With that said, it doesn’t mean a new round of funding for companies, especially SaaS-based companies, is impossible. The global SaaS market size was $282 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $307 billion by 2026. U.S. SaaS companies received VC investments worth more than $300 billion last year.  

So how do you know when it’s the right time to start a new round of funding? The short answer is: When you are ready. Here are some items to consider before making the final decision, especially when your existing investors approach you. 

 Questions to ask yourself

1) Do we have a clear strategy?

As you consider raising a new round of funding, strategy is vital. You, your co-founders and other executives must agree on a vision and a plan to attain your goals. 

No amount of funding will overcome a lack of demand from consumers, so ensure there is a market for your product before moving forward. Research your target market so you can advance the product to satisfy growing needs. Map out the future and anticipate market changes to set your company up for future success and position it to be a leader in the field. 

If you don’t have a defined growth plan or target market, you may find yourself overwhelmed with options. Company leaders could sit for too long analyzing every possible opportunity rather than taking decisive action. Some call this phenomenon “analysis paralysis.”

2) How will we use this money to advance company growth?

Once you and other company leaders have identified the market and demand, consider specific items or tasks for which you should use the money. Market research is crucial to ensure product advancements fulfill needs. From there, you can pinpoint areas within the company that need funding to accelerate and sustain growth. 

Maybe it’s time to scale the product. This requires resources, including hiring talent with the necessary skill sets to accomplish your goals. The decision to scale must be considered carefully because expanding too early can hinder your agility in the market. However, waiting until too late can slow down the process and hurt the product. Be thoughtful on who you hire and how they will grow with the company.

You may also opt to use the money to build out a leadership team. This is often a worthwhile expense, as executives play a significant role in driving the company forward and identifying internal and external influences. Having the right people guiding the company defines its culture and path to success. Keep in mind that the decision to hire leaders must not be taken lightly. Organizations shouldn’t be too top-heavy, especially as the product is scaling up and undergoing improvements. 

Another area to allot funds is research and development. Pushing the envelope on new features and capabilities keeps you ahead of competitors. You should never stop innovating, and funding helps you to do that. If you believe it is time to take your product to a new level, it may be an excellent time to raise money. 

And, possibly most important in the current financial climate, funding provides assistance in turning good revenue and maintaining growth. Investors right now want to see consistent growth and a high customer retention rate. With falling valuations, inflation, a weak stock market and other factors, investors are more careful in their financing. New funding can put gas in the tank. 

3) Do we have the right investor mix? 

When entering into a partnership with investors, you and the investors must align on the company’s vision. This relationship works best when the investor understands the market, your product and the value that you bring. 

Current investors approaching you with an offer to help raise money is a sign that you should seriously consider opening another round. They know your product, and they know where you started and how far you’ve come. They also see the potential for the future, and you know your priorities align due to your past relationship.

That’s precisely what happened for HYCU’s Series B. The investors from our Series A approached me about wanting to reinvest, even though HYCU completed the first round just over a year ago. They expressed their trust in the company and its mission and helped us see it was a good time to move forward. That was a key factor in my decision, even though the move did not correspond with our original timeline. 

As other investors consider participating, you should evaluate their compatibility and value add to your end goals. Are they pioneers in their industry? Do they have domain expertise, name recognition and reliability that would help with your brand? Their expectations for the invested money should align with yours, and your relationship needs to be able to withstand the ups and downs of business development.

It is OK to say no. Not all investment opportunities or partners will be right for your company’s current needs. You need the right mix that complements your existing needs and supports your long-term plans. 

4) Is the timing right? 

It is possible to raise money too soon. As I mentioned earlier, having a clear strategy is imperative. If you still don’t have a plan, you may face a lack of demand or product advancements unneeded in the market. In addition, acting too soon can lead to inflated investor expectations that you are unable to fulfill. 

On the other hand, waiting too long can lead to slow growth. You will deplete your current resources and your competitor(s) may overtake you in the market. 

Deciding when to move forward with raising funds is a challenge, even more so in the current economic climate. If your current investors believe in your product and want to invest more, you should seriously consider the state of your strategy and if you are ready to make good use of the money. The right mix of investors standing behind your product can go a long way in building up a SaaS company. 

Simon Taylor is the CEO and founder of HYCU, one of the world’s fastest-growing multicloud backup and recovery as a service companies. Taylor has more than 20 years of experience in go-to-market strategy development, product marketing and channel sales management for the tech industry.

This article is part of the Crunchbase Community Contributor Series. The author is an expert in their field and we are honored to feature and promote their contribution on the Crunchbase blog.

Please note that the author is not employed by Crunchbase and the opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect official views or opinions of Crunchbase, Inc.

The post Is Now the Right Time to Raise Money? What to Consider When Investors Approach You appeared first on Crunchbase.

Qualified leads are essential to a sales operation. There’s no point in talking to people who aren’t a good fit for your product. However, qualified leads don’t just appear out of nowhere. The process begins with thorough research and careful nurturing, and that’s where sales development representatives, or SDRs, come in.

In this article, we explain what the SDR role involves, why it’s so important, what a typical day looks like for an SDR, and actionable sales advice from Ernest Owusu, sales leader and senior director of sales development at 6sense.

What is an SDR?

An SDR is an individual who specializes in finding and nurturing new prospects, and determining whether those leads are a good fit for the company.

SDRs research potential customers and reach out to them to see if they’re interested in the company’s products and services. However, they don’t actually close the deal—it’s only about getting qualified leads ready for the next stage of the sales funnel.

What does an SDR actually do?

An SDR’s job is focused on lead generation and qualification rather than making the sale. Their primary responsibilities are to connect with and qualify as many leads as possible.

SDRs use a combination of market research to define the target audience or ideal customer and individual prospect research to learn about a specific lead. This can include checking social media profiles or running a Google search on a company’s background and latest news.

By doing this, the SDR can decide if the prospect is a good fit. They will base this decision on the prospect’s expectations and challenges, and whether it matches pre-defined buyer personas. Careful research also shows prospects that the SDR has taken the time to understand their needs.

SDRs then reach out to prospects across multiple channels. This includes phone calls, voicemail, email, social media and in-person events. Short, personalized videos are the latest tool used by SDRs, and some tech-savvy reps are even using augmented reality to show what their company can offer. In a recent Crunchbase interview with 6sense’s Ernest Owusu, he shared,

“The prospecting techniques that I used before to get meetings would absolutely not work nowadays. It’s important to align myself with tactics that are working nowadays and always test and experiment with new tactics.” 

Using insights from their research, SDRs can educate the prospect to solve a particular pain point. Plus, SDRs answer questions and send out helpful resources. For example, if the prospect is seeking digital solutions for a legal firm, you might send it an electronic signature software comparison article.

Where do SDRs fit into the sales structure?

A hugely important part of the sales team, SDRs move leads through the pipeline and lay the groundwork. Without the lead qualification process, the sales cycle would take much longer, and senior reps would waste time talking to people with no intention of buying.

SDRs nurture prospects until they’re ready to make a purchase. When this happens, the SDR schedules the next steps, often by setting up an initial meeting between the lead and an account executive. The senior rep will then take over and close the deal.

What skills do SDRs need?

A great SDR has great communication skills, can adapt quickly to different situations, and maintain a positive outlook—even when told “no.” Below, we’ve listed four skills successful SDRs need to excelin their careers. 

1. Product knowledge

If you don’t know your product inside out, it’s going to be difficult to convince a prospect they need it. SDRs have to familiarize themselves with everything their company offers, including technical details and pricing. That way, they’ll be prepared for any question the prospect asks.

SDRs need a commitment to continuous learning, too. That means collaborating with senior reps, talking to other departments, reading about industry developments, and using the product yourself. If you’re selling a communications solution that lets users bring their own carrier, they may want to know more about the BYOC meaning, for example.

2. Organization

SDRs also need to be highly organized and great at time management. They’ll connect with a lot of different prospects in a day, as well as follow up with people who’ve already shown an interest in the company. Every interaction needs to be logged and reported, to help SDRs identify common questions and objections and prepare for them.

It’s important to have a robust system with repeatable actions, but the flexibility to change things if something’s not working. Blocking out specific times in your calendar for calls and emails is a good way to ensure you don’t get overwhelmed.

3. Resilience and adaptability

As an SDR, you need the ability to handle rejection without taking it personally. You might have to speak to a prospect who’s annoyed by your call or who deliberately plays hard to get. It’s vital to remain polite and calm and to recognize where things are going wrong. Self-analysis is an important part of the job.

SDRs must also be able to adapt quickly, such as moving away from a prepared checklist if the prospect has some unexpected questions. The best SDRs can spot opportunities to dig deeper, and they’re always ready to demonstrate how a product or service can meet the prospect’s needs. Owusu shared,

“The four main traits of a successful SDR are business acumen, curiosity, conscientiousness and grit. The business acumen piece is critical. If I see a company and I learn about what that company does, it’s important to have the ability to take that piece of information and tie it back to your product.”

4. Great communication

Sales development representatives are excellent communicators. As well as highlighting the company’s benefits without giving it the hard sell, they need to really listen to what the prospect has to say. It’s important to pick up on verbal and nonverbal cues, while not interrupting, taking a moment to understand, and remembering what’s been said.

SDRs should focus on gathering valuable information. In a future conversation, showing you’ve remembered the prospect’s challenges and preferences will prove you care about their needs. We’re not suggesting you actually learn MLOps in order to discuss machine learning, but they’ll be impressed if you’ve read up on their industry.

Is it a stressful job?

Well, more than 40% of reps say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process, and SDRs have a lot of responsibility. They’re typically the first point of contact with the company, so it’s essential they make a great impression.  

As an SDR, you’re going to hear the word no a lot, which can dent your confidence. Part of the role involves learning to overcome objections and stay positive. If you have a strong desire to improve, you’ll find the job rewarding as you start hitting your targets.

You do need to be aware the job can be quite intense, though—you’re communicating all day long, and you’ll be expected to put in the hard yards. You’ll probably have to check your messages outside of office hours and do some prep at home before another day of prospecting.

You don’t even get the glory of closing the deal, as that’s done by the senior sales reps, but if you have the ability to manage your workload and the desire to smash those targets, being an SDR doesn’t have to be stressful.

How much do SDRs make?

The national average salary for a sales development representative is $64,000. However, SDRs have the potential to increase this figure by between 50% and 150% through bonuses, commission, profit-sharing and other perks. The commission is usually determined by the number of successful leads they pass along compared to their target or quota.

What does an SDR’s day look like?

Every organization is different, so there’s no single template for an SDR’s day-to-day routine, but let’s take a look at some of the tasks an SDR would carry out on a typical day.

6:30 a.m.: Start the day

Don’t press that snooze button—if you’re in a rush first thing, you’ll be racing to catch up all day. That isn’t the right mindset for talking to leads. You could even get up a bit earlier and fit in a quick run or swim before work. And make sure you take time to eat a proper breakfast.

8 a.m.: Use your commute

SDRs who commute often use this time to catch up on the latest industry news, browse social media, or do a bit of research on potential customers. If your commute is a five-minute walk or you work from home, it’s still worth starting early.

