We get it—time is money. You don’t have 2 hours for a discovery call. That’s why we’ve cut out the fluff and streamlined the demo process, so buyers get straight to solving your business challenges and companies can present their products to the right audience. 

That’s how we planned our first RevGenius Demo Day back in May. We had 14 startups presenting during 10-minute sessions. Our goal was to create safe spaces for buyers and sellers to connect and learn —and here’s what happened:

How Alysio Generated 12 Qualified Meetings from RevGenius Demo Day 

We sat down with Aaron McReynolds from Alysio, The AI GTM Performance Platform, to build a Demo Day playbook that covers the best practices that brought them these results.  Alysio aimed to leverage RevGenius Demo Day to gain brand exposure, connect with a broader audience, and generate high-quality leads. 

They approached Demo Day with a comprehensive strategy, here’s a snapshot of how they did it: 

• Before the Event: They partnered with RevGenius to create buzz, and connect with potential attendees
• During the Event: They focused on delivering a compelling, concise demo, ensuring they stood out.
• After the Event: Follow-up was key, with personalized and timely outreach to attendees and other speakers.

Let’s dive in! 

Alysio Playbook: Key Takeaways For Your Next Event

Double down on promotion 

• Work closely with the hosting team to co-promote the event. Leverage all the channels for visibility by liking, commenting, reposting and sharing event posts. The virality of the event translates into: brand exposure, building awareness and associations with other great companies and connecting with the right audience. 

“We felt the virality of LinkedIn pre-Demo Day alone justified the investment.”

Production: Get creative 

• We’re all too used to our living rooms’ background setting on Zoom Think about something different: renting a co-working space can be a game changer. Make the setting work in your favor, grab attention, and make it a memorable experience for the audience. 
• Invest in basic tech enhancements: an iPhone camera, ring light, wireless microphone, and a tracking device for dynamic movement. They DO make a difference. 

Content: Make it stand out 

• Leverage familiar content: use a version of your pitch that you’re already comfortable with and that you can deliver smoothly. 
• Focus on the core narrative: problem identification, solution, and “why” it matters.
• Learn from the best: get inspired by Apple, TED speakers. 

Ask yourself: “What would Apple do?”

• Create an engaging narrative rather than a feature-by-feature walk-through of your product.
• Focus on storytelling and problem-solving before diving into the demo – dedicate minimal time for the product demo and make sure the story comes across first. 

Presentation: Make it memorable 

• Present confidently, stay calm, good vibes only!
• Have your team members manage the chat for real-time engagement, allowing you to focus on presenting only.
• Pre-coordinate responsibilities to make sure you can deliver your demo without distractions.

Follow up: Have your game plan ready 

• Meet with your team shortly after the event to finalize the game plan.
• Follow up with the audience — always! 
• Divide it into segments. E.g.: attendees, registrants who did not show up, active participants in the chat, other presenters. 

“The quality of companies presenting and the crowd brought in by RevGenius were outstanding.”

Tailor your outreach

• Customize sequences for each segment for targeted communication.
• Personally follow up on LinkedIn with other presenters and attendees for additional networking opportunities.
• Ensure timely follow-ups within a day or two after the event to maintain momentum.

Feedback 

• Review feedback and performance (e.g., the number of meetings booked, conversions) to refine future presentations. 

Shoutout to Alysio for sharing their playbook! If you want to get your brand in front of the buyers in a dynamic, enjoyable, and effective format, partner with us and make sure to register for the upcoming Demo Day on June 26th with Vimeo, Commsor, Coefficient, UserGems, Common Room, WinnAI and Fullcast presenting! 

The post How Alysio Generated 12 Qualified Meetings From RevGenius Demo Day appeared first on RevGenius.

We’ve just dropped the list of the Next 50 GTM Startups List, sponsored by our partner Seamless.ai — check it out here!

The next generation of startups have a distinct advantage – they have the support of the RevGenius Community. 

We are tired of seeing all the big brands get all the love and attention. It’s time to shower the top emerging ones with love backed by a community of 45k revenue leaders.

Next is RevGenius’ curated list of emerging creators and startups in SaaS Go-to-Market.

Next 50 GTM Startups is the second release of our Next campaign featuring emerging talent and brands in SaaS GTM. 

Inspired by redundancy, lack of diversity and connection to the masses  in the demand-generation-hopeful lists created by SaaS brands, RevGenius went out to create something different.  Always ahead of the curve, RevGenius is dedicated to discovering what’s next.

Get in touch if you wanna support the movement and partner with us!

The post RevGenius Announces Next 50 GTM Startups List, Featuring Emerging Brands in SaaS GTM appeared first on RevGenius.

We’re witnessing this first-hand: the B2B industry is turning its eyes on communities and big names like Figma, Atlassian or Notion have successfully implemented community-led growth models.   

In this 101 guide, we’ll explore the foundations of building and sustaining communities. Treat it as your go-to-cheatsheet. Let’s go! 

Community: Getting started with a bang

A long-sustaining community requires a strong foundation.

Defining Your Purpose and Goals

Before embarking on creating or participating in a community, clearly understanding your purpose and goals is crucial. Your objectives will serve as the foundation upon which the community is built. Here’s why this step is vital:

• Alignment

Ensure that the community’s purpose aligns with your goals. If you want to network and share professional insights, make this a foundation of your community project. 

• Focus 

Clearly defined objectives help in maintaining focus and direction. This prevents the community from becoming a hodgepodge of unrelated topics and ensures members know what to expect. 

