Business Growth From New Accounts

Evidence and data. Interviewees noted that Clari’s streamlined data visibility and enhanced forecasting empowered teams to target new market segments more effectively and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Additionally, the ability to inspect pipeline health in real time equipped the interviewees’ organizations to redirect resources quickly, ensuring that high-potential accounts received priority attention and support. Improved collaboration between sales teams as well as better alignment of strategic objectives accompanied this growth. By leveraging Clari’s integrated analytics and insights, sales reps consistently identified and captured previously overlooked business, fueling sustainable expansion and increasing total benefits over time. Interviewees said Clari supported this improvement in new business win rates by:

• • Diagnosing critical deal-stage weaknesses. This included demo quality and contracting language, which were previously invisible to teams at the interviewees’ organizations.

  • Enabling targeted interventions. Clari surfaced where and why deals were being lost, allowing teams at the interviewees’ organizations to refine messaging and streamline legal processes.

  • Empowering reps with actionable insights. These insights into pipeline health and deal progression helped reps at the interviewees’ organizations focus on high-risk opportunities and improve close rates.

• The director of global business excellence in manufacturing described how Clari helped their organization recalibrate its pipeline coverage assumptions. Previously, their team estimated they needed three times the pipeline coverage to hit targets, but Clari’s data and visibility revealed that only 1.8 times the coverage was sufficient; with the ability to form an achievable plan, their team was able to appropriately resource and achieved their targets. Their organization’s new business win rate rose from approximately 12% to 15%, to 20%, representing nearly a 2x improvement.

• The chief sales officer in the energy industry described the transformation in pipeline driven by improved messaging and training, informed by insights from Clari’s integrated tools: “We were not getting any pipeline in a specific segment. Then we leveraged the call recording feature from Groove to identify why. Now, we’re driving pipeline.” After implementing Clari, this segment went up to $400,000 in pipeline value for this interviewee’s organization. Their team increased win rates from 16% to 22%.

• The senior director of sales operations in security said that Clari’s analytics modules enabled better inspection of pipeline health and facilitated accountability at the rep level, helping their team focus on high-quality opportunities and reduce placeholder deals. Their organization’s week two pipeline conversion rate — defined as the percentage of pipeline at week two of the quarter that ultimately converted to bookings — used to range between 30% to 35%. After implementing Clari, that rate increased to 35% to 40% and, in some geographies, reached 45%.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• To handle pipeline, 800 sales team members use Clari.

• The new business revenue managed per salesperson before Clari is $2.5 million. Revenue from new business before Clari is $2.0 billion.

• The average new business win rate across sales reps before Clari is 16%.

• With Clari, pipeline sizes increase by 1.5% in Year 1, 2.25% in Year 2, and 3% in Year 3, resulting in incremental revenue due to large pipeline of $30,000,000 in Year 1, $45,000,000 in Year 2, and $60,000,000 in Year 3.

• With Clari, the win rate increases 2.5% in Year 1, 4% in Year 2, and 6% in Year 3, resulting in incremental revenue increases of $50,750,000              in Year 1, $81,800,000 in Year 2, and $123,600,000 in Year 3.

• The operating profit margin is 10%.

Risks. The impact of this benefit will vary among organizations based on the following factors:

• The organization’s ability to diagnose and act on deal-stage weaknesses.

• The maturity and cleanliness of pipeline data prior to Clari.

• The degree of adoption and usage of Clari’s pipeline inspection and forecasting features.

• The organization’s ability to implement targeted interventions based on Clari insights.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $25.3 million.

Business Growth From Expanding Existing Accounts

Evidence and data. Interviewees described how Clari enabled their customer success and account management teams to deepen relationships with existing customers and unlock expansion opportunities. By improving visibility into account activity, Clari helped teams identify upsell and cross-sell potential earlier and more reliably. This visibility also facilitated better collaboration across sales, renewals, and customer success teams, ensuring that expansion opportunities were not missed due to siloed data or inconsistent processes.

Interviewees said Clari supported this growth by:

• Freeing up seller time. Clari reduced administrative burden at the interviewees’ organizations.

• Improving opportunity management. Interviewees also explained that it improved visibility across multiple CRM instances.

• Helping customer service and account managers focus on the right opportunities. This was especially the case for those requiring executive support or strategic attention at the interviewees’ organizations.

Interviewees experienced the following:

• The director of global business excellence in manufacturing noted that existing customer retention rates improved from around 60% to 85%. The interviewee described how Clari helped their team diagnose that losses were occurring during two critical stages: the demo and the contracting process. These were expensive points to lose business and, prior to Clari, their organization lacked the analytics to pinpoint that issues arose in these areas. Once Clari highlighted these problem areas, the interviewee’s team was able to take targeted corrective actions, including refining the demo experience and improving legal language in contracts. These changes contributed to a 25-point increase in retention rates for their organization’s existing customers. Clari’s capabilities enabled their organization to shift from anecdotal assumptions to data-driven decision-making, allowing them to focus on the most impactful areas of the sales cycle.

