Brainshark Machine Analysis Recognized as a ‘Spectacular Tool for Enhancing the Development Process for Sales Reps’
Brainshark, Inc., delivering SaaS-based sales enablement and readiness solutions, today announced that Brainshark Machine Analysis is a Stevie® Award winner in The 15th Annual International Business Awards® (IBAs). Brainshark’s new, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered engine for improving sales coaching received gold – the highest category honor – for “Best New Product of the Year: Corporate Learning/Workforce Development Solution.”
This marks the sixth consecutive year that Brainshark has been honored in the IBAs, with the company having won more than 20 Stevie Awards for helping customers dramatically improve sales effectiveness and results.
The IBAs are the world’s premier business awards program. All individuals and organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small – are eligible to submit nominations. The program received more than 3,900 nominations this year, with entries from a record-breaking 74 nations and territories.
Launched in June, Machine Analysis builds off Brainshark’s award-winning sales coaching solution, which lets managers send their reps video-based assignments (e.g., “Please provide a two-minute video of how you’d pitch this new product”) and provide feedback. Machine Analysis now processes the video submissions – generating an overall score and rapid, automated insights about reps’ ability to stay on-message, emotions and personality traits exuded, use of filler words and more. The AI-based engine gives objective feedback on intangible qualities that often influence buyers’ perceptions, while augmenting managers’ comments and helping them home in on reps who may need the most guidance.
“Spectacular tool for enhancing the development process for sales reps. Incredibly detailed-oriented and innovative. Would be useful for all companies who have sales teams.”
“An exciting addition to coaching feedback and a great way to help sales representatives succeed in the field.”
“The innovation is incredible.”
“Great use of video learning with automated scoring analysis. A nice feature to have a safe environment to get feedback.”
“A truly impressive product; it is so cool.”
“Great to see AI being leveraged in an innovative and creative way.”
“AI in use for coaching and training is breaking new grounds.”
“Innovative product which reflects the latest technological developments and enables implementation at scale.”
“This software is clearly next-gen in terms of using AI to realize benefits. It is user-friendly in terms of how it’s set up.”
“Good product and a great initiative to connect need with current technology. High on innovation.”
“Extremely useful and impressive solution. Companies should give importance to AI for their future success.”
“Extremely impressive, with a great deal of future opportunities.”
“We’re always asking ourselves: ‘How can sales managers and sales reps do their jobs better?’ ‘How can we enable them and foster success?’” said Brendan Cournoyer, Brainshark’s vice president of marketing. “Machine Analysis was born from that mentality – with companies now benefitting from strengthened and streamlined video coaching. This exciting honor from the Stevie Awards underscores Brainshark’s commitment to solving sales challenges and applying innovative technologies to drive better sales performance.”
“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance”
– Timothy Gallwey
For the benefit of all, the world of Sales has at last stirred into life and acknowledged, with enthusiasm, that developing their frontline reps is an essential piece of the puzzle that is success.
Understanding how reps sell in practice, and whether or not they can demonstrate the desired sales skills, has shot up the priority list for many a Sales Leader with plenty now seeking ways to harness the potential of their team.
Naturally, this only bodes well for the plethora of Sales Coaching, Training and Performance organizations across the world; more awareness equals more prospects and future clients.
However, this comes with the caveat of increased competition. More people want to cash in on sharing their accumulated expertise to help others drive performance and ultimately increase bottom line revenue.
The question is, with this ever-increasing prospect pool and coaches appearing everywhere, how do I stand out?
One such way is through Video Sales Coaching.
Here at Refract, we have created a Video Coaching Platform that helps Sales Consultants not only stand out from the crowd but also add an extra string to their bow to truly provide tangible value to their clients.
Below are 5 ways, in which Video Sales Coaching can help Sales Performance organizations stand out as the optimal vendor:
Before engagements have even commenced, you have to win the business. Now whilst each opportunity will have its own specific needs and desires, many organizations will go in with a blanket approach…
“We’ll do 2 days with your team over 4 weeks focussing on XYZ”.
Imagine instead of going to a meeting and saying…
“We’ll do two days with your team over 4 weeks focussing on XYZ, with online Sales Roleplay included showing our commitment to your success beyond the classroom”.
By demonstrating a desire for their benefit, and understanding that Leaders want reps to improve without over-committing to time spent engaging in non-selling activities, Consultants can stand out as a people who are not only aware of business circumstance but switched on as to how to achieve maximum output.
