Hub and Spoke Topic: Sales Operations

n today’s competitive business landscape, optimizing sales operations is crucial for driving growth and success. Unlock the power of SalesOps tools to elevate your sales team’s productivity and efficiency.

From lead generation and customer relationship management to automated workflows  and insightful analytics, incorporating these top SalesOps tools can make a significant difference in streamlining your sales processes.

Harnessing the right tools can be transformative. Let’s dive into the specifics of the top SaaS SalesOps tools that can revolutionize your sales processes.

The Power of Sales Operations Software: Enhancing Efficiency and Growth

Sales Operations is a critical function within any organization that deals with sales. It encompasses various responsibilities such as optimizing the sales process, managing data, and handling sales tools and technology.

Why Getting Sales Operations Right is Crucial?

Sales operations teams play a pivotal role in the success of a business by regularly engaging in  operations planning and process optimizations. By ensuring a smooth and efficient sales process, it enables organizations to make strategic decisions based on accurate data and analysis.

A well-functioning sales operations team improves sales team performance, leading to increased revenue, higher conversion rates and enhanced customer experiences. Sales operation managers and their teams also help with including sales planning, data management, and more to ensure sales goals are hit.

Top SalesOps Tools to Improve Sales Efficiency 

Sales operations teams play a pivotal role in bridging strategy and execution within the sales domain. They work behind the scenes, ensuring that sales processes run smoothly, data is interpreted correctly, and resources are allocated efficiently.

The team’s day-to-day responsibilities likely span the following areas:

• CRM Management: More than just centralizing data, SalesOps meticulously manages CRM entries. They ensure every client interaction is logged, organized, and easily accessible for sales reps, maintaining data accuracy and readiness.
• Sales Data Analytics: Rather than merely analyzing data, SalesOps delves deep into sales trends, activities, rep performances, and lead sources. They transform key metrics into actionable insights, presenting them through intuitive dashboards for the sales team.
• Continual Sales Training: SalesOps acknowledges the ever-changing sales landscape. They orchestrate training sessions addressing current market challenges, ensuring reps are well-equipped and updated on industry evolutions.
• Sales Enablement: By collaborating closely with marketing and product teams, SalesOps develops content, tools, and playbooks tailored for varied sales situations. This ensures reps always have apt resources for every client engagement.
• Pricing and Invoicing: Informed by market feedback and competitor insights, SalesOps refines pricing strategies. They guarantee that quotes are not only competitive but accurate, ensuring timely deliveries and swift invoicing.
• Commission Management: SalesOps designs commission structures in alignment with organizational objectives. They maintain transparency in payouts, promptly resolve discrepancies, and ensure reps remain motivated, feeling their contributions are valued.
• Sales Forecasting: Drawing from historical data, rep insights, and current market trends, SalesOps forecasts potential challenges and opportunities, helping businesses strategize effectively.
• Territory Assignments: SalesOps allocates territories after considering rep expertise, previous performances, and potential leads. This strategy ensures comprehensive coverage and encourages a spirit of healthy competition among reps..

Behind every successful SalesOps team is a tailored tech stack. Let’s delve into specific tools that excel in each category below.

CRM Software Tools

CRM software is a critical part of the SalesOps Stack, acting as the core of the sales process. It centralizes and organizes customer data, interactions, and sales pipelines. With a robust CRM system, sales teams can manage leads, opportunities, and customer relationships, leading to enhanced productivity and better sales performance.

Salesforce

Salesforce is an industry-leading widely-used CRM platform that has earned its reputation as a leader in the industry.

Key Customers

• Uber
• GE Appliances
• RBC Wealth Management, U.S.
• Schneider Electric

Main Features

Salesforce offers a comprehensive set of features that cater to various aspects of sales operations.

• Sales teams can manage leads and maintain relationships throughout the entire sales process with seamless lead management.
• Opportunity tracking enables sales representatives to monitor and manage potential deals, ensuring no opportunity slips through the cracks.
• Real-time sales reporting provides valuable insights into sales performance and pipeline health, facilitating data-driven decision-making.

Cost

Salesforce offers four different price packages for sales suits. It’s $25 for small teams, $75 for any size teams, $150 for deeply customizable CRM, and $300 for ultimate growth.  

Hubspot

Hubspot is another popular CRM tool known for its interface and extensive marketing automation capabilities.

Key Customers

• Shopify
• Subaru
• DocuSign
• Trello
• SurveyMonkey
• Bonobos
• Yammer
• Codecademy

Main Features

• While renowned for inbound marketing, Hubspot’s CRM module is powerful.
• It is particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses looking to streamline their sales processes.
• With Hubspot CRM, sales teams can manage contacts, track deals, and automate routine tasks.
• The seamless integration of marketing and sales functionalities enhances collaboration and boosts overall efficiency.

Cost

Hubspot offers two powerful marketing software in affordable prices. Their Marketing Hub Professional costs $800 per month, and their Marketing Hub Enterprise costs $3600 per month.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive excels in sales pipeline management, making it an ideal choice for sales operations teams focused on deal progression.

Key Customers

• Vimeo
• ReMax
• Fortumo
• Posts
• Prezi
• Teamgate
• Chargebee
• Zoom

Main Features

• It provides a clear and intuitive visual representation of deals, helping sales reps identify opportunities and potential bottlenecks in the sales process.
• Pipedrive’s interface and straightforward design make it easy for sales team members to navigate and adapt.
• With its emphasis on visualizing the sales pipeline, Pipedrive empowers sales reps to prioritize tasks and focus on closing deals.

Cost

Pipedrive has five payment plans. Their most simple Essential plan costs $9.90, and their power Enterprise plan costs $59.90.

Google Sheets

For smaller businesses or those operating on a tight budget, Google Sheets can serve as a viable CRM solution when combined with appropriate sales management templates and add-ons.

Key Customers

• Startups
• Educational Institutions
• Freelancers
• Nonprofit Organizations
• Marketing and Sales Team

Main Features

• While it may lack the sophisticated features of dedicated CRM platforms, Google Sheets offers a customizable and cost-effective way to organize and manage customer data.
• With the use of add-ons and templates, businesses can tailor Google Sheets to their specific needs, making it a flexible option for startups or businesses with simpler sales processes.

