High Velocity Sales in Salesforce | Complete Guide To How It Works
Many of our customers with Inside Sales Teams are already using High Velocity Sales (HVS) in Salesforce.
It’s an extensive new feature-set, available from the Spring ’20 Release, and is aimed primarily at Inside Sales Teams.
The result? These customers are experiencing significant improvements in the efficiency and potency of Inside Sales reps.
That’s because High Velocity Sales (HVS) in Salesforce resolves two critical challenges facing all Inside Sales Teams.
First, it enables teams to plan, control, and track the sequence of activities and tasks relevant to each Lead or Contact.
Second, High Velocity Sales allows individual team members to organize their activities and schedule their time in a meaningful way. It means, for example, they understand which tasks they should do today and this week.
Consequently, High Velocity Sales (HVS) helps Inside Sales Teams engage with leads and prospects in the right way, at the right time.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn precisely how HVS works. Not only that, but you’ll also see how essential High Velocity Sales features like sales cadences, actions, call scripts, email templates, and Einstein Lead Scoring improve Inside Sales productivity and potency.
We’ve also created a highly detailed video to accompany this article. You can watch it below.
How Salesforce High Velocity Sales Accelerates Your Inside Team Results (Video)
For most Inside Sales Teams, there are usually hundreds, if not thousands, of leads in play simultaneously.
These leads come from many different sources, including contact us web forms, webinars, ebook downloads, digital channels, and sometimes even purchased lists. It’s the role of Inside Sales to turn these leads into sales-ready opportunities.
Inside Sales also plays a vital role in adding and extending relationships at critical accounts in many companies. For example, the team often supports field reps by seeking out and building rapport with previously unknown stakeholders that influence the buying process.
As a result, the team faces two vital challenges. How well they resolve these challenges determines how effective the team is at delivering sales-ready prospects and opportunities.
If you are setting up or running an Inside Sales Team and want to know everything about High Velocity Sales (HVS) in Salesforce, this detailed guide is for you.
1 – The Problem High Velocity Sales Solves
The Inside Sales Horizontal Challenge
The first challenge is to decide upon the right sequence of activities for each Lead.
For example, a lead that fills out a ‘Get In Touch With Sales’ web form is probably ready for an immediate qualification call.
However, what about webinar attendees? They may not be ready for an immediate post-webinar sales qualification call. Instead, the most effective approach may involve LinkedIn Connections, educational emails, phone calls, and even social media messages.
In other words, the ideal series of activities is likely different for leads that enter Salesforce from various sources, channels, and marketing campaigns. It may also be different for leads in other countries or cultural backgrounds.
I call this the Inside Sales Horizontal Challenge.
Essentially, the Inside Sales problem is how to consistently follow a series of activities relevant to each category of Lead.
High Velocity Sales solves this challenge because it allows teams to pre-define activity templates. These templates are sequences of tasks they must perform with leads from different groups. High Velocity Sales calls these sequences ‘Sales Cadences.’
The Inside Sales Vertical Challenge
In many Inside Sales teams, there is no consistency in how everyone keeps track of their activities.
Some people on the team use Salesforce tasks. Others use Outlook activities. Excel spreadsheets and Google Sheets also abound.
The problem is this:
How does each team member keep track of the phone calls, emails, LinkedIn Connections, and other items they should be doing today, or this week?
I call this the Inside Sales Vertical Challenge.
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This problem quickly intensifies as you add more leads to the pile.
High Velocity Sales solves this challenge by using the Lightning Sales Console and Work Queues. These features mean team members have a reliable, robust way of viewing planned tasks across multiple leads and contacts.
It means the team can quickly see the things they must do today, this week, or that are overdue.
Not only that, High Velocity Sales helps Inside Sales to execute these tasks. That’s because it includes automated emails, templates, call scripts, and Einstein Activity Capture.
I’ll show you all these in this guide to HVS.
Let’s dive in.
2 – HVS Sales Cadences
The critical concept to understand within High Velocity Sales is Sales Cadence. They are the vital building blocks in HVS.
Sales Cadences are pre-defined sequences of communication activities designed for leads or contacts that meet specific criteria. Each cadence can include conditional logic and actions, rules, and listening elements that form the communication process.
Inside Sales teams often use these activities to develop relationships with new leads to qualify them as sales-ready opportunities.
For example, you might have a Sales Cadence for people that download an eBook, but who are not ready to engage with a salesperson yet. This cadence may include emails with useful content, LinkedIn connections or messages, and phone calls to inform the prospect of an upcoming webinar.