So you’ve won the client, now to prepare for the topics to cover. Sure, the Sales Leader will have an indication as to where it’s going wrong across their team, but if they already knew specifically, they’d have addressed it, right?
Creating challenges, of common, client specific scenarios, prior to spending time with their reps can help provide a much greater insight into how they are actually selling in practice.
If you’re going to work on call openings, imagine being able to see exactly how reps would open their conversations prior to beginning an engagement!
By getting a flavour of what’s truly going on in the day to day, not only can Coaches ensure they are providing performance focussed feedback, but also that the time spent with the reps is reaping the maximum reward.
On the flip side, for Sales Coaches and Trainers alike, the recurring challenge is demonstrating the impact their services have had on a business.
This is where Scenario Challenges enable Consultants to truly differentiate. Video roleplays are able to evidence not only the impact Coaches have had, but also, for the reps themselves, to showcase the adoption of the methodology imparted upon them and demonstrate the implementation of their new found sales skills.
By providing quick follow up activities, beyond the face to face client engagement, Coaches and Trainers can reinforce the learning and prove to their clients how powerful the impact has been upon their team which can only lead to longer term relationships.
There are only so many hours in the day so for clients with a larger salesforce, a time will come in which the baton must be passed to the their Sales Managers to continue the coaching and ensure reps have adhered to the expertise the Sales Coach has delivered.
By utilising a Video Coaching Platform such as Refract, a Coach can enable those who are internally responsible for the development of reps to be prepared to handle those scenarios.
Not only does this guarantee the positive impact upon an organisation but it also gives Sales Leaders peace of mind that the hired expertise won’t evaporate with the Coach’s departure.
If 84% of learning is lost over the first 90 days, instructing a Coach in how to coach themselves safeguards from such a drop off taking place.
Imagine an on demand library of Sales Excellence, specific to each client, accessible only through your Training organisations front door. How powerful a differentiator would that be?
By taking model responses to Video Sales Roleplays, Sales Performance organisations can create a folder of “champagne sales” taken right from the mouth of that client’s top performers.
This can then be visited, on demand, by reps who are looking for great examples of an objection they just came up against, to see how to handle it better next time.
Or on day 1, by a brand new starter, wanting to learn exactly what a fantastic elevator pitch for their organisation looks like.
As a Coach, you can not only provide access to this treasure trove, but add your specific feedback to ensure reps are continuously on the right lines and putting into practice the work that you engaged with during your time with them.
Refract enables Sales Coaches to put into action all 5 of these points, ultimately helping them to stand out from the crowd as an expert who is committed to their clients development, there for the long haul and can demonstrate precisely the massive ROI their expertise can have on an organisation.
BT Local Business and Artesian Partnership Delivers $8.17 Million in New Revenue Within a Year
Leading AI-powered business intelligence service, Artesian Solutions has announced that its partnership with BT Local Business, has delivered a 26x return on investment in just 12 months – with $8.17 million in new revenue achieved in just 12 months, directly attributable to the insights delivered by the Artesian platform.
At the time of this announcement, Artesian CEO Andrew Yates, said, “It’s an absolute pleasure to work with BT Local Business. They are a shining example of an organization harnessing technology to empower entrepreneurship. They realized that it was not enough to just give Local Businesses access to data, but instead augmented this data with real-time insights that would help them achieve a 360-degree of customers and what’s happening in their world. They are reaping the benefits in terms of their ability to uncover and realize new opportunities, and marshal the right facts at the right time to have better conversations and boost the potential of their existing customer base.”
Implementing a co-funded license model whereby BT contribute 50% of every Artesian license fee, BT integrated Artesian with its existing Salesforce CRM solution giving local businesses the ability to augment opportunities with real-time news, social media and people insights. Local Businesses for the first time gain an in-depth understanding of their pipeline, allowing them to act quickly on opportunities, anticipate needs, and engage proactively in more sophisticated ways based on a real understanding of trends, sentiments, and needs. In addition, they had the opportunity to improve productivity by replacing manual research with automated insight, data gathering, and filtering.
Speaking about the transformative partnership, Paul Evans, Regional Director at BT Plc commented, “We are committed to supporting Local Businesses by giving them the tools they need to succeed. Artesian has not only helped us demonstrate that commitment, but has helped Local Businesses realize their potential, and most importantly, grow their customer base”.