Cost

Google Sheets offer three different plans. Basic at $6 per month, Business at $12 per month, and enterprise at $25 per month.

Sales Forecasting Tools

Sales forecasting is a critical part of Sales Operations Software, as it enables businesses to plan, allocate resources, and make accurate revenue projections. By utilizing the right tools, sales operations teams can gain valuable insights and make data-driven predictions to optimize their sales strategies.

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud’s forecasting module is a robust tool that empowers businesses to conduct powerful analytics and historical data analysis.

Key Customers

Following

• T-Mobile
• GE Appliances
• Unilever
• Toyota
• MuleSoft

Main Features

• With the ability to track past sales performance, identify trends, and analyze historical data, Sales Cloud enables businesses to make informed predictions about future sales outcomes.
• Their data-driven approach ensures that sales teams can set realistic goals, allocate resources, and plan sales strategies that align with market trends and customer behavior.

Cost

Salesforce offers four different price packages for sales suits. It’s $25 for small teams, $75 for any size teams, $150 for deeply customizable CRM and $300 for ultimate growth.

AnaPlan

AnaPlan is a cloud-based platform designed for collaborative forecasting, budgeting, and planning.

Key Customers

• HP Inc.
• Del Monte Foods
• Toshiba
• Pandora
• United Rentals
• DocuSign

Main Features

• Catering to the needs of larger enterprises with complex sales operations, AnaPlan offers a comprehensive solution that facilitates collaboration among various teams and departments.
• By bringing together cross-functional data and insights, AnaPlan enables businesses to create accurate sales forecasts that align with the company’s overall goals and objectives.

Cost

AnaPlan costs around $30,000-50000. However, it can go up depending on your usage.  

Spotio

Spotio is a specialized tool that offers location-based sales intelligence and analytics, making it particularly valuable for field sales teams.

Key Customers

• PrimePay
• Gexa Energy
• Alside
• AT&T Business
• ServiceMaster

Main Features

• By leveraging geospatial data and insights, Spotio empowers field sales representatives to optimize their performance by identifying promising territories, understanding local market dynamics, and prioritizing leads based on geographical proximity.
• The tool’s analytics capabilities help sales teams target high-potential areas, enhancing their efficiency and increasing their chances of success.

Cost

Spotio offers three payment plans; B2B Plan, B2C Plan and an Engagement Bundle

Google Sheets + Coefficient

For businesses seeking a more customizable and cost-effective solution, integrating Google Sheets with Coefficient can be a practical option.

Key Customers

• Financial Analysts
• Marketing Teams
• Sales Teams
• Startups

Main Features

• By combining the flexibility of Google Sheets with the analytical power of Coefficient, businesses can create custom forecasting models tailored to their specific requirements.
• It allows sales operations teams to develop unique sales forecasting methodologies that suit their industry, market, and sales processes.
• Coefficient’s ability to integrate with various data sources enhances the accuracy of the forecasts, ensuring that businesses can make well-informed decisions.

Sales Analytics Tools

Data-driven decision-making is crucial for Sales Operations Software, as it empowers sales teams to make informed choices based on accurate insights and analysis. Sales analytics tools play a central role in this process by providing valuable data insights that drive growth and optimize sales strategies.

Tableau

Tableau is a leading sales analytics tool known for its intuitive data visualization and analytics capabilities.

Key Customers

• Adobe
• LinkedIn
• Netflix
• Airbnb
• NASA
• Bank of America

Main Features

• It allows sales teams to convert complex data into appealing and easy-to-understand charts, graphs, and dashboards.
• It enables sales professionals to spot trends, patterns, and opportunities.
• With Tableau’s interactive features, users can explore data in-depth, conduct ad-hoc analysis, and gain a deeper understanding of their sales performance.
• This tool enhances decision-making by presenting critical information in an impactful manner.

Cost

Tableau has three pricing options, Tableau Creator costs $70/mo, Tableau Explorer costs $40/mon and Tableau Viewer costs $15/mon.

Coefficient

Coefficient is an innovative analytics tool tailored for SalesOps professionals who value the flexibility of spreadsheets but require the capabilities of advanced sales analytics. By seamlessly integrating with various data sources, Coefficient delivers in-depth insights into team’s performance, all within the familiar spreadsheet environment.

This unique approach addresses the common challenges faced in SalesOps, such as fragmented data sources and the need for real-time insights, making it a standout choice among its competitors.

Key Customers

• Atlassian
• Cisco
• Google
• VMware

Main Features

• Coefficient’s robust integration capabilities amalgamate data from diverse platforms, offering a holistic view of crucial sales metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Beyond mere data representation, Coefficient dives deep, enabling SalesOps teams to pinpoint strengths, discern areas of improvement, and unearth golden opportunities.

Cost

Coefficient provides a variety of pricing packages tailored to diverse requirements. This includes a free plan that enables users to seamlessly import up to 5,000 rows of data into Google Sheets from any supported source, complemented by 10,000 OpenAI API calls through GPT Copilot.

For those seeking more advanced features, the Starter Plan is priced at $49 per month, while the Pro Plan is available at $99 per month. Advanced automations and alerts are exclusive to our paid plans

Looker

Looker is a versatile data platform that allows businesses to explore and share insights across various departments, enhancing collaboration and decision-making.

Key Customers

• Adobe
• Capital one
• Lyft
• Disney
• Nike

Main Features

• Looker’s data exploration and visualization features provide a holistic view of sales performance and customer behavior.
• Sales teams can use Looker to create customized reports, conduct in-depth analyses, and share findings with relevant stakeholders.
• This democratization of data empowers sales reps and managers to access critical information when they need it, facilitating quick and data-driven decision-making.

Cost

Standard users cost $60 per month, and Developer users cost $125 per month.

Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence tool that facilitates data analysis, visualization, and sharing within organizations.

Key Customers

• Walmart
• Apple
• Johnson & Johnson
• FedEx

Main Features

• It integrates with Microsoft products and other data sources, making data access and analysis convenient for sales teams.
• Power BI’s interactive dashboards and reports allow users to gain insights at a glance, empowering them to make real-time decisions.
• With Power BI’s data-sharing capabilities, sales teams can collaborate and ensure everyone is aligned with the same data-driven goals.

