Revenue targets are set for the year - CSO Insights talks to how you can increase sales rep efficiency and effectiveness to hit those revenue numbers.

1. CRM 2.0 in Action Series: DocuSign - A Sales Rep’s Digital Admin
CRM 2.0 in Action Series:
DocuSign - A Sales Rep’s Digital Admin
By Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer; Managing Partners, CSO Insights
INTRODUCTION
As part of CSO Insights’ 18th annual Sales Performance Optimization (SPO)
study, the percentage of reps making quota was a key metric used to assess the
health of the world of sales. After quota attainment plummeted in 2009, the
number of salespeople achieving their revenue targets increased each of the
past two years, as seen in Table 1.
Quota Attainment
2009 2010 2011
Assessment
Percentage of reps
51.8% 59.4% 63%
making quota
Table 1
Rep performance is on the rebound,
even in an uncertain economy.
Based on this success, what did companies do when they set their revenue
targets for this year? A total of 94% of the 1,500+ firms taking part in the 2012
SPO survey raised quotas: the highest percentage recorded in the eighteen
years of the study.
Growth is something investors want and CEOs and CFOs expect sales to
generate. However, the growth targets should be attainable. We therefore find it
noteworthy that 45.1% of the sales executives we surveyed expressed serious
concerns when asked what their expectations were for meeting these increased
revenue goals.
But the reality is that the targets for this year are set, so now is the time to
explore ways to increase sales rep efficiency and effectiveness to hit those
revenue numbers. Let’s examine how salespeople spend their time to gain
insights into how this can be accomplished. Figure 1 summarizes a
salesperson’s average time allocation based on the 2012 SPO study data.
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2. CRM 2.0 in Action Series: DocuSign - A Sales Rep’s Digital Admin
Figure 1
Nearly half of the time required to close a deal
is spent processing the order and managing the account.
We shared this chart with one of our advisory board members, and his eyes
immediately zoomed to the “Post Sales Tasks” number. It reminded him of a
computer manufacturer where he was formerly the CSO. The standing joke at
that firm was, “No sale goes unpunished.” He shared that once a rep received a
verbal “yes” from a prospect, he/she stopped selling for three days—the length of
time it took to formalize and finalize the order.
THE PAPER CHASE
He then explained their order workflow process. The rep had the following
administrative tasks to complete after receiving approval from the client to move
forward with the purchase:
 An order form was created, which typically involved cutting and pasting
data from the CRM system, configuration system, and Word documents.
 The agreement was sent to the prospect highlighting the pages that were
to be initialed/signed and by whom.
 The rep often called into the prospect account multiple times throughout
the following day to determine how the order was progressing through the
buyer’s approval process.
 The internal approval process then began once the rep received the order
back from the prospect (i.e., monitoring signatures and approvals).
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3. CRM 2.0 in Action Series: DocuSign - A Sales Rep’s Digital Admin
 The rep distributed the appropriate portions of the final approved
agreement to finance, manufacturing, distribution, support, and sales
management to get the order booked, fulfilled, and commissionable.
 And, finally, the rep updated the prospect CRM record to reflect the new
business.
These are necessary administrative tasks, but does any CSO want a rep to
spend valuable selling time completing them? Not really, but if a rep is not doing
them, who will?
DOCUSIGN: GETTING THE ORDER DONE RIGHT, RIGHT NOW
While there may not be someone else to do the tedious work to move an order
through the process, there is something else. In the course of reviewing various
CRM 2.0 technologies (i.e., applications providing capabilities beyond those in
Salesforce.com, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, etc.), we evaluated DocuSign and
discovered that it can end the paper chase for sales so sales reps can focus on
closing more deals to achieve revenue goals.
DocuSign’s cloud-based solution had been described to us as a technology-
enabled document approval workflow management tool. A much simpler image
came to our minds after we had a chance to see the solution in action. It is like
giving each of your sales reps their own digital administrative assistant to
facilitate and manage contract creation, approval, and processing. Consider the
following scenario of how the order workflow process should be managed:
 After receiving the client’s verbal approval to move forward, the rep
accesses DocuSign’s cloud-based order form from a template library,
ensuring current and accurate documents are used.