Paul added, “Artesian has delivered a huge return on investment. Local Businesses have already generated 1,315 new opportunities with a sales order value of £10.2 million directly attributable to the insights delivered by Artesian. In the last financial year, they collectively closed 793 of these opportunities resulting in £6.4million of new revenue. What’s more thanks to Artesian they have access to a constantly healthy pipeline of opportunities, and greater confidence to go out there and grab them.”
BT invested in Artesian in 2017 in order to accelerate its digital strategy and commitment to helping Local Businesses realize greater potential from their customer base, and have more meaningful, value-driven conversations.
Yext’s Summer ’18 Release Includes Revolutionary Yext for Events Product, Enhancements to Knowledge Assistant Conversational UI, and More
Yext, the leader in Digital Knowledge Management (DKM), has announced that Yext for Events, Yext’s new solution that allows businesses to manage and publish event information on their own digital properties and across the web, has exited beta and is now available to Yext customers and partners for general access. The Summer ’18 Release also includes several new features of the Yext platform available for early access with immediate effect. Yext had recently added Amazon Alexa to the Yext Knowledge Network.
Yext for Events Brings That Investment the Last Mile to Consumer Discovery, Decision, and Action
Currently, leading brands use Yext Knowledge Engine™ to manage their digital knowledge in order to boost brand engagement, drive foot traffic, and increase sales. The Summer ’18 Release includes the following features, now available for early access:
11 New Knowledge Assistant Skills
The Knowledge Assistant — Yext’s conversational user interface — can now nudge Yext customers to make updates to their information, so consumers and services like Google, Alexa, Bing, Facebook, and more always have the most current data. In addition, Yext customers can now ask the Knowledge Assistant, “Show me reviews that I haven’t responded to” or “How many phone calls have I received from Google?” to engage with customers and learn about their performance as easily as texting a friend.
Publisher Suggestions on Facebook
Businesses can now view suggestions that Facebook users make to their Facebook location Pages inside the Yext dashboard and can choose to accept or reject those suggestions.
Businesses can now monitor photos that Google Maps users post from their stores or locations, directly inside the Yext dashboard. They can also see analytics, like photo views, and can set up notifications for any time new content is posted by a customer.
Yext for Events Give Businesses a Powerful Tool to Control Event Information
At the time of this announcement, Marc Ferrentino, Chief Strategy Officer of Yext, said, “As AI transforms the way we search for everything from nearby businesses to things to do, businesses are discovering the growing variety of types of digital knowledge their customers are looking for online. Events are one of the fastest-growing areas of investment for businesses today, and Yext for Events brings that investment the last mile to consumer discovery, decision, and action.”
Marc continued, “Businesses of all types use events to engage prospective customers and deepen their connections to their communities, but event information can be extremely time-consuming and difficult to manage across teams, on a business’s own website, and across the many services that consumers use to find things to do.”
Marc added, “We created Yext for Events to give businesses a powerful tool to control event information, and to deliver it to consumers across platforms. Yext for Events is a first-of-its-kind central source of truth for digital knowledge about events.”
How Yext For Events Works on Facebook and Eventbrite Platforms
Yext for Events allows businesses to create, update, publish, and measure events across the digital ecosystem. Yext provides a central source of truth for businesses to manage key details like event start and end times, locations, and descriptions, and create Event Pages, add them to the business’s website, and publish events broadly to event discovery sites like Facebook and Eventful, as well as event ticketing platforms like Eventbrite.
One of the first businesses to employ Yext for Events in beta was Ben & Jerry’s, which used Yext for Events to manage and publish event information for Free Cone Day. Using Yext for Events, Ben & Jerry’s was able to create 200 events and 800 events listings for Free Cone Day across 8 services, including Facebook, Eventbrite, Eventful, and Locanto, simply by uploading the event data into the Yext Knowledge Manager. One staff member accomplished in two hours what Yext estimates would have taken store managers collectively more than 200 hours to do manually.
“It was a way for us to actually scale individual shop events across our scoop shop system. So instead of having shops do it manually or individually on their end, we had one place to set up and then execute and push out,” says Jay Kasparian, Associate Brand Manager – Scoop Shops. “It’s become much easier to manage.”
In addition to allowing businesses to publish and update events to their own websites and calendars — and update those calendars with the click of a button — Yext for Events publishes across leading events sites.
