How Ebsta Helps B2B Sales Teams 3x Win Rates with Relationship Intelligence (Interview with CEO Guy Rubin)

Opening Data: Win Rates, Deal Values, and Sales Cycle Headwinds

Guy Rubin

00:00What was even scarier is that nearly 20% of reps actually don't even have a quota. Okay. So there's a lot of people out there that really aren't running their business with particularly data driven. We also saw a lot of headwinds. So less than 15% of win rates dropped by 15%. Average deal values went down by a third and sales cycles were continued to increase to buy an extra 30%.

What High-Performing Sales Teams Do Differently

Guy Rubin

00:27So when we look at the data in a bit more detail, rather than focusing on the ones that didn't achieve, what I wanted to do is bring to the table today some of the insights of what the high performing sales teams were actually doing. Probably one of the key trends we're seeing is that those certainly in B2B relationships drive revenue. So understanding what relationships you have and really double downing and making sure that those relationships are

00:52strong is vital not just in winning new business but also retaining and upselling to existing customers. We also saw that you can double your win rates with better sales methodologies. So introducing a med pick or a medic or a band type process to do your qualification and really making sure it's being used correctly. It's not just a box ticking exercise. You're really working out whether you should continue to invest in the sales process to move forward

01:18or not rather than just ticking a set of boxes.

Step 1: Building Clean, Automated CRM Data

Guy Rubin

01:24So these are the seven steps we set out to that we saw in the data in the information that we were processing to build this high performing sales team. It starts I'm going take you through all seven. So the first one is probably the least sexy, but one of the most important is this idea of building data, having good quality, consistent data in your CRM, okay? So you if you're if in 2023, you're still relying on

01:51humans to log their activity, create contacts or keep them up to date, it's time to rethink. We can see that the CRM itself is missing all sorts of interesting data. So we have been doing this now for a decade and we've never found a company with more than 70% of their active relationships in CRM. And usually it's less than 50%. And so we need to stop relying on humans logging their activity and creating contacts. And by

02:17doing, by taking that responsibility away from them, the CRM becomes a much more complete and accurate place to spend time. So automating the logging of activity, creating contacts, doing all that on their behalf, making sure that it becomes a system of record that includes all the data that you need is key. For what it's worth, we have an engine that you can turn on and it'll solve all that in seven days.

Step 2: Relationship Scoring and Its Impact on Win Rates

Guy Rubin

02:41We also know that it's that of the records, we see a lot of companies still talking about the value of having a large database. But then when we analyze the data we can see that there really is no relationship with 98% of the contacts they registered in the CRM. So there is no relationship there. They shouldn't be in the CRM. You shouldn't be focusing on how big the database is but about maintaining the relationships you have.

03:02And then we see that we can take away all this busy work, all these distractions for the sales team by taking away all that admin burden away from them and solving the data issues. So once we've got a process in place that's managing the data on their behalf, the next big challenge is about understanding what relation what the impact of relationships are on revenue. And this is one of the single biggest things you can do is

How Ebsta Scores Engagement and Benchmarks Deals

Guy Rubin

03:27drive activity and relationship strength. So because we the nature of what we do is we score every relationship a business has out of 100. And it's not unusual to end a sales process with an engagement score of between sixty and eighty, a good level of engagement. Okay. What we can see here is that you can 3x your win rates by increasing the engagement from good to great, okay. And so when you've got late stage multi threaded

03:51deals, let's get the sales team engaging, put leaning in. And if the C suite can help, can have a big impact on the win rates.

04:03So engagement is so we take a feed of your call records, your email traffic, your calendar events, your CRM and we and things like inbound is worth a lot more than outbound, the velocity of engagement, so the number of activities going back and and forth and the strength and momentum of engagement. So

04:24we yes, so we're able to tell you and what we do is when we onboard a customer, we'll go back over the last four quarters and find all the momentum that you had on deals that you closed in the past to really understand how much engagement you had so that you can start to build a benchmark. We can also see it has a big impact on sales cycle as well. It reduces sales cycle. If you've got

04:43good high levels of engagement, you can reduce the time it to close a deal.

Step 3: Engaging the Right Stakeholders at the Right Time

Guy Rubin

04:49We also know that engaging with the right people at the right time is key. So this historical analysis we do when we onboard a customer will show you what the optimal sales cycle actually looks like because it's not always about engaging with the economic buyer in stage one of the sales process. More often than not there's a lot of value in getting momentum with a key stakeholder a key influencer to get those deals over the line.

