Align Hub

Zero-prep Inspection with Align

  OK, maybe not zero prep, but Align does dramatically reduce the number of times you’re prepping on a Sunday night trying to remember all the promises you made to customers last week Align’s role in inspection -- Clari customers Align integrates directly into Clari’s Insights Panel on the Opportunity Inspector. Assuming your Org has enabled MAP Status in CRM, you can filter your opportunities or build out dashboards by “On Track”, “Late” or “No MAP”.This will help managers spot risk faster, especially on critical deals. Use MAP Summary to summarize key events or just jump over to the full plan from Clari.Best practice is to create a dashboard widget or Saved View for your key dealsHey Clari -- Which of my $50K+ commit deals for this quarter are missing a MAP? Align’s role in inspection -- Align standalone If you don’t have Clari, you can still incorporate Align into your deal inspection calls.All the details are in one place so your manager can review on their own and then you can spend your time together talking strategy instead of reporting the news. With Align, you and your manager will be able to spot risk so much earlier – just think what how many more deals you could save if you had weeks or even months advance notice that things weren’t going right.  If it’s set up in the template, Mutual Business Objectives sync back to Salesforce, and you can configure which activities you want to get pushed to the Opportunity so you don’t have to manually record it anymore.  

Your First Align Workspace

You can have your first Align workspace live in under 30 seconds.Clari customers will just start from the Clari Opportunity Grid, but if you don’t have Clari, you can start from the Align Dashboard at https://align.clari.com or from Salesforce.  From Clari Inspection TabClick on an opportunity that has no workspace yet. Open the insights panel to MAP tab Click “Create new MAP” Template picker will open. Select a template OR start from scratch The close date and customer name will be pulled from Clari or you can adjust the timing of the deal by moving the target go-live date Click Create.     From Align Dashboard Go to align.clari.com. If you’re not already logged in, you’ll be prompted to enter your email to get a new secure access link. Click “Create new MAP” Template picker will open. Select a template OR start from scratch You can adjust the timing of the deal by moving the target go-live date and all the dates will shift Click Create      NEXT STEPSStart customizing this workspace with your POV on how you can help the customer Share with your customers Create some value and sell some stuff!      

How and when to share a workspace

Selling is all about the customer. And so is Align. The first question to answer is “what’s in it for the customer”. If you can answer this question, then you’ll know when to introduce the concept of more structured collaboration When to intro Align  Buyers want different things at different times. Use Align to anticipate those needs and deliver an unstoppable buying process.    During Discovery Remember that you can create a collaboration workspace without a MAP. Early in Discovery you probably don’t know enough to drop a detailed plan on your prospect, so focus on value and your business case.Use Align’s Mutual Business Objectives to validate your customer’s business priorities and how you can help. Pull them up in a screenshare and say “did I hear you right?” If they say no, that’s great! “Sorry I misunderstood. Tell me what I got wrong!” Use Align’s Content Library to share case studies, NDA, or other assets you want to share. Link to your content store or just upload assets into the template or specific workspace.  During Proof of Value / Proof of ConceptProspects will want to get more involved during a PoV, so you’ll add a mutual action plan to your workspace and start to build out the buying team and your selling team Add a Template Snippet for whichever type of POC you agreed with the prospect and screen share it to validate. Invite the POC stakeholders involved. Towards the end of the POC talk through commercials and implementation and invite your champion to the workspace to get in there and work through the details together. During CommercialsNow your buyers will be demanding Align! They want to know what’s needed to close this deal. Give them what they need to avoid late stage surprises. Invite the remaining stakeholders to review the value you defined in the business case and demonstrate that you have a low-risk implementation and change management strategy in place. Use the MAP as PDF feature to send a clean summary to senior decision makers.  How to intro collaboration  The secret to introducing Align is to put yourself in your buyer’s shoes. They’ve never bought from you. They don’t know what they need to know. You’re simply making life easier for them. Just share some assets in Align or screenshare a high-level mutual action plan for them to validate. Stay cool, and always present Align as a simple tool to make their internal decision making process easier.  Use Shareable Link to make it easy for buyers to include other stakeholders from their org Offer to share Align the first time when you’re in a meeting. Send over the link and say “just click that link to make sure you can get in OK” Then you can give them a 20 second tour of the assets you’ve shared or any milestones you’ve already got in place.  EXAMPLE SCRIPT ____________________________   I like using this tool with my customers to figure out how we could work together & fix your problem. This is just a starting point, and I’m making no assumptions.  Let’s look at the high-level milestones we need to fix your problem.   Just a couple minutes in a MAP will save you hours chasing down details and make sure you’re super polished when you’re talking internally.    Then if we end up going deeper together, we’ll have a plan to make sure we’ve covered every issue and make sure there are no roadblocks to your success.   What do you think?   

