SalesTechStar Interview with Ben Harper, Founder and CEO of Clarity Stack

Ben Harper, Founder and CEO of Clarity Stack talks about the need for sales intelligence in sales processes and how it can help sales people boost their overall ROI:

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Welcome to this SalesTechStar chat Ben, please tell us more about Clarity Stack and how its evolved over the years…

Clarity Stack was founded in 2018 and helps businesses to sell better through its all-in-one, AI-powered sales intelligence platform. During our initial couple of years, we built our first web app and launched our three original products: Hey Prospect (access to millions of company records, live contracts, and buying signals), Meet Hugo (tailored insights and pitch opportunities that signal when companies are likely to make a purchase) and Meet Hugo Exclusive Leads (quality sales leads generated exclusively for the customer).

The business continued to grow in terms of both revenue and headcount, even as the pandemic hit. Throughout this time, we successfully quadrupled the company, taking us from 9 to 45 employees. Then, in 2021, our products were registered and incorporated in Delaware, US, allowing us to build our team and accelerate our efforts in the US market.

At the start of 2022, we rebranded our three products to come under the Clarity Stack umbrella. Meet Hugo became Clarity Stack Insights, Meet Hugo Exclusive Leads became Clarity Stack Leads and Hey Prospect became Clarity Stack Data. This helped to align our various product offerings and further enhance the experience and brand for our customers.

March 2022 saw our first round of investment funding where we secured £1.79 million. Prior to that, we fully bootstrapped to £2m ARR. Finally, just a few weeks ago, we launched our fully revamped sales intelligence platform – combining our existing products into a powerful all-in-one solution which utilises AI and machine learning to provide sales teams with the best user experience to date.

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How are you seeing the sales intelligence market today transform B2B sales processes and experiences: a few ways in which you’ve seen B2B teams use these types of tools to boost growth/ROI?

Sales Intelligence, for me, is essential in a sales process. Without it, it’s like turning up for your flight at the airport without your passport – you’re just not going to get very far. It’s crucial to understand a buyer, their company, why you should speak to them and what about.

We see companies enriching their own leads with our data, or solely working off what we give them to build a pipeline and hit their targets. The more you know about a company, the more chance you have of making a sale, and sharing that insight across your sales team makes a more productive workforce (and more deals being done!).

How do you feel demand trends for sales intelligence platforms will change in future?

It’s a fast-growing sector, and demand is increasing all the time. The more data you can deploy and use, the better you’re going to perform – so it’s a space where more and more suppliers can succeed as there’s no reason to not have sales intelligence from more than one vendor.

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When it comes to improving how B2B salespeople use sales intel to drive impact, what best practices do you often see them missing out on?

Sometimes to me it feels like there’s a lack of creativity amongst salespeople. They’re all following the same playbook that one of the big sales influencers advocates. That’s fine, and it works to an extent, but when you’re a prospect on the receiving end of the same approach again and again from different salespeople in different industries, it gets a little tiring to respond to.

We recommend salespeople think outside the box and use the sales intel they have available to break that barrier down with the prospect in a way that suits the information you have.

A few thoughts on the future of salestech as a segment and how you feel this space will shape up?

Salestech is a fascinating sector. It feels recession proof, as everyone will always want to make more sales. It’s very fragmented right now, which is why we’re trying to pull as much data into one place as possible to be more of a one-stop-shop for sales.

There will be some natural consolidating within the space, and I expect to see more acquisitions in the next 12 months to simplify the market amongst the bigger players.

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