Sales Leader’s Guide to

Building a Revenue Generating Machine

CONTENTS

Introduction by TK 01

How We Wrote This Book 02

Challenge #1: Inconsistency in the Sales Process 03

Challenge #2: Lack of Pipeline to Hit Your Number 07

Challenge #3: Rep Productivity 12

Challenge #4: Lack of Visibility 16

Why You Need a Sales Success Platform 19

INTRODUCTION BY TK

1

Sales leadership has always been a tough job. Today, in addition to managing the

interpersonal dynamics of a team, Sales Leaders are having to navigate an increasingly

complex B2B buying process with more checkpoints and decision makers than ever.

Compound that with the fact that they also have to navigate a sea of technologies all

designed to “help them in solving all this.” It’s no wonder Sales Leaders get overwhelmed

and ask: why can’t I just deal with one vendor that solves my sales stack?

Here at ToutApp, we’ve spent thousands of hours researching the art and science of

selling and have worked with our community of Sales Leaders to distill down the four

most important challenges that leaders are spending their budget, time and focus in

solving to win.

This strategic approach to addressing key challenges by using only a few solutions,

and age old best practices is being done by a new breed of Sales Leader—a leader that

combines the art of selling with cutting edge technology. These Sales Leaders are

following these practices to transform their team into a revenue generating machine.

Tawheed Kader (TK) is the Founder

and CEO of ToutApp. Prior to founding

ToutApp, TK worked at Bridgewater

Associates as a Technology Associate

and Plaxo as a Product Manager. TK has a

breadth of experience in sales, marketing,

engineering and entrepreneurship.

- @tawheed

HOW WE WROTE THIS BOOK

Every Sales Leader faces the same challenges, but few know how to diagnose and overcome their laundry list of challenges. With

this eBook, we set out on a mission to distill it all down to four top challenges. The information presented in this book is based on

hours of research we’ve conducted in order to build ToutApp and builds on the experience of Sales Leaders like our very own Frank

Swain, who took multiple companies from $0m to $35m+.

FIRST LET’S COVER SOME STATISTICS ON THE CURRENT STATE OF SALES:

• 33% of a Salesperson’s time is actually spent selling. - CSO Insights

• The average company spends $10K - $15K hiring an individual and only $2K a year in sales training. - The Bridge Group

• Only 57% of reps said they are equipped with strategies, tools and skills to exceed their numbers. - Harvard Business Review

• 67% of all Salespeople do not attain individual quota. - Altify

So, that’s the bad news. The bad news is that even with the excess of technology, enablement and sophistication, Sales is still not

winning. What’s the good news? The good news is you can build a revenue generating sales stack that supports your playbook.

2

Inconsistency in the Sales ProcessCHALLENGE

1 Every Sales Leader wonders, why can’t every single rep perform like their top performer? Top performers

consistently outpace the rest of the team by an order of magnitude. The Sales Leader’s challenge is how to

identify what’s working for top performers, and implement it across the team.

What’s the single thing that you believe will make your team successful? Consistency. A well defined sales

process aided by Sales Enablement yields consistent messaging and processes to get to a successful

sale. Great Sales Leaders refer to it as “one smooth sales motion” and the key to achieving it is driving

consistency across your team.

Traditionally, Sales Leaders have tried to instill best practices and consistency through hours of sales

training in a sales kickoff. But, studies show that within 30 days of a training event, 79% of what people

have been taught is forgotten.

Today, Sales Leaders are embracing consistency using software that reinforces best practices, consistent

messaging and consistent actions at every stage of the sales process.

3

Investment #1 - Driving Consistent Messaging in the Sales ProcessAccording to TeleSmart Communications, only 13% of customers believe a Salesperson can understand

their needs. To overcome this challenge, you need to match your product’s value to a customer’s pain

points. That’s where very crisp messaging comes in.

COMMON CASES WHERE YOU WANT TO DEFINE CONSISTENT MESSAGING INCLUDES:

• Messaging tying a customer’s pain to your product’s value proposition

• Clearly articulating the ROI your product delivers for your customer

• Accurately articulating how your product differs to competitors in the market

• Collaborating with Marketing to create clear collateral that will helps navigate negotiations through

procurement, security reviews and other gatekeepers.

