The Center for Data Innovation spoke with Scott Howley, Vice President of Product of Clari, a revenue platform that helps businesses automate their revenue processes such as forecasting and uses AI to help sales teams improve their performance. Howley discussed how the platform interprets different revenue signals for forecasting revenues and how Clari’s Copilot assistant streamlines sales operations.
Martin Makaryan: How does Clari enhance productivity for enterprises?
Scott Howley: Clari provides a revenue operations and orchestration platform that helps companies in healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and financial services forecast their revenue growth, identify shortfalls, and ramp up their sales engagement. Our platform allows users to determine if they will meet, beat, or miss their forecasts with greater accuracy by aggregating their revenue related data into a single platform, deriving insights from that data, and using AI to automate several important activities in their revenue processes. For example, activities to increase sales like phone calls, emails, and text messages. The Clari platform also supports automation for revenue cadences such as team performance reviews and territory and account planning.
Makaryan: What technology underpins Clari’s platform?
Howley: Our “secret sauce” lies in our approach to data analysis. We take time series snapshots of changes in revenue data, providing much greater visibility into the likelihood of closing a sales deal. We also supplement traditional CRM data with other enterprise information, such as sales actuals, customer tickets, and Web conference calls. AI is also integral to everything we do. For example, we use AI to conduct what we call sentiment analysis to evaluate the content of emails, web conferences, and responses. Understanding subtle tones and nuances allows us to assess the likelihood of closing a deal and identifying potential issues. We also use AI to generate opportunity scores based on various signals and to provide recommendations for next actions in account planning cycles.
Makaryan: How do you provide a comprehensive forecast for clients?
Howley: Our multi-signal approach involves analyzing various data points to generate a comprehensive opportunity score. We look at CRM data and examine meeting schedules, conference calls, and performing sentiment analysis on communications. We evaluate key topics raised during interactions and assess whether the language used typically correlates with deals that are closing or facing competitive challenges. All these signals contribute to our opportunity scoring system, providing a more nuanced understanding of each deal’s status and potential to close.
Makaryan: How does Clari help clients automate their revenue and sales operations?
Howley: We use AI to automate several processes in revenue and sales forecasting, but an example worth highlighting is the Clari Copilot, which uses generative AI to automate mundane tasks and improve sales rep performance. For example, Copilot can not only summarize meetings and sales calls, but also provide valuable metrics, such as how much a sales representative talks compared to listens, to help staff assess the best next steps and identify the most promising leads. The Copilot assistant can also join virtual sales calls when staff can’t, ensuring that sales teams don’t miss critical information that can help them improve their sales execution.
Makaryan: What sets Clari apart in the market?
Howley: I think the breadth of our offerings and our use of AI to create a comprehensive platform is what sets us apart. Our core product enhances the capabilities of traditional customer relationship management (CRM) systems by offering more granular tracking and visibility into sales opportunities. This approach allows for a more detailed analysis of prospects and sales forecasts. Through this comprehensive offering, our platform enables companies to make data-driven decisions on key sales opportunities and customer accounts.
