Adding probability to your Sales Process is a fundamental part of effective pipeline management and reliable forecasting.

We're excited to announce some powerful new ways to calculate and apply probability to Sales Projects, helping sales people prioritize opportunities and give Management greater clarity into sales operations and weighted pipeline values.

Previously, probability was applied to sales projects either subjectively - i.e. from gut feeling or estimates by the project owner, or applied automatically as milestone steps were completed while working through the process.

With this new update, its now possible to take values from Custom Fields throughout Membrain, and use them to calculate the probability of winning an opportunity.

Here are some ways you can use this new feature - available now with 
Membrains Dynamic Process tools Module

Scorecards - take results from any Scorecard throughout Membrain and convert them to a probability %. For example, an Opportunity Scorecard in the Sales Project with questions around Buyer Alignment, Project Urgency or Stakeholder buy-in etc. updated at specified milestones ensures a continuously updated and objective probability is applied.

Calculation Fields - combine values of any numeric field and use complex calculations to create probability from. A simple example here might be the probability of a project going ahead combined with the probability of your organization winning the deal, giving you a newly calculated and more realistic probability to measure and forecast on.

Numeric Fields - Perhaps probability is generated through another workflow outside of Membrain, which can be manually entered as a number to represent % probability.  

We hope you enjoy this new flexibility around probability for sales projects! Read more about Setting Probability for your Sales Process. And if you would like some best practice advice on setting it up to suit your workflow, drop us a line at support@membrain.com and we'll be happy to help.

We now have checklists as tools in our sales processes in Membrain. 

The Process Checklist allows you to itemize actions you need to take from within a step in your sales process. 

This is extremely helpful for sales people. As they walk through the steps in their sales process they can see the actions they need to tick off. This allows them to track what they have completed and what they have not, within a specific step. It is a practical approach to ensuring the step is completed successfully.

For more information on "Process Checklists" please visit our help center.

We've added some new options to give you more choices on how to use Sales Project Value and Closing Date. 

The benefits you see here are more flexibility both on creation of Sales Projects, but also regarding where the Value and Closing Dates information comes from - which can now be populated by other data elsewhere in Membrain. Smart eh? Lets dig in.

1. Value and Closing Date on creation:
It can often be the case that you already know the specific date you expect to win a sales project. Overriding the default setting (expected closing date set in the process) right from the beginning gives you more control over your pipeline and helps with more precise forecasting.

Same goes for Value. Value can be added to the Sales Project while its being created, ensuring that this information is not skipped later while working with the Sales Project. This can be used as a A simple way to enforce mandatory fields on these 2 important data points.

2. Value and Closing Date information from:
A powerful new feature on Value and Closing date also allows you to populate these fields with information from other fields within your Membrain account. 

For example:  Value may be taken from another field populated elsewhere, or can even be a calculation of two or more number, currency or scorecards fields anywhere else in Membrain. Whatever makes sense to your business, take advantage of this flexible approach and customize how you calculate and add Value to your Sales Projects.

Similarly, the Closing date could be populated from another date field elsewhere in Membrain, perhaps from another field or even another process.  

The flexibility around these pivotal fields in Membrain have grown immensely with these updates, we hope you enjoy them! And don't miss a similar update on how to use Probability in Membrain too.

For more information on how to configure Value, Closing Date and Probability in your Processes, head on over to our Help Center.

Membrain's Dashboards are packed with the insights you need to track progress and ensure you don't miss a beat.  Colorful, visually striking and easy to create, they are the perfect companion to any data-driven sales professional. 

With this latest update, its now possible to share this powerful, real-time analysis with the world - delivering the data you need, when you need it, to wherever you want. 

Live Dashboards are genius in their simplicity. They allow you to easily take a collection of your most insightful graphs and make them available via a multitude of other tools, devices or platforms across the business. Share with your colleagues, stakeholders and anyone you think might be encouraged and energized to see this information.

