Page 5649 – SalesTech Star

How to Build a World-Class B2B Sales Team

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December 7, 2018

How to Build a World-Class B2B Sales Team

When it comes to their B2B sales team, a lot of organizations will just hire anyone with a pulse. If they hit their numbers, great. If not, just fire them and move onto the next hire. No problem, right?

Actually, it’s a big problem. Often you end up hiring someone you liked, but then find it difficult to coach them or train them. Alternatively, you hire someone you thought was a good fit, but three months later you realize they weren’t and have cost the organization a lot of money in lost revenue.

After 15 years in B2B sales, my priority is to build a united team. I particularly like the Greek term ‘Homothumadon,’ the principle of everyone being of one mind, moving in the same direction. It only takes one person running in the opposite direction to slow down an entire team, but a united team is unstoppable.

To achieve this, my approach when hiring is to look for three core qualities in any potential recruits, to see if they’re the right fit for our organization. I’ve come to refer to these as the three H’s.

Are they Hungry?

The hungry salesperson is something of a stereotype. They want to sell more than anyone else in the history of the company and earn a million dollars in their first year. My definition of hunger goes deeper. I’m looking for someone who’s hungry to improve. Every morning they ask themselves ‘How can I strive for more? How can I continue bettering myself within the organization? How can I avoid losing momentum?’

Steli Efti, CEO of Close.io agrees, encouraging founders to look for people with the ‘emotional and mental blueprint of a great startup hustler.’

It’s not always an easy quality to see. When you have an SDR making 50-100 calls a day, how can you tell if they’re truly hungry or just going through the motions?

You have to look beyond their actions and see their attitude. Do they show a desire to learn? Do they want to more effective? Are they striving for continual improvement?

If you’re able to provide a platform which feeds their hunger, which enables that improvement, they’ll reward you many times over with high performance and loyalty.

Are They Highly Intelligent?

When hiring, you want to avoid the ‘yes’ men; you ask them to make 100 calls and they say yes, no problem. But when you ask how they can make it more efficient, or what’s the best software they’ve used to route their leads, or how they prefer to identify their lead quality? They have no idea.

If someone’s applying to be an SDR, I expect them to have an understanding of the available tools. They should be able to elaborate on what it means to be an SDR, to have their own interpretation of the role. They might have their impressive degrees or fancy CV, but they just got them to the interview. They’re not enough to get the job.

A lot of people feel you just need the bare minimum when hiring an SDR, but they’re not thinking long term. One day this SDR could be your next lead SDR, or an account executive, or a client success manager. From the start, you should be asking if they have the ability to grow. They don’t need to have a master’s degree or an MBA, but I have to see an ability to learn.

I’m not here to be a manager; software can manage people. I coach people and help them grow those core competencies into something more. They might be a 3/10 or 4/ 10 when they start, but my job as a head of sales is to coach them to be an 8/10 and 9/10.

Are They Humble?

The biggest part of being humble is leaving the ego at the door and being open to feedback.

Feedback is one of those things that no matter how nicely you say it, you will offend someone. However, I’m looking for someone who is grateful for feedback. Again, this definitely doesn’t mean hiring ‘yes’ men. Confidence gets mixed up with cockiness a lot, but they’re completely different. Cockiness gets people in trouble, but confidence means this person is eager and wants to make an effort. They may fail, but they’ll get right back up.

More importantly, humility is the only thing that will keep someone growing and learning. When they get to the point they think they know everything, they can’t grow. If they can’t grow, they can’t help our organization grow. If an organization stops growing, it dies.

It may take more work upfront, but hiring the right sales team is a worthwhile investment. When you employ people who are hungry to improve, smart enough to learn and humble enough to take on feedback, you’ll have a world-class sales team on your hands.

One of These 21 Personalization Tools Will Boost Your Sales

Guest Authors

Mudassar Malik

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December 7, 2018

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One of These 21 Personalization Tools Will Boost Your Sales

Time and time again, the strategy that is driving business and seeing some of the most significant returns is personalization. Gartner predicts that e-commerce businesses that personalize successfully could see profits rise by up to 15% by 2020. Apart from the vision, strategy, and talent, you need the right tools; and much like a carpenter is crippled without a hammer, our modern business landscape is growing ever reliant on personalization engines.

