6 TIPSTO STREAMLINE YOUR SALESCYCLE AND INCREASE REVENUEYour guide to the tech and practices deployedby high-performing sales teams

INTRODUCTION

BUILDING A MORE EFFECTIVE
AND EFFICIENT SALES OPERATION
In increasinglycompetitive market
conditions, how
do you acceleratemarket share anddrive growth?

The goods and services you sell are obviously key factors — as aremarket positioning, targeting, and communications strategy — but
so are your sales operations. So, how do you make sure sales aren’t
missed, leads progress effectively, and that you capitalize on theright opportunities?
As a sales leader, you’re always under pressure to reach targets,and these numbers only increase as organizations demand growth
to validate investment or satisfy shareholders. But which levers do
you pull to make sure you hit that number? What tactics, tools, andstrategies do you have at your disposal to help find the incremental
gains you need?
In the words of Scott Ingram, Founder and CEO of Sales SuccessMedia, “What’s perfect for one company won’t be for everyone else.
Different industries and buyers need different things, and one thing
doesn’t work for everyone.”That’s why we’ve put together this guide, highlighting a range ofdifferent ways that high-performing sales leaders are tackling theirchallenges, streamlining their sales cycles, and increasing revenue.
Read on to find out how these tools and technologies can help you.

CONTENTS

TIP 1

AUTOMATE SALES PROSPECTINGTIP 2

SCALE YOUR EMAIL OUTREACH

TIP 3

IMPROVE YOUR DEAL VISIBILITY

TIP 4

IMPLEMENT CHATBOTS AND LIVE CHATTIP 5

ELIMINATE PAPERWORK

TIP 6

BUILD A TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEMCONCLUSION

TRANSFORM SALES AND DEPLOY THE
RIGHT TOOLS TO DELIVER GROWTH

TIP 1

AUTOMATE SALES PROSPECTING
Sales is often seen as a“numbers game”: the more
people you speak to, themore opportunities you find.
Crucial to this approach isproper sales prospecting.
Large enterprises deploy
huge teams of sales
representatives whose corejob is to create a databaseof prospects and speak to as
many of them as possible —all in the hopes of convertingthem into customers.

One way to speed up thisprocess and keep it efficientis to deploy an automateddialer. Automated dialing
technology delivers
tremendous productivity
gains, and is particularly
effective if you have a shortsales cycle or you’re selling acommodity.

AUTODIALER
3000

300
Boost productivity up to%

Increased agent
efficiency
By eradicating the need tosearch and manually input
phone numbers, automateddialers increase every sales
agent’s talk time per hour.
The very best dialers cansave time with automatedvoicemail drop.

with auto dialing

This ensures agents don’t
have to repeat the same
voicemail over and overagain. It also allows forconsistency and the ability to
be as convincing as possible.

Increasing quantity doesn’t have to impact quality:

Auto dialing systems can be configured
to ensure warm leads are contacted first.

According to Hostcomm,a predictive dialer
software provider, there is
a 200-300% productivity
boost per hour in an
auto dialing environment
compared to a manual
prospecting process.

Identifying whereto improve
Of course, it’s important toconsider not only if a tool
works well, but how efficiently
it integrates with the rest of
your systems and data. Withouta holistic view, it’s difficult toassess just how much value atool is bringing to your entire
sales cycle.
Automated dialers are typicallyintegrated with your CRM, sothey automatically track andlog all activity against existing
records in your platform of
choice.

They may also take voicerecordings of your customer
interactions so every call
can be used for training
purposes, too.
That means you, as a sales
leader, can get a detailed
overview of team performanceas well as all the data andmaterial you need to makethe right improvements to yourapproach — and ultimately
drive better outcomes.

TIP 2SCALE YOUR EMAIL OUTREACH
Every salesperson wants tomaximize his or her number ofleads. But those leads, once
captured, also need to be
nurtured.
Though it’s vital, the actual
process of nurturing leads —booking meetings, sending
follow-ups, and chasing down
sales decks and contracts —is repetitive, time-consuming,and offers little return on
effort. No team leader wants
to see their employees andsystems so occupied dealing
with mundane tasks that they
don’t have time to spend on
further prospecting.

It’s something Mary Grothe,
CEO of House of Revenue, isall too familiar with.

“So-called ‘$10-an-hour-tasks’
are a huge time sink for sales
professionals, and it’s detrimental
for their companies, too. Having
a highly qualified employee
spending hours doing data entry
just isn’t efficient.”

