Jim Mackey is an experienced executive who has been in software for over 24 years and has worked for companies during periods of significant growth, efficiencies and restructuring. After operations experience, he advised as Chairman of Software for Citigroup and investing. In this interview with TechBullion, Jim gives us a first-hand insight into the Revenue Grid’s intelligence tool to help businesses meet their revenue targets.
Can you explain what Revenue Grid is and how it helps businesses increase their sales, what are some key features of Revenue Grid that set it apart from other sales tools on the market?
Revenue Grid is a revenue intelligence platform that delivers 360-degree visibility and enables precision forecasting. Based on the company’s advanced data capture technology, the platform provides AI-based actionable insights that drive revenue teams to win more deals and advance relationships faster, accelerating revenue growth and profitability. Revenue Grid is built from the ground up as a one-stop-shop for everyone involved in the revenue intelligence process – from frontline account executives to sales and revenue leaders. Revenue Grid is native to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and email systems like Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft. With the unique ability to perform automated activity capture from across systems, the platform pinpoints opportunities and leverages AI to provide accurate, real-time forecasting, promote cross-team collaboration and improve communication with your customers. The result: teams can gain 10 revenue hours per week, speeding sales success and revenue velocity.
Every business owner and financial decision-maker should understand what Revenue Targets are, could you further explain the importance of revenue targets for a business’s success?
Revenue Targets start in a company’s annual forecasting process and allow them to provide guidance to their stakeholders whether that is the financial markets, their Board of Directors, or simply, their internal executives and employees so each person is aligned on the growth objectives of the organization. Hitting those revenue targets is what provides credibility to the organization and confidence in the team and the brand that the company will continue to execute. In today’s B2B landscape, revenue growth is essential to market leadership. To capture more revenue, every deal counts. To close more deals, every interaction counts. To make every interaction count, companies need timely, accurate data and actionable insights. They need revenue intelligence.
Could you give us an overview of the economic and market trends affecting revenue targets in 2024, discussing why many companies struggle to meet their revenue targets and the dangers of not meeting the targets?
Certainly! Here are some key economic and market trends that could affect revenue targets in 2024:
- Supply Chain Issues: For a few years now, we have seen periods of supply issues in various industries and whether it is resources (oil, lithium, etc.) or components (semiconductors, materials) the availability of key materials impact various companies in their ability to produce to products.
- Inflation: Rising prices have forced companies to carefully manage the raw materials they buy and to limit the inventory kept on hand.
- Interest Rates/Liquidity Issues: Rising interest rates has made it more challenging to obtain needed capital in debt markets and that has been coupled with more prudent investment philosophies
- AI and Automation: Companies are highly focused on how AI and Automation can free up resources, automate parts of their operations and allow teams to focus more on growth.
Particularly, in our segment, AI and machine learning within next-generation AI-powered revenue intelligence platforms empower forward-looking companies to automate manual and repetitive sales tasks and processes—enabling sales teams to redirect their efforts toward cultivating relationships and closing deals. In the coming year, we will see a significant uptick in companies turning to these platforms to rapidly streamline and simplify processes such as identifying and prioritizing leads, automating follow-up emails, signaling subsequent actions to keep a prospect engaged, and optimizing sales workflows. The work Revenue Grid does will allow companies to focus on the broader macroeconomic issues around them.
What are the internal factors that can affect revenue targets and what Insight can you give us on the key factors that contribute to successfully meeting revenue targets, what are your best tips and strategies for addressing these internal factors?
Revenue targets for companies can be affected by a variety of internal factors. Some common ones we are seeing our customers being challenged by include:
- Longer sales cycles with more stakeholders involved.
- Remote/hybrid work environments combining with fragmented customer information across siloed tools and platforms, leading to incomplete, inconsistent data, poor pipeline visibility and inaccurate forecasting among revenue leaders, and missed opportunities for sales reps.
- Heavy manual work required to update and maintain a CRM system creates inefficiencies and prevents sales reps from advancing prospects through the pipeline, leading to friction in the forecasting process.
- Companies that are tightening their sales teams and shrinking their marketing spend while still expecting revenue growth.
On leveraging digitization, enlighten us more on how technology, specifically Revenue Grid’s platform can aid in meeting revenue targets. Is there a learning curve for using Revenue Grid, or is it user-friendly for all levels of sales professionals?
We’ve spent nearly 15 years refining and streamlining revenue workflows, setting the standard for data security and integrity across systems. Our platform helps organizations build and advance customer relationships to drive commercial success. We are proven by some of the world’s leading brands with out-of-the-box integration with Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft and offer flexible deployment options, easy implementation, and a simplified customer onboarding experience. We work to be a true partner to our clients and our revenue growth advisors are skilled at strategizing and addressing ongoing customer requirements to achieve desired business outcomes.
Considering the challenges of measuring and tracking revenue targets, what are the roles of data analysis and tracking in reaching revenue goals?
The role of data analysis and tracking is continuous improvement of the AI models, internal processes and factors that lead to variances in either over or underperformance. Tracking whether your teams, certain product lines and individuals meet their targets are all part of creating an optimal process and company that can adapt to any changes and execute quarter after quarter.
How does Revenue Grid help businesses address potential challenges or setbacks in meeting revenue targets, can you share any success stories or case studies where companies have significantly improved their revenue with the help of Revenue Grid?
Slalom Consulting wanted their sales team to follow the right sales process by ensuring they send pre/post meeting emails, involve product and industry experts in the opportunity planning, and populate deal planning fields. By digitizing its sales coaching with Revenue Grid’s Revenue Signals, actionable AI notifications that guide the team through the next best action and ensure they follow the right process, Slalom saw a 1% increase in the number of meetings, equaling $30M increase in sales and a 1% increase in conversion rate resulting in a $60M increase in sales.
Could you give us a future outlook on the changing landscape of revenue management and how businesses can adapt to stay on track with their targets?
With the right data and a 360-degree view into every customer interaction and every deal, sales and revenue leaders can align their teams around common goals, streamline workflows, and create playbooks that result in more opportunities won. With comprehensive, automated activity data capture combined with actionable insights, teams can move more deals through the pipeline faster, driving greater revenue velocity.
What are you currently working on, do you have any available opportunities for investors and partnerships at Revenue Grid, or more tips to share with our readers today?
Revenue Grid continually focuses on the best ways to expand our product portfolio via partnerships and our indirect channel for go-to-market reach. Revenue Grid is well funded however we are always open for a discussion and look forward to playing a key role in the competitive landscape.