• Measurable Success 

Having specific goals allows you to measure the success of your community. For instance, if your objective is to offer support, you can measure success by tracking the number of members helped.

Selecting the Right Platform

The choice of platform plays a significant role in the success and sustainability of your community. Here are considerations when selecting a platform:

• Nature of Community 

The platform should align with the nature of your community. For example, a professional network might thrive on LinkedIn, while a hobbyist group could work well on a specialized forum.

• Accessibility

Ensure that the platform is accessible to your target audience. Consider factors like geographical reach, language, and device compatibility.

• Scalability

Choose a platform that can accommodate your community’s growth. You want to avoid outgrowing the platform and facing migration issues later.

• Features

Evaluate the available features. Different platforms offer various tools like discussion boards, chat functionality, event management, and analytics. Pick the ones that best suit your community’s needs.

But then remember – community is “everywhere your members are”

Community transcends platform. What I mean by this is community doesn’t just live in a private Slack or Discord. Community is everywhere your members are. 

(if you want to learn more about building communities in the B2B space, subscribe to Jared Robin’s newsletter here.)

Building a welcoming and inclusive environment

Creating a culture of inclusivity and respect is fundamental to the success of any community. 

Here’s why it matters:

• Safety 

Setting clear guidelines and expectations for member behavior ensures that the community remains safe for all participants. This promotes healthy interactions and minimizes the risk of harassment or toxicity.

• Engagement 

A welcoming environment encourages members to participate and contribute actively. When members feel valued and respected, they are more likely to share their knowledge and insights.

• Longevity 

Communities that foster inclusivity and open communication tend to be more sustainable. Members are more likely to stick around and continue contributing when they feel a sense of belonging.

• Diverse Perspectives

Inclusive communities attract a diverse range of participants, which can lead to a richer exchange of ideas and perspectives. This diversity can benefit your community’s goals and objectives.

Provide Value to Members

To provide value to your community members, consider offering:

• Expert Interviews 

Arrange interviews or Q&A sessions with industry experts or thought leaders to share valuable insights and knowledge.

• Exclusive Content

Share content that is not available elsewhere, such as in-depth reports, whitepapers, or exclusive articles. Curation in every sense of the word is at the key of the community. 

• Educational Materials 

Provide resources like webinars, workshops, or courses that help members enhance their skills or knowledge.

• Networking Opportunities 

Facilitate connections within the community by organizing networking events, virtual meetups, or conferences.

• Something extra 

Get creative. Hybrid events, unique experiences merging digital & IRL, unexpected collaborations. 

Encourage Member Contribution

Empower members to actively participate by:

• Asking Questions 

Encourage members to ask questions, seek advice, and share their challenges within the community.

• Sharing Experiences 

Encourage members to share their success stories, case studies, or lessons learned.

• Offering Solutions

Promote the sharing of solutions to common problems, which can benefit others facing similar challenges.

• Recognition

Highlight and celebrate member contributions through features like member spotlights, awards, or public acknowledgments.

Foster Networking and Relationships:

Build connections among members by:

• Networking Events

Organize virtual or in-person networking events, mixers, or meet-and-greets to facilitate introductions.

• Mentorship Programs: 

Create mentorship opportunities within your community, pairing experienced members with newcomers.

• Peer-to-Peer Introductions: 

Encourage members to introduce each other based on shared interests or goals.

Listen Actively to Feedback

Prioritize member feedback by:

• Feedback Channels: 

Create channels for members to submit suggestions, report issues, or provide feedback.

• Response and Action: 

Acknowledge feedback promptly and, when possible, implement changes or improvements based on member input.

Implement Data Analytics

Use data analytics to:

• Track Engagement: 

Monitor community engagement metrics, such as member activity, discussion participation, and content popularity.

• Member Growth: 

Analyze member growth trends and demographics to understand your audience better.

• Measure Success: 

Assess the impact of your community initiatives and use data to make informed decisions on strategy adjustments.

• Look at the data from different angles

Treat data as the starting point to tell a bigger story. Get granular to see trends and track sentiment. 

In 2024 and beyond, community pros who embrace creativity, accessibility, measurement, and partnerships will gain influence. We forge progress through customer empathy and strategic vision.

Read more about 2024 Communtiy trends in Chris Detzel’ s article: Unlocking Community’s Potential: Trends for 2024 and Beyond

Promote Transparency

Foster trust and reduce uncertainty by:

• Communication: 

Clearly communicate community decisions, policy changes, and upcoming events or initiatives.

• Open Discussions: 

Encourage open discussions within the community about important topics or changes.

Diversify Content and Activities

Keep the community dynamic by offering:

• Webinars: 

Host webinars on relevant topics featuring guest speakers or experts.

• AMAs (Ask Me Anything): 

Arrange Q&A sessions with community leaders, industry professionals, or notable figures.

• Challenges: 

Create challenges or contests that encourage member participation and creativity.

• Polls and Surveys: 

Gather member opinions and insights on community-related matters.

Recognize and Reward Contributions

Acknowledge and reward active contributors with:

• Badges and Recognition: 

Assign badges or titles to members who consistently contribute or reach certain milestones.

• Featured Spotlights: 

Highlight outstanding member contributions through featured content or profiles.

• Tangible Rewards: 

Offer tangible rewards such as discounts, exclusive access, or physical merchandise for exceptional contributions.

Maintain a Long-Term Perspective

Understand that building a thriving community takes time, and be committed to:

• Consistent Efforts: 

Continuously nurture and grow the community over the long term.