Cost

Power BI Pro costs $10 per user per month and Power BI Premium costs $20 per user per month.

Sales Commission Tools

Incentivizing sales representatives is a critical aspect of Sales Operations Software, as it impacts their motivation and performance. Sales commission payout tools streamline the commission calculation process, ensuring accuracy and transparency.

Spiff

Spiff is a commission management tool that simplifies the process of calculating and managing sales commissions.

Key Customers

• 15Five
• Braze
• Clari
• Pendo
• Vitaly
• RadNet
• Veeva Systems
• Weave

Main Features

• With its automation features, Spiff reduces manual errors and eliminates the need for tedious spreadsheet calculations.
• Sales representatives can access real-time commission data, which boosts transparency and motivates them to achieve their sales targets.
• The tool also allows for custom commission structures, accommodating various incentive plans and commission models tailored to individual sales roles.

Cost

Spiff provides custom prices for the use of their software.

Performio

Performio is a versatile commission management platform that caters to businesses with complex commission structures and incentive plans.

Key Customers

• Veeva Systems
• Johnson & Johnson
• Vodafone
• Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance
• ServiceTitan
• Service Express
• Medtronic

Main Features

• It offers advanced commission modeling capabilities, making it suitable for organizations with diverse sales teams and compensation plans.
• Performio’s robust reporting and analytics features provide insights into commission performance, enabling sales managers to identify top-performing reps and opportunities for improvement.
• The platform’s flexibility allows businesses to adapt their commission structures as needed to align with changing sales strategies.

Everstage

Everstage provides an interface for commission tracking, making it easy for sales teams to access their performance and earnings.

Key Customers

• Chargebee
• Postman
• Nitro
• Hackerrank
• CleverTap
• Popmenu
• Health Gorilla
• MSH

Main Features

• The tool simplifies commission management, ensuring that sales reps can view their earned commissions in real time. With clear visibility into their performance, sales representatives stay motivated and focused on achieving their targets.
• Everstage’s intuitive design allows for seamless onboarding and adoption, streamlining the commission payout process for both sales reps and administrators.

Google Sheets + Coefficient

Once again, Coefficient offers smaller businesses or those seeking a cost-effective solution, a simple yet effective commission-tracking tool they can use and share in their spreadsheet.

Key Customers

• Spotify
• Zendesk
• Udemy
• Uber

Main Features

• Google Sheets provides a familiar and customizable platform for businesses to manage commission data.
• When combined with Coefficient, businesses can automate commission calculations and other analyses to gain deeper insights into their commission data.
• It allows sales managers to track performance, analyze trends, and make data-driven decisions while keeping costs down.

Sales Enablement Tools

Sales enablement tools are important SalesOps tools that play a pivotal role in providing sales representatives with valuable assets and training to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness in closing deals.

Showpad

Showpad offers a comprehensive and centralized platform for content management and sales training.

Key Customers

• GE Healthcare
• Honeywell
• Merck
• Coca-Cola European Partners
• BakerCorp
• Croustico by Vandemoortele
• Thales Avionics

Main Features

• It allows sales reps to access the latest and most relevant sales materials, such as product brochures, presentations, case studies, and videos.
• With Showpad, sales teams can organize, share, and track the usage of content.
• This ensures that sales reps are equipped with up-to-date and compelling content to engage prospects and close deals more.
• Additionally, Showpad’s sales training capabilities facilitate continuous learning and skill development among sales teams, enabling them to stay at the forefront of their game.

Cost

Showpad offers customised pricing.

Mindtickle

Mindtickle is a sales readiness platform designed to enable continuous training and coaching for sales teams.

Key Customers

• Medallia
• Infoblox
• TurnKey Vacation Rentals
• Societe Generale
• Unisys
• MongoDB
• Andela

Main Features

• Mindtickle fosters skill development by providing interactive and engaging training content. Sales reps can access bite-sized learning modules, quizzes, and simulations that help them master sales techniques and product knowledge.
• Mindtickle’s coaching features enable managers to provide personalized feedback and coaching to their sales reps, further enhancing their capabilities and performance.
• Mindtickle ensures that sales teams are always prepared and equipped to handle various customer interactions.

Salesloft

Salesloft is a sales engagement platform that streamlines sales communication and outreach.

Key Customers

• IBM
• Shopify
• 3M
• ServiceNow
• Okta

Main Features

• It empowers sales reps with tools for personalized and effective communication with prospects.
• Salesloft offers features like email templates, cadence planning, and real-time engagement tracking.
• These capabilities help sales reps manage their outreach efforts and engage prospects at the right time with relevant content.
• By automating repetitive tasks, Salesloft increases sales productivity and enables sales teams to focus on building meaningful relationships with prospects.

Cost

Salesloft has three plans, essential, Advanced, and Premier. The prices for these three plans are customized.

Seismic

Seismic is a content automation and personalization platform designed to help sales reps deliver targeted content to prospects.

Key Customers

• Adobe
• Atlassian
• Capital One
• Cisco
• Google
• IBM
• Microsoft

Main Features

• It enables sales teams to access a vast library of content and customize it to match specific prospect needs.
• With Seismic, sales reps can create personalized presentations, proposals, and other collateral, increasing the effectiveness of their interactions with prospects.
• The tool ensures that sales reps deliver the right message to the right audience, leading to more meaningful conversations and improved sales outcomes.

CPQ & Invoicing Tools

Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) tools and invoicing solutions are essential for Sales Operations Software, as they streamline the quoting and billing process, reducing manual errors and accelerating deal closures.

Pandadoc

Pandadoc is a versatile CPQ tool that simplifies document creation, including quotes, proposals, and contracts.

Key Customers

• Autodesk
• Benstalk
• Catalyst Group
• Chili Piper
• HubSpot
• Insperity
• Lumosity
• Marketo

Main Features

• With Pandadoc, sales teams can generate professional-looking documents, ensuring a polished and consistent presentation to prospects.
• The tool’s e-signature capabilities facilitate faster deal closure by enabling seamless and secure electronic signatures.
• Pandadoc streamlines the entire document approval process, allowing sales reps to focus on building customer relationships and closing deals.

Dealhub

Dealhub offers a comprehensive CPQ platform with built-in contract management and revenue recognition features.