Here are just a few suggestions of how you can use Live Dashboards today:

• Access them from other software like BI or Dashboarding solutions
• Share them across the organization over your intranet or other company wide collaboration platforms
• Add a shortcut to a live dashboard to your desktop - and wow your colleagues and share this tip so they can enjoy these dashboards at their fingertips too!
• Display them for all to see, perhaps on a big screen tv for the sales department, or simply from your own cell phone. The options are endless! 

Don't keep all this dashilicous goodness to yourself! Learn how to create a Live Dashboard today!

 This is where we bring together the updates from our most recent release that have not been included in our featured blog posts.

 Our team has been working hard to elevate your experience on both Membrain Go (our mobile app) and our Desktop version of Membrain. 

Our most recent updates allow you to:

• Add full day events on the calendar!
• Use the same workflow when creating assigned tasks and activity types  on both Membrain Go and Membrain's Desktop version.
• Copy to clipboard from places where you can right click like editing emails and phone numbers.
• Global search phone numbers and populate phone numbers that might not be the exact match.
• Use improved mention visualizations.

Membrains Win/Loss analysis provides you with the insights to understand the reasons behind why you win some deals and lose others.

With predefined graphs to outline things like top Win Rate Influencers, Reasons for Outcomes and Conversion data, its your go-to place to learn what works, where you struggle, and continually optimize your sales execution.

We've just added some new exciting functionalities to Win/Loss analysis, allowing you to dig deeper into your data and understand what contributes to, or detracts from your success.

Here's a rundown of what's new:

• Measure the amount of time you spend on activities per won or lost deals. Spot trends and make changes to your workflows based on the results
  
  

• Track the average numbers of Stakeholders you identify in your Sales Projects and get a better understanding of how this affects your win rates
• Exclude/hide options and values that are of less interest in the Win Rate Influencers Graph and focus on the data that's relevant 
• Drilldown on values to see which sales projects make up the graph, without leaving the view you're in

These Win/Loss Analysis reports are available now as part of the Sales Analytics+ Module, and pre-populate automatically with no configuration required.

Go check them out today! Learn more about the Win/Loss Analysis, and reach out to us at support@membrain.com for a personal run-through of this powerful feature.

As CoVid-19 takes hold around the globe, we want to reaffirm our dedication to supporting you and your business, especially now during these uncertain times.

This is a challenging time, for everyone. And for Salespeople who traditionally work in an office environment, finding a new balance between home and work can be tough.

Taking a deep breath, assessing the tools available to you and tweaking your current workflows can go a long way in ensuring you and your team stays productive and focused.

Encouraging your team to lean on Membrain while restricted to working from home can be greatly supportive - especially now while workflows are disrupted. With progress visible for all to see, individual achievements can easily be highlighted and celebrated through coaching within Membrain.

We are here to help!

We've put together a list of things - which are available to you with Membrain right now - that will help you and your team stay as connected as ever.

Our Customer Success team is on standby to support you while you make the switch to remote working. We are happy to offer our customers a walkthrough of the features below and show you how they can help you collaborate and stay productive.

Just reach out to us via support@membrain.com or call us (Europe) +46-8-446 888 82 or (US) +1-646-741 2797.

Productivity features for remote workers

Membrain Go - Our Mobile app allows you to stay connected, whether you're in the office, out on the road, or just temporarily away from your laptop 

Zoom Online Meetings - Use our Zoom integration to create online zoom meetings in your Membrain calendar with one click. Switch the sales team's weekly Pipeline Review to an online meeting, and keep the focus on your sales goals.     

Sales Calendar - Membrains shared Sales Calendar offers easy team planning. Integrate your Membrain Sales Calendar with Office 365 or GSuite, and easily plan your day from one central place.

Save Emails Automatically - Want all email communications visible in Membrain? inbound and outbound emails can be saved automatically to the relevant sales project or prospect in Membrain, regardless of where its sent from.  

Mentions & Comments - collaborate on sales projects and prospects with your colleagues and stay in touch easily. 

Story Stream - Use the Story stream for that high-level overview of whats been happening in Membrain across your team, and Coach, guide and offer advice where its needed.