• The global sales operations lead in the software industry noted that with Clari, retention increased from 83% to 88%. They emphasized that Clari played a key role in scaling large deal volume within existing accounts, with a 20% increase in cross-sell and upsells, 20% of which the interviewee attributed to Clari. Clari’s opportunity scoring and pipeline tracking helped managers focus on deals that required attention, enabling scalable growth from existing customers. The interviewee noted that average customer spend increased from $150,000 to $200,000, and the number of $1 million to $5 million deals tripled over five years with smaller accounts increasing annual spend to $50,000.

• The senior director of sales operations in security explained that Clari facilitated collaboration between the prime sales and renewals teams, which was essential for expanding existing accounts, stating, “Clari has facilitated communication and collaboration that has supported our ability to close larger deals.” The interviewee also reported that the number of million-dollar-plus transactions grew by 20% to 30% year over year, driven in part by Clari’s ability to centralize deal notes and forecasting inputs across teams. Sales rep attainment also improved by 5 percentage points; while the number of reps hitting quota remained stable, the average attainment across the team increased. The senior director of sales operations in security attributed this to Clari’s efficiency gains and improved visibility into rep performance, which allowed for more targeted coaching and better quota setting.

• The vice president of sales operations in software noted that Clari enabled their organization to track renewals and expansion opportunities more effectively. This holistic view of the customer journey helped their organization avoid customer churn and identify expansion opportunities that might otherwise have been missed: “We track renewals in Clari. We can see all activity against a prospect or customer account [and] whether or not there’s an opportunity associated.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 3,200 customer success and account management staff using Clari. Each handles an average of $2.5 million in retained revenue.

• With Clari, retention increases 0.25% in Year 1, 2% in Year 2, and 3.5% in Year 3.

• With Clari, customer spend increases 0.5% in Year 1, 1.5% in Year 2, and 2.5% in Year 3.

• The operating profit margin is 10%.

Risks. The impact of this benefit will vary among organizations based on the following factors:

• The level of Clari adoption across teams managing existing accounts and the organization’s subsequent visibility into post-sale deal progression and renewal cycles.

• The effectiveness of cross-functional collaboration between sales and customer success teams.

• The organization’s ability to refine and standardize processes.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $52.3 million.

Improved Investment Allocations Using Better Forecasting Accuracy

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that accurate forecasting was critical not only for hitting revenue targets but also for guiding strategic investments, resource allocation, and organizational planning. When forecasts were reliable, the interviewees’ organizations were able to confidently scale, optimize headcount, and prioritize high-impact initiatives — turning predictability into a competitive advantage. Interviewees reported improved forecast accuracy with Clari:

• The senior director of sales operations in security explained that their forecast accuracy improved from being 8% to 9% off target to just 5% to 6% off target, even after switching to a more volatile metric — incremental annual contract value (IACV). This improvement was especially notable because IACV is more difficult to predict than traditional annual contract value (ACV) or total contract value (TCV) models. The enhanced accuracy allowed the interviewee’s organization to avoid over-hiring and overspending and make more informed decisions about where to pause or accelerate investments based on real-time forecast performance.

• The director of global business excellence in manufacturing described that prior to Clari, their organization had no formal forecasting process, relying instead on anecdotal, week-over-week rollups that lacked rigor and visibility. After implementing Clari, the interviewee reported achieving 96% forecast accuracy, a level that earned trust from corporate leadership and unlocked strategic funding. This newfound credibility enabled the team to justify investment requests and demonstrate operational maturity, which was critical for securing resources in a highly competitive internal environment.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Before Clari, 5% of operating profits are misallocated, 25% of which are misallocated due to forecast misguidance.

• With Clari, the reduction in misallocated funds is 25% in Year 1, 55% in Year 2, and 90% in Year 3.

Risks. The impact of this benefit will vary among organizations based on the following factors:

• The volatility and complexity of the metrics being forecasted (e.g., IACV vs. ACV or TCV).

• The organization’s historical forecasting practices and baseline accuracy.

• The degree of Clari adoption across sales, finance, and operations teams.

• The organization’s ability to act on forecast insights to adjust hiring, spending, and strategic investments in real time.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $14.1 million.

