Actionable Ways to Improve Revenue Velocity with Sandeep Waghchoure, Vice President of Sales Operations at insightsoftware

This week on the Revenue Insights Podcast we are joined by Sandeep Waghchoure, Vice President of Sales Operations at insightsoftware,  a leading provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions.

In this episode, Lee and Sandeep share key strategies to prevent pipeline slippage and address the challenge of accelerating revenue velocity. They also dive into the importance of empowering your sales team with personalized insights to foster a strong relationship between sales and operations and accelerate revenue growth.

Sandeep’s career primarily revolved around Dell, where he assumed several significant leadership positions, culminating in the role of Senior Director of Global Finance Operations. In 2022, he embarked on a new chapter, joining insightsoftware. In his current capacity, Sandeep is spearheading the development and expansion of operational capabilities aimed at achieving enhanced sales productivity and accelerated quote-to-cash velocity within a dynamic and rapidly growing environment.

• Sandeep Waghchoure on LinkedIn
• insightsoftware Website
• Ebsta Revenue Insights Newsletter
• Sandeep’s book recommendation – Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Time Stamps:

• 00:32 – Sandeep’s career background
• 02:02 – Taking lessons from the supply chain into operations
• 05:30 – Responsibilities as Vice President of Sales Operations 
• 12:46 – Simplifying reporting analytics for sellers
• 17:05 – Navigating the complexities of pipeline generation
• 21:15 – Preventing future pipeline slippage
• 27:45 – Insights from a deal desk setup
• 30:12 – Empowering sellers with tailored insights
• 33:58 – Accelerating revenue velocity
• 36:27 – Evaluating a speed bump
• 38:40 – Sandeep’s book recommendation, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Highlights:

Preventing Future Pipeline Slippage

The key to improving your pipeline lies in focusing on leading indicators rather than lagging ones. For instance, the conversion from MQLs SQLs is crucial. Another essential leading indicator is the slipped pipeline. While pipeline generation, conversion, and bookings are vital, understanding why deals slip is equally important so that you can address behavior issues or product-related challenges. The slipped pipeline offers a gold mine of information and can act as a leading indicator for overall win-loss outcomes. It helps you identify and address potential obstacles early on, ensuring you don’t merely postpone deals but genuinely improve your success rates.

Empowering Sellers with Tailored Insights

In operations, getting sellers to embrace insights is a major challenge. However, Sandeep improved collaboration by tailoring the data to individual deals, showing how it leads to more wins and fulfilled promises. The approach resulted in double-digit increases in win rates within six months. The shared intelligence benefited sales, operations, and marketing, making the entire infrastructure more efficient and driving revenue growth.

Accelerating Revenue Velocity

To increase the velocity across the board, you must learn from experience when evaluating new tools or processes. Consider whether each change acts as a helpful ramp or an unnecessary speed bump. Resist the allure of shiny new tools and apps; pause and double-check if they truly enhance efficiency before adopting them. Striking this balance will boost our performance across the board.

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• A New Focus For CMOs: Achieve More with Less with Jeff Marcoux of Bombora
• How to Prevent Deal Slippage in 2023 with Brad McGinity at Hone
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• Establishing a High-Performance Business through Efficient Change Management with Zach Gropper, Founder, and CEO at Insight Revenue