Beyond Sales Quota: What Keeps Decision Makers Up at Night?

[ 2-3 min read ]

Did you know that, “Only 17% of sales professionals working at companies with more than 250 reps are satisfied with their visibility on their sales pipeline.”

It is no secret that B2B sales leaders spend their days and nights thinking of ways to help their teams make their numbers. However, is quota achievement the only thing that keeps them up at night? 

Cien’s Global Study: The Future of Sales is built on ways to help sales teams make their numbers while improving their performance. Many times, competing priorities leave sales teams wondering where to focus attention. Also, today’s sales leaders face several pressing matters that impact the way they work, revealing common attitudes, perceptions and behaviors among sales professionals.

Sales Leaders Want Greater Internal and External Visibility.

Sales leaders across all segments feel that having more visibility on their pipeline is their biggest priority (45%). Nowadays, it is common to struggle with the right level of visibility to improve team performance. 

Furthermore, according to Harvard Business Review, 44% of executives think their organization is ineffective at managing their sales pipeline. This negative perception is striking, as there is a direct correlation between effective pipeline management and revenue growth.

Moreover, sales leaders also demand a greater understanding of their macro-environment to deal with issues such as seasonality and competitive moves (25%), especially in companies with smaller sales teams.
Knowing how sales people act (16%) or feel (15%), as well as what motivates them and what impacts team morale were often cited as critical points. This is especially true for leaders that do not use Salesforce.

Given that a sales team’s pipeline visibility usually only scratches the surface, companies are usually sitting on top of large amounts of CRM data. Because of this, their data can often become inconsistent, incomplete and inaccurate.

With AI, leaders can see more than just activities, leads and opportunities. AI enables leaders to understand many “hidden” factors (i.e. lead and pipeline, people and macro conditions) that contribute to success, revealing their CRM’s innermost secrets.

How Does Cien.ai Help?

We help uncovering the elements that have the greatest impact on the sales performance of your team. Cien.ai uses machine learning and natural language processing to measure the human element in sales and provides actionable data-driven insights into sales management.

By relying on data rather than hunches, leaders can discover the true drivers of sales and detect which factors have a tangible impact on their team’s performance.

Acting on Cien’s recommendations, you can realize the remaining 20-40% of your sales team’s ​Hidden Revenue. ​In other words, reaching 100% of your team’s potential.

About the Author 

Rob Käll is an accomplished entrepreneur with 3 Successful MM exits in 10 Years. His latest startup, Cien, 

Cien.ai is for tech sales leaders who want to improve Sales Performance accountability & progress. The AI tools help you understand and improve rep, manager, and lead gen effectiveness, even for companies with imperfect CRM data. 

 A versatile leader that has served as Startup CEO, Corporate Exec and Technical Founder, Rob advocates a scientific approach to sales and marketing alignment. Connect with Rob on Linkedin and Twitter.