Key Customers

• Standard Chartered Bank
• JP Morgan Chase & Co.
• Deutsche Bank
• Dassault Systemes SA
• Veeva Systems
• ThoughtSpot

Main Features

• The platform enables sales reps to create accurate and customizable quotes that align with specific customer requirements.
• Dealhub’s contract management capabilities ensure that sales teams can track contract statuses, making it easier to manage renewals and upsells.
• Additionally, the revenue recognition functionality ensures that sales reps and finance teams can forecast and report revenue figures.

Salesforce CPQ

Salesforce CPQ is an integrated solution within the Salesforce ecosystem, offering seamless CPQ functionality for sales teams.

Key Customers

• ExxonMobil
• Apple
• Johnson & Johnson
• Siemens
• FedEx
• Bank of America
• GE Healthcare
• Qualcomm
• United Airlines
• Spotify

Main Features

• As part of the world’s leading CRM platform, Salesforce CPQ enables sales reps to configure products, set pricing rules, and generate quotes within the CRM interface.
• This integration ensures that sales teams have access to real-time customer data, enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of the quoting process.
• Salesforce CPQ streamlines the end-to-end sales process, from lead generation to deal closure, within a single platform.

NetSuite

NetSuite provides a robust suite of business management tools, including CPQ and invoicing features, suitable for larger enterprises.

Key Customers

• GoPro
• Osmose
• Polygon
• Qdoba Restaurant Corporation
• Crowe Horwath LLP
• Flexport
• Medtronic

Main Features

• NetSuite’s CPQ functionality allows sales teams to configure complex product offerings, manage pricing and discounts, and generate accurate quotes for customers.
• The integrated invoicing capabilities streamline the billing process, ensuring timely and accurate invoicing to customers.
• With NetSuite, larger enterprises can manage their sales operations and financial processes within one unified platform.

Sales Training Tools

Continual sales training is critical for Sales Operations Software, ensuring that sales teams are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in their roles. Sales training tools play a pivotal role in providing interactive and engaging learning experiences for sales representatives.

Lessonly

Lessonly by Seismic is a comprehensive learning management system that simplifies training content creation and delivery.

Key Customers

• Trunk Club
• Ibotta
• U.S. Cellular
• Zendesk
• BrightView
• Flexport
• Bread Finance
• Instacart
• Filtration Group
• Nissan

Main Features

• With Lessonly, sales teams can create and distribute training materials, such as videos, presentations, quizzes, and simulations.
• The platform’s interface and intuitive features make it easy for both trainers and trainees to navigate and engage with the training content.
• Lessonly’s tracking and reporting capabilities enable sales managers to monitor individual progress and assess the effectiveness of the training program, leading to continuous improvement.

Brainshark

Brainshark enables the creation of interactive sales training content, ensuring that sales reps stay engaged and well-informed.

Key Customers

• ADP
• Cisco
• Dell Technologies
• GE Healthcare
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Humana
• IBM

Main Features

• With Brainshark, trainers can develop dynamic and multimedia-rich content, including video presentations, role-playing scenarios, and knowledge assessments.
• Its interactive approach to training increases trainee participation and knowledge retention, making the learning process more effective.
• Brainshark’s analytics and reporting features provide valuable insights into training effectiveness and help identify areas for improvement.

EdApp

EdApp provides a mobile learning platform with gamification elements, making training sessions enjoyable and effective.

Key Customers

• Amgen
• British American Tobacco (BAT)
• Università Di Bologna
• LifeBridge Health
• Prudential
• SAP
• The Home Depot
• Wipro
• Xerox

Main Features

• The platform’s gamified approach encourages friendly competition among sales reps, motivating them to actively participate in training activities.
• EdApp’s mobile accessibility ensures that sales reps can access training materials anytime and anywhere, allowing for flexible and convenient learning.
• EdApp’s microlearning approach breaks down training content into bite-sized modules, facilitating quick and focused learning for busy sales professionals.

Spekit

Spekit offers in-app training and knowledge reinforcement, helping sales reps access the information they need in real-time.

Key Customers

• Atlassian
• CoBank
• DigitalOcean
• HubSpot
• Mariner Wealth Advisors
• Sendlane
• Southwest Airlines
• Zscaler

Main Features

• Spekit integrates with existing tools and platforms, providing context-sensitive training and support within sales applications.
• When sales reps encounter new scenarios or need guidance, Spekit’s in-app training pops up with relevant information, ensuring quick problem-solving and informed decision-making.
• This just-in-time learning approach enhances the sales team’s productivity and confidence.

Sales Territory Mapping Tools

Sales territory mapping tools play a crucial role in Sales Operations Software by helping businesses optimize their sales coverage and ensure that resources are allocated across different regions. These tools provide valuable insights and functionalities that assist sales teams in managing their territories and maximizing sales opportunities.

Salesforce Maps

Salesforce Maps is a powerful tool that integrates with Salesforce CRM to provide visual territory planning and route optimization for sales reps.

Key Customers

• Stanley Black & Decker
• CEAT
• Esri
• Viega
• AmerisourceBergen
• DHL
• Graco
• Legrand
• Nestlé

Main Features

• With Salesforce Maps, sales teams can visualize their territories on interactive maps, allowing them to identify potential gaps in coverage and make data-driven decisions on territory assignments.
• The tool also offers route optimization features, enabling sales reps to plan their visits and minimize travel time.
• By integrating with Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Maps ensures that sales reps have access to real-time customer data while in the field, enhancing their ability to engage with prospects and close deals.

Badger

Badger offers field sales automation, including territory management, lead generation, and route planning.

Key Customers

• Bosch
• Ecolab
• FedEx
• Hitachi
• Honeywell
• John Deere
• L’Oréal

Main Features

• With Badger, sales teams can define and manage their territories, ensuring that each territory receives the appropriate attention and resources.
• The lead generation features help sales reps identify potential customers within their territories, enabling them to focus on high-potential prospects.
• Badger’s route planning capabilities optimize sales reps’ travel routes, saving time and reducing travel expenses.
• Its streamlining of field operations enhances the overall efficiency of the sales team.

EasyTerritory

EasyTerritory provides location-based intelligence to optimize sales territories and streamline field operations.

