Requirements: Install of Ebsta Revenue & Ops Intelligence Insights Web Component into Salesforce:
Install of Ebsta Revenue & Ops Intelligence Insights Web Component into Salesforce
With Ebsta's Revenue & Ops Intelligence Insights web component installed into Salesforce, use the menu in the top left corner to switch between the different elements.
We will go through each element of the web component in turn:
Pipeline Tracker
Pipeline Tracker follows your sales pipeline and how it is trending over time. You can assess how the pipeline is progressing against quota and if you’re closing enough business consistently throughout a quarter/month to hit target (pacing line). It also displays the forecast submissions submitted by the team.
Hovering over a stack in the chart displays cumulative totals for that 7 days.
By default, Ebsta displays the current quarter's pipeline but you can use the filter at the top of the graph to view a previous or future quarter or a specific month.
You can also filter the chart by Opportunity/Record type, User/Hierarchy and by Product Type.
Above the graph, Ebsta displays key financial values for the quarter/month and the trend from the previous period. You can click on any of the metrics to review the detail of these values and Opportunities in the other areas of the Console.
Quota Sales target of sales team(s) as set in Salesforce for the period
Ebsta Projection Projected Revenue (Weighted Sales Pipeline) for the period
Closed Total value of Opportunities Closed Won for the period
Commit Total value of Opportunities with Opportunity Forecast Category set as Commit
Best Case Total value of Opportunities with Opportunity Forecast Category set as Best Case
Pipeline Total value of Opportunities with Opportunity Forecast Category set as Pipeline
Next Qtr Pipeline Total value of Opportunities with an expected Close Date in next quarter
Pipeline Insights
Pipeline Insights offers complete visibility into your pipeline so that you’re able to identify deals at risk, uncover those likely to close and review and make forecast calls.
By default, Pipeline Insights will display all Opportunities that are set to close in the current quarter. You can use the filter to view a previous/future quarters or a specific time period of your choosing.
There are also a number of other filters you can use to take a closer look at certain Opportunities for example by Opportunity and Record Type, Opportunity Stage, Opportunity Owner or by specific Teams or Hierarchies and by Product Families.
The Opportunity Stage filter by default is set to show Opportunities in an open stage. The stages that display blue are those selected and those in grey are inactive.
You can override this by clicking on any of the stages to create a new filter list. Ebsta, for example below is showing Opportunities in 3 stages as selected by the user. To reset and return to the default filter click Reset.
Smart Insights can you be used to quickly spot risk in the pipeline by filtering Opportunities with specific risk factors e.g. low relationship score. Use the check boxes to filter the display.
More than one filter can be selected but note Opportunities only need to apply to one of the smart insights selected not all of them.
There are additional filters that can be applied by clicking More filters.
This opens up the Filters side bar to access additional filters including Forecast Category and Status, Relationship Score and Deal Value. Managers will see 2 Forecast Status filters so they can view the Forecast Status as set by the rep and that set by them.
You can also use the tabs at the top of the table to adjust the view by Forecast status and those Opportunities that are categorised as High Risk*. Again Managers will have additional tabs to view the Forecast Status as set by the Sales rep and that set by them.
* Opportunities categorised as High Risk are those in the Best Case and Commit forecast categories with low relationship score (benchmarked against the average relationship score from your previous quarter)
Pipeline Insights displays key information about the Opportunities including deal amount, close date, next step and opportunity stage (all of which can be edited directly from the table). Ebsta also displays a number of other insightful metrics and information.
Relationship Score is a number between 0-100 that represents engagement. The more interactions your company has with an Account – the higher their Score. It also takes into account the total Activity count and Days Since Last Activity, but it also looks at the type of activity, its direction (inbound/outbound), duration and timing to derive a single engagement percentage metric.
Deal Score is a number between 1-99 which highlights the health of an Opportunity in your pipeline. It is calculated using multiple factors including relationships, deal stage, close date, deal value to indicates how likely the deal is to close successfully.
To learn more about Deal Score, please refer to the following article:
Warnings refer to the number of negative factors that relate to this Opportunity. To view these click the row in the table to open the sidebar.
