Working From Anywhere - Consensus Adopts FlexPlace Work Environment

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Dec 14, 2017, 07:00 ET

SANDY, Utah, Dec. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Consensus, a Utah-based enterprise SaaS (software-as-a-service) startup that drives B2B sales through Buyer Enablement, announced today they have fully adopted a FlexPlace work environment that allows team members to work and collaborate from anywhere.

The change to being a fully remote company began when Brian Zurcher, VP of Client Success, planned to move to Saint George, UT in 2016 and asked if he could keep his job and work remotely.

"We decided to give it go," said Garin Hess, Founder and CEO. "What happened surprised us. Brian was so much more productive and effective working remotely from home that we began to wonder if we would see similar gains if we all started working from home a few days."

Zurcher confirmed that perception, saying, "I found I'm able to get a lot more done because there aren't the constant interruptions about non-work things. We used to work in this large open office environment which turns out was really counterproductive for me. But it took moving out of the office to recognize how much it impacted my ability to get things done."

Early this year the company began asking employees to work from home two days a week then back in the office for three days, monitoring results to see how the change might affect productivity.

"We were worried that productivity might drop for some reason," said Geoff Beckstrom, VP of Operations. "So we watched results like a hawk and were shocked to see that productivity went up across the board."

Beckstrom says that running a remote team necessitates focusing on results rather than overseeing the methods as closely.

"We field concerns from company stakeholders because we're bucking the tradition of having to work in an office and people who haven't tried it think that it's impossible to get as much done," said Hess. "But the opposite is true."

Since the move Consensus has brought on team members in Europe, Mexico, and other parts of the United States. The Utah locals still get together in person once a week in co-working spaces and pipe everyone else in remotely via video for the weekly all hands.

"We love getting together, but it's also great to have the flexibility to more easily integrate work, family, and life. I've never enjoyed my job more or got more accomplished," said Rex Galbraith, VP of Sales.

Indeed, Consensus exceeded their Q3 sales target by 145% and became GAAP profitable in Q3 of 2017. Hess and Galbraith attribute at least some of this success to the new FlexPlace model.

Consensus is backed by Peak Ventures, CEB Ventures, Riverside Acceleration Capital, and other notable angel investors such as Nobu Mutaguchi and Scott Frazier.

About Consensus
CONSENSUS is a SaaS application that accelerates B2B sales by driving agreement across stakeholders in the buying group. Our interactive demo automation solution personalizes video and documents so each stakeholder automatically learns about your solution in the most relevant way. Our Demolytics™ dashboard helps you discover and engage the entire buying group by gathering analytics and tracking what's important to them, what they watched, and who they shared it with. This drives agreement and gets to a purchase decision much faster than traditional sales methods. Clients have cut their sales cycles by 68% and jumped close rates by 44%.

SOURCE Consensus