Jonathan Farrington interviews Mark Kopcha, President and CEO of Revegy
JF: How do you define Sales Enablement versus Sales Effectiveness?
There is no shortage of definitions for Sales Enablement as every sales related technology company and analyst firm have their own. The result is that Sales Enablement has become a very broad term applied to anything that helps sales sell. It’s origin and primary definition however has been with marketing teams “enabling” sales by providing content and collateral.
Sales Effectiveness on the other hand is easier to define. It is the portion of sales enablement focused solely on assisting sales professionals and sales managers in the planning, strategy and execution activities required to drive revenue. It is about intelligently infusing the right data/content into the selling process and selling tools to assist with critical thinking.
JF: What makes Sales Effectiveness the next big wave?
For the past 5+ years marketing automation has been at the forefront of the CRM market. Today billions are spent on marketing automation systems that identify, qualify, and deliver leads to the sales team.
However while the top of the funnel is rapidly expanding little is being provided to sales teams, other than base CRM functionality, to help successfully drive opportunities through the bottom of the “funnel” or more effectively manage strategic accounts.
JF: Why do you say “you cannot afford to miss it?”
Because you are entering into an arms race over revenue and nothing is more important than revenue. In a world that has become ultra-competitive, where “no decision” is a likely outcome, and where every dollar spent by our customers is thoroughly scrutinized, winning is becoming more and more difficult. Your sales team must be equipped with the most powerful weapons/tools. These include intelligent sales tools, mobile access, collaborative technologies, and big data analytics.
In a information rich world without the right tools your sales teams could very well become paralyzed trying to find and organize the information needed to help them develop their plan/strategy, leaving them even less time for execution.
JF: What can companies can do today to start their sales effectiveness journey?
Call Revegy NOW! Seriously, companies do not have to have it all figured out to start their journey. We strongly encourage companies to start by evaluating what elements of a standing planning program, (process mapping, relationship mapping, strategic planning, etc) will deliver the strongest impact and start there. Once your teams have mastered that and are seeing value introduce them to the next.
JF: Why should executives care?
No matter what our specific corporate goals are they always include improved revenue performance. Having sales teams finding new customers and account management teams ensuring existing customers are renewing (and if possible buying more from us) it paramount to business health. As managers our job is to make sure we eliminate as much execution risk as possible by ensure we have equipped our teams to be succeed by providing the with the weapons/tools they need to compete and win.
You can also listen to the audio version of this interview here:
About Mark Kopcha
A 25-year veteran of the software industry and the founder of Revegy, Mark is responsible for the strategic vision of the company and its solutions. Managing Revegy’s day-to-day operations, he applies decades of experience gained in the leadership position of notable technology firms. Before establishing Revegy in 2005 Mark served as president of MediZeus, Inc., a provider of medical software solutions designed to assist physicians in the diagnosis of complex diseases. Previously, Mark founded the startup Novient, Inc. and was the driving force behind the company’s vision, culture, product, market direction and service offerings. He was instrumental in growing the firm from two employees to a staff of 250 professionals achieving annual revenue of more than $20 million. Mark has received numerous awards for his leadership and accomplishments. He was a Finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and was named to the Georgia Trend list of 40 Under 40 Rising Stars.
Find out more about Revegy