ClearView Reports: Outbound Prospecting/Agent Assisted Solutions, KPIs, and Stakeholders
Outbound Prospecting and Agent Assisted Sales Technology Solutions
As I’ve mentioned (see the ClearView Reports blog posts on Sales Enablement and Skills Development) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is one of those acronyms that always strikes me oddly. I keep breaking it down into pieces for some reason. The second meaning of PI also occurs to me – Personal Injury, as in an ambulance-chasing attorney. That doesn’t sound like a good concept when it comes to solutions that help sellers prospect by optimizing phone calls, and with human agent assistance to help qualify and set appointments. But not having such a solution or sellers, could certainly be harmful to their success.
| KPI/RO | Marketing | Sellers | Sales Enable-ment | Sales Mgmt | Sales Ops | ||||
| Close Rates | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||||
| Conversations | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Leads | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Meetings | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | ||||
| Outbound Activity | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Ramp Time | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | ||||
| Seller Productivity | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Trigger Actions | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Average Value of KPI/ROI for Stakeholder | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Value to | 0 = Limited | 2 = Good | 4 = Essential | ||||||
| Stakeholder: | 1 = Some | 3 = Strong | |||||||
Across the board, all stakeholders receive significant value, with Close Rates, Conversations, Leads, and Seller Productivity ranking highest. Ranked lower, but still of value, are Meetings, Outbound Activity, and Ramp Time. Lowest, perhaps because it depends on the mix of outbound and inbound activity and steps that are pre-set as Trigger Actions to drive seller activity. At the stakeholder level:
- Marketing gains greatest value from Close Rates, Conversations, Leads, and Trigger Actions.
- Sellers benefit from nearly all KPIs as they directly impact productivity and performance.
- Sales Enablement gains from close rates and productivity. Conversations, leads, outbound activity and ramp time also rank high since insights about these activities can directly impact sales enablement activities to refine and improve seller actions and knowledge.
- Sales Management also gains across the board, with the only limited value in Trigger Actions.
- Sales Operations receives slightly less value in many categories because many of these activities are closer to the top of the funnel with less Sales Ops involvement.
Marketing, sellers, and sales management benefit the most by these measurable improvements – especially since they all tie to consistently executing a winning strategy.
That’s just a preview of some of the valuable information in the report. Other topics include:
- What is it? A high-level view of the sales tech category.
- What challenges are addressed by the solutions? Covers the top 10 challenges addressed by solution as chosen by vendors and defined in terms of Sales Enablement/Content Management.
- What does it do?
- Capabilities: Based on a set of common capabilities and functions. Vendors’ top 10 capabilities.
- Functions: A detailed review of common functions across the solution category.
- Measuring Success: This section looks at the Key Performance Indicators provided by vendors that demonstrate the benefits of the solution.
- What do you need to do? A discussion on what users need to think about in order to succeed with the solution.
- Do you need it? Ideas to consider when deciding if you need this type of solution.
- Parting Thoughts – A few concluding thoughts on the category, the marketplace, and the future direction of the category.
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About Steven Wright
Steven is Vendor Neutral’s certification analyst and has years of experience in sales enablement and sales tech. As both a practitioner, and as a former Forrester Analyst, he brings a breadth of experience and insight into how to get the most out of your sales tech investments.