How Five9 removed the guesswork from selling

Overview

Five9 helps companies modernize their contact centers through the cloud - replacing legacy systems and poor customer experiences with intelligent, AI-powered engagement. Their mission is customer-centric. So is their sales culture. The problem was that the data to support that culture didn't exist. Sellers had little time for manual activity logging, so CRM data was sparse and unreliable. Forecasting was anecdotal.

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Before Backstory

• Activity and contact data sparse - sellers had no time for manual CRM logging
• No visibility into whether accounts were actually engaging back with reps
• Forecasting anecdotal - leaders couldn't report with confidence on deal progression
• No objective measure of what 'good' looks like or what behaviors lead to wins
• Opportunity qualification inconsistent - no standardized process across the sales team

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Automated activity capture and engagement visibility

Knowing whether accounts actually care - without asking the seller

The most valuable insight Five9 needed wasn't logged in Salesforce - it was whether customers were reciprocating. A diligent rep could track every outreach, but that data said nothing about what the account was doing in response.

Backstory automatically captured every activity across emails, meetings, and calls - 200,000+ in total - and matched them accurately to the right accounts and opportunities. Engagement level calculations let sales leaders see whether an account was highly engaged, passively interested, or going cold.

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AFTER BACKSTORY

• 200,000+ sales activities automatically captured and matched in CRM
• 1,000+ seller hours per year recovered from manual data entry
• Engagement scores visible alongside every opportunity in the forecasting tool
• Leaders able to identify at-risk deals based on low engagement - not gut feel

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Forecasting accuracy and sales coaching

Replacing anecdote with engagement scores - so leaders can coach, not guess

With engagement scores flowing directly into their forecasting tool, sales leaders gained an objective view of every deal in the pipeline. Conversations shifted from 'where do you think this deal is?' to 'the engagement score dropped last week - what's changed?'

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AFTER BACKSTORY

• Engagement scores visible alongside every deal in the forecasting tool
• At-risk deals identified early - before they slip to closed-lost
• Coaching conversations grounded in specific, observable data points
• Forecasting shifted from anecdotal reporting to data-backed confidence

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Standardized deal qualification and the Five9 playbook

Codifying what 'good' looks like - and making it available to every rep from day one

As Five9 scaled, onboarding new sellers quickly became a priority. Backstory's opportunity scorecards let Five9 embed their deal qualification process directly into Salesforce. Every seller, new or seasoned, could see the gaps in any opportunity without hunting for a separate document or asking a colleague.

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AFTER BACKSTORY

• Deal qualification standardized via opportunity scorecards embedded in Salesforce
• New reps onboard faster - best practices visible in the system they use every day
• Qualification process adaptable as market conditions shift - no full retraining required
• Sellers no longer blindsided by emerging deal risks

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What Five9 achieved

Five9 came in wanting better data. What they built was a fully enabled, data-driven sales org. Reps got 1,000+ hours back from manual CRM work. Leaders stopped relying on seller self-reporting and started coaching from engagement scores. A scalable deal qualification playbook went live inside Salesforce.

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