Likewise, webinar attendees may link to a Sales Cadence. This cadence defines the sequence of activities and tasks for people that attended. There may be a different sales cadence for no-shows.
Sales Cadences versus Lead Nurturing
Many companies with Inside Sales teams use marketing automation tools like Pardot or Marketo.
These tools provide advanced lead nurture capabilities, essentially based around email campaigns. For example, the person downloading the eBook may receive three emails, linking to further useful content.
Sales Cadences also include an automated email function. More on this shortly.
The essential difference between marketing automation tools and HVS Sales Cadence is that the former focuses on delivering pre-defined emails. Sales Cadence can have automated emails, but they also include activities that a human is required to fulfill, such as making a phone call or sending a LinkedIn connection request.
Also, bear in mind that marketing automation tools include additional features such as landing pages, lead scoring, and advanced email response metrics. Consequently, many Inside Sales teams will use both toolsets to optimize their end-to-end lead nurture and qualification processes.
With that, let’s get into the three main elements of Sales Cadences within HVS: Actions, Rules, and Listening.
Actions
A Sales Cadence includes up to four types of Action:
1. Call. Make a phone call to the prospect. There’s an option to link a Call Script with this Action.
2. Email. Send an email. This Action can be a manual send or an automated email delivery. Email Templates are involved in this step.
3. Custom Step. This Action is for tasks other than making phone calls or sending emails. ‘Send LinkedIn Connection Request’ is an example of a custom step.
4. Wait. Specifies a waiting period before the next Action commences.
For example, if you want to email a customer once every three days, include a Wait element of three days between the two Email Send Actions.
That’s all of the Actions. Here’s how Rules use actions in HVS.
Rules
There is only one Rule Element within the Sales Cadence editor. That rule is ‘Call Result.’
When Inside Sales log a phone call, the Call Result field defines the outcome of the dialogue.
For example, was the discussion positive or negative? Did the person answer the call, or did it go to voicemail? The Call Result field stores this information.
When Inside Sales log the call, the Call Result determines which path the Lead follows in the Sales Cadence.
For example, here’s a ‘Meaningful Connect’ Call Result.
In this example, the Sales Cadence automatically routes the Lead down the Meaningful Connect Call Result path.
Here’s another example showing the Sales Cadence routing the Lead down the Not Interested Call Result path.
Listener
Listener elements in the Sales Cadence await engagement by a Lead with an email. That means they always come after an Email Action in the process.
Like Call Results, Listener elements route the Lead down a specific path within the Sales Cadence.
The Listener tracks three different response types to an email sent using High Velocity Sales: opens, clicks, and replies.
When sending an email via High Velocity Sales, the system will automatically track engagement levels within a set period.
In the example below, you can see the Email Open Element is listening for engagement for a total of 7 days.
When engaging with an email, it automatically moves the Lead down the correct path in the Sales Cadence either straight away or after the set amount of listening time.
It will also inform the Lead Owner of the engagement via the ‘My Feed’ section of the Work Queue.
You’re probably wondering:
How does all this HVS functionality relate to an Inside Sales team?
Let’s answer that question next.
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3 – How Inside Reps Use High Velocity Sales
Inside Sales team members use High Velocity Sales (HVS) to schedule and organize their work with prospects and leads.
Assigning Records to Cadences
Before Records can begin moving through Sales Cadences, a user must assign them to a relevant Sales Cadence.
To assign a Lead or Contact record to a cadence, you have one of two choices. You can either:
1. Click on the drop-down in the top right-hand corner of the Lead or Contact, and click ‘Add to Sales Cadence.’
2. Click ‘Add to Sales Cadence’ directly on the lightning component, Sales Cadence Steps.
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Currently, it is not possible to set up automatic Sales Cadence assignments using standard HVS settings.
However, you can set up an automatic Sales Cadence assignment using Flows, Process Builders, or Apex.
Once added to a Sales Cadence, records will begin appearing in your Work Queue – which takes us onto the next section, using the work queue.
Using the Work Queue
The work queue brings all of your Sales Cadences and activities into one single place.
When working with hundreds of different leads at once, it can become complicated tracking who to contact next and which stage in the process various records are currently situated.
The work queue helps users solve these issues and address the Vertical Challenge many Inside Sales Teams struggle with frequently.
The work queue allows users to instantly view which leads they need to communicate with, which Sales Cadence they’re a part of and what specific actions are outstanding.
