Above all else, the past three years have given us a master class in adaptability.
A recent report by McKinsey reveals that, during the pandemic and in its aftermath, many companies found they were able to implement changes roughly 25 times faster than they anticipated. Some respondents said that number was higher for their organization — as much as 40 times faster.
This adaptability has seen industry trends emerge at a faster clip than ever before — and has led to a reckoning for sales teams in tech.
In response to the breakneck speed of change, industry-leading sales teams are turning to something that has historically proven to be a reliable source of truth: the customer.
At Hyatt, in the meetings and events segment, that means connecting with planners and companies as they reinvent what conferences and events look like, said Vice President of Group Sales Trina Camacho-London.
“We knew the importance of caring about what our customers and their travelers were going through, especially when there were little to no in-person gatherings during the pandemic,” Camacho-London told Built In Chicago. “We’ve since maintained that same level of empathy and care throughout our current customer relationships.”
Hyatt listened to its customers, creating safe spaces and opportunities to connect once they began to show interest.
“We’re embracing the experience of being together again,” Camacho-London said.
For Upwork Senior Enterprise Sales Manager Robert Barbaglia, connecting with customers means adapting go-to-market plans to trend data.
“We work very closely with our partners to pull together research and industry insights to align with what our customers are experiencing,” Barbaglia said.
As a member of the automotive industry, Affinitiv puts its customers first by putting boots on the ground, said Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Bogaski.
“Their experiences are the most valuable telltale sign of what’s happening today and what’s to come,” he said.“Each field rep now covers a smaller area and can focus on success and growth with fewer dealerships.”
Whether empowering reps to build stronger relationships or keeping their finger on the pulse of feedback data and trends, leading sales teams are listening to what the customer has to say. Built In Chicago sat down with Camacho-London, Barbaglia and Bogaski to find out more.
Hyatt is a global hospitality company offering 20 brands. Headquartered in Chicago, Hyatt is guided by its purpose to care for people so they can be their best.
What are some ways your team stays on top of trends or market conditions that may impact your customers?
As a result of our team’s agility and careful listening, we launched Together by Hyatt in 2021. Our suite of reimagined meetings and events offerings is built around four pillars: “Care + Well-being,” “Care + Technology,” “Care + Safety” and “Care + Community of Experts.”
This platform continues to evolve alongside the needs of our planners, focusing on sustainable meeting solutions as planners continue to be mindful of their event’s environmental impact. We also recognize that many groups have unique needs that require a certain level of personalization, whether that’s in consideration of group size or curating an event to the location.
Our suite of meetings and events offerings continues to evolve alongside the needs of our planners, focusing on sustainable meeting solutions as planners become more mindful of environmental impact.”
Additionally, once we saw an increase in interest from companies to reconvene, we began to encourage opportunities at our properties for corporate groups to host their team offsites at Hyatt.
How has Hyatt’s team adapted its sales strategies recently in light of market shifts?
Our teams prioritized staying connected to meeting planners and continue to be committed to learning about their pain points and aspirations. During the pandemic, we opened a dialogue by facilitating virtual “Hyatt Together Talks.”
What impact are these new strategies having on the success of your reps?
Hyatt is the hospitality brand of creativity, flexibility and care, which is a major differentiator for our customers in a constantly changing landscape. Through that mindset, we’ve been able to grow our business with several tech companies including Avnet, Workato and Epicor, as well as secure a new collaboration with Sherweb. Our team is excited to continue expanding our relationship with these customers as they grow and look forward to hosting them at our hotels through spring this year.
Upwork is a work marketplace that connects millions of businesses with independent talent around the globe. It serves everyone from one-person startups to Fortune 100 companies.
What are some ways your team stays on top of trends or market conditions that may impact your customers?
Our team is focused on selling to high-growth firms, so staying on top of market conditions is vital for our team's ability to target the right customers with the right messaging at the right time.
We work very closely with our partners to pull together research, trend data and industry insights to validate that our go-to-market plans are aligned with what our customers are experiencing. We do all this to ensure we are delivering value — and that our solutions help solve their most critical business challenges.
Knowing when to shift a strategy comes down to what the data is telling us and what our customers are responding to most effectively. We might change our messaging or target different personas across our books of business to mirror what is happening in the market or within a specific portfolio. We will also look at our team key performance indicators and pipeline-creation goals to see if we need to make tactical changes around coaching and performance management to ensure our account executives are set up for success and can continue to drive both top-of-funnel growth and bottom-funnel execution.
How has Upwork’s team adapted its sales strategies recently in light of market shifts?
One of the most notable strategies we implemented over the past few quarters was looking at our closed-won deals by investment type. By identifying our areas of success, we were able to adopt a target account strategy that enabled our account executives to capitalize on trend data and double down on what was working the best in order to drive more wins for the business.
Another strategy shift was looking at new industry segments. We continue to be very selective with regard to which organizations we target, but by shifting our focus into new sectors with rapid growth, we unlocked other markets which allowed for a large uptick in new meetings.
What impact are these new strategies having on the success of your reps?
When we implemented our new target account strategies in Q3 of 2022, we saw significant increases in meetings completed and self-generated sales opportunities — which resulted in our highest bookings attainment for the year in October. This result propelled our team to not only hit our team quota for the year but also enabled 50 percent of our team to earn President’s Club honors, an all-time high for the account executive team.
What I am most proud of, though, is the adaptability of our squad when it comes to making fast pivots in order to capitalize on market trends. We are a fast-moving group. From a business perspective, changing directions can be very challenging. Our team embraced all our pivots and felt the rewards from their ability to evolve as our market evolved.
Our team embraced all our pivots and felt the rewards from their ability to evolve as our market evolved.”
Affinitiv is a provider of end-to-end, data-driven marketing and software solutions exclusively focused on the automotive customer lifecycle.
What are some ways your team stays on top of trends or market conditions that may impact your customers?
There are many ways to stay on top of trends and market conditions. LinkedIn, Automotive News and related auto industry news sources are great places to start. However, nothing beats talking firsthand with individual dealers and original equipment manufacturers. Their experiences are the most valuable telltale sign of what’s happening today and what’s to come — so being out in the field is the best way for us to learn what they are dealing with day to day and stay on trend.
Another way is understanding our client churn. It’s a great indicator of opportunities for improvement and what the market needs. A leader should always look ahead to the following year. When you look at what’s happening right now, we expect through economists that we will see a downturn in the second half of this year and the first half of next year. We must consider what we must do today to prepare for next year.
How has Affinitiv’s team adapted its sales strategies recently in light of market shifts?
We’re working with cross-functional teams to pinpoint the best way to market to different original equipment manufacturers to help their dealers with specific issues they are experiencing. In turn, we track how many opportunities we create each month and how many presentations we do each month by field rep, so we see what is working and what is not. We’ve also made organizational changes to put the dealer and that relationship first.
Regardless of how we change and address market concerns, you can never lose focus on what’s most important to the dealer, as each dealer has unique concerns.
Regardless of how we change and address market concerns, you can never lose focus on what’s most important to the dealer.”
What impact are these new strategies having on the success of your reps?
Our teams focus on training, so there is a proper foundation for strategic and thoughtful direction. We’ve developed a training program wherein a new hire has a designated eight weeks of training.
We’re also revamping some of our OEM relationships.
Lastly, we focus on KPIs and revenue-producing indicators. RPI means more than just metrics. It’s about producing revenue and tracking your entire pipeline, the number of opportunities and presentations, ultimately creating a higher success rate to win more business and be above plan.