05:12So really understanding that the impact of having getting the right engagement with the right stakeholders at the right time, you can really boost the speed in which deal is closed by 170%.

05:26Then it's all about helping reps with this with a much more

Step 4: Data-Driven Pipeline Reviews Inside the CRM

Guy Rubin

05:33structured and data driven approach to the way that they review their pipeline. So what we're looking at here is a dashboard we use. We have within the product. It's actually inside in this case inside Salesforce or inside HubSpot. And what we can see instantly is the impact of using a qualification metric on revenue is 3x. Okay, so we want to see them using this qualification metric. We bring it up here as part of the review process.

05:58But if they're not filling that information in then they're not, then we're not going to be able to capture it and we can't report on it. We can also see that it's the well, I'll move on to the next slide and we can see what else we've got here. So we can also see that there are you need to identify the factors that are helping you close more deals. And again, you've got the data. It all

06:21sits within your business. It's just in the wrong place. Okay, so it might be sitting in the mailboxes, calendars, the CRM, but what we need to do is bring it together and make it visual, right? So how many stakeholders should you be engaging within the different types of sales cycles that you're running, okay. And knowing that means that when the salesperson tells you how great they're doing and leave me alone, the deal will definitely happen, you're

06:40able to say them well, I'm pleased you're doing well, but look, if we have one more stakeholder involved, could double our win rates. Or if the engagement with the CFO was gone from 27 to 53, we could reduce the sales cycle by thirty days. So knowing the data so you can use it to drive the activities that you want is absolutely vital.

06:59But there are other data points you should be considering as well. Different businesses work in different ways, but understanding the impact of intent, impact of product usage, for example, on renewals or even if you've got a free trial is really key. So trying to understand the signals that drive revenue is vital.

07:16So as part of the quarterly insight reports we deliver our customers, we also give them a breakdown of every rep within the business. We'll give you a kind of a traffic light signal on how they're pacing. So understanding how much coverage every rep needs to hit quota and is that pacing upwards or downwards quarter on quarter. Understanding the DNA of the deals really, really gives you the data you need to be able to have proper reviews

Step 5: Identifying the Factors That Drive Closed Won Deals

Guy Rubin

07:38of which reps should you be keeping, promoting and which ones aren't working out. If without the data, it's all gut feel. And a good example of that is here. So, what you can see is two different deals that are that look identical on the outside, okay? But when we start to dive into the deals, we find they're not identical at all. What we find is that actually one deal has only had one activity in the last

08:02seven days while the other has had six. One deal has the opportunity amounts decreased and one's increased. So understanding the granular detail behind every deal and having it in a simple easy to use dashboard in the CRM means that you are able to see very quickly the deals at risk. Because from the analysis we've done, only 30% of the opportunities opened close won. And the deals that closed lost spend twice as long in pipe as deals

08:27that closed won. Now how expensive is that? How much inefficiency is that in the sales process? So if we can reduce the time spent on deals that aren't going to close, can we have a material impact on the productivity of the sales team.

08:40So when you get to your pipeline reviews, these are the seven questions you should be asking. And you should be able to do this from a single dashboard inside your CRM, okay? And if you're not using something like this and you're relying on spreadsheets, it's time to step up to this type of platform. Really getting everything in one place, having a consistent way to digest everything, consistency is key if you want to run experiments and start

09:02to make improvements because small incremental improvements lead to exponential results.

Step 6: Forecasting Aligned to Individual Contributors

Guy Rubin

09:09Happy to share the deck afterwards if anyone wants to connect with me.

09:14And then finally, aligning the teams to this data driven forecasting approach. Okay. What we want to do is have make it super easy for the individual contributors to update their forecast in real time anytime. Not once a week as a task they have to do before they leave for work on a Friday afternoon. We And want it to be consistent and easy for them to digest. And it should be visual. You can see here, for example,

09:37a summary of what's happened this week. Where were we at the beginning of the week? What positive things happened? What negative things happened? All of that's easy to digest and it makes it super easy for the team to submit their own forecast. And the data will tell you what we think the forecast will be and then we can see how they deviate from that number. But once the reps done it, we make it easy for the

09:56managers to also submit, they make the changes and submit their forecast up to the board and then it goes to the senior management. So that's it. Those are the seven steps that I think you should be thinking about when you're trying to build this data driven sales team. Thank you very much for all of your time.

