It’s been over a week since our Forecast 2016 sales conference, and we still can’t stop thinking about all of the awesome people we met, speakers we heard and things we learned. Thank you to everyone who attended – we hope you enjoyed yourself as much as we did!
Whether you were unable to attend this year’s festivities or are just ready to reminisce, here’s part 1 of our look back at some of the event’s highlights.
Introducing, Apollo
Base CEO and Co-founder, Uzi Shmilovici, started the day off by taking the stage and asking attendees the question: if you wanted to increase sales by 25% next quarter, what would you do? As Uzi went on to point out, with so many touch points, methodologies, team dynamics and other data points playing into today’s complex sales processes, the answer isn’t anywhere near as simple as it may seem.
In fact, it requires the Science of Sales, or the usage of scientific methods to collect and analyze data to scale sales in a rapid and predictable way. And to help businesses achieve this, Uzi announced Base’s new platform, Apollo – the first sales science solution that provides businesses with actionable, quantifiable insights that increase sales.
Sales Enablement: From Hope to Revenue
Our first all-star panel featured ClearSlide Co-founder Jim Benton, SalesHood CEO and Co-founder Elay Cohen and Eventbrite CRO Matt Rosenberg. Moderated by ShareRoot COO Misha McPherson, this panel explored what sales leaders should look for in sales enablement tools, how to roll them out to the team and, most importantly, how to make data-driven business decisions from the data they collect.
The panel agreed that science has become a major driver behind the sales process, and therefore a key component of sales enablement. With visibility into critical sales metrics, sales leaders can spend less time crunching numbers and more time having meaningful and strategic conversations with their teams. In the words of Elay Cohen, “Sales metrics create a space for ‘windshield time,’ or meaningful conversations between sales reps and management.”
Data & Analytics in Sales – the Secret Weapon
Next up, LinkedIn SVP of Sales, Mike Gamson, chatted with Base CCO Tal Tsfany about the role that data and analytics play in sales at LinkedIn. One motto Gamson and his team live by? “Stop using team size as a proxy for productivity!” Gamson revealed that he helps reps understand the difference metrics can make on their performance with a “beat cop versus Batman” analogy. Beat cop sales reps patrol their territories looking for opportunities day after day; in contrast, Batman reps use data to guide their way, fly in and save the day.
The conversation also positioned science as being highly critical to the future of sales. “We are still in the early days of elevating the profession of sales,” said Gamson. Increasingly accurate and high-quality data will lead to actionable insights that will help reps develop more thoughtful, intelligent conversations with prospects, moving further and further away from the “pushy salesman” stereotype.
Insider Tip: Want to join Gamson’s team? During his time on stage he shared that his idea of sales excellence means not only achieving results for yourself, but also finding ways to help those around you be great!
Stay Tuned for Part 2!
We hope you enjoyed revisiting these Forecast highlights as much as we did. Be on the lookout for part 2 of our Forecast recap next week! If you attended this year’s conference, we’d love to hear about your favorite moments and suggestions for improvement in the comments section below. Couldn’t make it to Forecast 2016? No sweat – we’ll be back next year, and it’s never too early to register!
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