Sales 2.0 Gains Steam As Data Shows Payoffs In Conversion Rates, Shorter Sales Cycles

In another spin on the application of Sales 2.0 techniques, Mark Roberge, VP of Sales at Hubspot, shared insights into how the company has expanded to more than 60 salespeople and over 2,800 customers in just three years. Roberge also presented examples of how the fast growing company focuses its team on the key metric of Customer Lifetime Value divided by Cost of Customer Acquisition (CLTV/COCA). “That ratio is a big metric in SaaS and applies to most sales organizations. The mistake we made early on – and that perhaps others make – is putting too much emphasis on the initial revenue stream and not putting enough emphasis on what it took to get that revenue stream and how it evolved over time,” Roberge said.

By taking a metrics-based approach to revenue generation, Roberge pointed out that Hubspot is able to take a longer-term view into profitable growth. “Sales 2.0 has helped us make smarter decisions on which leads we prioritize and how much effort we put into them,” he said. “While it makes us feel good to focus on leads that move aggressively into the pipeline, those might not become big deals over time. There are other deals that are a hell of a time to get in and through the pipeline. But once we get them they’re extremely valuable deals.”

Helping to quantify the impact of Sales 2.0 tools and techniques, Peter Ostrow, Research Director of Sales Effectiveness Practice, at Aberdeen Group, presented data from the company’s new report, “Optimizing Lead-to-Win: Shrinking the Sales Cycle and Focusing Closers on Sealing More Deals.” Highlights from that report included companies deemed as Best-in-Class showing a lead conversion rate of 44% versus 26% for Industry Average companies, and only 11% for so-called Laggard companies. Ostrow also shared data showing Best-in-Class companies had seen an 8.4% reduction in sales cycle times.