The Secret Ingredient to a Productive Sales Deal Review

Whether you are coming off a great quarter or an average one, the next sales team QBR session is likely looming on your calendar.

If you’re a sales rep, you are probably thinking:

• Do I have enough pipeline to hit my number this quarter?
• Will my peers have a stronger forecast?
• Have I prepared adequately to answer the questions I’ll get from leadership?
• Where can I find all the data I need for my presentation?
• Have I done everything in my power to win these opportunities?
• How will I get caught off guard?

If you’re a sales leader, you’re probably thinking:

• Will the team show up energized and prepared?
• Will they help each other and stay engaged throughout the session?
• How do I make this a positive experience for everyone in the room?
• How can I find and use data on opportunity health to drive the discussion?
• What are the trends from last quarter and how will we improve?

We all fear the dreaded “deal update” presentation. The one where we spend 30 minutes talking about everything that’s happened already, and almost no time brainstorming new ideas and moving the deal forward. So much time wasted…

How to make these meetings more effective

The smartest sales teams are leveraging data to eliminate the need for this backstory on every deal. We’re not talking about basic activity data…we’re talking about the good stuff. Something we call buyer energy.

Let’s take Jerry Seinfeld for example. Jerry is a master of his craft and he writes thousands of jokes, but how does he know if they are great? He measures the impact of those jokes by listening to the crowd. The more people he engages and the more laughs he gets are both great indicators of a well written, well delivered joke.

He wouldn’t get very far by just writing more jokes than his peers. He needs to focus on quality and measure feedback. And the same goes for sales.

Buyer energy is the most important indicator of success

You can send hundreds of emails, but if you aren’t generating a response from multiple people, then you aren’t likely to be successful.

SEE ALSO: Buyer Energy – The Real Measure of Sales Effectiveness 

Using our AI platform, we’ve analyzed thousands of wins and losses to uncover answers to important questions, identify win/loss trends, and recommend the best next step for the sales rep.

Energy Score is comprised of the following components:

• How many people on the buyer side are engaging with your communication (email, phone, meetings, social, etc)?
• Are you regularly engaging the champion, decision maker, and key influencers? In other words, have you identified and built consensus with the right set of personas?
• How often is the buying team engaging and at what velocity (are responses increasing as you approach your forecasted close date)?
• How many people on your team are involved in the deal, and are they also earning a response?
• If you are sending content, how is that being consumed by the buying team?

Want to learn more about Accent’s Sales AI and opportunity scoring? Request a live demo to see it in action.

Next Steps:

So instead of starting the next deal review with, “Tell us about the opportunity…”

The conversation should start with things like, “I’ve reviewed the energy score data on this account, and I see you’ve engaged 5 different stakeholders in this opportunity. Only two of them have maintained consistent engagement with you in the past 30 days. Why do you think that is?”

OR

“When looking at deals we’ve won this year, we know that it’s critical to engage legal and procurement at least 30 days before it will close. I see you haven’t engaged them. Do you think close date should be adjusted?”

Once you have this level of analysis, it’s hard to live without it. Not only because it delivers more accurate forecasting, but also because it impacts the behaviors of the entire sales team and results in a higher win rate, higher ACV, and the one thing that really matters – more revenue.

Oh, if you’re still reading this, I’ll leave you with a Jerry classic:

“I will never understand why they cook on TV. I can’t smell it. Can’t eat it. Can’t taste it. At the end of the show they hold it up to the camera. Well, here it is. You can’t have any. Thanks for watching. Goodbye.”

Now go improve that energy score!