WED MAR 09 2016

Use Data Science to Increase Rep Productivity

by Roxanna Farshchi

For years, reps have predicted their quarters based on scant historical knowledge, shakey trend lines, and a mix of pure optimism, healthy skepticism, and good old fashioned best guessing. What else did we all have to go on? As sales execs, we lay our careers on making that number as accurate as possible--as positive as we feel is reasonable and as risk-averse as we feel safe saying out loud. Then data science came along and changed the game--for you and your competitors. At Aviso, we like to call it the data-driven fairy godmother to help manage your quarter. Data science gives sales teams the ability to gain insights into their pipeline that aren’t readily seen by the naked human eye. Accurate forecasts, and important insights at the deal level, help reps to prioritize their time and tackle the right opportunities to make sure they have their best quarter ever. Because, at the end of the day, it’ sall about managing our business and prioritizing our time--the most precious resource of all.

Three ways data science makes your job easier

Data Level Forecasting to Know the Real Deal--on Each Deal At this level, sales teams gain insights into individual opportunities to understand whether they are on track to make their quarterly number, based on historical trends of similar opportunities. The Aviso Score gives you the exact likelihood of an opportunity closing within a current quarter, whether it’s going to get pushed out, or whether it’s a lost cause. For example,  if an opportunity has a low Aviso Score, but it is in a late stage or has a close date around the corner, this requires some investigation to find out what’s going on. And, just for fun, compare your Aviso Score with your internal metrics and see how they stack up at the end of the quarter. We think you’ll be impressed at how close the Aviso Score came to the actual revenue number. We have a 95% accuracy rate, based on data from Aviso customers, which is growing even higher. Aggregate Forecasting to Hit Your Number  This number is the big prediction for your quarter as a whole. It takes into account the forecasted amount of opportunities won--that aren’t even in your pipeline at the beginning of the quarter. The Aviso Forecast predicts what will come in and what will close, within a particular timeline, and provides an end of quarter forecast on day one with a week-by-week trajectory on the materialization of that deal. We know it can seem a little like sales forecasting hocus pocus, but it’s the real deal. The average Aviso customer realizes a number within 5% of the “day one of the quarter” forecast. Trending Data to Detect Early Warning Signs We love looking at trend lines and trajectories, particularly if they are going up and to the right. But, what if they aren’t? Wouldn’t you want to know earlier vs. later? The Aviso Trend Module allows you to track the Aviso Forecast and Expected Realization against your “won to date” values and internal forecasts. It raises the flag when things are going the wrong way and suggests course corrections to get things back on track. Contact us to learn more!