The goal of smart personalization is to make decisions easier and experiences more enjoyable, so I thought I’d do the same by compiling a synopsis of 21 personalization tools, all in one convenient location. While many of the features presented may overlap, each offers its own unique value, a value I’d encourage you to discover. Just read below to uncover which personalization engine is the best fit for you:

Capitalizing on the fact that humans are visual creatures, this software takes a more visual approach to behavioral targeting, focusing on product sequencing to analyze — and ultimately optimizes — what customers are looking at in order to increase the conversion rate tangibly. It also offers search services in over 40 languages, making it one of the few to have such broad, global implications and is an obvious choice for companies looking to expand their market internationally.

This software is set on improving the customer experience by analyzing and personalizing shopping not just while the actual shopping occurs, but even when it doesn’t work out. Leaving the website without a purchase or even cart abandonment where items don’t go all the way to a transaction, are part of this data gathering process. This coupled with re-targeting emails, product recommendations, and real-time website personalization make Barilliance a great option to up your personalization efforts.

Modern commerce is all about omnichannel, which is part of the reason that Baynotes cross-device personalization engine is so appealing. Their solution works with existing systems and utilizes powerful algorithms to not only identify shopping behavior patterns, but collect that data, analyze it, and in turn, deliver highly targeted responses. The behavior data that is collected then helps brands gain a single view of their customer, like, where they came from and why; irrespective of the device the journey started from.

Based on the simple principle that it is impossible to market to your visitors if you don’t know who they are, BounceX offers a full segmentation stack comprised of sophisticated cohort rules that hyper-targets each unique visitor into strategic segments. It then couples the visitor’s data with their behavior on-site, enabling for precise and targeted campaigns.

“You can sell more by getting personal” is the stance that Bunting takes, and given the plethora of features in their cloud-based personalization tool, I’d have to agree. Built for marketers, by marketers, Bunting offers Product Recommendations that can be tested to determine which is most efficient, Personalized Content, Urgency and Social Proof, and Cart Abandonment targeting that can help you increase your conversions.

This is another comprehensive package that integrates not just with catalog and purchasing aspects of a website but also works with third-party systems for search, PIM, and more. It uses machine learning to improve its efforts over time, ever increasing the degree of personalization. This truly omnichannel platform is designed for the modern consumer, and with its new expandable add-ons, brands can further customize this tool to their specific needs.

The dream of every marketer is to achieve 1:1 customer engagement; and Evergage promises to do just that. Combining customer data with advanced machine learning and in-depth behavioral analytics, Evergage for E-Commerce Optimization allows you to systematically understand and interact with each visitor to your site or app; one at a time, in real-time, and at scale.

Power and price are two of the most significant selling factors when it comes to Exit Intelligence, a marketing tool that is primarily used to catch visitors before they leave your site. With their expertly managed pop-up software, this mobile-first tool provides gorgeous designs, reduced bounce and abandonment, split testing and targeting, and is easy to install. Plus it comes with an ROI tracker, so you’ll always know how your investment is paying off.

When it comes to personalization, the more granular that you can go, the better. Granify, a machine learning powered platform allows business to get specific with the data they are after. From in-depth shopping behavior right down to “mouse hesitation,” Granify tracks over 400 specific micro-behaviors to give business a truly unique view of their customers.

A powerful combination of linguistic analysis technology and machine learning, LimeSpot is designed to not only target content but to understand it. Personalizer is their AI-powered option that helps to deliver personalized recommendations, upsell, and cross-sell, while, Approach, is a customized email campaign engine design to increase sales by targeting recipients with the products they are most likely to buy.

While the goal of business is to make things as easy and effortless for customers, that isn’t to say that important and valuable efforts like personalization need to be complicated. Monetate brings more than a decade of experience and over 300 brands in their portfolio to back up their platform that boasts 1:1 personalization, product recommendations, and an easy, customizable segmentation engine that builds and runs tests to ensure your automated messages are the type your audience is looking for.

Before you can optimize your marketing efforts for your buyers, you first need to understand them. With Omniconvert, you can do both at the same time. They claim to be the only tool that allows brands to survey, test, message, and segment all in one place, however, while that is undetermined, their premium support, 5-minute installation, top-notch security, and 30-day money back guarantee all make this tool a great option.

Bringing surgical like precision to e-commerce personalization, OptiMonk utilizes onsite re-targeting technology that presents targeted popup overlays to your visitors. Not only that, but it also includes the ability to capture contact information like email as well as segment visitors based on a variety of categories like Cart-Contents, Engagement, and Page Stay Duration and then automatically provide personalized, relevant content.

Personyze uses the power of AI and powerful targeting to create tailored experiences for your audience. Giving the user the ability to set their target audience based on a list of 70 “out-of-the-box” characteristics as well as custom-defined ones, Personyze goes beyond just website personalization, offering recommendation engine, email personalization, targeted banners and pop-ups, as well as A/B testing features.

