Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

Cien’s Hidden Revenue Assessment makes sense of your CRM data to reveal the factors that are preventing your team from achieving its numbers.

Using 100+ AI models, the assessment spots the selling skills and attributes that have the greatest impact on your team’s performance.

It then shows how each team member can improve their skills and quantifies the financial impact of acting on the recommendations. 

How do I get my assessment?

What does the assessment do?

The Hidden Revenue Assessment applies over 100 AI models to your Salesforce data covering the most recent 12 months. The models build a picture of each rep’s skills and attributes and determines the hard dollar value that each skill and attribute adds, or subtracts, from your team’s revenue potential.

Is the assessment free?

Qualifying Salesforce users can request the assessment for free. After the assessment, you have the option to subscribe to Cien’s app where you can unlock additional recommendations and track your entire team’s selling attributes and progress. 

How do I qualify for the assessment?

To qualify, you need to be selling a B2B technology product or service, have 10 or more reps using Salesforce Enterprise Edition for at least 12 months, and have sales booking values recorded in your CRM. 

How do I claim my assessment?

-1- Request an invite by visiting www.cien.ai/hidden-revenue
-2- Complete a mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (optional)
-3- Sync your anonymized Salesforce data with Cien
-4- Get the assessment in PDF by email with specific findings for your team

How does the Salesforce Sync work?

Cien sends you an invite with instructions for your Salesforce Administrator. It contains a secure link to initiate a read-only API connection to your Salesforce instance via the OAuth protocol. Activating the sync process typically takes less than five minutes. You also have the option of manually uploading your data to a secure dropbox location. Contact Cien for more information on the sync process.

How do I know that my data is secure?

Cien does not access Personally Identifiable Information (PII), with the exception of the names of your reps. As an approved Salesforce AppExchange partner, Cien has completed numerous security audits and is Privacy Shield Certified. A mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement will be executed upon request.

What additional security measures are in place?

· All systems accessed through 256 bit SSL secure connections
· All data stored on Cien’s servers is encrypted at rest
· Cien’s operations team monitors software and application behavior 24x7x365
· Enterprise-grade firewalling, routing, intrusion prevention, and behavior analytics capabilities
· Dynamic application, virus and infrastructure vulnerability scans
· Secure backup policies and automated destruction of redundant backups
· All data center partners are SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified
· Stringent password policies with limited access to production environments by staff
· Tight network access restrictions to production databases
·
Cien conforms with the European Union’s and the United States’ Privacy Shield Program

What type of information do I need to input into Cien?

None! The data already exists within your CRM and the values displayed reflect this data with a little help from Cien's AI models. Just keep using your CRM as you always do and let Cien take it from there.

I’d love to use Cien, but I suspect the quality of my CRM data is too low.

Everyone has CRM data quality issues, due to many different factors. Cien’s technology is able to measure your greatest CRM hygiene issues, identify the root cause and address them using proprietary AI models.

I have a non-standard Salesforce configuration. Can I still get an assessment?

In most cases, the answer is yes. For Cien to work, you need to record a final booking amount in the opportunity object of your Salesforce organization when you win a deal. If you for example use a custom field, use the account object to prospect, or have multiple people work on the same opportunity, we can still generate a Hidden Revenue Assessment for you.

How does the assessment work?

How do you measure a rep’s selling attributes?

Each attribute you see in the Hidden Revenue Assessment is a comparative metric. Cien looks at all applicable data points and adjusts the value to compensate for various data quality issues. We then see if the specific rep is better, worse, or about the same as his/her peers. Each metric is measured using data from your CRM and we take great care to do apples-to-apples comparisons to ensure consistency. Attribute metrics are tracked over time, so you can see how coaching and other tools improve reps’ skills and measure the dollar impact of those initiatives.

How do you measure the value of improving each attribute?

This is a central component of Cien’s technology. Cien’s AI models search for correlations between reps’ skills and attributes and their impact on the final value of opportunities. This is the basis for a set of patented algorithms called the Cien Value Chain. Cien determines the relative value of each lead as it enters your CRM and tracks its value at the end of the sales cycle. The Cien Value Chain measures the value added at each stage of the opportunity and the skills and attributes that drive incremental value.

How do you measure engagement ability?

We take into account all activities across different communication channels (email, call, in-person meetings, social media)  and determine if there was any meaningful customer engagement (e.g. if a meeting was held or an email was responded to) and compare each rep to their peers that perform similar activities. 

How do you measure work ethic?

We factor in at sustained activity levels, not just individual activities, and adjust for the activities that may not be logged in your CRM. We then compare if the specific rep is better, worse or about the same as his or her peers.

How do you measure product knowledge?

Cien looks at multiple factors to determine product knowledge. The first one is the rep’s ability to do effective customer discovery and tie customer requirements into a solution that the customer finds value in. Cien contrasts that value with the quality of the leads received and the reps’ individual behavior compared to his or her peers. Lastly, we look at his/her tenure and role in the company.


How do you measure closing ability?

We measure a rep’s ability to turn late-stage opportunities into closed won deals while controlling for all other factors that as the quality of the lead or opportunity.

