Unlocking New Terms

Remote sales is the process of selling products or services without meeting customers in person. Instead of traditional face-to-face meetings, sales reps use digital tools like video calls, emails, chat, and CRM systems to connect with prospects and close deals from anywhere. The rise of remote sales has transformed how modern sales teams operate. It allows companies to reach global audiences, scale efficiently, and reduce travel costs, all while maintaining personalized, data-driven conversations.  With the right systems in place, remote sales can be just as effective, if not more, than in-person selling. How does remote sales work? Remote sales depends on technology that enables communication and visibility. Reps use CRMs to track opportunities, automation tools to manage outreach cadences, and video platforms to conduct live demos and meetings. A typical remote sales process starts with digital prospecting. Reps identify and engage leads through online channels, nurture them with targeted content, and move them through the pipeline using email and call sequences.  Each interaction is tracked in the CRM to maintain accuracy and alignment across the team. Collaboration tools also play a key role. With distributed teams working across time zones, shared dashboards, activity tracking, and automation keep everyone coordinated and accountable. Why is remote sales important? Remote sales gives businesses the flexibility to scale without geographic limits. It allows access to larger markets and lets companies hire talent from anywhere. For customers, it means faster response times, easier scheduling, and a more flexible buying experience. It also creates a data-rich sales environment. Every call, message, and meeting is logged digitally, which helps teams analyze performance and refine their approach. Managers can track conversion rates, pipeline velocity, and rep productivity in real time. For growing organizations, remote sales is no longer optional; it’s the standard. It combines efficiency with reach, making it ideal for hybrid and distributed teams focused on measurable growth. How Conquer supports remote sales Conquer is designed for the modern remote sales environment. As a Salesforce-native platform, it brings communication, automation, and reporting into one workspace so teams can sell from anywhere without losing control or context. Reps can call, message, and manage cadences directly inside Salesforce, with every activity logged automatically. Managers get real-time visibility into performance, while automation ensures no lead or task slips through the cracks. By centralizing communication and CRM data, Conquer helps remote sales teams stay connected, consistent, and productive, no matter where they work. Is your sales tech stack built to support a fully remote team? Get a demo

Customer centricity is a business philosophy that puts the customer at the center of every decision. It means shaping products, services, and experiences around what customers actually need and value rather than internal targets or assumptions. In practice, customer centricity is about listening first, acting second. It requires understanding customer behavior, anticipating challenges, and using that insight to create long-term satisfaction and loyalty. The goal is simple: build relationships that last by consistently delivering value at every touchpoint. Customer-centric companies don’t just focus on closing deals; they focus on keeping customers successful. That mindset drives repeat business, stronger brand reputation, and more sustainable growth. How does customer centricity work? Customer centricity starts with data. Companies collect insights from interactions across sales, marketing, and service channels to build a full picture of the customer journey. That information helps teams personalize communication, solve problems quickly, and make decisions that improve retention. It also depends on alignment between departments. When sales, marketing, and support share information through a unified system like a CRM, every customer interaction feels consistent and informed. The experience becomes seamless, regardless of who the customer talks to. Technology plays a major role here. Automation and AI tools help scale personalization, tracking preferences, surfacing recommendations, and predicting what customers might need next. Why is customer centricity important? In competitive markets, the customer experience is often what separates brands that grow from those that fade. Customer centricity creates a feedback loop: happy customers lead to higher retention, more referrals, and stronger revenue stability. It also improves internal performance. When teams think from the customer’s perspective, they prioritize outcomes that actually matter: reducing friction, speeding up response times, and focusing on real impact instead of vanity metrics. Customer centricity isn’t just about service but about culture. Every department, from sales to operations, should be accountable for delivering a positive customer outcome. That alignment builds trust and makes the business more resilient over time. How Conquer supports customer centricity Conquer helps companies deliver customer-centric experiences directly inside Salesforce. By combining communication, automation, and analytics in one platform, Conquer ensures every interaction is timely, relevant, and fully connected to customer data. Sales reps see full engagement histories before they reach out, meaning conversations are informed and personal. Activity tracking and automation keep follow-ups consistent, while reporting gives leaders real visibility into customer sentiment and outcomes. With Conquer, teams can scale personal connection without losing quality, turning customer centricity from a philosophy into an everyday reality. Are your sales conversations truly centered around your customers?  Get a demo

SPIN selling is a consultative sales framework designed to guide reps through complex conversations with prospects. The term comes from the four types of questions it emphasizes: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff.  Developed by Neil Rackham, SPIN selling helps salespeople uncover a buyer’s true needs instead of jumping straight to a pitch. The idea is simple: great sales conversations are driven by curiosity, not pressure. Rather than pushing a product, sales reps use targeted questions to help prospects articulate their challenges and see the value of solving them. This approach is especially effective in enterprise and B2B sales where buying decisions involve multiple stakeholders. How does SPIN selling work? SPIN selling follows a structured sequence. Reps start with situation questions to understand context, things like team size, tools in use, or current workflows. Then they move to problem questions that uncover pain points or inefficiencies. Once issues are identified, implication questions dig deeper. These explore the consequences of leaving a problem unsolved, helping the prospect feel the urgency to change. Finally, need-payoff questions shift focus to the benefits of a solution, encouraging the buyer to visualize success. This flow transforms the conversation from transactional to advisory. It builds trust, positions the rep as a problem solver, and makes the buying decision more natural and confident. Why is SPIN selling important? SPIN selling matters because modern buyers are informed and skeptical. They don’t want a hard sell; they want someone who understands their business and can add value. The SPIN model helps reps achieve that by focusing on insight, not persuasion. It also improves qualification. By asking the right questions, sales teams can determine early whether a prospect is truly ready to buy. That means less time spent on poor-fit opportunities and more focus on high-value deals. Companies that adopt SPIN selling often see higher close rates and stronger customer relationships. The process encourages active listening, better discovery, and solutions tailored to the buyer’s goals. How Conquer supports SPIN selling Conquer helps sales teams put SPIN selling into practice by integrating structured communication directly inside Salesforce. Reps can log questions, capture notes, and track follow-ups in real time without leaving their workflow. Managers gain visibility into how reps structure discovery calls and can coach based on actual conversation data. With automated activity tracking and cadence management, Conquer ensures that insights from SPIN selling lead to consistent, measurable outcomes. The result is a more disciplined, data-driven approach to consultative selling that scales across teams. Ready to see how Conquer helps teams turn every conversation into a qualified opportunity? Get a demo

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a prospect that has shown enough interest and intent to be passed from marketing to sales. In other words, it’s a lead your sales team agrees is ready for direct outreach or a deeper sales conversation. SQLs are identified using criteria like engagement level, budget, need, and timeline. They’ve typically gone through earlier stages of qualification, such as being nurtured by marketing, and are now considered likely to buy if approached correctly. The key purpose of defining a sales-qualified lead is to align marketing and sales around when a lead is truly ready for conversion. Without that alignment, teams waste time chasing unqualified prospects or missing real opportunities. How are sales qualified leads identified? Sales qualified leads are usually determined by a combination of lead scoring, behavioral data, and human review. Marketing automation platforms and CRMs track activities like form submissions, demo requests, and email engagement. When a lead meets predefined thresholds, it’s flagged as an SQL. For example, a prospect who downloads multiple product guides and requests a demo would likely be marked as sales qualified. That signal tells sales teams that the lead understands the offering and is ready to talk specifics. Some organizations add an extra layer of qualification, such as confirming budget or authority, before a lead becomes an SQL. What matters most is having a clear, agreed-upon definition so everyone works from the same playbook. Why are sales qualified leads important? SQLs are critical because they help teams focus on the right opportunities at the right time. By filtering out low-intent leads, reps can prioritize prospects most likely to convert, which shortens sales cycles and improves close rates. They also serve as a performance metric for both marketing and sales alignment. A high number of SQLs means lead generation is effective. If conversions are low, it signals a need to refine targeting or qualification criteria. When managed properly, SQLs create a smoother handoff between departments and help companies generate predictable, scalable revenue. How Conquer helps teams manage sales qualified leads Conquer makes handling sales qualified leads simple by connecting communication and CRM data inside Salesforce. Reps can see when a lead becomes qualified, understand the full engagement history, and act immediately—all in one interface. With automated activity tracking and real-time reporting, Conquer ensures no SQL slips through the cracks. Sales operations teams gain visibility into how fast leads are followed up on, while managers can coach based on data instead of assumptions. For companies looking to move faster and close stronger, Conquer turns lead qualification into a coordinated, measurable process that drives revenue growth. Want to see how your team can manage sales qualified leads more efficiently inside Salesforce? Get a demo

Sales operations is the function that manages the systems, processes, and data behind a company’s sales organization. Its goal is to make selling more efficient by providing sales reps with the tools, insights, and structure they need to perform at their best. In simple terms, sales operations keep the machine running. It ensures pipelines are clean, forecasts are accurate, and performance metrics are clear. The team handles everything from CRM management and reporting to territory planning, compensation models, and process optimization. When done right, sales operations give reps more time to sell and managers more clarity to lead. What does sales operations do? Sales operations teams work behind the scenes to remove friction from the sales cycle. They maintain the CRM, track pipeline data, and ensure every opportunity is captured correctly. They also design and enforce sales processes so activity is consistent across the team. Other responsibilities include managing tech stacks, running analytics, and supporting sales forecasting. They analyze data to identify patterns, like which leads convert best or where deals get stuck, and help leadership make informed decisions. Modern sales operations also involve sales automation. By connecting tools and workflows, they reduce manual tasks and make revenue processes more predictable. Why is sales operations important? Sales operations create structure in what is often a chaotic environment. Without it, teams rely on guesswork, leading to missed opportunities and inconsistent reporting. With it, selling becomes more strategic, and results become measurable. Sales operations also bridge the gap between sales, marketing, and finance. With shared data and aligned metrics, every department can focus on improving revenue efficiency instead of operating in silos. For scaling companies, sales operations are what turn growth into something sustainable. They ensure new reps ramp quickly, managers can forecast accurately, and leaders have the visibility to plan ahead. How Conquer supports sales operations Conquer helps sales operations teams bring order and automation to their CRM workflows. Built directly inside Salesforce, it eliminates the clutter of disconnected tools and centralizes communication in one native interface. By automating activity tracking, call logging, and cadence execution, Conquer keeps CRM data accurate and up to date. That means less time fixing reports and more time improving strategy. For sales operations leaders, Conquer provides real-time visibility into outreach performance and rep activity; data that drives better forecasting and coaching. It’s the operational backbone that helps revenue teams scale with confidence. Ready to see how your sales operations can run smoother with less manual work? Get a demo

The marketing funnel is a model that represents how potential customers move from first learning about a brand to becoming paying clients. It helps businesses understand each stage of the buyer’s journey, from awareness to conversion, and guides how marketing and sales teams engage prospects along the way. The funnel is often divided into three main stages: top (awareness), middle (consideration), and bottom (decision). Each stage requires a different approach. At the top, the goal is to attract attention. In the middle, it’s about building trust and interest. At the bottom, it’s converting interest into action. Understanding where a lead is in the funnel allows teams to deliver the right message at the right time, turning curiosity into commitment. How does the marketing funnel work? The funnel begins when someone first interacts with your brand through ads, content, or referrals. At this point, they’re in the awareness stage. As they engage more, like visiting your website or signing up for a newsletter, they move into the consideration stage. Here, they evaluate options, compare providers, and gather information. Effective marketing nurtures these leads with relevant content, personalized outreach, and social proof. The decision stage comes when a prospect is ready to buy. This is where clear calls to action and seamless sales processes make the biggest difference. Modern funnels don’t always follow a straight path. Buyers can move back and forth between stages, especially in longer B2B cycles. That’s why automation and CRM integration are key to keeping track of progress and personalizing engagement at scale. Why is the marketing funnel important? The marketing funnel helps teams focus their efforts strategically instead of treating every lead the same. It clarifies where prospects are in their journey and what they need to move forward. For marketers, it means campaigns can be targeted and measured effectively. For sales teams, it ensures follow-ups are timely and relevant. Together, the funnel provides a shared framework that aligns marketing and sales around revenue goals. Without it, outreach becomes scattered and inefficient. With it, every action, from first impression to final deal, can be tracked, optimized, and improved over time. How Conquer supports the marketing funnel Conquer helps teams close the gap between marketing engagement and sales execution. Built natively inside Salesforce, it connects funnel insights to real-time communication.  When a lead is ready for outreach, reps can act instantly: making calls, sending messages, and tracking outcomes all within one platform. By combining funnel data with automation, Conquer ensures no opportunity slips through the cracks. Sales reps know who to contact, when to reach out, and what message to deliver based on where each lead sits in the funnel. It’s how marketing strategy turns into measurable sales results. Want to find out how that works? Get a demo

A customer relationship management (CRM) system is software that helps businesses manage interactions with prospects and customers. It centralizes contact information, tracks communication, and gives sales, marketing, and service teams a shared view of every customer relationship. Instead of scattered spreadsheets or disconnected tools, a CRM acts as a single source of truth. It records every email, call, deal, and support ticket, helping teams understand where each customer stands in the journey. This visibility is what drives more organized sales pipelines and stronger long-term relationships. How does a CRM system work? A CRM system collects data from multiple touchpoints, including websites, email, phone calls, and social media. It stores that data in one place, allowing users to track opportunities, automate tasks, and measure performance across the entire customer lifecycle. When a lead comes in, the CRM assigns it to a rep, logs all follow-ups, and updates automatically as deals progress. Marketing teams can segment audiences based on behavior, while service teams can access customer histories instantly. The result is a connected, data-driven process from first contact to renewal. Cloud-based CRMs like Salesforce have become the standard because they integrate easily with other systems. That means no more data silos; just a unified view of customers across departments. Why is a customer relationship management system important? For most growing companies, a CRM is the backbone of revenue operations. It ensures no lead is missed, every deal is tracked, and all customer data stays current. Without it, teams spend more time chasing information than closing business. CRMs also make performance measurable. Managers can see real-time reports on pipeline health, conversion rates, and activity levels. This insight helps identify bottlenecks, forecast revenue accurately, and coach teams effectively. Most importantly, a CRM enhances the customer experience. When every interaction is logged, follow-ups become more personal and timely. That builds trust, loyalty, and repeat business. How Conquer helps Salesforce CRM users Conquer builds directly on top of Salesforce, the world’s leading CRM system. It helps teams communicate, automate, and track activity without leaving the CRM environment. With Conquer, sales reps can make calls, send messages, and manage cadences natively inside Salesforce while every interaction is automatically logged. That means cleaner data, fewer manual updates, and faster follow-through. For leaders, Conquer provides full visibility into activity across the sales team. For reps, it removes friction and lets them focus on conversations that move deals forward. Together, Conquer and Salesforce turn your CRM into a complete revenue operations hub. So, why wait? Join thousands of users who have gotten the best out of their CRMs. Get a demo