Anyone should be a little hesitant when a company claims to be able to increase online revenue, especially by a specific number like 26%, however, given the features of PureClarity’s platform, it may not be too far off. Combining AI and Big Data, this tool provides personalized site searches, personalized merchandising, personalized email marketing, and analytics; all in one platform that is packed with hundreds of segment variables.

A global leader when it comes to omnichannel personalization, RichRelevance is a highly acclaimed tool utilized by more than 200 multinational companies, all of whom trust it to deliver relevant and innovative customer experiences across web and mobile. Using machine learning and 125+ pre-built algorithms, this tool can learn and respond in real-time to customer behavior and activity in order to provide them with the most relevant recommendations and content.

Few people in business can argue the power of video when it comes to customer engagement, and it is this fact that Softcube hopes to capitalize on. Powered by AI, Softcube boasts the ability to create videos showcasing your products in use automatically. Using an expansive video library and advanced neural networks, videos are effortlessly produced and can be showcased across a variety of platforms.

This software gathers first-party data in real-time, looking at search terms, purchase patterns, location, and other useful metrics to create an image of the customer. Not stopping there, SteelHouse also offers users the opportunity to create unlimited target segments; opening a new realm of possibilities for targeting. Users of DemandWare are also now able to enjoy increased integration with SteelHouse software thanks to a strategic partnership between the two companies, further adding to the power of the platform.

While many of the entries on this list offer a specific tool for enhanced personalization, UNBXD boasts a complete “product discovery suite.” This includes an impressive commerce search feature that provides enhanced product discovery and recommendations, all while subtly guiding customers in the direction you want. Perhaps the most unique offering by this tool is the ability to provide recommendations at the shopping cart, which can dramatically increase upselling and cross-selling.

One-to-one marketing just got easier thanks to WebEngage and their personalization module that comes integrated with a complete multi-channel marketing suite. So what does it include? More like what doesn’t it include, for it provides journey mapping and user profile creation, cross-device segmentations, geo-fencing and more, all working towards a single customer view. It also offers real-time user tracking with attribution so you can utilize those channels that yield the best results.

A personalization tool is only as effective as the features it has in proportion to the needs a business has. In regards to Yusp, you’d be hard pressed to find a feature it doesn’t have. This personalization engine boasts Product Recommendation, On-Site Personalization, Search Personalization, Mobile Personalization, Email Marketing Personalization, Personalized Couponing, Cart Abandonment Email, Social Personalization, Online Ad Retargeting Personalization; and if you can believe, more.

Personalization, in all of its proven glory, is not to be considered “an effort for next quarter,” “an idea we’ll review next month,” or “something our customers just aren’t interested in yet.” Instead, it needs to be celebrated, much like the customers it is geared towards. With the possibility of providing tailored, unique, and personalized experiences, the question isn’t going to be when will it happen, but why hasn’t it already?

Zoomdata Extends Leadership in Multisource Analysis with Advanced Cohort Analytics

Data Visualization

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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Zoomdata Extends Leadership in Multisource Analysis with Advanced Cohort Analytics

Customers’ success in cybersecurity, precision medicine research, and customer 360 use cases underscore Zoomdata’s capabilities in next-generation multisource analysis

Zoomdata, the company reinventing BI, today announces advances in multisource analysis that enable business users to analyze data from multiple data platforms on-the-fly, without data movement or pre-defined data models. Zoomdata allows data exploration across any combination of disparate data types — in modern and legacy systems, in the cloud and on-premises, and combining both streaming and historical data. Zoomdata’s new capabilities are especially powerful when related data sources are too big to consolidate into a single data source, are streaming live, or are too sensitive to move into curated systems because of security concerns.

“One of the most compelling aspects for big data analytics for healthcare is being able to finally move at a much more rapid pace, which can mean drugs are approved faster, knowledge from medical leaders is shared and lives are saved,” said Dr. Charles Boicey MS, RN-BC, Chief Innovation Officer, ClearSense. “Zoomdata’s offering is especially important as it solves one of the biggest challenges today, truly unleashing the power of BI. It works across all platforms, giving visibility, access and real-time data streaming capabilities across disparate platforms and data types. Healthcare organizations are now able to work across networks and in a truly collaborative manner to save lives through real-time data-driven insights.”