9 a.m.: Get organized

After saying good morning to your colleagues, it’s time to get organized. SDRs start by checking their emails and messages so they can respond to anything urgent. This is also a good window for checking social media and launching your tasks for the day. You might already have a list of prospects lined up.

9:30 a.m.: Meet the team

In many organizations, sales teams hold a brief stand-up meeting each morning. It’s a chance to set priorities and goals for the day, share any essential information, and recap what happened yesterday.

9:45 a.m.: Coffee time

Grab yourself a coffee and get ready to dive into some serious prospecting.

10 a.m.: Research

SDRs spend time seeking out new prospects or researching those on an existing list. It’s all about checking who’s a good fit and who isn’t. Do they have specific needs that will be addressed by your product or service? What’s their budget? How many employees do they have? Who is the decision-maker? Owusu shared that the use of intent data plays a big part in his team’s outreach,

“A big piece of advice is to not reach out to any prospect or do any kind of outreach unless your messaging is going to help them improve their functionality in their job. By searching for keywords and what they actually care about — it makes it a lot easier for us to provide value to help them do their jobs.”

11:30 a.m.: Take a quick break

Regular breaks are important—you need a few moments away from the screen or your phone.

12 p.m.: Prepare

Now you have a list of prospects, you can prioritize them according to who’s most likely to bite. Set up a schedule of calls to make, and ensure you have all the relevant information to hand in before you pick up the phone. You can use scripts to prompt you, but always keep the conversation natural. Think about the common questions a prospect is likely to ask and be ready to handle common objections. If you want to prove your company sells the best affiliate marketing tools, be prepared to provide full details and testimonials.

1 p.m.: Lunch

Time for a proper break. Don’t be tempted to eat lunch at your desk—sit outside, pop into a nearby café, or meet up with colleagues. You might have time to fit in a quick power walk too.

2 p.m.: Respond and follow-up

After lunch, SDRs often continue to make first contact with prospects before moving on to follow-up calls. They’ll also keep checking social media and responding to comments, as well as sending emails to thank clients for their time.

You could use this time to create short videos for prospecting; a great way to personalize interactions. Late afternoon probably isn’t the best time to send them though, so schedule them to be sent first thing in the morning instead.

Good SDRs are always on the lookout for resources that will be useful to prospects. For instance, if you’re chatting to someone who works at a marketing company, you could send them an interesting article on account-based marketing.

3 p.m.: Take a quick break

You’ve earned it! According to BetterUp, “Stanford researchers found that after employees work 50 hours or more, their output falls dramatically. It nearly plummets after 55 hours. These researchers also found that workers who reach 70 hours a week don’t produce anything more with the additional 15 hours.” Taking a break can improve work performance if you focus on your overall well-being. 

4:30 p.m.: Wrapping up

Use the last hour or so to prepare a new batch of leads for the next day and update the CRM. This is important because it enables you to log details of every interaction and know where you stand with each lead. As well as providing reliable customer information, SDRs can use it to prove their role in the acquisition and get the credit they deserve.

Before you leave, let your manager know about any urgent matters, and make sure your calendar is up to date.

5:30 p.m.: Commute home

This time, use your commute as a chance to switch off and listen to some music. Once you get home (or step away from your home desk for the night), you should still keep your phone handy—people might be responding to your emails, and it’s good to know what’s waiting for you in the morning. However, don’t spend all night checking messages—relax!

Is being an SDR the right choice for me?

The life of an SDR isn’t an easy ride. Prospecting and outreach take time and effort, and you have to be resilient enough to handle objections. But in this role, you’ll become a valuable part of the wider sales team—and if you have the skills and the mindset to succeed, you can seriously enhance your salary by earning a commission.

If you’re a natural communicator with great organizational skills, you’re keen to learn, and you know how to turn a negative into a positive, a career as a sales development representative could be the perfect choice for you.

Severine Hierso is EMEA senior product marketing manager for RingCentral, the leading cloud PBX provider, and is passionate about creating value, differentiation and messaging, and ensuring a better experience for customers and partners.

This article is part of the Crunchbase Community Contributor Series. The author is an expert in their field and we are honored to feature and promote their contribution on the Crunchbase blog.

Please note that the author is not employed by Crunchbase and the opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect official views or opinions of Crunchbase, Inc.

The post Breaking Into Sales: A Day in the Life of a Successful SDR appeared first on Crunchbase.

Please note that the author is not employed by Crunchbase and the opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect official views or opinions of Crunchbase, Inc.

Nnamdi Iregbulem recently penned a great article for Crunchbase News about “How the Modern Data Stack Is Going Real-Time,” in which he mentioned some of the most popular tools for building a real-time infrastructure. He also brought up some real-world use cases and showed how this trend is transforming our industry’s changing landscape. As someone closely involved in the very process of bringing about that change, though, I couldn’t help noticing that one very important piece of the puzzle was missing: real-time data ingestion from transactional databases.

In this blog, I’d like to continue the conversation that Nnamdi started by sharing my own perspectives on the modern data stack (MDS), why real-time data ingestion is an essential element of it, and how enterprises can make it part of their existing data infrastructure.

Defining the modern data stack

Competitive advantage in today’s world hinges on an organization’s ability to innovate and adapt rapidly to change. That means having a clear view of the environment, adequate information to assess the options, and the capacity to move quickly. Unfortunately, traditional data infrastructure and batch processing methods lack the speed and agility necessary to support that kind of decisive, effective leadership.

Decision-makers need visibility to events as they unfold—not after the fact. The “rearview mirror” perspective no longer works. It drives faster, higher-volume integration, with much higher stakes. For this reason, the modern data stack is gaining popularity among many enterprises. 

Conventional elements of the data stack have included a fully managed data pipeline for ELT (extract, load, transform), a cloud-based columnar warehouse or data lake, a data transformation tool, and a business intelligence platform. The traditional approach with transactional systems has been batch-mode integration scheduled to run periodically during off-peak hours. This is resource-intensive, inefficient, expensive and prone to data inconsistencies. This severely impedes the ability of organizations to get up-to-date and accurate information.

The modern data stack, in contrast, seeks to reimagine traditional data flows using cloud-based tools to build a faster, more scalable and more flexible data infrastructure. The MDS isn’t just about specific tools; it’s about removing friction to make modern enterprises more agile and responsive. Like any other tech stack, the MDS should be always evolving.

In the context of the MDS, integration has been focused on SaaS workflows. Unicorn companies like Fivetran have driven this trend, weaving together social media, web analytics, online payments and more. Unfortunately, the SaaS application integrators fail to address some of the most important cases for enterprises: transactionally intensive databases like Oracle, SQL Server, SAP HANA, MySQL, DB2, and others. These systems house an organization’s most mission-critical data. As such, it offers the highest potential for adding business value with integration.

Large transactional systems typically have APIs that are limited in performance and/or scope. That, in turn, forces enterprises to extract data from online transaction processing databases using slow and inefficient batch replication and unreliable custom scripts. A few companies have responded with real-time options, but they aren’t cloud-native and they don’t offer a fully managed cloud service option.

Why does real-time matter so much?

Transactional enterprise systems typically collect and store an organization’s highest-value data. Unfortunately, though, that data is inaccessible within the modern data stack or, at the very least, is only available after a considerable time lag. Real-time integration with transactional databases is difficult, primarily out of concern for security and performance.

Innovation in digital customer experience is driving higher and higher expectations. It’s about speed, service and personalization. Consider, for example, that 80% of American consumers are more likely to purchase from a company that personalizes its sales offering. Unfortunately, you can’t deliver real-time personalization if your CRM takes hours or days to update your customer recommendation engine.

Strategists in the financial services industry likewise agree that real-time is the future for companies in their market space. Fraud detection alone is nearly a $30 billion industry; companies that fail to adopt the MDS will be at a distinct disadvantage in their quest to limit fraud-related expenses. Those firms will also be spending more than they need to on batch-mode integration, with higher resource expenditures, data inconsistencies, delayed analytics and lost revenue.

Regardless of the industry, companies that don’t begin implementing an MDS approach today will soon find themselves edged out by the competition.

The entire point of the MDS is to do away with data silos. Unfortunately, the lack of real-time data integration between transactional systems of record and modern analytics platforms simply creates an environment in which the only remaining data silos are those that contain the organization’s most valuable information.

The missing piece in this modern data stack, therefore, is the capacity to push high-volume enterprise data from online transaction processing databases and data warehouses to the modern data platform of your choice, efficiently and in real-time. Fortunately, we have the missing piece; it’s what I like to call “real-time ELT.”

Real-time ELT bridges the gap

The secret sauce for transactional integration is a technology called change data capture, or CDC for short.

CDC makes it possible to create streaming data pipelines by monitoring each source system to identify changes in real-time. This is often accomplished using transaction logs, although several alternate approaches may also be applied, depending on the data source. Each change in the source system is captured as it happens and is then transmitted to the target system. This gives business users instant access to the organization’s most valuable data.

Enterprise CDC offers extraordinarily low latency without the need for resyncs. You get tremendous scalability, high performance and guaranteed delivery. CDC also allows companies to phase out the use of custom scripts that typically require ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting. This approach has zero impact on the performance of production databases and zero security impact.

Real-time/streaming ELT is ideal for organizations that have massive datasets requiring deduplication and other preprocessing before they’re ingested into a real-time analytics platform. With a modern, real-time data stack, simple incremental transformations can take place multiple times each second and give insights almost instantly. CDC supports enterprises in modernizing their data infrastructures and achieving real-time integration for a range of modern use cases.

In short, CDC eliminates the last remaining silo in the modern data stack. It opens the door to real-time analytics that encompass the entirety of your enterprise data. It drives ML/AI workloads, reduces operational overhead, improves data quality and a lot more.

Rajkumar Sen is the founder and chief technology officer at Arcion, the only cloud-native, CDC-based data replication platform. In his previous role as director of engineering at MemSQL, he architected the query optimizer and the distributed query processing engine.

Learn More

The post The Missing Piece in the Modern Data Stack: Real-Time Transactional Integration appeared first on Crunchbase.

It’s no shock that the sales industry landscape has changed considerably over the last couple of years. Buyer behaviors have evolved, and the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the majority of salespeople into selling remotely. The big question for businesses is whether the trends we’ve witnessed in the 2020s so far will stick around for the long haul.

Choosing between inside and outside sales strategies affects your sales teams as well as your bottom line, so it’s vital to have a thorough understanding of both. In this guide, we’ll explain the difference between inside and outside sales, the responsibilities of inside vs. outside sales reps, and discuss which approach may be better for your business. 

What is inside sales? 

In short, inside sales is remote sales. Inside sales strategies leverage technology to connect with leads and convert them into customers without the need for either party to travel or meet in person. Possible communication channels include:

• Email
• Phone calls
• Video calls
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools 
• Social media

Any organization can utilize inside sales, but it has become a particularly dominant strategy among tech and SaaS companies and businesses in the B2C sphere. The specific channels your business uses will depend on the products and services you sell and your pricing strategy, although it’s standard practice to utilize a combination. 

