instead of focusing on errors, try to concentrate on what went right and strive to repeat specific accomplishments. Find patterns in their reactions, and then apply those effective strategies to new prospects.


- ***Create a sense of urgency***  
Offer a short-term discount or incentive: Customers may feel driven to act quickly if they know your offer is time-limited or only available for a brief period of time. When you make these restrictions clear to customers during the sales process, whether you are selling a limited-edition product or a service that is only available to a certain number of clients, you may persuade them to buy right away.

- ***Remain biased towards your product***
Pretending to remain unbiased to come off as credible is completely useless. Customers should feel that you are ecstatic to present your deals and your point of view of the product. Customers like opinions that are authentic and genuine rather than merely objective.


- ***Be transparent***  
Although biased, you should not keep the customer in dark. Mention all the key features and sometimes may be necessary to acknowledge situations where your product falls short of the client's expectations. You can help your prospect by describing product limits with some innovative alternatives, which will help you gain their trust.


- ***Make the choice convenient***  
Make it clear that you are aware of their busy schedules and that you may modify the procedure to be more convenient. The difference between the deal closing in five minutes vs five days can be made by providing them with a few bullet points that emphasize the contract. Keeping an easy transaction process will undoubtedly help them value your thoughtfulness.


> Why wait any longer when you have everything at your disposal to close your first deal? Simply keep these ideas in mind and watch the influx of potential purchasers reach its height.


Every sales rep wants to close more and more deals, generate more revenue and convert more leads. But all this depends on how the conversation goes. Selling is said to be the most important skill of a salesperson, but how can you do selling in the most effective way to have a good conversion rate? Answers to all these questions lies in this blog. 

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Effective sales conversation - Influence customers at the first interaction

# What are Sales Tools?

Sales tools are digital tools that sales professionals use to make their jobs easier. Customer relationship management (CRM), sales intelligence and prospecting, sales acceleration, and data connectors and integrations are just a few of the technologies covered by the term ‘sales tool.’
Sales and marketing tools integrate massive amounts of data, compile critical customer information, automate email campaigns and scheduling processes, and much more. These tools are necessary for success in today's sales environment.

Sales tools assist salespeople in determining which prospects are most likely to be successful with their product or service, when to contact those prospects, and what to discuss with them. They save time on time-consuming administrative tasks and can focus on what is most important: providing value to people and businesses.

A reason to invest in sales technology is that employees have begun to demand greater access to a broader range of modern tools. This means that companies that use conservative or old-fashioned sales methods risk losing sales and their best sales talent.
According to LinkedIn’s State of Sales 2021, 94 percent of sales professionals say sales tools help them close more deals, highlighting the importance of sales tools.

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# Features to look in Sales tools

When selecting specific sales software, there appear to be infinite options. Consider these four characteristics as you search for the best sales tools for you and your company.


1. **Enhance workflows**   
Sales tools should allow everyone to spend less time doing things than previously. Sales tools can improve workflows by providing email templates, automated chatbots, and other features.

2. **Boost sales productivity**   
These tools should help to streamline the sales process and increase productivity. Instead of introducing decision-makers at each stage of the sales funnel, sales tools automate and expedite low-level tasks, freeing you and your team members up to focus on the more critical aspects of your jobs.

3. **Complement other tools**   
Your various sales tools should all work together seamlessly. For example, you might want important pricing information transferred from one app to another. Scheduling, data, intelligence, and social selling tools should be able to share resources. Information integration is critical to sales success.

4. **Ensure premium customer experience**   
Your tools should make customer sales interactions as simple as possible. Their functionality should inspire confidence in doing business with you and your company. Intelligent sales tools should assist you in connecting with customers who want to speak with you about your product, whether through automated email marketing campaigns, qualified lead generation, or something entirely different.

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# Sales Tools your team should be using right now 


## CRM software

Customer relationship management (CRM) software aids in the management of your company's customer relationships. It assists you in keeping track of existing customers, improving customer relationships, increasing customer retention, staying on top of sales and marketing efforts, and automating communication.  

For most businesses, a CRM is the first investment they make in sales technology, and it's understandable why: According to LinkedIn's State of Sales 2021, 68 percent of respondents said their CRM system was "critical" to closing deals.  

CRMs have evolved into complex, multi-tiered support systems due to technological advancements and ultra-competitive markets. CRM software now includes a plethora of features that assist salespeople in optimizing their sales processes, such as real-time updates, advanced lead scoring, and automated repetitive tasks.   

Most CRM solutions today are SaaS platforms where you pay per user, per month. On-premise installations are rarely required because most CRMs can be accessed online through a web browser. Some vendors charge a flat monthly fee for a certain number of users, but larger packages or additional fees are required for other users.