Zoomdata’s new features include Keysets Analytics™ and Cross-Source Filtering, as well as extensions to Zoomdata Fusion™, which virtually consolidates disparate data sources on a common key so they appear as one. Keysets Analytics allows non-technical users to perform segmentation, cohort, top/bottom-n, cluster, and similar set analyses across modern systems where the underlying data is becoming ever bigger, faster, and more complex. Example business use cases include:

Precision Medicine research – The identification and analysis of patient cohorts who are utilizing a specific treatment across various sources. This analysis can then be leveraged across disparate data sources to cross-reference genomic or demographic information important to research new drug types.
Cybersecurity – Analysis of vulnerabilities usually means checking IP Addresses, servers, usernames, domains, etc. As we’ve seen with recent high-profile cyber breaches, access points are becoming more inventive. With Keysets, cybersecurity analysts can perform threat hunting regardless of how the data is stored by segmenting different assets to identify new threat vectors and better understand suspicious activity.
Customer Insights – Retail organizations typically have large data storage components, which represent legacy systems. Now, those can be accessed and consolidated with additional big data coming from social media, mobile devices and more to gain never-before seen insights on customers.

Read More: SalesTech Interview With Scott Anschuetz, CEO, Visualize

“Zoomdata’s on-the-fly multisource analysis capabilities were developed in recognition of the ‘new normal’ for many enterprises: data is generated at ever-increasing rates, is stored across a variety of specialty platforms, and once landed, becomes too big, too expensive, or too risky to move,” said Nick Halsey, CEO, Zoomdata. “While data platforms get heavier and more varied, Zoomdata counters that weight by reinventing an easier, lighter BI experience that allows users to freely explore and clarify relationships between data sources, enrich the data experience, and accelerate time-to-insight.”

Deloitte Leverages Anodot for Real-Time Autonomous Analytics

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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Deloitte Leverages Anodot for Real-Time Autonomous Analytics

Anodot, the autonomous analytics company, and professional services firm, Deloitte Australia, announced a strategic alliance to help companies supercharge their real-time analytics capabilities.

Deloitte will use Anodot’s AI/ML solution to expand its Consulting Analytics & Cognitive practice’s portfolio of AI-powered service offerings. Bringing together Anodot’s anomaly detection capability with Deloitte’s business advisory, data and analytics capability creates a unique value proposition to help businesses proactively identify and fix anomalous business and technical incidents that would otherwise lead to millions of dollars lost in sales, production or fraud.

With vast amounts of data collected across business and IT metrics, it becomes increasingly difficult to track, analyse and derive valuable business insights, especially with traditional Business Intelligence (BI) and do-it-yourself approaches. With Anodot’s autonomous analytics, data is rapidly analysed across all data sources in real-time. Its predictive capabilities detect risks before they reach customers, allowing users to make the right decisions and prevent major crises.

“Traditional BI tools are not suitable in a dynamic environment with large data volumes because they cannot detect anomalies at the necessary pace, resulting in delayed or neglected business insights, said Shyam Sundar, Head of APJ at Anodot. “With its AI/ML solution, Anodot automatically learns the normal behavior of individual metrics in any type of data stream and tracks them for abnormalities. As we continue to help customers throughout the world gain real-time business insights, we are thrilled to be working with professional services leader, Deloitte.”

“We’re excited to leverage Anodot’s machine learning capabilities to process high volumes of real-time data in innovative ways, to help our clients gain the business insights they need to instantaneously identify issues and opportunities that would otherwise be missed,” said Lee Anderson, Deloitte Partner. “From proactively monitoring telecommunication networks, power and utility asset performance, or financial transaction processing, right the way through to back office IT systems – we see enormous potential to help our clients address critical business issues and target new opportunities for increased business performance.”

“We are honored to launch this exciting alliance with Deloitte, further solidifying our steady growth” said David Drai, CEO and Co-Founder of Anodot, “As we expand globally, we will continue to give our customers across the world the cutting-edge ability to achieve actionable insights that truly impact their bottom line.”

Read More: SalesTech Interview With Scott Anschuetz, CEO, Visualize

NuORDER Secures $15 Million Funding to Accelerate B2B eCommerce

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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NuORDER Secures $15 Million Funding to Accelerate B2B eCommerce

Leading B2B eCommerce Platform Raises Funds Based on Major Milestones and Rapid Growth

NuORDER, the leading B2B wholesale eCommerce platform, announced it has closed a $15 million Series C financing round, led by NewSpring and joined by existing investors Upfront Ventures and Argentum. NuORDER has raised a total of $40 million to date. The company will use this latest financing to continue defining the wholesale eCommerce market by further meeting customer needs, accelerating product innovation and growing its team.