Warm calling is the process of reaching out to leads who already have some level of familiarity with your company. Unlike cold calls, which target completely new prospects, warm calls are made to people who have interacted with your brand in some way, such as visiting your website, downloading content, or being referred by a client. Warm calling works best when sales teams follow up on genuine signals of interest. Instead of interrupting strangers, reps are reconnecting with people who already recognize the brand. This makes conversations smoother, more relevant, and more likely to result in conversions. How does warm calling work? Warm calling starts with identifying leads who have shown intent. These might come from email campaigns, event sign-ups, ad clicks, or CRM activity. Sales reps then personalize their outreach based on that engagement. For example, if someone recently downloaded a guide on sales automation, the rep might say, “I noticed you were looking into automation workflows. Are you exploring ways to streamline your Salesforce process?”  That approach shows awareness and value from the start. Warm calling also relies on timing. The more recent the interaction, the more effective the call. Modern teams use automation to surface engaged leads quickly, so outreach happens while interest is still high. Why is warm calling important? Warm calling helps sales teams prioritize quality over volume. It reduces wasted effort by focusing on prospects who already understand what the company offers. This not only increases conversion rates but also creates a better experience for both reps and leads. Because warm calling builds on prior engagement, it fits naturally into account-based and inbound sales models. It bridges the gap between marketing and sales by turning data-driven engagement into live conversations that move deals forward. How Conquer helps with warm calling Conquer makes warm calling part of the natural sales rhythm. Built directly inside Salesforce, it gives reps instant access to lead activity and engagement data before they pick up the phone. That means every call starts with context. With Conquer, reps can see who clicked an email, opened a campaign, or responded to a previous message: all within their existing workflow. Calls, notes, and outcomes are automatically logged, reducing admin work and helping teams focus on follow-ups that actually convert. For revenue teams looking to scale outreach, Conquer turns warm calling into a measurable, repeatable process that improves performance and keeps Salesforce data clean and current. Want to try it yourself? Get a demo

Marketing intelligence is the process of collecting and analyzing data about your market, competitors, and customers to make smarter business decisions. It gives companies a complete picture of what’s happening around them: what customers want, how competitors behave, and where opportunities exist. When people ask what marketing intelligence is, they often confuse it with analytics or reporting. But marketing intelligence goes deeper. It combines internal data from your CRM and campaigns with external insights from the market. The goal is to guide strategy, not just track results. For example, marketing intelligence might reveal that your target customers are engaging more with competitors on certain platforms, or that pricing trends are shifting in your segment. With that knowledge, you can adjust campaigns, messaging, or offers in real time. How does marketing intelligence work? Marketing intelligence systems pull data from multiple sources, including social channels, ad platforms, website analytics, CRM systems, and external databases. The data is cleaned, organized, and analyzed to uncover trends and actionable insights. These insights can include competitor activity, keyword opportunities, shifts in buyer intent, or changes in customer behavior. Rather than guessing where to spend budget or how to position an offer, teams use data-backed evidence to decide. Many organizations integrate marketing intelligence directly into their CRM or automation platforms. This lets sales and marketing teams align on one source of truth, turning insights into action faster. Why is marketing intelligence important? In competitive industries, acting on accurate data is a major advantage. Marketing intelligence helps teams stay ahead by continuously tracking shifts in demand, competitor strategies, and audience engagement. Without it, decisions often rely on assumptions or outdated information. With it, marketing becomes proactive. Teams can forecast trends, personalize messaging, and target the right segments before competitors catch on. Marketing intelligence also improves collaboration between marketing and sales. When both teams have access to the same insights, outreach becomes more relevant and timing improves. That alignment drives higher conversion rates and better ROI across campaigns. How Conquer helps marketing intelligence Modern sales and marketing operations rely on automation to scale. When combined with marketing intelligence, automation doesn’t just execute; it learns. Insights from market data can trigger smarter workflows, better lead scoring, and more targeted outreach. At Conquer, we focus on building Salesforce-native automations that connect intelligence to action. Whether it’s surfacing key buyer signals or aligning lead data with sales cadences, our systems help teams work faster and make data-backed decisions without leaving their CRM. Want to see for yourself? Get a demo

CPQ software stands for Configure, Price, Quote. It helps sales teams generate accurate and customized quotes for complex products or services. Instead of relying on spreadsheets or manual calculations, CPQ software automates the process so every quote sent out is fast, consistent, and error-free. At its core, CPQ software connects three crucial parts of the sales process: configuration, pricing, and quoting. When a sales rep selects the right combination of products or services, the system automatically applies pricing rules, discounts, and approval workflows. That means less time adjusting numbers and more time selling. Modern CPQ tools are usually built inside CRM systems like Salesforce, allowing teams to manage the entire quoting process without switching platforms. This integration ensures data accuracy across sales, operations, and finance while keeping deal updates visible in real time. How does CPQ software work? When a rep starts building a quote, the CPQ system guides them through a series of product and pricing rules. It checks compatibility, applies the correct discounts, and creates a complete quote or proposal document instantly. Because CPQ software enforces logic and pricing structures, it prevents configuration errors and protects margins. Every option offered to a customer is valid, every price reflects your latest model, and every quote aligns with internal policy. The automation behind CPQ removes the delays that typically slow down deals. What used to take hours of manual entry and approvals can now be done in minutes, with fewer revisions and more confidence in accuracy. Why do businesses use CPQ software? CPQ software is designed for teams selling complex or configurable products: think SaaS solutions, industrial equipment, or service packages with tiered pricing. It helps standardize how offers are created and ensures consistency across regions, reps, and channels. For leadership, CPQ systems bring better visibility into pricing trends and pipeline value. For reps, they simplify quoting so deals move faster. The result is shorter sales cycles, higher win rates, and better control over revenue forecasting. Today’s CPQ platforms also use AI to recommend pricing strategies, identify upsell opportunities, and highlight risky discounts before approval. This balance of automation and intelligence makes it a core part of any efficient sales tech stack. CPQ software and sales automation In growing sales organizations, quoting is just one part of a larger automation strategy. CPQ connects naturally with CRM, billing, and contract tools to create an end-to-end sales process that runs faster and more accurately. At Conquer, this level of sales automation is what we specialize in.  We design Salesforce-native systems that eliminate manual work, improve data visibility, and help teams move from quoting to closing with less friction. It’s how modern sales teams scale without slowing down. Get a demo

An SQL, or sales qualified lead, is a prospect that has been vetted by both marketing and sales and is considered ready for direct engagement with a sales rep. Unlike raw leads or MQLs, an SQL has demonstrated a clear interest in buying and meets the criteria that make them a realistic opportunity.   The concept of SQLs helps sales teams prioritize their time. Instead of chasing every inbound lead, they can focus on the prospects who are most likely to move through the pipeline and become customers. How an SQL is defined Each company sets its own criteria for what qualifies a lead as an SQL. This usually involves a combination of demographic fit and behavioral signals. For example, a lead might be marked as an SQL if they are a decision-maker at a target account and have requested a demo or responded positively to outreach.   In practice, the process often follows a flow: marketing generates and nurtures leads until they become MQLs, then hands them over to sales. Sales development reps (SDRs) or business development reps (BDRs) confirm fit and intent. Once confirmed, the lead becomes an SQL and is assigned to an account executive to advance the opportunity. Why SQLs matter SQLs are a vital step in the sales funnel because they create alignment between marketing and sales. Without them, sales reps may waste time on leads that are not serious buyers, while marketing struggles to prove the value of its campaigns.   By focusing on SQLs, companies improve conversion rates, shorten sales cycles, and gain more predictable pipeline growth. SQLs also make reporting clearer, since leaders can track how many MQLs successfully become SQLs and how those SQLs progress to closed deals.   Modern CRM and sales enablement platforms make SQL tracking scalable. They capture prospect activity, score leads, and flag when criteria are met. This automation ensures leads are passed at the right time, reducing delays and increasing the chance of conversion. How Conquer helps Conquer improves the SQL process by connecting engagement activity directly into Salesforce. Calls, emails, and meetings are logged automatically, giving reps and managers a complete picture of lead readiness. This ensures SQLs are based on accurate, real-time data.    By aligning marketing and sales on a single platform, Conquer makes it easier to identify, track, and convert SQLs into revenue.   Want to see how Conquer helps teams generate and convert more SQLs with confidence?

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total expense a company incurs to gain a new customer. It includes marketing spend, sales expenses, and any resources used to move a prospect through the funnel.    CAC is one of the most important metrics for understanding profitability, because it shows how much it costs to win business compared to the revenue customers generate. In simple terms, if a company spends $50,000 on marketing and sales in a given period and gains 100 new customers, the CAC is $500 per customer. How is CAC calculated The formula for CAC is: CAC = Total marketing and sales expenses ÷ Number of new customers acquired   Marketing and sales expenses typically include ad spend, salaries, commissions, software tools, events, and content creation. Companies may refine the formula by separating acquisition costs for different segments, campaigns, or channels.   For example, a SaaS business might calculate CAC for inbound leads separately from outbound to see which channel produces customers more efficiently. Why CAC matters CAC is critical for measuring the sustainability of growth. High acquisition costs with low customer lifetime value (CLV) signal that a company is overspending to win customers. A healthy business model keeps CAC well below CLV, ensuring each customer relationship generates profit over time.   CAC also helps leaders make better investment decisions. By tracking CAC across campaigns, teams can identify which channels drive cost-effective growth and which drain resources. Investors and executives often rely on CAC as a key benchmark for assessing business efficiency. Reducing customer acquisition cost Companies can improve CAC by refining targeting, increasing conversion rates, and improving retention. Better alignment between marketing and sales ensures that only qualified leads are pursued. Automation and data insights also reduce wasted effort, lowering the cost of each acquisition.   Retention indirectly improves CAC as well, since satisfied customers refer new business and reduce reliance on expensive prospecting. How Conquer helps Conquer helps companies manage and reduce CAC by streamlining engagement inside Salesforce. Calls, emails, and tasks are logged automatically, giving leaders a complete picture of how much effort and cost go into acquiring customers.    With this visibility, marketing and sales can align on the most effective strategies, optimize campaigns, and eliminate wasted spend. Conquer makes CAC a metric teams can actively improve, not just measure.   Want to see how Conquer helps reduce customer acquisition cost and drive more profitable growth?

BANT is a sales qualification framework used to evaluate whether a prospect is worth pursuing. It stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. The idea is simple: by confirming these four factors early, sales reps can focus their energy on opportunities with the highest chance of closing.   Developed by IBM, BANT has been a foundational method in sales for decades. While newer frameworks exist, it remains popular because of its clarity and ease of use. How BANT works Each element of BANT answers a key question: Budget: Does the prospect have the financial resources to buy? Authority: Is the prospect the decision-maker, or do they influence the decision? Need: Does the prospect have a clear problem that your solution can solve? Timeline: When does the prospect plan to make a purchase?   When a sales rep confirms all four, the lead is considered well-qualified. If one or more is missing, the deal may still be viable, but it carries more risk. Why BANT matters BANT gives sales teams a quick, structured way to qualify leads. Instead of guessing whether a prospect is serious, reps can use these four factors to guide discovery conversations. This creates efficiency, since time is spent on prospects who are closer to buying.   It also provides consistency across teams. Managers can compare deals using the same criteria and forecast pipeline more accurately. For newer reps, BANT acts as a checklist, ensuring they don’t overlook critical information during discovery. Limitations of BANT Modern sales cycles are more complex than when BANT was created. Buyers often involve multiple stakeholders, and purchase decisions may not follow a linear path. Some critics argue that BANT can feel too rigid and may overlook opportunities that don’t fit the framework perfectly.   For this reason, many companies combine BANT with newer qualification methods, like MEDDIC or MEDDPICC, which account for competitive dynamics and broader decision processes. Still, BANT remains a useful starting point, especially for quickly assessing inbound leads. How Conquer helps Conquer makes BANT easier to apply by capturing key qualification data directly in Salesforce. As reps log calls and discovery notes, details about budget, authority, need, and timeline are automatically tied to the opportunity.    Managers gain visibility into how well prospects meet the BANT criteria, while reps save time by having qualification steps integrated into their daily workflow. With Conquer, BANT shifts from a static checklist to a dynamic part of the sales process.   Want to see how Conquer helps teams qualify leads with BANT and close deals more confidently?

ICP in marketing stands for ideal customer profile. An ICP describes the type of company that is the best fit for a product or service. It goes beyond a general target audience by defining specific attributes such as industry, size, location, and revenue that make a customer likely to see strong value and long-term success with the solution.   Having a clear ICP helps marketing and sales teams focus on the right accounts instead of chasing every possible lead. It creates alignment across the go-to-market strategy and ensures resources are invested where they will generate the highest return. What makes up an ICP An ideal customer profile is usually based on a mix of firmographic, technographic, and behavioral data. Firmographics include company size, revenue, and industry. Technographics describe the technology stack the company uses. Behavioral factors include buying triggers such as expansion, funding rounds, or a shift in business priorities.   For example, a SaaS company offering enterprise security software might define its ICP as mid-to-large organizations in financial services with more than 1,000 employees and a need to meet strict compliance standards. Why ICP matters in marketing A defined ICP keeps marketing campaigns targeted and efficient. Instead of casting a wide net, teams can tailor messaging, content, and outreach to the companies most likely to convert. This increases lead quality, shortens sales cycles, and improves win rates.   It also strengthens alignment with sales. When both teams agree on the ICP, marketing generates leads that sales actually wants to pursue. This alignment reduces friction, improves conversion, and makes forecasting more reliable. ICP vs buyer persona An ICP is often confused with a buyer persona. While ICP defines the type of company that is the best fit, a buyer persona describes the individual decision-makers within those companies. Both are useful, but they operate at different levels. ICP guides which companies to target, while buyer personas guide how to speak to people inside those companies. How Conquer helps Conquer helps companies put their ICP into practice by capturing and analyzing engagement data directly in Salesforce. Marketing can see which accounts match ICP criteria and how they are interacting with campaigns. Sales teams get real-time visibility into which ICP accounts are active and ready for outreach.    By unifying this data, Conquer ensures that teams spend less time chasing unqualified leads and more time building a pipeline with the right accounts.   Want to see how Conquer helps you target and win more of your ideal customers?

A KPI in sales, or key performance indicator, is a measurable metric that shows how well a sales team is performing against its goals. KPIs track both activity and outcomes, giving leaders visibility into progress and helping reps understand where to focus their efforts.   Unlike general business metrics, sales KPIs are tied directly to revenue generation and pipeline health. They can measure individual performance, team effectiveness, or overall sales strategy. Examples of sales KPIs Sales KPIs vary depending on company size, sales model, and goals, but common examples include: Number of qualified leads generated Conversion rate from lead to opportunity Average deal size Sales cycle length Quota attainment   Each of these KPIs tells a different story. Lead numbers show pipeline activity, conversion rates reveal effectiveness, and cycle length highlights efficiency. Together, they give leaders a balanced view of how the team is performing. Why sales KPIs matter Without KPIs, sales teams lack clarity on what success looks like. Reps may be busy, but activity does not always equal results. KPIs define the benchmarks that matter most and allow leaders to spot risks early.   KPIs also create accountability. When targets are clear, reps know exactly what they are working toward. Managers can use KPIs to guide coaching, identify training needs, and recognize high performers. At a strategic level, KPIs allow executives to forecast revenue and evaluate whether their sales approach is delivering sustainable growth. How to use KPIs effectively The key to effective KPIs is focus. Tracking too many metrics creates noise, while tracking too few leaves blind spots. Most successful teams choose a mix of activity KPIs (like calls made or meetings booked) and outcome KPIs (like closed revenue or win rate).   Regular review is also important. KPIs should be measured consistently, shared openly, and adjusted if business goals change. By making KPIs part of daily sales conversations, they shift from being abstract numbers to actionable guides for performance. How Conquer helps Conquer makes sales KPIs easy to track by capturing activity data directly in Salesforce. Calls, emails, and meetings are automatically logged, giving leaders an accurate and complete picture of performance. With real-time dashboards, managers can coach reps on the right activities while ensuring KPIs stay aligned with revenue goals.    Want to see how Conquer helps you track and improve your sales KPIs?

