SalesTechStar Interview with Vlad Voskresensky, CEO at Revenue Grid

Vlad Voskresensky, CEO at Revenue Grid chats about a few key evolving B2B sales dynamics while taking us through Revenue Grid’s growth story through the years in this quick catch-up with SalesTechStar:

_____

Hi Vlad, welcome to this SalesTechStar chat! Tell us more about Revenue Grid and how the platform has evolved in the last few years/months?

Revenue Grid started as Invisible back in 2005 based on the idea that enterprise software should be integrated into workflows so seamlessly that it feels as if it’s not even there. We were a group of engineers and product developers with a passion for helping salespeople, and we’ve always been on their side by creating solutions that cater to their needs in the most efficient way. Sales automation has been at our core since day one.

We succeeded in securing multiple OEM partnerships with tech giants like SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, designed to automate tedious and repetitive tasks to help salespeople be more productive. When we see the opportunity to help sales professionals be effective in a new, modern way, we do it.

Over the years, we’ve moved from an invisible CRM solution to a Guided Selling platform by adding a sophisticated intelligence layer designed to fully gear modern sales teams towards actionable revenue intelligence and consistent selling.

We rebranded as Revenue Grid in March 2020 to better represent our value. Today, our expanded portfolio includes AI-based products such as Revenue Engage, Revenue Inbox, and Revenue Guide. Our platform allows enterprises to align customer-facing teams around a unified sales approach, make reps exponentially more productive, and engage customers in meaningful communication to maximize revenue.

Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Bryan Reynolds, Senior Director of Sales Operations at TBI

How does the platform today offer key benefits to sales and revenue teams? Can you share a few examples?

We deliver three primary use cases:

1) Automating data capture related to an enterprise’s deals, prospects, and engagements,

2) Crunching the data with our AI algorithms to find patterns and correlations between activity and success rates, and

3) Delivering step-by-step guidance to help enterprises take the best action based on AI and their proven sales strategies.

In our evolution from InvisibleCRM to Revenue Grid, we realized that we possessed valuable data: data in CRM (which is usually well structured, but never complete) and real-life data like email, calendar, messengers, phone (which is never structured, but gives a complete picture). InvisibleCRM bridged these two worlds, allowing data to flow and sync properly. Revenue Grid has added meaning to this entire infrastructure. If you analyze all this data, look carefully at past deals (both successful and unsuccessful), and then compare with the current open deals, it turns out that there is a significant number of tasks and steps that need to be done to close sales faster.

We have retained the value in the product in which we had strong expertise: synchronization, integration, and data auto capturing. At the same time, we added the automation of Engagement scripts – this is AI-based interaction with the client, which will tell you when it is best to send a follow-up, remind them about yourself or schedule a call. In addition, we were the first to introduce revenue signals that help salespeople make correct and timely decisions on customer interactions.

We currently work with over 1,200 customers directly, including Hilton, Western Union, Moody’s, Trip Advisor, Red Cross, and Robert Half, to improve their sales process and increase revenue. We also have over 20,000 customers through our OEM white label partnership. More than 800,000 sales professionals use Revenue Grid’s technologies every day to work more effectively.

From the global B2B marketing and sales environment, what are some of the changing dynamics and impact of revenue and sales intelligence that you are noticing?

Today’s B2B marketers are being asked to drive revenue more than ever before. Whereas CMO’s used to be primarily responsible for raising awareness, shaping perceptions, and driving qualified leads that could be handed off to the sales team, these days they are directly responsible for revenue themselves, and that changes the whole dynamics of their day-to-day operations.

To accomplish this new goal, CMO’s must build a tech stack that is specifically designed to help them measure, track and analyze their campaigns, with revenue as their true north. That’s where the growing category of “Revenue Intelligence” comes from. It uses AI and data-centric processes to gather, sync and manage data from across a variety of systems — everything from your CRM and marketing automation platforms to customer-facing solutions — and develop strategies that help marketers focus on what really matters most.

The new focus on revenue-driven marketing impacts the overall structure of the marketing department as well. Marketing teams still need communications and branding experts, of course, but nowadays it is just as reliant on analysts, data scientists, demand generation experts, and other roles that are much more data-driven than marketing departments in the past. Marketing is becoming much more science than art, and that’s a good thing because it is more measurable and therefore repeatable.

Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Marc Loeb, Head of Global Sales at ByondXR

How do you feel AI-powered revenue and sales signals will evolve/improve capabilities in the future to enhance sales and revenue operations further?

AI is a lifeline for salespeople that enables them to build more valuable relationships with buyers and in turn, close more deals. As AI-powered features continue to be more advanced, we will see further refinement and personalization in the following workflows:

• Improve pipeline visibility. AI helps sales teams gain absolute visibility into pipeline, deals, and team activity. Using this data, algorithms can nudge sellers toward wins with step-by-step recommendations.
• Personalize the purchasing experience. Personalization has redefined the purchasing experience at every level and is now a critical part of the buying process. With AI and machine learning, reps can provide a customized experience, manage buyer-specific objections with ease, and respond to changes in real-time.
• Automate & control the sales process. AI helps reps navigate the sales process and avoid making mistakes that can cost them the deal. Sales leaders can implement playbooks based on proven best practices, then automate reminders to ensure reps follow a unified process.
• Eliminate uncertainty. AI enables users to make decisions based on data and brings more certainty to the sales process. AI can help you understand whether a deal is at risk and why, and provides signals that can help reps avoid the actions (or inactions) that cause deals to go cold.

We’d love the key highlights from your latest funding and how that will lead to new innovations and growth?

The funding will be used predominantly to scale our growth and to drive more innovations to the platform. Revenue Grid is already a full-featured platform, and our key focus is going to be building on this success to improve further various aspects of the platform, including our AI-powered features.

We will also be investing in expanding our team both in Ukraine and the US.

A few thoughts on the future of Sales Ops and Revenue Ops: how these functions will evolve and what teams need to do to stay ahead of the curve?

The field of Revenue Operations is still in its relatively nascent stage, but it is becoming clear that B2B companies need a department that is responsible for maintaining the software, systems, processes and data that gets used for all of the revenue-generating teams of the organization. There are so many factors that go into a successful customer relationship, and it is the job of the RevOps function to stay on top of any new tools or innovations that can give them a leg up when it comes to understanding those factors. For instance, what does their customer support data tell them about which customers are a drain on resources? What does their revenue look like in a specific vertical from a product/market fit perspective? What advertising creative drives the highest value leads?

RevOps teams will have to be equally skilled at both seeing the big picture and diving into the minute details in order to answer these questions. And they will have to be flexible enough to know when to zoom out or dive in. I think that these teams will require a variety of skills in order to stay ahead of the curve, and as they continue to evolve it will be important for them to continue defining what tech tools can best set them up for success.

Some last thoughts before we wrap up?

Thanks for the opportunity to chat. My final thought is that it feels like B2B marketing and sales departments are on the cusp of a complete sea change, one that will help them operate much more efficiently and effectively. We are very proud to provide the technology that helps get them there!

Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Frank Jennings, SVP and Chief Sales Officer at Castlight Health