Customer case

LINKIT: Transforming the Business Development Process with Salesforce Revenue Intelligence

As LINKIT continues to grow and expand, a new business development team of six was established to focus on discovering fresh leads and opportunities beyond the company's traditional tender operations. However, the team encountered several challenges with their existing Salesforce setup, which was primarily designed to support the tender process rather than business development activities. This configuration resulted in a lack of efficient processes and reporting capabilities tailored to their specific needs.

Moreover, the absence of integrations with frequently used tools like LinkedIn led to increased manual work for the business development team. Recognizing the critical need for a well-defined and structured process within the existing Salesforce Org, LINKIT turned to Nextview for assistance in developing a solution that would effectively capture relevant data for both personal and managerial progress reporting, ultimately optimizing the team's performance and productivity.

Enhancing LINKIT's Salesforce Org with Best Practices and Integrations

LINKIT approached Nextview with a specific challenge: to develop and deliver a proposal addressing three critical needs for their business development team. First, they required the implementation of a best practice process within the existing Salesforce Org that would include essential data components for effective reporting and analysis. Second, they sought to improve time efficiency for users by incorporating the necessary process and system integrations with tools such as LinkedIn and Outlook. In addressing these requirements, Nextview aimed to optimize the team's productivity and streamline their business development efforts.

The Three Key Pillars

After conducting interviews with management and account managers and reviewing the current Salesforce Org, Nextview gained a comprehensive understanding of the diverse requirements of different roles within LINKIT. Armed with this knowledge, Nextview developed a future-proof platform built upon industry best practices, with a primary focus on Revenue Intelligence to empower LINKIT to drive predictable revenue through data-driven selling.

The solution is structured around three core themes, which were addressed in three focused sprints:

1. Salesforce Foundation: Establishing a solid base for the platform by optimizing existing Salesforce functionalities and best practices.
2. Integrations: Seamlessly connecting essential tools like LinkedIn and Outlook to the platform, enhancing efficiency and reducing manual work for users.
3. Revenue Intelligence: Implementing advanced features and insights to enable data-driven decision-making, fostering growth and increasing revenue predictability for LINKIT.

The Journey to a Strong Salesforce Foundation

At the onset of their collaboration with LINKIT, Nextview recognized the importance of establishing a robust Salesforce foundation that would enable the business development team to operate efficiently. To achieve this goal, Nextview focused on leveraging Salesforce's out-of-the-box functionalities and best practices to optimize the platform.

The journey began with refining the navigation experience for users, allowing them to easily sift through records in Salesforce. Nextview then turned their attention to enhancing the usability of Lightning pages, introducing features that displayed related record information, consolidated information on a single page, and provided guidance for success through the Salesforce Path.

Understanding that the core process is crucial to any organization, Nextview revised the status models in line with LINKIT's needs and ensured the flexibility to iterate and adapt as necessary. To further streamline the user experience, Quick Actions were incorporated, enabling the creation of related records with pre-filled fields in just a few clicks.

Lastly, Nextview focused on improving contact management by enabling contacts to be related to multiple accounts with specific roles for each relationship. This comprehensive approach to building a strong Salesforce foundation not only set the stage for LINKIT's business development success but also laid the groundwork for seamless integration and the implementation of advanced Revenue Intelligence features.

Seamless Integrations: Bridging the Gap Between Salesforce and Essential Tools

With a solid Salesforce foundation in place, Nextview shifted its focus to the integration of two vital tools used by LINKIT's business development team: Outlook and LinkedIn. The goal was to eliminate duplicate work and streamline processes across different platforms.

For Outlook, Nextview implemented Einstein Activity Capture, a powerful feature that brought numerous benefits to LINKIT's team. Users could now view Salesforce records directly within Outlook, create new Salesforce leads, contacts, accounts, opportunities, events, or tasks, and even log emails directly into Salesforce. This seamless integration allowed the team to work efficiently, with all crucial information available in one place.

Next, Nextview turned their attention to LinkedIn, integrating it with Salesforce through Sales Navigator. This integration unlocked a suite of benefits for LINKIT's business development team. Users could now view LinkedIn information and Sales Navigator insights directly within Salesforce leads, contacts, accounts, and opportunities. The integration also made it easy to enrich Salesforce data, search for potential leads, and send InMail messages, all without having to switch between tools.

By integrating Outlook and LinkedIn with Salesforce, Nextview helped LINKIT's business development team streamline their workflow, improve efficiency, and minimize time spent on manual tasks, enabling them to focus on what mattered most: nurturing leads and driving revenue.

Unlocking the Power of Revenue Intelligence for LINKIT

With a strong Salesforce foundation and seamless integrations in place, Nextview embarked on the main theme of the customer case: Revenue Intelligence. This crucial aspect would provide LINKIT's business development team with the insights and tools necessary to make data-driven decisions, optimize their sales process, and drive predictable revenue.

Understanding Revenue Intelligence

Revenue Intelligence refers to the process of leveraging data, analytics, and AI-powered insights to make informed decisions about sales activities, pipeline management, and forecasting. By incorporating Revenue Intelligence into LINKIT's Salesforce platform, Nextview aimed to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of their sales operations.

Focusing on Key Components

1. Activity Tracking: Utilizing Einstein Activity Capture, Nextview enabled LINKIT to monitor and analyze sales activities, ensuring that every interaction was accounted for and evaluated.
2. Pipeline Management and Deal Intelligence: Nextview implemented features such as Pipeline Inspection, Deal Health Insights, Activity Metrics, and Einstein Opportunity Scoring to provide the business development team with a comprehensive understanding of their sales pipeline and deal progress.
3. Forecasting and Forecast Intelligence: Leveraging Collaborative Forecasting, Forecasting Change Signals, Flexible Forecasting, and Einstein Forecasting, Nextview equipped LINKIT with the tools to generate accurate revenue forecasts and make strategic decisions based on data-driven insights.
4. Revenue Insights Dashboards: To help LINKIT visualize and analyze their sales data, Nextview created customized dashboards that provided an overview of forecast trends, team performance comparisons, and sales performance metrics across different segments such as regions, industries, and product lines.

By incorporating Revenue Intelligence into their Salesforce platform, LINKIT's business development team gained a powerful tool to make informed decisions, optimize their sales process, and ultimately drive predictable revenue growth.

Learn more about what Revenue Intelligence can do for you here.