Using Data to Drive Changes in Sales w/ Fred Shilmover [Episode 649]

Fred Shilmover, Founder and CEO at InsightSquared, joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Fred says the single biggest challenge facing salespeople today is having a lot of information but not a lot of insight. We have information but need better behavior.
• People overestimate pipeline conversions through. The stage percent is not set. It changes over time. InsightSquared nuances conversion percents by statistics of sales reps and the likelihood of closing in this period.
• Fred talks use cases. For example, individual rep management, ramping, and coaching and pipeline management. Each has its own cadence. The time for coaching is before the sale, not the day of it.
• Fred notes the industrialization of sales and the consumerization of IT, the ongoing transfer of sales from outside to inside, and enabling technologies, such as InsightSquared, that help develop relationships remotely.
• Sales require more of an engineering management style for operations. It balances BDRs and AEs in the pipeline, operating like a factory. Tech creates efficiencies around the human touch that give a rep more time to connect.
• InsightSquared has all the reports you wish your CRM did. Fred talks about the revenue research that went into its development. For ease-of-use, it’s consumer-grade with fast time-to-value. People come to the library of content.
• Fred says they help people with an imperative to change. InsightSquared has worked with thousands of changing organizations. They have tools to diagnose where a company is, in revenue. Fred explains the tools.
• Their ICP is a company who has invested in sales operations and has an imperative to change. More small companies are investing in sales operations. The product users range from executives to sales managers.
• InsightSquared becomes the tool to run pipeline meetings, monthly coaching, and weekly forecasting. It drives the most value when it is embedded into the management workflow with sales operations.
• InsightSquared is in the sales tech stack wherever they can provide value. The sales tech stack is owned by sales operations. The best success is seen when sales leaders who think like engineers pair with sales operations.
• InsightSquared helps allocate people’s time correctly and helps them execute sales plays against the right accounts.
• Analytics identifies trends, finds anomalies, and combines them with an investigation. Focus on the industry that gives the best returns. Sales operations identify the gold.