 The forms are pre-populated by DocuSign pulling contact information from
CRM, shipment information from ERP, product details from the sales
configuration system, special contract terms from the proposal generation
system, etc. No cut and paste—just click and load.
 Using DocuSign, the rep easily creates a decision making process
workflow and designates the individuals on both the buyer and seller’s
side to route the order for review and approval. If some people in the
process workflow are always the same, they can be preset so the rep
doesn’t have to repeat the same work for every sale.
 The rep reviews the online document and tags the places where initials,
signatures, dates, etc., are required or a DocuSign template can pre-
populate these tags for them.
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4. CRM 2.0 in Action Series: DocuSign - A Sales Rep’s Digital Admin
 With the requirements in place, DocuSign ensures that nothing is missed
during the review and approval process. The system sends the order to
the first stakeholder and a blind copy to the appropriate people inside the
vendor’s firm to keep them apprised of the status.
 DocuSign manages the process of forwarding the agreement to the
appropriate people, in the correct order, and gathers all of the required
information, signatures, and initials. If needed, DocuSign automatically
sends email reminders on behalf of the rep to push the process along. The
rep can instantly check the workflow status at any time to see where the
documents are in the process and contact the appropriate individuals if
there is inactivity.
 After the approvals have been completed, DocuSign automatically
populates the designated internal systems with the information needed to
start the order fulfillment, shipping, billing, and customer support
processes. It also updates the appropriate fields in the CRM account
record and the sales forecast. Finally, of direct interest to the rep,
DocuSign informs the incentive management system that the deal is
commissionable.
DOCUSIGN ROI
In both scenarios, the job gets done, but consider the differences between the
rep-enabled and technology-enabled approaches:
 Higher Sales Productivity: Technology, which costs a few dollars a day,
does the bulk of the work as opposed to a salesperson that earns $50,
$60, $70+ an hour, freeing up more time for selling.
 Order Accuracy: Leveraging templates and pre-population of data, the
accuracy of the technology-enabled method reduces the chance for errors
and minimizes legal risk. Integration with CRM systems also means
customer-supplied data gets automatically inputted with no opportunity for
human error.
 Faster Order Closing: DocuSign helps ensure that deals don’t get lost in
the cracks. It tracks the flow of the order through the approval process and
ensures that all personnel in the workflow chain don’t miss anything they
need to review, initial, and sign. It also accelerates the closing process,
thus minimizing the chances for a competitor to get the decision
reconsidered.
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5. CRM 2.0 in Action Series: DocuSign - A Sales Rep’s Digital Admin
 Lower Cost Order Handling & Storage: Using the technology approach,
the final order is an electronically managed document; easier and less
expensive to store and access than paper. In addition, all of the key data
elements of the deal can be automatically populated in the appropriate
internal systems making access to the details easily available to all
functional areas inside the organization.
DocuSign ends the paper chase and efficiently and effectively supports
salespeople in getting from a verbal to a contractual “yes” at the end of the sales
cycle. In our review of DocuSign, we were able to use the application in a matter
of minutes, versus hours or days. DocuSign also offers new users a free trial,
which gives companies an opportunity to see the solution in action before making
a financial commitment to use it.
As we said, your targets for this year are set. Now is the time to explore ways to
increase sales rep efficiency and effectiveness to hit those revenue numbers. We
see DocuSign as a solid choice companies can look to now to increase the
performance of their sales teams in the quest to hit 2012 revenue targets.
About CSO Insights
CSO Insights has provided executives with best practices in sales and marketing
for over eighteen years
Each year, we survey thousands of Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) to benchmark
the use of people, process, technology, and knowledge, and the impact on sales
effectiveness. We also review offerings from solution providers to retain our
position as the experts on options for CSOs.
We offer pragmatic suggestions, experienced-based examples, and the kind of
insights you'll want before your next Executive Strategy Session or Board
meeting.
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No portion of this report may be reproduced or distributed in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the authors.