If you’re using Lightning Dialer, you can connect with Leads and Contacts with the click of a single button.
Regardless of whether or not you’re using Lightning Dialer, upon clicking the Call Button, the previously configured Call Script will automatically load into a popup window, as well as the option to Log A Call.
Users can even send Manual Emails directly from within High Velocity Sales, pulling the previously configured Email Template into the Email before adjusting it as required.
As mentioned in the previous section, HVS will track the engagement of any emails distributed directly from the system.
If your goal is to increase productivity and manage your Leads and Contacts more efficiently, the Work Queue is your number one benefit from HVS.
Progressing Leads and Contacts through Cadences
When sending emails and logging calls directly within High Velocity Sales, Leads will automatically move onto the next step after completion.
No need to manually progress the Lead; the system has already taken care of it for you.
However, when working with Custom Steps, the Inside Sales Team will have to tell the system that the action is complete manually.
4 – Configure High Velocity Sales (HVS) Features
To build a Sales Cadence, the essential items that need customizing are:
- Call Results.
- Lead Page Layout and Fields.
- Contact Page Layout and Fields.
Call Results
Using the Call Results feature means you can route prospects down different paths, depending upon phone calls’ outcome.
For example, if the prospect shows positive intent, the path with further activities is appropriate. Alternatively, if the person displays little or no interest, then the track with no follow-up activities may be relevant.
Salespeople record the outcome of each call using the previously mentioned ‘Call Result’ field.
You can use five unique Call Results within a Sales Cadence. These are:
- Call Back Later.
- Left Voicemail.
- Meaningful Connect.
- Not Interested.
- Unqualified.
Each of these five Call Results needs at least one corresponding Call Result Value.
In some cases, the Call Result value is identical to the Call Result itself.
For example, the ‘Call Back Later’ Call Result will only ever include a ‘Call Back Later’ Call Result Value on the activity.
In contrast, a ‘Not Interested’ Call Result might be recorded in various ways depending on your business. For example, Negative Call, No Budget or No Time can all be Call Result Values that fit into the ‘Not Interested’ Call Result.
Here’s an example of how your Call Results and Call Result Values might look.
By default, the Call Result field is a text field.
Because of this, we recommend implementing a collection of Validation Rules to ensure only the correct values are entered into the field.
2. Lead Page Layout and Fields
Let’s move onto the ‘Configure Lead’ section.
Expand the ‘Configure Lead’ section of the HVS setup page. You’ll see recommendations to display Sales Cadence information on the Lead Page Layout for Inside Sales Users.
However, look first at the ‘Lead Custom Score’ picklist. HVS allows you to use any custom number field in Salesforce as a scoring mechanism.
Importantly, you can enable Einstein Lead Score directly from this same picklist.
Lead Scores help Inside Sales teams prioritize prospects. The score calculates automatically by looking for patterns in previously successful leads. It also provides insights into the Salesforce fields that impact the Einstein Lead Score the most.
Click ‘Get Started’ and follow the on-screen instructions to begin using Einstein Lead Score.
Displaying the Sales Cadence information and fields directly on the Lead page layout is vital for Inside Sales. It means team members can access both standard Salesforce features, Sales Cadence, and Einstein Lead Scores.
In the setup area, there are four recommendations:
- Add the Sales Cadence Steps component to record pages.
- Add the Sales Cadence field to list views.
- Add Sales Cadence to one of the top Selected Fields.
- Add Sales Cadence actions to customized record layouts.
Here’s how you do each of these.
Add Sales Cadence Steps to Page Layouts
Sales Cadence Steps is a new page layout component included with HVS.
When you look at a Lead, Sales Cadence Steps tells you two things—first, the completed cadence steps. And second, which step within your Sales Cadence the Lead is currently on.
If no Sales Cadence is assigned, you can specify a Sales Cadence using this component.
Add Sales Cadence Field to List Views
Sometimes you want to see which Leads are linked to each Sales Cadence easily.
To do this, create a List View on the Leads tab. Include the Sales Cadence field.
You can include a filter of ‘Sales Cadence is not blank.’ That way, you only see Leads with an assigned Sales Cadence. You could even do the opposite, and only show leads with no Sales Cadence assigned. Or create both!
Add Sales Cadence Top Selected Fields
Inside Sales teams don’t have time to waste searching the page layout for critical information.
Add the Sales Cadence field to the compact view at the top of the record:
Doing this makes it quick for team members to get cadence information.
