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Enterprise Cloud Economy Booming According to New Sales Index Launched by SteelBrick

72 percent of companies report significant increases in sales quote volumes with accelerating sales cycles in stark contrast to shrinking US economy


WEBWIRE –

SAN MATEO, Calif -- July 23, 2015 -- The economy for buying enterprise technology products is booming -- with 72 percent of high-technology providers reporting growth in sales quote volumes and 42 percent reporting accelerating sales cycles -- based on the first-ever SAAS Purchases Report from SteelBrick, a leading Configure, Price, Quote, (CPQ) solution provider. This is in stark contrast to sluggish growth in the overall U.S. economy where real domestic product decreased at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015, according to the “third” estimate released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

The report analyzes how enterprise companies are selling to customers and also examines B2B selling trends compared to this time last year. SteelBrick ran the survey online during the month of May 2015, pulling findings from over 130 SteelBrick customers, 80 percent of which participate in the high-tech economy, including SaaS, storage, cloud infrastructure, telecommunications, networking, and big data leaders. The report also shows that sales are up, closing time is down and overall quote volumes are up, validating the growth in demand as enterprise technology shifts to the cloud and seeks to make sense of the big data being generated by accelerating mobile and cloud adoption.  

One example of this rapid growth is seen in SteelBrick platform partner and enterprise cloud leader Salesforce, which is growing nearly 27 percent per annum. SteelBrick customers, such as leading storage provider Nimble Storage (NYSE: NMBL) and marketing SaaS leader Marketo (NYSE: MKTO), reported annual sales growth of 53 percent and 42 percent respectively in their most recent quarters.  

The SteelBrick SAAS Purchases Report finds that enterprise sales have been steadily accelerating in nearly all areas including: 

Increased Sales Quote Volume 

  • 72 percent of high-tech companies reported an increase in the average volume of sales quotes year-over-year from last year.
  • In the first quarter of this year sales teams have seen a 12 percent year-over-year increase in the number of quotes being processed.


Quicker Sales Cycles
  • While sales cycles range from same day to over a year on average, high-tech companies report sales cycles of 100 days (or 3 to 4 months).
  • 42 percent of companies report sales cycles accelerating over the past year, while only 11 percent  report slowing sales cycles.
  • On average high-tech companies are successfully closing 38% of quotes issued, again indicating robust demand.


Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Software Benefits
  • 90 percent of companies that implemented SteelBrick CPQ are reporting significant improvements in quote turn-around times with an average improvement of 29 percent.
  • 67 percent of sales pricing and quoting errors were eliminated by SteelBrick customers after they deployed CPQ with embedded pricing and product rules 
  • 59 percent of SteelBrick CPQ customers reported increases in average order values thanks to automated cross-selling and up-selling.


“Our new barometer for the high-tech economy shows that sales of enterprise technology are growing at a robust clip as cloud and mobile adoption accelerate. Furthermore, many tech companies are becoming more sophisticated around the process of selling software services and are now implementing CPQ tools in conjunction with their CRM platforms, helping them sell even faster and more efficiently than their high tech peers,” said Godard Abel, CEO of SteelBrick. “By polling our customers, we are able to provide benchmarks for sales process efficiency and growth, as well as validate how our solution is helping them grow their business to become Silicon Valley’s next big unicorns.” 

To see all the findings from the Selling Trends Report or SteelBrick please visit: www.SteelBrick.com 

Survey Methodology:
The survey was conducted online between May 1st and May 31st 2015 within SteelBrick’s customer base of more than 250 companies across all verticals including software, manufacturing, high tech equipment, telecommunications and hosting, storage, networking, business services and medical devices. 

About SteelBrick:
SteelBrick provides next-generation Configure Price Quote (CPQ) apps that are deployed 5 to 10 times faster than legacy CPQ applications. The company’s SaaS solutions  are built 100 percent native on Salesforce and enable sales reps and partners to create accurate sales quotes quickly and submit orders on the fly from any desktop or mobile device. SteelBrick powers sales for more than 250 high-growth customers including Cloudera, Nimble Storage, HootSuite. and Marketo. The company is backed by $30M in capital from leading cloud investors Salesforce Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Emergence Capital. For more, go to www.steelbrick.com.

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