NuORDER has witnessed unprecedented growth, exceeding more than 1,000 brand customers and 400,000 retailers that are making transactions on the platform faster than ever before. To date, $16 billion worth of gross merchandise volume has been sold on NuORDER, half of which took place in the last 12 months alone. NuORDER has facilitated 3.25 million orders, with more than 212 million products purchased through the platform.

Read More: SalesTech Interview With Scott Anschuetz, CEO, Visualize

Additionally, NuORDER and Nordstrom announced a partnership this year that is the first of its kind for the industry, in which the retailer will use NuORDER to move their buying process online with its supplier brands.

“Our vision for solving the challenges brands and wholesale buyers experience has been realized,” said Olivia Skuza, co-founder, NuORDER. “The wholesale industry is finally ready for a market disruption and NuORDER is in an incredible position. We have invested heavily and built a leading product that has been adopted by the most reputable brands and retailers in the world. Moving B2B sales online has had a direct impact on our customers’ bottom line, selling more products, reaching more buyers with less time and money, revolutionizing their wholesale strategy.”

According to Forrester, by 2021, US B2B eCommerce sales are projected to reach $1.18 trillion, with more than $3 billion being spent globally on B2B eCommerce platform technologies. To address this market growth, NuORDER has created an industry leading solution that enables brands in industries including apparel, footwear, outdoor, sports, home and beauty to communicate and transact with wholesale buyers through a B2B eCommerce platform. NuORDER replaces outdated processes of using printed catalogs and static spreadsheets with a SaaS solution available anywhere and anytime on computers and mobile devices. The U.S.-based company boasts brands such as ASICS, Levi’s, Coach, Theory, Lacoste, Ted Baker and Cole Haan, and has grown internationally, with 38 percent of order volume coming from international brands and retailers.

“In the last decade, digital transformation has taken place in B2C channels while the B2B buying process has continued to remain antiquated, until now,” said Justin Nadile, Vice President, NewSpring. “We’re excited to be partnering with NuORDER given the Company’s leadership position in the market and ability to define the segment going forward. The NuORDER platform offers a compelling value proposition and is rapidly becoming the industry-standard for wholesale buyers and sellers. With the technology developed to meet the complex needs of enterprise clients, the platform has application beyond current verticals and use cases. NewSpring is proud to partner with such a visionary team.”

Wrike Expands Global Footprint With New APAC Headquarters in Melbourne, Australia

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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Wrike Expands Global Footprint With New APAC Headquarters in Melbourne, Australia

Leader in Collaborative Work Management Also Moves into New Offices in San Diego and Dublin to Accommodate Rapidly Growing Team

Wrike, the collaborative work management platform for high-performance teams, is in the midst of an international relay party in celebration of three office openings and rapid growth. The relay kicked off at the company’s first APAC headquarters in Melbourne, Australia before moving to the new location for Wrike’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. The final leg of the relay will take place today at the new San Diego office location, concluding the 16-hour event.

“Opening an APAC HQ is an incredible milestone for Wrike and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our growth than with an international relay party, spanning three continents,” said Wrike CEO and Founder Andrew Filev. “We have tripled our worldwide headcount over the last three years and we plan to double in size within the next three. More and more companies are adopting collaborative work management tools to help them overcome the challenges presented by digital transformation and we intend to make Wrike the platform enterprises rely on as their unified digital workplace packed with all the tools, features, and integrations needed to get high-quality work done quickly and at scale.”

Wrike’s APAC headquarters opens its doors with 10 employees and a goal of creating 50 jobs. The company has grown its customer base by 697 percent and its total annual recurring revenue by 334 percent in the APAC region over the last three years.

“We already have a strong customer base in APAC and I am excited to finally be local,” said Wrike Regional Manager of APAC Fintan Lalor. “I am looking forward to not only supporting our current customers, but to adding more members to the Wrike community as well. The APAC region presents a great opportunity for Wrike as more and more companies come to the inevitable realization that email and spreadsheets are no longer sufficient for collaborating and managing work in the digital age.”

Dublin EMEA Headquarters Continues Expansion

This is Wrike’s third EMEA headquarters location in Dublin. The first Dublin office opened in June 2015 before moving into its latest location in October 2016. Wrike is just shy of hitting its goal to create 80 jobs in Dublin and plans to add another 50 in the next three years. The company has increased its customer base by 532 percent and its total annual recurring revenue by 347 percent in the EMEA region over the last three years.

