Frontline managers (FLM) play a crucial role in any growing organization. From team leadership and management to coaching and development to operational oversight, FLMs are the linchpin between strategic direction and daily operations.
With all of their many responsibilities, their main goals are quite straightforward:
Create pipeline.
Convert leads into opportunities.
Close deals.
Clari is well-positioned to help FLMs with these “3 Cs” using Inspect for pipeline management, Copilot for conversation intelligence, and Align for tracking buyer collaboration.
Let's break each one down.
Create pipeline using Inspect
Craig Rosenberg, co-founder of TOPO, once said, "Creating and managing an effective B2B sales pipeline involves a blend of strategy, technology, and relentless focus on delivering value to prospects throughout their buying journey."
Easier said than done.
FLMs, regardless of industry, all face similar challenges:
Prioritization: How do I know which deals to focus on? How can we accelerate movement through the pipeline? What resources (time, personnel, budget) are required to pursue each deal effectively?
Opportunity Assessment: Which prospects offer the most potential? How does this prospect align with our strategic goals and priorities? What potential risks are associated with pursuing this opportunity (and how can we mitigate them)?
Time Management: There aren't enough hours in the day to inspect every deal in the pipeline. How can we streamline or automate lower-value activities? How can I prioritize my time to focus on these activities while delegating or minimizing less impactful tasks?
Clari's Inspect provides visibility for FLMs to coach reps more efficiently and effectively on strategy, not just tactics. AI-driven health scores help FLMs better understand where (and when) they should jump into the deal to help push it across the finish line.
Managers can look at Inspect to see how much pipeline coverage they have to get through the quarter and nail all goals. A bit short? Use Inspect to create Groove flows to generate more pipe.
Go from this (L) to Clari (R):
Learn how Maya Connet, Clari's Director of Sales, Commercial, uses Inspect to become a more strategic sales manager.
Gain conversation intelligence and convert using Copilot
FLMs are the ultimate wingman for reps.
The task: Provide the tools and insights (and coaching) to turn prospects into believers, inspire customer confidence, build rock-solid value, and close deals.
But, of course, they face challenges:
- Time management: too many administrative tasks, such as updating CRMs and generating reports
- Revenue leak: breakdowns across your revenue process resulting in revenue earned but not collected
- Forecasting: accurately predicting revenue from quarter to quarter
To name a few.
Clari's answer is our conversation intelligence platform, Copilot.
When a rep struggles to have an informed conversation on a topic -- say objection handling, competitive differentiation, or product-specific messaging -- Clari will help identify those topics and create battle cards that populate in real-time during calls when keywords are triggered.
Coaching in the moment (proactive) vs. after the fact (reactive) is huge.
Here are three ways we see most sales managers approach coaching in Copilot.
Review calls and then ...
- Share in-person verbal feedback during weekly 1:1s
- Share online, asynchronous feedback using comments within Copilot by tagging ("@ mentioning") at relevant points during the calls
- Leverage a scorecard template within Copilot to provide a score
Coaching through Copilot helps managers understand if their consistent coaching efforts have helped reps improve over time. It allows managers to benchmark reps against each other -- which reps top the charts on overall scores and which lead on specific skills.
As FLMs, there is not enough time in a day to review every call. Copilot assists by surfacing the most important coachable moments.
Close more deals, faster using Align
Trust and credibility -- two keys to a strong buyers-seller relationship.
The odds of taking a deal across the finish line are significantly reduced without both.
Add to that:
- Complex buying processes that include multiple stakeholders, long sales cycles, and significant investment
- Buyers requiring customized solutions that fit their specific needs
The answer is collaboration.
✅ Collaboration fosters transparency and open communication.
✅ Collaboration ensures all parties' needs and concerns are addressed.
✅ Collaboration leads to more informed decisions and smoother deals.
Read more about the four critical stages of buyer collaboration.
Align is the tool to get you there.
Collaborative workspaces and mutual action plans, all built into Clari.
Bonus: Align infuses intent data for that cherry on top.
With Align, teams can build targeted, collaborative microsites in minutes -- "homes" for business objectives and all resources (call recordings, key documents, etc.).
This unified buying experience between the champion and budget owners is critical to closing (more) deals. With Align, sellers and buyers actively participate in the sales process.
We solve this with:
Mutual Action Plans (MAPs) -- collaborative roadmaps that define the path to success through milestones, responsibilities, and timelines.
Digital Sales Rooms (DSRs) -- virtual spaces for all deal-related communications, a single source of truth to foster transparency and streamline communication
All of the above empowers FLMs to assess whether a rep is on track to close or if the deal has any risk preventing a smooth close.
Create. Convert. Close – with Clari
Collaboration between buyers and sellers is essential for achieving three critical objectives:
- Creating pipeline
- Converting leads into opportunities
- Closing deals
Collaboration, transparent communication, and mutual understanding all increase the likelihood of leads progressing through the sales funnel, helping power through objections and road bumps.
Learn more about Revenue Execution and how Clari helps with the "3 Cs.”