Yext has been named one of the Best Place to Work by Fortune and Great Place to Work® as well as a Best Workplace for Women. Yext is headquartered in New York City with offices in Berlin, Chicago, Dallas, Geneva, London, Paris, Tyson’s Corner, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
Today, Maropost, the innovating force in Marketing and Sales technology, announced that Dustin Deno will be joining the company as Senior Vice President of Sales.
Deno joins Maropost from Salesforce, where he most recently served as the company’s AVP of Retail and Consumer Goods. Over the course of his seven-year career at Salesforce, Deno consistently drove growth, built world-class teams, and brought in some of the their most notable B2C clients.
As Maropost’s SVP of Sales, Deno will not only be responsible for supporting Maropost’s continued growth, but also for refining the company’s go-to-market strategy and leading the company’s global sales team. Deno will operate out of Maropost’s newly opened U.S. office, located in Chicago, IL.
“Everyone is thrilled to have Dustin come on board. We’re looking forward to seeing his expertise and experience with in action,” says Ross Paquette, Maropost Chairman and CEO. “With a new sales leader, a new office, and a new sales team, this is really the start of a new era at Maropost.”
“I’m excited to be a part of the Maropost team, and to build out a sales team that can accelerate the company’s growth even further,” says Deno. “We have such an amazing opportunity with the technology and team we already have—we’re ready for the next leap forward.”
Leading analyst firm names Pega Infinity™ the market leader in second consecutive report
Pegasystems Inc.PEGA, +1.90% the software company empowering customer engagement at the world’s leading enterprises, today announced leading analyst firm Ovum named Pega the Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) market leader in the Ovum Decision Matrix report, which ranked Pega with the highest possible scores of all evaluated vendors for the second consecutive time.
In the report, Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Customer Engagement Platform, 2018-19 (1), Ovum evaluated 10 leading CRM vendors against 150 criteria. This year, Ovum placed greater emphasis on the end-to-end orchestration of customer engagement support as a key factor to overcoming organization silos and legacy infrastructures that slow digital transformation. According to Ovum, integrated CRM solutions are well-positioned to address these complexities by enabling enterprises to engage across channels without disrupting the CRM lifecycle.
In the report, Ovum recognized Pega’s strengths for uniting customer engagement and process automation on a single platform; its AI and robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities embedded throughout the platform; its multi-dimensional architecture; and its clients’ ability to select their cloud provider of choice.
The report states, “Pegasystems’ strong BPM heritage combines with its advanced CRM capabilities to create a customer engagement platform that is adaptive and can sit above legacy systems to orchestrate back office fulfilment capabilities triggered by customer interaction.”
The report also notes Pega’s AI capabilities, saying, “The Customer Decision Hub, at the heart of the unified platform, acts as the orchestration brain supported by a broad range of connected machine learning algorithms in marketing, sales, and service functions, which constantly monitor behavioral patterns exhibited by customers. This allows Pega Infinity™ to predict not only the next best action but also the next best moment to make an offer or to engage with the customer at the optimum time.”
Pega’s AI-powered end-to-end suite of customer engagement applications for marketing, sales, and customer service enables clients to anticipate customers’ changing needs and provide personalized, AI-driven recommendations in real time throughout the customer journey. Pega’s customer engagement solutions are part of Pega Infinity™, Pega’s digital transformation software suite that provides the industry’s only unified digital foundation that connects front-end digital customer experiences with back-end process automation.
Quotes & Commentary“In this emerging category, Pega is the clear leader,” said Mila D’Antonio, principal analyst at Ovum and co-author of the report. “The company has taken very decisive steps to develop and integrate the necessary components to enable a connected, intelligent enterprise centered on the customer’s needs.”
“Across all industries, enterprises are realizing that meeting the expectations of today’s digital customers requires transformation that cuts across silos and legacy systems,” said Kerim Akgonul, senior vice president, products, Pegasystems. “The latest Ovum Decision Matrix emphasizes that real-time artificial intelligence and powerful end-to-end automation are an essential part of any customer engagement platform. We believe this recognition underscores Pega’s unique position in uniting digital process automation and customer engagement to provide exceptional interactions at every customer touchpoint.”
Newly created Vice President position heads growth initiatives for ARM, Financial Services and Auto Finance
Reports to Chief Revenue Officer, Chad Probst and oversees Regional Directors, Account Managers and Vertical Specialists
BillingTree®, the leading payment technology provider, today announced Jason Hiland has been appointed Vice President of Sales and Business Development for ARM and Financial Services. In this newly created position he oversees sales operations and initiatives to expand electronic payment and technology adoption to a broader audience of Banks and Credit Unions of all sizes, Auto Financers and the Accounts Receivables Management (ARM) market.