Collaborating Our Way to a Higher Close Rate with Tom Williams

In this episode of Predictable Revenue, @Tom Williams, Head of Clari Align, discusses the importance of collaboration in the sales process.Here’s how he unpacks the 3 key pillars of sales collaboration:Understanding the customer's problem at a deep level Establishing trust with the customer Executing and implementing the sale effectivelyWhile MAPs can be transformative to building lasting, beneficial relationships with customers, it’s important not to overcomplicate the process, or make assumptions about customer needs, or neglect the human element. Learn more about striking a balance between curiosity and structure in sales in the podcast. Listen to the podcast or read the article here.

Align Team Templates

Creating a Team Template in Align streamlines your sales process and ensures consistency across teams. This guide provides a concise step-by-step on building an effective Mutual Action Plan template. Team Template Creation StepsAn admin can create a Team Template from the Template menu menu and start from scratch using the Create Template button (A), or use one of the existing starter templates loaded into your Align organization and making a copy of it (B). Use any existing MAP templates as a basis to for the template creation process. Welcome MessageStart with a general value proposition that addresses common pain points that you organization solves or create welcome message for your customer when they enter the shared workspace.The message can later be customized by a Rep to meet their customer’s unique needs.ObjectivesCollaborate with key customer stakeholders to define core objectives and add them to your workspace. Objectives must first be created by an admin in Align settings where you can add placeholder text and map them back to fields on your Salesforce opportunities. Refer to the our post on Objectives for more information on creating objectives. Plan & TimelineTarget key milestones from discovery to value realized. Begin with a simple base template that consists of 4-5 milestones. You can also create smaller templates using template snippets and insert additional milestones into you plan as the deal progresses by using the Import from template feature on a live plan.Align your milestone dates with your sales cycle (A)Include a brief milestone description (B)Add Team Roles to each milestone (C) view the article on Team Role creationAdd resources to each milestone (D) resources can also be added to the general library tabInclude action items from both the buying and selling team in each milestone (E)  Example template ideas:Discovery & Solution Validation: Promote discovery, demos, and solution fit requirements into a few milestones.Initial Buyer Conversation: Incorporate a Commercial Sales Cycle template when buyer interest increases.Security & Technical Requirements: Craft milestone and actions from each team around typical engagements for your technical team.Implementation Timeline Request: Add an implementation template with a high level overview of what post sales looks like and involve relevant teams.Close Plan: Create a template with steps to close from a typical procurement cycle all the way through contract closure and commercials.Additional Buyer Requirements: Insert a Proof of Value template as needed.

Mutual Business Objectives: Streamlining Deal Success

Mutual Business Objectives are a pivotal tool for enhancing the success of your deals. They facilitate effective customer discovery by capturing a buyer's needs and goals. In this concise guide, we'll explore what MBOs are, their importance, and how to use them effectively. Mutual Business Objectives creation steps: Step 1: Create ObjectivesAdmins can create Objectives in your Align Organization Settings by when you select the Objectives tab. Add a new Objective, update its title, and add in any placeholder text to the objective. You can always return to your objective later and make updates. Step 2: Objective Field MappingAccess the Field Mapping tab from the Align Organization Settings page and click + Add Mapping button. Select an Objective and sync it to a compatible field on your Salesforce opportunities. After publishing changes any plans using the sync objective will now push text directly to the selected field on the connected Salesforce opportunity. If you do not immediately see the field in Salesforce available try to Refresh CRM Fields button. Field syncs can take up to 15 mins, if you wish to run an immediate sync use the Run Full Sync Now button. Step 3: Insert Objectives in Templates and WorkspacesAdmins can insert Objectives into templates and Reps can add in objectives a la carte to their workspaces. The titles of objectives cannot be edited once they have been inserted into a Workspace, only an admin can create and make updates to objective titles. Adding Objectives to a TemplateAdding Objectives to a Workspace You can also hide Objectives from the buying team for confidentiality. By default, they're not visible to external teams and are hidden during presentations by toggling the visibility button next to the Add Objective button.