## Data connector and integration tools

Our increasingly digitalized world has many fantastic tools to help make our lives easier. One disadvantage of such a diverse set of tools is that they are frequently independent and not easily accessible from a single system. Data connectors and integrations come in handy here.
A data connector is a tool that connects various systems to allow data to be transferred between them. This means that the data is now accessible through a single system, significantly improving the quality of life.  
Data integration tools are distinct because they combine data from multiple sources into a single system rather than simply allowing data to move between systems. Sales and marketing teams must be able to combine data from various programs and spreadsheets. 


## Sales Analytics

Sales analytics software refers to tools and systems that enable sales professionals and managers to effectively track, evaluate, and improve the performance of their sales activities while predicting trends and results and uncovering relevant insights. They give sales managers a granular view of sales, breaking them down into manageable chunks for reviewing where salespeople, products, and campaigns are performing best and where they should improve.
Sales analytics has become an essential component of every sales report in the age of big data. Instead of gathering analytics manually through a tangle of spreadsheets, sales analytics software allows sales managers to access it systematically in one place.   
Sales analytics systems are typically built on top of CRMs and use algorithms based on existing data to uncover insights. However, some serve as the CRM system of record and analytics tool.  

The use of sales analytics software is rapidly spreading throughout the business world. Historically, this type of technology was used mainly by giant corporations. Adoption of sales analytic tools in this segment has recently increased due to the rise of SalesOps roles in small and medium-sized businesses.  

Analytics tools help manage customer data, aid in sales forecasting and provide many metrics to plan your overall sales strategy for B2C and B2B sales. The better you can analyze and visualize data, the easier it is to manage your sales pipeline.  


## Sales intelligence and prospecting

Sales intelligence refers to various technologies that assist salespeople in locating, monitoring, and comprehending information on prospects' and existing clients' daily operations.  

Sales intelligence informs salespeople about who they should be talking with, what they should be talking about when they should reach out to them, and how to present all relevant information to them during that conversation. Contextual information about these contacts, such as purchase history, current contracts, business objectives, and digital footprints, is provided by sales intelligence tools.  
> *According to LinkedIn's survey, 62 percent of sales professionals believe their sales intelligence software is "essential" in helping them close deals, and 74 percent believe their organizations plan to invest more in sales intelligence tools in the future.*  





## Sales Productivity 

As the name suggests, this category of tools helps to improve salespeople's productivity by providing a variety of automation and time-saving tools that allow sales professionals to focus on the more critical aspects of the sales process.  

It refers to any tool that can assist salespeople in their daily professional activities and allow them to generate more sales. Such a broad definition implies that a diverse range of tools falls into this category, and as a result, sales productivity tools come in all shapes and sizes.  

Sales productivity tools can assist salespeople in generating leads, making calls, scheduling meetings, writing proposals, creating pipeline reports, and automating other repetitive tasks.



## Sales Forecasting

Before the availability of sales forecasting tools, your best option was to stare at your previous sales data in a spreadsheet and consult your gut instinct for what to do next. However, by leveraging data and automation, sales forecasting tools remove the guesswork and allow for confident growth plans.  

Sales forecasting software uses data from yesterday and today to create an accurate picture of what the future might look like. Quantitative sales forecasting tools analyze past sales data, identifying historical trends and patterns to forecast future sales performance if similar practices are followed. In contrast, qualitative forecasting examines current market trends and customer feedback.  

> *Businesses using forecasting tools are better positioned to make data-driven decisions about hiring, inventory, territory expansion, and introducing new products or services.*





## Pipeline Insights Tool

Creating an efficient sales workflow usually entails building a pipeline sales tracker solution. Your pipeline is a visual representation of potential customers who are on their way to purchasing from your company. Salespeople in a well-structured pipeline follow clearly defined stages to guide potential customers to their destination—the sale. The best pipeline management sales tools are clean, well-integrated, and designed to facilitate quick communication so that customers don't have many opportunities to jump ship.  
A spreadsheet can easily track a small number of transactions. Spreadsheets, on the other hand, can quickly become overwhelming and cluttered as your lead and customer lists grow. Pipeline software allows you to manage a growing volume of potential deals that don't tax your time or resources while providing a centralized view of where your efforts should be directed next.



## Marketing Automation and ABM

Every transaction begins in two ways: the seller finds the buyer, or the buyer seeks the seller. Marketing automation and lead generation tools are designed to promote the latter.
Companies can streamline marketing workflows and optimize their marketing strategy by automating marketing tasks such as email marketing, social media posts, and lead generation. These activities generate an extensive contacts database through conversions, especially when a person exchanges her contact information and possibly information about the company they work in exchange for valuable content from your company.  

Building on this, account-based marketing (ABM) technology enables marketers to create scalable, personalized marketing campaigns, track their performance against key performance indicators, and demonstrate revenue contribution. Adopting the account-based marketing method entails focusing on high-value customers with highly targeted, personalized campaigns, targeting and marketing messages based on specific account attributes.  






