Over time, we refined a predictable revenue sales methodology that enables everyone on the sales development team to understand exactly what’s expected of them.

Every company needs to maintain a full sales pipeline and hit revenue targets consistently in order to grow. Sales development is integral to that healthy and predictable pipeline, but when your sales development organization isn’t running at full capacity, it disrupts every downstream metric, from demos and meetings to close rates and revenue.

When there are problems, companies tend to see the issue as either a “people problem” or a “process problem.” At YCharts, we learned that to transform your revenue potential, you need to address both sides of the equation and these five approaches were instrumental in doing that.

Five ways to invigorate your sales pipeline by supporting people and refining processes.

Narrow the focus for each role on the sales team

When I joined YCharts as a sales development representative (SDR), the SDR role was much broader, more self-directed and loosely defined. SDRs would spend hours combing through the database, selecting promising-looking prospects based on their own criteria and crafting emails that they hoped would grab attention. This approach was both inefficient and ineffective: SDRs were constantly switching gears and many of the activities they tackled were outside their wheelhouse.

Through trial and error, we learned that we could transform sales productivity by keeping everyone focused on what they do best. For SDRs, that means getting meetings on the books. We broke the process down so that marketing develops the campaign strategy, identifies high-potential leads and provides email templates for SDRs to personalize. SDRs then focus exclusively on a highly repeatable, high-volume follow up approach that allows them to hit their targets. What’s more, with this level of discipline, both marketing and SDRs are always getting better at what they do—a benefit to them and the company.

The result is greater continuity for the customer, more revenue opportunities for the company and closer-knit teams who support each other’s success.

Create customer-centric, multifunctional teams

Breaking down the process doesn’t mean you have to break up the customer journey. At YCharts, we replaced a conveyor-belt approach where leads were passed from one function to another, with multifunctional teams that wrap around the customer to provide a consistent, personalized experience. These teams of SDRs, account executives (AEs) and customer success reps (CSRs) meet weekly to review open opportunities and share information.

This way, team members can coordinate better at every step of the journey and provide other members of the team with the context they need to anticipate customer needs and deepen the relationship. For example, when upsell opportunities present themselves, the CSR hands the customer back to the AE who originally closed the deal so that the success expert can focus on client experience while the sales professional can focus on selling. The result is a greater sense of continuity for the customer, more revenue opportunities for the company and closer-knit teams who support each other’s success.

With every metric tracked we can quickly identify problems and address them with targeted coaching on an individual or group level.

Clarify your revenue metrics for the sales development team

For many companies in the early evolution of their SDR program, there isn’t yet a lot of clarity around the metrics that people needed to follow or what would happen if they missed their targets. Over time, at YCharts we refined a predictable revenue sales methodology that enables everyone in the sales organization to understand exactly what’s expected of them and how those KPIs impact the company’s top-line revenue.

For the SDRs, we set a minimum expectation of 60 calls per day. For AEs, we tracked average win rate before and after this shift in sales methodology, along with any change in average contract value.

But setting KPIs is only the first step. We only unlocked their full value when we learned to communicate them clearly and frequently. We track sales team performance metrics on a leaderboard, review them daily with the SDRs and share the goals and the team’s performance against them company wide. So far our performance improvements include:

  • Average win rate before = 23%
  • Average win rate after = 28%
  • Increased average contract value by 10%

This level of consistency, visibility and accountability has worked wonders. With every metric tracked—from opportunities to deal sizes to win rates—we can quickly identify problems and address them with targeted coaching on an individual or group level.

Coach your team continuously

The processes, metrics and methodologies that we developed at YCharts have been critical in supporting a healthy pipeline and revenue growth. But the way we support our people has been equally important.

A culture of continuous improvement is core to the employee experience at YCharts. Our SDRs have the option of attending a sales training session hosted by our CRO every Monday morning that sets them up for the week with tips, tricks, tactics and a motivational boost.

We also coach our SDRs on an individual level, and our predictable revenue metrics makes this process much easier and more focused. We can look at metrics such as the average length of the sales cycle for an SDR or their average deal size and use those numbers to uncover areas for improvement. Maybe they aren’t uncovering all the objections early enough in the process, or maybe they’re focusing on pricing and discounts rather than value. The metrics give us a window into performance that we can use to help each member of our sales team improve on an individual level.

Nurturing talent from within strengthens our bench and ensures that we have the leaders we need for the future.

Create promotion pathways

The satisfaction that comes from hitting your targets is a powerful motivator, but you also want to help your SDRs see the bigger picture. We encourage people to define their own course and invite them to sit in on prospect meetings as a way to gain exposure to roles they might want to explore in the future.

This is beneficial for the company, as nurturing talent from within strengthens our bench and ensures that we have the leaders we need for the future. And it’s beneficial for our employees, who stay engaged and committed because they can see that high performance opens up a wide array of growth opportunities. My sales team knows that I started out as an SDR before becoming the Director of Inside Sales, so they have tangible proof that hard work pays off.

Here’s the bottom line.

A predictable, measurable process is one half of the sales success formula. The other half is making sure everyone in your sales organization is supported and motivated to fully commit to that process. When your people are given the resources and accountability they need to make and measure their own impact on company revenue, the result is an optimized sales development team, coordinated customer experience and a consistently healthy pipeline.

This GrowthBit is featured in LLR’s 2022 Growth Guide, along with other exclusive insights from our portfolio company leaders and Value Creation Team. Download the eBook here.