Align Organization Settings & Team Roles

Make updates to your organization settings to maintain a consistent brand image, workspace nomenclature, and buyer and seller role structure. These settings play a pivotal role in keeping your teams focused and prepared throughout the buyer's journey. Organization SettingsOnly Align admins can edit organization settings, the admin role can be provisioned from the Our Team section of Align. Login to your Align account as an admin and navigate to to Organization Settings. Company Name & LogoThe Organization Name or Company Name will display your company’s name to your customer throughout your Align Workspaces and customer collaboration email notifications. By default Align will use your company’s domain name (ex. clari.com) so be sure to update it to something friendly for your customers. Your company logo is a fundamental component of your brand identity. To ensure your brand is well-represented on your team’s workspaces be sure to update your company logo. You can upload or drag a drop an image file into the add logo space and trim as needed. Workspace NomenclatureThe title of your Workspace is a key element in communicating their purpose and content. You can customize the Workspace title to align with your organization's terminology and branding strategy. This title will be prominently displayed at the top of all your organization's Workspaces, providing clarity to your teams. You can also add an acronym for convenience.   CRM Activity FeedPush engagements from your Workspaces as Buyer and Sellers signals to activity of your opportunities. Use the CRM activity feed to select the types of engagements you would like to view in your SFDC reporting and the Clari Deal Activity on the Insights panel of your opportunities. For more information view our post on Integrating Align with Salesforce. Team RolesTeam Roles play a critical role in Workspace and template management as they help identify and categorize stakeholders within the Buying Team and Selling Team. Properly defining roles ensures that everyone involved in the Workspace understands their responsibilities. Update your Team Templates and add roles or personas from your team and to the customer’s team that are required for any given stage or milestone of a Workspace. You will be able to see how many times the roles are used in Workspaces in the field next to each role. For more information on incorporating Team Roles into your templates check out our post on Team Templates.  Configure your Align Organization settings prior to rolling our Align to your teams and contribute to a smooth buyer journey and enhanced collaboration between teams. If you have any further questions or need assistance with aligning your organization settings, please reach out to your Align Admin or your Clari Customer Success team for guidance.

Integrating Align with Salesforce

Clari Align integrates seamlessly with your Salesforce environment pushing engagements from buyers and sellers to your opportunities, mapping fields in your workspaces to fields on your Salesforce opportunity objects, and pushing the status of a plan in a workspace to a custom field. Align Activity to SFDC Task ActivityClari Align offers a powerful tool for gaining insights into buyer signals through Workspaces. Sales reps and leaders can easily access Workspaces through the Insights Panel in Clari Opportunities. Teams can use Workspace activity to track buyer signals, monitor adoption by sellers, and analyze seller activity.Select Activities to Track: Choose the activities you want to track from both Buyers and Sellers. Enable CRM Activity: Toggle the "Enable CRM Activity" switch on or off to enable or disable the flow of selected activities that push to your Salesforce opportunities.Align Workspace activities will now appear in Salesforce opportunities as completed tasks with the date of the activity.If you would like to view selected engagements on your Clari opportunities in Deal Activity on the insights panel please submit a Support Request or contact your Clari Account Manager. Align to Salesforce Field MappingAlign's CRM sync feature streamlines data exchange between Align and your CRM system. Align continuously enhances this integration to simplify content creation and eliminate data duplication across systems.Access your Align Organization Settings page select the field mapping tab and click "+ Add Mapping" at the bottom left to create a new mappingSelect Align Field: Choose the Align field you want to map to a CRM opportunity field.Select CRM Field: Choose the compatible salesforce field and click "Publish Changes" in the bottom left corner.After publishing changes any plans using the sync objective will now push text directly to the selected field on the connected Salesforce opportunity. If you do not immediately see the field in Salesforce available try to Refresh CRM Fields button. Field syncs can take up to 15 mins, if you wish to run an immediate sync use the Run Full Sync Now button. Align Plan Status in Clari & SalesforceSales and Revenue Operations leaders understand the importance of optimizing processes to boost deal velocity and win rates, especially for enterprise-level deals. Align facilitates the integration of Plan Status with Salesforce, enabling advanced analytics within your CRM and making the status filterable in your Clari Opportunity Grid.  Here's how you can setup Align plan status in Salesforce.Add a New Custom Field to an Opportunity Object1. On the Opportunity object, create a new MAP Status picklist field with API Name MAP_Status_ _cNote: The  _ _c is added automatically. Make sure you match the API names and capitalization exactly and match ON_TRACK, LATE, and ARCHIVED.2. Configure permissions so that any seller user can modify the field via Salesforce API calls. We recommend configuring views and layout so that the MAP Status can't be updated via the UI, as Align is the sole source of truth for this field’s value. Enable MAP Status in Clari with Clari Align1. Create a custom MAP Status field on the opportunity object in Salesforce (follow the steps above!) 2. Configure Align MAP Status to the custom field for MAP status in Salesforce using. See Align to Salesforce Field Mapping above.3. Add the MAP Status field from Salesforce to Clari using Field Configuration in Clari Studio