Once Upon a Sales Meeting!

It was an awkward silence in the meeting room "Uproar." John Kowalski, the new sales manager, was not happy with the team's performance. After scribbling something in the notepad, he decided to break the silence,

John: I cannot believe you guys have been working like this. No reports, delusional forecasting, random targets, and no eye on the ball.

Kevin: We followed Richard's orders.

John: Well, Richard is not here anymore, is he?

John walked up to the whiteboard, and wrote in big bold letters: "TARGET - $50 MILLION". He then turned around to see the poker faces of his 6-member team and asked, "Thoughts?"

Kevin: Our last year target was $15 million, and yet we missed that by 20%. This new target of $50 million is almost four times what we did last year. Do you think it is practical?

John: Kevin, we make software for salons and spas. That's a 3-billion dollar industry. I'm asking you to capture less than 2% of that industry. Now, you tell me if that is impractical.

Kristin: But John, with the same team of 6, we'd need a magic wand to achieve that target.

John: Wand, not sure. Magic, well yes. We certainly need the magic of proper planning and reporting. We need to analyze relevant data and make strategies. What does our sales pipeline look like today?

Kristin: I can quickly check the CRM and let you know.

John: Please do.

Kristin (reading from CRM): We have 135 open deals as of today.

John: And what stages are they in?

Kristin: 93 cold, and 42 hot

John: Is that it? What about more granular stages? Those in the demo stage, or proposal stage for instance?

Team looked blank. John decided to continue.

John: Anyway, can you tell me who among you has the highest probability of topping the closures this month?

Kristin: That would be Kevin.

John: Kevin, how much is in your pipeline right now?

Kevin: I am about to close a 200,000 dollar deal, and have few more follow-ups to do.

John: Could you give me your sales forecasting for this month based on conversion probability?

Kevin: Well, if you give me sometime, I could pull that for you.

John did not know how to react. Perhaps, he was expecting more numbers from a team that brought 12 million in sales the previous year.

John: It's alright, Kevin. Team, let me show you how we are going to keep track of our leads and prospective deals going forward.

John projects the following image on screen:

John (continues): We'll have five primary deal stages - New (or cold leads); Talking (or showing interest); Meeting (or Demo); Proposal (or Quote); and finally Closed Won or Lost. This is how we'll prepare our sales pipeline. We'll also map probability percentages in these five stages based on our previous record. If we capture the appropriate data into our CRM in time, we can pull other important reports as well. Let me show you another example. 

Conversion or Sales Funnel report is essential find out where our leads leak in the process, and then tighten the gap. Sales Funnel reports can also be pulled by regions, or lead owners. These are some useful metrics that we could use to streamline our approach. For instance, if we see a low conversion rate for some of you, I can work closely with you to help analyze and improve.. Any questions?

Kristin: John, few of my clients take too long to close and that affects my targets for that particular quarter. Can we also do something to reduce the conversion time?

John: That is an excellent question. It is important to learn about sales cycle time or velocity so that we can set realistic targets for everyone of you. Also, shorter sales cycles would mean more ROI for our team.

Kevin: John, I like to take time with my clients and build relationships with them. That is important because if they like the product and service, they are going to renew their subscription every month, for a longer period. 

John: That's a great point, Kevin. Thank you for bringing this up. To monitor this, let's follow two more metrics - Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). 

John walks up to the white board and starts writing MRR formula. 

Net MRR = MRR at the beginning of the month + MRR gained from new customers for the month + MRR change gained from upgrading customers for the month - MRR change lost from downgrading customers for the month - MRR Churn from the month

John (continues): Recurring revenue is the lifeblood of any SaaS business. It’s what makes building a SaaS so appealing. You do not have to worry about one-off sales that may or may not return. If you have a solid product ,and like Kevin mentioned,, build a good relationship with clients, they automatically return for renewal. While new subscriptions validate our sales efforts, the Churn rate l lets us know where we went wrong. 

Kristin: What about Customer Lifetime Value?

John: Customer Lifetime Value is simply the total revenue we make from a single customer over the whole period of relationship with that customer. It's an important metric as it costs less to keep existing customers than it does to acquire new ones, so increasing the value of your existing customers is a great way to drive growth. Marketing team would be interested in this metric as well, as they compare this with Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), to calculate ROI.