• Adaptation: 

Adjust strategies and activities as the community evolves to meet changing needs.

Evaluate and Iterate

Regularly assess community performance by:

• Feedback Analysis: 

Review feedback from members and identify areas for improvement.

• Metrics Review: 

Analyze engagement and growth metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your strategies.

• Adjustment: 

Make improvements and adjustments to your community strategies based on the insights gained from the evaluation.

Stay Authentic and Human-Centric

Foster a sense of belonging and trust by:

• Authentic Interactions: 

Be genuine and approachable in your interactions with community members.

• Empathy: 

Show empathy and understanding toward members’ challenges and experiences.

Scale Responsibly

If your community experiences rapid growth:

• Resource Allocation: 

Ensure you have the necessary resources to maintain quality and integrity, including moderators and technical infrastructure.

• Community Guidelines: 

Update guidelines and processes to accommodate a larger and more diverse member base.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Be aware of and adhere to legal and ethical responsibilities, such as:

• Data Privacy: 

Ensure compliance with data protection regulations and handle member data securely.

• Platform Rules: 

Abide by the rules and terms of service of the platform hosting your community.

By implementing these practices, you can create a vibrant, engaged, and sustainable community that provides true value to its members. If you have any questions about building communities and including them in your marketing plan, get in touch. 

The post Community 101: Guide to Building, Nurturing, and Sustaining Community appeared first on RevGenius.

Below is our interview with Andrew:

Introduce yourself to our audience.

Tell us who you are and what you are currently focused on. My Name is Andrew Miller! Im from Toronto Ontario. I am also your Head of Onboarding here at RG. Currently, I am focused on the being better every single day of my life!

How did your journey lead you to Peek?

I am truly blessed to work for such an amazing company. After COVID I bet big on travel to return. So i went to go work for a Travel Company

What advice would you give to people who are looking to get into an Account Executive role?

Never stop improving. Honestly, I know you hear this rhetoric all the time. But the AE role is ultra competitive, you have to sharpen your skills everyday.

What gets you out of bed every morning?

David Goggins. I listen to that man every morning. (Yes, I listen to motivational speeches every morning.)

What would you say your personal superpower is?

My curiosity. I genuinely want to know everything about my clients! Nothing bothers me more than when i forget to ask something!

Why should other sales and marketing professionals join RevGenius?

You get to see me in onboarding? No seriously, im your onboarder. Ive learned so much in the masterclasses that has directly impacted my sales and my pocketbook. Also the mentorship has been huge for me.

The post RevGenius Member Spotlight: Andrew Miller appeared first on RevGenius.

Aaron “AIR” Ross burst onto the scene in 2011 documenting how he helped scale Salesforce from 0-100MM in the Oughts in the book “Predictable Revenue” applying the Henry Ford model to break the supply chain into Openers and Closers. Shout out to MaryLou Tyler on the case study.  This became the “Bible of Silicon Valley Scaling.” In 2012 Phil Fernandez, the founder of Marketo, released “Revenue Disruption.” It was the first book to really popularize what would become Account Based Marketing addressing the full funnel. In 2015, Max Altschuler of “Sales Hacker” fame released the book “Hacking Sales.” It was an amazing distillation of every solo tool he’d leveraged to hack revenue growth at Udemy.

That same year Mark Roberge, CRO of HubSpot, released the book, “The Sales Acceleration Formula.” Max is unique because he hacked his tech stacks by himself at a startup putting it on the map and documenting it the deepest at the time. Mark is unique because he was an engineer by trade who approached Business Development, Demand Gen, and Sales Development work through a rigorous data driven lens, breaking down previous methods and models and constructing new systems. In 2015/2016 the luminous Jeremy Donovan and Marylou Tyler released “Predictable Prospecting” to bring further “process focus” to scaling outbound sales.

I share all these resources in the front of the book because how can we truly bring them to life? How can we apply them? We are living in a unique moment where very soon we can scale and automate them all. Soon to sprout are the many derivations of the seeds planted therein.

It’s wild thinking how primitive our sales tech was even 5 years ago. With the accelerating, blistering pace of technology, within half that time we should be 3-5X further. It’s time to get a lot smarter about leveraging advanced technologies to market, sell, and measure revenue so we don’t lose our jobs to AI or someone that got ahead of us on the learning curve.

Hence why I’ve dedicated considerable time, research, and years developing a concept of TQ and teaching people how to build it up. Technology Quotient is the measurement of how much you fuse with machines, UI, UX and tech platforms. Believe it or not, we all have a TQ score. It can be improved scientifically just like EQ and IQ have been proven. IQ informs EQ, and EQ informs TQ. The first biggest quantum leap is adopting a growth mindset vs. fixed mindset popularized by author Carol Dweck in her book, “Mindset.” Stop believing you are born with some inherent aptitude for your tech. No one is born coding in Python. They learned, they just were a bit more open. Sure, they may have aced calculus, but plenty got an A on sheer determination alone. I can barely handle business accounting, but I aced Trigonometry by dint of work ethic and sheer force of will.

Maybe being “bad at math” or “it didn’t come easy” – Geometry did – and still getting competent at it is why I excelled at tech stacks. I remember how hard it was setting up custom fields in a Sequencer the first time I did it. But it got so much easier with every repetition.

The reason being, Marketing Automation and “Inbound” Marketing were getting all the love in the realm of product roadmap innovation from the major acquisitive players: Salesforce, Adobe, Oracle, Microsoft.