An MQL, or marketing qualified lead, is a prospect who has shown enough interest in a company’s product or service to be considered ready for engagement by the sales team. Unlike raw leads, MQLs have taken actions that suggest genuine buying intent, such as downloading a whitepaper, registering for a webinar, or filling out a demo request form.   The concept of an MQL helps marketing and sales teams align on which leads deserve follow-up. Instead of passing every contact over, marketing uses clear criteria to determine when a prospect has reached the right level of engagement. How are MQLs defined? The definition of an MQL varies by company, but it usually combines demographic and behavioral factors. Demographics include attributes like job title, company size, and industry. Behaviors include interactions such as opening multiple emails, visiting pricing pages, or engaging with high-value content.   Each of these signals is tracked and scored. When a prospect reaches a certain threshold, they are labeled as an MQL and passed to sales for further qualification. For example, a decision-maker at a target account who downloads two product guides and signs up for a webinar would likely meet the MQL criteria. Why MQLs matter MQLs create efficiency between marketing and sales. Without them, sales teams waste time chasing contacts who may not be serious buyers. By focusing on MQLs, reps spend more energy on prospects who are more likely to convert. This alignment improves conversion rates and makes revenue growth more predictable.   MQLs also help marketing teams measure performance. Tracking how many leads become MQLs and how many of those convert to opportunities shows the real impact of campaigns on pipeline generation. How Conquer helps Modern marketing automation platforms and CRMs make it possible to track behaviors and automatically update lead status. These tools ensure that MQLs are identified in real time and routed to sales without delay. Automation also ensures consistency, since the same rules are applied to every lead.   Conquer strengthens the MQL process by capturing engagement data directly in Salesforce. Calls, emails, and meetings are automatically logged, creating a complete activity record for every lead.    This ensures MQLs are based on real, accurate interactions rather than incomplete information. With Conquer, sales teams can act quickly on qualified leads while marketing gains visibility into which campaigns drive real results.   Want to see how Conquer helps you generate, qualify, and convert MQLs more effectively?

MEDDPICC is a sales qualification framework that helps teams evaluate complex deals with consistency and accuracy. Each letter stands for a key element of the buying process: Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Paper process, Identify pain, Champion, and Competition.    Together, these elements guide reps in understanding whether a deal is real, winnable, and worth pursuing.   Unlike basic qualification methods, MEDDPICC is designed for enterprise sales where multiple stakeholders and long buying cycles are common. It gives sales teams a structured way to uncover the critical details that determine deal success. How MEDDPICC works Each part of the framework focuses on an essential question: Metrics: What measurable results does the customer expect? Economic buyer: Who controls the budget and final approval? Decision criteria: What factors will the customer use to compare solutions? Decision process: What steps will they follow to reach a decision? Paper process: What legal or procurement steps are required before closing? Identify pain: What core problems need solving? Champion: Who inside the account is advocating for your solution? Competition: Who else is being considered, and how do you compare?   By working through these elements, reps ensure they have the information needed to advance the deal. Gaps in MEDDPICC highlight risks, while strong coverage signals that a deal is well-qualified. Why MEDDPICC matters Large, high-value deals often stall because sales reps miss a step. They may overlook the real decision-maker, underestimate the paper process, or fail to build a strong champion.    MEDDPICC reduces these risks by giving reps a checklist to follow. It also improves forecasting accuracy, since leaders can see which deals are truly qualified and which are at risk.   The framework also creates a common language across teams. Sales managers, reps, and executives can quickly align on deal status when every opportunity is evaluated through the same lens. How Conquer helps Conquer makes MEDDPICC actionable by capturing deal data directly in Salesforce. Reps can log information about decision-makers, champions, and competitive positioning in real time, while leaders get visibility into which MEDDPICC elements are complete and which are missing.    Automated call logging and engagement tracking ensure that qualification data stays accurate. With Conquer, MEDDPICC becomes a live system that guides enterprise deals from discovery to close.   Want to see how Conquer helps teams apply MEDDPICC and close complex deals with confidence?

Lead scoring is a method for ranking prospects based on their likelihood to become customers. Each lead is assigned a score, usually numerical, that reflects how well they fit an ideal customer profile and how engaged they are with a company’s marketing and sales efforts. The higher the score, the more likely the lead is to convert.   This system helps sales and marketing teams focus on the right opportunities. Instead of treating all leads equally, they can prioritize outreach to the ones most likely to deliver results. How lead scoring works Lead scoring combines demographic information with behavioral data. Demographic factors include job title, company size, industry, or region. Behavioral factors include actions such as opening emails, attending webinars, downloading content, or requesting a demo. Each factor is given a value, and together they create the overall score.   For example, a VP at a target account who has attended a product webinar and downloaded a whitepaper would likely receive a high score. A student signing up for a free trial with no buying power would receive a low score. This ensures that sales teams spend their time on prospects that matter most. Why lead scoring matters Without lead scoring, sales teams risk wasting energy on unqualified or uninterested prospects. By introducing a scoring model, businesses gain: Efficiency, since reps can focus on high-quality leads first. Alignment, as marketing and sales agree on what makes a lead “ready.” Higher conversion rates, because effort is directed toward the most promising opportunities.   In practice, lead scoring also helps leaders measure pipeline quality and predict future revenue with more confidence.   Modern CRMs and marketing automation platforms make lead scoring scalable. They track behaviors in real time and automatically update scores as prospects engage with content or sales teams. This automation ensures no lead is overlooked and that sales teams always work from the most current data. How Conquer helps Conquer enhances lead scoring by connecting engagement data directly into Salesforce. Calls, emails, and meetings are automatically logged, creating a complete activity history for every lead.    This data feeds into scoring models, ensuring they are based on real, up-to-date interactions. With Conquer, sales teams not only identify high-value leads but also have the context they need to act quickly and effectively.   Want to see how Conquer helps you build smarter lead scoring models and convert more pipeline?

BPO, or business process outsourcing, is when a company hires an external provider to handle certain business functions instead of doing them in-house. These functions can range from customer support and telemarketing to accounting, payroll, and IT services.    The main appeal is efficiency: outsourcing lowers costs, brings in specialized expertise, and frees internal teams to focus on growth.   For years, BPO has been a standard way for companies to expand quickly without hiring large local teams. Providers often operate offshore, offering round-the-clock services at lower labor costs. Others work nearshore or onshore, trading cost savings for closer collaboration and cultural alignment. Why companies use BPO Businesses turn to BPO when they need to scale quickly, reduce overhead, or access skills they don’t have in-house. Customer-facing teams like support and sales can be expanded through outsourcing, while back-office operations such as data management or HR can also be streamlined.   The flexibility is valuable, but traditional BPO also comes with challenges. Offshore teams may face time zone and communication barriers. Processes can be rigid, with companies locked into contracts that limit agility. And while cost savings are real, they sometimes come at the expense of control and integration. BPO vs DeTal An alternative to traditional outsourcing is the DeTal model, short for decentralized talent. Instead of working through a large outsourcing vendor, companies connect directly with skilled professionals across global talent hubs. With DeTal, businesses get the same benefits of cost efficiency and scale but with more control, flexibility, and transparency.   Unlike BPO, where talent is often managed at arm’s length, DeTal integrates directly into teams. This creates stronger alignment with company culture and goals. It also makes it easier to adapt quickly, scaling teams up or down based on real-time needs without being tied to long contracts. How Conquer helps Conquer helps companies move beyond traditional BPO by offering decentralized talent (DeTal). Instead of relying on rigid outsourcing providers, businesses gain direct access to skilled professionals who integrate into their teams.   Conquer makes this simple by sourcing, vetting, and supporting global talent while ensuring they have the tools to perform inside Salesforce. The result is the same efficiency companies look for in BPO, but with more control, flexibility, and transparency.   Want to see how Conquer’s DeTal model can help you scale smarter?

A BDR, or business development representative, is a sales role focused on generating new opportunities for the company. BDRs usually work at the top of the sales funnel, identifying prospects, reaching out to them, and qualifying whether they are a good fit before handing them to account executives or sales reps.   Unlike closers who focus on finalizing deals, BDRs concentrate on creating pipeline. Their work ensures that sales teams have a steady flow of potential customers to engage with, which is especially critical in fast-growth industries like SaaS. What does a BDR do The main responsibility of a BDR is prospecting. This often includes researching target accounts, building lists of contacts, and personalizing outreach. Outreach typically happens through cold calls, emails, LinkedIn messages, and event follow-ups.   A BDR also qualifies prospects. This means confirming that a lead meets criteria such as company size, budget, or interest level. Qualified leads are then passed to sales reps, who take the opportunity further down the sales cycle.   BDRs are also responsible for tracking activity in CRM systems, ensuring that outreach and responses are logged accurately. This data is essential for managers to measure performance and for leaders to forecast pipeline. Why BDRs matter The BDR role is a cornerstone of modern sales organizations. By focusing on the earliest stages of the sales cycle, BDRs allow account executives to spend more time on live opportunities instead of cold outreach. This division of labor improves efficiency and increases conversion rates across the board.   For companies, BDRs are also critical to scaling growth. They create a predictable pipeline by filling the funnel with qualified leads. Without them, sales teams often rely on inconsistent inbound leads or overburden account executives with prospecting tasks that take away from closing. How Conquer helps Conquer equips BDRs with the tools they need to prospect more effectively and consistently. Calls, emails, and outreach sequences happen directly inside Salesforce, with every activity automatically logged. This saves time on admin work and ensures no lead is missed.    Managers also get real-time visibility into outreach performance, making it easier to coach BDRs and scale the team’s impact. With Conquer, BDRs can focus less on managing tools and more on creating pipeline that fuels revenue.   Want to see how Conquer helps BDR teams prospect smarter and build consistent pipeline?

Omnichannel customer service is the practice of supporting customers across multiple communication channels while keeping the experience seamless and connected. Instead of treating each channel as separate, an omnichannel approach ensures that conversations flow smoothly whether a customer starts on email, moves to chat, or calls support.   The goal is to make interactions consistent and convenient. Customers should not have to repeat themselves every time they switch channels, and service teams should have full visibility into the history of each interaction. Why omnichannel service matters Customer expectations have changed. People now expect to reach businesses on their preferred channels, whether that’s phone, live chat, social media, or SMS. If one channel is slow or unhelpful, they will quickly switch to another. Without an integrated approach, this creates frustration for both the customer and the support team.   Omnichannel service solves this by creating a single, connected view of the customer. Support agents can see past conversations and respond with full context, regardless of the channel being used. This reduces friction, improves satisfaction, and builds stronger loyalty over time. How omnichannel customer service works Omnichannel support relies on technology that integrates different communication platforms into one system. This usually includes: A central dashboard where agents can see customer conversations from all channels. Unified records that capture emails, chats, calls, and messages in one place. Tools that allow smooth handoffs between agents or departments without losing context.   Together, these elements give both customers and service teams a connected experience. Customers get fast, consistent answers, and companies gain efficiency by avoiding duplicate work.   Companies that adopt omnichannel service see measurable benefits. Customer satisfaction scores improve because issues are resolved faster and with less effort. Agent productivity increases because they no longer juggle disconnected systems.    Most importantly, retention improves as customers stay loyal to businesses that provide reliable, easy-to-access support across channels. How Conquer helps Conquer enables true omnichannel customer service by bringing calls, emails, SMS, and other communication channels directly into Salesforce.    Agents manage every interaction in one place, with complete visibility into customer history. Leaders gain real-time insight into service performance, ensuring customers receive consistent support no matter how they choose to connect. By unifying channels inside the CRM, Conquer makes omnichannel service both practical and scalable.   Want to see how Conquer helps teams deliver seamless omnichannel customer service?

Sales automation is the use of technology to handle repetitive sales tasks so that sales reps can spend more time selling. Instead of manually logging calls, sending follow-up emails, or updating CRM records, automation tools complete these actions automatically in the background.  This allows sales teams to focus on building relationships and moving deals forward. Why sales automation matters In most sales organizations, reps spend less than half their time on direct selling. The rest goes to administrative tasks like scheduling meetings, entering data, and reporting activity. These steps are necessary, but they do not directly generate revenue. By automating them, companies free up time and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.   Automation also standardizes processes. Every lead is followed up on, every opportunity is logged, and every customer interaction is captured. This consistency improves both productivity and accuracy, giving leaders a more reliable view of the pipeline. How sales automation works Sales automation can take many forms, depending on the tools and processes in place. Common examples include: Automatic email follow-ups triggered by prospect actions. Call logging and transcription directly into the CRM. Lead routing to the right rep based on territory or account type. Real-time reminders for next steps in the sales cycle. Each of these automations reduces manual effort while ensuring the customer journey stays on track. When combined, they create a system where sales teams can scale their outreach and management without adding headcount. This way, reps become more consistent in their follow-up, which leads to higher conversion rates. Leaders gain better forecasting because activity data is complete and accurate. Customers enjoy smoother interactions, since communications are timely and relevant. In short, automation builds both productivity and trust. How Conquer helps Conquer brings sales automation directly into Salesforce, so reps never have to switch between tools. Calls, emails, and tasks are logged automatically, while workflows guide reps through the right steps at the right time. Leaders gain visibility into every stage of the sales cycle, ensuring that coaching and forecasting are based on real activity data. With Conquer, automation becomes a natural part of daily selling, not an extra system to manage. Want to see how Conquer helps sales teams automate and accelerate their process?

