Building a Sales Tech Stack: The Data-Driven Approach

Ebsta interviewed Kluster Co-Founder & CCO, Rory Brown in a webinar on the data-driven approach to building a sales tech stack. Watch the recording or read our 3 key takeaways below.

1. What stage is your business at?

The precursor to employing any new sales tech in your tech stack is to think about what stage your business is at.

Are you the plucky new business where getting revenue as fast as you can is what it’s all about?

Are you at the stage of building a polished,predictable process-led engine?

Or are you a mature business trying to grow by 6%?

If you’re the plucky new business with limited timeand funds, the first step is setting up a slick, easy way of using your CRM.Set up how your leads work, how your contacts work etc, and don’tovercomplicate things.

A solid definition of an opportunity is alsocrucial at this point. The definition needs to be consistent across the salesteam and wider business. Then, once you start analysing your pipeline you know thedata is reliable.

After that, start at the top of the funnel. When you’re new with limited funds, your salespeople can define whether the business makes it or not. So free up their time by employing tech that can remove manual tasks such as adding a contact.

2. Use your sales funnel metrics

Use your sales funnel metrics to work out what technology you need for your tech stack. Often, people will head straight for the worst conversion rate in the funnel. But it can be far more powerful to look for the greatest difference in conversion rate between salespeople. Take your Qualification to Opp conversion rate for example. Perhaps you’ve got a salesperson who is converting 10%, and another who is converting 65%. This is a warning signal. It tells you that the interpretation of that process is too open. It’s probably not even a process. And this becomes your opportunity to create a process. Technology should be about building those processes.

Analysing your sales funnel metrics in this wayalso highlights coaching opportunities.

3. Drive engagement with new tech through accessibility and visibility

Credibility comes from accessibility and visibility. Salespeople are in a world where they’re constantly being told what to do: hit this KPI, follow this process etc. You can empower them with accessible, visible data so they can understand their performance in relation to any new tech you employ. And as a manager, it’s your job to highlight how the employment of new tech directly relates to their results.

If you’re building credibility before the roll out of new tech, it’s a different conversation. Talk about the expected return and motivate them that way.

Convincing an established salesperson who is bringingin a lot of revenue can be trickier. You need to take a step back and ask themwhy they’re at this business. If they’re here because they’re entwined with thebusiness’ values, they should understand that the business needs a predictablerevenue model to flourish and this new tech is a step towards that.

Measuring success in longer sales cycles usingmetrics

When you're working with long sales cycles, it can be a while before your salespeople receive their commission. To keep motivation and engagement up throughout the sales cycle, set up sub-commission schemes based on metrics higher up the funnel. You can celebrate and gamify metrics such as Opportunities Added or Qualification Calls Attended. Make these celebrations and pats on the back part of the team culture. Then, when it comes to engaging your salespeople to get on board with new tech, link it back to those sub-commission goals.