A Simple Solution:
Email outreach tools can play animportant role here. Not only are they
a powerful ally in managing increasing
customer numbers — allowing you to
automate the next stage in the sales
process after an initial engagement —they also free your team from hours ofmanual, low-return tasks.

“While I’d say that not
every tech is right for every
business all of the time,
automating mundane
tasks that just slow people
down is a win-win inpractically every scenario.”
Mary GrotheCEO, HOUSE OF REVENUE

Managing prospectvolumes at scale
The best outreach tools factor
in both digital and physicaloutreach tactics. They'realso capable of ensuring thatengaged leads surface for
immediate contact.

Email outreach tools like
automated outbound emails
allow you to really scale yoursales operations. They enable
sales teams to significantly
increase the number of people
they engage with personallywith little extra effort.
In practice, this means thatrather than salespeople
manually pulling together
countless, nearly identicalemails (with similar
attachments), prospects
simply drop into a pre-defined
nurture stream with a carefully
defined cadence. This
ensures that they get what
they need, but frees up sales
teams to focus their efforts onother tasks that bring more
immediate value.

Here are a few tools we'veseen get the job done:

SENT!

Prospect.io

Mailshake

MixMaxSnowflake, a cloud-built data storage
and analytics service, deployed anoutreach tool to deliver a unified
message across a global sales development team. The comprehensive
visibility into the performance of the
program subsequently ensured every
step could be evaluated, tweaked,
and improved.

Using data to shorten
the sales cycle
The benefits of automatedemail outreach go beyond justbetter customer interactions.
Automated emailing canprovide sales leaders withcomprehensive data thathelps their teams adjust andoptimize every element of thesales cadence. These outreachprograms use automated tools
to provide in-depth data on
the efficacy of each and every
step they take.

Whether it’s evaluating howeach message resonates withyour prospects, or focusing
on a particular approach thatworks best for them, dataled optimization can create
a positive feedback loopthat accelerates sales cycles
significantly.

“

Being able to drill into Outreach’s
metrics is so much easier for us
to really figure out what part of
the Sequences are converting at
the highest rate, so we can makeadjustments very quickly. We’re using
Outreach every day to examine themessaging that people are sending.
Are they sending it to the rightpeople? How are they converting
over different types of touches? It is
the place we go to make sure ourteam is efficient and how we figureout what parts of their process we
can optimize or automate.”

Nicolette Mullenix

HEAD OF GLOBAL SALES DEVELOPMENT,SNOWFLAKETIP 3

IMPROVE YOUR DEAL VISIBILITY
Though it’s called a sales
team, how sales reps convert
prospects into customers canbe somewhat of a black box
hidden within an individual
sales rep’s experience. Often,
as a sales leader, all you know
is that an opportunity exists andwhether that opportunity waswon or lost. But why it was won
or lost, you never really know.
The thing is, if you can’t tell
how your team is converting(or tanking) deals, you
can’t help them get better.
And improving your team’s
performance is a sure-fire path
to a faster sales cycle andmore revenue. But how?

To really understand theimpact you’re having, youneed to be crystal clear on
what you are measuring
and pick the right KPIs. It’s
easy for companies to getso caught up in measuring
hundreds of different data
points that they lose sight of
their aims.
But to get there, you first needvisibility into exactly how yoursales team operates.

Sophisticated sales training process
tools capture all of your reps’ calls, demo
videos, and outreach emails to giveyou visibility into exactly how deals areprogressing. Tools like Gong use what’s
called “conversational intelligence” torecord and analyze these interactions. For
example, they can identify if a competitor
is mentioned, how a discount is handled,
or any common objections that are raised.

CONVERSATIONALINTELLIGENCE(noun)

Software that uses artificial
intelligence (AI) to analyze
speech or text in order toderive data-driven insightsfrom conversations between
sales agents and customers.

Greater insight =improved results
With all this extra insight into
how your sales reps handle
specific situations, you’ll beable to see which parts ofyour process work and where
things break down. This offers
valuable insights into bothwhat your customers like andhow your reps are performing.
Armed with these valuable
insights, you can train othersales reps on techniquesthat convert more prospects
while backing it up with
examples and advice from
specific situations. With all theinformation to operate more
effectively through the sales
process, reps are not only
empowered to close moredeals, but they understandhow to close them faster, too.

Sales reps save hours
in reporting
You don’t want your reps
wasting hours writing up sales
call synopses and progress
reports to let you know how
deals are progressing. That’s
where these sales process
tools save you time.

They automatically capture
sales information so yourteam can focus on what’s
important — selling.