“We have had incredible success since opening the first Dublin office and it gives me great pride to say that EMEA is Wrike’s fastest growing region,” said Wrike Vice President of Sales and General Manager of EMEA Patricia DuChene. “There is still tremendous opportunity here, in terms of talent and market share, and we are just getting started in EMEA. Managing digital work and increasing productivity while maintaining a healthy work-life balance are top of mind for many companies in EMEA. Wrike makes it possible to have it all through seamless collaboration, automation, and a suite of work management features.”

San Diego Sales Office Drives Continued North American Growth

This is Wrike’s second location in San Diego. The first San Diego office opened in February 2016 and the company is well on its way to meeting its goal to create 150 jobs in three years. This new office will provide the space needed to accommodate the increasing number of sales and customer success roles that make up the bulk of the San Diego team. The company has grown its customer base in North America by 362 percent and its total annual recurring revenue in the region by 287 percent over the last three years.

“The collaborative work management market has really taken off in the last few years as a variety of trends from digital transformation to the rise of the remote workforce and the consumerization of IT all converged,” said Wrike Senior Director of North American Sales Alex German. “It has been exciting to witness firsthand as high-growth companies have discovered how Wrike could help them increase productivity, improve collaboration, and create new revenue opportunities. Moving into this new space will give us the room we need to expand our team and continue driving exponential growth for the company.”

Wrike recently relocated its worldwide headquarters from Mountain View, California to San Jose, California. The company currently has nearly 700 employees worldwide and has increased its global customer base by 443 percent over the past three years, bringing the total to more than 18,000 customers with nearly two million users. It has grown its total annual recurring revenue by 539 percent from 2014 to 2017, earning Wrike a spot on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ in North America for the fourth consecutive year in 2018.

Vagaro Raises $63 Million in Growth Equity Led by FTV Capital

Sales & Marketing

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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Vagaro Raises $63 Million in Growth Equity Led by FTV Capital

Online booking, payments and business management platform for salons, spas and fitness businesses expands technology offering to meet digital demand

Vagaro, a leading cloud-based business management platform for the salon, spa and fitness industry, announced the company has raised a $63 million growth equity round, its first institutional capital, led by FTV Capital. The company will continue to invest in cloud-based, industry-specific technology to help businesses of any size optimize operations, reduce complexity and seamlessly process payments. In addition, Vagaro will expand its sales and marketing team and geographic footprint. Vagaro will benefit from FTV’s Global Partner Network®, which includes executives from the world’s leading financial services and payments companies, and the firm’s experience in scaling high growth companies that operate in specialty industry verticals. As part of the transaction, FTV Capital partner Robert Anderson, and FTV Capital managing partner Richard Garman will join the Vagaro board of directors.

Vagaro’s platform successfully meets the needs of a digital-first, productivity-focused millennial generation by providing salon, spa and fitness business owners with a powerful and comprehensive suite of back-office and consumer-facing business management software solutions, including appointment booking, calendaring, client management, marketing, reporting, payroll, inventory management and payment acceptance.

Read More: SalesTech Interview With Scott Anschuetz, CEO, Visualize

Most recently, Vagaro added a form builder to collect registrations, waivers and surveys to its highly customizable platform, leaving the company uniquely positioned to aggressively compete in the fitness management software segment. The company also added a competitively priced multi-transaction EMV reader to its point-of-sales solutions, making EMV payment processing even faster and more convenient for U.S. business owners.

In addition to automating and streamlining business processes, Vagaro connects businesses to consumers who are searching for spa, salon and fitness services via

Vagaro’s platform successfully meets the needs of a digital-first, productivity-focused millennial generation by providing salon, spa and fitness business owners with a powerful and comprehensive suite of back-office and consumer-facing business management software solutions, including appointment booking, calendaring, client management, marketing, reporting, payroll, inventory management and payment acceptance.

Most recently, Vagaro added a form builder to collect registrations, waivers and surveys to its highly customizable platform, leaving the company uniquely positioned to aggressively compete in the fitness management software segment. The company also added a competitively priced multi-transaction EMV reader to its point-of-sales solutions, making EMV payment processing even faster and more convenient for U.S. business owners.

“I feel privileged to have led Vagaro’s talented team for the past 10 years. Our company has completely transformed — moving from delivering industry-changing salon software technology to offering a full suite of industry-specific business management solutions coupled with a powerful online marketplace,” said Vagaro founder and CEO Fred Helou. “Vagaro’s partnership with FTV Capital opens up exciting new possibilities for us, including the expansion to additional international markets, and will usher in a new chapter in the company’s growth story. Thanks to our compelling price point and newer technology, we are perfectly positioned to compete against slow-moving, more traditional industry players.”

