[shcheklein]

I worked previously at a company that was trying to do a predictive analytic, ML on top of Salesforce (to qualify and score leads, generate new promising leads, etc). The task was extremely difficult and from what I saw people were getting some marginal improvements from ML itself. Most companies at the end were interested in basic (but quite hard things to do right) - cleaning, dedupoing, enriching, generating more leads based on ICP, etc.

Not sure if in this case it's something different but my take from the past experience it's hard since data is noisy + closing the deals depends on a human as well and these tools don't take that into account usually.

[shcheklein]

I hope though there will be an ML product that can do a decent improvement in this space. Even small improvement there brings significant ROI.

[kjellsbells]

I spent years using a tool called Clari that applied analytics to Salesforce and Office (email) to predict deal activity. When it worked, it was really good.

But it had a fatal flaw: relying on Salesforce meant relying on the data that sales people input. And I quickly learned that sales people hate reporting tools, update them only under duress, and generally fill the database with crap.

Perhaps it's different when you are selling subscriptions over a digital channel, but for classic B2B feet on the street deals, ugh.

[BiteCode_dev]

Every people hate reporting tools.

Spending time and energy on describing the job you've done yesterday is taken from the job you are doing now. Not only it is unfulfilling work, but it's also often not taken in consideration by highers up that will likely assume your regular job should remain unaffected by reporting.

Then you get the feeling on being spied upon, nevery good for trust or moral.

And finally, you know that some actions you take will be judged by the people reading the reports. Unfortunately said judgment as ha chance to be unfavorable yet unfair, because the person making it might not have the context, personality, or knowledge required for a fair one.

However, workers have little chance to gain anything from favorable reports. So the asymmetry is just very much against the person filling the reports, who is paying the price for it.

What do you expect?

[idiocrat]

> sales people hate reporting tools, update them only under duress, and generally fill the database with crap.

Sometimes the salespeople do not want to share information about their leads, as their over many years tediously-spun network of their private connections and business-friends is their most valuable asset.

Sales is two-ways -- need to get get sales credit and keep reputation.

[kmoser]

Looks like that company needs to remind the sales drones that coffee is for closers, second prize is a set of steak knives, and third prize is you're fired.

[asyncscrum]

Thus spawning a whole new class of tools that add a more convenient interface on-top of salesforce.

[kjellsbells]

Right, but garbage in, garbage out, whether you are feeding your CRM directly or via a shiny UI layer. No amount of ML can save you if the sales droid isnt filing data.

[6stringmerc]

Can’t track what you don’t know about is a constant issue with sales groups lacking proper structure and processes - it should be easier to do it right than to sidestep the resource.