## Sales Acceleration 

Sales acceleration is a strategic initiative that aims to increase the number of sales conversations, reduce the sales cycle, and close more deals. By automating administrative tasks and streamlining sales processes, sales acceleration software aims to increase sales.  

Without control, speed is doomed to fail. As a result, sales acceleration technology assists salespeople in improving both efficiency and effectiveness by improving engagement and organization throughout the sales process. This is comparable to the purpose of sales enablement software. Conversely, the latter focuses on sales behavior and providing salespeople with quality materials, opportunities, and best practices. Despite this, some vendors use the terms interchangeably.  

Some argue that sales acceleration is a catch-all term for all tools that assist B2B sales reps in locating the right companies to approach and enable sales outreach. This technology category includes coaching tools, email tracking software, predictive analytics tools, sales engagement software, and outbound sales dialers, to name a few.


## Customer Success

Businesses use customer success software to ensure that their customers get the results they expect when they use their product or service—in other words, improving customer relationships and ensuring customer success. Customer success initiatives are critical for revenue retention and growth, increasing customer advocacy, and maintaining profitability and growth. Adopting account-based sales strategies and the appropriate technology is one way to increase customer success.  

Customer success software offers businesses a detailed analysis of their customers' past behavior and a "health score" that estimates their level of satisfaction. Furthermore, customer success solutions will assist businesses in developing or identifying customer profiles, collecting customer data, history, and feedback, engaging customers throughout the lifecycle, providing input and customer success scores, and predicting future customer growth or red flags.  



As you can see, sales tools cover various platforms with various features and functions: sales productivity tools and more. Every business will have different tech stack requirements, and each team will take a different approach to implement new software platforms. As you search for the perfect sales tool, keep in mind that your business software must serve your customers and your sales team. Before making a decision, honestly assess your needs and processes, and be willing to test your options.


Sales tools assist salespeople in determining which prospects are most likely to be successful with their product or service, when to contact those prospects, and what to discuss with them. They save time on time-consuming administrative tasks and can focus on what is most important: providing value to people and businesses.

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Sales Tools for Modern-day sales reps


A sales forecast is a projection of future sales revenue and a prediction of which deals will move through the sales cycle. Sales forecasts drive short-term spending decisions and impact decisions on key deals.  A sales forecast, put simply, is a prediction of how a market will react to a company's marketing initiatives.

# Why is sales forecasting important? 
Sales forecasts have two benefits. One is that you can hire extra workers, buy merchandise in advance, and reduce delays that your company might otherwise have if you can predict that you're going to meet or even surpass your sales target for the given quarter or month. Two, knowing how you're going to perform in a given period will have significant advantages in your organization across job functions. If you run your forecast accurately and see that you might not hit your number, you can proactively execute remediation plans. For example, you can find more leads or generate more revenue from specific accounts. 
Finance relies on forecasts to develop budgets for capacity plans and hiring, and production uses sales forecasts to plan their cycles

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# Benefits of an accurate forecast 

### **Cash Flow**
Knowing when and how much you plan to sell is one of the key advantages since it allows you to manage cash flow effectively. Many companies experience erratic sales throughout the year. An organization can plan to set away money during their peak season so that there will be money to cover expenses during slower periods if they are aware of predicted monthly or quarterly revenue. This preparation avoids running out of money to cover payroll, pay bills, and pay taxes. You will be able to keep up strong ties with suppliers and staff by avoiding these situations.


### **Inventory Control**
A business can more effectively manage inventories with accurate sales forecasts. Overstocking is less likely if you have an estimation of what short-term sales will look like. This reduces the need for material transportation and product storage costs. Accurate sales forecasts also put a cap on the possibility of not having enough inventory to fulfill demand. If the product is accessible when the customer wants to purchase it, customer happiness is likely to be higher. Last but not the least, predictions lessen the necessity for sudden product discounts to lower inventories.

### **Resource Supplies**
Another area that gains from having a sales revenue estimate is the supplier chain. A business can perform just-in-time ordering of the resources they require to produce at the anticipated demand level, similar to inventory management. This reduces carrying expenses. 6Appropriate lead time can be built-in when a material is difficult to obtain.

### **Marketing**
When a corporation anticipates generating larger sales revenue, it might plan more expensive campaigns. During slower times, it might employ less expensive marketing strategies like promotional offers and pushing discounts.

### **Product And Price Planning**
A thorough sales revenue projection can show which products or services are selling the best for businesses that provide a variety of goods and services. It also shows whether your rates are appropriately set. If a product is expected to sell a lot of units but generates little revenue or profit, the company might wish to modify the price.
 
