Whom Do You Call?
In the movie Ghostbusters, the famous line was coined: “Who you gonna call?” In the world of enterprise software sales, I’ve asked many reps, “When you’re challenged during sales cycles, whom do you call?”
The answers ranged from my spouse, my manager, a more senior sales rep, my solution engineer, to name a few. While all are reasonable choices, it seems ironic that sales reps selling technology didn’t mention leveraging a technology solution for guidance.
With all the CRM systems available, why are they not able to give on demand sales advice? After all, there’s so much customer data being maintained, it’s somewhat disappointing that CRM systems provide such little assistance when the reps need it most.
AI-based CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) apps have been available for some time, as have AI based telemarketing tools — but no AI-based sales advisory systems. That is, until now . . .
At last, there is an AI-based on-demand sales advisory/support system available that can provide sales advice in context and which works in concert with leading sales methodologies. The system is called “Virtual Dave” and it’s ready to answer any question to meet any possible sales challenge. Virtual Dave is leveraging 80+ years successful enterprise software selling/leadership experience and more than $500 million of enterprise software sales and sales leadership experience.
For example, if you can’t figure out how to mitigate the blocking tactics by the CIO, ask Virtual Dave. Need help convincing the prospective customer to let you demo last? Ask Virtual Dave how. Needing help avoiding providing pricing too early? Ask Virtual Dave what to do.
Everyone needs help when time is short and the consequences for flawed responses can be significant. It takes an entire sales cycle to win an enterprise deal, but it can be lost at any time. Managers are busy, may not fully understand the context of the challenge and often merely suggest lowering the price. Sales peers often lack the interest in thinking through the possibilities and your well-intentioned spouse likely lacks the sales experience to provide well thought out advice.
If you are running sales, it is not enough to make the bookings number; how you make it counts as well. Keeping each of your sales personnel equipped with good tools and armed with winning tactics increases performance across the board. The ratio of number of people who hit quota relative to the number who have quota is known as "participation rate" and higher participation rates drive revenue multiples at exit. Why? It decreases concern for "randomness" of success. In the example below, a move from 50% to 70% participation rate increases the revenue multiple from 5.3x to 5.7x:
If you are doing $20 million in subscription that moves your exit number up $8 million. EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS. If I am running sales, I am negotiating for that in my comp package. Ultimately, as a sales leader, we want to win every winnable deal and Virtual Dave helps do just that. While consistent winning can be valued at $8 million in this example, the cost of losing is immeasurable.
Check out Virtual Dave at moicpartners.com and challenge it with difficult sales situations. It will help guide expectations, suggest a course of action, identify blockers and suggest how to mitigate them.
If you face other sales process, forecast accuracy or pricing challenges, please reach out to me at dave@moicpartners.com.