And for good reason… systems that could drip messages to prospects, score the interaction and keep them warm on the back burner were a genius idea to create a foundation for full-funnel marketing. Inbound Marketers also broke major ground on permission-based (opt-in) marketing systems and personalization at scale with the advent of HubSpot and Marketo’s dominance. Salesforce entered the fray with Pardot. Marketing automation was all the rage with splashy acquisitions for social listening tech like Radian6, Buddy Media, and Vitrue.

We thought we had it made relying on Inbound plus bulk email for outbound. And wow was it predictable. You could send 700 emails and get 12 meetings predictably. This was the era of MMWYS and cold email mastery templates.  The phone was still alive and well too with 7 contacts 10. Now you’re lucky to connect with 5 humans on 100 tries unless you utilize a parallel assisted dialer.

In the Roaring 2020s, it is time to go from Marketing with ABM (account-based marketing) to ABSD: account-based sales development, a phrase that Lars Nilsson coined at Cloudera running sales development.

But something happened to follow up the successful Predictable Revenue model(s) of the SDR-AE Industrial Complex; so much tech got funded and scaled so fast by 2021 that sales teams started to get overwhelmed by stack overflow.

Frankenstack n. A disjointed system that doesn’t necessarily talk to each other out-of-the-box emerged. Isn’t that what you see in your own company? Here’s what happens when you combine a siloed revenue machine – the combination of sales, operations, and marketing – with a Frankenstack: systems operate independently and since they’re incentivized without interoperability in mind, each silo adopts a shopkeeper mentality and sales development turns into a cost center. Marketing thinks everything is fine since they delivered on leads, Operations thinks everything is fine since the reports are clean and sales has a pool of leads and contacts to draw from. Then the sales director gets fired after three bad quarters since the poor soul hired 10 SDRs to clean out the Salesforce instance and make phantom dials.

To sell is to affect behavioral change. So, there were first attempts to change the system (one that I participated in at OutboundWorks with Ben Sardella!) to work within it but seek to replace XDRs with AI/ML. The sheer pace of technology change and funding is in counterpoint to the speed that firms are cutting/consolidating tooling in the crisis. Revenue and Operations leaders are seeking cost efficiency in the pandemic and cutting back on tools. So now we have a limited Frankenstack. Paradoxically it’s never been more important to invest in tech stacks to get them right, to build the glue.

We are also in an era where fundamental automation technologies are nearly free.

There are two ways to fix the problems of solutions not talking to each other. Either think like Tony Stark re-engineered a more insanely automagical JARVIS or be like MacGyver and hyper-optimize the scrappy stack you’ve got with the eye and mind of a classic entrepreneur. From less, even more! Let’s explore the two paths.

MacGyver:

Use what you’ve got. Best way to do this – Tray, Zapier, Workato, and Syncari.  Build zaps as the API glue so the systems talk. Use a grappling hook and a hairpin to diffuse a nuclear submarine.

Tony Stark:

Converged systems – look for solutions like RingDNA that blend a Dialer, ConversationalAI, and Sequencing

Bonus path – Iron Man:

Go best-of-breed and hold a bakeoff across the following layers in the outbound tech stack: Marketing Automation, Sales Automation, Business Intelligence, Revenue Intelligence, Trigger Events, Intent Data, Forecasting, etc.

Jared Robin has a unique talk on these issues as the co-founder of RevGenius. He’s also an experienced XDR and suggests thinking of stacks as three paths.

• The first is the affordable stack where you might spike the ball with a couple of point solutions. You optimize what you have especially if you’re a one-human show.
• The second path is getting a sequencer in place for early automation.
• The third path is a free-for-all where you combine and AB tests many combinations until you crack your funnel.

‍The most important thing for building tech stacks is getting similar vendors to bake off inside your instance. You need the chance to try before you buy.

It’s also critical to whiteboard out your process before you start to automate and scale it. Otherwise, you’re just amplifying junk! GIGO – Garbage in, garbage out.

Revenue Operations or RevOps is the hottest new category of technical operations inside fast-moving SaaS tech companies. This is the confluence of Sales Operations and Marketing Operations. These folks do so much more than pulling pretty reports in Salesforce. They provide the full marketing attribution waterfall to justify the investments in all the tools. They are building the API glue and integrations, so systems talk to each other.

What does it take as a mindset to be less technology avoidant? Many sellers I talk to say, “Look, I’m not technical. I’m a people person. That’s why I got into sales.” It’s a myth. The purpose of my work is to show you how easy it really is to become stronger with tech stacks, Revenue Operations (RevOps), and automation. Start today by dusting off your tech stack.

And we all have a tech stack… Do you use Google Apps aka GSuite? How about Microsoft Excel, Salesforce, HubSpot or Slack? I bet you didn’t think that was a tech stack. But think about how much technology you have for free in 2020 as compared to even 2015? One of the best analogies for the need to increase one’s TQ is Excel. We all only use about 5%. Imagine just 5% more and learning basic macros and pivotal tables?

I’ve sold technology, especially SaaS for 13 years. I’ve learned that everyone is in some dynamic state along a spectrum from crawl, to walk, to run. All that matters is we take the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen or “continuous improvement.” 1% improvement every day creates orders of magnitude gains later.

I anonymously asked an RG member about successful stacks. First comment was amazing. He said he’d never seen one optimized and actually successful. Another friend wrote:

“Everything from product marketing to marketing to marketing ops to sales ops to biz dev to sales — have 0 breakdowns in that pathway is the problem I want to solve. I wouldn’t say our tech stack is perfect, you have a bunch of leaders who come in and screw everything up and change things because they are innovating or trying to look good or somewhere in between – plus when you have multiple admins and certain ones LOVE governance. You have a lot of messes to clean up! Therefore, I can tell you ideally what a perfect sales tech stack looks like in a vacuum utopia! But when there’s all the other factors—it’s like what was mentioned. Expect some level of mess between who uses the data and how it’s getting populated and work your best to automate and make money.”

