We held our second annual customer summit last week, focusing on how real B2B sales teams implement dynamic books. First, a big thank you to all our amazing customers! Because of you, the event was a tremendous success. And a special thank you to our speakers from Box, Gusto and Procurify for their time, willingness to share what they’ve learned, and their overall support..
The sessions featured discussions on strategy, successfully deploying dynamic books, and the need for organizational buy-in.
Here are some takeaways from the summit, directly from the words of our speakers.
The good, bad and gotchas of rolling out dynamic books
"This has been my favorite transformational system change for our business."
- Nora Soza, Sr Director, GTM Strategy at Box
Nora’s session highlighted Box’s leap into the world of dynamic territories, revolutionizing they tackle how account prioritization for their ideal customer profile (ICP). Previously, junior Account Executives (AEs) at Box found themselves managing up to 2,000 accounts, often without knowing how to properly prioritize them. But times have changed. Now, these AEs are well-armed with the tools to pinpoint and chase high-potential accounts, breaking free from geographic limits and leveling the playing field in their sales territories.
The communications plan was crucial for securing buy-in across the organization, helping AEs understand the substantial business value of the initiative and instilling a sense of ownership and accountability among the team. They're now using performance metrics like deal size and sales cycle speed to track the impact of this dynamic book management, and guess what? The numbers are already going up.
The strategy keeps evolving, driven by ongoing refinements to their measurement frameworks and a partnership with the marketing team to pump up lead quality. This is a feedback-driven journey, and Nora’s quick to point out, “You’re never going to get it right the first time, creating channels to get feedback and figuring out how to implement it is how this works, however, this has been my favorite transformational system change for our business...” indicating a positive shift in both mindset and operations within Box.
Territories kill rep productivity: How to build dynamic books
“You can't just tell them [reps] something, you have to show them. Within a few months, I had people slacking me about how cool it was.”
- Jamie Edwards, Head of GTM Operations & Tools at Gusto
Jamie brings a seasoned perspective to Gusto's innovative twists on account management, particularly within their partnerships team that works with accounting firms. Under Jamie's guidance, Gusto has transitioned from a traditional territory-driven model to a dynamic approach that emphasizes engagement rather than just equal distribution of accounts. This shift isn't just about numbers; it's about fostering genuine connections and strategic interactions that boost the focus and efficiency of account managers.
However, introducing such change wasn't a cakewalk. Jamie encountered his fair share of skepticism and resistance. As he puts it, “...there was still a ton of pushback. Because I think for a lot of folks you have to see it. You can't just be told something, and as a RevOps person I absolutely believe that like you can't just tell me this thing works. I need to see it in action. Within a few months. It was amazing to see the amount of people who would slack me or send me a message just saying, hey, I'm actually really excited and happy with what I'm getting in my book now, I actually know how to work these accounts…”
Jamie states: “If you're even considering dynamic books, you're already halfway to implementing them.” He champions this approach for its power to create deeper, more impactful customer relationships, increasing positive business results and pushing rep productivity to new heights.
Using micro verticals to increase outbound focus
"If I knew about Gradient Works earlier that would've been awesome, I'm really appreciative of the experience so far."
-Evgenia Vereshchak, Director of Sales Operations at Procurify
Evgenia has steered Procurify from a mainly inbound-driven framework to a more outbound-centric strategy. Realizing the pitfalls of traditional territorial models and responding to the uneven success of previous outbound initiatives, her team has embraced dynamic books and market mapping. This pivotal shift dramatically reduced the number of accounts each rep handles from thousands to just 250 select ones, significantly boosting efficiency and deepening connections with clients.
The introduction of Market Map has been a game changer, allowing for targeting of micro verticals. This ensures that messaging, campaigns, and even demo environments are finely tuned to meet the distinct needs of specific industries, greatly enhancing engagement and conversion rates in today’s cluttered digital world.
This refinement of their sales approach has not only ramped up operational efficiency but also better positioned Procurify to meet client demands and excel in their outbound sales efforts. Under Evgenia's guidance, Procurify is sharpening its focus and gearing up for more effective engagements and greater successes.
