CRM 2.0: A Sales Rep's Digital Admin by CSO Insights

CRM 2.0 in Action Series: DocuSign - A Sales Rep’s Digital Admin

© CSO Insights 1 No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.


By Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer; Managing Partners, CSO Insights

INTRODUCTION As part of CSO Insights’ 18th annual Sales Performance Optimization (SPO) study, the percentage of reps making quota was a key metric used to assess the health of the world of sales. After quota attainment plummeted in 2009, the number of salespeople achieving their revenue targets increased each of the past two years, as seen in Table 1.

Quota Attainment Assessment

2009 2010 2011

Percentage of reps making quota

51.8% 59.4% 63%

Table 1

Rep performance is on the rebound, even in an uncertain economy.

Based on this success, what did companies do when they set their revenue targets for this year? A total of 94% of the 1,500+ firms taking part in the 2012 SPO survey raised quotas: the highest percentage recorded in the eighteen years of the study. Growth is something investors want and CEOs and CFOs expect sales to generate. However, the growth targets should be attainable. We therefore find it noteworthy that 45.1% of the sales executives we surveyed expressed serious concerns when asked what their expectations were for meeting these increased revenue goals. But the reality is that the targets for this year are set, so now is the time to explore ways to increase sales rep efficiency and effectiveness to hit those revenue numbers. Let’s examine how salespeople spend their time to gain insights into how this can be accomplished. Figure 1 summarizes a salesperson’s average time allocation based on the 2012 SPO study data.



Figure 1

Nearly half of the time required to close a deal is spent processing the order and managing the account.

We shared this chart with one of our advisory board members, and his eyes immediately zoomed to the “Post Sales Tasks” number. It reminded him of a computer manufacturer where he was formerly the CSO. The standing joke at that firm was, “No sale goes unpunished.” He shared that once a rep received a verbal “yes” from a prospect, he/she stopped selling for three days—the length of time it took to formalize and finalize the order. THE PAPER CHASE He then explained their order workflow process. The rep had the following administrative tasks to complete after receiving approval from the client to move forward with the purchase:

An order form was created, which typically involved cutting and pasting data from the CRM system, configuration system, and Word documents.

The agreement was sent to the prospect highlighting the pages that were to be initialed/signed and by whom.

The rep often called into the prospect account multiple times throughout the following day to determine how the order was progressing through the buyer’s approval process.

The internal approval process then began once the rep received the order back from the prospect (i.e., monitoring signatures and approvals).



The rep distributed the appropriate portions of the final approved agreement to finance, manufacturing, distribution, support, and sales management to get the order booked, fulfilled, and commissionable.

And, finally, the rep updated the prospect CRM record to reflect the new business.

These are necessary administrative tasks, but does any CSO want a rep to spend valuable selling time completing them? Not really, but if a rep is not doing them, who will? DOCUSIGN: GETTING THE ORDER DONE RIGHT, RIGHT NOW While there may not be someone else to do the tedious work to move an order through the process, there is something else. In the course of reviewing various CRM 2.0 technologies (i.e., applications providing capabilities beyond those in Salesforce.com, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, etc.), we evaluated DocuSign and discovered that it can end the paper chase for sales so sales reps can focus on closing more deals to achieve revenue goals. DocuSign’s cloud-based solution had been described to us as a technology-enabled document approval workflow management tool. A much simpler image came to our minds after we had a chance to see the solution in action. It is like giving each of your sales reps their own digital administrative assistant to facilitate and manage contract creation, approval, and processing. Consider the following scenario of how the order workflow process should be managed:

After receiving the client’s verbal approval to move forward, the rep accesses DocuSign’s cloud-based order form from a template library, ensuring current and accurate documents are used.

The forms are pre-populated by DocuSign pulling contact information from CRM, shipment information from ERP, product details from the sales configuration system, special contract terms from the proposal generation system, etc. No cut and paste—just click and load.

Using DocuSign, the rep easily creates a decision making process workflow and designates the individuals on both the buyer and seller’s side to route the order for review and approval. If some people in the process workflow are always the same, they can be preset so the rep doesn’t have to repeat the same work for every sale.

The rep reviews the online document and tags the places where initials, signatures, dates, etc., are required or a DocuSign template can pre-populate these tags for them.

http://www.docusign.com/



With the requirements in place, DocuSign ensures that nothing is missed during the review and approval process. The system sends the order to the first stakeholder and a blind copy to the appropriate people inside the vendor’s firm to keep them apprised of the status.

DocuSign manages the process of forwarding the agreement to the appropriate people, in the correct order, and gathers all of the required information, signatures, and initials. If needed, DocuSign automatically sends email reminders on behalf of the rep to push the process along. The rep can instantly check the workflow status at any time to see where the documents are in the process and contact the appropriate individuals if there is inactivity.

After the approvals have been completed, DocuSign automatically populates the designated internal systems with the information needed to start the order fulfillment, shipping, billing, and customer support processes. It also updates the appropriate fields in the CRM account record and the sales forecast. Finally, of direct interest to the rep, DocuSign informs the incentive management system that the deal is commissionable.

DOCUSIGN ROI In both scenarios, the job gets done, but consider the differences between the rep-enabled and technology-enabled approaches:

Higher Sales Productivity: Technology, which costs a few dollars a day, does the bulk of the work as opposed to a salesperson that earns $50, $60, $70+ an hour, freeing up more time for selling.

Order Accuracy: Leveraging templates and pre-population of data, the accuracy of the technology-enabled method reduces the chance for errors and minimizes legal risk. Integration with CRM systems also means customer-supplied data gets automatically inputted with no opportunity for human error.

Faster Order Closing: DocuSign helps ensure that deals don’t get lost in the cracks. It tracks the flow of the order through the approval process and ensures that all personnel in the workflow chain don’t miss anything they need to review, initial, and sign. It also accelerates the closing process, thus minimizing the chances for a competitor to get the decision reconsidered.



Lower Cost Order Handling & Storage: Using the technology approach, the final order is an electronically managed document; easier and less expensive to store and access than paper. In addition, all of the key data elements of the deal can be automatically populated in the appropriate internal systems making access to the details easily available to all functional areas inside the organization.

DocuSign ends the paper chase and efficiently and effectively supports salespeople in getting from a verbal to a contractual “yes” at the end of the sales cycle. In our review of DocuSign, we were able to use the application in a matter of minutes, versus hours or days. DocuSign also offers new users a free trial, which gives companies an opportunity to see the solution in action before making a financial commitment to use it. As we said, your targets for this year are set. Now is the time to explore ways to increase sales rep efficiency and effectiveness to hit those revenue numbers. We see DocuSign as a solid choice companies can look to now to increase the performance of their sales teams in the quest to hit 2012 revenue targets. About CSO Insights CSO Insights has provided executives with best practices in sales and marketing for over eighteen years Each year, we survey thousands of Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) to benchmark the use of people, process, technology, and knowledge, and the impact on sales effectiveness. We also review offerings from solution providers to retain our position as the experts on options for CSOs.

We offer pragmatic suggestions, experienced-based examples, and the kind of insights you'll want before your next Executive Strategy Session or Board meeting.

http://www.csoinsights.com/index

Business

CRM 2.0: A Sales Rep's Digital Admin by CSO Insights