Revenue operations, or RevOps, is the function that unifies sales, marketing, and customer success under one strategy for growth. Instead of each team working with separate goals and systems, RevOps builds shared processes, connected tools, and a single source of data.   The result is a clearer view of revenue and smoother collaboration across the customer journey Why revenue operations exist Most companies struggle with silos. Marketing tracks leads in one system, sales manages deals in another, and customer success logs renewals somewhere else. Data does not match, handoffs break, and leaders cannot get an accurate forecast. RevOps solves this by aligning all three teams on the same metrics, systems, and reporting.   This alignment matters because revenue no longer comes only from closing new business. Renewals, upsells, and customer satisfaction drive growth just as much. RevOps ensures every stage of the lifecycle is connected and measured. How revenue operations works RevOps typically focuses on three areas.  First is process optimization, which standardizes how leads move through the funnel and how deals are tracked.  Second is data management, which keeps customer information clean and consistent across platforms.  Third is technology alignment, making sure sales, marketing, and customer success tools integrate properly.   When these areas are managed together, companies remove bottlenecks and create a unified view of performance. Leaders can see which campaigns generate qualified leads, which deals are at risk, and which accounts are ready for expansion. Teams no longer work in isolation but follow one playbook. The impact of RevOps The value of revenue operations is felt in predictable forecasting and more efficient growth. Leaders get accurate numbers instead of conflicting reports. Reps and managers know exactly how their activities connect to revenue. Customers benefit from a smoother experience, since handoffs between teams are clear and consistent.   Technology makes this possible at scale. Revenue intelligence platforms connect activity data across the customer lifecycle, highlight risks, and surface new opportunities. With RevOps in place, companies move from reactive fixes to proactive growth strategies.   Conquer strengthens revenue operations by giving teams complete visibility into pipeline activity and customer engagement. Instead of relying on fragmented notes or incomplete dashboards, leaders and reps work from real-time data. This clarity makes forecasting more accurate, handoffs smoother, and growth more predictable. Want to see how Conquer helps revenue operations teams align and grow with confidence?

ARR, or annual recurring revenue, is a key metric used by subscription-based businesses to measure the predictable revenue they can expect from customers each year. It focuses only on recurring revenue, not one-time payments, and gives a clear picture of long-term financial stability.   For SaaS companies and other subscription models, ARR is one of the most important indicators of growth and performance. It helps leaders track how the business is scaling, forecast revenue, and communicate results to investors. How to calculate ARR The basic formula for ARR is straightforward:   ARR = Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) × 12   For example, if your company has $50,000 in MRR, your ARR is $600,000. This simple calculation makes it easy to track growth over time. However, ARR becomes more meaningful when you factor in expansions, contractions, and churn rate: New subscriptions add to ARR. Upsells or expansions increase ARR from existing customers. Downgrades and churn reduce ARR.   This makes AR not just a measure of scale, but also a reflection of customer retention and growth strategies.   By including these dynamics, companies gain a more accurate view of whether they’re achieving sustainable recurring revenue. Why ARR matters For businesses built on recurring models, ARR is far more insightful than total revenue. It provides: Predictability, since recurring contracts make future revenue more stable. Growth visibility, as leaders can see whether expansion and retention strategies are paying off. Investor confidence, because ARR is a clear, standardized metric used to assess company health. Operational alignment, ensuring teams focus on recurring revenue instead of short-term wins.   In short, ARR acts as the compass for subscription businesses, pointing toward long-term sustainability and signaling when strategies need to shift. The role of technology in ARR tracking Modern CRM and revenue intelligence platforms make ARR easy to track by automatically updating recurring contracts, expansions, and churn. Instead of relying on spreadsheets or manual reports, leaders can instantly see how changes impact overall ARR.   With better visibility, sales and customer success teams can focus on growing existing accounts, reducing churn, and driving consistent, compounding revenue.   Want to see how Conquer helps teams track and grow ARR with accuracy?

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the entire duration of their relationship. Instead of looking only at a single transaction, CLV considers the long-term financial impact of customer loyalty and repeat purchases.   This sales metric is a cornerstone for modern sales and marketing teams because it shifts focus from short-term wins to building enduring customer relationships. When businesses understand their CLV, they can make smarter decisions about how much to invest in acquiring and retaining each customer. Why customer lifetime value matters Knowing your customer lifetime value helps teams prioritize sustainable growth. If you understand how much a customer is worth over time, you can align your budgets and strategies accordingly. For example, if your average CLV is $10,000, you know it makes sense to invest more in customer acquisition than if it were $1,000.   CLV also provides a benchmark for comparing acquisition costs. When customer acquisition cost (CAC) is lower than CLV, your sales and marketing engine is creating profitable relationships. If CAC outweighs CLV, it’s a red flag that growth strategies need adjustment. How to calculate CLV There are different methods for calculating CLV, but a simple and widely used formula is:   CLV = (Average purchase value × Purchase frequency) × Average customer lifespan   For example, if a customer spends $200 per purchase, buys 4 times a year, and stays active for 5 years:   CLV = ($200 × 4) × 5 = $4,000   This formula shows why CLV is powerful: small improvements in frequency, spend, or retention can multiply lifetime value significantly. Businesses often build models to refine this calculation further, incorporating churn rates, margins, and customer segments. Benefits of tracking CLV Companies that actively track and optimize customer lifetime value gain several competitive advantages:   Smarter marketing spend, as budgets can be directed toward channels that bring high-value customers. Improved customer retention, since efforts focus on long-term satisfaction instead of one-time conversions. Better product strategies, with insights into what drives repeat purchases and upgrades. Stronger revenue forecasting, because predictable lifetime value helps project future earnings.   Together, these benefits prove that CLV is a clear lens for understanding how relationships directly fuel business growth. How technology supports CLV Accurately measuring customer lifetime value requires strong data visibility. Modern CRMs track customer history, purchases, and engagement to build a full picture of value over time. Revenue intelligence tools enhance this by uncovering trends, spotting upsell opportunities, and helping managers guide reps toward accounts with the highest potential.   With the right systems in place, CLV becomes more than a retrospective metric. It turns into an actionable guide for where to focus sales effort, how to structure engagement, and which customers can deliver the greatest long-term impact.   Want to see how Conquer helps teams maximize customer lifetime value?

A sales cycle is the step-by-step process that guides how a deal moves from first contact with a prospect to a closed agreement. It provides a structured path for sales reps, helping them understand where a buyer is in their journey and what actions are needed to keep momentum moving forward.   In most businesses, the sales cycle starts when a potential customer shows interest in a product or service. From there, the rep qualifies the lead, presents solutions, handles objections, and works toward a final decision.    While the exact stages can vary depending on the company or industry, the underlying goal is always the same: to create a predictable and repeatable process for converting prospects into customers. Why a sales cycle matters Having a defined sales cycle is critical because it brings consistency and clarity to the sales process. Without it, reps often rely on gut feelings or anecdotal updates, which leads to missed opportunities and inaccurate forecasting.    A structured sales cycle ensures that every opportunity is tracked, managers can easily see pipeline health, and leaders have a reliable basis for predicting revenue.   For individual reps, a sales cycle acts like a roadmap. It shows them what to do at each stage, how to respond to buyer signals, and when to push for a close. For managers, it provides visibility into which deals are on track, which are stalling, and where coaching can make the biggest difference. Benefits of a clear sales cycle A well-defined sales cycle doesn’t helps teams stay organized and creates measurable business impact. Companies with strong sales cycles benefit from: Improved forecasting accuracy because deals are tracked against consistent stages. Stronger coaching opportunities, as managers can pinpoint exactly where reps are struggling. Shorter sales timelines, since reps know the precise steps to move buyers forward. Scalable growth, as repeatable processes make it easier to onboard new team members.   These advantages prove that a clear sales cycle is a foundation for sustainable sales performance. The role of technology in sales cycles Modern sales technology makes it easier to execute and track every stage of the cycle. CRM systems record each touchpoint, while automation tools handle repetitive tasks and keep data up to date. This allows salespeople to spend more time selling and less time managing admin work.   Revenue intelligence platforms, like Conquer, take this further by giving teams visibility into real-time deal data. Instead of relying on anecdotal notes or incomplete dashboards, reps and managers can see the true status of every opportunity and act accordingly.   Want to see how Conquer supports seamless execution of the sales cycle?

Account based marketing (ABM) is a go-to-market strategy where sales and marketing teams work together to target a specific set of high-value accounts with personalized messaging, campaigns, and outreach. Instead of focusing on broad lead volume, ABM focuses on the quality and strategic value of the accounts being pursued. ABM is especially common in B2B sales, where deals are large, decision-making is complex, and winning a single account can significantly impact revenue. It requires close coordination between teams, detailed account research, and tailored communication across channels. How does account based marketing work The ABM process begins by identifying a list of target accounts: companies that are a strong fit based on factors like revenue potential, industry, technology stack, or strategic importance. Once those accounts are selected, marketing creates campaigns designed specifically for them, and sales aligns its outreach accordingly. Campaigns may include custom emails, personalized ads, industry-specific content, direct mail, or curated landing pages. Messaging speaks directly to the account’s needs, goals, and challenges. Reps engage individual stakeholders within the account using tools like LinkedIn, email, or cold calls, supported by insights from marketing. Instead of measuring success by total leads generated, ABM is tracked through engagement within target accounts, the number of meetings booked, and revenue influenced or closed. It’s a long-term strategy that prioritizes relevance and relationship-building. Why companies use ABM ABM helps teams focus their time and budget on the accounts most likely to generate revenue. It’s efficient, especially for companies that sell to enterprise buyers or have limited total addressable markets. It also improves alignment between sales and marketing. Both teams operate from the same account list, with clear shared goals. This eliminates the typical handoff issues seen in lead-based models and makes collaboration more actionable. Because campaigns are highly relevant to the audience, ABM also improves response rates and accelerates deal cycles. When a buyer sees that you understand their business, they’re more likely to engage and more likely to buy. Conquer helps account based marketing teams coordinate their efforts directly inside Salesforce. Sales reps get access to timely messaging, touchpoint history, and campaign context, all in one place, so every outreach is aligned and personalized. Want to see how Conquer supports seamless execution of ABM?

SaaS sales is the process of selling software-as-a-service products: cloud-based tools that customers access via a subscription. Instead of selling software as a one-time purchase, SaaS companies sell recurring licenses, often billed monthly or annually. Sales reps focus on helping prospects understand how the product solves business problems, fits into their tech stack, and drives ROI over time. This model requires a mix of relationship building, consultative selling, and long-term customer management. Since revenue depends on renewals and upgrades, the goal is to ensure the customer stays, grows, and succeeds. How SaaS sales works SaaS sales usually begins with lead qualification, where reps assess whether a prospect is a good fit based on needs, budget, and timing. Once qualified, the deal moves through discovery, demos, proposal, and negotiation. For lower-ticket products, this process can be fast and fully self-service. For mid-market or enterprise SaaS, it often involves multiple stakeholders, security reviews, integrations, and custom pricing. Many SaaS companies divide their teams into inbound (handling leads from marketing), outbound (prospecting new accounts), and customer success (retention and growth). Sales development reps (SDRs) may book meetings, while account executives own the full sales cycle. Throughout, the emphasis is on understanding the customer’s pain points and clearly mapping the product’s value to those needs. The best SaaS sellers don’t just pitch features, but also help buyers visualize impact. Key benefits of the SaaS sales model SaaS sales allows for recurring, predictable revenue. Because customers pay over time, there’s an incentive to deliver ongoing value, not just a one-time sale. This drives better onboarding, support, and product alignment. It’s also scalable. With the right systems in place, teams can target specific segments, personalize outreach at scale, and manage thousands of accounts without needing to be in the field. But SaaS sales also brings challenges. Churn risk is always present. Buyers are informed, competition is intense, and pricing models are often complex. That’s why success in this space depends on consistency, clarity, and strong internal coordination. Conquer helps SaaS sales teams stay focused and move faster. With real-time messaging, follow-up steps, and guided cadences delivered directly in Salesforce, reps can close deals efficiently and support renewals with confidence. Want to see how Conquer powers SaaS sales from first call to long-term retention?

Outbound sales is a proactive selling strategy where sales teams reach out to potential customers who haven’t yet expressed interest. Instead of waiting for leads to come in through marketing or referrals, outbound reps identify targets, initiate contact, and guide them through the buying process. This approach is common in B2B sales and SaaS companies looking to scale pipeline. It allows businesses to go after ideal accounts directly, rather than relying only on inbound traffic or word-of-mouth. How outbound sales works Outbound sales starts with building a list of prospects, people or companies that match your ideal customer profile. Reps then use cold outreach methods like email, phone calls, and LinkedIn messages to engage those prospects. Once a rep connects with someone, the goal is to qualify interest, explore the buyer’s needs, and schedule a deeper conversation or demo with an Account Executive. Some teams split these roles between Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and closers, while others manage everything within a full-cycle sales team. Outbound sales relies on timing, targeting, and messaging. Reps need to know who they’re reaching out to, why the offer is relevant, and how to deliver that message in a way that gets attention. Why outbound sales matters Outbound sales gives companies control over their growth. Rather than waiting for inbound leads (which can be unpredictable or misaligned), sales teams can focus on high-value accounts and generate momentum on their own terms. It’s especially important for companies breaking into new markets, launching new products, or targeting enterprise accounts. In these cases, the right buyer may never come inbound. Outbound sales ensures you’re not missing out on ideal customers simply because they haven’t found you yet. When done well, outbound creates a steady flow of qualified meetings, builds brand visibility, and drives long-term pipeline growth. But it requires discipline, process, and consistency, as spraying messages to a broad audience rarely works. Conquer gives outbound sales teams the structure they need to succeed. With guided call scripts, targeted email templates, and step-by-step cadences delivered directly inside Salesforce, reps can execute with precision without switching tools or missing follow-ups. Want to see how Conquer helps you scale outbound sales that actually convert?

A sales engineer is a technical expert who works alongside sales reps to help explain, demonstrate, and tailor complex products to a prospect’s specific needs. While sales reps focus on relationship-building and closing, sales engineers dig into the technical details: answering questions, running product demos, and ensuring the solution fits the customer’s environment. Sales engineers are especially common in industries like SaaS, cybersecurity, manufacturing, and enterprise IT, where products require deep technical knowledge and every customer has a unique setup or integration need. What does a sales engineer do? Sales engineers join the sales process once a lead is qualified and a deeper discovery is needed. They partner with Account Executives (AEs) to lead technical conversations, translate business problems into product solutions, and guide prospects through more advanced evaluations. Their role can include live demos, proof-of-concept development, technical Q&A sessions, and working with internal product or engineering teams to scope custom solutions. They help ensure that what’s being sold can actually be delivered and that it will work as promised in the buyer’s environment. After a deal closes, some sales engineers remain involved during handoff to implementation or customer success, especially for enterprise clients. Why sales engineers matter In complex sales cycles, buyers expect more than just a polished pitch. They want evidence that the product works, that it integrates with their systems, and that the vendor understands their technical landscape. This is where sales engineers make the difference. They don’t just explain features; they map those features to real business challenges. That builds trust, removes friction, and helps shorten evaluation cycles. When a sales engineer can confidently address concerns about architecture, security, or compatibility, it keeps deals moving forward. Sales engineers also play a strategic role internally. They provide product feedback based on real customer use cases, highlight gaps in enablement materials, and help sales and product teams stay aligned. Conquer helps sales engineers stay in sync with the entire sales process. With every touchpoint, follow-up, and objection tracked directly in Salesforce, technical sellers can jump in at the right moment, with full context. Want to see how Conquer supports technical sales from discovery to close?

