Aviso Shines at CRO Transformational Assembly

Oct 18, 2024

The Aviso team recently gathered with industry peers at the CRO Transformational Assembly in Miami, Florida, to exchange best practices for Chief Revenue Officers. During this insightful event, we had the opportunity to demonstrate how Aviso's AI-driven solutions have empowered Honeywell to deliver an impressive $150 million in revenue.

Keynote Insights: AI's Transformative Role in Sales

During the summit, Trevor A. Rodrigues-Templar, Aviso’s CEO, engaged in a thought-provoking chat with Charles Forsgard, the former VP of Global Sales for Honeywell. Their discussion centered on the transformative power of AI in sales, aptly titled "Can AI Really Help You Sell?" 

Trevor and Charles explored various facets of AI applications, stressing how these technologies serve as force multipliers, enhancing productivity and enabling employees to focus on the more creative aspects of their roles. 

The insights shared were eye-opening. 

By integrating AI into daily tasks, employees can enhance their productivity and streamline processes, ultimately providing greater value and efficiency. This partnership allows workers to focus on more complex and creative aspects of their roles, while AI handles routine or data-intensive tasks, leading to improved outcomes and a more dynamic work environment.

Aviso: Empowering The Enterprise With AI

Trevor shared a compelling vision during his talk—a future where every enterprise worker has a personal AI co-pilot. Similar to a Chief of Staff, this AI is an intelligent force multiplier that enhances every facet of professional work. 

“At Aviso, we provide a co-pilot for every knowledge worker, transforming not just data collection but making actionable insights out of both structured and unstructured signals through advanced machine learning and deep learning algorithms," Trevor explained. He highlighted how Aviso’s AI doesn't just report data but interprets it to provide actionable, context-driven insights that enhance decision-making across all organizational levels.

Aviso has incorporated AI-driven workflows to streamline and automate complex sales activities. Utilizing our advanced Generative AI capabilities, we've designed Personalized AI Agents that automate tasks such as Account Planning, RFP Management, Account Research, and SDR activities. These AI workflows significantly reduce manual effort and boost productivity, democratizing knowledge work across GTM teams. 

Trevor also highlighted how Aviso’s focus on “quality over quantity” has helped companies optimize their resources and efforts toward the most promising opportunities. So it's not about the number of meetings but the quality of those interactions and ensuring they occur at the right moment in the sales cycle. For instance, at Honeywell one of the large Parts of us was our ability to know what we call “recency” — the ability to track when an executive responds or engages with you. This focus on recency helped Honeywell in understanding client behaviors and preferences, which in turn facilitated more personalized and effective communication strategies.

Moreover, our conversation intelligence capability goes beyond simple analytics. It assesses the subtext, sentiment, and tone inflection of sales calls and meetings. This depth of analysis allows sales teams to understand not just what is being said, but how it is being said, providing insights into the true sentiments of clients which might not be explicitly stated.

And, with our capability to digitally clone the activities of top performers within an organization, companies are able to replicate the success patterns and behaviors of their best salespeople across the entire team. This “Digital cloning” ensures that all sales personnel can benefit from proven strategies, making the entire sales force as competent as their top performers. As Trevor pointed out, "it’s about the quality of the signal rather than just quantitative information, but also how we upskill your reps. One thing we track very carefully is incremental revenue per rep, and we tie our KPIs to that, along with the accuracy of the information we're providing. That's one of the reasons we're seeing this consolidation across the board, with folks moving away from point solutions and the swivel chair approach to having a revenue operations system that is integrated from end to end and can actually deliver value."

Revolutionizing CRM with AI

A significant part of the discussion was dedicated to how Aviso has redefined the use of CRM tools from mere data logging to powerful planning tools that offer substantial returns to sales teams. 

Traditionally, many sales teams view CRM systems primarily as a tool for logging activities and recording customer interactions. However, a shift in perspective can greatly enhance sales processes. This means instead of making CRM usage mandatory, salespeople need to see and experience the tangible benefits from using it.

As noted by Charles, “You want people to say, 'I'm gonna use this because it's better for me.' And that only happens if they get something back that shows it's better for them.”

When sales teams understand how CRM solutions can streamline their tasks, improve customer interactions, and ultimately help them close more deals, they are more likely to engage with the system enthusiastically. This engagement is essential because it can lead to more accurate data entry, better tracking of customer interactions, and a more comprehensive understanding of the sales pipeline. 

Aviso has played a pivotal role at companies like Honeywell, in transforming CRM from just being a mundane data-entry tool into a valuable asset that genuinely empowers sales representatives by introducing powerful analytics and predictive insights that help sales teams optimize their strategies and workflows.

What truly resonated with Charles about Aviso was its ability to transform the CRM from a one-way logging tool into a dynamic, interactive planning tool that offers real value back to the salesperson. 

Now with the help of Aviso, sales teams are using CRM as a “planning tool” to analyze data, forecast outcomes, and devise actionable plans that align with business goals. 

This kind of insight is what changes a salesperson's day-to-day decision-making process, shifting from mere compliance with CRM usage to genuine adoption because it demonstrably makes their jobs easier and more successful. This reciprocity turns the CRM into a partner in the sales process, enhancing its value to the team and contributing to improved sales performance.

Transformative Impact: Aviso's Role in Operational Efficiency

Aviso helps revenue teams/leaders streamline operations and improve decision-making by providing tailored information that impacts not only the top line but also aids in organizational consolidation. This is especially critical as companies face scrutiny over every large deal and the need to justify their technology stack choices becomes more pressing.

Trevor cited significant positive impacts at major clients like Honeywell, NetApp, Ironclad and Lenovo, underscoring Aviso's commitment to accountability through KPIs.

Lenovo leveraged Aviso's unique capabilities to streamline their sales processes and achieve better alignment with their corporate objectives. Similarly, Aviso's AI technology has been instrumental in not only improving operational efficiency for Honeywell's sales teams but also in driving substantial financial outcomes, such as:

  • $150 million in new revenue was generated directly attributable to insights and analytics provided by Aviso.

  • $1 million in CRM-related costs were saved, underscoring the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of integrating AI into sales processes.

  • About 30 hours saved on each account plan with Aviso’s automation processes.

  • Pipeline activity and online interactions between reps and customers have grown by more than 80% each

  • number of new deals has increased by more than 70%.

  • With Aviso, creating an account plan has gone from taking hours to mere minutes.

Check out this HBR article to know more about how Aviso's advanced AI capabilities effectively support companies like Honeywell in overhauling their sales forecasting and pipeline management systems.

Thanks and Looking Forward

As we continue our journey, Aviso remains committed to enhancing sales strategies with AI. 

We extend a heartfelt thank you to The Millennium Alliance for hosting the CRO Assembly. It was a pleasure to connect with many innovative leaders and thinkers in the industry. We're excited for the next steps in our journey of transforming sales through AI innovation.

To everyone we met in Miami: It was fantastic to connect with you all. We look forward to seeing you again as we continue to innovate and lead in the AI space.

For more insights from the summit and to watch the full interview between Trevor and Charles, click here.