To gain a thorough insight into what is inside sales vs. outside sales, it also helps to know what inside sales are not. If your mind jumped straight to old-school single-strategy methods like cold calling and email tactics, you can relax; it’s not that. Nor is inside sales the same thing as telemarketing. Unlike telemarketing which is scripted, inside sales require skilled salespeople. 

According to career development experts, inside sales is one of the fastest-growing roles in the sales sector, and even on a pre-pandemic scale, inside sales rep positions were growing 15 times faster than outside sales rep roles. The benefit of hiring inside sales employees is that they can be either office or home-based, allowing flexibility for companies that offer remote and hybrid working models. 

What is outside sales? 

Outside sales, also known as field sales, is the practice of selling products and services via face-to-face, in-person interactions, and it’s not uncommon for outside sales reps to travel extensively. The primary benefit of utilizing outside sales reps is that prospects receive a personalized sales experience with more detailed product information and demonstrations. Bolstered by the personal relationship fostered by the sales rep, this increases the chance of a conversion. 

There are several places where outside reps meet with prospects. Pre-arranged meetings can take place virtually anywhere, including office spaces, other work sites, cafés, and restaurants. Other common locations include:

• Conferences
• Trade shows
• Industry events
• Seminars
• Video (Zoom calls, etc.)

With advanced sales tools, collaboration software, and automated workflow technology at their disposal, it’s now possible for outside sales reps to spend more time at home or in the office than before. In fact, outside reps already spend 89% more time selling remotely. In the last couple of years especially, this has been a vital consideration for reps deciding between outside vs. inside sales roles. Without digital strategies, many outside rep positions would undoubtedly have become obsolete during the global pandemic. However, now that restrictions are lifting, it is more feasible for them to get back on the road. 

What is the difference between inside and outside sales? 

As we’ve established, the primary difference between inside and outside sales is how you choose to market and sell your products and services. However, there are a few other key differences to consider: 

• Sales cycle – Inside sales typically have shorter sales cycles because reps deal with less expensive products and services with smaller profit margins, meaning it’s a numbers game rather than a matter of chasing “big wins.” With outside sales, the annual account value (AVC) is usually higher, requiring prospects to make a bigger buying decision, which necessitates a more personal approach and relationship building leading up to purchase. Inside sales cycles can be as short as a few days, whereas outside sales reps may spend weeks, months, or even years building up to a sale.
• Close rate – On average, outside sales have a higher close rate than inside sales. This has nothing to do with a salesperson’s ability. It’s just the end result of a more people-focused approach and the amount of energy and resources allocated to closing a deal. Inside sales is more about economies of scale, so letting a lead go to chase a new prospect usually incurs a minimal loss. With outside sales, reps may have already spent months and thousands of dollars working towards a deal. So it’s not cost-effective to simply let a lead go cold.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) – The travel and time expenses racked up on pursuing outside sales vs. inside sales means the end cost of customer acquisition is usually much higher. 
• Business type – As we highlighted earlier, inside sales are favored by companies selling modern technology and SaaS products, whereas industries like traditional hardware, manufacturing, and healthcare typically rely more on outside sales methodologies.  

Of course, there is also a difference between outside and inside sales from a customer perspective in terms of expectation of service. Plus, there are distinct differences in attributes, experience, and skill sets when employing reps for each type of role. Let’s look at the difference between inside and outside sales job roles and responsibilities in more depth.   

Inside sales rep responsibilities 

The qualities to look for vary between inside vs. outside sales roles because the way they interact with your prospects is very different. The general day-to-day duties of an inside sales rep include:

• Identifying new leads.
• Making outbound contact with potential customers by phone, email, text, social media, etc. 
• Explaining your unique selling proposition (USP) and describing product features and benefits.
• Maintaining contact with leads and nurturing sales.
• Creating and maintaining your customer database.
• Closing sales and achieving quotas.

Understanding customer needs is vital in both inside and outside sales, but there are several additional must-have qualities for inside salespeople. Here is a list of the main considerations when looking for inside sales reps: 

Product Knowledge – Because inside sales reps have less time to make a conversion and cannot provide physical demonstrations, they need more in-depth product knowledge to convey the value of your products and services effectively. 

Use of technology – Due to the focus on technology utilization, inside sales reps need to be comfortable using a range of hardware and software to effectively chase down leads remotely. A strong and reliable Wi-Fi connection is also a must. 

Research skills – To bond with prospects quickly and facilitate a trusting relationship, inside salespeople need to be confident in gathering information from various sources. The best inside sales reps are social media savvy and can research efficiently on professional sites like LinkedIn to determine customer pain points for which your products and services present a solution.

Flexibility – Although inside sales positions are home or office-based, work hours are not always 9-5. Especially when working for companies with a multinational focus, reps may need to be available to provide information, answer questions, and handle objections across multiple time zones. 

Strong communication skills – Because much of their customer contact is via phone or video conferencing, strong verbal communication skills are essential in making a good first impression and nurturing prospects through your sales pipeline. The best inside sales reps are adept at:

• Using strong language to shape prospect perceptions.
• Referencing examples of relevant work in the prospect’s arena of interest.
• Speaking concisely in a to-the-point fashion that is neither too brisk nor too lengthy.
• Utilizing silence to emphasize key points.
• Asking assertive questions.

Non-verbal communication – The ability to pick up on non-verbal buying signals and implications is an essential quality in an inside sales rep, because it allows them to perceive subtle – and even unintentional – hints from a prospect that can help them change tack or steer the conversation in a different direction. 

Outside sales rep responsibilities 

While there is inevitably some degree of crossover, there is considerable variance in roles and responsibilities, schedules, and daily tasks when comparing outside vs. inside sales rep positions. The general day-to-day duties of an outside sales rep include:

• Traveling within various sales territories to meet prospects. Or, meeting prospects via call or video.
• Attending face-to-face meetings and giving product demonstrations. Or, meeting via video and facilitating product demonstrations remotely.
• Educating customers about the financial and professional benefits of your products and services.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with new leads and repeat customers.
• Monitoring market conditions, competitors, and new products to maintain a thorough understanding of customer needs.
• Maintaining accurate records of all leads and customer accounts.
• Working with your marketing department to help build brand awareness.

Outside sales reps are often the ones given superstar credit for closing big deals. Plus, because the job often comes with perks like attending social events such as corporate dinners, the position tends to be somewhat glamorized. However, it’s by no means an easy role. Here are some of the main criteria to consider when looking to hire outside sales reps:

Autonomy – In an ideal world, you want all of your employees to be strong team players, and outside sales rep roles are no exception. However, because they spend so much time on the road without the support of their teammates, a high degree of autonomy and independence is required.

Interpersonal skills – Because their success is primarily based on human interaction, outside sales reps must be confident, clear communicators with the ability to blend humor and lightheartedness with harder line sales approaches while maintaining prospect interest and trust. The best outside sales reps are also expert listeners who can accurately read body language. 

Flexibility – While both inside and outside salespeople may need to make calls at unsociable hours, outside reps are often expected to drop tools and drive to wherever prospects and customers want to meet at short notice. Plus, last-minute changes are par for the course to accommodate changing schedules of prospects and customers in fast-moving industries. 

Problem solving – Outside sales reps often need to think on their feet. Unlike inside sales reps who often communicate via email, they don’t have the luxury of time to consider their responses when posed with a question or objection. They must always be ready to give an on-the-spot answer or come up with a solution that meets the customer’s needs. 

Organization – In addition to ensuring they are always in the right place at the right time to meet prospects and customers, outside sales reps need to keep their calendars and client accounts in pristine condition so that information is always up to date. Failing to record a progress update could be catastrophic if, for example, a rep becomes sick and their counterpart doesn’t have all the correct data and an up-to-date progress report to pick up from where they left off.

Should you use inside or outside sales?

There has been a noticeable shift toward inside sales in recent years, and the sector continues to expand rapidly. If you were to ask why this is, the stock response would likely be COVID-19 related. And while it’s true that the lockdowns that restricted access to in-person meetings certainly played a part, that’s not the full story. The pandemic merely acted as a catalyst for an already prevalent shift toward inside sales vs. outside sales approaches. 

Today’s marketplace is moving increasingly online, and customers expect instant access to product information, easy price comparisons and customer assistance on a 24/7 basis. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider outside sales at all. Ultimately, the right approach will depend on the products and services you sell, the industry you operate in, and your overall sales strategy. 

Products and services

The type of products and services you sell is one of the most significant factors determining which approach to use. Inside sales are more effective for small, inexpensive products and services that solve an immediate problem. One-time use products and services also sit in this category, along with any other product or service that can be bought quickly and conveniently without a particular need to speak with a salesperson first. 

Outside sales are better for larger and more expensive products and services that solve a more complex problem or offer a long-term solution. In this instance, the decision to buy may take longer, involve many stakeholders, and require a stronger bond of trust between buyer and seller to close the deal. 

Your industry

The nature of your business will always play a role in determining your ratio of inside and outside sales. Inside sales is typically a better fit for companies in the digital sector, with a focus on reaching as many new prospects as possible to maximize sales velocity. Outside sales is better for businesses selling physical products or companies targeting a more elite market, with a focus on creating long-term relationships with customers. 

Sales strategy

The selling method you prioritize should match your overall sales strategy. Inside sales is generally considered a better fit for sales that can be automated through digital funnels. In contrast, outside sales is a better approach for strategies that include or require demonstrations or in-person meetings. 

Remember that however you split your ratio of outside vs. inside sales reps, the end goal of both is the same: to sell more of your products and services and increase revenue. So there’s no hard and fast rule or perfect one-size-fits-all approach. 

Whatever decision you make regarding outside sales vs. inside sales, you will inevitably face challenges that force you to adapt. For example, geographic growth may warrant a switch to a bigger inside sales team since it reduces overheads and spending on facilitating a physical presence. So it’s never simply a case of picking the most suitable method for right now and doggedly sticking with it. You should be constantly monitoring your progress so you can change your practices when necessary to maximize your efficiency and boost your close rates.  

Boost your sales with Crunchbase

Could your sales team be performing better? Crunchbase has the sales prospecting tools you need to find the right companies, identify the correct contacts, and get connected with decision-makers, regardless of your preference for inside and outside sales tactics. 

Contact us today to learn more and discover how you can grow your team, sales and revenue with our all-in-one intelligent prospecting software.

Learn More

The post The Difference Between Inside and Outside Sales, Explained  appeared first on Crunchbase.

Please note that the author is not employed by Crunchbase and the opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect official views or opinions of Crunchbase, Inc.

Your sales team drives your company’s revenue with its lead generation efforts. However, sales teams tend to have high turnover rates (34% on average). If your compensation plan doesn’t motivate team members to hit their numbers and stay with your organization, you won’t see business success.

A sales compensation plan is more than just commissions—it’s the total package. It should include a base salary, commissions, benefits, bonuses, contest perks and nonfinancial rewards (such as remote work opportunities, paid time off, etc.). Most importantly, the plan has to be simple enough for representatives to calculate how much they will make by closing sales.

If your sales compensation plan is too complex or lackluster, it won’t drive the sales activity needed to accomplish your goals. But with the right plan, you’ll be able to better incentivize your sales team and forecast budgets based on consistent performance.