How do you measure value received?

All leads are not created equal. Sometimes it can be much easier to close a “hot lead” than a cold one. We look at the lead’s source, role, industry, size, location and other data points to measure the probability of all leads and accounts to generate revenue, and then translate their actual value using our patent pending Cien Value Chain technology. This can highlight territory imbalances or faulty lead distribution among other problems.

How do you measure deal maximizing?

This attribute measures a rep’s propensity to maximize deal value compared to his or her peers. Please note that this is not the same as closing ability, and in some cases, reps that maximize deal value may have lower closing ability.

How do you measure CRM accuracy?

We measure the amount of CRM entries normally needed to obtain specific sales results and compare that we the actual number of activities found. We can then get a good estimate of how much data “is missing” in your CRM, which in turn allows us to derive for example the true adjusted number of sales activities.

How do you measure CRM timeliness?

We calculate the percentage of activities that actually get recorded in your CRM and how much they appear to be bulk-entered versus manually entered.

How does the Hidden Revenue Assessment associate a dollar amount to its findings?

For each skill or attribute, Cien’s AI models determine the midpoint of your team.  The system then determines the dollar value that can be attributed to that individual rep being above or below average and by how much for each skill or attribute. We calculate the value based on the rep having about the same skills as everyone else.

Do you measure X, Y or Z? 

We are constantly adding additional measurements to our AI models. If you have an idea or a suggestion, we’re very eager to hear about it. 

Is Cien really AI or just another BI tool?

As stated, Cien uses over 100 AI models. The typical SalesOps/BI dashboard simply summarizes past data which is often of questionable quality. Cien i) cleans and standardizes your data, regardless of CRM configuration, ii) applies semantic meaning to your data (e.g. by using Natural Language Processing to analyze activity notes to determine the outcome of a call), iii) predicts the outcome of a specific lead or opportunity, iv) assigns value to each rep step of the sales process, using our Value Chain Technology, v) Summarizes and quantifies our recommendations into actionable prescriptions using our Mentor feature. 

Tell me a little about the technology stack Cien is using?

Cien runs our high performance AI engine in the AWS Cloud with all recommended security processes and technology enabled. The primary MongoDB database server handles over 100 million AI predictions daily. Individual AI models are implemented in Python using Deep Learning frameworks such as TensorFlow and Machine Learning toolkits such as scikit-learn. Our web, mobile apps and APIs are implemented in Node.js.

How do I act on my assessment?

How does Cien’s App help my team make quota?

The Hidden Revenue Assessment provides a snapshot of your team’s strengths and weaknesses. This becomes your roadmap to prioritize your efforts and track progress of each individual rep and the anticipated monetary value of changing specific selling behaviors.

What results can I expect?

The Hidden Revenue Assessment evaluates the dollar value of opportunities currently lost due to gaps in selling skills and attributes. This typically represents 15-30% of annual sales bookings (sometimes more). While Cien does not guarantee that every rep will achieve 100% quota, Cien will tell you which specific skills and attributes each rep needs to improve on to get to 100% quota. 

How much does Cien cost?

Use of Cien’s app is optional. Monthly pricing starts at $49 per rep. We offer a full-money back guarantee within 30 days if you are not 100% satisfied.

What happens after the assessment?

How do I use Cien’s app? 

Cien’s app makes the Hidden Revenue Assessment come to life. You can see all the details and drill down on specific reps and time periods. Typically each underperforming rep has shortcomings in one or two attributes that are holding them back. You will see the same past hidden revenue as in the assessment, but even more importantly, your current and future unrealized revenue potential. Then, use our mentor feature which recommends specific actions for addressing individual shortcomings.

My reps already have a lot of tools, and I don’t want another sales tool!

Cien is primary a tool for sales leaders that can also be used by individual reps. While we recommend giving all your reps access to Cien, you don’t have to roll out Cien to all your sales reps - their attributes and results are tracked regardless. If you are concerned of too many tools, just have your line managers check in to Cien weekly and use the insights during their coaching sessions and performance reviews.

Why should I trust a black box with my sales strategy?

Unlike some other AI systems, Cien is not a black box and surfaces the features that impact your metrics. In addition, all intermediate values can be seen in rep “baseball cards” and other app screens.

I already track a bunch of KPIs, why do I need Cien?

If all of your reps are making 100% quota, then you don’t. But most likely, your KPIs track the symptoms, not the root causes. For example, while a fever might get better or worse, you need a doctor to tell you what the underlying sickness is and what you need to do to get well again. That’s what Cien does.

I already know I need Cien, do I have to first do the Hidden Revenue Assessment?

You can get started with app straight away without doing the assessment. Cien a certified AppExchange Partner. All you need is to sign up on the AppExchange, and we'll get you started right away.

For more information visit cien.ai/hidden-revenue

About Cien

Cien is used by technology sales leaders to understand the cause of low quota attainment. Cien quantifies the intangible factors that prevent reps from achieving their numbers. Using AI, Cien delivers free assessments that typically reveal 20-40% of hidden revenue, even for companies with imperfect CRM data. Visit www.cien.ai for more info.

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