When the words "Thanksgiving" and "sales" are uttered in the same breath, it's hard not to conjure up images of Black Friday stampedes, deal-crazed consumers, and scrappy well-meaning parents scuffling over the last Tickle Me Elmo doll in the aisle.
But, that's not where we're going—not today, and definitely not the day after Thanksgiving. Besides, we're professionals. We obsess over deals every day, not just on one random Friday out of the year.
In all seriousness, today we wanted to celebrate what we think is a particularly exciting time for those of us who work in sales either as reps, managers, ops strategists, or execs. There's a lot to be thankful for in 2018. Everything about the way we sell is changing—and definitely for the better. Sales organizations have never had a clearer window and better foresight into where their business is heading.
Innovations in the sales stack, especially AI-fueled advances, are helping fix what's been broken in sales for years. It's making reps more productive by automating activity data capture and giving them time back to sell. Now, with better data, improved deal visibility, and increasingly accurate predictive insights courtesy of machine learning, sales organizations everywhere are better equipped than ever to focus on the right deals, see where they have risk (and opportunity) in the pipeline, and deliver forecasts that consistently hit the mark. And for everyone who's ever struggled to call and crush their number, that's particularly gratifying.
At Clari, we obsess over how to combine data-driven insights, sales-optimized workflows, and simple user experience to make the selling process transparent and predictable. We call this approach Sales Ready AI™, and we're thankful for the opportunity to help hundreds of companies use it to drive predictable revenue.
In honor of the upcoming holiday and in the spirit of giving thanks, we asked some top sales leaders and industry experts to share what they're most grateful for this year.
Here's what they had to say:
"I'm thankful that we're about to hit the Golden Era of revenue. The sales tech stack is finally in a place to truly provide value to the rep (versus the manager). Mundane tasks are being automated, human skills are being enhanced with data-driven recommendations, and sales reps have the opportunity to engage more, engage better, and bring home the number—consistently."
—Craig Rosenberg, Co-Founder and Chief Analyst at TOPO
"I'm grateful for the sales culture that we have at Zoom. It's one of collaboration, caring, winning, celebrating success, and delivering happiness to our customers, each other, and our community. Our employees thrive in this type of environment and are excited about coming to work every day to accomplish our goals together."
—Ben Volkman, Sales Leader at Zoom Video Communications
"I'm thankful that there is so much opportunity to transform sales to better meet the needs of today's modern buyers. Improvements in process design, innovations in sales technology, and the explosion of available data allow sales leaders to apply science to selling and to architect a repeatable, predictable, and scalable sales engine."
—Phil Harrell, Chief Sales Officer Strategies at SiriusDecisions
"I've been doing sales a long time and in my current role at Force Management, I'm thankful for the opportunity to help usher companies through incredible stages of growth and share in the success of the hard work of our customers. We are fortunate to work with an exceptional group of leaders who are really the driving forces of change in the software industry. Their innovation is driven by a focus on delivering value to the customer, and to me, there's nothing more important when it comes to sales."
—John Kaplan, Managing Partner at Force Management
"I'm grateful for so many things. I'm definitely not the smartest person but have been blessed with passion and curiosity. I'm lucky to have the opportunity to lead my customers on their journeys of change."
—Jill Rowley, Chief Growth Officer at Marketo
"I'm thankful for the opportunity to engage and work with 30k+ customers who at one point or another, took a leap of faith and decided to work with Intercom. As sellers, it's a privilege to embark on a journey with our customers that's based on delivering value and insight."
—David Katz, Senior Director, Sales and Customer Solutions at Intercom
"I'm seeing more and more focus and attention on transparency and empathy. Sincere, authentic connection is why people want to engage. For such a long period of time, sales teams relied too heavily on tools to find and grind out deals, but that doesn't work as well these days. Our customers want a well-thought-out reason to respond and engage. They want to learn from someone and not have to teach them about their business or their problems. There seems to be a shift towards this way of thinking, selling and working with customers and prospects and I believe the results in the future will prove that this is the right way to sell. I'm beyond thankful for this shift!"
—Doug Landis, Growth Partner at Emergence Capital
"I'm grateful to have the best customers, a great sales team, an awesome company culture, and of course Clari!"
—Sandie Overtveld, VP Sales APAC at Zendesk
This holiday season, Clari gives back by donating to a range of charities for every product demonstration with qualified prospects. Connect with us today to learn how you can make your sales process consistent and predictable and do some good along the way.