Jason Hiland has over 15 years of experience in collection software, electronic payments and technology sales, having spent almost nine years at BillingTree in senior roles. He served as the BillingTree Southeast Regional Director in ARM before taking the lead position over the Financial Services efforts, where he enjoyed great success building a team and growing the company’s Credit Union and Banking clientele.
Hiland heads the BillingTree sales and new business development initiatives for the entire Financial Sector including ARM, managing the company’s Sales, Partnership and Channel efforts.
“We are excited for Jason’s expanded influence to support and grow the market for products and services we offer Collection Agencies, Credit Unions, Banks, Auto Financers, and our Vendor and Partner Communities,” commented BillingTree CEO, Edz Sturans. “Jason joined BillingTree almost nine years ago, and has been a top performer. He’s provided unparalleled support for our clients in both ARM and Financial Services making a huge impact on our clients’ successes. With such a proven track record, I’m confident under his leadership we’ll experience continued growth and success over these combined markets.”
Accenture Expands Industry X.0 Capabilities with Acquisition of Mindtribe and Pillar Technology
Barely a month since launching the Innovation Hub in metro Detroit, leading technology consultancy firm and enabler, Accenture has decided to make larger inroads into digital journey activation. The company has announced that it is buying hardware engineering firm Mindtribe, in addition to revealing an intent to acquire embedded software company, Pillar Technology. The two companies would boost Accenture’s ability to help companies innovate smart, connected software and hardware products for better-connected infrastructure around smart-vehicle and other embedded software capabilities. Steve Myers and his leadership team will continue to lead Mindtribe’s business and take on additional responsibilities for Accenture Industry X.0 in North America.
Accenture Leads in Digital Reinvention Era with Powerful Hardware and Reimagined Embedded Software Capabilities
Post-acquisition, Accenture’s innovation hub in metro Detroit would be better equipped to deliver on its promises od digital reinventions. The hub is designed to help companies in the automotive, industrial equipment, technology, energy and utility industries address the shift to digital products and services; transform their engineering, manufacturing, and field operations; and digitize their enterprises – which Accenture calls Industry X.0. Additionally, the company will add 200 highly skilled technology jobs to the local market by the end of 2020.
Accenture Innovation X.0 Hub
Accenture is expanding its vision on Industry X.0 practice, significantly bolstering its ability to help companies redefine connected software and physical products as lines increasingly blur between the physical and digital world. These acquisitions follow the recent launch of Accenture’s Industry X.0 innovation hub in metro Detroit, its acquisition of Boston-based product design and innovation firm, Altitude, and the acquisition of strategic design consultancy,designaffairs.
Mindtribe and Pillar Would Help Accenture Reach New Heights in the US and Globally
Steve Myers
Steve Myers, CEO of Mindtribe, said, “Mindtribe has always sought to build groundbreaking connected products and services, and we are proud to be behind some of the world’s most high-profile product successes. Now, 20 years after the foundation of Mindtribe, the most exciting part of our journey is still ahead of us, and we are looking forward to moving ahead as part of the Accenture Industry X.0 team.”
Bob Myers, CEO, Pillar
Bob Myers, CEO of Pillar Technology, said, “Our ambition is to provide the best possible software — embedded or connected – at lightning speed. We focus on value and fast feedback loops that put user experience at the forefront. Joining Accenture‘s Industry X.0 practice will allow us to bring this focus on speed-to-value to even more clients. We’re excited to be a part of how Industry X.0 will help clients reach new heights in the U.S. and globally.”
As an area that represents significant growth opportunities for clients, Accenture is focused on strengthening its capabilities in Industry X.0 globally. For example, Accenture recently launched a new Industry X.0 innovation hub in metro Detroit, acquired Boston-based product design and innovation firm Altitude, and completed its acquisition of strategic design consultancy designaffairs.
Mindtribe’s San Francisco office and team offer all interdisciplinary skills and physical hardware engineering equipment that clients need to build connected products from concept through production.
Pillar Technology will add a unique approach, called “The Forge,” that brings together business strategists, creatives, developers, and clients to collaborate on solving business problems in a no-constraints, innovative environment.
Mindtribe was founded in 1998. Its expertise and services include mechanical and electrical engineering, embedded software development, product realization and rapid prototyping.