Modern tech stacks are intuitively built, and many have WYSIWYG interfaces. That means what you see is what you get. Learning them is quite like basic piano or riding a bicycle. The more you utilize these every day the more second nature. You gain an unconscious competence similar to how you felt driving for the first time vs. now when you can rock out to tunes and flawlessly navigate the 405 freeway in LA.

My first foray into tech stacks was YesWare and ToutApp. These simple applications allowed me to schedule my emails, create templates, and track opens. I later matured to Groove.co (which just raised 12M) and then into power using Outreach, SalesLoft, and Reply.io. I think we all have a story of technology adoption that we inherit from a company we work at. On the marketing front I was trained at Salesforce on Pardot which is a competitor to Marketo.

Over the years, I spent a lot of time inside LinkedIn Groups looking for tips and tricks on stacks. I struck up relationships with our Sales Operations leaders who helped my teams craft reports and were frequently testing new technologies. The CMOs and heads of Demand Gen helped me to get these stacks funded, including purchasing data from just about every provider you can imagine: SalesIntel.io, Seamless.ai, DiscoverOrg (now part of) ZoomInfo, and LeadIQ.

My advice for tech stacks is to start out by pulling fully away from the tech and mapping out a “sound” process on a whiteboard or in LucidChart. Map out your full revenue cycle. How do you market – acquire, engage, retain, and grow your clients. What are all the touchpoints? Then map the current systems over the top of this schematic. Then ask yourself and your team as you collaborate, where are the blockages? Where are the poor customer experience points? What is strong that we can magnify?

As you look across the funnel, there’s not a single layer of analog process that has not been subject to Automation, AI and ML attempts. I say this because many vendors make wild, “magic bullet” claims. Sometimes the AI piece is just rule-based automation or “if this, then that” decision trees masquerading as artificial intelligence. Make sure to check G2 Crowd or Capterra reviews to ensure you’re getting a strong understanding of strengths, weaknesses, and integration.

And now the fun begins. Inbound? Outbound? SDRs? AEs? Managers? Coaching? Reporting? Forecasting? There’s a tech stack and many vendors for each one! There is no paint by number. I assure you, all companies believe that they are a unique snowflake and that a bespoke solution must be built, configured, and optimized. Its’ not always the case – over time solutions that plug and play out of the box for startups will get bought up and consolidated for the enterprise. Just imagine for a moment if Salesforce swooped in and got Outreach (Sequencer), ZoomInfo (data: dials & emails), Bombora (Intent Signals) and Gong.io and unified that into the Salesforce Sales Cloud to bolster HVS – High Velocity Sales, their current Sales Engagement Platform.

This is where we get into the anatomy of true “growth hacking.” You’re trying to optimize for quantity and quality of lead acquisition, pipeline and revenue. Ultimately, profit margin. Oh yeah, profit – remember that! The ultimate growth hack? Crushing your tech stack for absolute free: sweat equity, your effort, and ingenuity. You can find 75 free systems for every paid. There are collectives of Hackers that will help you. Ask about Wizard of Ops and SalesStack.io specific communities similar to RevGenius, many RevGenius members are in both.

Step one, optimize the stack you have however humble it is. As you learn about all the new marketing automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning derived solutions, go on G2 crowd and seek out alternatives. Post in the RevGenius slack channel for Technology Stack. A group of RG members recently dropped into an impromptu RevOps sessions where we coached a fellow member on a specific stack. We loved it so much we wanted to make it into a show! 5-10 people pop into a Zoom take on a stack and brainstorm ways to optimize it. Maybe that’s Sales Navigator, Outreach.io and ZoomInfo. Maybe that’s MixMax, Seamless.ai, and TryLavender.com.

Ryan Hiscox writes, “Building a sales machine today is an extreme challenge. Buyers only want to be contacted when they are 80% of the way to making a decision. Sellers need to be able to predict the precise moment and reach out with an insightful message to teach a professional buyer things they haven’t heard in their own industry. Basically, sales teams need to perform a magic trick just to do a decent job, while providing a satisfactory customer experience that aligns with the corporate brand. We don’t have magic but the closest thing to it is a strong tech stack.” – Ryan Hiscox

Conclusion – Tech stacks are changing at a breakneck speed. How are you optimizing what you have or consolidating it? How are you making these systems talk? What are you evaluating to become better, more efficient, human meets machine – superhuman?

The post Hacking Tech Stacks appeared first on RevGenius.

These days, those issues are even more common.

Around 70% of respondents in a 2018 Sales Enablement survey said that sales processes are becoming more complicated. New digital channels and unexpected changes to sales in 2020 mean that we’re all struggling to stay ahead of the curve.

According to sales expert, Justin Michael, sales is actually a game of heuristics. Heuristics are problem-solving solutions that use shortcuts to deliver results. Ultimately, it’s all about having the right information to deliver great results, fast.

The sales journey doesn’t have to be complicated to succeed. You just need the right blend of ingredients.

The Three Ingredients for Successful Outreach

If you’re starting to feel like achieving successful sales is a trial and error process, then you might need a new, more consistent strategy for your sales team to follow.  

Today’s reps spend around 40% of their time looking for and creating content to support a sale.