4 things to include in a sales compensation plan

When creating a sales compensation plan, you need to work backward by determining the cost of a sale and the maximum payout you can afford to give a sales representative. Once you determine that, you can start exploring how to reward team members using these four elements:

1. Salary

Your sales team should be able to earn a living without depending entirely on how many deals get closed. After all, it takes an average of 18 calls to connect with a buyer. Your salespeople need to cover their expenses even if they’re experiencing slow periods.

Base salaries are important because they give team members a sense of security. However, you should be looking for sales reps who see the big picture and understand that on-track earnings are much more lucrative than a high base salary.

2. Commissions

You also must offer commissions on top of employees’ salaries. If a sales team’s compensation is solely based on commissions, it can lead to pushy habits. But if you’re offering position- and performance-based compensation, you’ll close more deals. (Research found that 57% of people would buy if salespeople were less pushy during follow-ups.)

Develop a commission structure where each representative’s pay increases with their results. Many companies choose to pay flat rates based on what was sold or pick overly complex structures, but these strategies won’t prompt the best results.

3. Bonuses

Although they can probably set themselves up for the future easily, every person in your sales staff should have a guaranteed future.

Is your compensation plan capped? If so, you’re discouraging your sales team from maximizing its potential. If there’s no reason to overachieve, people won’t, which might be why only 24.3% of salespeople exceeded their quotas in 2021. Plus, many salespeople stick to their habits once they figure out what works. You need great bonuses to encourage great sales habits.

One way to generate excitement and drive great habits is to host sales contests for bonuses every month, quarter or year. You’d be surprised at your sellers’ lead generation efforts when they’re appropriately incentivized.

4. Benefits

The Great Resignation is showing employers the importance of worker perks. If you really want to combat turnover, you need a comprehensive employee benefits plan that includes enticing benefits.

Consider providing employees with 401(k) plans, stock options, health benefits, paid time off, etc. By meeting employees’ expectations for benefits, you can keep salespeople happy. Even offering something as simple as flexible work hours can help you cater to their needs and boost business success.

3 compensation strategies to consider

Creating a competitive sales compensation plan might sound like a lot to manage, and it can admittedly get complicated. But now that you understand what elements to include, you can focus on more specific development and implementation strategies. These three tips can help you get started:

1. Consider the ramp-up period for new representatives.

When coming up with a sales compensation plan, it’s critical to consider the ramp-up period for new reps who are still learning the ropes. You’ll lose good sales team members to frustration and disappointment if you ramp them up too quickly. Your staff has to have enough time to build a pipeline and learn how to sell your products or services.

The key to driving ultimate sales results is a clear plan. New and existing staff should understand what it takes to get to each “level” of the commission or reward structure. Once new team members understand who gets what, they’ll be driven to earn their way up to the highest level.

2. Establish a reward your team can compete for.

Having a reward at the end of the year is also a great way to generate competition among the sales staff. The only caveat is to make it attainable—just not too attainable. You want top-performing representatives to reach the reward, but it shouldn’t be so easy that everyone gets it. Don’t take away the gamification aspect.

At Abstrakt Marketing Group, we created a President’s Quota Club, a motivating incentive that allows our team members a chance to win an all-inclusive trip. It costs the company less to offer this reward than it does to lose out on missed quotas.

3. Keep things simple and exciting.

It’s worth repeating that your sales compensation plan needs to be simple. You don’t want people spending so much time working out the rules of the game that they’re not paying attention to their actual work.

At the same time, your compensation plan should take representatives’ minds off their sales goals. In our situation, team members start over each month at zero in revenue and have a large quota to hit. This can be daunting if all they’re thinking about is how much they have to sell. By developing a competitive compensation plan, we help them focus on leading indicators of success (i.e., dials, appointments, pitches and follow-up calls), not a looming number.

With the proper sales compensation plan in place, you’ll increase the amount of new business you bring in, incentivize staff to stay longer and reap the benefits of lasting business success.

John Schwepker is the vice president of sales at Abstrakt Marketing Group, a business growth company that provides lead generation solutions.

The post How to Create a Competitive Sales Compensation Plan appeared first on Crunchbase.

Please note that the author is not employed by Crunchbase and the opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect official views or opinions of Crunchbase, Inc.

StartupBlink, a global startup ecosystem map and research center, has launched the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022. Since 2017, the index offers policymakers and startup ecosystem stakeholders insights into their startup economy, unveiling trends and momentum. The index is also used as a tool by founders and investors trying to discover the best ecosystems. 

This year’s report ranks the startup ecosystems of 1,000 cities and 100 countries, and features several new sections and an improved algorithm. We believe the decision on where to base and scale a startup is one of the most overlooked ones by entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. The impact of choosing the right location will have a massive impact on your chances of success, allowing you to connect to high-quality opportunities and stakeholders on a daily basis.  

Click here to download the full Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022

To generate the most accurate results, we work closely with more than 100 governments and global data partners, such as Crunchbase. This long-term partnership with Crunchbase has allowed us to analyze data on tens of thousands of startups in order to understand the quality and frequency of innovation, as well as trends, of ecosystems around the world.

StartupBlink’s startup ecosystem ranking criteria

Our country and city rankings have a total score, which is the sum of three columns measuring the following:

Based on the total score, we have put the ranking results into the tables covering the crucial information on each country and city that was ranked. For detailed information on the methodology and dozens of parameters, please refer to the methodology section of the report.

The top country rankings

When compared with 2021, this year saw some significant movements in the startup scene. In fact, we have called 2022 “the year of global startup ecosystem uncertainty.” Below are some key insights:

• The “Big 4” Startup countries remain the same as in 2021: the U.S., U.K., Israel and Canada. Year by year, these countries demonstrated a constant level of stability and innovation and established strong startup economies. The U.S. remains the world leader across multiple industries and startup metrics, and maintains a total score that is 4x that of the second ranked country (the U.K.). The U.K. has solidified its position and substantially increased its gap from the third ranked country, Israel.
• Israel was a whisker away from overthrowing the U.K. in 2021, and is now not only far from it, but also has seen the national ecosystem of Canada, ranked fourth,  narrowing gaps from it.
• Canada, in a successful year, has also created a substantial gap among all ecosystems ranked below it, bringing it back to the “Big 4” club of countries that have managed to create a gap from other countries.
• One of the most surprising decreases in the country ranking is China, losing three spots to now be ranked 10th globally. This has been a year of friction between Chinese founders and the state, which, among other elements, created the first negative index momentum of the Chinese ecosystem in the past years. As a result, Singapore, which is becoming a stronger regional hub every year, ranks seventh after a jump of three spots and is now the top-ranked country in Asia.

Top city ecosystems

San Francisco remains the undisputed global leader in innovation, but New York, the world’s second-highest ranked, is continuing a trend of closing gaps with San Francisco. In 2019, the total score of San Francisco was roughly 5x higher than New York, and this year it narrowed to 2.5x. Ranked second in the U.S. and globally, New York formed its own solid and unique global and national tier. 

As the U.K. strengthened its position, London advanced in the top three, globally displacing Beijing. Los Angeles is still ranked fourth, but Boston advanced to the fifth position, illustrating the dominance of the U.S. 

Prompted by China’s loss in ranking, Beijing dropped to the sixth position, having a close total score with the Boston Area. On the other hand, ranked seventh, Shanghai maintained its 2021 position.

Bangalore had a particularly good year and consolidated its position in the top 10 after advancing two positions to rank eighth. Tel Aviv, Israel’s undisputed major hub, has dropped by one spot to rank ninth globally, with Paris (10th) slowly closing the gap and threatening Tel Aviv’s position next year. 

Major trends in U.S. cities (represented in the index with 258 cities), include the increase of rankings of Chicago (ranked 13th), and the continued decrease of the ecosystem of Austin (ranked 20th), which still does not manage to close the gaps from the other top—yet less trendy—ecosystems in the U.S. The ecosystem of Salt Lake City-Provo (ranked 31st) is substantially increasing in the rankings, joining the U.S. top ecosystems.

Industry rankings

Based on a sample of more than 100,000 startup entities on the StartupBlink map, we can pinpoint interesting trends related to core startup industries. With no surprise, the biggest industry remains Software & Data, with 31.8% of our sampled startups. 

Another interesting change this year is the surge of Healthtech startups. Consisting of 12.7% of our sampled data, the industry now registers 73 Unicorns, almost doubling its count in 2021. It seems COVID-19 has inspired many entrepreneurs to give renewed focus to this critical industry. The Social & Leisure industry represents 10.4% of total startups but has only managed to create 31 Unicorns. 

Industries that demonstrate a better ability to scale are the Fintech and Ecommerce & Retail industries, each pertaining to roughly 10% of the startup sample, and generating 219 and 152 Unicorns respectively. Fintech has nearly doubled its Unicorn count since last year.

The rest of the industries lag behind in both representations in the sample and in the unicorn count. The most interesting of those industries is Transportation, which has just 2.6% of the sample but managed to produce 81 Unicorns. 

It should be noted that San Francisco, although losing momentum, is ranked first in all 11 industries of the index. This is a testament to this ecosystem’s dominance across all sectors of the startup economy. 

For the full report and more information click here. Authors: Eli David, CEO, StartupBlink and Naomi Costa, Marketing and Content Manager, StartupBlink

The post Trends in the Global Startup Ecosystem in 2022: Ranking 1,000 Cities and 100 Countries appeared first on Crunchbase.

But what is a pipeline in business development terms, and how do you create and manage one that will be effective for your organization? In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know, including the various sales pipeline stages, how to build and maintain an effective strategy, and which metrics to watch. 

What is a sales pipeline? 

A sales pipeline is a visual representation of your sales process, providing a bird’s eye view of every stage a prospect moves through—from initial discovery to becoming a loyal customer. An effective pipeline drives conversions while simultaneously ensuring no opportunities are missed, because at every stage you can incorporate accountability for action that pushes prospects on to the next phase.

The exact sales process will vary from company to company. When it comes to building a pipeline, business models and unique needs will dictate the process. However, the primary goals remain constant across all industries and organizations when it comes to designing an effective pipeline: 

1. Business health can be determined at a glance.
2. Revenue is more consistent and predictable. 

Sales pipelines are usually visualized as a horizontal chart broken down into various stages, providing total visibility, control and the opportunity to analyze the entire process. However, it’s important to incorporate some flexibility, because not every customer follows the same journey. Some will move through your business pipeline quicker than others, depending on their level of interest and how much knowledge they already have about your products and services. 

Nailing down your sales processes and pipeline marketing strategy early on provides multiple benefits:

• You’ll know the total number of deals on the table at any given time and their potential value.
• You’ll have a clear overview of where prospects sit and which deals to focus on, so it’s easier to allocate time and resources. 
• Effective tracking makes snags or bottlenecks in your pipeline easy to identify and fix.
• By attributing accountability within your sales team, you can ensure leads don’t drop out of the pipeline or go cold through lack of contact.
• Your pipeline provides an accurate estimation of how many sales your reps have the potential to close, making overall revenue predictions more straightforward.