Understanding CLV/CAC generally helps marketers unlock additional budget for their programs. For instance, it can help them determine whether they should be allowed to spend more on acquiring larger customers who'll likely stick around longer and pay more in their lifetime. This is what an “allowable CAC” represents. Allowable CAC is the maximum acceptable amount to pay for a customer. It's essentially a cap marketing team pre-negotiate with the finance team. They can justify a higher allowable CAC if CLV is higher.

Kevin: Sorry to return to where we started, John, but how are we going to divide the 50 million dollar target among ourselves.

John: All the reports, analysis and metrics that we spoke about, will help us set our goals and targets. Let's pull out all those reports from our CRM and come back for our next meeting tomorrow. We'll sit together and work out a target sales plan for each of us according to the insights we gain from reports. Sounds good?

All: Yes John

John: Alright then, see you. Hopefully, I'd get to hear from George, Lisa, Rajesh and Peter as well tomorrow, and not just Kevin and Kristin.

Everyone laughs and leaves the room. John left with a satisfied smile, as he believed he gave his team 50-million reasons to trust the sales reports and work with a plan.

• Topic Participants

• Vinit Tibrewal

  

• Sticky Posts

• As Sales Person, Here are my New Year Resolutions. What are Yours?

  Being a salesperson, I keep learning from my mistakes and have noted a few changes that I need to make in my approach. I take these resolutions going into 2021, hoping to keep it going for as long as possible :) 1. I will not say "Yes, our product has

• Once Upon a Sales Meeting!

  It was an awkward silence in the meeting room "Uproar." John Kowalski, the new sales manager, was not happy with the team's performance. After scribbling something in the notepad, he decided to break the silence, John: I cannot believe you guys have been working like this. No reports, delusional forecasting, random targets, and no eye on the ball. Kevin: We followed Richard's orders. John: Well, Richard is not here anymore, is he? John walked up to the whiteboard, and wrote in big bold letters: "TARGET

• Recent Topics

• use of comma as a decimal separator

  Hello, I wish to find a way to customize the number format for my proper use. I have to use french data, where the "," is used as the decimal separator : for example the french way to write "3.99�" is "3,99�" Is it possible to do it in Zoho Sheet ? If this is not actually the case, I'd love this feature to be implemented !

• Ability for customer to give feedback after receipt of an order

  Is there any way we can receive feedback from customers regarding their order after delivery (other than just an email, obviuosly)? This is not the same as product reviews, as it may concern other points, but would ideally have an inbuilt reference to

• Zoho meeting api not working in trial version

  I have and free trial meeting access. When i have tried to create a authentication code for meeting it shows Invalid OAuth Scope error. My code: $client_id = 'client_id'; $redirect_uri = 'site_url'; $scope = 'ZohoMeeting.organize.CREATE,ZohoMeeting.organize.READ';

• Why is Nordic No Longer Available as a Translation Service for Email

  I routine receive email in Nordic but now it has been removed from the list of available translations. Why?

• Create WorkDrive Folder with specific Sub-Folders when new Zoho CRM entry in "Accounts" Module

  So, my flow creates a WorkDrive Folder in the required Team Folder, but I want the same flow to create four Subfolders within the new folder. Man, Woman, Boy & Girl sub-folders I was looking at this below but how do I identify the new Parent folder as

• Live webinar: 2024 recap of Zoho Show

  Hello all, 2024 has been an incredible year for Zoho Show! We've listened to your feedback and worked continuously to strengthen the tools you use to create, collaborate, and deliver presentations. From rolling out new features to enhancing existing ones,

• Changing Customer Currency

  It seems so silly that you can't change a customer's currency after a transaction is recorded. We work with companies all over the world and sometimes they might request an invoice in a different currency. To do this I have to create another customer

• Bulk payment of bills from multiple vendors

  Is there a way to pay multiple vendors bills in one transaction?  It appears that you have to deal with each one as a seperate transaction.  Is there a way to export the transactions to the bank using an ABA file?

