First Principle Thinking for Consultative Sales

As a company that has built all its processes from scratch, we at Hevo ensure that every decision we make is thought through, effective and scalable. From the very beginning, we wanted to create an unconventional sales engine- one that was based on First Principle Thinking and would drive our sales process towards faster and more data-based success rather than following old norms that may or may not work for us.

Step 1: In-depth Data Analysis

The first step on our path was to understand the general patterns that help us convert our customers. We conducted a pure-play data analysis, checking various customer attributes across demographics, geography, product usage, website engagement, and interactions with the support/ solutions team.

One of the key attributes that stood out was the high conversion rate, around 90%, whenever a lead used to talk to the Support or Solutions team during the trial phase.

Digging deeper into the customer conversations with the Support and Solutions Teams gave us a key insight- which was that customers will only interact with the sales team if we are genuinely solving their problem. The conversations that were taking place were very technical in nature, revolving around the features and functionalities of the product.

We came to the conclusion that instead of the traditional sales model where the focus is on selling, we need to adapt to consultative selling. We wanted to have a primary focus on creating an impact and solving the problems that our users are facing, rather than merely selling a product. We would also need to have a very technical understanding of the product along with a good business acumen.

Hence, we decided to create a Sales Excellence Engine that would transform our salespeople to be very consultative and technically astute.

Step 2.1: Basic Training Program

The discovery that customers wanted us to genuinely solve their data challenges inspired us to transform our sales team from professional salespeople to Solutions Consultants who have a deep understanding of the product and the use cases that Hevo can solve.

We designed a robust 4-week training program focusing on 4 key aspects-

1. Industry Overview- Educate the sales team about the Industry in which we operate
2. Modern Analytics Stack- Give them an understanding of the technical concepts on Data Warehouse, Data Pipelines, SQL, etc.
3. Product Knowledge- Help them get hands-on with the product and understand what problem Hevo is trying to solve
4. Sales Tools- Understand the sales process and tools at Hevo

The training program was broken down into various modules and corresponding assignments.

During the entire training program, the trainee is provided a buddy who will resolve all the doubts and help the trainee ace his/her training.

Hevo’s Training Program Structure -:

• Overall Culture
• Understanding Hevo’s landscape
• Soft Skills
• Deep-dive into Technical and Product Training
• Role Specific Training

Step 2.2: Product BootCamp

Product understanding is a key aspect in the training program, where we focus on the various features and functionalities of the product and the use cases we are solving.

We designed a Bootcamp program to enable all inbound team members to have a deep Product understanding. This would be so thorough that at the end of it, they would present a Product Demo by themselves with complete confidence.

Every new joinee in our sales team would go through this 3-day session where they learn about-

1. A basic product overview going through our available sources, the functionalities of the product, the possible data transformations, etc.
2. A deep understanding of the product from a first principle standpoint, where we go through various typical customer conversations, understand the common queries received from our customers on deep tech topics, and troubleshooting the same.

This self-learning program with various rounds of assignments makes sure our sales team is able to confidently converse in the language of our customers and genuinely solve their issues.

Step 3: Toolkit for the Sales folks

To make the entire process very scalable, and give our sales team the right ammunition to succeed in their roles, we created a detailed Sales Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) guideline that would include every little detail that an inbound team will follow to effectively reach out to our users. This is a handy tool that any salesperson can use whenever they need.

Besides being a complete guidebook on how to talk to leads and users, the Sales SOP also highlights how and when to leverage various functionalities of the HubSpot CRM like Sequences, Calls, Deals, etc., and what information you should add to the contact properties. We also created email templates covering various common scenarios revolving around customers.

To retain a very practical approach, we also include roleplay training to make sure our sales team is confident to take on any customer conversations.

Step 4: Data-Driven Sales Coaching

Till this stage, we would have given all the resources to ensure that a salesperson is able to launch his/her rocketship. Now, it is time to measure how far they are able to travel. We have created robust analytics from a first principle standpoint to make the sales engine data-driven, and focus on the key gaps- both at an individual and at a team level.

Sales Manager Scorecards were created focusing on the following aspects-

Workload - How many accounts were assigned to a salesperson in a time duration? How many accounts did they have at the start of the period, and how many did they have at the end of the period?

Drift Away - How many accounts created in a time duration have not been followed up for more than X days? When was the last activity date?

Connect - How many accounts that were created between specific dates have been able to make a connection? What is the mode of connecting (Email, Phone, LinkedIn)

Activity - All the accounts that ISM has reached out to or made calls to in a time period.

Perseverance - For all accounts which were not marked rejected, how many emails, calls or Linkedin reach outs were made before marking that Account as Inactive?

Speed -

1. List of all accounts created between specific dates with the difference between Account creation and First Email, First Call, and First Linkedin reach out.
2. List of all accounts where we have received any email from customers between specific dates, and our response time.

Hygiene -

1. List of all accounts created between specific dates where a call happened but notes were not made.
2. List of all accounts created between specific dates that were closed with no reason.

These personalised sales scorecards for each ISM help us understand each person’s strengths and weaknesses, and utilize this group knowledge to help us succeed. They often lead to personalised training by the Sales Coaches for each ISMs, helping them grow in their roles effectively.

At a team level, we do a similar analysis, where we track the call, email, and meeting cadences with the leads to understand the gaps in the sales process.

Various parameters are studied, like Sales Interactions, Customer geography, size, and the use case to tell us why customers are converting and why customers are not converting.

Step 5: Results

It was after a very in-depth data analysis from a first principle standpoint that we were able to come to the conclusion that consultative sales is the best approach for us. All steps taken after this point were based on the same foundation, and this is the reason for our growth. We’ve had a 100% increase in our customers from last year- which is a great feat and the direct result of the entire sales team’s hard work, data-driven thinking and consultative approach.