In delivering a consistent message that resonates with a customer’s pain points and business needs, it

shows customers that your reps are actively listening to customers and working to solve pain points.

Field Sales forces and Inside Sales machines still have to follow up on critical meetings with well crafted

messaging over email, articulate value over the phone to drive a deal forward, and even embrace social

media to forge relationships casually.

In all of these interactions, having a clear strategy in messaging is consequential.

4

CHALLENGE

1

Investment #2 - Driving Consistent Actions in Your PlaybookThe second investment in driving consistency revolves around standardizing the sales process across

the team. This means having your reps follow a consistent, repeatable and documented sales process of

delivering value and consistent messaging at every stage.

A CONSISTENT SALES PROCESS SOLIDIFIES THE FOLLOWING OUTCOMES:

• Qualified pipeline at the appropriate sales stages

• Accurate visibility into state of pipeline

• Improved visibility to enable accurate forecasting

You need a way to measure that reps are following the process and checking off the box of “I sent this

email at this stage,” before sending out the next communication. Being able to measure the process gives

Sales leaders visibility into:

• Where deals are in the pipeline

• Where reps are getting stuck

• Being able to predict how reps are performing in relation to their number

• Health of opportunities in pipeline

5

CHALLENGE

1

6

How to Beat the ChallengeSales Leaders today utilize ToutApp’s platform to automatically recommend the best messaging that

alleviates customer pain, drive consistent actions with your playbook and aligns Sales and Marketing together.

CHALLENGE

1

“We’ve standardized the specific touches at various

stages of the sales cycle and as result we have a

much more predictable outcome. We know that a

prospect in a certain stage is going to benefit from

a subset of case studies that we send and track the

attribution to the case studies and ToutApp

analytics function allowed us to do just that.”

- Dan Miller-Smith,

Director of Sales at Procore

PROCORE STATISTICS:

• Steady and consistent increase in win rates

from 14% about 12 months ago to 22% across

the team

• Collapse of their sales cycle length—it used

to be three - four months and it’s been

compressing consistently down to 40-50 days

• 70% of Account Executives, that are attaining

quota, are hitting as much as 200-300% of

their goal

Lack of Pipeline to Hit Your Numberchallenge

2

7

Pipeline is the leading indicator whether or not

your team is going to hit their number. Many

Sales Leaders struggle with having a solid view of

the health of their pipeline. We’re sure that you’re

familiar with these common pipeline questions:

. Does the team have enough qualified

. pipeline to hit their number?

. Does the team have enough new

. opportunities to add to the top of their

pipeline?

. Is there a well defined plan around how

pipeline is generated?

. Are reps able to manage pipeline as it

moves through the sales stages?

Every Sales Leader is struggling to find

answers to those common questions. Having

enough pipeline is the life-blood of your

business. You need to have it if you want to

close deals and meet your business goals.

That seems obvious, but pipeline creation and

coverage remains a top challenge for Sales

Leaders everywhere.

However, many Sales Leaders are beginning

to realize that there are two core areas to

invest in to conquer this challenge.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Investment #1 - Defining Responsibilities Around Pipeline GenerationIf you want to overcome your pipeline challenge, the first thing that needs to be solidified is defining

who owns pipeline generation.

TAKE THE TIME TO STRATEGICALLY THINK ABOUT WHO SHOULD OWN PIPELINE

GENERATION AND WHY THEY SHOULD OWN IT:

• Are the individual reps responsible for building their own pipeline?

• Do you segment your Sales team between Account Executives and Sales Development

Representatives with the latter owning pipeline?

• Should Marketing be held accountable for pipeline?

These are all critical points to consider. The answers will make up your playbook for your business. You

need to take a stance on pipeline generation and hold either your reps, a Sales Development team or

Marketing accountable to its production.

8

challenge

2

Investment #2 - Defining Consistency for Pipeline GenerationWhen Sales Leaders are looking to define responsibilities around pipeline generation, the next step is to

define how to create consistency around it. There has to be consistency around messaging, in follow-up

and in actions—consistency in pipeline generation is no different.