Key Customers

• Avnet
• Cisco
• DHL
• Enel
• GE Healthcare
• Honeywell
• Johnson Controls

Main Features

• The tool utilizes geographic data and insights to help sales teams identify market opportunities and allocate resources.
• EasyTerritory offers advanced mapping and data visualization capabilities, enabling sales reps and managers to analyze sales performance by region, identify trends, and adjust territory boundaries as needed.
• With EasyTerritory, sales teams can make informed decisions on territory planning and resource allocation, resulting in improved sales productivity and revenue growth.

Xactly

Xactly offers sales performance management solutions, including territory planning and quota allocation features.

Key Customers

• LinkedIn
• Western Union Company
• Louis Vuitton
• Australia Post
• Aflac
• Boeing
• HP
• Ecolab

Main Features

• The tool enables businesses to define and align territories based on various criteria, such as geography, customer segments, or product lines.
• Xactly’s territory planning capabilities ensure equitable distribution of sales opportunities among the sales team, leading to fair and achievable quotas for each territory.
• By optimizing territory assignments and quotas, Xactly empowers sales reps to focus their efforts on the right prospects and opportunities, driving higher sales performance and revenue.

How to Choose a Sales Operations Software?

Selecting the right Sales Operations Software is a critical decision that can impact the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales processes.

Integrations

Ensure the software integrates with your existing tech stack, including CRM and marketing automation tools, to avoid data silos and improve overall efficiency.

Budget

Consider the software cost and its value for your sales operations. Evaluate the pricing model and potential ROI, while ensuring it fits within your budget constraints.

Ease of Use

Opt for an interface with intuitive features to enable faster adoption and implementation across your sales team.

Free Trial (Don’t Purchase Without a Trial)

Select tools offering free trials to assess suitability for your business needs. Involve key stakeholders, test features, and evaluate data integration during the trial to make an informed decision.

Elevate Performance with Sales Operations Tools

Sales operations software is pivotal for driving growth and refining business performance. Harnessing the right tools not only boosts sales efficiency but also provides crucial data-driven insights.

As you assess your organization’s unique requirements, it’s important to understand the categories of Sales Operations Tools and how your team can leverage them properly.

Coefficient empowers SalesOps professionals to unify diverse data sources for comprehensive sales insights. Try it for free today to see how it can streamline your analyses!

If you want to learn how to automate your sales reporting, then this guide is for you.

Creating sales reports is critical to learning more about the progress and performance of your sales team, funnels, or pretty much your entire sales operations.

However, manually building sales reports is often a huge time-suck and can drain your resources, especially when you need to update them regularly. That’s why automating sales reports is crucial.

With automated sales reports, you can set up coeff-templates easily, pull up and link your data seamlessly, and configure auto-update schedules for your reports, saving you tons of precious work hours and energy.

Read on to know more about sales reports, why you should automate them, and learn several of the best ways to generate your automatic report.

What is a sales report?

A sales report is an overview or summary of a company’s sales activities within a specific period. It shows the various trends within the sales volume while providing analyses on sales performance and the steps within the sales funnel.

Sales reports give you the information you need to make better business decisions, find new market opportunities, and determine the best actions to improve your sales processes.

You can have a daily sales report containing the number of meetings or phone calls each rep had set and the number of generated leads.

Weekly sales reports generally include the number of closed deals and the revenue generated. Monthly sales reports can give you a bigger picture of each sales rep or team activity.

Why you should automate sales reporting

Manually creating sales reports means a tedious, time-consuming process of collecting, organizing, and generating reports of volumes of sales data.

Automated sales reporting provides a solution by letting you configure customizable and re-usable coeff-templates.

You can set up automatic data syncing between datasets and systems. This cuts down significantly on the hours and resources required to build your sales reports.

Also, you can reduce data errors and inaccuracies when you automate sales reports since you won’t need to input and move your datasets manually.

With automated sales reports, you can configure data workflows once and set them up to auto-refresh or sync every time your data changes for seamless and streamlined sales reporting and analysis.

3 ways to automate sales reporting

Spreadsheets are an excellent tool for building and automating sales reporting — when you know the right built-in features, add-ons, and third-party integrations to use.

We’ll break down three ways to automate your sales reporting in spreadsheets using Google Sheets. The same automations can be done in Excel.

Option 1: Use built-in features, manual maintenance required

The steps below show how you can use Google Sheets’ Explore feature to automate critical parts of your sales reporting process.

Step 1: Open your data

Import or open your spreadsheet file containing your sales data in Google Sheets. Here, we’ll use a sample sales funnel analysis dataset.

Click the Explore button at the bottom right corner of the Google Sheets interface to access the sidebar containing the smart and quick reporting and analytics tools.

Step 2: Format and visualize your data

The Analysis feature offers recommended, pre-made stats, charts, and visualizations based on your active spreadsheet.

The charts also include explanations of the findings, such as the data ranges and the amount or number of changes within a set period.

See more chart options and view the graphs in full size to get a better look. Click the Insert chart icon or drag and drop the graph you want to add to your spreadsheet (or to a new sheet).

With the Analysis feature, you get instant sales data visualizations, so you won’t have to build your charts from scratch, saving you a huge amount of time and effort.

After adding the chart to your spreadsheet, you can customize it further by selecting any element within it. This opens the Chart editor sidebar containing the tools and options to modify your chart’s appearance and elements.

Step 3: Drill down on your sales data

You can use the Answers option to help you explore your sales data further. It acts almost like a built-in Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant within Google Sheets to help you get instant information about your sales data.

Ask specific questions about your data by typing them in the provided field.

You’ll also see some suggested questions and information about your data (or a specific data range), such as the formula used and the recommended chart.

While the feature might not work perfectly, it provides a quick way to uncover information within your sales data that’s easy to find using a standard spreadsheet formula.

All these built-in Google Sheets functionalities streamline vital parts of your sales reporting and analysis.

Option 2: Use an auto-capture formula and Google Apps Script (code required)

Let’s assume you use a Google spreadsheet shared with your sales team members so they can input their weekly and monthly data.

You would need to extract all the data each month, compile them for your sales reporting, and send the reports to designated people, making the process tedious and time-consuming.

However, with a Google Sheets auto-capture formula and the Google Apps Script, you can automate this process and the final report would be emailed automatically every month.