Sales pipeline vs. sales funnel

You might think a sales pipeline sounds pretty similar to a sales funnel, but there is a key difference. Your pipeline is seller-oriented and focuses on actions taken by your teams during the sales process, whereas a sales funnel measures your conversion rate as a whole. That’s why it’s described and represented as a funnel; widest at the top where there is the largest number of prospects, and narrower at the bottom as leads become disqualified or decide not to buy. 

A sales pipeline report can determine the value and quantity of all prospective deals on the table at any point in time. In contrast, all a sales funnel report will tell you is what percentage of leads from a particular cohort progressed through each stage of the pipeline. 

Sales pipeline stages 

Although strategies vary among companies, there are typically about six stages in any business pipeline. Let’s take a look at each stage in a little more detail.

1. Prospecting/lead generation

Finding potential customers is the first step in any sales pipeline, and usually the most challenging. It’s important to note that casting your net as wide as possible and hoping for the best is typically not the best way to build sales. Your bottom line will be healthier if your efforts are targeted. 

Most businesses start by creating an ideal customer profile and focus their marketing efforts on attracting people within those parameters. Effective prospecting involves significant research and can involve both inbound and outbound methodologies. 

Outbound prospecting: Sending emails to contacts you’ve found by researching on Google or professional networks like LinkedIn. It’s also possible to get a little help by enlisting the help of a professional lead generation service. 

Inbound prospecting: Reaching out to people who have already expressed interest in your products or services. For example, contact those who signed up for your newsletter or entered their details on your website. 

2. Lead qualification

Each lead needs to be assessed for the right fit and the likelihood of purchase. Otherwise, you’ll waste valuable time and resources having your sales team chasing dead-end leads and problem customers. The best approach is to separate prospects into “hot” and “cold” leads. 

As a general rule, hot leads typically come from inbound prospecting strategies, while cold leads tend to result from outbound methods. Before you make a black and white decision, additional analysis is required to assess:

• If they genuinely need your products and services.
• Whether they can afford them.
• Are they ready to buy, or do they need more information?

3. Contact

Your sales reps initiate contact with each lead with the goal of building a relationship and better understanding their needs and requirements. There are several routes you can take, including:

• Phone calls
• Emails
• Text messages
• Social media messaging

4. Sales optimization

After your initial contact, you’ll have a better idea of which prospects are ready to buy. Now it’s time to optimize those leads by scheduling a meeting or demo to showcase how your products and services can help them achieve their business goals. At this stage of your pipeline drive, you may want to set up an additional meeting if the contact you’re working with isn’t the end decision-maker.

5. Nurturing and negotiation

Most prospects will likely have follow-up questions and sales objections you’ll need to deal with and overcome. It’s essential to build the relationship naturally without them feeling harassed by a constant stream of emails or calls. Managing expectations is a crucial aspect, with the ultimate goal of building trust that leads to a sale. During the nurturing and negotiation process, you’ll likely discuss:

• The scope of work;
• Price adjustments; and
• Terms of service.

6. Closing the deal

Recording the outcome of the deal as won or lost is the final stage, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the end of the journey for nonclosers. It could be that the prospect simply isn’t ready to buy at this stage, in which case they can be kicked back to the nurture and negotiation phase for a follow-up down the line. Likewise, any other cold leads that have dropped out along the way can be moved to another part of your CRM for inclusion in a future campaign. 

How to build and maintain a successful sales pipeline 

Building and maintaining a business pipeline can feel overwhelming. However, by following a systematic process, you can create and maintain a successful and profitable model. Here are the basic steps for building and maintaining a successful sales pipeline:

Define your sales pipeline stages

While the six stages listed above are a good guideline, there are several variances. There are many pipeline marketing templates available online. However, it’s usually worth taking the time to develop your own so you can design each stage to match your ICP buyer journey and cater to the specific requirements and goals of your business plan. To achieve this, it helps to consider the mental process your customers will work through:

1. Awareness. The buyer’s pain point presents itself.
2. Consideration. The buyer defines how they will overcome their pain point, researches options, and develops evaluation criteria for a range of solutions.  
3. Decision. With the strategy decided upon, the buyer begins to compare vendors.

Identify benchmarks for each stage

Knowing how long a prospect spends in each stage, how many opportunities advance through the entire pipeline, and the percentage that drops out in each phase is critical. Establishing a yield probability for each stage helps you set realistic targets, attribute roles and responsibilities to your sales reps to ensure timely progress, and ensure your monthly, quarterly, and annual revenue estimates remain as accurate as possible. 

Calculate the number of opportunities you need

Once you’ve set your benchmarks, you can work backward to establish how many total lead opportunities you’ll need in each pipeline stage to meet your goals. For example, if your goal is to convert 200 prospects every month and your reps usually close 85% of deals in the nurturing and negotiation stage, you’ll need 250 prospects to enter that phase. 

Likewise, if you know your sales optimization stage normally retains 70% of prospects, you’ll need just under 360 leads coming out of the contact stage. Work all the way back to the lead generation stage. Once you have your target numbers, you can progress to goal setting for your sales team. 

Keep adding leads

A significant percentage of marketers say that generating leads is problematic for their organization, and more than 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the process. To keep your sales pipeline stable and growing, you should be continually prospecting. 

As a general rule, the lead generation stage of your pipeline should always have the most opportunities, with numbers gradually decreasing as you progress through the pipeline. Your conversion rate in the prospecting stage is likely to be much lower than in the closing stages, so you need to account for that in advance to keep a steady stream of opportunities flowing through your pipeline. Take advantage of sales prospecting tools like Crunchbase to keep leads flowing.  

Set follow-up processes

If you don’t follow up with leads, you’ll lose sales. This is why having a set procedure for follow-up processes is vital. When designing your follow-up strategy, you should consider timing, frequency, and contact method. You’ll need to develop a uniform structure for:

• How quickly each inbound lead is contacted.
• How many times they are contacted per week/month.
• How they are contacted on each occasion – i.e. via phone, email, text, social media, etc. 
• What new information is provided at each touchpoint.
• How your teams take action and keep track of prospect progress.
• At which point prospects are removed from your pipeline.

Regular Cleaning

What is pipeline cleaning? It’s exactly what it sounds like–periodically reviewing and removing prospects so that your sales reps are not wasting time and resources on chasing cold leads. It can be tempting to leave as many opportunities in your pipeline as possible. However, this approach doesn’t help you close more sales, and it also skews the accuracy of your sales forecast. 

Follow these steps to keep your pipeline healthy:

1. Identify prospects who have spent a longer than average time in your sales cycle. 
2. Send them an email with a straightforward option to respond if they are still interested or to ignore if they are not. 
3. Move prospects around the pipeline based on their answers. For example, you might move a lead from the nurturing and negotiation stage back to the sales optimization stage if they require more information. 
4. Remove cold leads from the sales pipeline or move them to another category of your CRM where they can be included in future communications and campaigns.

Review data regularly

Research shows that decision-makers typically change roles at a rate of 20% per year, and an estimated 25% of sales reps change positions every year. Keeping track of this information ensures no opportunities slip through the cracks due to internal or external personnel changes. You may also want to make general changes to your pipeline design as new data and insights come to light. For example, you might need to add a whole new stage, lengthen the timeline of an existing stage, or redefine your criteria of what constitutes a hot or cold lead.

Pipeline review meetings

Pipeline review meetings are essential in ensuring your sales reps remain driven and motivated to succeed. Some organizations conduct pipeline review meetings weekly, while for others, monthly or quarterly meetings may be sufficient depending on the length of their sales cycle. Here are tips for running an effective pipeline review meeting:

• Use your CRM to analyze how each rep is doing.
• Ask each rep to summarize the deals they are working on.
• Provide positive feedback followed by assessments on areas for improvement
• Decide the next steps of action, and document this on your CRM for increased accountability. 

Think-tank your roadblocks

Putting everyone’s brains together to find a solution is better than trying to do it yourself, and including your teams in the design, review, and implementation of your sales pipeline procedures makes your teams feel more valued. Plus, brainstorming together could generate many helpful ideas on how to combat anything from competitor pressure to objection handling and risk mitigation. 

Sales pipeline metrics to watch 

If you don’t consistently analyze your data and measure your performance, you won’t know where and how to make improvements. These are the top six metrics to watch. 

1. Total number of opportunities – You should have complete visibility of the total number of qualified prospects being pursued by your sales team at all times. 
2. Average deal value – While you’ll always want to chase the big wins, a series of small deals could ultimately convert faster and be a better predictor of revenue. 
3. Average win rate – Knowing your overall average win rate helps nail down your benchmarking strategies and opportunity calculations, and can be valuable in identifying shortfalls and action planning for increased sales rep performance. 
4. Lead to opportunity ratio – Many leads may enter the pipeline, but not all will turn into qualified opportunities. Your lead to opportunity ratio is indicative of both the quality of your leads and the determination of your sales team. 
5. Sales cycle length – The time it takes a prospect to move through all six sales pipeline stages will vary between businesses based on the products and services offered and the size of each deal. Nonetheless, having a defined idea of how long the process takes is essential. 
6. Total pipeline value – Knowing the total value of all potential deals in your business pipeline helps you predict revenue more accurately and refine your strategies for closing a higher percentage. 

Boost your pipeline and build sales with Crunchbase

Crunchbase’s sales intelligence software surfaces information about millions of companies to help you target the right prospects, at the right time with the right  message.

Learn more about our intelligent prospecting software, and check out these additional resources to discover how Crunchbase helps sales teams close more deals:

• 20 Critical Buying Signals You Should be Tracking to Increase Sales
• Lead Qualification Process: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Sales Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Success
• 5 Ways Crunchbase Makes Prospecting More Efficient
• How to Get the Most out of Crunchbase Pro

Learn More

The post How to Build a Successful Sales Pipeline appeared first on Crunchbase.

Despite the overall fall in VC funding in May (from $45 billion in April to $39 billion in May), 16 companies closed on fresh funding in May and 13 of those companies joined Crunchbase’s list of emerging unicorns.

Why emerging unicorns should be on your radar: Emerging unicorns are private, high-growth companies valued between $500 million and $1 billion. Why should these companies matter to you? These not-yet unicorns (unicorns are private companies valued at $1 billion or above) represent a sweet spot for salespeople. They’re established, cash-rich, growing and solving a business problem that could make them the next billion-dollar unicorn. 

These newly minted emerging unicorns span a variety of industries, including foodtech, car sharing and cybersecurity. In this edition of The Lead List, we’ll take a look at these high-growth startups and equip you with all the information you need to sell to them in June.

Hot tip for salespeople: In contrast to unicorns, which get all the attention, emerging unicorns may not be as inundated with sales pitches.

Methodology

This issue of The Lead List includes companies featured on Crunchbase’s Emerging Unicorn Board that raised new funding throughout May. The companies listed in the article are based on funding rounds recorded for companies on the Crunchbase’s Emerging Unicorn Board by Jun. 1. All additional companies with funding rounds added to the Crunchbase list after Jun. 1, are not included in this article.

