Tim Bertrand SVP, WW Sales

Summary •  Funnel management •  Dissect/analyze how a deal gets into your funnel •  Build a validated sales process •  Measure, Measure, Measure

Funnel Management - Opportunity Creation • 

Sales Generated

Leads

SDR MQLs

Sales Accepted

Lead • ISR/SDR

Sales Qualified

Lead

• Account Exec

ISR Responsibilities -  Pipeline Generation -  High % of Qualified

Opportunities -  Assist with deal closure

within territory -  Prepare to move into

quota carrying role

SDR Responsibilities -  Pipeline Generation -  Qualify Opportunities -  Territory Focused

Account Executive + EMEA ISR Responsibilities Qualify Opportunity -  Salesforce.com Opportunity creation

and stage management -  Manage deal to closure

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Sales Accountability: Set SLA’s

• 

Sales  Qualified  -­‐>  

ISR  Accepts    

Sales  SLAs  •   1  hour  call  back  on  MQLs  (during  working  hours)  •  2  weeks  in  Sales  Accepted  with  clear  next  steps  •  Sales  Accepted  for  more  than  2  weeks  requires  approval  •  Sales  Qualified  means  it  is  in  pipeline  review  process  •  Qualified  -­‐>  Closed  Won  conversion  rate  will  be  

benchmarked  •  Follow  up  on  MQLs  for  top  25  prospects  in  your  region  

2  weeks  

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Sales Execution -  Weekly pipeline review -  Territory Planning -  Deep Dive Account Reviews -  Regular review of KPIs -  Pursuit Drills -  Funnel Management - Deal ownership & management

Sales Pipeline Managem

ent

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Deep Discovery

Pursuit drills

Vision to Close

“The qualifying test”

Discovery Letter A “Discovery Letter” should be sent within 24 hours of a possible

opportunity interaction. It typically contains the essence of the conversation that occurred during the sales call along with a

proposed set of next steps. A common structure is:

• A detailed description of the sales person’s understanding of the need and what is driving the need

• A description of the timetable, budget, and approval process • Re-cap of any recommendation you made • A list of open questions that were not answered (and may have been

tabled for off line discussion during the meeting) • A list of agreed upon next steps and owners. This list is one of the

best ways to push things forward, especially if there are due dates attached to each next step.

• A discovery letter MUST BE VALIDATED / ACKNOWLEDGED by prospect

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The Qualifying Test Account Executives should feel comfortable moving their opportunity from Prospect to Qualified when you can answer YES to the following questions: •  Do they have a problem?

ü  Be able to identify the pain ü  Be able to identify the business impact of the pain

•  Can we provide a solution that solves this problem? ü  Be able to identify the solution

•  Is the problem compelling and are they planning to take action? ü  Be able to determine timeframe for a decision

•  Do we have access to key decision makers? ü  Identify key decision makers

•  Do they have a realistic budget? (is it big enough for Acquia?) You must send a Discovery Letter and get written confirmation from the Prospect stating that they agree with next steps. A “Discovery Letter’ should be sent within 24 hours of every meeting. It typically Contains the essence of the conversation that occurred during the sales call along with a proposed set of next steps

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Example Discovery Letter

James, Thank you for your time today. I now have a much better understanding of your data needs. I have summarized my notes from our conversation. Please let me know if you have any comments / clarifications. CURRENT SITUATION -  ABC company is currently hosting their Drupal site at RackSpace -  Significant user growth has crashed the site five times in the past two months -  The site outages are tarnishing ABC’s brand and the CEO has mandated a fix ASAP -  RackSpace nor ABC have the Drupal expertise to troubleshoot / manage this environment. There is a concern that the site has security flaws -  ABC is looking for a company to provide hosting and application support 7/24 -  The annual budget for hosting and support is $75k. James and his boss will make the vendor decision. NEXT STEPS -  James will complete the hosting questionnaire by ….. -  James and his boss will participate in a 60 minute requirements gathering / validation call with Acquia on ______ -  After this call, Joe will turn a proposal around in 24 hours -  Joe and James walk through the proposal on ______ James, I look forward to working with you on this project. Regards, Joe Salesperson

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Using the Pursuit Drill The template should be completed by a sales rep and VALIDATED by a sales

manager / deal team for any deal that makes into QUALIFIED/BEST. It should also be used as a “gut check” before investing in a formal proposal.

The pursuit drill ensures we answer these kinds of questions: Does the customer have a need? Do we have the right solution? Is this a closable opportunity? Where do we have red flags? What pro-active strategies should we deploy?

Vision to Close •  A vision to close MUST be done AND Validated by

a manager prior to moving a deal into Likely/Commit. Answering theses 3 quick questions can create a roadmap on how to get a deal to closure

•  How do we get business buy-in?

•  Person / what they care about / how we will get them bought in •  How do we get technical buy-in?

•  Person / what they care about / how we will get them bought in •  What is the procurement / legal process and how do we navigate?

Other key tricks to closing deals faster The “Dear John” Internal Selling documents

Dear John

•  You MUST act with edge to understand which deals to focus on •  A “Dear John” will force the customer to confirm that can execute by

your target date OR tell you no •  Should be sent •  Beginning of each Q •  At the end of week 7

•  You all should have an example on google docs (Dear John example) •  “Yes is great, No is ok, maybe is unacceptable”

Internal Selling Document

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If necessary, volunteer to help your champion create an internal selling document for the decision makers that briefly outlines:

The need

Why this need should be addressed now

The options we evaluated

The solution we recommend, and why

The details of the initiative (cost, time frame, etc.)

How this initiative will support the company goals (save money, improve control and visibility, etc.)