### **Sales Process**
It is possible to determine what is effective or needs to be changed during this particular sales process by monitoring and gathering data for sales profit estimates. The data can show that some procedures need to be changed because they take too long or are unnecessary. The team may opt to concentrate on employing these techniques more frequently if they produce a larger percentage of closed sales than other strategies.

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# How to accurately forecast sales

### **Assess historical trends**
Analyze the prior year's revenue. Sort the data according to price, product, rep, sales time, and other important factors. Create a "sales run rate" based on them, which is the amount of anticipated sales per sales period. Your sales prediction is built on this.


### **Incorporate Changes**
- ***Pricing:*** Have any of your product pricings changed? Are there any existing rivals who could pressure you to alter your pricing strategies?
- ***Customers:*** How many brand-new clients are you hoping to bring in this year? How many did you add the year before? Have you employed new reps, boosted your chances of attracting new clients, or received quantifiable brand exposure?
- ***Promotions:*** Are you planning to launch any new promotions this year? How did the past promotions compare in terms of return on investment?
- ***Channels:*** Are any new channels, regions, or territories being launched?
Product changes: Are you making adjustments to your product lineup or launching new products? How long did it take for the market to accept the previous products?

Tweaking the business model from the insights the company can get by answering the following questions can go a long way in increasing growth and sales rate.


### **Identify Market Trend**
Project all the market events you have been following right now. Are you or any of your rivals planning to go public? Do you plan on making any purchases? Will new legislation alter how people view your product?
 
### **Monitor Competitors**
You probably already do this, but pay attention to the offerings and marketing strategies of rivals, especially the industry leaders. Additionally, keep an eye out for any potential entry of new rivals into your market.

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# Key to an accurate forecast 

- ***Collaborative:***  Leaders should combine ideas from various sales roles, company units, and geographical areas. Frontline sales staff can be quite helpful in this situation by offering a viewpoint on the market you hadn't previously considered.

- ***Data-driven:*** Subjectivity, which is frequently more retroactive than prospective, can be lessened by the use of predictive analytics. Alignment will be promoted and time will be saved by using standard data definitions and baselines.

- ***Single source, several perspectives:*** You have excellent insight into rep, region, and company performance when the forecast is generated as a single source of data, which helps align different business functions across the organization.

- ***Progressively better:*** Utilize the knowledge gained from an improved sales forecasting process to produce future predictions that are more precise and whose accuracy increases with time in comparison to a set of accuracy objectives.

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## **Bottom-up and Top-down forecasts**
Bottom-up predictions and top-down forecasts are the two main categories of sales forecasting methodology. In bottom-up forecasting, the number of units a company is expected to sell is first projected, and the average cost per unit is then multiplied by that number. The number of sites, sales representatives, online interactions, and other analytics can also be built in.  
In a top-down financial analysis, the entire market in which the company competes is analyzed. Prior to making predictions about how the business would do in the market, it first determines the size of the market that is now accessible to the company while taking into account current market trends. The business' advantages and disadvantages are then assessed in light of the possibilities of the larger market.  

A bottom-up analysis places more of an emphasis on the product or service itself and the operations of the company, paying less attention to the larger market. Bottom-up forecasting involves evaluating variables like production capacity, marketing expenses, recruiting expenses, and more - every action or variable that could have an impact on finances is taken into account.
It's crucial to combine the two approaches when forecasting sales. Start with a top-down strategy, then check the viability of your first estimate using a bottom-up approach, or perform the two independently and compare how well they agree. Companies should do both types of forecasts, then make adjustments to each until they yield the same result in order to produce the most accurate forecast.


Forecasting is a pretty old term in the field of sales, but still many of the businesses struggle to make an accurate sales forecast. It can be due to lack of tools or cognitive biases among the SDRs or anything else. But if you follow the right process, you don't need to worry about any of the problems. Read about the step by step process in the blog.

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Making an accurate sales forecast

# About Pixis

Pixis is a California-based technology company that provides codeless AI infrastructure to enable customers to scale accurate data-driven marketing. 

Pixis’ codeless infrastructure for marketing helps Establish a powerful AI blueprint to make marketing effortlessly intelligent, agile, and scalable.  Pixis has raised over $100Mn in funding from marquee investors and helped brands save millions of dollars in marketing spend. 


# The Problem

Pixis was excelling at providing metrics and insights about campaigns but was looking for ways to integrate its sales and marketing stack to optimize its sales process. Let’s explore how clientell reduced friction in managing data silos and created a single source of truth for their entire org:

## Scattered Salesforce:

- Firstly, their Salesforce data was incomplete and not regularly updated by sales reps. On every forecast call, multiple sheets were being reviewed, and every field had to be checked twice, as the data wasn’t captured correctly or entered at the correct time. 

