Unanet case study
Increasing efficiency and revenue by decreasing live presales interactions.
Company Size
~300
Presales Team
7
AE:SE Ratio
5:1
Avg. Sales Cycle
15 demos per week per SE
Implementation Timeline
3 months
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The results at a glance
decrease in live demos
production gained through automation
decrease in interactions to close deals
of customers see a Consensus demo before live interactions
revenue closed without live SE engagement in nine months
The Challenge
Eliminating Overview Demos and Solving the Presales Bottleneck
As Unanet saw its revenue grow from $20M to $100M, they realized they needed to solve their presales bottleneck in order to sustain their growth goals. Unanet customers had difficulty getting time on the presales calendar, waiting up to two weeks to get a demo. Unanet felt they could provide a better buying experience.
Their sales engineering team was often unavailable for discovery and other meaningful live interactions because each SE was conducting roughly 15 overview demos (45 hours) per week, often with prospects who were not properly qualified or were totally unqualified for a live demo. In fact, nearly 70% of their team s overview demos were unqualified. This backlog of unqualified demos added time to the sales cycle as buyers waited to see their product before having deeper discussions.
Because of the complexity of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) software the ramp time for new sales engineers was between one and three years, making it impossible to alleviate the bottleneck through hiring.
The Solution
Extending Presales Reach through Demo Automation
Amy and her team attended DEMOFEST, the presales virtual conference hosted by Consensus, and noticed speakers cover a variety of topics that resonated with her team, especially how Consensus solved similar issues by scaling presales through demo automation.
A close partnership between AEs and SEs was crucial to successful implementation. The Unanet sales team likewise recognized that automating demos would extend their team s reach and grant them the ability to get prospects the product information they wanted at scale. In a joint effort, Unanet and Consensus created a plan that would both save sales engineers time and give sales insights they need to close deals faster.
Over a three month period, Amy’s team worked with their sales counterparts to ensure the demo library was set up and the tool was adopted following their sales kickoff. This included:
- Authentic demos recorded by SE
- Integrating their Salesforce instance with Consensus
- Using Consensus as part of sales training to show reps how to share demo
- Creating feedback channels in Slack and other tools to measure demo effectiveness
The Results
Giving SEs Time Back through Automation
In the nine months that Unanet has been actively using Consensus, they have seen their sales engineering team s capacity increase by reducing their live overview demos. By empowering sales to share demos on demand, they were able to eliminate more than 30% of their overview demos. The time savings and workload passed on through demo automation saved Unanet the equivalent of one full time sales engineer they would have had to hire, train, and ramp over the course of one to three years.
Additionally, the Unanet team experienced an improvement in the quality of live demos they did for prospects. Using Consensus as a gatekeeper for the SE team, Unanet was able to eliminate unqualified or repetitive demos by asking buyers to view an automated demo before they meet with a sales engineer. The 50 70% unqualified demo rate, depending on the product segment, was reduced to the point that now 60% of opportunities see a demo before they ever talk to an SE.
Shortening the Sales Cycle and Improving the Buying Experience
Intelligent demo automation had a transformative impact on how Unanet sells ERP software. Instead of calendar bottlenecks and waiting on presales availability, buyers are now able to see a demo the same day they request one. Sales reps use Consensus Demolytics to analyze what buyers are watching, who they share demos with internally, and how they can align sales pitches to answer specific questions. Sellers are also empowered to be more responsive by sending demos instantly using the Consensus SNAP Chrome extension where they can answer FAQs and demonstrate pieces of software that fit the context of their conversations. This has led to a 30% reduction in live interactions needed to close a deal by giving buyers assets they can share internally and revisit between meetings.
Because Unanet used Consensus best practices to establish a demo library with content for all their products and personas, their team has been able to close certain deals without any SE involvement. In the nine months since the team adopted Consensus, Unanet has closed more than $160,000 without a live call with an SE. Automating demos has empowered sales reps to give buyers the content they need to move deals down the funnel without having to constantly engage SEs for repetitive demos.
Getting Everyone Involved in the Sales Process
Unanet has extended the reach of their executive team by using Consensus. Using the Consensus SNAP Chrome extension, executives share personalized, authentic videos on demand with customers and prospects to express gratitude for meetings and how they can work best together. Unanet has also allowed reseller partners to get involved using Consensus Channel Accelerator as a way to share demos and other assets that help them sell Unanet without sacrificing product narratives or brand messaging.
