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Recorded Webinar: 5 Healthy Demand Generation Habits to Start the New Year

Join RampedUp Founder Scott Miller and SleevesUp CEO Aaron Biddar as they share 5 Healthy Demand Generation Habits to Start the New Year. The Webinar was Recorded on –  Jan 23, 2019 1:00 PM EST 

1. Speak Directly to the Decision Maker 
2. Keeping the Appointment – Tips and Tricks 
3. Use the News for Personalization 
4. Finding Old Customers 
5. Referrals as a Service 

Let’s Kick Off the New Year with Healthy Habits! 

January 11, 2019 / No Comments /  

Sales and Marketing Alignment – as a Service

Sales and Marketing are the two forces that drive revenue for your business – but they don’t always see eye to eye. 

Marketers need to reach every decision-maker within their target market. Sellers need the best contacts and companies within their territory plus killer content to help them set appointments.

Introducing RampedUp – An Integrated Sales and Marketing tool for Demand Generation.

Our global database is sourced from social profiles and verified by a team of 250 people. Our direct dial phone numbers, validated email addresses and social links allow you to connect with your prospects across multiple channels.

We help Marketers breathe new life into their existing lists through our ADVANCE Data Hygiene tool. Append, Dedupe, Validate, and Normalize your existing data to ensure greater deliverability and Compliance.  Add new contacts so your marketing lists never get old.

For Sellers, RampedUp provides battlecards for 9 Million companies, complete with Trigger Events, Decision Makers, Competition, and Installed Technologies.  We also provide personalized messaging that will help sellers set net new appointments.

January 9, 2019 / No Comments /  

The Benefits and Risks of adding purchased contacts to your database

Oh the temptation of adding thousands of net new contacts to your marketing database. After all what’s the problem? These people that are a good potential fit for you business. The fact of the matter is that everyone has bought a list at some point in time – but not everyone is doing it today. There are some significant risks and also some pretty fantastic rewards if you know what you are doing.

Why you shouldn’t do it. If you are buying thousands of email addresses to send a huge e-mail campaign then be prepared for disappointment. The entire industry is set up to prevent SPAM inside the US and outside of it you could be breaking the law. If you attempt to email a large list, most likely your email service provider will flag your account for sending unsolicited emails. The recipients will most assuredly report your activities – thus lowering your sender score. Your IP address will be burned and the result is that you can’t get your regular emails into an inbox.

Another reason why you shouldn’t do it is that email servers are very sophisticated these days and are on the look out for emails with too much HTML, SPAMMY language, or similar content to many of the same people. You will be “soft-bounced” as a result and again you won’t make it into an inbox.

The last reason is that laws outside of the US prohibit unsolicited emails. Canada has CASL and Europe has GDPR to protect consumers from unwanted emails. Even in the US – there is the CAN SPAM law that every marketers must comply with when it comes to email marketing.

Why you should do it. Email marketing can still be very effective but you have to know what you are doing – otherwise it just isn’t worth the hassle.

  1. Know the Law – In the US, you can email someone without their permission provided you respect their right to Opt-Out. In Canada and Europe you need their permission before you contact them so only email new people in the US.
  2. Know your Tech – Some companies like Pardot, Hubspot and MailChimp will severely penalize you or cut you off completely for emailing people without their consent. Try using a tool like www.clickback.com that will allow you to send outbound emails if you use a company that doesn’t allow for them.
  3. Know your Domain – Many marketers will create a domain for mass emailing that is separate than there normal email domain. This will protect your regular domain and still do outbound marketing.
  4. Show me you know me – take small batches of contacts that have similar titles, industries, locations, company sizes, or lines of business and write content that is specific to them.
  5. Avoid emailing too many people at the same company – this will help you find the inbox to larger companies.
  6. Warm them up – Never ask for an appointment on the first email – most experts say you should wait until the 5th at least. Invite them to a webinar or share some thought leadership at first.
  7. Something old / Something new – when soliciting new people you need to ensure it is merged with a list that you have already emailed. This will keep bounces / complaints to an acceptable percentage.
  8. Buy the Right Data – List building is a hard business because we live in a very transient society. B2B data expires at a 3% rate per month. So if a data provider hasn’t updated their product for 12-24 months, half of it could be out of date before you press send.
  9. There are no magic bullets – Even if you do all the above – the system is designed to protect recipients from unsolicited emails. You still may not make the impact you want on the first try. But incorporate these new contacts into a comprehensive strategy and you will reap the rewards.