“We are energized by our new partnership with FTV Capital, a firm that has helped many high growth companies, like Vagaro, build on their success to best meet customer needs,” said Kerry Melchior, Vagaro’s chief of operations. “Our near-term plans include expanding the range of payment solutions and digital functionality for our clients, while continuing to deliver the highest quality, easiest to use solutions with superior customer service.”

“Vagaro’s innovative and integrated product suite makes it easy for businesses to run all aspects of their operation from attracting and retaining customers to managing day-to-day activities to accepting payments,” said FTV partner Robert Anderson. “The Vagaro team is well-positioned to continue to capitalize on secular growth trends across the more than $9 billion global health and wellness market, and we are excited to provide the capital and strategic support for this next phase of growth.”

“I feel privileged to have led Vagaro’s talented team for the past 10 years. Our company has completely transformed — moving from delivering industry-changing salon software technology to offering a full suite of industry-specific business management solutions coupled with a powerful online marketplace,” said Vagaro founder and CEO Fred Helou. “Vagaro’s partnership with FTV Capital opens up exciting new possibilities for us, including the expansion to additional international markets, and will usher in a new chapter in the company’s growth story. Thanks to our compelling price point and newer technology, we are perfectly positioned to compete against slow-moving, more traditional industry players.”

“We are energized by our new partnership with FTV Capital, a firm that has helped many high growth companies, like Vagaro, build on their success to best meet customer needs,” said Kerry Melchior, Vagaro’s chief of operations. “Our near-term plans include expanding the range of payment solutions and digital functionality for our clients, while continuing to deliver the highest quality, easiest to use solutions with superior customer service.”

“Vagaro’s innovative and integrated product suite makes it easy for businesses to run all aspects of their operation from attracting and retaining customers to managing day-to-day activities to accepting payments,” said FTV partner Robert Anderson. “The Vagaro team is well-positioned to continue to capitalize on secular growth trends across the more than $9 billion global health and wellness market, and we are excited to provide the capital and strategic support for this next phase of growth.”

MetaCX Launches With $14 Million in Funding to Redesign Customer Success

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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MetaCX Launches With $14 Million in Funding to Redesign Customer Success

Founded by technology veteran Scott McCorkle and funded by Upfront Ventures, the MetaCX platform will launch in early 2019

MetaCX, a new High Alpha Studio company, announced it has raised over $14 million in funding to transform how businesses manage their customers and how customers manage their vendors. The funding was led by Upfront Ventures, a leading early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles.

MetaCX is led by Co-Founder and CEO Scott McCorkle, a globally-recognized technology leader who joined High Alpha as Executive in Residence in early 2017. He most recently served as CEO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and previously served as President of ExactTarget prior to its acquisition by Salesforce.

MetaCX is building a digital success layer that brings suppliers and buyers of enterprise software together for better collaboration and outcome management, offering real-time visibility into customer success. MetaCX is currently in closed beta.

Read More: SalesTech Interview With Scott Anschuetz, CEO, Visualize

“Our founding team includes world-class engineers, designers and architects who have been building billion-dollar SaaS products for two decades,” said McCorkle. “We understand that enterprises often struggle to achieve the business outcomes they expect from SaaS, and the renewal process for SaaS suppliers is often an ambiguous guessing game. Our industry is shifting from a subscription economy to a performance economy, where suppliers and buyers of digital products need to transparently collaborate to achieve outcomes.”

Upfront’s investment in MetaCX was led by partner Kobie Fuller, who is also joining the MetaCX board alongside Scott McCorkle and Scott Dorsey, managing partner at High Alpha and former CEO and Co-Founder of ExactTarget. Fuller is a SaaS expert having sourced or led investments in companies including ExactTarget, Instructure, UserTesting, Invoca and AdRoll over his career.

“The MetaCX team is building a truly disruptive platform that will inject data-driven transparency, commitment and accountability against promised outcomes between SaaS buyers and vendors,” said Fuller. “Having been on the journey with much of this team while shaping the martech industry with ExactTarget, I’m incredibly excited to partner again in building another category-defining business with Scott and his team in Indianapolis.”

MetaCX is launching out of High Alpha, an Indianapolis-based venture studio that unites company building and venture capital to build next-generation enterprise cloud companies.

“Scott is an extraordinary tech leader and visionary. He and his talented team of SaaS veterans are re-imagining the future of digital, subscription-based businesses,” said Dorsey. “I am thrilled to be working with Scott again and look forward to helping him and his team bring non-incremental innovation to our industry.”

