Deal Scoring: What Is It About?

We are often asked a few questions about deal scoring, sales forecasting, sales training, and sales coaching.

 So we decided to document them and share them.

• Is deal scoring used for forecasting and coaching? Or just forecasting?
  • It’s all of the above.
  • Senior Execs/Board want it more for forecasting and forecasting accuracy.
  • This then means VPs/Dir/Mgr/ICs would be wise to embrace.  
  • I am not sure how people could expect a forecasting tool to be used properly if it was not used to actually help reps become better at different parts of the sales motion.  
• Do you base your scoring criteria on a sales methodology?
  • Another “it depends”.
  • What is a clear definition of “scoring” in your organization? And can that definition make sense from the top of the org to the IC inputting the data?
    • If not, it may not be the right definition.
  • The key to any successful sales methodology and/or forecasting comes down to a few of the following items:
    • Clear naming of stages (Suspect, Prospect, Qualifying, Discovery, Selection, Negotiation, Closing)
      • NOT STAGE NAMES: Demo, Proposal Sent, etc. 
    • Clearly defined Exit Criteria. Often, a specific activity, such as meeting scheduled, meeting occurred, demo scheduled, demo occurred, title engaged, commercial terms discussed, commercial terms verbally agreed upon, resources available, commitment to introductions, etc. 
• Is there automation that scores deals effectively?
  • A specific definition for “effectively” must be written out and again agreed upon throughout the organization. People will become frustrated if it’s only for the execs to use to report to the board.
  • If you are tracking specific activities, this could be automated to a degree.
  • Biggest gaps continue to be:
    • Capturing details of omnichannel conversations, including call recordings, Zoom recordings, email, text, and LinkedIn. 
      • This includes conversations with prospects, as well as our own internal conversations around the deals in pipeline reviews.
    • Capturing sentiment, including pace, tone of voice, and eye contact, emails opened, click-throughs on information shared, time spent on documents shared with the prospect, etc.  
    • Taking it back to the team for a discussion. “We aren’t there, so the best we can do is teach the reps how to make discoveries of the non-present influencers/deciders/skeptics.”  
• Tools – Garbage in = Garbage Out
  • If these tools are not fully owned, coordinated, and shared between teams they will simply fail. 
  • Probably between Revenue Ops and Sales Enablement Teams.
  • If they are not properly implemented with the right integrations, definitions, and consistent sales training, they will not be worth what is paid for them. 
  • Tool fatigue and bloatedness are real. 
• Tools I like:
  • Salesforce, Salesloft/Outreach, Regie.ai, Atrium, Gong/Chorus, Humantic, Sybill (actually does some sentiment scoring of conversations), and Zoom.
  • Yes, I am an advisor for some of these, so be sure to do your due diligence, have your clear definitions of needs, and then make them prove they can solve them. On the other hand, if you don’t know, then you should judge those reps by their ability to help you figure it out.

If you feel something is off feel free to chime in on the comments. We want to hear it!