Sales forecasting is the process of predicting how much revenue your company will generate over a specific period, usually a month, quarter, or year. It’s based on data from your current pipeline and market trends.  The goal with forecasting is to provide leadership with a realistic picture of future revenue, helping guide decisions across sales, finance, and operations. A good forecast doesn’t just guess what might happen. It combines deal data, rep activity, conversion rates, and timing to project what’s likely to close and when. When done well, sales forecasting brings clarity and confidence to your entire go-to-market strategy. How Sales Forecasting Works Forecasts typically fall into two categories: Top-down forecasts start with company goals and work backward to determine what each team or sales rep needs to hit.  Bottom-up forecasts are built by analyzing real-time pipeline data, looking at individual deals, deal stages, rep activity, and likelihood to close. Most companies use CRM data as the foundation, but forecasting accuracy depends on how clean and current that data is. The more reliable the inputs: stage updates, call activity, next steps, the more reliable the forecast. Many teams also use historical data to create weighted forecasts. For example, deals in the final stage may be given a 90% probability, while early-stage deals might be weighted at 30%. These models help account for risk, timing, and conversion variability. Modern forecasting tools now use AI to improve this process further, spotting patterns humans may miss, flagging risk earlier, and learning over time what actually predicts deal success. Why Sales Forecasting Matters Forecasting directly impacts hiring plans, budgeting, inventory, investor confidence, and growth decisions. When forecasts are accurate, companies can scale with intention. When they’re wrong, resources get misaligned, goals get missed, and teams lose trust in the numbers. For sales managers, forecasting highlights where reps may be falling behind or where deals are slipping. For reps, it sets clear expectations and helps prioritize the right accounts. And for leadership, it’s the foundation of financial planning and board communication. Forecasting also builds accountability. It forces teams to be honest about pipeline quality, deal health, and what’s actually progressing. Conquer helps make forecasting more accurate by improving how data flows through your CRM. With guided cadences, in-platform call tracking, and real-time visibility inside Salesforce, reps stay on top of every deal, and managers get the insights they need to forecast with confidence.  Want to see it for yourself?

Sales coaching is the process of helping sales reps improve their skills, confidence, and results through structured guidance and feedback. This helps build long-term performance through consistent support and real conversations. In the past, coaching relied entirely on manager time and manual review. Today, modern sales coaching tools are changing that. They help teams scale high-quality coaching by analyzing rep activity, surfacing coachable moments, and delivering insights directly into the workflow.   How Sales Coaching Tools Work Sales coaching tools are built to support managers and reps alike. They track calls, emails, meetings, and sales engagement data, then use AI to identify patterns across deals. Instead of listening to hours of calls, managers get highlights: where deals went off track, when an objection was mishandled, or how discovery questions could have gone deeper.   Platforms like Conquer also provide automatic feedback, scorecards, or benchmarks, making it easier to coach consistently across the team. The best tools go beyond call analysis and integrate directly with your CRM, so coaching is always tied to real opportunities, not just general advice.   Coaching your sales reps becomes more targeted, more timely, and more effective, without requiring hours of admin work or siloed tools. Why Coaching Needs to Evolve Sales is moving faster than ever. Reps handle more accounts, more tools, and more pressure to perform. But most managers still don’t have time to coach effectively, especially in growing teams or distributed environments.   That’s where technology comes in. AI doesn’t replace coaching entirely, but it makes it scalable. It helps managers focus on what matters and gives reps actionable feedback while deals are still in motion. It also reduces bias, creates consistency, and ensures no one slips through the cracks.   And because coaching is tied to real activity (not just memory or instinct), it becomes more objective, measurable, and impactful.   Conquer makes sales coaching smarter and more scalable. Our AI-powered platform analyzes rep activity inside Salesforce, flags coachable moments, and guides reps through the next best step, without requiring extra tools or time.    Managers get insights. Reps get better. And deals move faster. Want to see for yourself?

A revenue intelligence platform is a tool that captures, analyzes, and organizes sales data from emails, calls, meetings, and CRM activity. It gives teams real-time visibility into pipeline health, rep performance, and forecast accuracy. By turning daily activity into actionable insights, it helps leaders make better decisions faster. It’s designed to replace manual data entry and give revenue teams a clearer picture of what’s actually happening across deals and accounts. Instead of relying on reps to update the CRM or managers to chase down pipeline updates, a revenue intelligence platform automatically pulls in insights from your team’s activity. It tracks deal progress, highlights risk, and surfaces patterns that help leaders coach smarter and forecast with confidence.   How Revenue Intelligence Platforms Work These platforms integrate with tools your team already uses, like Salesforce, Zoom, Slack, and email calendars. They capture data passively in the background, analyzing things like talk time, objection handling, sales engagement, and next steps.   The result is a centralized view of what’s happening in your pipeline, without needing reps to constantly update fields or log every touchpoint. You can see which deals are moving, which ones are stalling, and which sales reps need support.   They also provide insights across teams. Marketing sees what messages resonate. Sales managers spot where deals go dark. Customer success can identify churn risk before it’s too late. Why Revenue Intelligence Platforms Matter In high-velocity sales environments, information gaps can quickly lead to missed quotas and inaccurate forecasts. Reps forget to log calls. Managers rely on anecdotal updates. Leaders make decisions based on incomplete dashboards.   Revenue intelligence fixes that by making deal data visible and actionable. You no longer have to wonder which deals are real or which rep is falling behind.    The platform tells you, backed by objective activity and communication data, which helps improve sales coaching. Instead of guessing why a deal fell through, managers can review the actual conversation and provide targeted feedback. Over time, this leads to better execution and stronger team performance.   Most importantly, revenue intelligence makes your forecasts smarter. RevOps and leadership can project revenue with more accuracy and adjust strategy before it’s too late.   A revenue intelligence platform only works if it’s connected to your core workflow. Conquer integrates directly inside Salesforce, helping teams act on deal insights in real time, without switching tools or relying on outdated CRM fields.  Want to see how Conquer powers better pipeline visibility?

RevOps, short for Revenue Operations, is a strategic function that brings sales, marketing, and customer success together under a unified operational framework. The goal is to align these teams around a shared set of tools, data, and processes to drive predictable revenue and eliminate silos. Instead of having separate systems and reporting structures, RevOps creates one cohesive engine for tracking pipeline, improving handoffs, and making smarter go-to-market decisions.    How RevOps Works At its core, RevOps is about clarity and coordination. It ensures that every team touching the revenue cycle is working toward the same goals, using the same data, terminology, and workflows. That means consistent reporting, unified dashboards, and integrated systems across the funnel.   The RevOps team usually manages the CRM, sales engagement tools, marketing automation platforms, and customer success tech. They’re responsible for keeping those systems clean, synced, and optimized to support frontline execution.   RevOps also plays a key role in sales forecasting. By owning pipeline data and analyzing performance trends, the team provides leadership with real-time visibility into what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus next. Why RevOps Matters In fast-growing companies, disconnected systems and misaligned teams can quickly slow things down. Marketing generates leads that sales can’t use. Sales closes deals that support can’t properly onboard. Leadership makes decisions based on outdated reports. RevOps fixes that by building shared infrastructure and accountability across the revenue engine.   The benefits are measurable. Companies that invest in RevOps typically see faster revenue growth, improved customer retention, and better forecast accuracy. They also build more scalable processes, making it easier to onboard new reps, expand into new markets, or launch new segments without losing control.   For sales teams, RevOps provides structure and support. It ensures sales reps have clean data, smooth handoffs, and systems that actually help them sell, instead of getting in the way.   For leadership, it offers real-time insight. No more guessing where deals stand, which campaigns are working, or why churn is spiking. RevOps puts all the pieces in one place and helps teams focus on what actually moves the needle.   But RevOps only works when your tools are aligned with your process. That’s why Conquer runs natively inside Salesforce, keeping sales cadences, tasks, and conversations fully in sync with your CRM. It’s sales engagement that works the way RevOps intended.    Want to see how Conquer fits into a high-performing RevOps stack?

SDR stands for Sales Development Representative. An SDR is a sales team member responsible for generating pipeline by identifying, qualifying, and booking meetings with potential customers. While they don’t usually close deals themselves, they play a critical role in starting conversations that turn into revenue. SDRs are often the first human touchpoint in a company’s sales sequence. Their job is to reach out to leads and determine whether there’s a good fit before passing the opportunity to an Account Executive (AE) or closing rep. In most organizations, SDRs focus on outbound outreach: sales prospecting, emailing, calling, and connecting with decision-makers. In inbound models, they also respond to demo requests or content downloads to qualify interest and move things forward.   What Does an SDR Actually Do? The SDR role focuses on early-stage engagement. On a day-to-day basis, that includes researching leads, personalizing outreach messages, managing follow-ups, and logging activity in the CRM.      SDRs need to understand their product well enough to start meaningful conversations, but their primary goal is to set up qualified meetings, not to sell the full solution.   They typically work with structured sales cadences: a planned sequence of touchpoints across email, phone, and sometimes LinkedIn. Timing, tone, and consistency are key. A successful SDR knows how to balance automation with personalization to stand out in a crowded inbox.   Collaboration is also a major part of the role. SDRs work closely with marketing to align on lead quality and with AEs to ensure smooth handoffs once a meeting is booked. What Does an SDR Actually Do? SDRs drive the top of the funnel. Without them, sales teams are left chasing cold leads or relying entirely on inbound traffic. A well-functioning SDR team ensures a steady stream of qualified opportunities, allowing closing reps to focus on what they do best.   They also provide valuable feedback to marketing and leadership. Because SDRs are on the front lines, they hear objections, patterns, and competitor mentions early. That intel helps refine targeting, messaging, and positioning.   For many companies, SDRs are also future AEs. It’s a training ground that builds product knowledge, sales skills, and business acumen, creating a pipeline of future closers from within.   SDRs are most effective when they’re supported by the right tools and processes. Conquer helps SDRs manage outreach directly inside Salesforce, keeping cadences organized, follow-ups on track, and productivity high.    Want to transform your sales process?

Sales prospecting is the process of identifying and reaching out to potential customers (also known as prospects) who might be a good fit for your product or service. It’s the first step in building a healthy sales pipeline and a key driver of predictable revenue. Prospecting requires research, targeting, and strategy. Reps need to understand who they’re contacting, why that person is a potential fit, and how to start the conversation in a way that creates interest. Without effective prospecting, even the best sales strategy falls apart. You can’t close deals if you don’t have qualified leads to work with. How Sales Prospecting Works The prospecting process starts with defining your ideal customer profile (ICP). This includes the types of companies you’re targeting by size, industry, region, or technology, as well as the specific buyer personas within those companies.   Once that foundation is set, reps use various tools and techniques to build lists of potential leads. These can come from intent data platforms, LinkedIn searches, referrals, inbound form fills, or CRM databases. The next step is outreach, usually through a mix of emails, phone calls, LinkedIn messages, and even video or voice notes.   The goal of prospecting isn’t to close a deal on the spot. It’s to start a relevant, valuable conversation that leads to a meeting or discovery call. From there, the rep can begin guiding the prospect through the rest of the sales process.   Timing, personalization, and consistency are what set successful prospecting apart. One-size-fits-all messages don’t work anymore. Prospects expect context and clarity and they’re quick to ignore anything that feels generic or off-target.   Why Prospecting Matters for Sales Teams Prospecting keeps your pipeline full, which in turn keeps your revenue goals within reach. But it’s also one of the hardest parts of sales. It requires persistence, focus, and often a thick skin. Reps have to deal with rejection and silence on a daily basis.   That’s why process and tooling matter. Without a system for tracking outreach and following up, even great reps burn out or miss opportunities.   For sales leaders, prospecting performance is often a leading indicator of revenue health. If meetings aren’t being booked, deals won’t close months down the line.   Conquer makes prospecting more efficient and more effective. By managing outreach natively inside Salesforce, your reps stay focused, your sales cadences stay consistent, and your pipeline stays full.    Want to see it in action?

A sales pipeline is a visual framework that shows where each deal stands in the sales process, from initial contact to closed won or lost. It breaks down the buyer journey into stages, giving sales teams a clear view of how many opportunities they’re working on, where deals are getting stuck, and what revenue may be coming in. Think of it as your sales team’s map. It shows the route deals are supposed to follow and helps everyone stay aligned on what needs to happen next. Whether you’re running discovery calls or negotiating contracts, the pipeline is how you track progress and manage priorities. How a Sales Pipeline Works While the exact stages may vary depending on your sales cycle, most pipelines follow a general sequence: prospecting, qualification, discovery, proposal, negotiation, and close. Each opportunity moves from one stage to the next as the buyer shows more interest, asks deeper questions, and signals readiness to buy.   Pipelines live inside your CRM (often Salesforce) and are updated by sales reps as deals move forward. This gives managers a snapshot of team activity, forecast accuracy, and deal health at any given time.   A well-managed pipeline doesn’t just reflect what’s happening; it helps shape it. By knowing which deals need attention or which stage has too many stalled leads, reps can take focused action. And leadership can make smarter decisions around hiring, territory planning, and revenue goals. Why Sales Pipelines Are Essential Without a pipeline, sales becomes reactive. Reps chase the loudest leads, forget important follow-ups, or waste time on deals that aren’t going anywhere. With a pipeline in place, your team operates with structure and clarity.   It also gives revenue leaders a real forecasting tool. Instead of guessing, they can model performance based on historical conversion rates, average deal size, and stage-by-stage velocity. That turns sales from a black box into a process you can scale, optimize, and improve.   For growing companies, the pipeline becomes a training tool as well. New reps can learn what a healthy funnel looks like, what common blockers appear at each stage, and what behaviors lead to consistent performance.   Conquer helps your team manage and move deals through the pipeline more effectively. With native Salesforce workflows, guided cadences, and real-time visibility, reps stay on track and managers stay informed.   Want to see how it can drive results for your team?

OTE stands for On-Target Earnings. It refers to the total expected annual compensation a sales rep can earn if they hit 100% of their quota. This includes their base salary plus any commission or bonuses tied to performance. In a typical sales compensation plan, a rep might earn $60,000 in base pay and another $60,000 in variable pay if they reach quota. In that case, their OTE is $120,000. It’s a target, not a guarantee, but it sets the standard for what full performance looks like. OTE is most commonly used in commission-based roles like Account Executives (AEs), Sales Development Representatives (SDRs), and Business Development Reps (BDRs). It’s also a critical metric for sales leaders, recruiters, and finance teams to align expectations and budget accordingly. Why OTE Matters in Sales Hiring and Performance For hiring managers and candidates alike, OTE gives a clear picture of earning potential. It helps sales professionals evaluate whether a role is worth pursuing and gives companies a structured way to compete for top talent.   But OTE also carries expectations. If a company lists an OTE of $150,000, strong candidates will expect a realistic path to earn that amount, backed by historical performance data, clear quotas, and supportive tools. If too few reps reach their OTE, it can hurt morale, retention, and credibility.   Well-designed compensation plans tie OTE directly to achievable results. That means quotas are data-backed, ramp periods are fair, and commission structures are transparent. When done right, OTE aligns everyone around the same goal: hitting the target and getting rewarded for it. How Revenue Teams Use OTE Strategically Beyond being a hiring metric, OTE also shapes territory design, sales forecasting, and incentive planning. Leaders use it to model how much pipeline each rep needs, what kind of deal size is sustainable, and how much performance varies by segment or region.   It also affects team structure. A low OTE might work for transactional sales, while enterprise roles often justify higher OTEs based on longer cycles and bigger wins. Over time, patterns in OTE performance can reveal training gaps, compensation misalignment, or untapped revenue potential.   When OTE is treated seriously, it becomes a benchmark for success for both the company and the rep. OTE only works if reps have the support to hit their targets. Conquer helps sales teams stay on pace, follow smart cadences, and close more deals directly from Salesforce, making OTE feel less like a wish and more like a plan.   Curious how it works in real life?

