Host:Steven Elsham & Robert Brown -Oracle 

Oracle fundamentally changed how sales reps generate a pipeline and drive coverage across their accounts. In this presentation, they demonstrate how they use analytics to inject opportunities into the pre-pipe to drive coverage and use best-practice pre-pipe and pipeline management processes to dramatically increase deal conversion rates, the number of won opportunities, forecasting accuracy and revenue.

They explain how they focus on the industrialisation of the demand generation process for field sales (and telesales) and the metrication of the sales organisation, monitoring activities and other leading indicators rather than trailing indicators such as pipeline and revenue to drive the right results.

Forced by a rapidly changing market for applications software moving from on-premise to software-as-a-service which has introduced a very different set of competitors; Steven describes how his team redefined the sales process in the Oracle Applications business in the UK. The transition has been so successful these new processes and practices are being adopted globally across Oracle’s 30,000 strong sales organisation.

The results have been dramatic: growing revenues over 85% in the first year of operation, over 50% in the second, increasing sales rep participation rates from less than 30% to over 80% and reducing forecast variance from over 30% to less than 7%.

Key takeaways:

• How Oracle have changed its rep-driven pipeline to:
• create more closable deals, 
• increase deal closure rates
• improve forecast accuracy leading to a more predictable, easier to manage and less stressful business

• How the use of detailed analytics enables Oracle to: 
• identify weaknesses in the Demand Generation process so recovery plans can be established early
• orchestrate and co-ordinate a Demand Generation engine of over 1000 people across the whole of Western Europe including Marketing, Telemarketing, Field Sales, Product Strategy and Alliances & Channels