Brent Holloway - Growing Revenue Through An Inside Sales Strategy
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Sales Acceleration Summit - This session is now available on demand: http://www.insidesales.com/events/2014/sales-acceleration-summit/brent-holloway Session Overview Brent reveals 8 proven secrets for growing revenue through Inside Sales with real world examples related to people, process, and technology. These examples apply to a wide range of company sizes and impact field sales as well as inside sales.
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Brent Holloway - Growing Revenue Through An Inside Sales Strategy
- 2. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader 8 Simple Suggestions for Growing Revenue through Inside Sales Brent Holloway Global Inside Sales Leader HP Enterprise Security Products brent.holloway@hp.com
- 3. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader Agenda People 1. Sales Model: Numbers and Roles 2. Hire and Retain Great People 3. Career Path Process 4. Buyer’s Process 5. Internal Sales Processes Technology 6. Social Selling 7. Sales Analytics 8. Others including emerging
- 4. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader 1. Sales Model: Numbers and Roles Partnering with Field Sales vs. ISR Only Testing with minimal risk Example, ABC Software: Before: 20 field reps X $2.0M = $40M/year After: 20 field reps X $2.4M = $48M/year +10 ISRs X $2M X 30% = $6M/year Total = $54M/year (+$14M or 35%) in additional sales, on a ~$1.8M investment (loaded)
- 5. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader 2. Hire and Retain Great Salespeople Assessments Situational Interviewing Questions Role Play Call? Recruiters (Cost vs. Opportunity Cost) CSO Insights (www.csoinsights.com)
- 6. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader 3. Career Path Have one (not just on paper) with executive support Real world examples Sales Development (SDRs) Inside Sales (ISRs) ISR Manager Field / Channel Sales Sr. ISR / Hybrid SDR Manager
- 7. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader Qualify the opportunity Develop and propose solution Negotiate and close Implement & success Expand & extend Research Recognize Needs Evaluate Options Select Solution Options Resolve Concerns & Decide Implement Solution & Evaluate Align to sales process Exit criteria (I.e. timing of PoV) Easy to test response to initial customer engagement 4. Buyer’s process Understand the customer
- 8. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader Does it look like this? Is it documented? Day in the life? % of time on admin? Approval bottlenecks? 5. Internal Sales Processes
- 9. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader “Engage with Insight” -LinkedIn Sales Navigator SFDC integration 6. Social Selling
- 10. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader Excel / CRM / Salesforce.com (Sales, Pipeline In/Outbound, Activities, etc.) Predictive Analytics (I.e. Lattice Engines) 7. Sales Analytics
- 11. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader 8. Other technologies including emerging CRM/PRM, Prospect and Customer Intelligence, Incentive/Compensation Management, Video, Sales Playbooks, Web-based Collaboration, ROI tools, Gamification, Sales and Forecast Analytics, Big Data, Marketing Automation, Social Selling, etc. AA-ISP (www.aa-isp.org)
- 12. #SalesSummit | @Sales20Leader Thank you 8 Simple Suggestions for Growing Revenue through Inside Sales Brent Holloway Global Inside Sales Leader HP Enterprise Security Products brent.holloway@hp.com
Editor's Notes
- Hello, I am Brent Holloway and I lead the Inside Sales organization in Hewlett Packard’s Enterprise Security Products business. I’m honored to be included in today’s event and presenting along with some great sales leaders, including one of my mentors, Anneke Seley. My plan for the next 15 minutes is to share some simple suggestions for growing revenue with an emphasis on Inside Sales.
- Here is a quick look at the agenda. I will cover a few thoughts in the areas of People, Process, and Technology and share some personal examples from my 10 years of experience developing and leading Inside Sales teams at private and public companies.