MEDDIPICC Score is the display of the scores assigned to the each of the criteria in the Deal Qualification Guide which shows how qualified a deal is. To edit the scores click on the row of the Opportunity you wish to edit to open the sidebar and click the Qualify tab.
Amount Converted is the Deal Amount displayed in an additional currency (only applicable for those customers that work in multiple currencies).
Forecast Status enables you to assign a forecast judgement to your Opportunities. Submitting manual forecasts will be covered further on in this article.
Negative and Positive Trends from the previous period are indicated by green and red boxes in the table. Where there has been a negative change (i.e. the Close Date has been pushed back and/or it has moved back a stage or the deal value has been lowered) the information is displayed in a red box. Where there has been a positive change (i.e. the Close Date has been brought forward, and/or it has moved forward a stage or the deal value has increased) the information is displayed in a green box.
If you hover over the Stage, Close Date or Opportunity Amount, Ebsta displays the historical changes that have occurred including when the change was made, who made the change, whether the change is positive or negative and the details of the change.
If you scroll across along the table using the scroll bar at the bottom, Ebsta also displays how long the Opportunity has been in its stage, how many activities related to this Opportunity have taken place in last 7 days, how many colleagues are involved in the Opportunity and the number of contacts you have a relationship with at the company.
Editing Opportunities
You can edit key opportunity values, such as Amount, Close Date, Stage and Next Step directly from the table and it will update the Opportunity record.
To edit the Amount, hover over the row of the Opportunity you wish to edit and a pencil icon will appear and/or the value will be underlined. Type in your new value, select a new date or stage and save using the green tick icon. To cancel this change, click the red cross.
To change the Close Date, select a new date using the calendar pop up.
To update Next Step, type directly into the notes pop up window and click Save.
To change Stage, select a new stage from the dropdown menu.
By default Pipeline Insights open up in Table view. Click the Chart button at the top to view them visually.
This chart visually represents Opportunities in the pipeline as bubbles and plots them against Relationship Score and expected Close Date. The size of the the bubble represents the deal value, (i.e. the bigger the bubble, the bigger the deal size).
If you hover over a bubble, Ebsta will display key information relating to the Opportunity including the Opportunity Name and Owner, the Account it relates to, Deal Value, Close Date and the Relationship Score.
If you click on a bubble it will turn orange and open the sidebar on the right to display more detailed insights relating to that Opportunity as detailed above.
The chart also can be filtered as per the table view. To return to the table view, click the Table button.
Submitting Manual Forecasts
You can use Ebsta to standardize and streamline your weekly, monthly and quarterly manual forecast submissions process. With Ebsta's Manager Forecast View, managers can review the pipeline, inspect Opportunities and change their reps forecast status as they see fit.
Opportunity Owner/Sales Rep Forecast Submission
1. Use the filters at the top to select the forecast period and click Submit Forecast.
2. This opens up the forecasting tab in the sidebar.
3. Use the Forecast Status toggle button in the Opportunity table to assign a forecast judgement to your Opportunities:
P means the Opportunity is Pipeline
U means the Opportunity is Upside (Best Case)
C means the Opportunity is Commit.
Note: The red and green background displayed on the toggle button denotes a negative or positive change from the previous submission. The blue background means no change or a manual forecast has not been submitted previously.
4. If you want to add a comment to your submission hover over the toggle button until a + icon appears and then click it to add your comment.
Type your comment into the pop up window and click Update.
5. The sidebar displays the forecast submission to be submitted.
Information:
This is the user who will be submitting the forecast, the pipeline and reporting period this applies to along with the date of the last submission if applicable. You can adjust the forecast period using the dropdown menu.
Commit Forecast:
Won Opps: Total value of Opportunities closed Won.
Selected Opps: Total value of (and number of) Opportunities labelled C*
Total Amount: Total value of Won Opps and Selected Opps combined.*
Team Rollup: Total sum of all forecasts submitted by each rep in the team or by each manager in the business.
* These values will automatically be calculated as the Opportunities in the table are assigned a forecast using the Manual Forecast toggle button.