Products Are No Longer Simply Physical Things; New-Age Intelligent Systems are Taking Over
Mike Sutcliff
At the time of this announcement, Mike Sutcliff, Group Chief Executive, Accenture Digital. “Products are no longer simply physical things – they are evolving to be connected platforms that are powered by artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and cloud and edge computing.”
Mike added, “With our Industry X.0 capabilities, we are helping our clients create the products of the future with the required expertise in digital technologies, software development, product engineering, as well as user experience and product design. These acquisitions will fuel our drive to become a leader in developing connected products and services.”
Accenture acquired SF-based hardware engineering firm, Mindtribe, which focuses on creating innovative connected hardware that is tightly integrated with digital services. The company has created class-leading technology products for many iconic brands and high-tech companies.
Connected Products Central to Accenture’s Customer-Centric Innovations
Additionally, Accenture entered into an agreement to buy Ohio-based smart embedded software company, Pillar Technology, which boasts more than 20 years of experience in the rapid/agile development of high-quality and user-friendly embedded software used in smart, connected products such as autonomous vehicles.
Both companies will play a pivotal role in extending Accenture’s capabilities to rapidly co-create, prototype and launch smart, connected products and services – an area that presents a significant opportunity for business growth to Accenture and its clients, globally.
Accenture Industry X.0 helps industrial, high-tech, software, automotive, energy and utility companies address the shift to digital products and services, transform their engineering, manufacturing and field operations, and digitize their enterprises.
Accenture’s Industry X.0 Launchpad to Co-Create, Prototype and Operate Connected Products and Services
Julie Sweet
Julie Sweet, Accenture’s Chief Executive Officer, North America, added, “Our investment in innovation is an investment in our clients. These acquisitions follow the opening of our new Industry X.0 innovation hub in metro Detroit, further expanding our capabilities to help companies across a range of industries rapidly co-create, prototype and launch connected products and services to unlock new revenue streams and business models.”
The Mindtribe team will work hand in hand with Accenture’s Industry X.0 team and professionals from Accenture Interactive’s San Francisco Fjord studio, which received a talent boost with Fjord’s acquisition of design & innovation firm MATTER last year. Mindtribe and MATTER have previously collaborated on the invention of Well, a smart home water conservation system.
Pillar Technology was founded in 1996. It offers rapid and agile development and testing of enterprise-grade applications, software products and platforms associated with physical products, and digital services engineering for hardware products.
Upon closing, Bob Myers will continue to be responsible for the Pillar Technology business. In addition, he will lead Accenture Industry X.0’s smart products & embedded solutions practice. His leadership team is expected to continue in their roles and support Pillar Technology’s integration into Accenture Industry X.0.
More on Industry X.0 Innovation Center
The metro Detroit innovation hub includes a new, state-of-the-art Industry X.0 Innovation Center in Livonia, Michigan, designed to help clients explore, co-create, test and scale digital solutions that improve product development, engineering, manufacturing, customer experience and cybersecurity. Clients will also be able to develop and prototype new capabilities to see how an idea could work in practice.
The hub in Metro Detroit is Accenture’s newest U.S. innovation hub and the eighth in a network that includes Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Houston; New York; San Jose, California; and Washington, D.C., as well as more than 100 Accenture innovation locations around the world.
As part of Accenture’s plan to add 200 highly skilled tech jobs in high-growth areas such as digital, cloud and security services, the company will relocate its metro Detroit office from Southfield to downtown Detroit this fall.
“Accenture is a global leader in innovation and technology, and its decision to invest in Michigan – and here in metro Detroit – is further evidence that we are a top choice for businesses and that the revitalization of our economy is stronger than ever,” said Jeff Mason, CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Accenture employs more than 850 people in metro Detroit and works with companies in the region across the automotive, consumer goods and services, education, health, insurance and retail industries. Earlier this year, the company acquired Mackevision, a leading global producer of 3D-enabled and immersive product content, and Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, a content-focused leader in integrated marketing, cross-channel strategy development and creative execution that specializes in several industries including automotive.
Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success teams– they need and deserve sales engagement tools that help them work smarter, more efficiently and more collaboratively so they can meet both goals. That’s why our company and category are growing so rapidly — we address a massive pain that is felt by almost every B2B company.
Last week, leading sales automation platform, Outreach announced that they have acquired Sales Hacker. Outreach CEO and co-founder, Manny Medina sat down with us to reveal about his company’s inception, the roadmap ahead and the most exciting aspect of leading Outreach in pioneering a brand new category: Customer Engagement Platform.
