As the head of sales, you are responsible for your team’s sales strategy to bring in revenue post-Dreamforce. In order to make that happen, you need to build a plan that includes attainable sales goals and a bullet-proof execution plan.
In my former life at Salesforce on the partner marketing team, I advised B2B tech providers on how to maximize their sponsorship investments at Dreamforce. Based on the best practices I shared, here are four steps to building a solid sales and marketing plan that would yield the highest ROI.
4 Steps to Create the Ultimate Dreamforce ‘16 Sales Strategy
1. Determine your account and sales pipeline strategy.
I ran the numbers for average sales metrics achieved after Dreamforce. Here are the latest sales stats on the Salesforce blog that you could consider as a baseline for your team.
- +23% in deal size
- +22% in sales revenues
- +23% in number of deals
- +28% in win rate
These stats are pretty powerful. How can you achieve similar results? Let’s start by asking the right questions to define your plan:
For Sales Leaders
- Who are you targeting at the event? Start by having the team create a short list of target accounts that you’re actively engaged with to schedule time to meet at the event.
- Who are your best customers? Determine if your evangelists are attending and get them in front of prospects to collaborate.
- Empower the team to be part of the decision-making process. Define your objectives together, collaborate, and be transparent about why the team needs to execute flawlessly at the event. Metrics for success include appointments set pre-Dreamforce, onsite meetings, leads captured and pipeline generated.
- Metrics of Success: Know what your outcome is for the event by setting achievable goals for your team. Create a stretch goal and a baseline of metrics you know you can reach.
For Sales Reps
- Analyze your customer base. Knowledge is power, and knowing your customer is one of the most powerful ways to sell more. What do you know about the people to whom you’re trying to sell? Make a list (personas can help), and develop a deep and nuanced view of your customers’ needs and how your solution can contribute to their goals.
- Set your goals. It’s impossible to meet goals if you don’t know exactly what you’re driving towards. Dreamforce is the event of the year to close business! Write down what you want to achieve and commit to it. Visibility drives accountability, so share that with your manager too. How many deals do you want to close? How many meetings are you committed to scheduling? How much pipeline do you expect to generate?
- Have powerful stats and customer stories in your sales arsenal to call upon when you’re engaged with a prospect at Dreamforce. You have a limited window, so get to the point in 30 seconds or less. Rehearse your stats and use case stories with peers before you step onto the showroom floor.
2. Determine your engagement strategy pre-event, onsite and post-Dreamforce.
- Engage marketing early in the planning process. Determine the focus on key messages that marketing will create and share on Dreamforce Chatter channel, blogs, social channels and email. Establish campaign cadence, pre-Dreamforce, during the event and after. Empower your sales reps to be social by equipping them with content they can post throughout the event.
- Determine your “Why.” Why does your company exist? What are you solving for and how do you deliver tangible solutions? Once you know your why, your team can confidently talk about what you do and how you make a difference.
3. Engage marketing to publish relevant content across social channels with #DF16.
- Listen, engage and publish content on Salesforce Chatter, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Enlist your social media specialist or member of the marketing team to monitor the social buzz at the event. Look for opportunities to promote your brand using the #DF16 hashtag.
- Once you register for Dreamforce, your team can join and tune in and join the thirty-one Chatter Channels. Channels that we plan on tuning into include Dreamforce for Sales, Dreamforce for Large Enterprises and Dreamforce Promo Center (to shamefully promote our Ultimate Speakeasy Experience at Bourbon & Banks on Wednesday October 5th. If you’re speaking at Dreamforce, this is the perfect platform to promote attendees to join your session.
4. Divide and conquer.
- Networking is essential at Dreamforce. If you don’t have a plan, your team will get lost in the sea of 100,000+ attendees. Develop a plan to divide and conquer. Encourage your executive team to be involved in the planning process. They should be leveraged on all fronts, from attending discovery to closing meetings with prospects and customers.
- Register your executive team to attend sessions like the “secret” Sales Summit within Dreamforce on October 4th at the Marriott Marquis. They will gain valuable insights and connect with other leaders.
- Leverage your rockstar salespeople to attend sales tracks to walk away supercharged.
- Set up a shared Dreamforce calendar in order for the team to have visibility into everyone’s schedules.
In summary, if you build a plan that includes attainable sales goals and a bullet proof execution plan, your team will see great ROI from attending Dreamforce. Whether you’re an attendee or sponsor, you can utilize all these strategies for success.
PandaDoc will be participating as a Bronze sponsor at the Cloud Expo in booth #2207. Stop by and say hello to our team! See you at Dreamforce!