Upside Forecast:
Won Opps: Total value of Opportunities closed Won.
Selected Ops: Total value of (and number of) Opportunities labelled U and C*
Total Amount: Total value of Won Opps and Selected Ops combined.*
Team Rollup: Total sum of all forecasts submitted by each rep in the team or by each manager in the business.
* These values will automatically be calculated as the Opportunities in the table are assigned a forecast using the Manual Forecast toggle button.
6. Once each of the Opportunities have been assigned a forecast category, a final forecast figure needs to be inputted in the My Forecast field. If you click on the Total Amount value in the Commit and in Upside sections, these values are automatically copied into the My Forecast field. Alternatively you can input an adjusted figure into the box. Input any relevant extra details, reasoning or evidence in the notes section.
7. If you wish to submit another forecast, check the tick box next to Submit another. When you are happy with your submission, click Submit.
Manager Forecast Submission
If you're assigned as a manager in the Forecast Hierarchy in Salesforce, you'll be able to review pipeline, inspect Opportunities and change your reps forecast status as you see fit. The sales reps will have no visibility of any changes made to the forecast status.
In the Opportunity table in the Forecast Status column you will see two toggles. The left-hand toggle is set by the Opportunity owner, the right is set by you the manager. As a manager, this separate forecast status for the Opportunity is only visible to you.
P means the Opportunity is Pipeline
U means the Opportunity is Upside (Best Case)
C means the Opportunity is Commit.
If the Opportunity owner has added a comment to accompany their forecast, a Note icon will display in the corner of the left hand toggle button. Hover over this to view the comment.
Use the right hand toggle to change the forecast if required.
You can add a comment to your forecast by hovering over the Forecast Status column so that a + icon appears. Click this to add comment.
Add your comment and click Update to save.
You can also amend the Close Date and Amount of the Opportunity based on your judgement. Hover over these fields and click the down arrow to edit the manager amount or to select a new date from the calendar.
The Forecast Calculator will prioritise the forecast status set by you and changes, if any, made to the Date and Amount. when calculating your forecasts. Click the Submit Forecast button to enter the submission.
All forecast submissions can be reviewed in the Forecasting section as covered earlier in this article.
Pipeline Change
Pipeline Change gives insight into how your pipeline has changed over a period of time and enables you to understand why.
By default, Ebsta displays the changes to the pipeline that have occurred over the last week but you can use the filters at the top of the chart to change this. You can also filter the chart by Opportunity and Record type, users/teams and by product.
Above the chart, the tiles display total financial values and the corresponding number of Opportunities that make up your pipeline and the trend from the previous period.
Starting is the total value of open Opportunities (and their corresponding number) in the pipeline at the start of the period.
New Opps is the total value of new Opportunities (and their corresponding number) created within the selected timeframe.
Pulled In is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) pulled into the current quarter from future quarters during the selected timeframe.
From Prev Q's is the total value of Opportunities that are pulled into the current quarter from previous quarters during the selected timeframe.
Added Value is the amount of value added to Opportunities already in the pipeline during the selected timeframe. For example, if an Opportunity's value is increased from £100,000 to £150,000 the added value is £50,000.
Won is the total value of new Opportunities (and their corresponding number) of Opportunities Closed Won during the selected timeframe.
Lost is the total value of new Opportunities (and their corresponding number) of Opportunities Closed Lost during the selected timeframe.
Decreased is the amount of value reduced from Opportunities already in the pipeline during the selected timeframe.
Slipped is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) that were scheduled to close in this quarter but that during the the selected timeframe have been updated with Close Dates that fall in future quarters.
Omitted is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) with their Forecast Category set to Omitted during the selected timeframe.
Ending is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) on the end date.
The left hand side of the flow chart denotes the start of the selected timeframe and groups all Opportunities in the pipeline by their Forecast Category (Pipeline, Best Case and Commit) as it was set on this date. New Opportunities, Opportunities from previous quarters and Pulled in Opportunities (from future quarters) that get added to the current quarter during this period are also displayed underneath these.