- All right, let’s get started. One of the important decisions we need to make as sales leaders is what role Inside Sales should play. We need to determine how many field and inside salespeople we should have, and the types of opportunities or markets they should cover. Of course every business is unique and there is no single right answer, but a great starting point is to do some internal analysis, benchmark with other companies, and fine tune your model over time.Whether they partner with field sales in an “overlay model” or have their own unique quota, or a combination of both, Inside Sales professionals can be an ideal resource for managing and closing opportunities that do not require field salespeople. And, Inside Sales is often the only profitable way to sell certain types of products or services. Many startups, especially those with a Software-as-a-Service solution, have sales models that are completely or primarily made up of Inside Sales, and research shows that most established businesses have a growing mix of Inside Sales Reps, or ISRs, partnering with field sales in some segments, or owning sales without field overlay in other segments.I believe finding that optimal balance or mix between field and inside sales is worthy of some time and ongoing analysis between sales, operations, finance, and your executives. I have really enjoyed helping grow several inside sales teams, which generally starts with some historical analysis of sales data coupled with feedback from salespeople and sales leaders about which types of opportunities truly require field engagement. The result is a model that puts the right salespeople managing the right opportunities to maximize sales.Let’s review a simple example:ABC Software had a business unit with 20 field salespeople and minimal or no quota carrying inside salespeople, so the field was spending a significant amount of time workingsmall to mid-sized opportunities that madeit difficult for the field team to exceed their $2 million dollar annual quotas. But, these small to mid-sized opportunities could not be ignored, as they often represented new customers thatgrow over time, or add-on purchases from the existing customer base that are highly profitable. ABC Software then made an investment in 10 ISRs in a team model to manage many of these opportunities, enabling the field reps to focus more time on the largest, more strategic opportunities. As a result, each field salesperson sold one or two more “larger” opportunities throughout the course of the year. Each field rep then averaged $2.4 million in sales the following year, and each ISR produced an additional $2 million in qualified pipeline through various calling campaigns which produced an additional $6M in sales, based on a modest 30% close rate on that new pipeline. Overall the ABC business unit increased annual sales by $14 million dollars, a 35% increase, from an ISR team investment of approximately $1.8 million dollars loaded with benefits. When it comes to goal setting for comp plans in which the ISRs and field reps are a team covering the same accounts, there are a wide range of options for how to structure the compensation plans, and my recommendation would be to choose one that encourages teamwork, even if that means “double paying” the ISR and field rep for which the cost can be offset with the quota setting. Testing a new Inside Sales model does not need to be expensive. You can test it in a small number of territories or one or two product markets.
- Next, we all know that hiring well and retaining our best salespeople is important, and the leaders at CSO Insights have completed some interesting and compelling research and survey reports, quantifying just about everything sales related, including the positive correlation between the hiring and retention of good salespeople with the organization’s overall success. Let’s quickly review a few low-cost or no-cost considerations to optimize your hiring process.First, research shows a correlation between the use of a formal hiring assessment tool and sales results. I have personally used two assessment tools that our candidates complete online and the system then scores and summarizes their aptitude and their personality traits, and benchmarks their results against top performers in our business. I think situational interviewing questions are a great way to predict how a candidate will perform in key situations. For example, I like to ask candidates to share their thought process and what they would do if they have been working an $80,000 opportunity for a few months, and then the buyer says the price needs to be $50,000 to move forward. The responses range anywhere from “I don’t discount” to “I would ask management for the discount and close the order”. Some of the better responses I hope to hear ask about why the customer needs the discount, have we done an ROI to quantify our unique value, or how are we positioned competitively, or what if we offer financing or a smaller discount in return for the closing the order within X days, etc.”Next, the final step in our recruiting process with the final 2 or 3 candidates for each new position is a 10 minute role play qualification call. One of our ISR managers or I play the role of a CIO and while we don’t expect the candidate to know a lot about our business, it’s a great opportunity to see if they can explain what we do, hear how they talk about competitors, and handle difficult questions. For example, some are comfortable saying “I don’t know, I’ll get back to you on that” and others struggle and make up answers which is a red flag for me. I’ve done about 40 of these role play calls over the last two years and I think they are very useful, and kind of fun too.When it comes to recruiting, it’s great if you can hire the best salespeople leveraging your personal network and your company’s HR team, but I think external recruiters are worth considering as well, especially if you are not finding the right talent quickly on your own. A salesperson with a $1M annual quota has a daily quota equivalent of $4,000 per business day. Therefore the opportunity cost of not filling your open sales reqs quickly may be significantly more than the cost of getting help from an external recruiter.
- For my 3rd and final point about people, I believe having a career path will help you motivate and retain your best team members. Also, having a career path with specific examples of people in your organization who have been promoted from one role to the next is a strong selling point when hiring. The diagram on this screen shows some of the more common career paths starting from Inside Sales. I am fortunate to be part of a sales organization that has enabled me to promote several employees along these lines. We also offer a wide range of skills training and management training programs to help our employees prepare themselves for their next role.
- Thank you for joining today. I hope there was at least one idea that you can take back to your business. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about what I covered. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of the day!