Notion’s Blueprint for Adapting Data Science Models to Changing Sales Processes from Coalesce 2023

"We can only predict 80% of the time, right? So again, it's an arts and science combination… Trust your intuition too."

- Jessica Zhang, Data Science Manager at Notion

Jessica Zhang, Data Science Manager at Notion, and Jeff Sloan, Sr. Data Community Advocate at Census, discuss how to navigate complexity as businesses grow and drive measurable business impact via data teams. They also cover scoring sales leads as Notion has grown and how data science scoring models are used to improve sales prospecting processes.

Product-led growth (PLG) to product-led sales (PLS) transition

Jessica focuses on how companies, particularly those growing rapidly, can navigate the transition from product-led growth (PLG) to product-led sales (PLS) using scoring models. She highlights that this transition is crucial in managing the complexity that comes with expanding businesses and making data-driven decisions to drive revenue. She states, "I'm here to walk you through Notion’s journey of evolving…leveraging an evolving data science scoring model to improve the sales prospecting process."

The transition from PLG to PLS involves building a scoring model that helps align with the go-to-market strategy and enables sales reps to identify the top companies they're going to work with. Jessica explains, "Scoring becomes more and more important because ‘How can we have a standard heuristic for our sales team to leverage on a day-to-day basis?’... So, they save time, they can trust this system, and they can start their day by like, 'Alright, these are the top five companies that I'm going to talk to.'"

Establishing a scoring model to guide sales

Jessica explains how this scoring system becomes more important as a business grows and the sales team needs guidance to prioritize their workflow and to improve efficiency.

She says, "We calculate a probability-to-close score, and that's how we generate a score from one to 100... our sales reps can save time instead of looking through everything, everybody, all the accounts, and figure out what's the story to sell."

Discussing the importance of incorporating feedback from sales reps into the model, she notes, "I have to understand where they're coming from, and then actually, I would provide analysis… 'Oh wow, you make sense' or, 'Actually, no….' So, this way we got the buy-in from the reps."

The importance of change management in implementing scoring models

Jessica emphasizes the importance of change management in successfully implementing scoring models. She highlights that while building scoring models can drive incremental conversion rates, it's crucial to build trust with sales teams by including them in the discussion process and providing regular updates about the model's performance.

She explains, "I think the longer I work in this industry, the more I realize the communication and the enablement are very important... Getting people's buy-in, getting sales leadership's buy-in, is really important."

She also highlights the need for regular feedback and evaluation, saying, "We also have Slack channels where they can ask questions. We would have iterations and talk about the learnings, feedback, and next steps at sales all hands [meetings]." This approach, she suggests, helps to foster buy-in and trust from sales teams, enabling them to effectively use the scoring models.

Jessica and Jeff's key insights

• Notion started the sales prospecting process three years ago when the company began to transition into leveraging sales to scale growth
• The scoring model is now organized on the company domain level, which allows for a better understanding of how different workspaces within a company are utilized
• The scoring model incorporates firmographics, demographics, and product usage data, and has been adapted to suit the unique configurations of different companies
• Communication and enablement are crucial in building trust and getting buy-in from the sales team for the scoring model
• There's no "one size fits all" scoring model, and it's important to incorporate feedback from sales reps to improve and adapt the model