This is a new series of Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant certification exam preparation series - Industry Knowledge. Industry Knowledge section consists of 7% of total score in the exam, covering topics such as sales metrics, KPIs, marketing and sales processes and etc. Without further ado, let's get into it!
NOTE: This post is written in April 2020 and content might be changed/updated overtime. The content is inspired by focusonforce.com.
Guideline for Industry Knowledge
- Explain the factors that influence sales metrics, KPIs, and business challenges.
- Explain common sales processes and key considerations.
- Describe the common marketing processes and key implementation considerations.
Sales Metrics, KPIs, and Business Challenges
Sales Metrics
| Sales Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Number of Leads converted | Number of prospects converted into sales opportunities |
| Lead qualification score | Calculate score by formula based on several factors, such as accuracy of contact info, product interest and etc. |
| Lead source | Determine which channels are used to generate lead |
| Number of Opportunities closed | Analyze number of deals are closed over period of time |
| Sales pipeline | Identify which stage the opportunities are at |
| Number of Sales activities | Denote the activeness of the opportunities by sales-related activities count |
| Sales performance | Monitor the sales performance based on closed opportunities |
| Quote achieved percentage | Find out the number of closed deals against the quota by individual sales |
| Average revenue generated | Measure average amount of revenue generated |
| Campaign ROI | Determine the impact of campaigns on closing opportunities |
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
| KPI | Description |
|---|---|
| Lead response time | Identify how fast a lead is contacted, speed of response is one of the key factors of closing deals |
| Lead conversion rate | Indicate the lead quality given the source |
| Contact frequency and follow-up | Identify how frequent a lead is contacted and follow-up, use sales automation tool to achieve it |
| Opportunity winning percentage | Determine the effectiveness of a sales rep when closing opportunities |
| Number of closed deals per sales rep | Determine the effectiveness of a sales rep when closing opportunities |
| Number of closed deals per customer | Recognize high-value customers who require special measures to maintain and nurture relationships |
| Customer value | Identify the high-value customer based on the products and services purchased |
| Sales growth | Analyze the pace of sales revenue growth over period of time, it is important to help company in strategic and decision-making |
| Sales target | Indicate whether the sales rep has met the sales target set by the organization |
Business Challenges
| Business Challenge | Description |
|---|---|
| Low number of leads | Set up marketing campaign, use social networking tools, implement lead generation strategies |
| Low lead data quality | Validate contact info, detect spam, cleanup data regularly |
| Sales and marketing alignment | Define a clear goal for sales and marketing, refine criteria for lead transfer and measure success, improve communication |
| Achieving sales target | Up-sell/cross-sell, conduct sales training |
| Closing opportunities | Conduct sales training, learn to use available tools to maximize effort |
| Disjointed process flow | Standardize sales process, use sales automation tool, conduct more training |
| Forecasting and planning accuracy | Use algorithm for forecasting, analyze past sales performance, analyze prospect's activity |
| Sales productivity | Use tools to improve communication and automate tasks, access to resources at ease |
| Adopt new tech | Provide user training, access to knowledge base, use automation tools |
Sales Process
Standard Sales Process
- Lead Generation
- generate lead through marketing campaigns, such as mass-email, tradeshows, events, social networking, online ads, website and etc.
- Lead Qualification
- establish contact and work on getting more information, such as product interest, business type and etc.
- Lead Conversion
- qualify the lead and convert to contact, account and opportunity
- Opportunity Management
- nurture the opportunity
- Opportunity Closure
- closed won/lost the opportunity
Sales Methodologies
- Target Account Selling (TAS)
- break down large deals into manageable components
- aim to increase efficiency of resource allocation and shorten selling cycles
- Value Selling
- leverage capabilities of the company and the buying process of the customer to create a plan for closing deals
- place emphasis on understanding and reinforcing why certain offer is valuable to the customer
- Solution Selling
- address the issues experienced by the customer by offering appropriate solutions
- sell solution may or may not constitute a product or service
- SPIN Selling
- SPIN stands for Situation, Problem, Implication and Need-payoff
- ask questions based on SPIN to identify buyer's situation and needs, getting the buyer to identify the benefits of the solution
- SNAP Selling
- SNAP stands for Simplicity, Invaluable Information, Alignment with beliefs, and Prioritization
- focus on increasing the speed of the sales process as modern buyers are too busy to grasp complex information
- focus on providing simple and unique information
- Conceptual Selling
- place emphasis on effective management of the decision makers involved in a customer's buying process, and gathering of relevant information about the customer's concept of the product to close deals
- based on the idea that a customer buys the concept of a solution to an issue rather than a product or service.