This strengthens the findings of companies like Hubspot, who found that salespeople spend just one-third of their day speaking to prospects.  

What does this mean for your sales team?

First and foremost, they need a new playbook.  

Your playbook is the script that your team uses to guide their decisions and use technology more efficiently. Playbooks also deliver more detailed tactics for lead scoring, so reps can spend less time on unqualified leads.  

While every brand’s playbook will differ according to its goals and requirements, there are three key ingredients that you’ll need to think about in this new landscape.

Personalization: The Empathy in Sales

For years, personalization has been a key trend for businesses of all sizes.

Throughout the decades, consumers have always given better responses to brands that focus on their individual needs and expectations. Your customers want to know that you understand them, but, both in times of trouble and success.  

Going forward, the demand for empathy and personalization in sales will be even greater.

Teams need to work harder to show their prospects that they need the items they have to sell.

Right now, 31% of customers say that they’re not confident marketers are approaching personalization correctly.

The same issues apply to sales.  

So, how do you embed personalization into the sales playbook?

More importantly, how do you ensure that you can use those personalization strategies at scale?

The first step is embracing the right technology. The key to understanding your audience is gathering as much data as you can about their experiences, pain points, and other critical issues.  

Browsing through LinkedIn isn’t enough.

You need a comprehensive environment where you can curate customer data into meaningful insights. A sales enablement platform that combines things like CRM data, emails, and other essential information is crucial.  

The more data you have, the more personal you can get with your customers.

Sales enablement tools will help you to divide your clients into different segments based on critical identifiers. For instance, you might have one group for business leaders and another for corporate financial advisors. You might even segment your customers according to their location, or how they prefer to contact your team.

Don’t just mimic empathy by telling them that you understand they have problems. Demonstrate genuine understanding by empathizing with the issues they have right now.

Relevancy and Clear Messages

Once you understand who your audience is and what they need, the next step is making sure that all of your presentations and sales efforts are relevant. Relevancy is how you prove to your target audience that you’re not just mimicking the empty gestures of other brands.  

When global disasters strike, hundreds of companies often send emails to customers en masse, trying to get ahead of the issue. These emails seem to have almost no filter: reaching both VIP customers and clients who hadn’t interacted for years, at the same time.

Consumers see these emergency emails as inauthentic and annoying.

Many of the messages go straight to the spam folder, while some customers block certain companies completely. The only emails that really seem to make a positive impact were the ones that looked at exactly what the business could do to make life easier for their customers.  

In an age where customers want better, more emotional connections with the companies they buy from, sales teams can’t afford to confuse empathy with fluff. Messages need to be short and straight to the point – don’t waste your customer’s time with information they don’t need to know.  

More importantly, focus on the problems you’re solving for your customers right now.

As Founder of Marketing Think, Gerry Moran states, “good relationships start by putting the other person first.” In other words, the key to real relationships, especially in these trying times is to establish credibility and trust by deeply understanding where the other party is coming from.

Figure out what kind of problems your audience is facing based on your email messages and CRM information.  

For instance, if someone on your list might be struggling with their finances right now, reach out offering them a payment holiday, or a discount if they’re willing to sign up with your service for longer.

Use your customer profiles and detailed information to tailor your message to the things that are most important to your audience right now.  

Staying relevant is how you demonstrate the essential nature of your company.

Get the Timing Right

Finally, as most sales professionals already know, it’s not just what you say, or even how you say it that matters in today’s landscape.

You also need to figure out how you’re going to get the timing right too.

No matter how personalized, relevant, and clear your message appears to be, it won’t resonate the right way if it arrives at the wrong time.  

Your sales playbooks need to provide agents with insights into how they can identify the right time to send an initial message, and how long they should wait before following up.

Remember, the playbook is there is a guideline, not a concrete set of rules. Agents also need the freedom to adjust the guidelines based on what they know about each customer.  

Getting the timing right has always been a crucial consideration in sales.

It’s why businesses of all sizes use things like the “buyer journey” to dictate sales and marketing actions. Pushing your client to buy something with a complete sales pitch when they’re still in the consideration stage is rarely a good idea.

Most sales teams will have a general idea of timing already. The tools you use to manage your sales strategy will inform you when a lead becomes qualified so a rep can reach out with initial contact. After that, you can figure out what the best time might be for a follow-up conversation, based on your previous experiences.  

As the world becomes increasingly digital and connected, you may discover that you can follow up much faster via LinkedIn and social media than you would if you were calling or emailing a prospect. Some teams might even set up consumer Slack accounts so that they can interact with clients whenever they need to in real-time.

Our research into the emerging sales signals and trends for 2021 found that SMS could be a powerful new tool for outreach. And according to this data, SMS implemented into outreach strategies reduced the number of touchpoints needed to close a deal by 19%.

Additionally, we also found that more digitally-focused journeys were driving better outcomes.

The most effective sales journeys centered around a LinkedIn connection first, followed by SMS, then email.

Agents that approached buyers on LinkedIn before a demo took the customer to the next step of the sales journey 67% of the time.

The key to success is paying attention to what works for your audience.

Maintaining a closed-loop environment where you can get frequent insights into the experiences your customers enjoy, (and the ones they don’t), will be essential.

Feedback from both your clients and your agents will allow you to gradually optimize the sales process to suit different audience segments.  

You can even use the feedback you gather to retain clients, not just attract new ones. Remember, attracting new customers costs up to five times more than keeping an existing client.

Updating Your Sales Strategy for the New Era

Mastering sales doesn’t have to be complicated.