TAM stands for Total Addressable Market. It refers to the total revenue opportunity available if your product or service were adopted by 100% of the market it targets. It’s a way of quantifying how big your potential customer base is and how much money is on the table. TAM helps sales, marketing, product, and leadership teams align around market size, growth potential, and go-to-market strategy. It answers the question: if we reached every possible qualified customer, how much could we make? How TAM Is Calculated There’s no single way to calculate TAM, but there are two common approaches.    The top-down method starts with industry-level data, like market reports or analyst research, then narrows it down based on your product fit. The bottom-up method starts with your own pricing and performance, looking at average deal size, customer segments, and adoption trends, then scales that across your total audience.   For example, if you sell a SaaS product for $10,000 per year and estimate that 25,000 companies in your target segment could realistically use it, your TAM is $250 million annually.   Keep in mind, TAM is often paired with two other metrics:  SAM (Serviceable Available Market) SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)   SAM narrows the focus to the customers your product can serve today. SOM looks at what portion of that market you can realistically capture based on resources, competition, and reach. Why TAM Matters in Sales TAM is a decision-making tool for sales and RevOps. It helps teams prioritize accounts, allocate resources, and decide where to scale. If you understand your TAM, you can avoid wasting time chasing the wrong opportunities and focus on the segments with the most potential.   It also sharpens targeting. Knowing how many companies exist in a given vertical or region helps you build territory plans, headcount forecasts, and outbound strategy. It informs everything from ICP design to quota setting to pipeline coverage models.   For sales leaders, TAM can highlight when you’re underperforming in a high-potential market or when it’s time to expand into new verticals. For reps, it helps put their book of business into a broader context: how much opportunity is still out there, and where to look next.   Knowing your TAM is one thing. Acting on it is another. Conquer helps you prioritize high-value accounts, build cadences around your ideal customer profile, and guide reps toward untapped opportunities, right inside Salesforce.    See what it looks like in action now.

In sales and business contexts, SME stands for Subject Matter Expert. An SME is someone with deep knowledge in a specific area, such as a product, industry, workflow, or customer problem. They’re often brought into sales cycles to support conversations that go beyond general selling and into technical, regulatory, or process-driven details. SMEs aren’t always part of the core sales team, but they play a critical role in winning complex or high-stakes deals. Their insights give buyers confidence, especially when the solution requires customization, integration, or specialized use cases. What Do SMEs Actually Do in Sales? When a sales rep uncovers a prospect’s needs and the conversation becomes technical, strategic, or highly detailed, they bring in the SME to go deeper. That could mean explaining how a product handles security and compliance, walking through a technical integration, or helping map the solution to a customer’s internal process.   SMEs may join live sales calls, create custom demo environments, or respond to detailed RFPs. Some contribute behind the scenes by developing battlecards, answering complex objections, or supporting sales enablement materials for reps.   Their role isn’t to sell but to inform, validate, and build credibility. The sales rep still owns the relationship, but the SME helps move the conversation forward when precision and authority are needed. Why SMEs Matter in a Sales-Led Organization As products become more complex and buying groups become more sophisticated, reps can’t always do it alone. Having access to SMEs ensures your team can answer tough questions in real time and show prospects they’re dealing with professionals who understand their world.   This is especially important in industries like healthcare, finance, cybersecurity, or enterprise SaaS, where decisions depend on both business impact and technical fit. In these environments, the presence of an SME can dramatically improve trust and accelerate the path to close.   The key is making SME involvement seamless. If reps struggle to schedule time with them or forget to loop them in at the right stage, deals stall. When sales systems make it easy to pull in an SME and track those handoffs, the entire sales experience improves.   SMEs are most effective when they’re looped in at the right moment. Conquer helps your team manage these touchpoints inside Salesforce by automating reminders, assigning support, and keeping the full context in one place.    Want to see it in action?

Consultative selling is a sales approach that prioritizes understanding the buyer’s needs, challenges, and goals before offering a solution. Instead of jumping straight into a product pitch, the sales rep takes on the role of a trusted advisor, asking questions, exploring context, and shaping the conversation around the buyer’s specific situation. This method is often used in B2B environments, especially when the product is complex or the sales cycle involves multiple decision-makers. The focus moves outside of just closing a deal to building credibility, delivering value early, and creating a solution that truly fits. How Consultative Selling Works At the core of consultative selling is discovery. Reps take time to learn about the buyer’s current state: what tools they’re using, where the bottlenecks are, what success looks like, and what’s standing in the way. This often happens through live conversations, open-ended questions, and active listening.   From there, the rep connects the dots between the buyer’s pain points and the solution they offer. This allows them to explain how the solution solves the specific problems uncovered in the discovery process.   Consultative selling also involves ongoing education. Reps might share relevant content, suggest ideas, or even challenge the buyer’s assumptions; all with the goal of guiding them toward a decision that benefits their business. Why It Works Buyers today are more informed than ever, but they’re also overwhelmed. With so many tools and choices available, what they often need isn’t more information; it’s clarity. Consultative selling offers that by turning the sales process into a problem-solving conversation instead of a transactional pitch.   This builds trust, reduces friction, and creates long-term customer relationships. It also leads to better win rates, since the solution being sold is more tailored and the buyer feels more confident in the decision.   For teams selling to large or strategic accounts, this approach often is what moves complex deals forward.   Consultative selling works best when your systems support it. Conquer helps your reps stay in sync with every conversation: tracking outreach, surfacing insights, and guiding follow-up steps directly inside Salesforce. That way, every interaction stays focused, relevant, and buyer-led.    Curious how it works in real life?

Data enrichment is the process of enhancing raw lead or account data with additional, verified information. It turns incomplete records (like a contact with just a name and email) into richer profiles that include job titles, company size, industry, and more. It makes your CRM more accurate, useful, and valuable for sales and marketing. Without enrichment, teams rely on guesswork. Outreach is less personalized, lead routing is hit-or-miss, and automation logic breaks down.  Enriched data ensures your systems and people have the context they need to make every interaction more relevant. How Data Enrichment Works Most data enrichment is handled by specialized platforms that plug directly into your CRM. These tools pull from public sources, commercial databases, and behavioral insights to complete and clean your existing records. The process can happen automatically when new leads enter your system or through scheduled updates to existing contacts.   For example, a lead submits a demo request with just their email and name. With enrichment, your system can instantly add their company role, industry, revenue range, and LinkedIn profile. That enriched profile helps your SDR understand who they’re talking to and what matters most to them.   Done right, enrichment removes the need for manual research and gives every team member access to the same reliable data in real time. Why Data Enrichment Matters for Sales and RevOps The impact of enrichment goes far beyond filling in blanks. It sharpens targeting, improves segmentation, and drives higher conversion across the funnel. Reps know who to call, what to say, and how to prioritize accounts that are more likely to close.   It also supports automation. Workflows like lead scoring, email cadences, and routing logic all depend on clean, complete data. If a job title or company field is missing, that workflow fails, or worse, it triggers the wrong action. Enrichment keeps these systems running smoothly and accurately.   For RevOps, enrichment unlocks better reporting and smarter strategy. Territory planning, campaign performance, pipeline health. None of these are reliable if your data is unreliable.   Ultimately, enriched data is only valuable if your team knows how to use it. Conquer helps reps act on enriched insights at the right moment, automatically surfacing the best contacts, guiding next steps, and triggering follow-ups directly inside Salesforce.   Want to see how top sales teams use it daily?

A Salesforce Administrator is responsible for managing and optimizing a company’s Salesforce environment. They ensure that Salesforce works smoothly for sales, service, and operations teams by configuring workflows, managing user access, updating data structures, and maintaining system integrity. Think of a Salesforce Admin as the operations engine behind your CRM. They’re the ones making sure your pipeline stages work, your reports are accurate, and your team has the right tools in place to do their jobs inside Salesforce. What Do Salesforce Admins Actually Do? Their responsibilities vary depending on the size of the company, but they typically include: Creating and maintaining dashboards, reports, and custom fields Managing user roles, permissions, and security settings Setting up automations using tools like Flow Troubleshooting system issues and cleaning up data Supporting new feature rollouts and integrations   They also work closely with sales, marketing, and RevOps leaders to align Salesforce with go-to-market strategy. If your SDRs need a new lead qualification field or your VP of Sales wants a custom forecast report, the Salesforce Admin is the one who builds it. Why Are Salesforce Admins So Important? For sales teams, a well-managed Salesforce environment can be the difference between hitting quota and wasting time. Without clean data, smart automations, and user-friendly processes, reps lose focus, and managers lose visibility.   Salesforce Admins make the system work for the team. They reduce manual tasks and friction in the sales cycle. In fast-moving teams, they also serve as the first line of defense when something breaks or changes quickly.   They play a critical role in driving adoption, ensuring the system evolves with the team. If Salesforce feels clunky or irrelevant, reps won’t use it. Admins help make sure the system is tailored to real workflows and adapted as those workflows evolve.   Salesforce Admins are behind the scenes, but they’re essential to front-line success. If you don’t have one in-house or need extra support, we can help. Through DeTal, we place trained, reliable Salesforce Administrators directly into your team. Flexible, cost-effective, and ready to hit the ground running.

PaaS, or Platform as a Service, is a cloud-based framework that allows teams to build, launch, and scale custom applications without having to manage the underlying infrastructure. For sales and RevOps teams, it means your developers can spin up internal tools, automations, or integrations without worrying about servers, updates, or maintenance. Instead of buying rigid software or waiting on IT, you can create the exact tools your team needs, from lead routing systems to reporting dashboards and custom enablement workflows. All hosted on a scalable, secure platform like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. How PaaS Supports Sales Enablement Sales enablement today is driven by fast, flexible tooling. PaaS gives your team the ability to build those tools in-house. Need a dynamic battlecard app that pulls from your CRM? Or a real-time lead prioritization tool based on intent signals? PaaS platforms make this possible, without the delays of full-scale software development.   The platform handles the heavy lifting behind the scenes: server management, security, data storage, version control, and scalability. Your dev team focuses only on building and deploying the features.   In high-growth sales environments, that kind of agility is a huge advantage. With no generic workflows or vendor timelines, you’re building the exact system your sales team needs to win. Why It Matters for Revenue Teams PaaS is the reason startups and lean sales teams can build like tech giants. It lowers the barrier to entry for advanced automation and custom workflows, allowing sales ops or RevOps leaders to move fast without compromising on quality or scale.   More importantly, it keeps you in control. You don’t have to buy new software every time your process changes. You can build lightweight solutions that live inside your existing stack and evolve them as your team grows.   At Conquer, we use the same approach. Our sales engagement platform runs natively inside Salesforce. It’s built for scale, speed, and real-time adaptability. Ready to see how your team can work smarter without switching tabs?

Sales enablement is the process of providing sales teams with the tools, content, training, and support they need to engage buyers effectively and close more deals.  Sales enablement builds a repeatable system that equips reps with the right content, tools, and support so they can sell more efficiently, close faster, and hit quota more consistently. How Sales Enablement Works Sales enablement is typically a cross-functional effort between sales and marketing. Marketing teams create and organize materials like case studies, battlecards, product one-pagers, and demo scripts. Sales enablement managers or operations leaders then make sure reps know how and when to use those assets.   It also includes onboarding programs, ongoing sales training, and tools that help reps manage their pipelines. CRM platforms, conversation intelligence software, and sales engagement tools all play a part in modern enablement strategies.   The goal isn’t just to give reps more content, it’s to make content more usable, more timely, and more aligned to the buyer’s journey. If a rep is speaking to a CFO in the final stages of a deal, sales enablement should surface the right cost justification material automatically. Why Sales Enablement Is Critical Without proper enablement, even the best reps struggle to perform at their peak. They waste time searching for materials, miss key follow-ups, or rely on outdated messaging. Sales enablement fills those gaps by creating a structure that supports sellers throughout the entire process.   It also drives alignment across teams. Marketing gets clearer feedback on what’s working in the field. Product teams learn how new features are landing with buyers. Sales leaders get visibility into which plays are actually moving deals forward.   Ultimately, sales enablement isn’t a “nice to have”. Teams that invest in enablement are more consistent, more scalable, and better prepared for growth.   Sales enablement works best when it’s embedded into the tools your reps already use. Conquer gives reps real-time call scripts, email templates, battlecards, and next steps directly within Salesforce.    Try it with your team with a free demo today.

Competitive intelligence is the process of collecting, analyzing, and applying information about your competitors to improve your company’s strategic decisions. This includes tracking their products, pricing, messaging, sales tactics, partnerships, and customer feedback.  Done well, competitive intelligence helps teams make smarter decisions, refine positioning, and support more strategic sales conversations. In B2B sales, competitive intelligence also helps your team anticipate objections, tailor messaging, and counter competing offers. It empowers reps to speak confidently about how your product stacks up and why it’s the better choice in a crowded market. How Does Competitive Intelligence Work Competitive intelligence can come from public sources like websites, social media, job boards, press releases, reviews, or pricing pages.    Sales and customer success teams also provide frontline insights based on conversations with prospects and clients. Internal documentation, such as battlecards or objection handling sheets, is often built from this combined knowledge.   Today, competitive intelligence isn’t gathered manually. Modern revenue tools help capture and surface insights automatically, tagging competitor mentions, tracking objections, and tying intel to specific deals. This reduces the burden on reps and makes competitive data instantly usable across teams.   The goal is to collect only what’s relevant, organize it in a useful way, and feed it back into your go-to-market engine. This can mean giving reps a quick reference guide on how to beat a specific competitor or helping marketing teams adjust positioning based on what’s resonating in the field.   For example, if a competitor suddenly drops their pricing or launches a new feature, your sales team can be ready with a response that reframes the conversation in your favor. Why It Matters in Sales Without competitive intelligence, you’re selling blind. Sales reps can lose deals simply because they’re unaware of what the buyer is comparing them to, or how their product wins in that comparison. With strong intel, your team can confidently navigate those conversations, preempt objections, and build trust.   It also allows your company to avoid reactive decision-making. Instead of scrambling to respond to market changes, you’re equipped with a steady flow of insights to guide your product roadmap, pricing strategy, and messaging.   In enterprise sales, where deals are complex and buyers are cautious, competitive intelligence can mean the difference between getting shortlisted or ghosted.   Competitive intelligence is most powerful when it’s shared across teams and baked into daily workflows. With Conquer Cadence, sales reps get real-time access to competitor insights—right inside Salesforce—so they’re never caught off guard.    Want to see it for yourself?