What’s the most fascinating aspect of leading a Sales Engagement software platform?
I’m the CEO and co-founder of Outreach. My job is to make our customers successful by hiring the best talent around and uniting them to further our mission. Some days, that means diving into a strategy with my product team; other days, it means digging into the pipeline with my sales leaders. I’m dedicated to all aspects of Outreach’s success.
Before founding Outreach, I was employee number three on Amazon’s AWS team and later moved to Microsoft to lead their mobile division, taking that from launch to $50 Million in annual revenue.
At the core, I’m an entrepreneur and have always been interested in building my own business. That’s what led me to enroll in Techstars’ 2011 class, along with my three business partners. We founded a company that was essentially a marketplace to connect teams of developers to the companies looking to hire them. But we were struggling to handle the volume of prospecting required to build both sides of that marketplace, so we built our own platform to help our sales team of one operate like a team of 10. The companies we sold to were much more interested in buying that platform than our recruiting service, so we eventually doubled down on building that out. That was the genesis of what has become Outreach.
The most exciting aspect of leading Outreach is pioneering a brand new category: the Customer Engagement Platform. For far too long, field teams have been shackled by technology like CRM that demands more than it delivers. There’s tremendous pressure on Sales, Marketing and Customer Success leaders to drive revenue growth while delivering a flawless customer experience. They need and deserve tools that help them work smarter, more efficiently and more collaboratively so they can meet both goals. That’s why our company and category are growing so rapidly — we address a massive pain that is felt by almost every B2B company.
How does Outreach fit into a modern CMO’s technology stack?
The last 10 years have seen massive shifts in marketing technology, allowing Marketers to operate like scientists, tuning the dials to adapt to every learning and insight. But in that decade, little has changed for Sales — they’re still using CRM, essentially a database in the cloud that does nothing to help them execute selling.
Outreach takes a completely fresh approach to the old ‘sales as usual’ mentality, freeing up sales reps and giving them back valuable time in their day to focus on selling. Sitting atop the traditional CRM, Outreach’s automation and machine learning capabilities, paired with our analytic and reporting tools, make for a key component of any CMO’s stack by streamlining the sales process and increasing sales success.
What is the ‘State of Sales Engagement Automation’ technology in 2018?
Sales engagement has continued to become more defined and acts as an essential aspect of selling in 2018. With Salesforce announcing their plans to enter the space, it’s evident that this category is growing since we established it with Forrester in 2017. Looking to the future of sales engagement technology, Outreach remains dedicated to enhancing and building upon our platform with the latest in AI and machine learning.
What were the key takeaways from Outreach’s Unleash? How do B2B events enable customers to make better decisions in improving their tech stacks?
Unleash is unlike any other conference — it was created as a way to make lasting connections with the leaders and innovators shaping the next era of selling.
This year, Unleash sold out. It drew over 650 sales leaders who had the opportunity to learn from those at the top of their game in fields as diverse as psychology, health and wellness, and the military. We kicked each day off with a group workout varying between yoga and navy seal training, hosted breakout sessions ranging from leadership talk tracks, to deep dives into machine learning and analytics, to mission planning on how the military planning model applies to business, and we ended with a Top Gun-themed party at the museum of flight. We ensure each year’s event is fresh, inspiring, and full of unconventional surprises — a lot like Outreach itself.
Overall, B2B events provide a great opportunity to gather industry members together to network, learn from one another, and understand their respective landscape on a deeper level.
Which industries are best suited to benefit from Outreach’s Sales Optimization and Productivity Suite?
Outreach is designed for B2B companies of all sizes — from Fortune 500 to high-growth startups — and for every customer-facing role. Prospecting reps use Outreach to generate more pipeline through orchestration and automation of the entire prospecting workflow. Account executives use Outreach to close more deals with automated meeting follow-up and rescheduling. Account managers use Outreach to drive renewals and up-sells with workflows that automatically kick off based on signals (i.e. new seats are added to account).
While Outreach is mainly focused in the US currently, we do have global customers in the UK and Germany.
How do you leverage AI/ML and Data Science at Outreach to scale your marketing efforts?
Outreach utilizes AI, machine learning, and data science throughout its platform. Most recently we enhanced these features with Outreach Amplify, a new program that uses machine learning to scientifically measure, test, and optimize the performance of sales teams while automating non-selling tasks on their behalf. We also introduced Outreach Meetings earlier this year, an automated scheduling tool that accelerates and simplifies the scheduling workflow with prospects.