> We always felt there is a need to be a better way to analyze only the critical metrics instead of spending valuable time switching between sheets and dashboards.
> -Hari, CBO Pixis

- It is not his sales reps’ primary job to enter data into salesforce. Their primary job is to sell and focus on that, as that’s how they earn their commissions.

Moreover, if this data entry took a small amount of time or were easy to do, they wouldn’t mind. But you’re looking at 6+ hours every week across reps and managers, and that too while doing your calls to record live status, which makes it like a hiccup in the main job of selling. 

You make a call, you get a specific outcome from it, and then you go to various fields on salesforce to enter that, not to forget that it takes 16 clicks to update a single field within Salesforce. 
The inaccuracy within data made accurate forecasting and performance reviews a challenge, and Pixis had to maintain a small team of analysts to take care of their data needs. 

# The Solution

First, Pixis tried to wait it out by repetitively asking their reps and AEs to fill Salesforce, but that seemed to go in vain as they weren’t inclined to use it due to the unfriendly user experience. 

Combine this with multiple spreadsheets and various custom fields within sales tools. However, this process wasn’t integrated with Salesforce, which wasn’t feasible in the long run.

Under these circumstances, Pixis turned to Clientell, a team that Hari trusted and had previously worked with. 

They suggested using two of Clientell’s main tools - Tracktable and the Clientell Revenue Operations platform. 

- Tracktable is a chrome plugin that incentivizes data entry by making it a habit instead of a task by bringing salesforce to LinkedIn and spreadsheets.

- Tracktable would provide the in-line edit feature, where fields to be updated in an opportunity were adjacent to the opportunity. You could update the data with a couple of clicks, which would immediately reflect in salesforce. 

- This meant the multiple steps in Salesforce would be reduced to a maximum of 2-3 steps to enter data, like the experience of editing a spreadsheet, making it much easier for reps and AEs.

- Add to this the Clientell Revenue Intelligence platform’s powerful AI, which would extract data from the notes entered in the CRM, calendar, email inboxes, conversation intelligence software, if any, and other third-party data sources. This would add up to 30% more data into the CRM and add over 3000 lost contacts. 

This combination built an efficient data entry process, giving reps and AEs more time to focus on selling. They were happier, and the results were much better regarding their mental peace and involvement with their job.

Of course, remember, the primary outcome was a better forecast meeting every week, where nothing was being guessed anymore. “Why didn’t we do this earlier,” said Hari when the Clientell team went to him for feedback.

Tracktable made data entry more effortless, and the Clientell platform’s AI efficiently extracted data, freeing up reps’ and AEs’ time. Clientell now sits on top of Salesforce at Pixis, improving data hygiene manifold.


Pixis was excelling at providing metrics and insights about campaigns but was looking for ways to integrate its sales and marketing stack to optimize its sales process. Let’s explore how Clientell reduced friction in managing data silos and created a single source of truth

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Pixis drives trust in data with Clientell

# About Unbxd 

Unbxd is a San Franciso-based, leading e-commerce product discovery platform that applies advanced data sciences to connect shoppers to the products they are most likely to buy while providing predictive, actionable insights for merchandising.

**To explain this in further simple terms, let's take an example:**

Merchant X puts up their products on a specific E-commerce platform after registering. For them, the most important thing is visibility and knowing whether they are shown to the right audience. 

Unbxd uses AI to do this. Using trends, demographic data, pricing, gender, and other filters and parameters historically for a particular segment or product, Ubxd ascertains which audience it should be shown to.

This results in more significant sales and success for the merchant. 


# Forecasting and Unbxd

Even though Unbxd built software to tell its customers with certainty what was best for their products and where they should show, they needed to be more certain about their own sales deals with their potential opportunities.

Their forecasts needed higher accuracy. Why? You guessed it. Their data needed to be completed because it took significant time to fill in salesforce, which reps avoided doing.

With Clientell’s automated activity and contact data capture from the rep’s sources(email inbox, calendar, and other integrations), the data entry process became much easier, and the data layer was sorted to forecast further. 

Now Salesforce’s forecasting was not effective for Unbxd at all. The process was limited to senior management submitting just “numbers.” 

Clientell brought ease and inclusivity into this process. It gave Unbxd the use of critical features such as pacing, nth-day analysis, and leveraging historical data using AI. Let's explore these and see how they helped Unbxd.

### Pacing
With pacing, Unbxd could see where their reps stood in real time with respect to their targets. This would help them re-allot deals and targets, depending on what reps seemed capable of after a certain amount of time had passed.

It also helped them see with what speed they’re able to achieve targets overall, and depending on that, they could change their forecast numbers. If they were achieving targets faster than expected, they could increase their forecast and add more deals, or if they were lagging, they’d do the opposite.

### nth-day Analysis
nth-day analysis helped them predict market situations and react faster. They could break down the pipeline by different business units and across different revenue streams, where they stand on a specific day compared to a previous quarter. The analysis would help them understand market trends and outcomes of their investments in marketing and sales efforts. 