Add Sales Cadence Actions to Page Layouts
The final thing on the recommended list is adding Lightning and Mobile actions to the page layout.
There are only two actions to worry about-adding a Lead to a Sales Cadence and removing a Lead from a Sales Cadence.
Adding these two actions to the page layout includes them in the drop-down list, found the top right-hand corner of the record’s highlight panel.
This way, users can adjust the Sales Cadence assigned to each Lead, based on their interactions.
3. Contact Page Layout and Fields
All the HVS changes we have covered in the previous section on Leads applies equally to Contacts in Salesforce.
Make these changes on Contacts if your Inside Sales team works with both Leads and Contacts.
And there you have it. You’ve set up the essential High Velocity Sales features.
However, before you can use it, we need to create some assets.
5 – Building High Velocity Sales (HVS) Assets
Most Inside Sales team members will use HVS assets such as Email Templates, Call Scripts, and Sales Cadences in their day to day work.
Here’s an explanation of each HVS feature.
Email Templates
Email templates are pre-written emails stored directly within High Velocity Sales.
A Sales Cadence can send Email templates automatically as one task in the sequence of activities. You must have the Automated Email feature enabled in HVS to do this.
However, Inside Sales team members can also use the templates to send emails to prospects manually.
Using email templates improves Inside Sales productivity. It also high-quality, well-written, and grammatically correct emails are used consistently in the sales process.
Call Scripts
Call Scripts in HVS are notes and text that guide the Inside Sales team when talking to customers and prospects.
Call Scripts help to structure the conversation and make sure the dialogue stays on topic. Within HVS, different types of calls will each have a specific Call Script. For example, these scripts often guide the Inside Sales team on qualification questions to ask and discover topics to cover.
Here’s an example of a Call Script inside an HVS Sales Cadence.
Call Scripts are straightforward. They include a name to identify the Call Script in Sales Cadences, a brief description, and the body. The body is where you store the main content, ready to guide the conversation.
As you can see, the content can be highly prescribed and describe the exact words Inside Sales should use. Or it can be more descriptive, providing notes and guidance to steer the conversation.
6 – Setting Up High Velocity Sales (HVS)
If you are completely new to High Velocity Sales, there are some critical first steps.
Let’s start by explaining exactly how to enable High Velocity Sales.
How to Enable High Velocity Sales
The first step is to purchase the licenses (HVS is an additional cost). Salesforce will add the HVS licenses and permission sets to your environment, giving you full access to the High Velocity Sales package.
Once your Salesforce system has access to the High Velocity Sales license, HVS can be enabled directly within your Salesforce environment via the Salesforce Setup menu.
To get started, search for ‘High Velocity Sales’ in the Setup Search bar and click the High Velocity Sales section.
Then, click the ‘Set Up and Enable HVS’ button towards the top of the page.
By default, activating HVS will automatically enable a handful of other features within your system. These include:
- Enhanced Email (elevates Email to a standard Salesforce object).
- Email Tracking (know if and when customers open emails sent using Lightning Experience).
- Einstein Activity Capture (keep sales reps’ Email and calendar in sync with Salesforce).
- Automated Email (lets you include automated emails in sales cadences).
- Skip Weekends (assign sales cadence tasks to reps on weekdays only).
There are also options to set up email integration and an analytics dashboard.
Most of these features are automatically enabled. However, you can disable any of them later. We recommend leaving them all on for now.
Managing HVS Permission Set Assignments
HVS permission sets give specific Salesforce users access to the High Velocity Sales functions.
You decide which of your users need HVS. However, remember, you’ll need a High Velocity Sales license for each person.
To assign HVS permission sets, return to the Salesforce setup area and search for ‘Permission Sets.’
Find the HVS permission set, click on ‘Manage Assignments’ towards the top of the page. Use this to add the permission set to the relevant users.
Make sure you assign the right permission sets to each user.
For example, a High Velocity Sales Cadence Creator can manage and customize Sales Cadences. (Creating Sales Cadences is covered later in this guide).
In contrast, a High Velocity Sales User is unable to create and customize assets. So make sure to assign your users to the correct permission sets.
Get A HVS Demo
We cover a lot of ground in this comprehensive guide to High Velocity Sales.
You might now be thinking:
How do I get an independent demo of HVS in action? That way, I can understand whether it will boost the Inside Sales team in my business.
The answer is to arrange a walk-through of the Sales Cadence and other features with our team. We’ll give you an impartial view of whether HVS is right for your business.
Don’t hesitate, get in touch today.
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