Step 1: Prep your data collection sheet

For this example, we’ll use a sample dataset containing each sales rep’s number of closed-won deals of every month.

Use this spreadsheet formula to auto-capture the latest data entries to ensure you include recently added information.

=INDEX(B1:B14,Max(MATCH(“zzz”,B1:B14),Match(143^143,B1:B14)))

Step 2: Create your graph

Create a graph by selecting the data range and clicking Insert from the Google Sheets menu, then Chart.

To make this easier, use the Explore feature and follow the steps mentioned previously in the first method. You can have a chart that looks like this.

Customize the report and charts as you prefer, and you should be good to go.

Step 3: Set up the Google App Script

Navigate to Tools on the menu and click Script Editor from the dropdown.

Copy this script and paste it on the Google Apps Script’s code area.

function sendEmails() {
// Get the sheet where the data is, in sheet ‘system’
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(“Sheet1”)
// Get the data of particular cell, in this case, i need only the total cell (G14)
var data = sheet.getRange(‘G14’).getValues();
// Get all the chart in the sheets
const chartBlobs = new Array();
const emailImages = {};
const charts = sheet.getCharts();
charts.forEach(function(chart, i){
chartBlobs[i] = chart.getAs(“image/png”);
emailImages[“chart”+i] = chartBlobs[i];
});
// Send email
MailApp.sendEmail({
to: “you@gmail.com,”yourboss@gmail.com””,
subject: “Customer Enquiries as of ” + new Date(),
htmlBody: “Customer Enquiries Data: <br>” +
“Total: ” + data + “<br>”,
inlineImages:emailImages
});
}

Remember to replace the email with the recipient’s actual email address.

Test the code by saving and running it. The email will be sent to the address you specified in the code.

Step 4: Schedule monthly emails

Now that you have a report-generating function triggered easily with one click, you can configure the report for the email blast function.

Google Apps Script offers several types of triggers, including:

• Time-driven triggers, either hourly, weekly, or monthly
• Event-driven triggers, such as when the sheet gets opened and edited, or based on form submission
• Calendar by date

Save the trigger, and you’ll have an automatic reporting system that sends your sales reports to designated recipients regularly and automatically.

Option 3: Use Coefficient – Fully automated, no-code add-on

Coefficient provides one of the easiest ways to automate your sales reporting, from importing your dataset to keeping your reports live.

The app offers easy-to-use features to help you import and sync data on Google Sheets and other tools, such as HubSpot, Salesforce, analytics platforms, databases, and any supported spaces where your data resides.

You can pull up your data to Google Sheets with a few clicks and set up auto-refresh schedules. This keeps your sales reports, dashboards, and analytics updated.

Follow the steps below to automate your sales reporting with the help of Coefficient.

Step 1: Import data to Google Sheets

After installing the Coefficient app to Google Sheets, launch it from the Add-ons tab on the menu to open the sidebar.

Pull up your data by clicking Import Data and choose your data source, selecting the objects you want to import, and choosing the fields. You can also add filters to specify your import data further.

When you’re done, click import, and the data will populate your spreadsheet.

Step 2: Build your sales report charts and graphs

Create your charts and graphs by inserting a chart or using the Explore feature (follow the steps on inserting and customizing a chart in the methods mentioned earlier).

Use the Chart editor to customize your chart by adding texts, changing its appearance, style, and colors, and modifying the elements accordingly.

Step 3: Set up auto-refresh schedules and alerts

Coefficient lets you set hourly, weekly, or daily auto-refresh schedules so you won’t need to manually repeat your data imports every time your source data changes.

With this feature, your data syncs automatically to the latest version of your data source, so you get real-time sales report information.

You can also set up email and slack notifications to send automated alerts when your sales data and reports get updated on Google Sheets.

Select the alert type, conditions, and frequency and add the recipients.

This is what a Slack notification from the Coefficient alert you set up can look like.

Coefficient saves you from the time-sucking, laborious tasks of moving and syncing your sales datasets while giving you a 360-degree view of your sales data in real-time.

Video Walkthrough: How to Trigger Slack Notifications from Google Sheets

Make sales reporting smarter and faster

Save your sales team from unnecessary stress and streamline your workflows by automating your sales reporting.

With automated sales reports, you get insights faster and you save time and money, which could be better spent on more critical aspects of your sales operations.

Leverage the power of Coefficient to supercharge the syncing of sales data on Google Sheets and keep your reports and analytics always updated.

This keeps you from missing any opportunities, improves your team’s overall efficiency, and helps you spot potential issues quickly and address them before they become bigger problems.

Try Coefficient for free today!

Sales forecasting is a crucial aspect of any enterprise. The practice helps companies visualize their sales pipeline and estimate sales revenue for the year.

However, automating sales forecasting is often easier said than done for many businesses. Obstacles such as data accuracy and disparate data sources make effective forecasting difficult.

That’s why we’ve created a sales forecasting template for Google Sheets to share with you! You can power this template with live data from any system, including HubSpot, Salesforce, database, or BI tools. Download the template for a pre-built automated forecasting solution, or continue with the video or step by step guide below.

Let’s dive in!  

Video Walkthrough: How to Automate Sales Forecasting

A Step-by-Step Guide to Automate Sales Forecasting in Google Sheets

Coefficient not only simplifies your sales forecasting process but also automates it, saving you time and reducing errors.

Now let’s walk through how you can automate your sales forecasting process in Google Sheets.

Start by launching Coefficient from the extensions tab in the top menu of Google Sheets. Go to Extensions -> Coefficient -> Launch.

Once the Coefficient sidebar launches, choose Import from…

Next, select Salesforce as your data source.

Click From Objects & Fields.

Under New Import, choose the Opportunity object.

Choose Select fields…

Then select the required fields: ‘Name,’ ‘Close Date,’ ‘Forecast Category,’ ‘Stage,’ ‘Amount,’ and ‘Probability.’ 

Once all the fields are selected, name your import. Then click import to send your data to Google Sheets.

Now let’s add a calculated field to your import. First, select a new cell and label it ‘Forecasted Revenue.’

Forecasted Revenue can be calculated by multiplying your ‘Amount’ times your ‘Probability’ divided by 100. In this example, =E3*F3/100.

Drag the formula down the column to calculate forecasted revenue for each row.  