Enhanced Productivity For Managers And Revenue Operations

Evidence and data. According to interviewees, by centralizing data from disparate systems and providing intuitive tools for inspection, scoring, and collaboration, Clari enabled sales managers and revenue operations teams to make faster, more informed decisions. Interviewees described productivity gains for managers and revenue operations teams driven by streamlined forecasting workflows and reduced manual effort:

• Interviewees explained that before Clari, sales leaders spent hours manually updating forecasts and reconciling data across systems. With Clari, those tasks became real-time and collaborative, allowing managers to focus on strategic coaching and pipeline inspection instead of administrative overhead. The vice president of sales operations in software estimated a 50% improvement in forecasting productivity, particularly in tasks like spreadsheet maintenance, deal status updates, and reporting.

• The director of global business excellence in manufacturing reported that Clari enabled their team to course-correct decades of inefficient forecasting behavior in just six months. The platform replaced fragmented, anecdotal forecasting with a structured, high-trust process that delivered 96% forecast accuracy for this interviewee’s organization. This transformation not only improved operational efficiency but also elevated the credibility of the sales organization in the eyes of corporate leadership, enabling better alignment and faster decision-making.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 400 sales and customer success managers that spend 160 hours on forecasting activities. With Clari, this is reduced by 15% in Year 1, 25% in Year 2, and 33% in Year 3.

• There are 200 revenue operations team members that spend 832 hours on forecasting-related administrative tasks, which is reduced by 15% in Year 1, 25% in Year 2, and 33% in Year 3.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for managers and revenue operations team members is $65.

Risks. The impact of this benefit will vary among organizations based on the following factors:

• The complexity and fragmentation of the organization’s existing forecasting and reporting workflows.

• The degree of Clari adoption across sales leadership, operations, and supporting teams.

• The organization’s ability to configure Clari to reflect its business processes and data structures.

• The baseline level of manual effort and inefficiency prior to Clari implementation.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $3.8 million.

Reduced Administrative Burden For Sales And Customer Success

Evidence and data. Interviewees described significant reductions in administrative burden for sales and customer success teams, enabling more time for strategic engagement and customer-facing activities. Interviewees report that Clari supported this reduction in administrative burden by:

• Improving coaching and rep-manager communication and coaching. Interviewees noted Clari helped them accomplish this by surfacing opportunity health, pipeline movement, and risk indicators that enabled focused, data-driven conversations.

• Enhancing process compliance. Interviewees said that Clari embedded forecasting and pipeline workflows into a single intuitive interface that reps and managers used consistently.

• Supporting better decision-making. At the interviewees’ organizations, Clari centralized visibility across the customer journey and surfaced actionable insights that guided resource allocation and strategic planning.

• Streamlining CRM data entry and activity tracking. Reps at the interviewees’ organizations could log interactions and update deal status directly within Clari, with real-time sync to Salesforce.

• Centralizing visibility across the customer journey. Clari enabled sales and customer success teams at the interviewees’ organizations to access complete account histories and pipeline data without toggling between systems.

Interviewees experienced the following:

• The director of global business excellence in manufacturing estimated a 70% reduction in time spent on manual tasks, such as spreadsheet creation and pipeline tracking. Prior to Clari, these tasks consumed up to 18 hours per week; after Clari, they were nearly eliminated, allowing reps and managers to focus on selling and planning rather than data wrangling.

• The vice president of sales operations in software reported efficiency gains in rep activity tracking and logging. Clari replaced fragmented workflows and manual reporting at this interviewee’s organization with real-time updates and centralized visibility, enabling their reps to manage pipeline and forecast data directly within the platform. This shift not only saved time but also improved data completeness and reduced user input errors, enhancing the overall quality of sales execution.

• The global sales operations lead said ease of use was a notable factor, noting, “Clari is so much easier navigating than the opportunity page or the account page in the CRM.” This helped reduce administrative burden for reps and managers.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 3,600 sales and customer success team members that spend 312 hours on administrative tasks.

• With Clari, they reduce the time spent on admin by 25% in Year 1, 38% in Year 2, and 50% in Year 3.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for sales and customer success team members is $55.

Risks. The impact of this benefit will vary among organizations based on the following factors:

• The volume and complexity of manual tasks in the prior environment, such as forecasting, CRM updates, and activity tracking.

• The organization’s baseline process compliance and data hygiene before adopting Clari.

• The degree of Clari adoption across sales, customer success, and supporting teams.

• The organization’s ability to configure Clari to align with its workflows and integrate with existing systems like CRM and email platforms.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $22.7 million.