### Historical Data
Finally, Clientell’s AI helps them with insights leveraging historical data. Being in action since 2010, and having smaller teams, Unbxd greatly benefited from this. They could see in real-time, with a couple of clicks, what worked for them and what didn't historically and how they could change accordingly.

With this, Unbxd’s monthly forecasting cadence became refined, and the takeaways were crisp and precise. 

Moreover, Clientell adapted their monthly cadence, as cadence frequency on the platform is customizable. Another client, Pixis, with a bigger team, prefers weekly cadences, which can be easily set with a few clicks!

> “We’re delighted with what Clientell has done for us. It's a game changer!” said a satisfied Pawan as he went in for his next monthly forecast meeting, much happier, content, and correctly anticipating a sturdy result.

Even though Unbxd built software to tell its customers with certainty what was best for their products and where they should show, they needed to be more certain about their own sales deals with their potential opportunities.

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Running Efficient Forecast Calls: Clientell for Unbxd

# About Unbxd 

Unbxd is a San Francisco-based, leading e-commerce product discovery platform that applies advanced data sciences to connect shoppers to the products they are most likely to buy while providing predictive, actionable insights for merchandising.

To explain this in further simple terms, let's take an example:

After registering, merchant X puts up their products on a certain E-commerce platform. For them, the most important thing is visibility and knowing whether they are shown to the right audience. 

Unbxd uses AI to do this. Using trends, demographic data, pricing, gender, and other filters and parameters historically for a specific segment or product, Ubxd ascertains which audience it should be shown to.

This results in more significant sales and success for the merchant. 

# The Problem

Unbxd built a great product that tells its users with certainty who they should show their product to and rightfully got the fruit for it. Over 1300 commerce websites now trust them in more than 40 countries.

With more customers comes more growth, and with more growth, more revenue. However, managing this revenue was not easy, and Unbxd was facing trouble with this. Their revenue machine was leaky.

This means that there was potential revenue that Unbxd could earn, which they sometimes factored in and sometimes not, but couldn’t.

Ernst and Young estimates companies regularly lose anywhere from 1% to 5% of EBITA due to inefficiencies in their pipeline. This severe problem needs attention, and Unbxd paid heed to it by choosing Clientell.

But first, let us see why they were facing this problem in the first place.

## Manual data entry
For updates on every deal, sales reps had to fill in data manually into salesforce. This was a time-consuming task that they weren’t even supposed to prioritize. Hence, it ended up being done shabbily. Reps would sometimes leave data fields incomplete and sometimes delay making entries.

This would cause their forecast numbers to be incorrect. Hence they wouldn’t be able to predict revenue efficiently, sometimes leaving out deals that could’ve been converted. 

Moreover, let's say the deal was converted. Data entered and updated post that wasn’t accurate often, causing revenue to leak here too.

## No single source of truth
Different teams at Unbxd had different tech stacks for increasing their productivity. They also worked on different aspects of the deal and handed it to the next required team. 

However, this handover didn’t include all the intricacies and nitty gritty, which could be a game changer in converting the deal. What marketing had done, sales broadly knew but didn't know clients' individual qualms and behaviors, which probably only the marketing POC did. There was nowhere to document this professionally.

Similarly, when the client was moved to the customer success team after converting a deal, there was a gap in knowledge about the clients. Since customers’ needs constantly evolve, CS needs to have a precise picture of what’s happened with the deal up till that point so that they know how to tackle it further and expect anything different in the client’s behavior if required. But this was not made possible.

This gap was a significant cause for not optimally converting and upselling clients. Unbxd was doing well, but they weren’t hitting their potential.

## Lack of an efficient view
Stemming from the previous problem, a follow-on was that the folks at Unbxd didn’t have a bird’s eye view of the entire funnel with a client.

As mentioned earlier, there was an incomprehensive flow of information between teams, and there needed to be a place where everything done with a deal was collated.

So let’s say a rep from sales is pursuing a potential client, and they’re showing interest. However, he feels that giving a discount will ensure the conversion. He asked finance for this, but finance takes some extra time, maybe a week, to approve that, and at this time, the customer’s lost interest.

If there was a platform where sales and finance, in this case, had a view of what was going on with this deal, and the deal was flagged as one where a discount was paramount, finance would’ve realized that this permission was more important than the way they treated it.  

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# The Solution

We at Clientell assured Unbxd that we would take care of this problem and help them hit optimal revenue. And lest be assured, we did. Here’s how:

- To tackle the manual data entry problem, we suggested they use two of our main tools - Tracktable and the Clientell Revenue Intelligence platform. 

- Tracktable is a Chrome plugin that incentivizes data entry by turning it into a habit rather than a work by integrating Salesforce with LinkedIn and spreadsheets.