If you can find the right blend of personalization, relevance, and timing, you can succeed with a prospect.

Learning how to build your new sales strategies around these three critical ingredients will help you to close more deals and strengthen your relationships with your target audience, just remember to keep learning as you go.

Right now, we’re all moving through a period of uncertainty and confusion: the new era of sales will require a certain degree of caution and agility.

Good luck.

The post C Suite Executives Outreach 2021 appeared first on RevGenius.

She co-leads our #content-marketing-club, has created a large following on LinkedIn, and has made her company a content powerhouse.

She brings all of that knowledge into the community daily—offering advice, mentoring, and speaking to her experience in the industry.

Erin is a wonderful leader and keeps true to herself regardless of her audience. That authenticity is something we strive for every RevGenius member; to feel fully confident in your abilities and knowledge that you can feel comfortable being truly candid and yourself.

Below is our interview with Erin Balsa:

Introduce yourself to our audience. Tell us who you are and what you are currently focused on.

I’m a Boston-based marketing director with two kids and a Jenny Lewis tattoo. I oversee all content production at The Predictive Index — the leading talent optimization platform. I’ve been working hard on 2021 strategy, a new resourcing model, and projections. Last night I typed “Predictive” into my TV remote (I meant to search for Dateline), so I might take a few days off to rest the ol’ brain. haha

How did your journey lead you to The Predictive Index?

How much time you got?

The short answer: I used to manage the editorial department at a content marketing agency. A former co-worker of mine at the agency was doing demand gen at The Predictive Index, and he recruited me to join.

What advice would you give to people who are looking to become better writers?

Find a mentor or editor you trust and ask them to review your work and provide feedback.

Learn the elements of storytelling (the hook, fascinations, curiosity, dialogue, etc.). Follow thought leaders on social and dissect their posts — what are they doing to get engagement that you could mimic? Paste your copy into Hemingway Editor to get a pulse check on whether your writing’s clear and easy to understand.

I can keep going. You want me to keep going?

What gets you out of bed every morning?

My kids. Literally.

What would you say your personal superpower is?

I can Marie Kondo circles around Marie Kondo. I despise clutter and I’m not sentimental, so …

Why should other sales and marketing professionals join RevGenius?

I have met awesome people in the content marketing club … and no matter what your specialty is within sales or marketing, you’ll be able to find your tribe.

The post RevGenius Member Spotlight: Erin Balsa appeared first on RevGenius.

It’s a great example of who Dale is. He’s goofy, kind, and an all-around joy to be around.

In our community, he lifts others up and helps build up the younger members to help them hone skills and develop professionally.

Below is our interview with Dale Zwizinski:

Introduce yourself to our audience. Tell us who you are and what you are currently focused on.

My name is Dale Zwizinski; I am the SVP of Sales at SmartAction.  My focus is bringing back the “Professional” in Sales Professional.  I have a passion for sales and sales leadership; the sales landscape has been (and is changing) so quickly that we have to ensure we are providing value to our customers.  We have to sell with passion AND integrity internally and externally.

How did your journey lead you to SmartAction?

My journey started as a techy that loved business (even coding in college).  I have been involved in 7 different startup companies in 3 different countries (US, UK, Holland), and I have also worked for fortune 500 companies like Oracle.  I prefer working with startup/growth companies because I can significantly impact the company and the customers.

What advice would you give to people who are looking to become leaders?

When looking to become a leader, take inventory of yourself and become self-aware of your strengths and blind spots.  Additionally, in leadership, EQ >IQ, your job is to make others around you the best they can be for the organization.

What gets you out of bed every morning?

My family gets me out of bed every morning; they are my WHY.

What would you say your personal superpower is?

My personal superpower is to stay grounding in stressful situations that can enable me to think out of the box to come up with solutions that may not be apparent on the surface.

Why should other sales and marketing professionals join RevGenius?

RevGenius is an engaged community where you can contribute and get questions answered – the community has connected me with some great humans!

The post RevGenius Member Spotlight: Dale Zwizinski appeared first on RevGenius.

But, I wasn’t always this passionate.

Like most sellers and sales leaders I meet, I stumbled into my first sales job, calling myself an “accidental” salesperson. We did mock calls as part of the interview process for my first sales job, and after one of the mock calls, they said, “let’s try it again with a stronger value proposition.” My response was, “what is a value proposition?”

I’m not quite sure what they saw in me or how I managed to convince them that I was a fast enough learner, but I somehow managed to land that first sales job, and I can say with confidence that it changed the trajectory of my life.

I struggled at first. I talked too fast. I knew very little about business. I was nervous every time I picked up the phone, and most definitely lacked the kind of killer instinct that sales leaders frequently search for. I accidentally overheard my first boss tell a colleague that I wouldn’t get the promotion they were talking about because “she doesn’t like sales enough.”

Those words fuel me to this day, because over time, I realized not only how good I was at the art and science of selling, but probably more importantly, how much I loved it. I also realized pretty early on that I had a natural ability to lead others. I was good at culture, building teams, and helping other people uncover their love for selling. I’ve been leading sales teams ever since.

I have plenty left to learn and plenty of big goals I’m still working towards as a revenue leader, but the career I’ve built over the last 13 years has already been more than I would have dreamed possible when I floundered through that first sales interview all those years ago. There’s no doubt in my mind that’s why I’ve become such a proponent figure for young people looking for jobs in sales, and more specifically for the promise and possibility that sales holds for young women as they navigate their careers.