Rick Hanson Joins Brightcove as Chief Revenue Officer

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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Rick Hanson Joins Brightcove as Chief Revenue Officer

Brightcove Inc, the leading provider of cloud services for video, announced the appointment of Rick Hanson as Chief Revenue Officer, a new role for the company. A senior sales executive with over 25 years of experience developing high performing teams, Hanson will oversee the global sales organization including all customer facing direct sales, channel sales, and professional services organizations. He will report to CEO, Jeff Ray.

“Rick is a seasoned sales executive with a proven track record for achieving revenue goals and developing sales teams worldwide. With Rick’s leadership and deep expertise, we are confident the company will achieve faster, more consistent revenue growth around the globe,” Jeff Ray, Chief Executive Officer, Brightcove, said. “We are thrilled to have Rick join the company at this exciting time and truly believe he is the ideal leader to help usher Brightcove into the next phase of growth.”

“Video is rapidly becoming a central component of the marketing and revenue strategies for companies in a variety of industries. Brightcove’s leadership in this market, combined with its industry leading products and services, puts it in a great position to benefit from these positive market trends,” Rick Hanson said. “I look forward to joining the Brightcove team and working with sales leadership to maximize these opportunities and guide the company to breakout growth.”

Read More: SalesTech Interview With Scott Anschuetz, CEO, Visualize

Dialpad Launches Dialpad Support for Call Centers

Sales & Marketing

STS News Desk

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December 6, 2018

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Dialpad Launches Dialpad Support for Call Centers

New product features real-time AI tools to help call center teams have smarter customer conversations

Dialpad, the only AI-driven, cloud-native business communications platform, announced the launch of Dialpad Support, a new AI-powered call center product designed to fit the demands of modern customer support teams. Through a combination of real-time artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities, an intuitive user interface and easy-to-use admin functions, Support offers a welcome departure from traditional call center software complexity while promoting better agent performance and higher customer satisfaction.

Similar to Dialpad’s first generation Call Center product, Support offers a variety of robust call center features including real-time service level dashboards, supervisor alerts for key call center metrics such as queue size, agent status and wait time, and deep integrations with business-critical tools such as Zendesk, G Suite, and Office 365. Support also includes VoiceAI-powered real-time call transcription, sentiment analysis and coaching capabilities making product adoption an easy win for cost-conscious call center managers and IT directors alike.

“Dialpad Support is a one-stop solution for modern support teams. Not only does it provide agents with the tools necessary to dramatically enhance customer experience, it does so without trapping growing businesses in the volatile rate structures typically offered by other service providers,” said Dialpad Chief Executive Officer Craig Walker. “Dialpad Support also allows growing support teams to incorporate real-time artificial intelligence into their customer experience strategies, drive business growth, and unlock the voice of the customer all while saving an average of 25 to 50 percent on software costs.”

Helping Businesses Grow Faster While Growing With Them

Support is the only call center solution that offers native real-time artificial intelligence features to improve customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, increase first call resolution, and surface actionable insights for agents to enhance overall customer service. Built entirely on Google Cloud Platform, Support also allows businesses to scale in accordance with seasonal needs and growth. The full feature set currently includes:

Real-time sentiment analysis and service level dashboards: Complete, real-time view of customer data and sentiment, plus agent productivity and performance metrics.
Real-time call transcription: Stay up to speed on conversations as they occur, not after they finish.
Real-time recommendations: Conversational guidance so agents always have the right information at the right time.
Real-time alerts: Customized email and SMS alerts on key metrics like wait times, queue length, and abandonment rates.
Seamless coaching and quality management: Supervisors can listen in, monitor active calls, message agents with live coaching tips and advice, and handle escalated situations promptly.
High-speed performance: High-definition audio and intelligent call routing and queuing connects callers with agents faster.

“Since switching to Dialpad, we’ve noticed a major difference in our global support organization’s productivity and efficiency. The intuitive user interface makes it easy for every member of our team, from our phone queue administrators to our call reps, to connect meaningfully with customers,” said Olaf Doemer, director of global support at cloud-based digital experience company Acquia. “The reporting and analytics features have also been fundamental to understanding call volumes and opportunities for customer experience improvement. On top of that, fast deployment made it possible to get up and running without skipping a beat.”

Accessible Pricing Brings AI to Every Team

Support is available today starting at $75 per user per month for Pro plans and $100 per user per month for Enterprise plans. Both tiers are all-inclusive of unlimited inbound and outbound calling (within fair usage policies), group lines, group coaching tools, group VoiceAI, powerful administrator controls and analytics, and instant agent provisioning.

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