- Tracktable would provide an in-line edit function, where fields to be edited in an opportunity were adjacent to the opportunity, allowing you to adjust the date with a few clicks, which would immediately reflect into salesforce.

This meant that the various steps required to enter data in Salesforce would be reduced to a maximum of 2-3 steps, similar to the experience of changing a spreadsheet, making it much easier for reps and AEs.

Add to that the Clientell Revenue Intelligence platform's sophisticated AI, which would extract data from CRM notes, calendars, email inboxes, conversation intelligence software, and other third-party data sources. This would result in 30% more data in the CRM, and the addition of nearly 3000 deleted contacts.

This combination resulted in an efficient data input method and more time for reps and AEs to focus on selling. With data in place, projections improved, as did deal awareness.

Reps and managers could now work more efficiently using software that provided accurate information, allowing them to aim and convert more effectively, maximizing revenue and avoiding leakage.

## Deal Rooms
Clientell's virtual Deal Rooms provided a powerful solution to the dilemma of an inefficient view and the lack of a single source of truth.

The Clientell Revenue Intelligence Platform's Opportunities page displays all active deals in a logical and easy-to-understand manner. Each deal has its deal room where all analytics, activity, and insights are visualized in a single collaborative platform. 

This, in effect, is like a virtual deal room. Visualize this:

1. On the platform, whoever owns the transaction creates an opportunity. The opportunity may belong to an SDR but be acquired by a specific product manager for feature requests and then passed on to a specific customer success executive.

2. When the view is opened, it shows what has happened with the opportunity over time. The prospect engagement window displays which meetings have occurred or will occur, which emails have been sent and received, and at what stage the communication occurred. To shorten ramp time, managers can examine objections and use winning opportunities to train incoming reps using real-life scenarios.


3. As a result, visibility improves because everything is conveniently available on a single page. This makes it much easier for all stakeholders to know what's going on in the opportunity, and the process of dealing with it becomes much smoother.

If the manager believes that a deal should be molded, included, amended, excluded, or passed on, he can readily communicate with the owner using this. Whatever dialogue takes place is available to everyone who is involved.

With such a comprehensive view and efficient flow of complete information between various stakeholders, decisions regarding deals are no more arbitrary but confidently taken, helping optimize revenue and preventing unnecessary leakage.

Unbxd built a great product that tells its users with certainty who they should show their product to and rightfully got the fruit for it. Over 1300 commerce websites now trust them in more than 40 countries.

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How Unbxd reduced revenue leakage up to 70% using Clientell

# Trinity Health <> Clientell


**Trinity Health** is one of the largest not-for-profit, Catholic health care systems in the US. It is a family of 115,000 colleagues and nearly 26,000 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 25 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 88 hospitals, 131 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 125 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services.

---

# Problem Statement:  
- ***Current State:***  The rate of visibility of Trinity’s revenue income is low leading to lack of growth opportunities.  
- ***Gap:*** This is due to fragmented data, inaccurate pipeline and limited data exploration.  
- ***Future State:*** With the help of Clientell trinity can increase 55% decrease in A/R, 85% average insight accuracy, 78% fewer denials, 120% uplift in scoring accuracy and 10x increase in claim pipeline velocity  

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# Dataset and datapoints
The data used to increase visibility is as follows:  
    
 - ***Demographic:*** Name, Age, Gender, Address.  
     
 - ***Administrative:*** Health insurance eligibility and membership, Type of practitioner, Physician specialty, "Insurance claim" information, e.g., charges for diagnostic tests and procedures and amounts paid

 - ***Health Risk:*** Health-related behavior, e.g., use of tobacco products and seat belts, exercise, Genetic predisposition

 - ***Health status (or health-related quality of life):*** Physical functioning, Mental and emotional well-being, Cognitive functioning

 - ***Medical History:*** Past medical problems, injuries, hospital admissions, pregnancies, births; Family history or events (e.g., alcoholism or parental divorce)

 - ***Present Health Management:*** Current problems and diagnoses, Medications prescribed, Allergies, Health screening

 - ***Outcomes:*** GeneMedical ral and/or condition-specific states, e.g., functional status, readmission to hospital, and unexpected medical or surgical complications of care; Satisfaction

 - ***Other:*** Discharge Date, Accommodation Days, Accommodation Charges,  Service Charges         
    
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# Insights       
    
Claims data analysed across unified profiles to identify and assign factor weightages based on claims settlement.
    
- ***Administrative***: The rate of clearing their claim from past claim data is inferred to be 45%.
- ***Health Risk***: The rate of clearing their claim due to smoking habits is 7%
- ***Medical History***: The rate of  clearing their claim due to pregnancy is 1.5% and 1% through vital signs
- ***Present Health Management***: The tendency to get their claim cleared from DAS is 5% .
    
