These days, Vedant Namboodiri is the Global Sales Operations Manager at Cin7. But when Cin7 adopted Salesloft, he was an AE. That knowledgeable background made him perfect to talk to us at Saleslove on Tour in London about how Salesloft has made the AE experience at his company so much better. He’s seen it all happen firsthand.
“I very distinctly remember my day-to-day as an AE,” Vedant told us, sharing how a lot of time was spent on admin and making sure the company’s CRM was up to date. “I like to tell AEs how easy they have it now.”
Because Vedant knows just how inefficient the process can be, he uses that knowledge to guide his current decisions as an operations manager. Whenever he needs to implement a new tool or new process for his team, Vedant’s goal is to make sure that AEs are able to spend more time with the client where they’ll have the most impact — and less time on things like admin. “If I had a magic button to press to make all my admin go away, I would implement that tomorrow,” he said.
A magic admin-busting button? That’s a wish we hope to fulfill! Let’s get into some of the ways Vedant said Salesloft has eased the admin burden on his AEs now.
Task prioritization gets an upgrade
Back in his own AE days, Vedant remembers just how much time he used to spend figuring out who his most important Deals and prospects were. Not to mention, there was also the time needed to determine the pecking order of each day’s tasks. These were things like the people he’d need to reach, the nice-to-reach, and so on.
For his AEs now who have Rhythm at their disposal, that admin work is done for them. “It’s brilliant because not only is it your closing activities, but we’re now able to have AEs manage leads as well as opportunities,” Vedant said. So now when AEs start their day in Rhythm, it tells them who to call, what to do, and in what order. “Thirty minutes later they’re done because they’ve clicked the first task, and Rhythm’s taken through every single one on the list.”
“Thirty minutes later they’re done because they’ve clicked the first task, and Rhythm’s taken through every single one on the list.”
Rhythm and its AI functionality have allowed AEs at Cin7 to spend another hour or two a day in front of customers — instead of in the background doing admin work.. They’re able to spend more of their valuable time where they can make the most impact.
Pipeline management sees improvement
Cin7 used to use a different tool for pipeline management before Salesloft. But with reps pulling between 30 and 40 opportunities a month, they needed something more nimble to match their speed. “We’re a 30 day sales process, so we need to make sure that we’re spending as little time in admin as possible,” Vedant said.
Now with Salesloft Deals at hand, their AEs are able to work completely within the same platform by managing their open opportunities through the Deals module. They’re also able to use Deal Gaps to quickly point out changes in customer activity. “Deal Gaps have been a big one for us,” Vedant said, with sales managers on his team using them to quickly filter down on where reps need to spend more time. And the fact that Deal Gaps are so configurable allows his team to define them by exactly the parameters what they want to watch out for.
“Deal Gaps have been a big one for us.”
Another thing that makes pipeline management a lot easier for Vedant’s team is being able to update the important fields on their deals in one view. In previous tools, an AE might have to click into a deal, wait for it to load, update something, and then come back out. “On a deal-by-deal basis, that might seem like it’s a few extra clicks, but it tends to add up quite a bit when it comes to just day-to-day admin,” he said.
Conversion rates have an overhaul
As a company that’s primarily an inbound business, it’s important for Cin7 to make sure that they’re getting to their leads quickly with the right information. “Salesloft has directly impacted our conversion rates because we’re able to get to our leads quickly and we’re also able to provide tailored engagement to… leads that come through our funnel.”
“Salesloft has directly impacted our conversion rates because we’re able to get to our leads quickly and we’re also able to provide tailored engagement to leads that come through our funnel.”
When leads come through a free trial motion or a demo funnel, Vedant’s team is now able to get them to the right AEs with Salesloft. And in the case that an AE is missing meetings, they’re able to automate engagement with leads to make sure that they don’t lose out on any opportunity.
While Salesloft may not exactly be a magic button, it can still feel pretty magical according to Vedant. “As someone who’s been an AE before, who has done… the very admin-heavy stuff that an AE is required to do… it’s night and day.”
Interested in your own AE evolution? Check out Vedant’s Saleslove on Tour interview here, then reach out to us for a demo today.