The other reason why you should buy lists of new prospects is to empower your BDR team with contacts they don’t have today. Picking up the phone and calling a stranger still is your best chance of setting an appointment.

January 7, 2019 / No Comments /  

Mindshare: Netflix and Sales Productivity

Netflix has revolutionized the way people watch television! Not only can we watch what we want at anytime of the day we can do it without commercial interruption. You don’t think about the productivity of mindshare when you think about Netflix — but the smart people at Netflix do.

Netflix is in the business of doing the thinking for you so that you don’t leave their platform. They know once you leave the Netflix app you most likely aren’t coming back for sometime. Its called the productivity of mindshare and sales leaders need to be thinking about the same thing.

Two things that Netflix does that Sales Leaders need to mimic is the following:

  1. Put everything a seller needs in one place – so they don’t have to leave the platform.
  2. Give sellers something interesting to do next that keeps them engaged.

If you use Salesforce – then adding a sales intelligence tool within the account or lead page will keep the seller from leaving CRM to do research. But do you have everything the seller needs inside of CRM so they don’t have to leave? We recommend a news feed, contact records that fit the title of your buying committee and installed technologies at bare minimum.

To keep sellers engaged, you need to be able to show them something interesting. We recommend doing the Netflix comparison of showing companies that look just like the account or lead. Better yet – showing customers that look just like the account or lead and then prospects that look like those customers will keep them even more engaged.

The trick is to combine the two ideas however to increase mindshare – like Netflix. Give your sellers everything the need inside of CRM and then keep their interest by sharing something interesting such as look alike prospects and customers.

January 7, 2019 / No Comments /  

ADVANCE Marketing Insights – Validating Email Addresses

Data Hygiene: B2B contact data expires at a 30% rate per year according to Hubspot. Dirty data not only contributes to poor deliverability but fines for illegal solicitation or blacklisting from email service providers. RampedUp provides the ADVANCE data cleaning solution to breathe new life and confidence into decaying marketing lists.

  • valid– These are emails that we determined to be valid and safe to email to, they will have a very low bounce rate of under 2%.
  • invalid– These are emails that we determined to be invalid, please delete them from your mailing list. The results are 99.999% accurate.
  • catch-all– These emails are impossible to validate without sending a real email and waiting for a bounce. The term Catch-all means that the email server tells you that the email is valid, whether it’s valid or invalid. If you want to email these addresses, I suggest you segment them into a catch-all group and know that some of these will most likely bounce.
  • spamtrap– These emails are believed to be spamtraps and should not be mailed. We have technology in place to determine if certain emails should be classifed as spamtrap. We don’t know all the spamtrap email addresses, but we do know a lot of them.
  • abuse– These emails are of people who are known to click the abuse links in emails, hence abusers or complainers. We recommend not emailing these addresses.
  • do_not_mail– These emails are of companies, role based, or people you just want to avoid emailing to. They are broken down into 6 sub-categories “disposable”,”toxic”, “role_based”, “role_based_catch_all”, “global_suppression” and “possible_trap”. Examine this file and determine if you want to email these address. They are valid email addresses, but shouldn’t be mailed in most cases.
  • unknown– These emails we weren’t able to validate for one reason or another. Typical cases are “The mail server was down” or “the anti-spam system is blocking us”

Try it out!

November 20, 2018 / No Comments /  

16 Questions New Sellers Should Ask During the Interview Process

16 Questions New Sellers Should Ask During the Interview Process

    1. Why does this company exist – what’s the origin story?
    2. Who are your customers – why do they buy from you?
    3. Why do your lose customers?
    4. How many customers do you have?
    5. What is your Annual Recurring Revenue?
    6. What is your Retention Rate?
    7. What is your average deal size?
    8. What are your revenue goals for Net-New / Recurring Business?
    9. How long is your average sales cycle?
    10. Who are your competitors – how are you different?
    11. Why do you lose to your competitors?
    12. Describe how you sell today.
    13. How do you market the company?
    14. What are important KPI’s for Sales and Marketing?
    15. What Sales and Marketing tools do you use?
    16. How many people are in Sales / Marketing?
October 25, 2018 / No Comments /  

What is Account-Based Selling (ABS)?

What worked 10, 5, or even 2 years ago for demand generation doesn’t work any more – Sellers are following Marketing’s lead and taking an Account-Based Approach. The following excerpt defining Account Based Selling comes from Forbes…

Account-based selling, or ABS, takes the target accounts that were identified by ABM and develops them to revenue. While ABM is generally in the hands of the marketing department, ABS is a collaborative effort between marketing and sales.