10:15Thank you, thank you. Happy

Q&A: Pushback from Sales Reps and Coaching vs. Combat

Nathan Latka

10:19to answer questions. You've got my email address there if you want to or connect with me on LinkedIn. Happy to share the deck. We've also got that you can download the report itself on the front page of our website which is ebsta.com.

10:33Any questions? Thank you very much.

Guy Rubin

10:38Do you get pushback from the sales guys? Everyone wants to win. So the sales guys

10:47want to, will always be defensive in their one to one, right? And you end up with this combative experience where the sales guys are telling you how great they're doing and the managers are telling you that they don't think the deals are good enough to complete. What we need to do is move away from that into a much more coaching experience, okay, where you're showing them graphically, okay. Frankly, the sales guys and most of the sales

Nathan Latka

11:07managers aren't particularly strategic in their thinking. So what we need to do is make it simple, give them graphics and pictures to understand the influence of different outcomes. So if we want them to engage with more stakeholders rather than just having this debate of, oh, they all love me. I've spoken to everyone I need to. Leave me alone. That's great. But look, if you have one more stakeholder involved, can double our win rates. Understanding the impact

11:31of momentum and engagements. If the rep's telling you how great they're doing but no one's actually spoken to anyone at the C Suite or hasn't actually engaged with a customer in the last fourteen days, you know that that's not real. But you need to have the data at your fingertips to be able to have that collaborative conversation. And ultimately, the history that you've got in your business will give us the data we need to benchmark what

11:51good looks like.

Q&A: Where Relationship Intelligence Works and Where It Does Not

Nathan Latka

12:10It's a really good question. So the more complex the deal, the more stakeholders involved, the more momentum you need. Where this doesn't work is transaction based businesses. Okay, so if you're a consumer company or you're selling sneakers, you don't need to maintain relationships over time. Okay, anything that's B2B, your the DNA of the SMB team is going be different to the DNA of the enterprise team, but the data behind it is going be just as valid,

12:39okay? And so the you may have different go to market strategy. So the quarterly insight reports we deliver as well as the platform will give you the DNA all the way down not just individual teams or products but down to individual contributors. So you can see how they're all pacing over time, are they moving in the right direction or has something gone wrong where they're trending in the wrong direction.

13:03Did you have a question?

Guy Rubin

14:01Again, I think it's down to the qualification metrics. So are you qualifying the customer well enough? Are you asking which stakeholders need to be involved in different stages of the sales cycle? Are you being descriptive about what the journey to buy looks like? And so they're able to give you visibility of who that needs to be involved in their business from their side. But also

15:10Yes. Look, we're talking about businesses that are still in horse and cart. And we can talk about getting to a Formula One car, but what if we can get you from a horse and cart into a family saloon first, right? And actually,

15:25the impact you can have by being data driven is huge. And these small incremental improvements as you go have exponential results.

Q&A: Multithreading and Analyzing Closed Won and Lost Deals

Nathan Latka

16:00Well, I think there's different things about multithreading. So multithreading top of the funnel has a different impact. But again, what I'd be interested to understand is how many close one deals have you done in the last year or two, for example? 14 since the start of this year. Okay. All right. I'm In short terms, I can tell you about 2023. Right. And before that, maybe another 30 or 40 deals last year? Yes, roughly. Okay. So

Guy Rubin

16:28let's say we can analyze 50 deals that have closed won. There's probably another 150 that closed lost. Okay.

16:39Well, that's good, right? Closing, it's the second best outcome.

16:47Yes,

16:56understood. Well

17:00the DNA the understanding how multi threaded you need to be at different stages is key here, okay? Understanding at the top of the funnel is one thing, but and knowing which entry point is giving you the best outcome is important. So let's do the analysis on the 50 deals that have closed won and lost and the 100 that lost as well. So and if there are the data will tell us whether being too multi threaded at

17:23the early stages is having a negative effect. But we can also have a look at the positive impact of being multi threaded at stage two or three or four. When should the CFO get involved? Is it at what stage gives you the optimal outcome and how much engagement do you need with the CFO? And who within your business should be engaging with the CFO at that stage? Which is having the best outcome. And the data you've

Closing: Using Historical Deal Data as a Playbook

Guy Rubin

17:42got within your business, the analysis that we can do on not what they've chosen to log in CRM, but the actual activity that took place, the emails that took place, the calls that took place, the meetings that took place. By analyzing that data, we can show you what good looked like for different types of deals and you can start to use that as a playbook and evolve it as you go. Very good.

Nathan Latka

18:05Then it was a worthwhile presentation, right? Thank you very much.