We're excited to announce an enhanced version of Clari Trend Analytics, a core set of capabilities included in our sales execution and forecasting platform. At Clari, we watch and learn from some of the best sales leaders in the industry to see how we can improve our product. This newest version of Trend Analytics gives you a more detailed breakdown of the Clari forecast projection, access to more historical data, and better visibility into your historical conversion rates. Why does all of this matter?
When Tom Brady is at the 20-yard line on 3rd and 4 when the Patriots are down by 5 with a minute left on the clock, there is a known statistical probability of him completing the next pass for a touchdown. Depending on that probability, Bill Belichick will call a certain play to maximize the probability of completion. If professional sports teams use statistics on past performance to determine the best play to run, why wouldn't your sales organization use analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to better predict and drive outcomes?
Let's extend the football analogy to sales. For the current quarter, you factually know two key pieces of information:
- What's currently in pipeline for the quarter
- How much you've closed so far
There's one additional piece of information that we find most sales teams are not leveraging: win rates for deals still in pipeline at the same time in past quarters. Let's take Sue, VP of North America, as an example. Sue's team currently has $5M in Commit for the current quarter, and she knows that all things being equal, in the past 4 quarters her team closed between 76 and 80% of deals in Commit. This means that Sue can feel confident that her team will close between $3.8M and $4M from that Commit bucket. On the other hand, Chip, VP of EMEA, may have a win rate for Commit that varies between 70 and 85%, providing a much wider range of uncertainty. In this scenario, Sue has the confidence to call her number given her team's consistency, but Chip knows that he can't rely on his team's pipeline hygiene nearly as much and needs to coach his team to be more disciplined. Giving you instant insights into this data is exactly what inspired the design for our new Trend Analytics. It will give those real-time, data science-driven insights to Sue and Chip, building confidence into their projections and allowing them to pressure-test the team's call and better coach their teams.
So, the next time you're watching your favorite sports team crush the opponent, remember that they're using analytics based on past performance to predict and shape future outcomes. In conjunction with Clari's other predictive analytics, you can now do the same to close more deals predictably.
To learn more about how Clari can help accelerate your sales forecasting, predictive analytics, and opportunity-to-close process, check out our Product Overview.