For Dan Bergstrom, Director of Demand Conversion at Workfront, the conversion numbers are important, but his people are just as important. In just over two years, Dan and his team have helped Workfront gain 49% year over year growth and increased their efficacy through targeted coaching.

A customer of Salesforce since 2006, Workfront, a provider of enterprise work management solutions, uses more than forty AppExchange apps to run their business, including inContact Agent for Salesforce, a complete cloud contact center solution. Dan recently joined App Talks to share how his team leverages Salesforce and inContact to improve effectiveness and overall happiness of his team.

Since Dan started at Workfront, the company has doubled from 250 to 500 employees at the Lehi, Utah headquarters, and his team of outbound and inbound reps has grown from 7 to 45 people. The outbound group is focused on cold-calling their way into larger organizations to find out how they do their work. When Dan saw that reps were hand-dialing calls and then logging activity into Salesforce manually, he set out to find a more efficient solution on the AppExchange and found inContact.

Watch the complete video below to see how inContact helped Workfront’s outbound reps become more effective, and check out the highlights below:

What results did Workfront achieve after implementing inContact? Here is the initial impact they saw on their business:

• When Dan started at Workfront, the qualification to accepted rate was 50%, which meant twice as many people were needed for one accepted lead. With inContact, that rate increased to 80%. They are now wasting less valuable resources and time, and sending fewer unacceptable leads to the sales team. As a result, Dan’s team now provides 90% of the pipe coverage for the sales team (industry average is just 40%).

• Access to reliable call data from inContact provides deep insight into how the Demand Conversion team can perform better. Workfront has hired two coaches to help reps be more effective in their conversations, and they are able to easily run reports and access recorded calls to analyze teammates’ behavior and find areas of opportunity and growth. Additionally, with inContact’s reporting tool, Dan has the necessary data to go to his CEO and justify requests for additional headcount or resources.

• Overall, the reps are happier because their jobs are easier. Using inContact, they simply click one button to automatically call the prospect, and they can easily log activity information directly in Salesforce. With targeted coaching, they know exactly where they stand and what they need to do to get to the next level in their careers.

When asked what his 3 peer tips are, Dan said:

1. Know your numbers: “Invest in tools that are able to give you the numbers you need to justify the work you’re doing. With inContact and Salesforce, we are able to go to upper management and request extra headcount if we need it. We are able to go in and see where our challenges are and turn them into positives.”

2. A little coaching can go a long way: “If you have just moderate coaching, you can see 4% gains. With a good coaching system, you can see upwards of 20%. By recording our calls, we’re able to go in and make improvements to the way that our reps communicate. Not just what they say, but how they’re listening and responding to prospects.”

3. Don’t forget the people: “They’re there to do a job, so if you want them to be successful, they need to feel that. We look for people who have career paths and want to move on. Cold-calling is arguably one of the most difficult jobs out there. Nobody likes to sit there and be told “no” a hundred times a day. But these guys do it day in and day out because they see a light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve seen a lot of turnover in my organization, but most of it has been upwards. I’m happy to backfill a position for people that have been promoted up.”

Check out inContact and more than 2,600 AppExchange apps that help businesses work smarter and faster.

App Talks is a series of conversations with Salesforce customers who have transformed their business using AppExchange business apps.