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# Clientell’s Decision Landscape
- ***Analyse opportunity/risk in claims***: Understand drivers of revenue growth by locating the highest and lowest performing claims
- ***Unified individual account details***: Auto clean data and unify data from all data sources including third party sources
- ***Insurer’s propensity to clear claims***: Identify underperforming claims in the pipeline and predict revenue losses
- ***AI-powered Micro segmentation***: Risk and opportunity classification by breaking down revenue into streams based on region, Claims, BU & Managers
- ***Analyse revenue based on Health Units & Patients***: Provide and 360 view of patients, claims, TPAs and resultant revenue
- ***Time series forecasts of revenue***: Predict successfully on when and which claims will give highest revenue and analysing the factors driving it
    




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Trinity's revenue income is not well visible, resulting in a lack of expansion potential. Because of fragmented data, an erroneous pipeline, and inadequate data research, this is the case. The answer is to make better use of data in Revenue Operations.

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RevOps health

Guides, announcements and articles about Clientell, Sales, Revenue and lot more.

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Revenue may be any company’s problem for a variety of reasons - the team may not be working hard enough, there may be logistical problems or many other issues.

However, one problem which is right there in front of you, but goes unnoticed generally, is that of siloed data.

# What is siloed data?

Information coming from revenue-generating operations like sales, marketing, or customer success is kept in separate tech stacks and depositories, making it inaccessible to other teams and people. This is siloed data. 

For example: The sales team might use the data from their own tech stack to nurture and convert a lead. This information is unrelated to marketing or customer success information. 

As a result, these departments continue to operate alone, without sharing data or finding ways to assist one another. 

CS will not get a comprehensive picture from sales about the lead and the effort of sales to convert the lead may not get translated to custom retention.

These divisions cause a lack of smoothness in transition between teams, hampering the goal of maximizing revenue, as data is not fully available to act on.

But why does siloed data develop in the first place?

## Difference in departments   
Different departments like sales, marketing and customer success have their own way of working, their own tech stack, and their own nuances. They have their own goals to achieve. 
Marketing has to run certain campaigns, sales has to nurture and convert and CS has to be there post-conversion and retain. All that’s fair, but these are individual goals.

The cumulative goal is to work for the organisation’s betterment and benefit and maximize its revenue. Keeping tab of individual goals, employees lose track of this and forget its their responsibility to ensure seamless transfer of data in optimal workflows with other teams. They think once they’ve done their individual job, its not their problem anymore, and that shouldnt be the case.

## Separation of tech stacks   
Each team has its own tech stack, to focus on individual goals. With technology evolving and companies growing, more tools are added.

This is okay, but there needs to be a process where data is easily accessible from one tech stack to another team’s, so that they can use it easily. Most organisations do not have such integrations in place.

## Resistance to change   
The data problem requires technology. Tools and code can solve this problem efficiently.

However, most important positions in companies are occupied by people who aren’t exposed to the power of tech in the data space, given that these developments are relatively new and these positions are for more experienced folk.

This causes a certain resistance to change, to try new tools, products and softwares to solve your problems.

This is how siloed data is created and this hence affects your revenue engine adversely.

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# How will it affect your revenue?

## Inaccurate Revenue Forecasts   
If your data is inaccurate, you don’t know what to forecast on the basis of. You’re basically shooting in the dark, guessing that a certain deal or a certain customer will behave in a certain manner, as you don’t have tangible data on their behaviour. 

You have to work to combine data in different stacks and depositories to get a forecast firstly, and that too not accurate.

## Shabby customer experience   
The journey from a lead gotten by marketing to one nurtured and converted by sales and then handed over to customer success for queries and retention is a long one. 

Since there are so many touchpoints on the way, and data is not transferred accurately through them, the customer’s experience gets very diluted. 

For them, it’s like they were having a different conversation with sales but suddenly that doesn’t make sense anymore because customer success doesn’t know what they were talking about with sales priorly. 

This causes a shabby customer experience.

## Untapped business potential   
Data siloes also cause business potential to remain untapped. If data is available across teams, experts from different domains can see the lead’s journey and together give inputs on qualifying and nurturing prospects.

There may be something marketing can add to a lead, which sales cannot, given their behavior, and vice versa. But if the leads’ data and journey with different touchpoints is not clearly visible to everyone, the potential to convert them reduces, hence losing out on business.

Thus, the cost of siloed data is greater than what you would assume. Its time organisations started paying attention to this and working on it.

If you wish to get rid of your data silo problems, get Clientell. Book a demo to see what we do and how we work!


Having siloed data across multiple sales tools can definitely hinder pipeline growth. When data is siloed, it means that it is isolated and not easily accessible to other parts of the organization. This can make it difficult for sales teams to get a complete view of their pipeline and customer interactions, which can impact their ability to effectively nurture leads and close deals.