If there’s no consistency around pipeline creation, how are reps expected to hit their number quarter

after quarter? With this realization, Sales Leaders are beginning to implement different strategies in

order to create consistency.

Account Based Sales and MarketingAccording to ITSMA, 78% of executives are willing to respond to unsolicited outreach from companies,

if it contains ideas that are strategically relevant. Deploying both an Account Based strategy for Sales

and Marketing allows for multiple strategic sources of targeting and outreach that will fill the top of

funnel pipeline.

Through these strategic approaches, your Sales and Marketing teams can tailor your solution and

content to individual accounts, thus hyper-personalizing experiences and turning accounts into

opportunities.

9

challenge

2

Multi-Touch Outbound Sales CampaignFor reps that need to generate pipeline, effective pipeline generation heavily depends on how well

equipped reps are to manage their pipeline. Reps need a scalable outreach communication workflow that

allows them to touch every opportunity, no matter the stage of the said opportunity. In short, reps need

to communicate with their opportunities across email, phone and social in order to generate pipeline and

move them through to the next stage in the process.

Sales Development TeamOne movement among Sales organizations is segmentation between closing deals and prospecting

roles. Of the organizations implementing this strategy, their Sales Development team is responsible for

generating pipeline and booking meetings for their quota-carrying counterparts. Meaning, all outbound

communications is done through the Sales Development Representative (SDR) up until a lead is qualified

and turned into a working opportunity.

Automation Through MarketingMarketing plays a huge role in generating Top of Funnel leads and nurturing them in becoming a qualified

lead. If tasked with generating pipeline, it’s not enough for Marketing to loosely define leads and throw

them over the fence to Sales.

10

challenge

2

challenge

2

11

How to Beat the ChallengeSales Leaders today are heavily investing in tools that increases pipeline coverage in a scalable and

predictable way. ToutApp’s platform offers integrated Sales Campaigns which allows reps to run a well

defined and consistent multi-touch campaign so that prospecting for new deals (if your closers are

prospecting) or wondering if the fresh out of college SDR you’ve hired is pushing hard enough—is never an

afterthought. Further, Product Marketing can contribute and oversee the best messaging and see real-time

insights on what’s resonating.

Rep ProductivityCHALLENGE

3 Today, according to CSO Insights, companies will spend nearly $20K per year/rep to improve

productivity. And yet, rep productivity remains at an all-time low, with reps only spending 33% of their

time on actual selling.

Overburdened with non-quota attaining tasks such as data entry, submitting internal requests for

collateral, finding their own content, etc—reps are losing focus on their pipeline. According to Forbes

Insights, “71% of C-level executives know that sales productivity is, in fact, paramount to enabling a

company to grow.”

WHAT WE’RE SEEING IN THE MARKET TODAY ARE SALES LEADERS WHO ARE ACTIVELY

WORKING WITH THEIR REPS TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY BY:

• Reducing the number of mandatory fields in the CRM to get a deal

• Implementing CPQ tools to streamline the quote-to-cash process

• Adopting effective sales tools that eliminates manual data entry

• Investing in Sales Operations to unburden reps from administrative tasks

12

Investment #1: Consolidating ToolsIronically, we constantly hear about “tool fatigue” from Sales Leaders. With over 300 different sales tools

on the market, what started as a tool that helped reps has turned into an unmanageable toolkit that doesn’t

work.

If this unmanageable toolkit is overwhelming reps—it’s a sure sign that you’re overspending on invaluable

tools. Instead of cobbling together eight different solutions for sales productivity, embrace consolidation and

focus on a few tools that align with solving rep productivity and your business needs.

Rather than spending on a productivity tool, a dialer, a tracking tool, etc.—purchase the vendor that offers a

full solution, not just bit and pieces. If reps are only spending a third of their time on selling activities, often

toggling between those eight different tools, that’s not an effective approach.

13

CHALLENGE

3

CHALLENGE

3Investment #2: Automating the Process to Increase CapacitySales will never be automated, but smart Sales Leaders are embracing the notion that the menial aspects

of the sales process must be automated. Would you rather have your most expensive resource (the Sales

team) focus on closing deals or spending hours on data-entry?