TIP 4IMPLEMENT CHATBOTS & LIVE CHAT
Sales professionals know
the importance of making
the best possible impression
on customers wheneverthey can. After all, a brand’s
website can be one of themost persuasive interactions
a visitor has.
But it’s important to start
off on the right foot. While
it’s tempting to go straightin with a sell, a site visitor
could be there for any
number of reasons.

Deciphering that reason can
be challenging, even with thehelp of an analytics platform.
Engaging a visitor directly— rather than looking at theanalytics — can be a criticalstep in turning them into aqualified lead.

With chatbot technology,
you can complement yourexisting analytics witha better understandingof your visitor’s intent.
By engaging directlywith potential leads andanswering any questions
they may have, you’recreating a valuable
two-way interaction
while offering a slice ofcustomer experiencethat can push a potential
prospect over the line.

Capturing sales at the
moment of truth
In addition to helping you
better engage and understandexisting prospects, chatbots
can also increase revenue
by connecting with prospects
that may have otherwise
left without completing atransaction. By making themost of this moment of truthin the sales cycle, chatbots
can uplift the total conversion
rates from your website.
Scott Ingram is clear about
the benefits of chatbots whenused correctly. “Think about
your own behavior. I myself
use chatbots all the time — I
don’t want to wait for hours, fillin a form, or leave information
to get someone to give you acall back later just to getsome basic information,”
Ingram explains.
“Customers have questions andwant answers, and the sooner
you get that answer, the better.
If a chatbot can give thoseanswers, then putting one inplace just makes sense.”

The best chatbots will
integrate seamlessly withyour marketing automation
platform, giving you thechance to identify returning
visitors and show themdifferent messages or journeypaths. That personalized
touch can make all thedifference in shortening thesales cycle.

“

Chatbots automate these allimportant first interactions.
After a lead asks you aquestion, bots become yourtrusty sidekick in asking asmall set of initial questions
that will help you qualify
the value of that lead andkeep the conversation going.
By letting a bot take careof those tedious tasks,
salespeople can reinvest
their time in activities that
require a human touch, likeanswering complex productquestions and building lasting
business relationships.”

Geoffrey Keating

SENIOR EDITOR AT INTERCOM, A WORLDLEADING CUSTOMER PLATFORM FOR INTERNET
BUSINESSES AND A PROMINENT ADVOCATE FOR
AUTOMATION

Give your sales teama sidekick
Sales can sometimes feellike a lonely job — being
expected to find leads,
manage the sales cycle, build
a relationship, and bring all
the relevant parties throughthe process until a contract
has been signed.

With a chatbot, you can give
your sales team a sidekick
that helps remove some of
the more monotonous sales
tasks and surfaces the salesready prospects, freeing up
the revenue generators inyour team to focus on morevaluable tasks.

%

TIP 5

ELIMINATE DOCUMENT ADMIN
With so much prospecting todo (along with countless calls,
demos, follow-ups, and inperson meetings to keep trackof), sales teams have a lot ofwork on their plates. The lastthing they need is a logjam of
documents to deal with.
Signing and returning paper
documents is incredibly slow
— just ask any employee
that’s had to wait hours
in line at a post office tosend one document. But

underdeveloped eSignature
tools can be just as clunky,
often requiring tediousformatting and third-party
sign-ups.
Any worthwhile eSignature
tool lightens the workload forbusy salespeople by not only
removing physical paper fromdocument-signing workflows,
but also streamlining timeconsuming digital adminthat’s a massive disruption to
the sales cycle.

It used to take about four weeks to get revenue-generating
documents signed and completed. Now, using HelloSign for
Salesforce CPQ, we get signed documents back 33% faster.”– E V E R E T T LY N N , C E O, A M E N I F Y

faster time to close sales
using HelloSign for Salesforce%
faster time torevenue recognition

Amenify is a B2B network created
to streamline contract management
between multi-family properties andin-home service providers.
Managing multi-sided contracts in theirrelational database was challenging,as industry turnover requires contracts
to be updated frequently (e.g.,changing variables like address,
pricing, shipping, and billing).
To scale its client portfolios, Amenify
needed a digital transaction
management solution.
Amenify deployed HelloSign for
Salesforce and saw a 33% faster time
to close sales and a 25% faster time torevenue recognition.

Turn aroundcontracts fasterOne of the most frustrating
aspects of sharing contracts
at the end of a long sales
cycle is the lack of visibility.

Teams members areleft guessing:? Where is the contract?
long will it take to? How
get signed?
they even receive? Did
the contract?

