Why do some companies wash out during tough economic times? A common denominator is their rigid approach to handling their deals and paper processes. To survive in the face of sweeping external changes, organizations must embrace an agile approach to restructuring agreements to meet evolving customer needs while remaining competitive and effective.
“The pace of change has increased in the last 5 years, and it’s compounding.” - Mark Lerner
In a business where time kills all deals, when progress stalls close to the finish line, the deal can be gone next week. Clumio was growing very quickly and soon realized they had to change their paper process when sellers found themselves forced to slow down due to how their agreements were structured.
Renewing customers presented major challenges. Some were acquired years ago and their agreements were often stored in sellers’ heads, or on old pricing calculators, rather than in a centralized system. New sellers had to sift through old agreements just to find out basic information. Clumio knew they needed to automate this workload in order to rapidly iterate the sales process.
“The adoption rate is going to be much higher the more value the tool provides the seller.” - Adam Rusho
Typically, changing systems is hard, but moving to DealHub was exciting for Clumio sellers. It took a very cumbersome process and made it a very simple process. It’s much easier to get a team of over 50 sellers to adopt change when there’s no stick involved.
To encourage adoption at your company, start by securing buy-in from your more senior sellers, plus a handful of brand new sellers who aren’t embedded into the old way of doing things. With a train-the-trainer approach, Clumio was able to collect direct feedback about the new tool, allowing them to be agile as new wisdom was created on the fly throughout the adoption process.
“At the end of the day, a seller’s primary responsibility isn't to process orders but to sell.” - Adam Rusho
The sales team at Clumio incorporated their pricing spreadsheet into DealHub, were able to easily identify which customers had which type of agreement, and even curb redlines with the legal team. By adopting a more agile approach to changes in agreements, Clumio improved forecasting for new deals, upsells, and renewals. They also reduced ramp time for new sellers.
The new system allowed for lightning-fast changes in processes. Now, when a customer wants to change from purchasing through AWS Marketplace to a direct deal at the eleventh hour, Clumio sellers can quickly attach new terms and keep the deal in quarter. A year ago, that wouldn’t have been possible.
As a company grows, so will its problems. By using agile methodologies and DealHub in their agreement restructuring process, Clumio was able to improve the velocity of their sales motions and stay nimble.
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