- Customer Centric Selling
- place emphasis on presenting a solution rather than a product or service to the customer
- focus on collaboration with customers and becoming their trusted advisors
- Challenger Selling
- focus on following a teach-tailor-take control process for selling effectively
- sales teach and tailor their prospects about business problems and solutions rather than a particular product or service
- end goal is to close the deals, not just being liked by prospect
- MEDDIC Selling
- stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain and Champion
- used when the business is interested in tight control of the pipeline by utilizing automation to direct the best sales representatives
- Sandler Selling
- focus on identifying the needs of the customer and create sales pitch based on their needs
- buyer and seller need to be equally invested in the process of selling
- sales raise and assess obstacles to completing early sales, then provide solutions for overcoming those obstacles
Marketing Process
Standard Marketing Process
-
Marketing Process refers to a set of activities that are utilized by a company to identify, anticipate and satisfy the needs and wants of customers profitably.
-
Core Marketing Process:
- Campaign Management:
- design and implement marketing channels
- ex: email, website, online ads, trade show, and etc.
- design campaign development process
- ex: concept, design & development, testing, deployment
- execute online and offline campaigns
- outline the roles and responsibilities of people involved
- design and implement marketing channels
- Lead Management:
- capture lead from various sources, primary through marketing channel
- design process of lead creation, routing, tracking, and generating related notifications
- design the required import process and integration(s) for generating more leads
- define various lead statuses and criteria for lead scoring, lead qualification and related metrics
- Content Development:
- define all content-related operations
- ex: strategy development, ideation, storage, delivery
- consists of components such as content delivery calendar, definition of content architecture, identification of subject matter experts, content engagement tracking and etc.
- define all content-related operations
- Analytics:
- define data sources, reporting standards, reporting frequency and etc.
- identify the media to be used for reporting and who to create and utilize the reports
- outline strategy for distributing reports and dashboards
- outline the process for archiving reports and dashboards
- Campaign Management:
-
Strategic Marketing Process:
- Mission and Objectives
- define mission statement and corporate objectives
- Marketing Analysis
- identify opportunities for marketing products
- Marketing Strategy
- consists of components such as measurable goals, target audience and budget development
- Marketing Mix Planning
- create marketing mix of components
- ex: product, price, place, promotion
- create marketing mix of components
- Implementation and Control
- execute marketing plan and monitor the result
- Mission and Objectives
-
Marketing Lead Flow:
- Unified Lead Identification
- marketing users can collaborate and ask questions
- ex: lead qualification, activities, prospect activity alerts, steps for closing deal, content and lead generation campaigns
- establish lead qualification and define lead scoring to prioritize leads
- marketing users can collaborate and ask questions
- Strategy Development
- distribute and route the leads to appropriate users once they have been qualified and outline how to follow up with them
- Communication and Evaluation
- evaluate and adjust lead process periodically
- analyze lead data to identify patterns and key indicators
- Unified Lead Identification
-
Marketing Process Implementation:
- Elements of Successful Marketing Process
- design effective strategies through careful observation and understanding of key metrics
- oversee implementation by paying attention to customers' responses
- evaluate the result to determine business growth and ROI
- Effective Lead Management
- objectives of sales and marketing should be aligned
- generate more quality leads and clean lead data regularly
- use lead score to prioritize the lead and route to appropriate users through lead assignment rules
- track and identify lead sources
- Marketing Automation
- make use of marketing automation features such as marketing intelligence, prospect tracking, lead routing, easier follow-ups, lead quality analysis
- steamline segmentation, target processes to determine the right audiences, tailor messaging to each customer, create relevant and personalized messaging, deliver personalized experiences for the customer
- Smart Marketing Campaigns
- set up parent-child campaign relationship to make reporting easier
- standardize naming conventions to find and organize campaigns
- score contacts and leads to help marketing users prioritize and understand prospects better
- Elements of Successful Marketing Process
That's all about it! See you in next post!
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