Learnings & Wins

Get a complete step-by-step guide on how to identify major revenue moments (and win them). You’ll learn how to inspect your account health, run your 1:1s, and drive successful quarterly retros. There are also templates and checklists to help you maintain consistency while turning your revenue cadence into reality. Avoid revenue leak and win more revenue—grab your copy 👇

Subscribe to RunRevenue.Pro and get one tip for protecting your revenue — plus updates on new frameworks, playbooks, and exec conversations for running revenue like a pro — delivered straight to your inbox every Friday.  The past few quarters have been anything but smooth for revenue teams. The road to revenue is always challenging, but the macroeconomic environment has introduced once-in-a-decade obstacles for teams to navigate. Buyer priorities have changed, customer needs have shifted, and companies are scrutinizing every penny they spend. Has your revenue process kept up? It’s likely that your annual plan is at risk and your targets for future quarters need to be recalculated. You need complete visibility into the realities of your business to confidently predict outcomes in future quarters. You have to be able identify areas of strength and weakness across your revenue process and focus your team’s efforts appropriately. This may feel like a difficult task, but difficult does not

Enduring a time of economic downturn takes more than just the normal. It takes grit, perseverance, taking risks, and most importantly, mastering your time to run revenue. Something has to change, an action needs to take place. But what is that change and how do we properly master our revenue?In this bonus episode of the Run Revenue Show, we take a break from our regularly scheduled interviews, and listen to three executives who have successfully mastered their revenue - the Head of Content at Clari, Devin Reed, CEO and Prime Minister of Revenue at Clari, Andy Byrn, and CEO of Gainsight, Nick Mehta. Tune in to learn how consolidation can offer customers a combined solution and improve sales efficiency, why time to revenue is crucial in driving customer satisfaction and growth, how legacy systems like CRM and Excel can lead to revenue leakage, how to operate your business more effectively and how to protect your revenue in uncertain times.Here’s what’s inside: Use strong customer relatio

It’s a terrible feeling when new business deals are slow to come in and you’re watching your growth targets slip away after all of the hard work your sales team put in to reach new customers. So how do we counteract this? Through the number one most important strategy in 2023: paying attention to net dollar retention.On this episode of The Run Revenue Show, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, author of multiple books on customer success and all around champion of delivering value to your customers, shared his insights on this strategy. You’ll learn the difference between customer support and customer success, the natural tendency for customers, sharing the value in your vision, and the key steps for turning your value into reality. Here’s what’s inside:Turn your value into reality: Nick mentions the main steps are to agree as a company what your value is, define how that value is translated into the product, orchestrate it into your business processes, and then to become brave. Stop building

 Marketing team creates pitch deck. Sales team doesn’t like pitch deck. Sales team creates their own pitch deck. Marketing team gets frustrated. And…the cycle continues. Sales and marketing teams are working toward the same goal–revenue…so why do they so often work against each other to get there.On this episode, Mike Weir uncovers his secrets of go-to-market team alignment as a former marketer to now CRO at the highly-trusted peer-to-peer review site G2. Listen as he shares how to close the information gap in sales to drive your revenue, leverage data and technology to create a better understanding of customer needs, the importance of personalized communications, and the power of developing a curious mindset to ask questions and seek answers.Here’s what’s inside: Train your reps to simplify: Mike says that your sales team needs to lead conversations that are different. They need to resonate with the customers and be ‘plain’ enough to connect with them. Do an empathy audit: Mike says e

  Discovery deserves to die… Well, at least the discovery we have now. It does little to help the buyer. Doug Landis is a renowned Growth Partner at Emergence Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in early and growth-stage enterprise cloud companies. With extensive experience in sales and marketing, Landis is widely recognized for his expertise in building and scaling high-performance revenue organizations. He has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by SaaS companies, particularly in the areas of sales strategy, customer engagement, and team development. Doug works closely with Emergence Capital's portfolio companies, providing strategic guidance and hands-on support to drive their growth and success.In this episode, Doug and Kyle discuss the importance of data in sales and the role of a Rev Ops partner. They touch on the pitfalls of being too focused on discovery and the need to shift towards meaningful business conversations that take into account th

