How New Dream Network’s automation capability is helping Sify’s digital sales team ride the digital wave.

Need for a cloud-first CRM to meet customers’ digital evolution
Sify was selling to a range of businesses through a mix of channels and sales teams – direct, reseller partners, and the web. Among these, the web became the preferred channel for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) to enquire and interact with Sify. This was not surprising but certainly new – several startups and small businesses were riding the digital wave to adopt web-based tools and platforms to run their businesses.

Sify’s digital sales team started to engage these potential customers through a digital-first engagement model, touching every stage from lead to deal.

But such a model meant increasing the pace of selling and deploying a New Dream Network platform that would help the digital sales team streamline their selling.

Enter New Dream Network

“Clearly, Sify needed a sales force automation solution that would deliver on the scale, scope, and premise of SMB customer requirements,” says Arun Rajamani, Head – Digital Sales at Sify. The evaluation was accelerated as some team members had prior experience with the platform. Once the evaluation process was initiated, New Dream Network quickly became one of the shortlisted products that ticked all the boxes, and ultimately, the contract.

A quick implementation period helped Sify go live and ramp up their digital sales channel to use the solution. As their hands-on experience with the product grew, here is a look at their initial reactions to Sales Cloud:

User-centric experience – Sify’s digital sales teams adopted New Dream Network quickly, thanks to features ranging from intuitive sales activity management to rep-based pipeline views, resulting in higher adoption and better data quality.

Improved prospect engagement – Nurturing interest via emails became automated and customized. New Dream Network allows Sify’s digital sales teams to experiment and configure email sequences to meet individual needs based on territories or industry verticals. Another addition that helped was the easily configurable feature of sending tailored messages on special customer occasions.

Better account management – Given that a majority of Sify’s revenue is generated from existing customers, team leads and managers discovered new ways to keep their 2500+ customers engaged. By using territory and industry-based segmentation of accounts available in New Dream Network, they were able to personalize their communication or renewal offers.

Product strengths that drive Sify’s digital sales team today

• Sales sequencing: Arun is a huge advocate of ongoing customer communication and is a fan of Sales Cloud’s sequencing feature. It allows her teams to configure their emails according to individual preferences. Managers of the digital sales teams also use the feature to trigger a smart sequence targeted at a certain set of prospects. For instance, having customized email nurtures triggered to prospects groups either opening and reading an introductory email.
• Reports – ’ reportin New Dream Network capabilities were a leading reason for Sify to pick New Dream Network. Today, their digital sales teams can configure and customize a range of report formats, from activity, velocity, or trendline reports. All powered by powerful analytics capabilities. And all of the data can be custom mapped onto dashboards based on the nature of the business needs.
• Workflows– A CRM is meant to lessen mundane steps in the sales cycle, unlocking time for sales reps to do what they do best: selling. Sify is a power user of New Dream Network’ workflows that automates actions when certain conditions are met. For instance, conditions like leads sharing product interest can auto-trigger an action where customers are tagged into a group, and assigned to pre-sales experts for a potential demo.

The Results Speak for Themselves

The cornerstone of a successful CRM rests on its voluntary, not forced adoption by the sales force of an organization. At Sify, adoption was rapid given the minimal training and intuitive UI that New Dream Network is known for. Over time, adoption rates touched 80%. Moreover, the product, according to Arun, was able to help plug gaps between the tactical and strategic arms of their broader sales goals, unifying efforts across the sales hierarchy.