SALES DIRECTORS: What are your Deals best practices?

I use the deal board with my team to help coach and ensure we are staying on top of deals and nothing is falling through the cracks. We use the next steps section to ensure every deal has a next step scheduled and if there is not one talk through why we weren’t able to schedule a next step and how we can improve that and discuss ways to get a next step on the calendar. We also use te warnings to know any risks associated with the deals and use those to frame our follow ups. Using the next step section and warnings have helped coach ways to stay on top of deals and ensure we are talking through everything with prospects to lead to more sales. 

The number one thing that we have found is creating a culture where employees see the tool as a benefit, rather than something that is punitive. Highlight the calls that went well, let the employees weigh in on what they did well and look for learning opportunities that exist even in the great calls. Secondarily, find ways to reward employees who want to get better and are willing to send calls for feedback. Let them know it’s ok to try something new and fail as long as they are able to learn from the experience. When team members have a safe space to ask for feedback, that is where we have seen the most growth.

I use the deal board every week as part of my forecast call & pipe review!

We use SPICED as our deal diagnostic framework, and we (read: Christina who is awesome) mapped those fields from our Hubspot onto our deal board.

Each week, I have my team walk through SPICED, next steps, and forecast category for the month, then provide their rolled up forecast #s for the month & quarter. We can marry this with the data Gong tracks around multi-threading activity, and stage timestamps to provide a succinct, reality-based view of each opp.

This workflow is super helpful for pattern recognition & pressure testing. Gong’s deal board makes my pipe review SO much more productive.

@Kayla Kuzer next steps are SO important — love how you use Gong to help plan those out with your team!

@Jacob Walker this is 🔥. Love that you called out how Gong helps you identify pattern recognition. That is such an underrated superpower.

Be on the lookout for a message from me with some Gong swag for you both!

One thing I do is have a meeting with my team once a week where we break down one of their calls. We call it the team “Gong of the Week.” It serves a coaching session, as well as a deal review. The team loves it.

I love the call-outs already made and will second a few of those. We too have added Next Steps from our CRM into the deal boards for a narrative context point to some of the metrics that are standard as part of the deal board. We tend to think about our months in two-week “sprints”, and as we talk about deals we are chasing as part of a team stand-up, we can look at the rep’s next steps, any warnings present, and the engagement visualization to determine if a deal is truly likely to close within the committed period as a gut check.

One additional item that we’ve found really valuable in 1:1s are the flags around “not enough contacts” and “deals stalled in stage” to help drive where I can get involved with deals in a team-based sell with the team. Identifying places where we can level up and stakeholder map to other people in the prospect’s org can help our deals moving and help drive more engagement in partnership with our reps.

Being data obsessed, I love the access to insights that Gong provides. It allows me to shift focus from results to the HOW, impacting the BPS, Behaviour, Process, Skill.

My favourite tip is to embed the Deal section into my and my team's daily reviews. This allows us to proactively impact the quarter end before it is quarter end :)  From the deal section I get a full top down view of my business while at the same time able to pivot into bottoms up and coaching with ease. From pipeline review to deal warnings, activity insights and updating Salesforce, I can do it all from here. I can even go down to e-mail and call level for proactive coaching.

Thank you gong for supporting me as a business leader to focus my energy on insights, coaching and feedback to enable top talent strive for even better while driving growth and strategy.    

Following up here to add this Gong Academy resource for identifying at-risk Deals, written by Gong Customer Training Specialist @Chris Maironis : 

Gong’s Deal Intelligence brings together every interaction from all of your deals into a single view to provide a clear picture of which deals are really on track to close. And more importantly...which ones are at risk so you can turn your attention to those deals that need the extra push to get them over the finish line. https://academy.gong.io/identify-at-risk-deals

Following up here to add these Gong Academy resources for Sales and AE Managers, written by Gong Customer Training Specialist @Chris Maironis:

The Coaching Playbook for Sales Managers
This playbook outlines coaching methods and best practices you can use to build a culture of feedback and continuous improvement on your sales team. (READ: Ramp your team and win more often!)
https://academy.gong.io/the-modern-coaching-playbook-for-sales-managers/868961/scorm/170v4fshj54v5

Gong Guided 1:1s (For AE Managers)
Gong is a great tool to either optimize your existing 1:1s or guide you through a new 1:1 routine you are implementing. There are lots of different ways to use a 1:1 to either assess your rep's overall performance or dive deeper into a particular skill they are looking to develop. Simply select a 1:1 recipe from this guide that piques your interest to view a step by step walkthrough of how to host an impactful 1:1 session.
https://academy.gong.io/gong-guided-11s-for-ae-managers
 

Following up here to add these Gong Academy resources for Deal Boards and increasing win rates, written by Gong Customer Training Specialist @Chris Maironis:

Customize Deal Boards
Learn how to customize deal boards to align with business needs
https://academy.gong.io/customize-deal-boards


Increase Your Win Rates
You already know that win rate is one of the most important metrics to monitor. Even a small improvement in your win rate significantly impacts your bottom line. You’re about to explore how to use Gong along with some key activities and best practices to support this priority.
https://academy.gong.io/increase-your-win-rates

Following up here to add this Gong Academy resource for reviewing calls, written by Gong Customer Training Specialist @Chris Maironis:

Calls: Review the Game Tape
The best sales reps and managers are always looking for ways to level up their game. Exploring your calls to evaluate yourself and better understand how you’re showing up is one of the best ways to improve your performance. Did you talk too much? Did you ask the right questions? And how did the prospect respond? Let’s explore these areas while showing you the most effective places to find call insights.
https://academy.gong.io/calls-review-the-game-tape

Following up here to add these Gong Academy resources for understanding Deal drivers and Gong Forecast, written by Gong Customer Training Specialist @Chris Maironis:

Deal Drivers
Deal Drivers helps you surface coaching opportunities by identifying trouble spots in your reps' deals.
https://academy.gong.io/deal-drivers


Explore Gong Forecast
Overview of Gong Forecast
https://academy.gong.io/explore-gong-forecast/1289477

Following up here to add these Gong Academy resources for Whisper Alerts and having better 1:1s, written by Gong Customer Training Specialist @Chris Maironis:

Whisper Alerts Playbook
Whisper Alerts need a little run time before you can start using them, but they are well worth the wait. Gong’s AI technology runs analysis on your data to tell you what your top performers are doing statistically differently from bottom performers. You may have an idea of what the main differences are, but the whisper alert highlights may surprise you.
https://academy.gong.io/whisper-alerts/958279/scorm/21216uhwng9gh

Coach to Win - How to have better 1:1s
In this one hour recorded session, Kang experts in some of our outstanding customer is this your insights that'll give you a boost in several areas including better meeting prep, smarter deal strategies, and more alignment with your teams.
https://academy.gong.io/coach-to-win-how-to-have-better-11s/1186150