This issue of The Lead List includes companies added to Crunchbase’s Emerging Unicorn Board throughout May and are ordered based on their Crunchbase rank score (a proprietary, dynamic ranking that uses intelligent algorithms to score and rank companies) as of June 1. An entity’s Crunchbase rank is fluid and subject to rise and fall over time due to time-sensitive events such as product launches, funding events and leadership changes, so the current rank score may not reflect the listed rank scores below.

The Emerging Unicorn Board is updated whenever a new company reaches a specific valuation range (companies valued between $500 million and less than $1 billion). Once a company reaches a valuation of $1 billion, it is classified as a “unicorn” and added to The Crunchbase Unicorn Board. Companies that exit through a public listing or acquisition are also removed from the Emerging Unicorn Board. 

If you have any questions about companies on the board or this list, please contact us at support@crunchbase.com.

1. Ather Energy

Crunchbase Rank: 43
Post Money Valuation: $900 million

Ather Energy is a manufacturer of electric scooters and an electric vehicle charging network called Ather Grid. The company recently closed on a $128 million Series E led by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, India’s first infrastructure-specific investment fund, with participation from HeroMotoCorp Ltd. Ather Energy is an emerging unicorn to keep your eyes on since venture-backed startups in the EV space raised upward of $20 billion in 2021, more than double the nearly $10 billion raised by companies in the sector in 2020, according to Crunchbase News.

Why Ather Energy should be on your radar: Ather Energy was added to the Crunchbase Emerging Unicorn Board following its Series E, which brought its valuation to $900 million. With the fresh funding, the company looks to “enhance its capacities across the board, bring additional focus on its new platforms, expand into new geographies, and double down on the reputation it built for making a product that is high in quality,” according to the VC Circle. Ather Energy could be your next big deal as the company continues to grow and approach unicorn status.

Crunchbase User Tip: Do you want to monitor Ather Energy’s activity?

With Crunchbase Starter and Pro, you can enable automatic alerts to stay up to date on high-growth startup news and buy signals. With automatic alerts, you can select what you want to be notified of (funding rounds, news, etc.) by designating either Daily or Weekly updates for that alert type. Learn more about automatic alerts. 

2. Firework

Crunchbase Rank: 51
Post Money Valuation: $750M

Firework is a livestreaming commerce and digital platform that brings interactive video experiences to websites and apps. The company recently closed on a $150 million Series B led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The livestreaming platform raised one of the largest funding rounds in May and has now raised nearly $270 million through eight funding rounds. The company intends to use the capital to “increase talent acquisition in engineering, product and marketing, and deliver several enhancements to its overall platform.”

Why Firework should be on your radar: Livestreamed shopping has long been popular in China, but it has been slow to take off in Western markets, including the U.S. In Firework’s company update, it stated, “The short-form video and live-shopping wave are just beginning to lap America’s shores. A live-commerce market that generated over $300 billion in China last year, making up almost a fifth of all retail e-commerce sales, [the live-commerce market] holds immense promise here [America].” With tech giants like Meta, Amazon and Alphabet already developing their own livestream shopping tools, Firework should be on your radar as the live-commerce market continues to grow in popularity and expand worldwide. 

3. FINN

Crunchbase Rank: 80
Post Money Valuation: $500M

FINN is an automotive leasing company that offers monthly car subscriptions to create a sustainable method for mobility. The company recently closed on a $110 million Series B, which valued the company at more than $500 million. The round was led by Korelya Capital with participation from existing investors such as White Star Capital, HV Capital, Heartcore Capital, UVC Partners and Picus Capital. The automotive company also saw funding from new investors such as Keen Venture Partners, Climb Ventures, Greentrail Capital and Waterfall Asset Management. 

Why FINN should be on your radar: Car subscription platforms are becoming increasingly popular as consumers shift away from traditional car ownership models. According to FINN, “Customers favor access to items and services rather than owning them, which would require them to pay large amounts of cash in advance.” The company offers new cars for rent with no hidden fees or down payment and lowers the barrier for many consumers looking to try out electric vehicles. With the fresh funding, FINN looks to accelerate hiring across its global teams, advance its technology and continue expanding throughout the U.S. and Europe, indicating a focus on company and product growth.

4. Tailscale

Crunchbase Rank: 177
Post Money Valuation: $785M

Tailscale is a VPN service that makes the devices and applications you own accessible anywhere in the world, securely and effortlessly. The company recently raised a $100 million Series B led by CRV and Insight Partners with participation from Accel, Heavybit and Uncork Capital. CEO Avery Pennarun told TechCrunch in a recent article that Tailscale plans to use its new funding to “expand its marketing and sales teams, but especially investing in building additional product features.”

Why Tailscale should be on your radar: Tailscale has experienced 1,200% year-over-year growth and continues to sustain 20% growth quarter over quarter in active monthly users, primarily due to organic word-of-mouth, according to the company. The company is rapidly growing and establishing itself as a leader in the VPN space which can be used to “share software services or replace a [big-name competitor] corporate VPN like Cisco AnyConnect, OpenVPN and Palo Alto Global Protect.” Tailscale currently has a handful of open roles for which it’s actively hiring. The majority of these roles are in engineering and marketing, signaling a focus on company expansion and product growth. 

5. Deserve

Crunchbase Rank: 125
Post Money Valuation: $500M

Deserve is a fintech company that looks to remove the complexity of launching a credit card. The company secured a $250 million credit facility from Cross River, Goldman Sachs and Waterfall Asset Management. According to Fintech Futures, the company intends to use the funding to “roll out new credit card offerings from this year, including subscription management programs, buy now, pay later (BNPL), home equity and SME card programs.” 

Why Deserve should be on your radar: According to Deserve’s recent press release, “In the last year, Deserve’s platform business has successfully launched credit card programs for partners such as BlockFi, M1 Finance and OppFi, among others. In 2022 and beyond, Deserve plans to bring innovative card programs that help consumers manage subscriptions, augment BNPL, unlock their home equity as well as card programs for SMBs and commercial customers.” With the concentration on product growth and its backing from big-name giants, such as Visa, Mastercard and Sallie Mae, it would be smart to keep Deserve on your radar.

6. Zepto

Crunchbase Rank: 134
Post Money Valuation: $900M

Zepto is an instant grocery delivery startup spearheaded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, two 19-year-old entrepreneurs who dropped out of Stanford to start their quick-commerce business. The company raised a $200 million Series B earlier in May, led by Y Combinator with participation from Kaiser Permanente and its previous investors, Nexus Venture Partners. Zepto currently operates in 10 cities in India and plans to cover 24 more in the next quarter with this new round of funding. 

Why Zepto should be on your radar: Due to the pandemic, there was a massive shift in customer demand and buying decisions, and the modern customer journey evolved to favor fast deliveries and convenience. The quick-commerce industry was said to generate between $20 billion and $25 billion in U.S. retail sales by the end of 2021, according to a Coresight Research report. In other words, Zepto is a great company to keep on your radar. As the quick-commerce sector continues to be a hot topic, it might be worth setting up alerts for Zepto and similar companies. 

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7. TIFIN

Crunchbase Rank: 137
Post Money Valuation: $842M

TIFIN is a fintech platform that uses artificial intelligence and “investment-driven” personalization to shape the future of investor experiences. The company recently secured a $109 million Series D led by Motive Partners with participation from Morningstar, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Hamilton Lane, Franklin Templeton Investments and Broadridge. Just a few weeks after its funding announcement, the company launched its new product, the Magnifi+ platform, which provides investment intelligence from leading financial pros through proprietary and engaging video content. 

Why TIFIN should be on your radar: TIFIN uses AI to drive personalization for wealth management and digital distribution for investment managers. In pursuing its mission to make investing a more meaningful driver of financial well-being, TIFIN operates an ecosystem of products that include Magnifi, Financial Answers, TIFIN Wealth and Distill. The company plans to use its funding to “support its continued growth, with particular emphasis on Magnifi’s consumer platform, Distill’s expansion with asset and wealth enterprises, TIFIN’s expansion outside the U.S. and additional fintech innovation initiatives.” In addition to global expansion, TIFIN currently has a handful of open roles for which its hiring. The majority of these roles are for its engineering team, indicating a focus on product growth.

8. Hello Heart

Crunchbase Rank: 146
Post Money Valuation: $600M

Hello Heart provides cardiovascular digital therapeutics to empower people to track their blood pressure, pulse, medications, weight and activity using AI-based technology. The health-tech company closed on a $70 million Series D led by Stripes with participation from Resolute Ventures, Maven Ventures, IVP and BlueRun Ventures. As the leading provider of digital solutions for heart health, the Hello Heart app has shown a high engagement rate among its users with sustained long-term app engagement. The company plans to use its funding to further its product development and hire top talent across its go-to-market teams (sales, marketing, customer success, etc.) as well as its engineering and data science teams. 

Why Hello Heart should be on your radar: The focus on prioritizing heart health has intensified in light of the Surgeon General’s Call to Action for improving hypertension control across the United States. Hypertension is the most prevalent chronic condition impacting roughly half of U.S. adults. Unfortunately, more than 3 in 4 adults don’t have their blood pressure under control. Hello Heart’s product focuses on a hypertension self-management program that provides wellness tips to help people make healthier choices, which in turn can reduce their blood pressure and subsequently reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke. With successful companies like Apple and Google expanding their heart-health tracking capabilities, Hello Heart should be on your radar as the health-tech market continues to grow into the large market opportunity ahead. 

9. Pyramid Analytics

Crunchbase Rank: 406
Post Money Valuation: $900M

Pyramid Analytics provides “decision intelligence” for employees across user organizations with enterprise-level business analytics software. Decision intelligence is a strategic platform approach combined with AI that lowers the skills barrier and empowers anyone—from the C-suite to the frontline—to make faster, more intelligent decisions. The company raised a $120 million Series E led by H.I.G. Growth Partners with participation from Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings, Kingfisher Capital LLC, Kreos Capital and General Oriental. Early investors that also participated in this round include Sequoia Capital. Jerusalem Venture Partners, Maor Investments and Viola Growth.

Why Pyramid Analytics should be on your radar: In a company press release, Pyramid Analytics CEO and co-founder Omri Kohl stated, “At no time in our company’s history have the stars aligned so perfectly. With a competent and experienced leadership team, a product team driving the development of our innovative Decision Intelligence Platform, a customer-focused Go-To-Market team, and investors who see the promise of our vision, technology, and market opportunity, the future is bright.” The company plans to use its funding to further product development, expand its global geographic presence, and hire additional talent. As the company continues to grow and approach unicorn status, Pyramid Analytics could be your next big deal.

10. Vention

Crunchbase Rank: 510
Post Money Valuation: $767M

Vention is a next-generation digital manufacturing platform for machine design, enabling engineers and other manufacturing professionals to design and automate their production floor in just a few days. The company closed on a $95 million Series C led by Georgian with participation from White Star Capital, Walter Ventures, Fidelity Canada, Bolt and Bain Capital Ventures. Proceeds from the Series C financing will grow Vention’s go-to-market activities, expand its global distribution footprint, and accelerate the development of its hardware and software platforms. 