Slack Integration - Communicate sales events and alerts across the business with this powerful integration.

Email Templates & Snippets -  Create Email Templates and shorter Snippets to increased efficiency, and share with the team.

Remember when we introduced Playbooks? 

Now they are even better. We have now added new functionality that allows you to get deeper. You can make your sales process and prospecting campaigns even more dynamic by adding AND OR criteria options.

As we all know, Playbooks  have plenty of benefits. They enable you to change your sales process and prospect campaigns based on a specified information relevant to your business needs. Playbooks allow you to carve out a set of steps in the event a specific scenario happening in your sales process that impacts how you move forward.

Here's a simple Playbook example

HIDE/SHOW AN ADDITIONAL STEP IF
Competitor is "ArchRival Ltd."
AND
Value is greater $10,000
OR
Budget Scorecard is greater than 8/10

Now you can use more than one criteria and  you can add additional criteria OR trump a set of established criteria if something specific happens. For a step by step guide on this please visit our help center article titled Playbooks.

Also spoiler alert- you can also use these additional criteria fields across rules you create and use throughout your processes. Learn more about how this works in Process Rules.

Our Salesforce plugin places the core of Membrain’s functionality directly into the heart of the Salesforce platform, increasing sales effectiveness across the board.

We've been working behind the scenes to bring some new and exciting improvements to the Salesforce Plugin - read on to learn more!

Scorecard Update

Introducing Scorecards into your Sales Process gives you crystal clear insights into the strengths or weaknesses of each opportunity in your pipeline. We recently launched a new and improved Scorecard experience across Membrain Desktop and Mobile app, raising the bar and making Scorecards even more insightful and visually engaging - and these improvements are now available for the Salesforce plugin. 

Forecast Category Field

Reliable forecasting is at the core of Pipeline management and helps organisations aim high and see continued growth. The plugin now allows for Salesforce's Forecast Category field to sync with Membrain, resulting in a tighter integration between the two platforms. 

This addition also means Membrain's intuitive Dashboards can include all forecasting metrics needed for insightful Sales Analytics and Reporting, including Membrains Probability tools AND Salesforce's Forecast Categories.

Continued Sync Improvements

Delete Sync - Membrains two-way sync with Salesforce ensures that data is consistently up to date, regardless of where you view it from. The plugin now gives you an additional option to sync deleted Salesforce opportunities, improving data accuracy and integrity from both sides of the sync. 

Improved clarity on Sync Status - Membrain now actively detects and alerts if the sync is behind or has been disabled, giving admins more control and insight into the status of the sync.

Membrains Activity Stream is your first port of call when you want to see all the important events and activities carried out on a particular Sales Project, Prospect, Company or Contact. But what happens when you want to see more... at a glance? 

If you already enjoying recording additional information in what we call 'Activity Custom Fields', you're gonna love this new update. Activity custom fields (and the data you capture in them) are now visible in all activity streams throughout Membrain, making the outcomes of your meetings and phone calls etc. easier to see than ever before. 

What is an Activity Custom Field ?  
Activity custom fields give you control over what information is recorded as part of activity creation. Adding a custom field like Meeting Highlights to an Appointment for the salesperson to complete during or after a meeting creates a clear and easy workflow to follow. Or a Phonecall Outcome drop-down list to select from - after a call with a prospect - cuts time and can help salespeople understand what the next step should be.

And of course, there's a world of additional options to be explored, like incorporating Playbooks into these outcomes, as well as powerful reporting capabilities with the Dashboard.

Read more in this recent article Do more with customized Activity Tracking

In the example below, we see an appointment with three clear areas for the salesperson to easily track Meeting Outcome, Meeting Highlights, and Link to the meeting recording. Never feel like you need to click through to see the important information again!

All sorts of important information like this can be easily added during the meeting or afterwards from the activity stream itself.  Having this kind of quick overview of the outcome of a meeting from the Activity Stream offers greater insights and a smoother experience with activity tracking.

Learn how to Use Custom Fields with Activities in your Sales or Prospecting Processes today and create workflows your sales team will love you for!