If you don’t focus on automating low-value tasks, the friction that currently exists will continue to persist—

which doesn’t help rep productivity. You need to invest in a tool that automates tasks like updating your

CRM, creating tasks to send follow-up emails, setting up an email campaign with longer-cycle opportuni-

ties, etc. Through automation, it allows reps to focus on their warm opportunities while either eliminating

repetitive tasks or staying top of mind with longer-term prospects.

SIMPLY PUT, AUTOMATION IMPROVES A REP’S CAPACITY TO DO MORE SELLING AND AL-

LOWS THEM TO FOCUS ON:

• Having meaningful conversations with prospects to move deals forward

• Managing the number of active opportunities in their pipeline

• Shortening the sales cycle by having a laser focus on delivering value to prospects

• Driving higher close rates (while leveraging automation) and increasing the Average Selling Price

Focusing on sales capacity allows everyone to know how many opportunities need to be in the pipeline

and the number of opportunities that need to close for reps to hit their number.

14

CHALLENGE

3Investment #3: Sales Enablement as a Discipline The responsibility of Sales Enablement is to provide reps the

resources and skills they need to deliver your product’s value

proposition to match a customer’s pain points.

THE SALES ENABLEMENT DISCIPLINE CARRIES OUT

THE FOLLOWING RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Establishes a process that every rep can follow

• Ramps new reps faster

• Refreshes the skillset of seasoned reps that are looking to

grow and learn

• Plays a critical role in driving value to customers

As companies continue to scale, Sales Leaders will continue

to invest in Sales Enablement because it alleviates the sales

productivity challenges imposed on them. When reps are

equipped with the right content, the right talk track and know

how to handle customer objections—that drives an efficient

sales productivity.

15

How to Beat the ChallengeThe most effective Sales Leaders

rely on ToutApp as the one-go-to

platform that consolidates tools while

solving for friction at every stage of

the sales process. ToutApp focuses on

auto-logging to your CRM, providing

a dialer and gives reps real-time

insights into their communications—

literally putting minutes back in a rep’s

day, so they can focus on deals.

Lack of VisibilityCHALLENGE

4 Lack of visibility into the sales process, pipeline and the

ability to hit your number is a constant source of anxiety for

Sales Leaders. Even with Salesforce dashboards, countless

forecasting tools, Sales Leaders are still relegating to an excel

spreadsheet to track deals as the quarter end approaches.

You may already be tracking a handful of metrics, but we’ve

condensed that list to just four core metrics that you should

track to get a clear view into your team’s performance.

16

Pipeline CoveragePipeline coverage gives you a clear view of what’s going to close and

what’s upcoming for the quarter. Without this metric, there would be no

visibility into where reps are in the process and/or if they are consistent

in following through in the sales process to meet their number.

FOR MANY SALES LEADERS, PIPELINE COVERAGE IS

FURTHER BROKEN DOWN INTO FOUR SUBSIDIARIES:

17

CHALLENGE

4Close RatesTracking this metric gives

you insights on if your

reps are closing deals, but

more importantly it gives

you intel if reps are being

consistent in messaging

and accurately conveying

your company’s value

proposition to customers.

In the market, leading

companies hover around

a 20% close rate with a

5x pipeline that ensure

their projected close rate.

QUANTITYThe number of opportunities

in the pipeline

QUALITYQualified opportunities where

value matches pain

VELOCITYThe speed at which an opportunity

converts at each stage

CLOSE RATEThe percentage of active opportunities

in period that convert to closed

Deal SizeTracking deal size tells you how many opportunities you

need to meet your revenue goals. There is a finite number

of opportunities a rep can handle in a given period, knowing

deal size will help with planning rep capacity.

By looking through your company’s closed deals data, you

can find the average deal size which will help you target

your selling approach, messaging and content that will

increase the overall deal size over time.

Consistency Across Goal According to Forbes Insights, 74% of the highest-performing

Salespeople focus on “consistency of execution” across

their sales process. This consistency of execution directly

relates to the number of reps hitting their quota quarter

after quarter, which increase your company’s Average

Selling Price, close rate and makes the sales process more

repeatable.

