steve mckenzie - how to run your sales team like a data scientist

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How to Run Your Sales Team Like a Data Scientist

Steve McKenzie

Head of Sales InsightSquared

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Companies that use a scientific approach to sales force effectiveness have found that reps in the lower quartiles show dramatic improvement, with productivity jumps of 200%.

HBR

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“A Company has two kinds of problems

• Not Enough Revenue• And every other kind of problem”

Bob Brennan, CEO Veracode

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• Background in computer science, applications, modeling, statistics, analytics and math

• Strong business acumen with ability to communicate findings to business and IT leaders to

influence how organizations approach business challenges

• Doesn’t just address business problems; they will pick the right problems that have the

most value to the organization

• They are inquisitive. Always exploring, asking questions, doing “what if” analysis,

questioning existing assumptions and processes

IBM

What is a data scientist?

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I’m pretty sure most Sales Leaders are thinking …

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• I’m an artist …..

• I’m good with people …..

• I like people …..

• People like me …..

• I play golf …..

• I take people to ball games …..

• And have steak dinners …..

• I don’t need data …..

C’mon, let’s get real.

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(general blank slide)

Those folks may be approaching …..

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Balance

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Let’s get into it.

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• Involves extracting data from multiple sources

• Running it through an analytics platform

• Creating visualizations of the data

• They will then spend hours cleansing and analyzing the data from multiple angles

• Looking for trends that highlight problems or opportunities

• Any insight is communicated to business with strategy recommendations

Average day of a data scientist

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Remember:

You cannot improve what you cannot measure!

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Big Data

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Big Data vs. Small Data

• Big Data = Machine Generated (IoT)

• Small Data = Human Generated

• As Sales leaders we are focused on Small Data• Data resulting from human efforts

• CRM• Marketing Automation• Telephone Systems

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Cheat your way to becoming a data scientist

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The beauty is…

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Caveat

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For starters: Focus on Performance!

Performance“Doing the things you need to do to get the results you want.”

Result“By-Product of Performance.”

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• Did I have a good day / week / month?

• How did my day compare to yesterday / last week / last month?

• How do I compare to my colleagues?

• Did the changes I made have an impact?

• How am I going to do against my goals?

• How did I do against these goals I set?

• Are the goals correct?

Performance questions

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So how do you do it?

What does taking a data-driven approach to sales look like?

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• The Customer Journey

• Through the eyes of a Sales Leader

• Everything looks like a funnel

• Many things to analyze

• Lets keep it simple

Awareness to Loyalty

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Marketing performing as expected?

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Callers’ performance vs. activity goals?

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Pipeline quality over quantity

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What are my conversion rates?

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What is my sales cycle?

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Are we wasting time on time wasters?

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What deals are at risk?

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Why are we losing?

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Data science allows us to focus on performance

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Results take care of themselves

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• Extracting data from multiple sources

• Running it through an analytics platform

• Creating visualizations of the data

• Spending hours cleansing and analyzing the data from multiple angles

• Looking for trends that highlight problems or opportunities

• Any insight is communicated to business with strategy recommendations

Remember the average day of a data scientist?

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You really can cheat your way to becoming a data scientist

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1. Get support - top to bottom

2. Sell the benefits to all stakeholders - don’t tell … sell

3. Set your S.M.A.R.T goals – know the questions you want answers to

4. Create a culture of transparency – celebrate knowledge

5. Use data to inform all conversations – less opinion more fact

Five step guide

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• Research shows that data driven teams perform better

• It’s not that hard if you know how

• It’s not that hard if you have the tools

• You should do it if you want to improve

• You should just do it!

Summary

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Do it…

Measure it…

Assess it…

Improve it…

Repeat cycle.

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Thank You!

Steve [email protected]