Now, let’s build your analysis sheet by starting a new tab and labeling it ‘Summary.’ 

Next, assign each value. These are ‘Forecast Category,’ ‘Pipeline,’ ‘Best Case,’ ‘Commit,’ and ‘Closed Won.’

Now, create a table that sums the amount of forecasted sales revenue by Salesforce forecast category.

You can use the SUMIFS formula in Google Sheets to accomplish this:

=SUMIFS(‘⚡️Opportunity’!G2:G,’⚡️Opportunity’!D2:D,B5)

Finally, it’s time to visualize our forecasting data!

To do so, go to Insert -> Chart.  

The Chart editor will appear. Choose the Waterfall chart. 

This will display your estimated sales revenue by forecast category.

And there you have it!

With just a few clicks, you’ve been able to import your Salesforce opportunity data into Google Sheets and forecast your sales revenue automatically.

Simplify Your Sales Forecasting with Live Data in Spreadsheets

Automating sales forecasting isn’t as hard as it sounds. With Google Sheets and Coefficient, you can streamline the process and create a clear view of your sales pipeline and estimated revenue, powered by live data.

To automate sales forecasting in Sheets, all you need to do is follow the steps in this guide or download our free sales forecasting template.

And if you want to see how your spreadsheet can be powered by live data, get started for free with Coefficient to right now.  

ChatGPT for sales is the ultimate tool to boost your team’s performance and streamline processes. By integrating ChatGPT into your sales workflow, you can create personalized customer experiences, automate time-consuming tasks, and gain valuable insights from data analysis. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore how ChatGPT can elevate your sales strategies and RevOps.

Let’s dive in!

Why Should You Start Using ChatGPT in Your Sales Process?

1. Personalization at Scale: ChatGPT allows you to customize your communications for each prospect, creating a unique and engaging experience that generic outreach can’t match.
2. Boost Efficiency: Automate repetitive tasks like prospecting emails, follow-ups, and data analysis, freeing up your sales team to focus on building relationships and closing deals.
3. Data-Driven Insights: ChatGPT can analyze large datasets to uncover patterns in customer behavior and predict market trends, empowering your sales team to make informed decisions.
4. Continuous Improvement: As an AI tool, ChatGPT learns from each interaction, constantly refining its responses and suggestions to ensure your sales strategies remain effective and up-to-date.
5. Cost-Effective Solution: Implementing ChatGPT in your sales process is an affordable way to increase efficiency, improve lead qualification, and ultimately drive more sales.

5 Ways to Use ChatGPT for Sales Performance

Build Your Sales Team Members’ Personal Brands on Social Media

ChatGPT helps create authentic, engaging content that showcases your team’s expertise and personality. This AI-generated content establishes your sales team as trusted industry leaders. 

By sharing this content across social media profiles, your team can attract new prospects, spark meaningful conversations, and drive more sales opportunities.

Customize Cold Outreach Messaging Using GPT in Google Sheets

Coefficient integrates ChatGPT with Google Sheets to create personalized outreach messages at scale. 

By feeding ChatGPT with customer data and preferences, you can generate tailored messages that speak directly to each prospect’s unique needs and pain points. This automated process boosts response rates and engagement while saving your sales team valuable time.

Come Up with Lead-Qualifying Questions

ChatGPT generates targeted, insightful questions to uncover a lead’s intentions, budget, and decision-making authority. These AI-generated questions help your sales team:

• Quickly determine a lead’s suitability
• Prioritize their outreach accordingly
• Tailor qualifying questions to specific industries, roles, or pain points

Role Play with a Prospect

Sales teams can practice pitches, handle objections, and refine techniques in realistic AI-powered role-play scenarios. ChatGPT provides immediate feedback and suggestions for continuous improvement. Regular practice builds confidence and helps close more deals.

Summarize Notes from a Sales Call

ChatGPT generates concise summaries of sales calls, highlighting key points and next steps. This streamlines the note-taking process and ensures consistent, thorough records. 

Additionally, ChatGPT can identify patterns and insights across multiple call summaries to help refine your sales strategy.

3 Ways to Use ChatGPT to Improve RevOps

Use Code Interpreter for Forecasting

Accurate sales forecasting is crucial for making informed decisions and allocating resources effectively. With Coefficient’s Code Interpreter, you can:

• Leverage ChatGPT’s natural language processing capabilities to generate sophisticated forecasting models directly within Google Sheets
• Describe your forecasting requirements in plain English, and Code Interpreter will generate a custom Google Apps Script tailored to your specific needs
• Eliminate the need for manual data manipulation and complex formulas, allowing your RevOps team to focus on strategic analysis and decision-making.

Use Coefficient’s GPT Capabilities to Cleanse Data

Clean and accurate data is the foundation of effective RevOps.

However, ensuring data consistency across multiple platforms can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Coefficient’s GPT capabilities simplify this process by:

• Enabling you to identify and resolve data inconsistencies, duplicates, and errors directly within Google Sheets
• Allowing you to describe your data cleansing requirements in natural language, and then generating Google Apps Script code that automates the process of identifying and fixing data issues across your CRM, marketing platforms, and other data sources
• Ensuring a single source of truth and providing your RevOps team with reliable, up-to-date data for better decision-making

Use GPT Chart Builder for Quick Data Visualization

Data visualization is essential for communicating insights and driving data-driven decision-making. 

However, creating effective charts and graphs can be time-consuming and often requires specialized skills. Coefficient’s GPT Chart Builder simplifies this process and makes data visualization accessible to everyone on your RevOps team.

With GPT Chart Builder, you can:

• Create comprehensive, professional-quality visualizations by simply describing your requirements in plain English
• Ask for specific chart types and data comparisons, such as a “stacked bar chart comparing sales performance by region and product category,” and GPT Chart Builder will generate the chart automatically within Google Sheets
• Democratize data visualization, enabling your RevOps team to quickly create compelling visuals that drive data-driven decision-making and facilitate more productive strategic planning sessions

Limitations of ChatGPT for Sales & Best Practices

Hallucinations and Accuracy Checks

AI models like ChatGPT can sometimes generate convincing but factually inaccurate content, known as “hallucinations.” 

Always conduct accuracy checks and maintain human oversight, especially when making critical business decisions.

