Two people have the power to transform your revenue process: Managers and reps.
Their one-on-one meetings are critical opportunities to reinforce your strategy from the bottom up, and drive smarter actions with quantifiable results.
I’ve seen this impact in practice at Tipalti, the leading global payables automation company. As a revenue operations leader at Tipalti, I can’t overestimate the power of making your one-on-ones as informed and effective as possible.
In Tipalti’s one-on-ones, sales managers and reps leverage revenue intelligence in Clari to gain real-time data and detailed insights into engagement activity, deal progression, and performance. Data-driven meetings are the norm now, replacing surface-level chats about status updates.
These data-driven discussions are a result of equipping Tipalti’s sales reps with the right training, technology, and insights they need to do their best work—especially as the company's revenue targets continue to get bigger and bolder over time.
In late 2021, Tipalti received $270 million in Series F funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $8.3 billion. That’s great news, and it also means our investors’ expectations keep getting higher. Tipalti is continuing to expand its footprint in EMEA markets, after a successful track record of serving more than 2,000 customers.
Succeeding in new markets required doubling Tipalti’s sales team, quickly. That also meant accelerating rep ramp time, so they could hit the ground running from day one on the job. That’s no easy feat. But sales performance and execution data in Clari supported this growth.
Here’s how Tipalti’s RevOps team empowered sales reps with next-level revenue insights:
- Making data-driven one-on-ones the standard
- Sharing a consistent sales process across all reps
- Transforming deal activity insights into strategic actions
Making data-driven one-on-ones the standard
Data should be part of every sales conversation, from board meetings to one-on-ones. Without the right analytics and insights, it’s a challenge.
Throughout Tipalti’s revenue operating cadence, the sales team integrates revenue intelligence data from Clari into their conversations. It’s become a standard part of our sales one-on-ones.
Specifically, our reps analyze deal engagement activity to keep a pulse on their relationship with key accounts. This activity includes emails, meetings, and other types of prospect interactions. With Clari, that data is automatically captured, rather than manually input, saving Tipalti’s sales reps time and energy.
Tipalti’s reps also review the CRM score, which is a data point generated through artificial intelligence that predicts a deal’s likelihood of closing, based on the company’s historic win and loss data. This information empowers Tipalti’s reps to keep deals on track and reach out for guidance from their manager if they notice a deal slipping.
Managers also analyze CRM score insights, as well as activity data, changes in deal status and progression, and an overview of all active deals in the opportunity grid in Clari. Taken together, all of this data shows Tipalti’s managers a clear, holistic picture of how the quarter is shaping up. The outcomes of this focus on data are more productive, strategic discussions that drive action backed by data, instead of gut feelings.
Another key aspect of empowering better meetings is ensuring managers and reps clearly understand their role in the one-on-one. That means both parties do their homework before joining the meeting. That way, their conversation stays focused on strategy instead of reporting the news.
“As a sales manager, I regularly use the forecasting tab in Clari to prepare for my one-on-ones and keep the meetings productive,” says Lewis Man, regional sales manager at Tipalti.
For RevOps leaders looking to improve the revenue team’s one-on-ones, I recommend starting with the following questions:
- What data should reps and managers review, before the one-on-one?
- What insights are reps and managers using to help enrich the conversation?
- What behaviors are you trying to encourage reps to adopt?
- What metrics are you tracking at the manager and rep level to drive your key initiatives? How are you tracking those metrics?
- What insights and analytics should managers review to identify the top-priority opportunities and accounts to discuss with the rep?
Leveraging data to prioritize deals is key. That way, every rep can clearly understand which deals will make the biggest impact on the business and focus their efforts accordingly, with coaching support from their managers along the way.
At Tipalti, we created a matrix to set clear expectations and illustrate what proper preparation for a one-on-one looks like in terms of role, responsibilities, and data.
Being Prepared for a One-on-One Meeting
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Insights |
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Rep |
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Manager |
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Sharing a consistent sales process across all reps
There are as many approaches to selling as there are sellers. That makes creating consistent processes a challenge at most companies. But Tipalti isn’t most companies.
With sales reps and managers sharing the same data-driven approach to one-on-ones, Tipalti can ensure that every rep is following the same sales methodology, forecasting, and pipeline inspection processes. Tipalti’s sales managers, including Man, use Clari to drive their meetings with reps.
“With data in Clari, my syncs with reps deliver important context on the numbers, delve into deal activity, and focus on the next steps that keep deals moving forward according to our process,” he says.
The benefit of reducing process variability is creating repeatable processes that drive reliable revenue in the long run. That’s critical for hyper-growth companies like Tipalti because rapid growth means more teammates, accounts, and deal cycles to manage.
A consistent process allows our current reps to practice and continually get better at following our approach. Our new sales reps reap the benefit of learning one process that their peers and managers are already well-versed in. This reduces the learning curve as new reps onboard and ensures a strong support system for our teammates still learning the ropes.
Transforming deal activity insights into strategic actions
Data and process are part of the equation for improving sales rep performance. Taking action according to a process based on real, reliable data unlocks rep success, better execution, and predictable revenue outcomes for the business.
At Tipalti, our teams know that just reviewing data in one-on-ones isn’t enough. Managers and reps also need to collaboratively develop action plans based on that data.
For example, let’s say a new sales rep doesn’t yet have a solid idea of what makes a high-priority deal, so they’ve been focusing on quicker-win, smaller-scale opportunities instead. That rep’s manager can review account engagement information and recognize a chance to coach this rep toward better deal prioritization. This is a strategic shift in behavior that can pay off in the form of better rep performance and bigger wins.
Yet in this example, if the rep doesn’t know how to take action on this coaching, the same behavioral patterns could continue over time, resulting in more missed opportunities that could have grown the business.
To make the most of everyone’s time, Tipalti’s managers ensure the data they’re using is actionable—and that reps also understand the specific steps they can take to elevate their performance.
With the right information in hand, sales teams can spend less time on status updates and fact-finding and more time strategizing and building relationships that drive your business forward.
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