But more than simply asource of deal anxiety, alack of visibility often drives
salespeople to pester
prospects — further wasting
their time and damaging thechances of a sale.
Delays and pestering are notjust meaningless frustrations,either.

They can be the downfall
of a good deal. As per
Scott Ingram, “Time kills
deals. Every time you add a
step, your odds of successdecrease, so you absolutely
have to speed it up.”With eSignature tools you candraw up contracts, send themout for signature, and receive
them back, signed, in just a
few clicks — and all this canbe done without ever leaving
your CRM.
In addition, any eSignature
tool worth its weight will leavea trail of digital breadcrumbs
for the sales team so they cansee exactly when a contract
has been received, opened,signed, and returned.

“

$

$

$

Time kills deals.
Every time you add
a step, your odds ofsuccess decrease, so
you absolutely haveto speed it up."Scott Ingram
FOUNDER & CEO, SALES SUCCESS MEDIA

Save days fromyour sales cycles
By automating and digitizing
the contract process, you
can eliminate lengthy delays
from the sales cycle and clear
mundane administrative tasks
from your sales professionals’
to-do lists.

Drafting, storing, anddistributing contracts andother legal documents
directly from your CRM
eliminates days from the sales
cycle. And, most importantly,
you can accelerate your time
to revenue.

Automation leads to less administrative
tasks for your sales professionals.

TO-DO

eSignature tools
leave a trail of digital
breadcrumbs foryour sales team to
track contracts.

TIP 6

BUILD A TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM
Contacting and engaging
prospects is a critical moment inany sales process. Dependingon your team’s structure,various tools are useful at
different stages of the cycle.
It’s vital that whatever tools
you use integrate seamlessly
with your sales productivity andenablement tools. Not only will
they boost your capabilities,
but they'll also provide critical
data that can further enhanceyour operations.

?

Operating an inboundsales team?
You need an intelligent
way to distribute thoseleads to your team.

?

Running an outboundprospecting team?
You’ll likely need dialers
and other automatedoutreach tools to help
drive productivity.

Benefits of an integrated
ecosystem:
Transactional efficiency

Build a sales system
While tech, tools, andapplications are important,they’re far less effective without
the right planning and necessary
systems to support them. To
get the most out of your sales
teams, you need to create
systems that make it easier forthem to do what they are goodat — and free them from tasks
that distract and delay them.
Mary Grothe offers some choice
words on how she approaches
this planning process.

Grothe continues, “If you
can map out inefficiencies incurrent sales processes andsales cycles, and get teams
to agree on which issues
are the most significant andwhich tech solutions would
have the best results, you canquickly neutralize naysayers,
eliminate confusion, smooth
adoption, and ultimately get
the best results for both yourteams and your customers.”“My advice? Create a sales matrix. It
allows you to get aligned with yourteam, see all the issues you face,and really understand the problems
you’re trying to solve.”

Optimize processes and build
integrated systems to gain real-timeinsights across your sales platforms.

Process optimization

Whether payment reconciliationor hire-to-retire, faster and more
effective processes are critical tostaying ahead of the competition anddelivering growth.

CX transformation

A great customer experience is the
bedrock of a successful business,and it begins with the marketing andsales cycle.

Predictive & prescriptive
Integrated ecosystems unlock
technological advancements thatrevolutionize sales practices andcustomer experiences.

CONCLUSION

TRANSFORM YOUR SALESOPERATIONS & DELIVER GROWTH
Evaluate your sales
processes, maximize
efficiency, and be
open-minded to newtechnology.

With so many levers to pull as a sales leader, it can be difficult toknow precisely where to start.
That’s why it’s important to evaluate all of your sales processes andperformances, and be open-minded around tools and technology thatcan really help you drive value.
One way to start is by stripping away lengthy and physical processes
from the sales cycle. Not only will it make your sales cycle more
efficient, but it’ll also improve the experience for salespeople andfuture customers alike.
Beyond simple tools, if you put in the work to understand precisely
how your processes flow — and work with your technology teams to
implement a system designed to power the right attitudes, behaviors,
productivity, and results — you're far more likely to drive the sales
you need.

ABOUT HELLOSIGN
HelloSign, a Dropbox company, simplifies work for millions ofindividuals. Customers all over the world trust the HelloSign platform— which includes eSignature, digital workflow, and electronic fax
solutions with HelloSign, HelloWorks, and HelloFax — to automate
and manage their most important business transactions. For more
information, visit http://www.hellosign.com.