 The secret sauce to approach RevOps in a successful way? Enablement, platforms, analytics, compensation plan, and strategy. Focusing on these five things will take your operations to new heights.On this episode of Run Revenue Show, our guest, Sam Sutton-Reid, shares his experience as a RevOps leader at Pearson. He breaks down the approach to RevOps into five areas of focus - enablement, platforms, analytics, compensation plan, and strategy. Sam emphasizes the importance of creativity in post-COVID times, stakeholder management, and planning ahead for revenue operations leaders while also sharing his journey from coffee shops to sales and eventually to RevOps. Sam Sutton-Reid is the Director of Revenue Operations at Pearson, a leading educational publishing and assessment service company. As an accomplished professional in the field, Sam oversees and manages the revenue operations function, which involves optimizing sales processes, driving revenue growth, and enhancing operational eff

 You’ve got a prospect on the hook. You’ve had conversations with multiple stakeholders. You’ve followed up time and time again and given them all of the information they need to make the decision that’s best for them. But, your Spidey-senses are tingling: there’s some fear there, and you don’t know why. The likely scenario: They have been consumed with the enemy of indecision. Let’s face it. Sometimes it’s just hard to get a customer to close for a number of reasons, but the leading factor is fear. So what’s the trick to helping your hesitant customers overcome their fear so you can close that deal you’ve been waiting for? Matt Dixon is the co-author of The Challenger Sale, The Challenger Customer and The Effortless Experience and is also the founding partner of DCM Insights.In this episode of the Run Revenue Show, Matt shares the challenges that salespeople face when customers express hesitation and objections during the sales process, he explores the concept of the omission bias and

  Let’s face it… AI is on the rise. It’s a powerful, technological tool that gives us information at our fingertips. But looking through a business lens, how can we use this tool to boost our revenue? On this episode of Run Revenue Show, Craig Walker and Kyle Coleman explore Dialpad's success in implementing its business communication product and their emphasis on simplicity, usability, and design. They also discuss how engagement and adoption are leading indicators to revenue and how AI-powered chatbots and real-time AI tools are used to improve customer and employee satisfaction, the importance of communication and how the company moved into the enterprise communication space to address the lack of usability and design in traditional business communication products, and dive into the challenges of product launches and how setting targets and monitoring adoption rates is essential for a product manager's success.Craig Walker is a visionary entrepreneur and business leader, renowned as

When the revenue process is neglected, the results are devastating. The average company is losing 14.9% of its revenue to leaks across the revenue process. So…what can we do to stop revenue leak?In this episode, Kyle Coleman, SVP of Marketing at Clari and host of the Run Revenue Show, is here to walk you through the foolproof ways that the most successful businesses are running revenue. Listen in as he shares the power of teamwork and governance in combating revenue leaks, the importance of utilizing meaningful data for managing revenue processes proactively, how to establish a shared metrics glossary for crystal-clear communication, and more.Plus, he dives into optimizing revenue processes by embracing continuous improvement and reviews, and finding the perfect balance between collaboration and governance for a thriving revenue ecosystem. Here’s what’s inside: Revenue is the most important business process: Kyle mentions when the revenue process is neglected, the results are devastati

Every leader is at mercy of macroeconomic conditions these days, but still expected to hit an even bigger revenue target.. This episode is your playbook for realizing the power behind embracing downturns, upturns, and any-which-way turns the economy will throw at your pipeline.On this episode of The Run Revenue Show, Steve, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, shares his learnings from leading his team at Concur through the ‘99 dot com burst, the 2008 financial crisis, and beyond. You’ll walk away with a playbook for how to use macroeconomic data to your advantage, keep your team informed and empowered, and solidify you no matter what. Here’s what’s inside: How to grow your revenue —without adding headcount Why precise forecasting enables you to think more strategically about spending and where to make your investments. What effectively instrumenting your business looks like and why it should be a priority for you. Grab this week’s checklist:  

