TEB Version 3 – From the horse’s mouth

The launch of the TEB version 3 has everyone at TEBillion very excited. We took our customer's feedback, listened and TEB version 3 was born. We are thrilled with the results. We hope that you will be too.

Here is an insight into the development of TEB version 3 and how we came to create a sales automation tool brimming with functions accessible in just a few clicks.  

With the TEB version 3 coming out it feels like version 1 of our biggest dream at TEBillion. 

The past year has been full of roller coasters, brick bats and shaking heads. Whilst, the version 2 was out the jury was in, customers loved the features and requested newer ones and more sharpening, a bit more of everything!

Just a bit more -Customers asked, we listened

When version 2 was launched our sales team entered the market all guns blazing. Our tech team were ecstatic, this was it; we had nailed it. Soon to find that our customers and partners were after just a “bit more”. Sales were running back to the tech team saying “hey we need a bit more: new features and sharpening, that’s what customers are asking for.”

According to the feedback, the only way we would sell the product is if we could give them the “bit more” that they desired. 

What a stakeholder conundrum, do we politely request that our sales team focus their efforts on selling and not complaining or did they have a point? They are the ones out there, face to face with the customers after all. Opting for the stop complaining tact would surely soon see the sales team productivity issues? So, the decision was made to act on the feedback.

TEB version 3 – Rearchitected from the ground up

Firstly, we needed to understand what the “bit more” that the sales team had mentioned was. What could we do to provide the customers with the product that they deserve? We did bite the bullet and start rearchitecting. The decision was made at the end of 2018 not to just tinker with version 2 but to completely build grounds up version 3. A big decision with an estimated six months of intensive development and heavy lifting of 22,500 man hours before the first release of version 3 would be ready. Like most things in tech, as the problem solving and development continued the turn-around time increased. In July 2019 we had it, version 1 of mine and my teams TEB dreams, the TEB version 3 first release was out.   

TEB Version 3 – A different approach

As version 2 had thrown up some new aspects and brought with it new learnings, it was decided to allow the tech team to make the tech decisions. They are the experts. We as stakeholders contributed with opinions, thoughts, ideas and constructive criticism without being obstructive. This proved to be very difficult for me, the TEB product line is so close to me that it is like letting your close ones make decision about your child. And not being involved in a decision about your child’s future, even if it’s just about what sport they do or what they wear! As any parent will understand, it was tough. I had to employ a different parenting approach and along with the stakeholders provide a soundboard and let the decisions be taken by the brilliant technical experts in our team. The only thing I didn’t take a step back from (and never will) is ease of use, I will come to this later.

Guess what? It worked! Our techies worked their magic. Lesson learnt!

Ease of use – a deal-maker

The stakeholder’s input including mine was mainly sought around functionality, customer feedback, user experience and go to market. I believe that our TEB suite has always had an edge as it's designed for ease of use. One of the things that I am passionate about is that we protect that territory, irrespective of how much complexity we bring into the tech it must be easy to use. On this, I will always put my foot down. Even if it means development takes longer, we have to think harder, to me it is imperative that no matter what functionality we introduce we will always consider ease of use as our Number 1 priority.

In my view, identifying your core USP as a product to go to market is imperative, the main reason customers would love to buy your products above all others all things being equal. I believe our USP is our ease of use that makes the end user just be at ease with the functionality and just see it as an extension of their skill set and a tool they just love to use. My colleagues may have a differing opinion on this and I can see why. We have some incredible functionality and an all-singing, all-dancing, rich feature set. For me, however, the defining feature is that we have buried a great amount of complexity in the background. A user takes action with just a few clicks and job done. They don’t need to burden themselves with the complexity behind what they are doing. 

As we enter the first month of our customers upgrading to TEB version 3 we are eager to find out if they like what we have been doing for the last six months. 

We are confident in what we’ve all created together with passion and love. TEB version 3 is nothing short of the world’s best sales automation toolset. 

The jury is out. 

Find out more about our products and services and how you can improve your business with the world’s best sales automation tool.

Author – Ashish Raina

TEBillion.com