18

CHALLENGE

4 74% of the highest-performing Salespeople focus on “consistency of execution” across their sales process

-Forbes Insights

Why You Need a Sales Success Platform

The time for cobbling together eight different point solutions is over. Our goal here is to

help Sales Leaders transform their team into a revenue generating machine. Through our

research, we’ve developed ToutApp’s Sales Success Platform to be a consolidated sales

success platform that addresses each of these key challenges.

TOUTAPP’S SALES SUCCESS PLATFORM HELPS YOU:

Increase Pipeline: Our integrated prospecting solution allows reps to send consistent

messaging, build account lists and call a prospect when they see real-time engagement

with their emails—all to build a more predictable pipeline for your business.

Drive Consistency: Rather than guessing what’s the right sales process to follow, our

platform enables you to deploy your playbook and drive consistent performance across

your team.

Forecast accurately: With more pipeline and consistency across the process, you’ll gain

visibility into every aspect of the sales process and forecast accurately. Thus turning your

sales team into a revenue generating machine.

19

Recommended TemplatesToday, the average sales team shares 50+

templates across their team—making it

difficult to determine which template will

resonate most with the intended audience.

With Recommended Templates, it’s easier

than ever to deliver effective messaging and

value to customers.

THESE TEMPLATES ARE BASED OF

YOUR CRM FIELDS SUCH AS:

• Opportunity Stage

• Title

• Industry

Instead of getting stuck on messaging, with

Recommended Templates that based on

your company’s CRM fields, reps can send

the right message at the right time.

Sales CampaignsEffective sales means having a repeatable process that reps can apply to every opportunity

in their pipeline. Sales Campaigns automates a rep’s workflow and follow-up process and

allows scale at reach. Here are a few uses cases:

1. While reps are working active opportunities, they can create a Sales Campaign that

will run in the background that will help them identify the warmest leads to follow-up

with.

2. For a longer sales cycle, or if it’s not the right time to buy for a customer, reps can

create a Sales Campaign to maintain the relationship.

3. In high-velocity sales, reps have a higher number of opportunities, but managing that

velocity isn’t scalable. Reps can create a Sales Campaign to manage the flow.

4. For expansion sales, like cross-sells, reps can create a Sales Campaign that targets

different parts of the organization.

5. For a Field Sales reps, after an on-site, can create a follow-up campaign (start off with

an email) to remain in contact with the customer.

20

Why You Need a Sales Success Platform Integrated DialerWhether your reps are Inside or Field reps,

the sales process wouldn’t be complete

without both email and phone calls. While

a highly personalized email with relevant

content can be engaging, having a casual

conversation with the customer in real-time

is equally important.

Through Tout Phone, an integrated dialer

that allows reps to call a contact, use Local

Presence and record calls for reviewing

later—and the call activity auto-logs to your

CRM.

Tools for Your RepsTEMPLATES

Save time by creating

an email template that

corresponds with a specific

stage in the sales cycle.

TRACKING

Track opens, forwards,

replies, content engagement

and website link clicks,

so reps can follow-up

intelligently.

21

Why You Need a Sales Success Platform

TASKS

With each touch, reps can

create follow-up tasks right

within Gmail or Outlook.

RING THE GONG

Let your entire team

celebrate together when a

rep closes a deal.

AUTO-LOGGING TO CRM

Half the battle with Sales

is remembering to log

activities to your CRM,

instead rely on auto-logging.

CALENDAR SYNC

Without leaving their inbox,

reps can select times they’re

available and insert them

into emails.

ANALYTICS

Measure and coach your

team on what works and

A/B test for continuous

improvement.

COMMAND CENTER

Prioritize pipeline and easily

follow-up with opportunities

with a call or email in a click

of a button.

ToutApp transforms your sales team into a revenue generating machine. The platform allows enterprise

sales teams to increase pipeline, drive consistency and forecast accurately. Founded in 2011, ToutApp

has more than 100,000 Salespeople using the platform, with over 500 enterprise customers including

SolarCity, Procore, Citrix, Apptio, Mixpanel and more.

For more information please visit www.toutapp.com