Cold calling is a sales technique where reps reach out to potential customers who haven’t shown prior interest in their product or service. It’s typically done over the phone and used to introduce an offering, qualify a lead, and start a sales conversation from scratch.   Despite its reputation, cold calling is still widely used, especially in outbound B2B sales. That’s because it can generate high-quality leads when paired with the right strategy and tools. How Cold Calling Works The cold calling process starts with building or buying a list of potential prospects. Sales reps then call each contact, aiming to quickly capture attention, explain the value of what they’re offering, and schedule a follow-up meeting or demo. A good cold call is short, respectful, and tailored. The rep should know who they’re calling, why the product is relevant, and how to handle objections without sounding robotic. Modern teams often include cold calls as part of a broader outreach cadence using email, LinkedIn, and other touchpoints to warm up the conversation. When Cold Calling Makes Sense Cold calling works best when your target market is clearly defined and your value proposition is strong. For example: If you’re selling a niche B2B service to a specific industry If your prospects are hard to reach through digital channels alone If your product requires explanation or a live conversation to show value   In these cases, cold calling uses real conversations to open doors. How to Improve Cold Calling Results Effective cold calling in 2025 is all about preparation and timing. Here’s what helps: Research your prospects before the call Use a structured but natural script Call during optimal hours (typically early morning or late afternoon) Track every touchpoint in your CRM Follow up consistently through multiple channels   Cold calling success is process-driven. And the right tools can make or break that process.   Looking to modernize your cold calling? Conquer’s Salesforce-native dialer lets reps work entirely within Salesforce. This way, they can call faster without switching tools, automatically log activity, and stay aligned with every deal in real time. 

B2C sales (business-to-consumer sales) refer to transactions where a company sells products or services directly to individual customers. It’s the kind of selling you see in retail stores, ecommerce websites, and subscription platforms. The focus is typically on high volume, lower prices, and quick decision-making.   Compared to B2B sales, which involve longer processes and more stakeholders, B2C sales usually target one buyer and emphasize emotional appeal, ease of purchase, and brand loyalty. B2C sales succeed when businesses can grab attention quickly, build trust fast, and create a seamless buying experience. How B2C Sales Work B2C sales often rely on marketing-driven strategies to generate interest. Think social media ads, email campaigns, influencer promotions, and point-of-sale strategies. Once a potential customer lands on the website or walks into a store, the goal is to convert that interest into a sale, often in just a few clicks or interactions.   In most cases, there’s no dedicated sales rep involved. Instead, the product page, checkout process, or customer service chatbot does the selling. That makes user experience, website performance, and brand messaging critical to conversion. Types of B2C Sales There are many formats, but some common B2C models include: Retail sales: Online or in-store sales of physical goods to consumers. Subscription services: Monthly or annual billing for products or content, like streaming platforms or meal kits. Direct-to-consumer (DTC): Brands that bypass traditional retailers and sell directly through their own websites.   The common thread? B2C buyers typically make decisions alone and expect quick delivery, smooth service, and easy returns. What Makes B2C Sales Challenging? While B2C sales can be faster than B2B, they’re not necessarily easier. Competition is intense, and customer expectations are high. One negative review, slow-loading page, or clunky checkout experience can cost you the sale and possibly the customer (for good).   Since most B2C buyers won’t speak to a salesperson, your content, visuals, and digital tools have to do the heavy lifting. That’s why personalization, retargeting, and mobile-first design are so crucial.   If your business sells directly to consumers, you need systems that can scale, track behavior, and automate follow-up. Conquer can help you streamline your outreach and connect B2C-style workflows to your CRM. Take a closer look inside the platform.

B2B sales (business-to-business sales) refer to transactions where one company sells products or services to another company, rather than to an individual consumer. It typically involves larger deal sizes, longer sales cycles, and multiple stakeholders involved in the buying decision. In contrast to B2C sales (business-to-consumer), which are often driven by emotion or personal preference, B2B sales require a more strategic approach focused on solving real business problems. The goal is to deliver measurable value that improves operations, reduces costs, or drives growth for the client company. How B2B Sales Works B2B sales usually begin with lead generation and outreach. This can happen through cold calls, email cadences, content marketing, events, or referrals.  Once a potential client expresses interest, sales teams move through stages like discovery, product demos, proposal, negotiation, and close. Depending on the product or service, this process can take weeks or even months. Most B2B sales are handled by dedicated account executives or sales development representatives (SDRs), who work in coordination with marketing teams. These salespeople often build long-term relationships with clients, focusing on trust and ongoing value delivery. Types of B2B Sales There are two primary types of B2B sales: Transactional B2B sales, where companies buy straightforward products like office supplies or software licenses. Complex B2B sales, which involve technical products, long-term contracts, or custom solutions, are common in SaaS, manufacturing, and enterprise services. Complex B2B sales often require input from decision-makers across departments like IT, finance, and operations, making coordination and communication key. What Makes B2B Sales Challenging? The B2B process can be slower and more layered than consumer sales. You’re often selling to teams rather than individuals. This means addressing different priorities. What matters to a CEO may be different from what matters to a procurement officer.  It also means you need a system to stay organized, follow up at the right time, and tailor your message to each stakeholder. If your company sells to other businesses, having a strong B2B sales process is essential for growth. Done well, B2B sales build long-term relationships, drive recurring revenue, and position your business as a trusted partner.

Account-based sales is an omnichannel B2B sales method in which each target company (also known as an “account”) is treated as its own “market.” Sales representatives develop a unique, highly personalized sales strategy for each potential business customer. By customizing their messaging for each lead, sales reps hope to increase their conversion and retention rates. How Does Account-Based Sales Work? Because account-based sales seek to strengthen customer relationships, your customers will come to expect high-quality engagements at each step of the sales pipeline. Due to the large amount of effort required, account-based sales needs buy-in from other teams as well: not only from your sales reps but also from marketing, customer service, finance, and product development. This account-based model can also be used in other business functions, such as “account-based marketing.” When used across the organization, it’s often called “account-based everything.” Account-based sales need a lot of attention and investment, which means it isn’t the right fit for every product (or even for every organization). For example, if you sell a basic software product with a monthly $40 subscription fee to a wide audience, the effort required for account-based sales likely isn’t worth it. On the other hand, if you sell highly specialized software to a niche audience that pays a high price for your services, account-based sales can help improve your conversion rate, which will dramatically increase your bottom-line revenue. What are the Benefits of Account-Based Sales? The advantages of an account-based sales approach include: A high degree of personalization: Study after study has shown that highly personalized sales messaging, as used in account-based sales, is more effective in gaining people’s interest and converting them to paying customers. Targeted messaging: Account-based sales allow you to target multiple people within an organization, using targeted messaging for each one. For example, CEOs may be more receptive to information about how your product increases productivity and efficiency, while CFOs might be looking for how your product cuts costs. Account-based sales are an invaluable tactic for increasing business revenue. What’s more, it can be made even more effective with the right sales technology for digitally transforming your business. Are you looking for a sales engagement solution that can improve the performance of your sales team? Conquer can help. Book a meeting with our sales team today to discuss how Conquer Cadence, the only Sales Engagement Platform Truly Native to Salesforce, can help your team.

Cadence software is a tool or application that allows sellers to leverage omni-channel (email, phone, video, social, text) sales cadences to communicate with prospects and customers. Defining and implementing the right sales cadences can mean the difference between a dysfunctional sales workflow and an automated sales workflow that dramatically increases your revenue and grows the business. Sales cadence software tools are therefore essential to unlocking your sales representatives’ success and productivity and achieving successful sales management. The Benefits of Cadence Software Include: Greater predictability: With cadence software, all sales reps have access to the same information and workflows at their fingertips. This introduces predictability and reliability into your sales processes, rather than haphazard attempts at lead conversion. Scaling your sales pipeline: Thanks to sales automation, cadence software helps your sales reps free up more of the finite hours in their workday. As a result, it’s dramatically easier to scale your sales pipeline and reach out to more leads in less time. Cadence software should help you with the various components of building a sales cadence: Timing (days of the week and times of day to make contact) Frequency (how often to reach out to prospects) Channel (communication methods such as phone calls, emails, social media, etc.) Audience (the various groups and segments of different types of prospects) Content (sales material such as e-books, white papers and case studies) Another name for cadence software is a sales engagement platform. At Conquer, we have the only SEP truly native to Salesforce – Conquer Cadence. Want to learn more? Book a meeting with our sales team today to discuss how Conquer Cadence, the only Sales Engagement Platform Truly Native to Salesforce, can help your team.

Digital sales is the term used to describe a sales rep’s utilization of virtual channels to contact potential prospects, provide them with education on your product or service and ultimately provide them with a solution that satisfies their unique needs. Digital sales give sales reps the ability to build relationships through both social and digital channels. This methodology was popularized during the pandemic but is likely here to stay. Digital sales aren’t intended to completely replace traditional sales, but rather exist to enhance sales through the use of digital channels. These digital channels give you much needed access to key information that, in turn, helps you make smarter, quicker decisions. How to Create a Digital Sales Model There are several different strategies you can utilize in the creation of your digital sales model. First and foremost is the use of customer data. Whether this includes data your business already has on file or data you and your business can collect from social media profiles and the like, this customer data helps you to better understand your customer and better sell to them specifically. Another key component of the creation of a digital sales model is the utilization of digital channels. Whether it be social media, email, text messaging or video, digital channels can help you create a digital sales model that gets the most out of its virtual channels. Beyond this, there’s also the distribution of digital content to your leads. From personalized content you created yourself to curated content you gathered from third party sources to online case studies that show real-world examples of your product or service in action, digital content can take your digital sales model to the next level. A critical tool for a digital sales model is a sales engagement platform that allows your sales team to reach prospects via omnichannel sales cadences. Want to learn more about Conquer’s SEP? Book a meeting with our sales team today.

An email cadence is a sequence of emails sent to prospects and customers via a sales engagement platform. Getting an email cadence right can mean the difference between a company that feels annoying to customers – and one that feels valuable, informative and worth building a strong relationship with. When your business depends on making sales regularly to generate revenue, you should be using every channel available to you to reach potential leads and prospects. One of the most important avenues through which you should be communicating to potential customers today is email. If you can master the sales email, you can ensure you get your company on your audience’s radar—then ultimately convince them to buy. An important part of nailing sales emails is nailing the right email cadence. Mastering Email Cadences Here are some tips so you can master email cadence at your company: Sign up for competitors’ newsletters or email lists to see their nurturing sequence/email cadence. This can give you some good insight into what other companies in your field are doing, and to see if it feels like it works—or pushes you away. Use a data collecting and analyzing tool. Data is your friend when it comes to getting the rhythm of your emails right, so make concrete, information-based decisions instead of guessing when to send your emails. Get customer feedback. Your leads and customers may simply respond or unsubscribe to your emails, letting you know your email cadence isn’t quite right. Use their feedback to guide how you tweak the cadence. Emails are a critical part of any sales cadence. Conquer Cadence allows you to create email cadences directly within Salesforce. Want to learn more about Conquer Cadence? Book a meeting with our sales team today.

Guided selling is a sales process that allows sellers to have better buyer engagements by helping them deliver the right message, via the right channels at the right time, eliminating the guesswork, and giving them more time to do what they do best – sell. Today, people who work in digital sales can consistently rely on technology to help improve their sales processes. Guided selling is a seller-centric process of utilizing technological sales tools to help sales team members find more potential customers, nurture more leads, and close more deals in a more efficient manner than ever before. What Is Guided Selling? The Basics B2B buyer journeys are faster than ever today, with more knowledge and information always at everyone’s fingertips. To close more deals, B2B salespeople need access to data-driven insights, which can guide how they engage with their leads. When businesses utilize a guided selling process, they create a consistent system by which all sellers approach and nurture their customers. Guided selling is often done using a sales engagement platform and uses buyer data to ensure that every customer interaction is meaningful and effective and that every action taken by a seller adds value to a potential customer’s journey — so at every touchpoint with a potential seller, they feel more driven to buy. Guided Selling: The Benefits Guided selling codifies and creates a consistent selling process based on data. This helps all salespeople at an organization close deals, regardless of their experience or the depth of their relationship with potential customers. There are more benefits to guided selling, including: More time selling: With guided selling, reps don’t have to worry about when they should send messages and via what channels as they are leveraging a pre-built sales cadence that streamlines the selling process. Reps become invaluable consultants: Guided selling allows sales reps to become subject matter and product experts in their field. Customers can completely rely on a sales rep to know what they need and when they’ll need it. Reps create repeat buyers: With sales reps who are so good at knowing what a customer needs and when they need it, customers are happy with their buying experience — and they return to buy the next product or service when they’ve outgrown their first purchase because the first purchase met their needs so well. Learn how Conquer can help your company with guided selling. Book a meeting with our sales team today!

Inside sales is a selling process that takes place remotely—rather than from within any office-based environment. The process of inside sales differs from selling in the days of yore, once called “outside sales”; no longer do inside sales professionals rely on any in-person meetings between the salesperson (or team) and their lead or potential customer. Inside Sales: A Tech-Reliant Sales Technique Instead of in-person meetings, inside sales teams rely on technological solutions to handle the selling process from the comfort of their own office (or remote workspace), and they may utilize a range of tools to help them communicate with leads in an effective manner, like the computer, smartphone, or even social media networks. Sometimes, inside sales is done via email communications—and sometimes, inside sales teams use telephone technology, in conjunction with integrated sales software, that helps them sell via phone and keep track of every interaction along the way. You may have heard the term before, and wondered: what is inside sales? One reason you may not have heard the term—despite the popularity of the process—is because the selling technique has become so ubiquitous that nearly all people mean “inside sales” when they simply use the term “sales.” Benefits of Inside Sales Inside sales works for both B2C and B2B businesses, but it has been more comprehensively adopted in the B2B realm. Why are inside sales so important and what are the benefits of adopting an inside sales approach? Boosted productivity: Conduct all selling from your desk, without needing to take time to travel and meet with potential leads in person Happier customers: Surveys show that even customers prefer to be sold to via online or phone communication, and not in-person meetings. Choose the type of selling that most appeals to the people whose buy-in you want. More streamlined in-office processes: Inside sales allows you to communicate from the office and keep track of all interactions in one place. That way anyone in any department can see how a lead has been contacted and where they’re at in the process, and it can help ensure there is no redundant communication, and that everyone is addressed in a way that moves the process forward. No more selling, marketing, or offering support in silos. Ready to learn more about Conquer Cadence? Book a meeting with our sales team today!

Lead response time is the average amount of time it takes for a sales representative to respond to a lead. This can include anything from filling out a form, downloading content, answering a call, responding to an email, or any other form of contact. Being the first to respond to a lead can dramatically increase your chances of winning the deal. Why Lead Response Time Matters Lead response time is important because of the proven way it can secure deals for your business. Lead response time can also help your business gauge which lead will be the most worthwhile for you and your sales reps. For example, someone who requested a demo from you is going to be a more critical lead to follow up with than a lead who merely subscribed to your newsletter. The faster your lead response time, the more likely you are to win the deal. Calculating Lead Response Time Now, with a better understanding of lead response time, it’s important for you to form your sales strategy around an improved lead response time. You can do this by creating a formula: (Time and date of new lead contacting you) – (time and date of your response) = your lead response time (Amount of time it took to respond to all your leads) / (number of leads who contacted you in total) = your average lead response time Depending on how fast it takes you to respond, this amount of time in the equations can be in minutes, hours, days, or maybe even weeks. Whatever the lead response time may be, it’s essential for you to implement this formula into your sales strategy so that you can improve it and, in turn, win more deals. Guided selling can help improve your lead response time by providing your sales teams with the sales cadences they need to reach out to inbound leads so they aren’t creating messages from scratch. Learn how Conquer can help with guided selling. Book time with our sales team now.

