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    Why Membrain is the sexiest software in the sales industry, according to this expert

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    “It’s the sexiest software to manage sales I’ve ever seen, and makes my job of managing and scaling the business easier.”

    That’s Paul O’Donohue, talking about his experience with Membrain and how it’s transformed his sales organization. O’Donohue is the founder and CEO of SalesStar, a Sales Development Consultancy that uses the science behind sales success to improve the effectiveness of client sales teams.

    SalesStar focuses on embedding learning outcomes to change behavior, and on average their clients are growing by 37%. O’Donohue attributes that success their milestone-centric approach to sales process, and the efforts they’ve made to embed methodology, training, and coaching into the daily lives of salespeople. SalesStar recently partnered with Membrain to create a turn-key Sales CRM and enablement system to help clients go from theory to practice.

    Here’s why.

    It’s milestone-centric

    If you can’t embed learning into the culture of the organization, then stop doing it.”
    Paul O’Donohue

    O’Donohue recalls meeting the Membrain leadership several years ago at a conference, and the “aha” moment they shared.

    “I got what they were doing right away,” says O’Donohue. “It was software that supported everything I was already doing. I was looking for something that was milestone-centric, and this was the first software that could really do that.”

    Membrain makes it easy for partners like O’Donohue to embed the process and methodology they bring to their clients directly inside the workflow of each salesperson and sales manager. It provides an easy interface for setting up stages, milestones, and activities tied to each deal’s place in the pipeline. This makes it easy for O’Donohue to make sure the processes and methodologies he teaches stick.

    It makes it easy to manage cash flow

    Every business lives and dies by cash flow. The organization’s ability to forecast revenue is critical in strategic planning, yet most sales organizations consistently miss their forecasts.

    “Prior to using Membrain, it was a friction nightmare to forecast deals,” says O’Donohue. “We didn’t have a dashboard and it was like flying a plane without a dashboard. When you run out of fuel, it becomes a big issue. When you run out of cash, you’re stuffed. Straight off the bat, Membrain was a game changer on that score.”

    Membrain enables O’Donohue’s team and clients to clearly define the leading indicators that affect forecasting for the coming months. Instead of relying on salespeople’s estimations, it allows the leadership team to set up clear entry and exit criteria for every stage of the process, and then to weight deals based on those criteria.

    “What’s even better about Membrain,” O’Donohue says, “Is that your forecasts get more accurate the longer you’re using the platform. Today, our forecasts are consistently within 5% of actual. It gives us a huge amount of confidence.”

    It provides tools for active management

    “If you can’t embed learning into the culture of the organization,” says O’Donohue, “then stop doing it.”

    The tools inside Membrain are what enable O’Donohue’s team to do exactly that. They include a flagging system that shows not only where deals in the pipeline, but which ones are meeting entry, exit, and other criteria, and which ones are experiencing challenges. This, plus visual analytics tools, makes it easy for managers to dig down and see what the problem is, and then to manage and coach the salesperson to get the deal back on track.

    “We look at this data on a weekly basis,” says O’Donohue. “During our sales meetings, we look at who has what in their pipeline, we make sure they each have a good balance, and we identify what needs to be honed in on. The result is that we have salespeople who are struggling one week, and the next they’re closing like a monster. It really works.”

    At Membrain, we’re thrilled to partner with O’Donohue and others like him to help our clients and theirs achieve the sales outcomes they want. For more detail on how to do this, stay tuned for an upcoming coaching series with O’Donohue. And, if you want to work like the sales experts at SalesStar, get SalesStar powered by Membrain today!

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    George Brontén
    Published May 2, 2018
    By George Brontén

    George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.

    Find out more about George Brontén on LinkedIn