How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a SaaS business leader?
The old saying, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them,’ comes to mind. We know the effect that AI is having on the SaaS ecosystem. To prepare, you must stay ahead of the curve, invest in it, deploy it, and continue innovating upon it.
At Outreach, we’re currently heavily focused on building out our AI/machine learning arm.
Earlier this year, we brought on Pavel Dmitriev, former principal data scientist, analysis and experimentation at Microsoft, to head up our machine learning team. He has played a pivotal role in helping us continue to broaden our data science expertise and launch our machine learning tool for sales: Outreach Amplify.
What are your predictions on the most influential disruptions in B2B Marketing powered by AI/Machine Learning?
I predict integrations that provide actionable insights that humans can trust and act upon will be the most influential disruptors in AI/machine learning moving forward. Ultimately, technology innovations aren’t about replacing human analysis and decision making — the focus should be on amplifying it.
Which marketing and sales automation tools and technologies do you currently use?
At Outreach, we eat our own dog food.
The platform was originally developed for internal use when my co-founders and I were focused on our first startup GroupTalent, a recruiting company. With three months of cash in the bank, we scrambled and built a workflow that would allow us to sell faster, allowing our team of only three people to sell like 10. That workflow was the early stages of Outreach, and we still use it internally today and credit a large aspect of Outreach’s own rapid growth to the effectiveness of the platform.
Could you tell us about an outstanding digital campaign at Outreach?
We have strong relationships with all of our customers, and their testimonials say it all. But one of our earliest customers still has one of the most memorable case studies for me, and that’s Cloudera, a global data management provider.
In Cloudera’s sales team, each rep was doing things differently — despite the company’s investment in training best practices — because it’s hard to enforce and ensure processes are being followed. Since implementing Outreach, the sales team has had access to the tools they need to be extremely productive with a minimal amount of training.
The sales teams confirm that Outreach is not only a time saver; it has increased their average email open rates sixfold, with 30-60 percent of emails being opened. Reply rates also increased from an average of three to 20-30 percent. What’s more, the number of meetings Cloudera’s sales team was able to set more than doubled, marking a record number in their target market within five months of implementing Outreach.
How do you inspire your people to work with sales technology?
At Outreach, we take culture seriously — it’s absolutely critical to our success. We embody grit, passion and drive. We inspire each other every day to do our very best.
Because we greatly value these traits, it’s my mission to ensure that Outreach’s employees and customers are successful with our technology. For Outreach, this means understanding people’s inherit passion and knowledge for technology and pairing it with the most intuitive onboarding processes.
What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?
Voice memo dictations for my virtual assistant to transcribe.
Be tactically impatient and strategically patient.
Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:
Tapad Expands Senior Leadership Team with the Addition of Industry Veteran
Tapad, the company advancing personalization for the modern marketer, has appointed Mark Connon to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Based in New York, Connon will help drive the strategic direction of the company in addition to overseeing the sales and marketing organizations. He will report to Tapad CEO Sigvart Voss Eriksen.
Connon brings with him more than two decades of experience in the adtech, martech and digital media industries. Prior to joining the Tapad team, he held positions at major media and adtech companies, including AOL, Nexage, and Millennial Media. Most recently, Connon served as SVP, Global Chief Mobile & Data Officer of AOL platforms and advertising where he led the mobile and data strategy as well as data commercialization for the company, working closely alongside parent company Verizon.
“As the industry as a whole continues to evolve, we are excited to have Mark’s strategic guidance and professional network to further position Tapad as a leading company in the space,” says Voss Eriksen. “We are excited to welcome Mark to the Tapad team and we appreciate the valuable industry experience he brings to the company.”
Connon also works to continuously advance the industry through his board and advisory work, including Kochava’s XCHNG advisory board, ViralGains board of directors as well as a number of other strategic advisory roles. He holds a B.A. from Boston College and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.
“I’m thrilled to join the Tapad team,” says Connon. “Tapad’s work at the intersection of identity-driven solutions and the rapidly growing CDP space creates a unique offering in the market. I look forward to working with the team as we continue to innovate and drive our market share with solutions that are critical to today’s marketer.”
Tapad has repeatedly proven its ability to provide marketers with a unified view of the customer across channels and screens. With the Tapad Graph, which supports more than 3.9 billion device IDs and 560 million device clusters globally, marketers can achieve personalization at scale.
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