 It’s the end of the quarter. The lynchpin deal you were sure was coming through? It hasn’t. Clock strikes midnight, and just like that: it’s over. How did this happen? Deal slippage is ruining your forecast. But, Kevin “KD” Dorsey knows how to avoid it. On this episode of The Run Revenue Show, Kevin, SVP of Sales at Bench Accounting, shares his secrets for avoiding slipped deals. Here’s what’s inside: The ONE thing to create if you want to stop deals from slipping Questions managers can (and should) ask reps to maintain control of their pipeline Step-by-step process for keeping your team aligned and your pipeline healthy Grab this week’s checklist: Check out RunRevenue.Pro for tips, playbooks, and advice for stopping revenue leak and achieving revenue precision. See how Clari's Revenue Platform can help you win more deals, protect your customer base, and achieve revenue precision—even in a downturn. → Clari.com  

On every sales call, Copilot automatically analyzes some key metrics that help you understand call dynamics and identify winning sales behaviours. Call ParameteresFor sales managers, key call metrics help you identify patterns and behaviors on calls that win deals—by individual reps or on a team level. This means more accurate and personalised sales coaching for reps, better calls and more revenue. One of the most talked about is the T/L ratio and rightfully so as it a quick barometer of call dynamics. If we are taking an example of a typical sales call it depends on what kind of call was that a scheduled demo call, discovery call, cold call etc., who you were selling to, what you are selling and what’s your selling motion.We can’t just blindly trust the research that there should be a 80:20 or 60:40 rule. So, the Copilot talk-to-listen ratio is really dynamic/unique to each customer based on how their overall team is doing (We do that by looking at the percentile of calls in a range).

With the release of Field Configuration, you now have the power to make changes to your Clari instance in the blink of an eye. It isn’t uncommon for old or less frequently used fields from your Salesforce instance to be present in Clari. Whether it was set up initially during implementation or there have been shifts in the business, it has never been easier to button up your instance by removing noisy/unused fields.   Audit Existing Instance Take a quick inventory of fields within Clari by scanning through modes and their respective layouts like Opportunity Grid, Filterable, Groupable, and the Details Panel Check the box beside any suspect fields 🕵🏾 to be deleted, and save the changes in your drafts—note that this won’t apply the changes to your Clari instance until you review your changes and publish them Make note of any fields that you aren’t certain about and review them with your Salesforce Admin or associated team member  Work directly with the users this impact

There can be a lot of moving parts when you are looking to put together an enablement session for users to get the most out of Clari. Whether priorities have shifted, you have new employees who need training, or folks simply want a refresher, spending time training your team helps them be their best when using Clari.  Below is a checklist of points you will want to consider when planning an enablement session:  Review Usage Data  Work with your CSM to review how different roles and users spend time in Clari Uncover where there are gaps and create a plan around what to cover from the data What’s important to leaders?  Spend time with leaders in your organization to see what their priorities are  Structure the enablement session in support of those ongoing objectives Create a deeper sense of ownership with the team that is using Clari the most Create Saved Views  Pull a full Martha Stewart and have saved views premade for the opportunity grid and/or analytics

Does your organization sell multi-year opportunities? Maybe you are starting to think about mutli-year deals for your organization? Wherever you are in your journey around this topic, let’s discuss some considerations around the management of these deals, ownership, and how to think about forecasting.Here are a few questions to consider: How does quota retire for multi-year deals? Does quota only retire in year 1 or does it retire over the course of each year? Do users need to forecast each year of the multi-year deal or just year 1? If they have to forecast out-years, there should be a consideration for if a user leaves the organization and how those opportunities will be handled. How will these mult-year deals be tracked in Salesforce? Are they tracked by individual opportunities (one created for each year) or is there a separate object used (subscription, schedule, product line, etc.)? All of the above considerations are important to consider so your organization can setup Sales