To me, sales is all about the ability to accomplish more than you ever dreamed possible. It is a field that honors hard work and offers the promise of advancement and dollars the are directly tied to results. Sales provides an opportunity to work with insanely talented individuals. The sum of a team is always bigger and better than the individual parts, but the individual still has a chance to compete and win.

Sales holds the potential of being the great equalizer, and I am privileged to have had the opportunity to build a career doing it.  

Don’t get me wrong—we still have massive challenges in gender parity in the profession at all levels. We have far too few women climbing the ranks as sales leaders and too many sales teams that still look and feel like a boy’s club. We still have a wage gap between men and women, largely because men tend to ask for money quicker and more often than women do.

I could go on and on about the challenges we face, and I could certainly talk more about how deeply it angers me when a friend tells me a story of being talked down to, brushed aside, taken advantage of, or passed over for a role or a promotion because they are a woman. And yes – those things still happen. There is work to be done. Lots of work to be done.

But do you want to know what inspires me? The women I interact with each and every day.

I’m inspired by the female SDRs, AEs, and sales leaders that I meet and the groundbreaking work each of them is doing.

I’m inspired by the late-night text I got a few weeks ago from a gal that I used to manage, telling me that the relatively new team she’s managing finished last quarter in the #1 spot (looking at you, Taylor Russell).

I’m inspired by the email exchange I had just this week with another young woman that I’ve had the privilege of leading. We exchanged ideas as she prepped for her first QBR as a newly promoted sales director, and I heard all about her plans and aspirations for that new team. (I see you, Danielle Pata.)

I’m inspired by the gal on my current team that ended Q3 in the top spot, crushing quota amid a global pandemic and proving to herself and to me that she’s got what it takes to win and win big. (Kudos to you, Alex Mauri.)

I’m inspired by the host of female friends and former colleagues that are climbing the ranks, working the big deals, taking down those promotions, negotiating raises, and inspiring the next generation of female sellers. There are too many to mention, but they give me hope that the best is yet to come.

So as we kick off ‘Women in Sales Month’ this month, here’s my call to action for you all:

If you’re a young woman early in your career wondering whether sales just might be for you, take a chance. Get outside of your comfort zone. Follow a few sales leaders on LinkedIn. Start reading and learning about sales, and more specifically, SaaS sales in tech. Then, identify at least five sales roles that interest you and throw your hat in the ring. I can promise you this—no matter what you end up doing 10 years from now, you will never regret spending a year or two in B2B sales. The foundation it will lay for the rest of your career is unmatched.

If you’re a female seller at any stage of your career, remind yourself what you’re capable of. Challenge yourself to dream big and ask for more. Plow through that imposture syndrome that we all have and put up your hand for that next promotion that you aren’t quite sure you’re ready for. Be brave and go for it. You might just be amazed at what you can accomplish.

If you’re a male in sales, look for ways to be an advocate. Take the time to recognize just how privileged you are and find ways to champion those that don’t look like you, talk like you, or think like you. Get involved in creating a more diverse and equitable workplace for all of us.

Last but not least, my fellow leaders, hiring managers, and executives: We have work to do. Start by taking a good, hard look at the team that you run. Are women equally represented? What about minorities and people of color? If the answer is no, then you have a responsibility to do better. Let’s create the kinds of teams that our daughters and granddaughters will one day fight to be part of.

And let’s refuse to settle for anything less.

The post Women in Sales Month: A Call To Action appeared first on RevGenius.

She exemplifies that every day not just in her career but in the RevGenius community as well. From leading roundtables to writing an incredible piece on women empowerment, she always shows up for this community and her people.

We’re so thankful for her contributions, honesty, and experience that she brings to our community of revenue professionals.

Below is our interview with Catie Ivey:

Introduce yourself to our audience. Tell us who you are and what you are currently focused on.

My name is Catie Ivey, and I currently lead the mid-market new business sales org at Demandbase, a leading B2B marketing platform.

Before the pandemic, I commuted between Atlanta and New York most weeks and led a New York-based team. Since the pandemic, I’ve moved back to Atlanta full team, taken on a national team, and hired a ton of remote folks, so who knows where I’ll end up when all of this is over!

How did your journey lead you to Demandbase?

Most of my background is in selling and leading sales teams in MarTech (marketing technology). I love being at Demandbase because I think account-based experiences and account-based sales and marketing are absolutely the future of all things B2B sales and marketing. Before joining Demandbase, I led a sales team at Marketo for three years and ran sales and customer success for a small startup called Insightpool before that.

What gets you out of bed every morning?

The opportunity to help those on my team figure out what they’re uniquely great at and grow personally and professionally is my biggest motivator. Beyond that, I’m super passionate about the work that Demandbase is doing and about our potential to revolutionize how B2B brands go to market, and it’s’ an honor to be part of the team that’s making that happen.

What advice would you have for other saleswomen looking to become leaders?

Just do it. Don’t wait for an invitation. Don’t wait until you feel “ready.” Put up your hand and ask for the job, the promotion, or the opportunity that you’re after. You won’t always get what you ask for, but the first step is making your goals known to those around you, including your boss.

What would you say your personal superpower is?

I’m great at really seeing people and helping them understand their strengths and weaknesses, so I guess you could say that my superpower is helping other people find theirs!

Why should other revenue professionals join RevGenius?

RevGenius is a great place to connect and network with other revenue professionals. As a leader, it is also a great opportunity to keep your ear to the ground and hear from individual contributors daily, which has been great for me personally.

The post RevGenius Member Spotlight: Catie Ivey appeared first on RevGenius.