Native sales engagement is a sales engagement that is built directly – or natively – into the CRM so sales reps do not have to switch back and forth between applications when communicating with prospects and customers. Native sales engagement comes with numerous benefits, including the elimination of any type of bi-directional sync between two applications. This means that your data and reports will be accurate and up-to-date in real time. Additionally, sales reps no longer need to switch between separate applications as they will have all their omnichannel communication needs directly in the CRM. The benefits don’t only extend to the sales team. IT and security teams will have much fewer headaches as native sales engagement doesn’t require additional security reviews because companies have already completed that process when implementing their CRM. Many sales engagement vendors will try and sell you on their applications being native but only one is truly native, Conquer Cadence. Built directly in Salesforce, Conquer Cadence is the ONLY truly native SEP on the market. We don’t require a bi-directional data sync. Ever. Book some time with our sales team to see it for yourself. You can also take a quick product tour here.

A sales cadence is a sequence of sales activities or outreach methods that members on sales teams can use to create and nurture relationships with leads, so that they can ultimately encourage their prospects to take concrete steps towards becoming buyers. Sales cadences, as their names suggest, have a rhythm to them, and they unfold over time. The sales cadence is a selling strategy used by sales teams of all sizes and at all types of companies. Teams rely on sales cadences because they spread the sales process out into several strategic intervals. These intervals ensure you stay top of mind for a potential buyer—but that you don’t overwhelm or annoy a lead with your persistence. If you’ve been wondering, what is sales cadence? It can help to know that a sales cadence doesn’t just involve scheduled phone calls or emails. The entire process can take place over various types of selling technology or platforms, including: Social media networks Phone calls Text messages Emails Videos And more. Not only does a sales cadence allow reps to be more productive but it also allows for managers and reps to test messaging and touchpoints to determine which are most effective for prospecting. For example, sales teams can tell whether leads are most likely to respond to phone calls or emails, whether they’re most likely to buy after a social media message or a text message, and whether most buy after 3 points of contact, or they need at least 5. As a sales team member uses a sales cadence, they can continuously refine it, get more effective at selling, and sell more. Looking for a solution to build and leverage sales cadences? Try Conquer Cadence, the only truly native sales engagement platform for Salesforce. Talk to our sales team today!

Sales engagement is the collective set of interactions between your sales team and your prospective buyers and current customers, often conducted via an omni-channel cadence within a sales engagement platform. These touchpoints can include email, phone calls, social media, videos, and sms messages. In today’s increasingly stratified, atomized digital landscape, just getting a prospect’s attention is enough of a challenge. According to Gartner, for example, it can take 18 or more calls to connect with a prospective buyer over the phone. It’s not hard to see why so many businesses see the value of gathering sales engagement data. Sales engagement gives organizations cold, hard, data-driven information about the successes and shortcomings of their sales operations. The benefits of sales engagement include: Determining which sales content, activities, tactics and practices are the most effective and which need refinement and improvement. Creating standardized benchmarks for different stages of the sales process. Improving team members’ pitches and conversion rates, ultimately increasing sales revenue. Tracking individual team members’ performance to identify training and coaching opportunities. Most importantly, sales engagement is an essential technique because it helps your sales representatives understand the best way to tailor their messaging to different segments and prospects. Your sales reps’ time is a valuable commodity: one study found that representatives spend just 35 percent of their time, on average, in revenue-generating activities (i.e. selling). Rather than wasting time on content or audiences that are unlikely to be productive, sales reps can use the guided selling functionality made possible with a sales engagement platform to invest more of their effort into the most promising prospects or topics. In order to automate and improve the sales engagement process, many businesses make use of sales engagement software that helps centralize and enhance the various components of sales engagement. Ready to implement sales engagement at your company? Talk to our sales team to see how Conquer Cadence, the only truly native Sales Engagement Platform for Salesforce, can help shorten sales cycles, increase productivity and drive more revenue.

A Sales engagement platform, or a sales engagement software, is a software application that supports sales engagement activities within your organization by enabling sellers to utilize omni-channel sales cadences to drive revenue. Sales engagement refers to the interactions between your sales team and your prospective buyers before converting them into paying customers. Sales engagement platforms aim to collate and centralize all of the touchpoints between your business and your sales leads. However, with hundreds or thousands of prospects and many thousands of touchpoints among these prospects, manually keeping track of these interactions is nearly impossible—and a waste of time in any event. That’s where sales engagement software comes in. The goals of sales engagement platforms include: Automating low-level and repetitive parts of the sales process. For example, you can schedule an automated email once prospects enter their contact details on your website and follow up with a personalized call a few days later. Integrating data and conversations across different sources and channels. Sales engagement software helps your sales representatives access all the information on a given prospect in a single centralized location, saving valuable time. The benefits of sales engagement platforms include: Greater productivity and efficiency: By incorporating workflow automation into your sales process, sales engagement software frees up your sales reps’ valuable time to concentrate on higher-level activities that generate more revenue. Data-driven decision-making: Sales engagement software gives your sales team more information on your sales process from start to finish, from email open rates to social media clicks and shares. In turn, you can use these insights and metrics to optimize your sales workflow iteratively. Higher revenues: Ultimately, by increasing both the volume and the quality of your interactions with leads, sales engagement software seeks to make your sales team more successful and help your business revenues grow. Are you in the market for a sales engagement platform? Conquer can help. Get in touch with us today to chat about your business needs.

A sales playbook is a document that outlines tactics, best practices and strategies to tackle each stage of the selling process effectively. This detailed document should be tailored to your company and sales team, covering buyer personas, KPIs, discovery call questions, sample scripts, negotiations and anything else a sales rep would need to know to close successfully. Why Write a Sales Playbook? Taking the time to create a sales playbook is an excellent investment, as it will yield the following benefits. Make the training process more efficient — When you clearly explain who your customers are, what their pain points are and how they buy products, this makes the training process much easier. This step benefits both the sales team and the company. Make sales reps more productive — A strategic playbook frees up time for selling, which is more time to nurture leads and close deals. Highlight the most effective selling techniques — Share the most effective selling strategies and plays used by successful team members. Tip: Think of your sales playbook as a manual and a sales play as a tutorial. You can create these plays for specific stages in the sales pipeline or varying types of customers. How to Create a Sales Playbook The following steps are meant to guide you toward a sales playbook that will support your sales team. Remember to adjust each step based on your customers, goals and overall business model. Review and update your sales process. Focus on your latest products and features, how your reps sell, goals, buyer personas and so on. Outline your goals when creating a sales playbook — what do you want to achieve? Determine who will be involved in the process of creating a sales playbook, such as sales reps, marketing team members, managers, etc. Align your marketing and sales teams, focusing on communication and collaboration. Collect critical information on your buyer personas to share with reps (update as your business grows). Provide education on products and features. Reps need a deep understanding of what they are selling. Choose your plays to determine the focus of your sales playbook. Share and then track the success of your sales playbook. Don’t forget to include: An overview of your company, providing details about the sales organization, including how manages the team and the targets reps are expected to hit. Selected plays, ranging from a demo play to a lead qualification play, use case play to a closing play. Product or service overview, which is easy to read and reference. This overview should include core value points, use cases, pricing, etc. Explain each step of the sales process so that reps can easily refer to each phase. Specific KPIs and goals, sharing the most important metrics. Buyer personas so that reps can target unique needs and pain points. Resources to support reps every step of the way, sharing sample case studies, demo videos, etc. Are you in the market for a sales engagement platform? Conquer can help. Get in touch

A sales sequence, also called a sales cadence or a sales campaign, is a series of clearly delineated steps to convert your prospects into paying customers. Sales sequences usually contain between five to seven steps, and take an omnichannel approach. In other words, the steps in a sales sequence may consist of emails, phone calls, text messages, social media messages, or other points of contact—whatever you’ve discovered is most effective through sales analytics. What Are the Benefits of a Sales Sequence? Without a clear-cut sales sequence, too many sales representatives adopt a haphazard approach. They may give up after just one or two attempts to reach a promising lead or even forget about prospects they haven’t spoken to in a while. The purpose of defining your sales sequence is to remove ambiguity from your sales pipeline. By adopting a sales sequence, your sales representatives can all be on the same page, helping to establish best practices and remove the guesswork from the process. What Are the Components of a Sales Sequence? Businesses may choose to define many different components as parts of their sales sequence. One important element is the messaging to use during each contact. This may include: A welcome message for new prospects Nurturing messages to demonstrate your company’s value Engagement messages that ask prospects to actively engage with your content Conversion messages that seek to convert prospects into customers Follow-up messages that ensure customers are satisfied and engaged after conversion Other components of a sales sequence may include the type of channels used for given messages, the length of time between each contact, and the maximum number of attempts to reach out to a prospect. What Technology Is Used for a Sales Sequence? Sales sequences can be optimized through techniques such as workflow automation. When a prospect takes a certain action (e.g., viewing a webinar or downloading a white paper), you can automatically initiate the next step in your sales sequence (e.g., sending an email or scheduling a phone call). To efficiently perform sales management, high-performing sales organizations use sales sequence software. These applications help you manage, organize, automate, and personalize the messages of your sales sequence. They also integrate with other sales software such as CRM (customer relationship management) and sales intelligence applications, helping you enact a digital sales transformation. Are you looking to optimize your own sales sequence? Conquer can help. Get in touch with us today for a chat about your business needs and a free demo of our omnichannel sales engagement platform.

Social selling is a sales strategy in which businesses leverage the power of their social media accounts to sell directly to their followers and connections. While the validity of this statement is up for debate, what’s clear is that many businesses are looking for alternate sales methods to reach and convert prospective customers. One major problem with outbound sales is that businesses have no guarantee that their audience will even want to buy their offerings. Social selling is intended to address exactly this issue. Users who have chosen to view or follow your social media accounts are dramatically more likely to be interested in their products and services. Social selling likely shouldn’t be your entire sales pipeline, selling on social media can be an invaluable part of the sales engagement process. For example, you can schedule content to be posted at specific times, increasing the amount of sales automation in your pipeline. Using social selling can also help you get a better handle on your sales analytics. Social media platforms provide a wealth of information about the performance of your content (e.g. the number of impressions or engagements for a given post). This helps you understand which content is most effective so that you can refine your social selling efforts. Social media platforms are also an excellent opportunity for you to connect with prospects and customers more intimately and to use personalized messaging. For example, you can operate a chatbot that reaches out to prospects and customers who frequently engage with your content, or who have made a recent purchase. Given the advantages of social selling, it’s no surprise that it seems to be an effective sales technique. According to LinkedIn, 78 percent of businesses that use social selling have higher revenues than competitors that don’t use this tactic, while sales reps are 51 percent more likely to reach their quotas with social selling. Social selling is an important part of an omnichannel sales strategy that spans phone calls, emails, SMS, and more. Are you looking to improve your own sales pipeline? Conquer can help. Get in touch with us today for a chat about your business needs and a free demo of our omnichannel sales engagement platform.

Speed to lead is a measure of lead response time in the sales process. When a potential customer fills out a form, makes a demo request, or initiates contact with your company in another way, how fast is your response time? The longer it takes to respond to inbound leads, the less likely it is that your business will connect with them and convert them into paying customers. Why is speed to lead so important? If you’re not meeting or exceeding your speed to lead benchmark, then you’re losing out on potential business and revenue. Speed to lead matters for the following reasons: Customer experience Faster lead response times improve the customer experience. If a prospect has to wait hours to hear back from one of your sales reps, the message is loud and clear: “We don’t value your business.” Bad customer experience causes churn and revenue loss because dissatisfied customers turn to other companies to meet their needs. Quality of leads Potential customers that have taken the time to reach out to you are likely to be very excited about your solution to their problems. The longer your sales team waits to respond, the more likely it is that the lead will lose interest. Maximizing your marketing buck It doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of money on marketing then lose out on potential customers because of poor lead response times. Great speed-to-lead response time ensures that your time and money spent on marketing is rewarded with quick sales. What are best practices for response times? Should they be within 5 minutes, or is 24 hours more reasonable? Response time will vary across businesses. However, in most industries you should aim for response times of less than an hour. Look at industry benchmarks to get a sense of how your company compares. How to improve your speed to lead There are several ways to improve your speed to lead. Use a Sales Engagement Platform A sales engagement platform can enroll your leads into a sales cadence to improve your speed to lead time and engage with inbound prospects in minutes. Hire more sales reps Increasing the size of your sales team can definitely improve your speed to lead. However, it’s not scalable and can be very costly. Incorporate lead response times This keeps reps accountable for their time and ensures they respond and connect with as many leads as possible. Use automation Can you automate steps in your sales funnel? If you’re struggling to provide quick responses, it might be time to invest in chatbots or virtual assistants that can help you respond to leads. Train customer acquisition skills Sales teams need training to stay on top of their lead response times. They should know when to respond, when leads are ready to progress through the sales funnel, and how much time they have before leads fall off. Route leads Channel the right leads to the right sales reps. Use technology to work out which team members are available to

A text cadence is a sequence of text messaging touchpoints to engage with customers and prospects via a sales engagement platform. You may think of texting as a means of communicating with loved ones through your mobile device without having to pick up the phone. But, if you work at a business that relies on sales to operate, then you may be overlooking the power of the text as a professional tool. Texting is a great way for companies to reach customers who don’t want to get on the phone and who don’t have the time or patience to check their email inbox. With texts, you can reach prospects on the go, and you can communicate in a way that is efficient and appreciated—not bothersome or intrusive. One of the keys to getting texting right for your business is mastering a text cadence. When you master a text cadence, you nail the rhythm and frequency of your texting so it draws leads in and does not push them away. The Basics of a Text Cadence Texting your potential customers can be a tricky business. You don’t want to annoy them and feel like you’re invading their time or space. But, you don’t want to be so infrequent with your texts that they forget about you, or that they think you don’t value their potential business. By mastering a text cadence, you get the texting frequency right, so you know that you’re nurturing a relationship via smartphone, but not becoming a burden for customers. Here are tips to make sure you’ve got the right texting rhythm. Understand the Preferences of Your Leads and Customers Ask your leads if they are enjoying your texts or if they are too frequent (or infrequent). Your best source of feedback is the people you are trying to communicate with. They can let you know whether your cadence is spot on—or whether you can change it a bit to fit more with their needs. Look at Data and Insights Use a solution that can analyze customer interactions to see if your current texting efforts are working. Tracks all customer activity to get insights into whether your sales efforts are working or whether you need to tweak them. Data is your best source of knowledge. By using actionable insights from numbers and information, you can ensure that you’re making concretely-informed decisions.