• WorkDrive API Documentation

  WorkDrive provides users and developers an extensive set of APIs to help integrate functionalities of Zoho WorkDrive with other Zoho applications and third-party tools. We have published the official WorkDrive API Documentation page for all external users.

• Record Asset Received as Payment

  How exactly would you account for this in books? For example, I receive a mini computer for a review and I get to keep it after the video is published. Would debit my normal asset account (e.g. Computers) and credit an income account (e.g. Other Income).

• Line_Items not appearing in invoice arrays

  When i use the Zoho API to pull an invoice, it doesnt show the Line_items array... In the documentation it shows that it should appear but it does not. Is there any way to fix this?

• Active Customer List 2024

  Hello everybody, i am just a beginner :) how can i create a customer list of all active customer in 2024? Active customer means, all customers, who received an invoice in 2024 of us. Just tried already in CRM. Can i do that also in ZOHO books? I am looking

• Notifications on mentions in comments

  If another user mentions me (e.g. @mustafa... which autocompletes) in a comment on a ticket, how do I get notified? If I don't get notified, what on earth is the point of the mention feature???

• [New] Create invoices and contracts in minutes with Zoho Writer's Merge Templates for Bigin!

  Do you often find yourself manually entering customer information in your business documents like invoices and contracts? This can be a time-consuming process that can take up valuable time from your business operations. With Zoho Writer's Merge Templates

• Setup for a service based business

  I apologise if this has been asked before but a search of the forums didn't turn up what I was looking for. I am looking at setting up Zoho CRM for a consultancy based business and so there are no products as such. This is fine as I can create a product which is time based. However, I do not seem to be able to get rid of the concept of having quantity in stock. I have a unlimited supply of time! How can I bend Zoho to my will and get rid of the stock control? Thanks Neil

• Introducing the New SalesIQ Live Chat Widget: Twice as Fast, Fully Optimized for Engagement!

  Hello everyone! To celebrate our 10-year milestone, we're thrilled to unveil the new and improved SalesIQ Live Chat Widget! Redesigned at both the User Interface and performance levels, this enhanced widget is not only optimized but also 2X faster than

• Search terms from ASAP widget are not showing up in my Zoho Desk analytics

  When people perform searches in the Zoho Desk ASAP widget, the search terms do not show up inside my analytics report. But when people access the KB website directly and then do the search, the keywords ARE showing up. Is this a known issue, or am I just

• Microsoft Loop integration

  Hi has anyone had luck getting any components of Microsoft Loop integrated into Zoho One, for example Follow-up tasks into Zoho Projects or other app, or perhaps Loop notes into Zoho Notes? cheers

• Searching for content within courses

  Hello, I have been testing out Zoho One for my company have been exploring Learn. I've noticed that you cannot search for content within a course. You can only locate the title of the course. Example: Course: How to Make Your Bed Chapter: Pillows Lesson:

• Cohort - Zoho Analytics

  I am developing a cohort analysis in Zoho Analytics for Tickets/Service Desk, which tracks the number of tickets created each month and when those tickets were closed. I have added a user filter for classification. When I change the classification using

• Helper Functions and DRY principle

  Hello everyone, I believe Deluge should be able to use 'Helper functions' inside the main function. I know I can create different standalones, but this is not helpful and confusing. I don't want 10000 different standalones, and I dont want to have to

• Automation Issue with Email Templates in Workflow

  Hello Zoho Support Team, I’m currently facing an issue with the automation setup in my workflow for following up with applicants. I have configured the workflow to send out emails with different templates, which work perfectly when sent manually. However,

• Disable Private Reply.

  Is it possible to disable the option to do "Private Reply" for tickets? The reason is that sometimes we click on reply or "reply all," but the system automatically selects "private." Am I doing something wrong? Thanks Rudy

• Zoho Books | Product Updates | October 2024

  Hello users, We're back with fresh feature updates in Zoho Books. Starting from associating an applicable period for TDS taxes to minimised tab view for web tabs, discover the latest enhancements that will streamline your workflow and elevate your accounting

• Merge Items

  Is there a work around for merging items? We currently have three names for one item, all have had a transaction associated so there is no deleting (just deactivating, which doesn't really help. It still appears so people are continuing to use it). I also can't assign inventory tracking to items used in past transactions, which I don't understand, this is an important feature moving forward.. It would be nice to merge into one item and be able to track inventory. Let me know if this is possible.

