Bridging the gap between IT and sales in the enterprise

The research arm of InsideSales.com produces some amazing work. They do this through analysis of our proprietary sales interaction data set (currently comprised of well over 110-billion interactions, and growing) and through methodically prepared and administered surveys of the general public and sales executives. 

One such survey of several hundred sales leaders produced interesting results. Specifically, it sought to identify which divisions (HR, legal, marketing, etc) sales teams most need support from and which divisions do in fact provide the best support. The outcome? Misalignments are deep and rampant.

We didn’t even bother to ask about the relationship between IT and sales, simply because we already know all about it. It’s typically abysmal. Sales is almost always regarded by IT as the unwanted stepchild of the organization, whose technology needs are low priority and limited to a functioning phone and email.

And so, you can imagine what a thrill it is to meet someone who truly sees the role technology plays in sales acceleration, and supports his sales teams accordingly. I’m talking about Yousuf Khan, CIO at Silicon Valley darling PureStorage.

DE: Yousuf, how would you sum up your approach to technology in the organization?

YK: Productivity. It’s the absolute minimum. It’s like, “How do I make everyone super productive without anybody having to worry about IT?” So, I start from there and build up.

DE: PureStorage is growing like crazy and I like to think our software has something to do with that. How do you keep up? So often internal tech is the first place growing companies stumble.  

YK: First, I’m deeply focused on efficiency so we want to focus on automation and embed how we can automate as much as possible. It’s also gives us the opportunity to work closely with the right platforms rather than just products.

Two, we’re focused on driving a culture towards data, because BI and analytics are the number one agenda item for a large majority of my peer group generally but also for businesses overall because as data has become the lifeblood of any company.

Third, I’m very focused on building partnerships – internally with all our departments, as well as with the tech companies building solutions that align to our priorities. Most CIOs don’t want to get involved in, say, a marketing automation or sales productivity discussion or a deep dive into the supply chain. I look to operate and to speak with all of the organization’s leaders to see where IT can contribute to the larger effort. It’s also an opportunity to do a sound check on some of the plans that we as the IT team have.

DE: Let’s drill down a little. How should the ideal CIO of a tech company selling into enterprise go about supporting his sales teams?

YK: Being the CIO of a tech company, I think it is important for one to provide guidance to the sales and marketing effort. It can be as minimal as aiding in product messaging - “I’m a CIO, you’re trying to sell to CIOs, let me tell you how I buy.”  So first of all, if you’re the CIO of a technology company, it’s exciting to be more involved. I think the second piece is you must be curious. Technology has enabled you to build out so much more innovation. Both internally, as well as working with startup and BD companies like InsideSales.com to have an impact. But I think the success in that partnership is in being curious about how the business functions, and how to make it more efficient, but the other thing is, you need to understand that if you want to measure your impact, you need to have a plan to put that together.

So, I ask myself: how can I help the sales effort? I could help them by deploying InsideSales.com, for example, manage that deployment, get the impact and see the increase in dials and opportunities.

The other piece is to say, “Where is this company going? How do I play a part in helping the company get to that goal? What is my part to play in that?” And then I need to translate that to every member of my team, right down from the level one help desk individual to the Salesforce administrator, and make sure we’re all part of one concerted effort.

External to this, one of the things I’ve done in the last six months has been to connect with CIOs across the US as well as outside and to be able to get their insights about priorities, how they look at cloud, and take a lot of those data points and provide them into our marketing function, and into our product function, and say, “This is what we hear, this is what I see.” Being able to help the company from the product standpoint is something I think I’ve been able to contribute to in some small way.

DE: Every company should have a CIO with your philosophy, Yousuf.

How does IT support sales in your organization? If the relationship is as seamless as the one we see at PureStorage, you're one of the fortunate ones. Tell me what IT gets right and wrong for your sales team in the comments below.