  • Identify your ideal customer profile: When developing your ICP, consider factors like industry, company size, geographic region, how the services or products you provide will work with other tools that customers use and specific pain points. (Checkout this Buyer-centric Infographic ) 
  • Find the decision makers: When working an ABS model, a single point of contact with an account isn’t enough. Instead, you’ll pinpoint the ideal responsibilities and roles of your target personas and target specific people, such as CEOs, sales managers, sales reps and account executives within an account to set meetings and expedite the decision making process. (Defining the Buying Committee is a deductive process of starting with all the titles involved in a successful installation of your services – from evaluation to training.) 
  • Create an individualized approach: When content is personalized at the sales-rep level, you will see a boost in conversions. With ABS, you can tailor an individualized approach that specifically addresses the interests and pain points of the decision maker with whom you have connected. (We recommend using IceBreakers when approaching a new account that rises above the noise of other demand generation plans.)
  • Develop an organized plan: The sequence of your emails, phone calls and more, should be compiled into an organized plan. This will let you track where you are in your approach and how the process is progressing. You’ll also be able to pinpoint what worked and what did not, enabling you to tweak your approach to the next account. (When you call your prospects – call them directly for a 147% better chance of setting the appointment. ) 

Account Based Selling isn’t new – the renewed focus on it is however is the new normal.  Bill Johnson, CEO of Salesvue and Scott Miller, Founder of RampedUp discuss how to set up an Account-Based Selling organization – register (or review) the webinar here.

September 24, 2018 / No Comments /  

Marketo Customers – Keep Your Eye on These 3 Things After the Adobe Acquisition

There have been many observers congratulating Marketo and Adobe for the recent acquisition. I can see why the marriage of the leading B2B and B2C Marketing Automation platforms will give CMO’s a one stop shop for martech. It will give the enablement and consulting ecosystem an easier time to support one company instead of two – a better proposition for the customer. However, I have seen firsthand when marketing technology companies are acquired when I worked at Oracle Marketing Cloud. I came in after the Eloqua acquisition and in the middle of Responsys / Blue Kai and the process looked a lot this:

Noah’s Ark – With an acquisition, there are two of everything including R&D, support, and sales. Marketo customers will be a bit nervous but the inevitable re-assurances will come from Adobe that Marketo will stay independent as will their commitment to success. But behind the scenes the exact opposite is happening.

Administrative infrastructure is consolidated almost immediately such as HR, Finance, and Legal. No big deal really, that is the economy of scale, until the budgeting is consolidated for research and development.  After all, there can only be one mother ship. Developers are consolidated with the best talent being dispersed within the organization. Sales and support teams are blended to support the entire Adobe portfolio. That direct line to Marketo expertise eventually turns into an 800 number and a support ticket.

Brain Drain – Eventually, after restructuring settles into a new normal and Adobe has selected their best and brightest – the recruiters start to call. It really is a testament to those that make it past the Noah’s ark stage and the martech community knows it. Having been in their shoes, it is easy to take their call because of a drastic culture change, a diluted voice, and an unfamiliar formality in process.

Former Marketo leadership will move to smaller players or consultants and will most likely be replaced with veterans from Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce. One-off, this doesn’t hurt the customer but I have seen this become systematic to the point that almost all institutional knowledge is lost.

Old Toys – Adobe is now in acquisition growth mode, just like Salesforce and Oracle so they need to feed the beast. There will be another acquisition that will re-focus the energy and effort of Adobe leadership and the process will start all over again. You should expect development resources to move away from Marketo and towards integration of the Adobe suite. Eventually the Marketo user conference will become the Adobe user conference.

We have seen this movie before with Eloqua, Pardot, and Silverpop. The flagship product becomes a point solution and then it becomes somewhat of an afterthought. New technologies are built or added and what was once a consideration on its own merits is now a line item in a solution suite.

This process will take years so please don’t think you are stuck on a sinking ship.  My advice is to sign yearly contracts to gauge how effective Adobe is with integrating Marketo. Always evaluate and get quotes from their competitors just to keep them honest.

If you are interested in talking to any of your peer Marketo customers – we have them available here.