• Failures installing Unattended Agent using Microsoft Intune

  Hello, I configured Zoho Assist Unattended Agent using Microsoft Intune, following the steps outlined in this article, using a .MSI installer. I added a pilot group of users and for 6 of them it installed correctly and I see their computers in Zoho Assist

• Getting list of calendar events over api for zoho mail calendar

  Hi, I am using just Zoho mail without using Zoho CRM. I wanted to get all events booked in my zoho mail calendar through an api at regular intervals. I could find such API support for Zoho CRM calendar but not for zoho mail calendar. Can you kindly let

• Crear tarea CRM con recordatorio desde Zoho Flow

  Hola, estoy intentando crear desde Zoho Flow una tarea en CRM. Lo he logrado hacer pero sin recordatorio, ya que no se como se debe escribir el string adecuado. He probado varias alternativas, pero ninguna me funcionó hasta ahora. - FREQ=NONE;ACTION=EMAIL;TRIGGER=DATE-TIME:${FechaVto}

• Recurring Bookings

  Will Zoho Bookings ever offer an option to the customer to schedule recurring meetings (unlimited) for the same days/times? Making a client schedule the same days/times for an entire month is a tedious process. I'd like to offer the option upfront to

• Zoho CRM's new Homepage component: See all your activities in one powerful view!

  Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce a new feature to your CRM dashboards: the Homepage Open Activity Component! Now you can effortlessly track all your open activities—including tasks, meetings, calls, and appointments—in a unified view, tailored

• No fue posible enviar el mensaje;Motivo:553 Relaying disallowed. Invalid Domain - admin@laboratoriosantarosa.org

  Hola Renovamos después del tiempo el dominio, y luego de eso se cayó el servicio de correo. Seguimos las indicaciones que se indican en este articulo, sin embargo, hasta el momento solo podemos recibir correos pero no enviar. Hemos actualizado los registros

• Add an option to start zobot when user clicks the Chat with Us button

  I would like to have an option to start the zobot when user clicks on "Chat with us" button when chat widget is maximized

• Ticket list sorting is now supported in the latest version of the Desk Android mobile app.

  Hello, In the latest version of the Desk Android mobile app (v2.4.32), we have brought in the option to sort the ticket listing view.   Now we can sort the tickets listing by Ticket Id, Due Date, Recent Thread and Created Time. Please update the app either

• Mass delete leads

  How do I mass delete leads in ZMA? I want to delete leads that have not opened emails in 6 months. But I can only select 200 at a time - there are thousands.

• Creator v5, v6 and v8 for Zoho One

  Greetings, I hope find all doing well and safe. I was browsing the Zoho One page, where the details of each application's plans are outlined (https://www.zoho.com/one/plan-details.html?prd=zcreator). I noticed there are three versions available for Creator

• Base Currency Adjustment - Mark Transaction as Something Other than Unreconciled

  Not a very concise title, but it describes the issue pretty well. Basically, when a Base Currency Adjustment is made, the transaction is recorded in the register of the account in question (as it should be). It's marked as "Manually Added", which makes

• Customer Account Statement

  Dear Sir, I am Travel Agent Curranty Zoho Provide Customer Statement with Date, Transactions, Details, Amount, Payments, Balance Our Suggestion is kindly Provide Statement with Item name & Description Kindly find the attachment

• move or clone the custom layout

  Hi, is it possible to move or clone the custom layout of a ticket from one department to another? BR

• How to restart the timer for the 'First Response' field associated with an SLA.

  Hello, through the API, I send an email to multiple accounts when a new ticket is created, and the system automatically sets the "First Response" field to null. I would like this to happen only when a ticket is assigned.

• Invoice filter issue

  Hello Team, I am using following API documentation for getting list of invoices. https://www.zoho.com/books/api/v3/invoices/#list-invoices I have applied filter on multiple fields & its working correctly. But when I pass search_text parameter with combination

• Next Page