The right hand side of the chart denotes the end of the selected time frame and groups all Opportunities in the pipeline into one of the following categories:
Won: Opportunities closed Won between the start and end dates.
Trend up: Opportunities where there has been a positive change (i.e. the Close Date has been brought forward, and/or it has moved forward a stage or the deal value has increased) between the start and end date.
Trend Down: Opportunities where there has been a negative change (i.e. the Close Date has been pushed back, and/or it has moved back a stage or the deal value has decreased) between the start and end date.
Idle: Opportunities where there has been no change (positive or negative) between the start and end dates.
Slipped: Opportunities that have been updated with Close Dates that now fall in a future quarter.
Lost: Opportunities that have closed Lost between the start and end date.
You can click on any of the categories (left and right) to update the chart display so that you can focus in on what changes have occurred. For example, by clicking Best Case, I can review the Opportunities that were set as Best Case at the start of the selected time frame and look at how they have flowed through the pipeline over that period.
Hovering over the trend lines and categories displays the detail in a pop up window.
Clicking on the tiles above the chart or on any of the trend lines and categories opens up the Opportunity Table in a sidebar. For example if I click Open Pipeline and click the Trend up line, the sidebar will display a list of all of those Opportunities that are set as Pipeline that have trended up in the selected period. The information displayed includes the Relationship Score, Deal Score, Opportunity Amount and Close Date.
Clicking on any of the Opportunities in the sidebar enables you to delve into further detail about the Opportunity including the Positive and Negative Factors. These allow you to gauge how an opportunity is performing compared to the benchmark and identify possible risks on the opportunity being closed lost.
Clicking the Activity tab displays an Activity Timeline along with a list of the 10 most recent activities. The timeline is a comprehensive view of how the team is engaging with customers over time. Activities (Calls, Meetings and Inbound and Outbound Emails) related to the Opportunity are plotted along the timeline. By default, Ebsta displays the timeline for the last 14 days but you can adjust this using the date filter. Along the bottom of the timeline, Ebsta displays the total Activity count for this Opportunity.
Ebsta also displays key deal changes that have occurred. Hover over the icon in the timeline to view the detail.
Clicking the Qualify tab gives you access to the Deal Qualification Guide. This aligns to your sales methodology. Managers can view all the deal qualification information in one place when reviewing the pipeline. They can understand if sales teams have all of the necessary criteria to close a deal or if there are important areas that are being neglected.
The Deal Qualification Guide quantifies a deal under the following sections:
| Metrics | What is the economic impact of this solution? |
| Economic Buyer | Who has profit & loss responsibility for this? |
| Decision Criteria | What are their technical vendor and financial criteria? |
| Decision Process | Then what happens? Define validation & approval |
| Paper Process | What steps need to be taken to get a deal signed & how long will this take? |
| Implicate the pain | What problems are they trying to solve? |
| Champion | Who will sell on your behalf within the company? |
| Competitor | Who are we competing against and why? |
In each section, click the dropdown in Qualification Status and score the Opportunity accordingly.
Notes can be entered into the text boxes. There is no need to save notes as the sidebar will automatically save. All fields are saved at company level so all users will have visibility of the information related to this specific Opportunity.
You'll be able to view the MEDDIPICC Scores of each Opportunity in Pipeline Insights. Click the expand button in the top left of the Opportunity Table sidebar to access them.
Forecasting
Quota Total Quota for the forecast period
Quota Attainment What percentage of their Quota has the Team achieved so far in the quarter (Total Closed Won in this quarter).
Ebsta Projection Forecasted attainment of Quota based on Projected Revenue (Weighted Sales Pipeline) for the period.
Commit Submission The Commit Forecast amount submitted for the forecast period. If you hover over this column, a submission history will be displayed.
Commit Submission Coverage The ratio between the Total Pipeline Value and Commit Forecast for the forecast period
Upside Commission The Upside Forecast amount submitted for the forecast period. If you hover over this column, a submission history will be displayed.
Upside Commission Coverage The ratio between the total pipeline value and Upside Forecast for the forecast period
Gap to Quota The difference between Quota and the Closed Won amount in the period
Total Pipeline Total amount of open Opportunities in the forecast period.