IT Department And Legacy Environment Savings

Evidence and data. Interviewees whose organizations had legacy environments and complex CRM configurations found that Clari was a lighter lift for IT teams compared to traditional platforms:

• The director of global business excellence in manufacturing noted Clari required minimal ongoing effort from the IT team and remarked this was a stark contrast to their previous experience with other solutions, which required millions of dollars in setup costs and multiple full-time staff to maintain. The interviewee emphasized that Clari delivered the same functionality with far less overhead. This efficiency was especially valuable given their organization’s legacy environment, which the interviewee described as “immature” and overly customized for hardware rather than software. Clari’s ease of use and minimal configuration demands allowed the interviewee’s team to bypass many of the complexities and limitations of their existing CRM setup, enabling faster deployment and broader adoption across functions. The interviewee noted: “[Our other solution] is a horrible tool, but it’s a system that’s a required evil. So if there’s a solution like Clari that makes it easy to manage the system for your reps, it’s critical.”

• The vice president of sales operations noted that Clari needed fewer resources to manage user provisioning, module installation, and system updates than what would be required to maintain equivalent functionality in other solutions.

• The interviewee also emphasized that Clari’s implementation was straightforward and fast. Unlike alternative solutions that often demanded extensive customization and developer resources to support forecasting and reporting, Clari delivered out-of-the-box capabilities that replaced manual reporting and eliminated the need for custom dashboards at the interviewees’ organizations. The senior director of global sales operations in software shared that Clari’s native analytics and forecasting tools allowed their team to retire internal dashboards and avoid building complex reporting layers in other solutions. This not only saved time and labor but also enabled their IT department to focus on higher-value initiatives rather than maintaining legacy infrastructure.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• One IT developer in Year 1 and two IT developers in Years 2 and 3 are reallocated.

• The fully burdened annual salary for a developer is $135,000.

• Legacy licensing addressable for decommissioning with Clari is $1 million.

• Due to Clari adoption, the composite decommissions 50% of legacy tools in Year 1 and 100% in Years 2 and 3.

Risks. The impact of this benefit will vary among organizations based on the following factors:

• The organization’s prior and existing systems and its integrations with Clari.

• The organization’s ability to decommission its prior systems with its adoption of Clari.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.2 million.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Improved visibility and transparency. Interviewees noted that Clari improved visibility across their organizations. The global sales operations lead in the software industry emphasized that Clari “abstracts away a lot of complexity” from multiple CRM instances, enabling a unified view of forecasts and pipeline. Similarly, the vice president of sales operations in software noted that Clari provide clear, real-time data, allowing executives to see pipeline by product and geography instantly. The senior director of sales operations in security described Clari as “a center of gravity for selling broadly,” with visibility that “turned the lights on” for frontline managers

• Improved collaboration and cross-functional alignment. The vice president of sales operations in the software industry highlighted how marketing and sales were now aligned on pipeline generation forecasts with Clari. The senior director of sales operations in security described how Clari facilitated collaboration between prime sales and renewals teams, legal, customer success, and deal operations, noting that “everyone enters their perspective on the deal” in Clari, which is then used in forecast calls. The director of global business excellence in manufacturing shared that Clari “created linkage to [the] cross-functional leadership team in a very powerful way.”

• More strategic decision-making. Interviewees described that Clari informed strategic decision-making from identifying underperforming segments to improving forecast accuracy and influencing hiring decisions. With Clari, interviewees modeled hiring needs based on win rates and ASP trends. They leveraged Clari for headcount and territory planning and to justify or delay investments based on forecast strength and pause market expansion when forecasts softened.

• Improved process discipline. Interviewees noted that Clari drove meaningful behavioral change and enforced a consistent forecasting and operational process across their sales organizations, replacing fragmented, spreadsheet-based workflows with a unified system that drove alignment and accountability. The senior director of sales operation in security highlighted how Clari’s rigid hierarchy model eliminated the “shadow hierarchies” that had emerged in their previous tool. The chief sales officer in energy described how Clari “forces structure” in their organization. This rigidity, though initially seen as a limitation, ultimately enforced alignment and saved time. The interviewee said: “It goes back to the standardization and everyone speaking effectively the same language in the same tool. Having everyone doing the same thing the same way creates a lot of efficiencies, scalability, and repeatability across the business.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Clari and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Scalability and expansion readiness with AI. Interviewees noted that they looked forward to leveraging upcoming AI features to supplement their experienced benefits and continue to execute at scale. The director of global business excellence in manufacturing remarked, “We’re currently using the ‘generate insights’ function within the Inspect module. It’s incredibly valuable and saving us tremendous time in digesting what’s happening within a given opportunity without having to spend time sorting through emails. It’s also given our team tangible evidence that we don’t need to micro-inspect their emails to understand what’s happening in a given deal.”

• Modular adoption and feature expansion. The interviewees’ organizations adopted Clari’s modules incrementally. Several added Copilot and Groove after initial Clari deployment and replaced other tools. Interviewees said they expect to see additional benefits in both existing Clari users and across their organizations as adoption expands. The director of global business excellence in manufacturing said, “We expect the benefits to grow over time as we expand our use of Clari.” 

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).