 

September 22, 2018 / No Comments /  

The Three T’s of Cold Calling: Targeted, Tactical, and Tailored

Cold Calling – its a tough business but if you know what you are doing it can be the difference in making or breaking your goals. Cold Calling isn’t like it used to be  – where a sales leader or marketing manager hands a list and tells you to make a hundred dials. Today, Cold Calling requires three things to be effective – Targeted Buyers, Tactical Approach, and Tailored Messaging.

Targeted Buyers: Account-Based Selling is white hot right now with sellers seeing an average contract value of 171% greater than their peers. Why, because the people and companies that are the ideal fit for your solution will pay a premium for your products or solutions! We highly recommend taking a census of your customer base to find look alike companies for prospecting. These customers could be geographic, revenue-based, competitive technologies, or in the same industry – but the key is to narrow the list down something manageable. From there, you want to identify all the people who are involved in the decision making process of your solution.  If you don’t know who those people are, take a deductive process starting from kick-off to evaluation and name all the titles that are involved in your product. Once you have this process completed – find the titles of your buying committee at the companies that look like your customers. This is your call list!  (Shameless disclaimer – we can help you do this) 

Tactical Approach: The second step is to use gravity in your solicitation – meaning call the C-suite first and get sponsorship on the way down to the user level. That is so much easier than trying to build a business case from the bottom up – like gravity it easier to run down a hill than climb up it.  When calling a C-Level, it is vitally important to call directly.   Sellers are 147% more likely to get the C-suite on the phone if they call directly – which stands to reason if you think about gatekeepers and phone trees designed to prevent access.  But if you do get the C-level on the phone and they don’t accept your invitation to meet – always ask who within the organization would be a better contact.  When you receive that name, you now have permission (in other words sponsorship) to contact that individual – gravity at work!

Tailored Messaging: More times than not you will need to contact your prospects on multiple occasions and in multiple medians. I have always advocated for a 5 X 5 program – which is 5 touches in 5 days with 5 different messages.  At RampedUp – we like to rise above the noise of traditional solicitations and to provide hyper-customized messaging. We call these messages Ice Breakers:

  • Use Cases – 90 Percent of Buyers want a use-case to help them make a favorable decision
  • Triggering Event – referencing a relevant news headline to show you can help them with strategic initiatives
  • Competition – all companies are defined by their competitors – reference them in your messaging for differentation
  • Installed Technologies – a competitive or complimentary replacement strategy for their  installed tech

In summary, cold calling isn’t dead – it just isn’t as easy at is once was.  If you are serious about reaching your revenue targets then take a 3 T approach. Laser-target on the companies that look like your best customers. Tactically call directly to the C-level and gain sponsorship for your evaluations. Use hyper-tailor your messages or ice breakers to rise above the noise and show real value.

September 17, 2018 / No Comments /  

RampedUp named a High Performer in the Q4 Sales Intelligence Grid by Real Users on G2 Crowd

RampedUp has been identified as one of the best sales intelligence tools, based on its high levels of customer satisfaction and likeliness to recommend ratings from real users on G2 Crowd, the world’s leading business solutions review website.

“We are very proud of our recognition from our user base – without them and their feedback we wouldn’t be where we are today.” said Scott Miller, Founder of RampedUp.io

RampedUp achieved High Performer on the Sales Intelligence Grid Report by receiving positive reviews, from verified users compared to similar products in the sales intellignce category. For inclusion in the report a product must have received ten or more reviews.

“Rankings on G2 Crowd reports are based on data provided to us by real users,” said Michael Fauscette, chief research officer, G2 Crowd. “We are excited to share the achievements of the products ranked on our site because they represent the voice of the user and offer terrific insights to potential buyers around the world.”

Learn more about what real users have to say (or leave your own review of RampedUp on G2 Crowd’s RampedUp review page!

About G2 Crowd G2 Crowd, the world’s leading business solution review platform, leverages more than 381,000 user reviews to drive better purchasing decisions. Business professionals, buyers, investors, and analysts use the site to compare and select the best software and services based on peer reviews and synthesized social data. Every month, more than one million people visit G2 Crowd’s site to gain unique insights.

About RampedUp Getting the attention of a decision-maker is hard work but sellers are 147% more likely to set an appointment when calling their prospects directly. RampedUp helps hard-working sales people by providing a “direct dial” phone number for their prospects – making their job more fun and productive. We integrate with Salesforce but we also create targeted call-lists that are easy to export. Account Based Selling has never been so easy! The Right Person, The Right Message, Right Around the Gatekeeper!

September 14, 2018 / No Comments /