Why Vention should be on your radar: Vention’s Series C came just a few months after its announcement of its North American expansion in Boston. “Having a local presence in the U.S. will bring us closer to our American clients and business partners,” said Etienne Lacroix, Vention’s CEO and co-founder. The expansion is the second one this year, as the company recently opened an office in Berlin, Germany. In addition to global expansion, Vention is rapidly hiring and has 46 open roles in which they are looking to hire top talent. The majority of these roles are for its software, sales and operations team, indicating a focus on company and product growth.

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11. Absolute Foods

CB Rank: 542
Post Money Valuation: $500M

Agritech startup Absolute Foods raised a $100 million Series B  in its first institutional funding round from Sequoia Capital India, Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global Management. Absolute Foods controls the whole cycle of agricultural produce, from seed to harvest. Its offering includes AI-driven FARM OS that can be implemented across vertical and open farms, which enables farmers to grow crops without using synthetic enzymes. According to Inc 42, “The startup will use the funds to ramp up hiring and expand to newer geographies.”

Why Absolute Foods should be on your radar: Investors are not backing away from plowing more investments into startups that help grow more greens. According to Crunchbase News, “Agtech has become a darling sector among investors after seemingly being an afterthought for years. Until 2020, the sector had never reached the $2 billion investment threshold in any year. However, in 2020 funding jumped and in 2021, it hit nearly $5.7 billion.” Absolute Foods is well-positioned to become a high-growth company as some of Silicon Valley’s big-player VCs back its product and mission, and it would be smart to keep the agtech company on your radar.

12. Tiki

CB Rank: 634
Post Money Valuation: $850M

Tiki is an e-commerce company that specializes in the end-to-end supply chain and partnering with brands. The company was recently added to the Crunchbase Emerging Unicorn Board following Shinhan Financial Group’s acquisition of a 10% stake in the Vietnam-based e-commerce platform. This acquisition made the Shinhan Financial Group the third-largest shareholder of Tiki. 

Why Tiki should be on your radar: Tiki was first launched as a bookstore by Son Tran Ngoc Thai in 2010, but has become an e-commerce giant with around 20 million users. The company closed on a $258 million Series E in October 2021 led by AIA Group and participation from Yuanta Investment, UBS, Taiwan Mobile Co Ltd, STIC Investment and Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund. AIA’s lead investment of  $60 million, pushed the company’s valuation to $850 million in late 2021.

13. Ninjacart

CB Rank: 2,247
Post Money Valuation: $815M

Ninjacart operates an online business-to-business platform that directly connects farmers, manufacturers and brands to retailers through a lean and connected supply chain. The company’s platform enables the distribution of vegetables and fruits to retailers and restaurants across India. Ninjacart recently raised a $9 million Series D led by STIC Investments and Mainstreet Digital, just months after it closed a $145 million round led by Walmart and Flipkart. According to Ninjacart’s press release, “This investment will further accelerate Ninjacart’s journey towards building technology and infrastructure to organize, empower and enhance the lives of millions of agri-value chain participants including farmers, resellers, retailers, consumers, and supply chain participants.”

Why Ninjacart should be on your radar: Recent investor to Ninjakart,  Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart, said, “As a homegrown company, we have constantly focused on creating the right infrastructure and technological solutions that support local farmers, producers, and food processors.” The investments will help Ninjacart further its grocery footprint and offerings to consumers across India while still offering its quality and affordable options. Ninjacart currently is hiring for 41 open roles. The majority of these roles are for its recruiting and sales teams, indicating a focus on company expansion.

14. Neo Financials

CB Rank: 4,737
Post Money Valuation: $780M

Neo Financial is a fintech company that is reimagining the way Canadians manage their money with tech-first financial tools to spend, save, invest and more in the digital age. The company recently closed on a $185 million Series C led by Valar Ventures. In addition to Valar Ventures, other participants in the Series C round include Tribe Capital, Altos Ventures, Blank Ventures, Gaingels, Maple VC and Knollwood Advisory. According to VCA Online, “Since its inception in 2019, Neo Financial has grown to over 1 million customers and reached a ‘unicorn’ valuation [$1 billion CAD] in less than 3 years, making it one of the fastest Canadian companies to achieve these milestones.” 

Why Neo Financial should be on your radar: In the VCA Online article, Andrew McCormack, a founding partner of Valar Ventures and investment partner in Neo Financial said, “The pace at which this team releases new products and grows its customer base is among the fastest we have seen in our careers. As a result, Neo can be the biggest disruption the Canadian banking industry has seen in decades, and their influence on financial services available to Canadians will impact the lives of millions.” With its fast-paced product releases and over 7,000 business partnerships nationwide, it would be smart to keep Neo Financial on your radar.

15. Freetrade

CB Rank: 8,077
Post Money Valuation: $878M

Freetrade is an app that makes investing simple and free. The company recently raised $37.6 million in a debt financing with its existing institutional investors, Molten Ventures, Left Lane Capital and L Catterton, participating in the round. The funding round was also joined by new investors, Phoenix, an investment manager with over $100 billion in assets, and Capricorn Capital Partners, a private investment firm. With the new capital, Freetrade looks to accelerate international plans and provide access to markets in a responsible and trusted way.

Why Freetrade should be on your radar: In the past few months, Freetrade has introduced a series of new features to its products, such as Freetrade Web, as well as securing a license from the Swedish financial regulator, a big step forward in its European expansion. According to Freetrade’s press release, “We raised this capital following a period of strong performance for the business amid volatile equity markets. Our registered users surpassed 1.3m in the UK alone, revenue for the calendar year 2021 increased over 6x to £15.1m, AUA surpassed £1bn and trading volumes for the year exceeded £3.7bn.” This signals a focus on growth and expansion as it starts to scale up throughout the country.

16. Motif

CB Rank: 21,716
Post Money Valuation: $726M

Motif is a Boston-based food technology company that focuses on plant-based food. The company recently raised an undisclosed investment from FootPrint Coalition Ventures, a firm co-founded by actor Robert Downey Jr., Steve Levin and Jonathan Schulhof. In 2020 and 2021, investors poured more than $2 billion into startups around the world working on cell-cultured meat and other cell-cultured food alternatives, per Crunchbase data.

Why Motif should be on your radar: According to Crunchbase News, “Investors say the alternative protein space has plenty of runway to grow, with both younger startups developing real technology and established companies that are looking to scale needing investment capital.” Motif was among the many top-funded startups last year focused on the animal-alternative meat and dairy space, including Impossible Foods, Perfect Day and Nature’s Fynd. Foodtech is a relatively new startup sector that has experienced tremendous momentum in just a few short years, going from about $2.2 billion in total venture investment in 2017 to almost 6x that amount last year. As a key player in the foodtech industry, Motif is an emerging unicorn to keep your eye on.

Join us next month as we continue to keep an eye out for hot companies. You can use this list to track the cohort of new fast-growing startups being added to the Emerging Unicorn Board throughout the month.

Learn More

The post The Lead List: 16 Hot Companies To Sell To In June appeared first on Crunchbase.

Please note that the author is not employed by Crunchbase and the opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect official views or opinions of Crunchbase, Inc.

Working in sales involves a lot of talking. It’s often referred to as the “gift of gab” when someone has the ability to chat to people effortlessly and create genuine connections to get them on board with what they’re offering. 

Talking less and listening more is a good rule of thumb when it comes to sales. Why? Because it offers the other person a chance to be heard, and allows the salesperson to build good rapport with the customer. 

What does it mean to talk less, listen more?

Listening more is a skill that virtually everyone can benefit from. When we are actively engaged in a conversation it can improve productivity, enhance negotiations and allow you to persuade the other person more easily. In addition, you can avoid conflicts and any future misunderstandings, because you have listened attentively. 

In today’s climate, communication is more important than ever, particularly when many of the conversations we’re having aren’t face-to-face. Listening intently has become a coveted skill, which can highly benefit those in customer-facing roles. 

It can help to create and build solid relationships, solve problems, resolve any issues and improve accuracy. It may also mean fewer errors are made which could save time and money in the long run. 

What is active listening?

Essentially, active listening involves really paying attention to the other person by using all of your senses. Not only should you be giving your full focus to the speaker, you should also show that you are giving them your full attention. You should never look bored or uninterested when they’re talking.

Showing that you’re interested in what the other person is saying can be via verbal or non-verbal messages such as eye contact, affirmations and agreements, with a “yes” or a head nod. Offering this feedback assures them they are being listened to and taken seriously, and will be more open to communicating honestly. 

Simply “hearing” is different than actually listening. Listening is an active process in which someone consciously makes the effort to take in and digest what the speaker is trying to convey. Hearing is when the message has been vaguely heard, but not understood or interpreted for clarity. 

In sales, listeners should remain nonjudgmental and neutral in their approach so it doesn’t seem as though you’re taking sides. Active listening is all about patience, taking time with the other person, and not appearing to jump in or trying to rush them in any way. 

Let the moments of silence sit. If anything, this may encourage the other person to break the silence and talk more—giving them a chance to further explain what they are trying to say. 

There are five main steps to active listening:

How to actively listen in sales

As a salesperson, you need to learn to perfect the art of listening. Knowing when to keep quiet and let the other person speak is a learned skill. Here’s how to actively listen:

1. Ask questions

Asking relevant questions can show that you’ve been listening to what they’re saying. It can also help you clarify what’s being said. If you haven’t understood something correctly, don’t be afraid to wait until that person has paused and ask, “Could you repeat that?” or “I’m not sure I understand what you were saying about … .”

We ask questions all the time in our daily interactions without even realizing it. Questions show you are genuinely interested in what they’re saying.  in a sales call, they can help you gain a deeper understanding of an issue, or exactly what the customer is looking for. 

Sometimes you may end up on a tangent, and sometimes you’ll work your way back to the original topic.  If you notice your question led the customer in a new direction, you must take responsibility for getting the conversation back on track. 

2. Repeat it back

It’s helpful to paraphrase what the person has said to you during a conversation, as opposed to offering specific thoughts or harsh opinions. For instance, you could say, “I understand you are saying you are frustrated” or “I’m sorry to hear you are frustrated about this.” Repeating it back and summarizing what you’ve heard can make the other person feel validated and heard.

While it may seem odd at first, repeating it back allows you to show you’ve been paying attention. It also gives the customer the opportunity to correct you if you misheard them. If you’ve got it wrong, thank them for correcting you and continue the conversation. 

You can even use a call recording app to help keep track of your calls and improve your sales technique. Perhaps you can spot a place where you think you could have better phrased a question. 

3. Look for nonverbal cues 

There are all sorts of verbal cues to look for, such as facial expressions, tone of voice and gestures that explain what a person is truly saying. Pay attention to the other person’s body language. For instance, sitting with their legs or arms crossed could mean they are feeling defensive or uncomfortable. 

If you take emailing out of the equation, a lot of communication is nonverbal. Even over the phone you can pick up on nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice. This can be useful for guiding the call, including what questions you may wish to ask them going forward.

We live in a world where it’s standard practice to communicate via video call or over the phone. On a video call you can still detect boredom, irritation or sadness very quickly. These cues are not to be ignored on sales calls. Remember that what the customer actually says only counts for part of the bigger picture. 

