How Teamwork.com Drives Consistency & Improves Forecasting with Accord

The Company 

Teamwork.com is the only all-in-one platform custom-built for client work operations that combines the best of client management with project services. It enables clients to streamline operations and run their entire business through Teamwork, both pre and post-sales. 

​​The company caters to SMB and MM client service firms, with an average sales cycle of 30 to 45 days. Teamwork gives its clients complete operations control and project management in one place. It helps businesses drive efficiency, grow profits, and scale confidently. 

Robby Halford is the Head of GTM Enablement at Teamwork. His role focuses on driving strategy execution, ensuring GTM alignment between Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success, facilitating continuing education initiatives for Teamwork’s existing team, ramping up new hires, and optimizing content. 

The Problem 

Before implementing Accord, Teamwork relied on Google Docs and slide decks to outline processes. "There was a lack of clarity in reinforcing these processes," says Robby. 

The absence of a repeatable process resulted in Teamworks sellers struggling to connect theory to execution, thereby failing to bridge the gap between its sales processes and execution with customers.

Ultimately, Teamwork needed to find a way to implement a consistent buying process that was visible to its prospective customers. 

The Solution 

With Accord, Teamwork is able to break its strategy into smaller, executable steps. “If we say we want to understand the four yeses it takes to get to a verbal commitment, we want to understand what that means. So we have the steps inside of Accord that list out what approvals are needed — such as from security, legal, finance, and the economic buyer. This enables us to translate our strategy into very clear steps that we can execute on and coach against,” says Robby.

Accord also helps guide Teamwork’s sellers through the sales cycle so they know exactly what they should be doing and when. On the buyer side, Accord reduces anxiety by providing a transparent purchasing process. According to Robby, this has resulted in more consistent customer engagement throughout the deal cycle. 

One of Teamwork’s key priorities is to ensure a great experience for every prospect, whether they proceed with Teamwork or not. Accord allows sellers to offer buyers a preview of the post-sale experience, alleviating anxiety and ensuring clarity on what to expect. “We outline for them exactly what they can expect after the sale so they know we’re not going to ditch them and make them figure it out on their own.” 

Improved Forecasting Accuracy 

Although forecasting is subjective and imperfect, Teamwork has seen a noticeable improvement in its ability to forecast accurately. After building its sales processes and steps inside of Accord, teamwork tied it into Gong. This integration offers a holistic view that allows Teamwork to understand which deals are likely to close, and when. 

By analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, such as stakeholder engagement levels, and the numbers and frequencies, Teamwork can make more informed predictions about the timing and outcomes of the deals in its pipeline. 

“We can see what stakeholders have or haven’t accepted the Accord invites, the deal activity, the meetings, the contracts, and the engagement. So we know if a deal doesn’t smell or look good. On the flip side, we can say with greater confidence whether a deal seems promising,” says Robby. 

This process helps teamwork pinpoint key stages of the buying process. By assessing if prospects have engaged in the trial, identified a champion, selected a preferred vendor, and agreed on pricing, Teamwork can gauge a deal’s likelihood to close more accurately. 

“My major a-ha moment with Accord came at my previous company when 66% of closed won deals had active Accords attached to them and 66% of our closed lost accounts didn’t,” says Robby. This was just one of the reasons bringing Accord to Teamwork was a no-brainer. 

How Teamwork Introduces Accord to Customers

When it comes to onboarding new customers, Teamwork kicks the conversation off by letting them know about Accord and how it serves as a central repository for content, implementation, and next steps. 

“We explain where the documentation is hosted and how it’s attached to each step in case they need to go back and reference it. We also show them how they can message us directly through Accord so if they’re working on something and get stuck, they can message and we’ll know exactly where they are.” 

After sending out an Accord email invitation to relevant stakeholders, users can access the shared workspace. From there, Teamwork walks the customer through the implementation process, the steps they’ve completed, and what’s coming up next.