As a CSM, there are are few fields that I recommend when you want look at pipeline hygiene--First, I’d use a “push count” field. This field will show you how many times the opportunity close date has been pushed forward. If there is more than 2 pushes, I usually recommend an intensive inspection into the deal to see if it worth keeping in the pipeline. Second, Slipped Reason-- are you seeing deals slip over and over again? Do you have a ton of slipped deals quarter after quarter? Adding Slipped Reason will start giving you insight into why these deals are slipping. Is it because of cost? Is it getting stuck in negotiation for months? This can lead to coaching or process changes to increase deal velocity and improve Average Deal Age. Lastly, Age- Understanding how long your average deal cycle is can be super helpful. Adding AGE can give you insight into Average Age of a Deal by team, rep, vertical, etc. Do you find some reps close deals faster/slower than others? Here’s a great avenue i

Have you ever felt really good about a month or quarter only to see that your pipeline has mysteriously dropped 20%?I have… and it’s not a great feeling… 🤦🏻‍♀️The worst part is if you’re running your forecasts out of spreadsheets or BI tools, it’s a huge pain (if not impossible!) to figure out what changed & why.*cue the infamous math gif from The Hangover*With Clari, you can easily see how your pipeline changes weekly, monthly, or quarterly using the Waterfall view in Analytics.But just knowing what slipped isn’t enough - you can actually apply groupings to each category to provide you with the data to more effectively coach your teamsSome of my favorites:💼 Amount Decrease —> Group by ‘Executive Buyer Engaged’ to see if we’re discussing price with the stakeholders who hold the purse strings🥊 Lost —> Group by ‘Competitors’ or ‘Product’ to see if the team needs more training going head to head with certain competitors or additional product training💰 Slipped —> Group by

Dashboards are one of my favorite modules in Clari because it acts like a Swiss army knife 🇨🇭🗡 and brings in insights from Clari’s other modules. Here’s a tip below on Top Deals Widgets.Top Deals Widget 💡Did you know that you can show activity over the past 7-30 days for your top deals widgets? All you have to do is click on the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner and select ‘Show Activity’. Not only will this show you activity summary, but you can check to see if a next meeting is scheduled from a birds eye view. Bonus: KPI Widget 💎What’s better than one dashboard tip? Two dashboards tips! That’s right, because knowledge is power. When you create a KPI Widget, I recommend using the right arrow to show not only the Total Amount, but the number of Deals and Average Deal size as well.What catches a lot of people by surprise is that you can actually click any area within the dotted boxes to change the fields shown within the KPI Widget. For instance, you can change Average Deal Siz

Is your CFO looking at Clari as you prepare for this fiscal year?  Clari gives CFOs specific insight to give your top level executives the information they need to build the path to a successful year.Hear from Karen Walker, CFO at Sysdig, who is back with an expanded testimonial on how Clari helps Finance optimize resources and capital allocation, and minimize revenue leak."Clari is a very intuitive, easy to use tool. It can provide a single source of truth, looking at your pipeline and deal review has a number of useful analytics. It's easy for sales reps to adopt, and it's a tool that I rely on every day."Watch The Video 

We have two new customer success stories published today, highlighting customer experiences and how they’ve been able to leverage the Clari Revenue Platform to transform their revenue process. Kofax adopted Clari to develop predictable results and insight into trends with uniform views across the organization – and within the first quarter, achieved 95%+ forecast accuracy. Read their story here. Comply Advantage adopted Clari to gain insight into how revenue systems, processes, and data can work better together and easily convey insights to sales leaders, executives, and frontline managers at a glance – supporting them from “lead to renewal”. Jonathan Fianu, Global Head of Revenue Operations said, “Clari is at the heart of running revenue as a process." Read their story here.