4. Focus your attention

Ensure that you are placing your full attention on the other person. Looking distracted or disinterested can be off-putting to the customer and discourage them from taking anything further. Should you need to concentrate, try repeating their words in your head when they’re talking to reinforce what they’re saying.

If possible, shut out other conversations going on around you, this may be tricky if you’re operating from a call center. Those who work remotely using a business VoIP phone system may find it easier to focus their attention. 

5. Mirror the speaker

When we’re speaking to someone, we often experience empathy when it comes to their emotions. For example, if they’re feeling sad you might express feelings of sadness. If they are happy, this may also impact your mood and make you feel happy. Do the same when it comes to customer relations. Mirror the speaker.

Try to convey those feelings through your facial expressions and what you say. That shows you are listening and are in tune with what they’re talking to you about. Being empathetic is a top quality of a salesperson. Put yourself in the customer’s place and imagine the kind of response you’d like to receive. This can improve your communication and allow them to feel seen. 

Mirroring the facial expressions of your speaker can also be a sign indicative of active listening. This can further help you to show empathy to their concerns.

6. Don’t interrupt

When you interrupt someone it sends a clear message; you think what you have to say is more important than what they’re trying to tell you. Some may also interpret it as not caring what the other person thinks, not having time for the conversation, or not caring to hear the other person’s opinion. 

Although we all think and speak at different rates, there’s no need to cut in and interrupt what someone is saying, especially when it’s a customer during a sales call. When you’re listening to someone explaining a problem, try to refrain from suggesting solutions straight away. Instead, listen to what the customer is saying and gather as much information you need before you offer any assistance. 

The benefits of talking less

1. You stand out

By talking less and listening more you are able to stand out from among the other salespeople. Those who don’t possess the skill of active listening are likely to talk over future prospects and not pay attention to what’s being said. 

You will stand out because your approach is friendlier and more real, as you actively listen to the customer, answer their questions and mirror their actions. You can keep the talk less “salesy” and more authentic, thus building a genuine relationship with the client. 

2. You gain knowledge

When you talk less you’re opening yourself up to more possibilities. You can gain knowledge and actionable insights far more easily. The more you let your customer speak, the more information you get. 

This can include information regarding their issues, challenges, goals, budget and decision-making process. It could mean you build a rapport so strong the customer feels comfortable giving up information they weren’t initially prepared to share. And the more information you have about the customer, the more detailed service you can provide. 

3. You make customers feel valued

If a customer feels like they have your genuine undivided attention, they are likely to feel valued and appreciated. When you give this attention to someone, they are more likely to be honest and open, sharing ideas and detailing their needs. 

When it comes to sales, giving customers the freedom to articulate their thoughts and feelings is incredibly valuable. This not only helps you improve what you do, but it also shows them they are cared for and valued. 

4. You make fewer errors

Everybody makes mistakes. Silly mistakes are frustrating, but sometimes inevitable. By actively listening, you are minimizing the chance for mistakes to occur because you are opening the floor to the other person, allowing them to express themselves without judgment. 

From this, you can listen intently and ensure you completely understand what they are saying. Active listening can save you further down the line as you have already used techniques such as repeating and mirroring to comprehend exactly what is being asked of you. That’s the difference between just hearing and actively listening.

5. You earn attention when it’s your turn to speak

Now, when it’s your turn to speak, the other person will be more inclined to pay you the same attention you paid them. People often like to reciprocate gestures and emotions, and the same goes for the relationship between you and the customer during the sales process.

They are more likely to listen to you when you’re describing how you can solve their pain points, and how your product is the most effective solution on the market to tackle their company’s unique challenges. This effective way of communicating can help you close the deal faster. 

Talk less, listen more, to close deals faster

As we know, selling involves a lot of talking. Good communication is crucial when it comes to building client relationships and closing deals. In sales, you have to be able to make calls, create proposals, give presentations, negotiate terms and persuade prospects to buy what your company is offering. By talking less and listening more, customers will feel more inclined to listen to what you can bring them. They will feel valued, appreciated and listened to. 

Learning the art of listening 

Now you have the right tools to perfect the art of active listening. Articulate what you have to say, and position yourself as a must-have option for the client. Communicate your company’s benefits in a friendly and non-salesy way to make yourself more approachable and likable. 

After all, clients just want an honest salesperson that actually understands their questions and concerns. 

Remember to focus your attention, mirror the speaker, look for nonverbal cues, ask questions, repeat their intentions back to them and don’t interrupt. By closing your mouth and opening your ears more, you just might find that customers are more susceptible to what you have to offer.

Tanhaz Kamaly is a partnership executive at Dialpad, a modern cloud-hosted business communications platform that turns conversations into the best opportunities, both for businesses and clients. He is well-versed and passionate about helping companies work in constantly evolving contexts, anywhere, anytime. 

The post The Perfect Talk-Listen Ratio in Sales That Will Help You Close Deals Faster appeared first on Crunchbase.

Swarnali Mitra, an early-stage investor at Anthemis, aims to cultivate change in the financial system by investing in female-founded fintech companies in the pre-seed and seed stages.

As an individual who has lived in different parts of the world, Mitra has seen firsthand how much impact financial systems play on various areas of society. These life experiences influenced her personal mission of helping build a financially inclusive world, which eventually led to joining Anthemis, a global financial platform Mitra found closely aligned with her own values. Now through her role as an investor, she is able to support, invest and cultivate female entrepreneurs across the financial services ecosystem through the Female Innovators Lab. 

In this Q&A, we asked Mitra the story behind joining Anthemis, what she looks for when considering a company for investment, and the advice she’d give to founders pitching to investors. 

Q: What made you join Anthemis? 

My background is a hotchpotch of product and engineering, payments, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and public policy. I care deeply about economic mobility, inclusion and social justice. Through my journeys across the world, I have been able to closely observe the financial system’s impact on all of these areas. So when I came across Anthemis, it wasn’t hard to uncover that the work I would do would align very closely with my value systems. 

Anthemis is dedicated to cultivating change in the financial system by investing in, growing and sustaining businesses committed to resiliency, transparency, access and equity. We do so by investing in digitally native financial services companies that leverage technology to impact the financial system or embed finance into their infrastructure and business model. At Anthemis, I am currently focused on the U.K. and European efforts of the Female Innovators Lab by Barclays & Anthemis. 

Q: In what ways does your fund do things differently than other funds? 

The Female Innovators Lab is a pre-seed and seed-stage fund and venture studio dedicated to investing in female and nonbinary founders. Our investment dollars in portfolio companies are accompanied by customized support in business and product design on the zero to one journey, so that these companies can evolve scalably and attract investment capital throughout their growth stages. 

Our portfolio companies tackle problems from payments and social commerce to insurance and risk management. Our founders are alumni of Uber, JP Morgan and Reddit, and are spread across the globe. 

Q: What do you look for when considering a company or idea for investment?

Early-stage investing looks at the alignment between whether a startup is building a product or a service that people are willing to pay for and whether the founder and team are the best positioned to tackle that space. Taking this notion slightly further, especially for crowded spaces, I look to assess the startup’s potential for long-term sustainability as well as the defensibility of its technology, product, or service.

While it is tough to pin down a concise list of qualities I admire in founders, the common denominators that I’m always on the lookout for include tenacity, adaptability, contrarianism and a non-zero sum mindset. Founders need the ability to stay on course throughout the schlep and existential crises that startups can be. They also must swerve to meet the curveballs that startup journeys will throw at founders. Especially where the current infrastructure is stacked up against the founding team; believing that there is a way to turn things around is essential. 

Q: What types of companies are most exciting to you?

Mass financialization has allowed several industries to complement financial services with their core offerings. It has also unlocked new revenue and disruption opportunities. Decentralized finance gaining steam has also made the unraveling of banking, investing and lending as we know it possible on newer rails. 

I’m interested in the hard problems of fintech: 

• Making money work for everyone: How do we get the evolving infrastructure of Web3 to adapt to inherent ways people interact with money? Instead of fighting the inertia that prevents people from long-term wealth building, how do we wrap around existing behaviors to introduce new products? How do we tackle the wealth gaps as we build these products? 
• Identity: How do we use the internet’s money layer to credentialize the traditional parameters of achievements that dictate access to finance and perpetuate inequality? How do we credentialize offline and online interactions, unlock the value attached to them, and take it with us across borders? 
• Workforce equity: Gender norms often transfer the burden of caregiving to women and make careers and caregiving a zero-sum game. How do we start to reimagine care, unpaid labor and fair, flexible careers? How do we offer products that offset the risk of stepping away from paid labor?
• The modern business stack: More and more solopreneurs are stepping away from the traditional setups around businesses. How do we make sure the modern business stack addresses the full spectrum of needs of solopreneurs, for both gig workers and technopreneurs?
• Upskilling: Access gaps in capital and infrastructure have been exacerbated through COVID-19, and we’re starting to see this divide become more prominent as the world looks to adopt digital ways to work and earn. How do we ease some of these inequities and build in ways to learn and earn?
• Climate fintech: Streamlining and financing the next generation of decarbonization projects is a big undertaking. How do we rethink the supply chains that are bogged down with inefficiencies and help them scale?

Q: How have you changed as a professional since working as an investor?

In venture, we’re invariably powering “tomorrow,” and that feels incredibly humbling and exciting. I’m constantly a sponge on the job, whether it’s while deep-diving into new technology, thinking about portfolio construction, or solving for the systemic dysfunctions in our industry. It’s also been a great place to actively build my empathy for what it’s like on the zero to one journey, in working with and learning from founders, as well as helping a fund expand to the U.K. and Europe. 

Q: What can be done to allocate more funding to female founders and to increase the number of female investors?

Anthemis Group is a global platform with $1.4 billion in assets under management and has deployed capital into more than 170 companies and funds, including eToro, Betterment, Carta and Seedcamp. Anthemis’ platform was built on a belief that the transformation of the financial sector would come from a diverse group of inside and outside industry players. Simply by bringing together a diverse team, we have been able to deploy 45% of our capital into the hands of women or people of color.

When it comes to diversity in financial systems and ultimate funding for female founders, I believe that change will need representation at all levels—founders, investors, board members, senior leaders and those in the workforce. Today, there are too few women in the fintech workforce (37% in the U.S., less than 30% in the U.K.) and even fewer senior leaders (only 21% of applicants for senior roles in 2019 to 2020 were women). To me, it’s no surprise that usage of fintech products and funding for female fintech founders (less than 1.5% of total investments) suffers globally. 

Q: What advice would you give to a company or founder wanting to pitch you?

Research us, our backgrounds and why we could help scale your company. Email me and submit your pitch. Tell me why what you’re building is personal to you. Sometimes I may not know your space as well as you do. Break it down and convince me it’s worth betting on. Tell me how you think you’ll get there, even if the path involves discovery. Throw in a demo, a minimum viable product, or even mock-ups. 

Swarnali Mitra is a member of Dreamers & Doers, a private collective that amplifies the entrepreneurial pursuits of extraordinary women through thought leadership opportunities, authentic connection, and access. Learn more about Dreamers & Doers and subscribe to itsmonthly The Digest for top entrepreneurial and career resources.

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