Paycor has seen an average growth rate of 20% over the last five years. In order to keep up with the demand for sales reps without adding cost centers to their sales process, they stretched their ratio of Account Executives (AE) to Solutions Consultants (SC) nearly beyond the capacity of the presales team. John Redding, Senior Director of Sales and Presales Support, saw the need to scale the presales function, particularly where demos were concerned in order to alleviate the stresses of demo requests and allow SCs to better manage their workload without adding headcount.
Scaling Presales to Meet High-growth Sales Needs
Company Size
2,300
Presales Team
30 Solutions Consultants
AE:SC Ratio
21:1
Avg. Sales Cycle:
60-90 Days
Implementation Timeline
One Week
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The results at a glance
Increase in Presales Team Capacity
0
%
Revenue Influenced by Demo Automation
$
0
M
Reduction in Average Sales Cycle
0
%
SC Hours Saved in One Quarter
0
Stakeholders Discovered in One Month
0
Demo Views Per Month
0
The Challenge
Keeping Up with Sales Growth While Controlling Cost of Sale
"The balancing act of not adding cost to our sale and keeping up with the growth rate was becoming burdensome to the presales team. We wanted a technology solution that would give us the benefits of scale in essential support functions without having to add people.”
John Redding
Sr. Dir. Deal Success and Pre-Sale Support | Paycor
The Solution
John and his team discovered Consensus after attending DEMOFEST, the all-presales virtual event the Consensus team puts on each year. In multiple sessions, presales and sales leaders talked about how they scaled their teams and reduced sales cycles using demo automation so John decided to investigate.
Prior to DEMOFEST I had no idea that any conference existed for sharing best practices among presales professionals. We became very excited about automating demos afterhearing how SAP Concur and others have found enduring success using tools like Consensus.”
John Redding
Sr. Dir. Deal Success and Pre-Sale Support | Paycor
John’s team launched an internal pilot of Consensus to assess how their content would look in automated demos and to get leadership on board.
The Results
Influencing and Accelerating Revenue
Paycor’s sales reps shortened the average sales cycle by 18% by removing demo lag time and repetitive demos their team would normally present. They initially gave their top sales reps access to Consensus first as a reward for their achievements. After one month, they added the rest of the team to their demo automation strategy and shared best practices learned by the top performing AEs.
"Our top sellers loved it. They came to the full rollout with stories to share and experiences using Consensus that guided their peers on how to adopt and find success using this tool. Since then our reps have been sending thousands of demos per month.”
John Redding
Sr. Dir. Deal Success and Pre-Sale Support | Paycor
Buyers loved that they could share demos internally and work asynchronously to bring other stakeholders to the table without getting on another live call. Paycor tracked these shares in Consensus and found that in a single month their sales team discovered 499 stakeholders they did not know were involved in deals. Their AEs used these analytics and other insights gained in Consensus to focus on their buyer’s priorities and guide them through the purchase process faster. To date, the value of deals closed where a Consensus demo was viewed have exceeded $30M.
"Consensus is efficient. The intelligence it provides informs our sellers on what to do next and has helped them become more targeted and influential in their client communications based on who has viewed a demo, what they viewed, what tours they clicked, and what features they liked most.”
John Redding
Sr. Dir. Deal Success and Pre-Sale Support | Paycor
Increased Presales Capacity without Hiring
Paycor increased presales capacity by 30% or 9 FTEs without adding headcount according to Redding, based upon the volume of demos consumed by buyers asynchronously. Meanwhile, Solutions Consultants shifted their time from repetitive intro demos to strategic consulting on higher impact deals.
“In one quarter alone we saved 189 hours of SC time because our AEs were able to access the demo library and send demos without waiting on presales availability. That time is so valuable because it not only eliminates live calls, but it helps our SCs do the consulting work they crave and has made their intense workload manageable during our busiest periods.”
John Redding
Sr. Dir. Deal Success and Pre-Sale Support | Paycor
The Paycor team took scaling their people one step further by having their executive team create demos to introduce themselves, explain the value their teams add, and address what they know to be the biggest concerns their customers share. This has been a boon to the sales team for building rapport and developing relationships with stakeholders.