Best Practices for Using ChatGPT in Sales and RevOps

• Use ChatGPT as a tool to augment and support human expertise, not replace it entirely
• Regularly review and update AI-generated content to ensure relevance and accuracy
• Maintain human oversight and final approval for all AI-generated messaging and content
• Continuously monitor and analyze the performance of AI-powered strategies to optimize results
• Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations when feeding customer data into ChatGPT
• Provide clear guidelines and training for sales teams on effectively integrating ChatGPT into their workflows
• Balance the use of AI-generated insights with human intuition and experience for well-rounded decision-making

Embrace the Future of Sales with ChatGPT and Coefficient

Integrating ChatGPT into your sales and RevOps processes will help you be more efficient and deliver more personalized experiences for prospects and customers. 

Coefficient makes it easy to connect ChatGPT with your existing tools like Google Sheets, CRMs, and marketing platforms, so you can start using this powerful technology right away.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to revolutionize your sales and RevOps. Start your journey with ChatGPT and Coefficient today and experience the future of sales success. Get started for free! 

Objects within Salesforce CRM generally have well-defined relationships. But a glaring gap exists between the Lead and Account objects in Salesforce, often making lead to account matching an absolute headache.

In Salesforce, a Lead typically passes through a filtration process that detects a prospect’s intent, such as opening emails and reading whitepapers. This contributes to practices such as lead scoring, which sales reps use to gauge who they should speak to.

Here’s where it gets tricky.

Once a lead becomes a qualified buyer, the associated Lead in Salesforce often transitions to a Contact under an Account. The Lead record is removed once it becomes a Contact.

That sounds benign. But this can become a problem when you bring new Leads into your Salesforce system.

For instance, let’s say you upload a list of Leads from a webinar.

Some of those Leads might now be Contacts linked to Accounts. But there’s no direct way to detect if any of these Leads are tied to accounts.

So what is the solution — how do you match Salesforce Leads to Accounts? Read our ultimate guide below to find out.

Lead to Account Matching: What’s the Solution?

In our work with hundreds of different sales teams, we’ve seen lead to account matching issues pop up consistently. But don’t fret — we have a free solution that can eliminate this headache for good.

Now you can download our free Lead to Account Template for Google Sheets to match your Salesforce Leads to Accounts in a single click.

Use our template to automatically match Leads to Accounts in Google Sheets and push the data back into your Salesforce CRM.

In this guide, we’ve also highlighted other methods of Lead to Account matching, including using Salesforce CRM itself.

There’s something for everyone here! Read on to find out which solution works best for your use case.

Option 1: Lead to Account Template for Google Sheets

This may surprise you: we’ve found that Google Sheets is actually the easiest way to match Salesforce Leads to Accounts. Google Sheets is more flexible and customizable than the Salesforce CRM for a task like this.

And you don’t even need to do any work! We’ve already created a free Lead to Account Template for Google Sheets that does everything for you.

Here’s how the template works.

1. Make a copy of the template. From there, you’ll use Coefficient to connect Google Sheets to Salesforce in a single click.
2. Once you’re connected to Salesforce, Coefficient will automatically import your Leads and Contacts from Salesforce into Google Sheets.
3. Our template uses smart formulas in Google Sheets to compare the email addresses of any new Leads against the email addresses of any existing Contacts.
4. When a match is found, the template will list the Account or Company Name for the matching Contact.
5. Once Leads are linked to Accounts, you can use Salesforce to push the data back to Salesforce to update your CRM. This automatically updates the Company Name field based on the matches found by the template.

To complete pushing back data from Salesforce to Google Sheets, follow these steps:

1. Launch Coefficient.
2. Select “Export To…”
3. Select “Salesforce” as the data source.
4. To update the Company Name field, set your “Leads” object with “Lead ID” as the primary key.
5. Click to export.

And voila — your Salesforce CRM is now updated with the Lead to Account matching data in Google Sheets.

Download our free Lead to Account Template for Google Sheets now to try for yourself!

Option 2: Third-Party App + Salesforce Data Loader

You can also use a third-party app from the Salesforce AppExchange to match Lead and Account data. On the Salesforce AppExchange, a search for “Lead to Account Matching” presents pages of results.

However, there’s much to consider before installing a third-party Salesforce app. This includes how much the app costs, reviews for the app, and what kind of objects the app brings into your Salesforce CRM.

You can upload the matched data into your Salesforce CRM using Data Loader. While the third-party app may cost money, Data Loader is free. But Data Loader can run into functionality limitations.

With Data Loader, you can insert Leads as Contacts under the appropriate Accounts. This process is manual and time-consuming. If you have a high volume of Salesforce records, it’s not ideal.

Option 3: Salesforce Custom Flow & Report

Another option you can perform inside of Salesforce itself is combining a custom flow with a report.

For instance, you can leverage custom fields to compare the domain of the Lead’s email address and the Account’s website.

First, create a formula field on the Account that grabs the domain from the website:

Then create a formula field on the Lead that grabs the domain from the email:

Once you have both domains, you can set up a decision criteria in a Flow to identify if they match.

Use a Boolean (checkbox) field on the Lead record, and a report to identify what Account the Lead matches. Then use decision criteria in a Flow to evaluate if the Lead and Account match.

You can then harness the report to convert Leads into Contacts for those Accounts or utilize Apex to convert Leads in scheduled jobs.

Overall, this solution is a bit intensive, but more customizable than some of the other options in this blog.

Option 4: Matched Leads Component in Pardot

In Pardot, there’s a built-in Lead to Account matching feature available. Pardot is Salesforce’s marketing automation platform, designed for email automation, lead management, and other sales and marketing tasks.

A Standard Leads on Accounts Matching rule is included with Pardot. You can navigate to the Lightning Account page and add a Lightning Component called “Matched Leads”.

Once your component is on the Lightning page, make sure the permissions are correct, so your team members can access it.

Salesforce Lead to Account Matching: What Option is Right for You?

There are many different ways to perform lead to account matching for your Salesforce data. The option you choose will depend on your specific use case.

The easiest method, though, is to use our pre-built Lead to Account Matching template for Google Sheets.

The template connects to your live Salesforce data and automates the process of lead to account matching in a single click.

So what are you waiting for? Try our free Lead to Account Matching Template for Google Sheets right now!

Download Free Template