Pipeline Coverage The ratio between the Total Pipeline value and Gap to Quota for the forecast period
Required Coverage How much pipeline coverage is needed to reach target based on average win rate.
Pipeline Gap How much more pipeline is needed to reach Quota based on the win rate
Note: You will need to use the horizontal scroll bar along the bottom to view all of the data.
Clicking on a user who has direct reports will open up a new tab allowing you to view the team submission. So here for example CEO Olivia Norman can click on James Worthington, the VP of Sales to view the submissions of his team.
James has three direct reports and each of their individual submissions are listed. The numbers displayed alongside each user denote the number of direct reports they have. Ebsta also displays the date of the last submission made (if applicable) by the rep.
You can switch between the tabs for easy comparison of teams. To close a tab, hover over it until a cross icon appears and click it.
Forecast Change
Forecast Change helps sales leaders and managers understand why submitted forecast values are fluctuating. The waterfall clearly shows what has happened to the revenue, how has it changed and what factors contributed to that change.
The stack on the left represents the total value of the pipeline set to Commit (Deal Value), what was submitted by the team and therefore what the pipeline difference was at the start of the week. The stack at the far right represents the total value of the pipeline at the end of the week and the latest submission from the team and the resulting pipeline difference.
The stacks in the middle represent the positive and negative value changes that have occurred over the week.
| New Forecast In | The value of new Opportunities created within the selected period with forecast category set as Commit and existing Opportunities in the pipeline newly set to Commit within the selected period. |
| Pulled In | The value of Opportunities pulled into the current quarter from a future quarter during the selected period that are set to Commit. |
| Added Value | The amount of value added to Opportunities set to Commit during the selected period. |
| Won (Wasn't Commit) | The value of Opportunities closed Won with status of Upside or Pipeline |
| Won (Commit) |
The value of Opportunities closed Won with status of Commit |
| Lost | The value of Opportunities set to Commit but that Closed Lost during the selected period. |
| Decreased Value | The amount of value reduced from Opportunities set to Commit during the selected period. |
| Slipped | The value of Opportunities set to Commit that were scheduled to close in this quarter but that have been updated during the selected period, with Close Dates that fall in future quarters |
| Forecast Out | The value of Opportunities that during the selected period have been downgraded to Best Case (Upside) or Open Pipeline. |
Pipeline Diff (+/-) represents the difference to the value of the pipeline over the week. This will display green or red depending on whether the pipeline difference has increased or reduced in value.
The tiles above the chart display the financial values of these categories and also the number of Opportunities that make up the totals.
If you click on a tile the sidebar opens up to display those Opportunities so you can look in more detail to understand the changes. Clicking the Expand button in the top left hand opens up Pipeline Insights which gives you further detail.
You can change the view to look at the Upside Forecast using the filter at the top of the chart.
You can also filter the chart by Opportunity and Record type, users/teams and by product.
Team Analytics
Team Analytics is designed to help leaders revolutionize their team's sales performance. Sales leaders can track their team's sales velocity in real-time and identify areas where coaching is needed to improve their performance.
Velocity is a measurement of how quickly the Opportunities owned are moved through the sales pipeline and generate revenue in the selected timeframe.
Opps Closed is the total number of Opportunities Closed in the selected timeframe.
Win Rate is the percentage of qualified deals in the users' pipeline that they've Closed Won in the selected timeframe.
Total Won Amount is the total value of Closed Won Opportunities in the selected timeframe.
AVG Amount is the average value of Closed Won Opportunities in the selected timeframe.
AVG Cycle is the average number of days an Opportunity spent in the Open Pipeline before being Closed Won in the selected timeframe.
You can use the filter to view a previous quarters' performance and/or to get performance insights for a specific team and/or user.
The numbers displayed alongside users denote the number of direct reports they have.
Clicking on a user who has direct reports will change the view to enable you to view the performance metrics for that team.
By default, Ebsta displays users by their velocity performance. You can re-order the display by other metrics using the re-order toggle buttons at the top of each column.