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RampedUp partners with SalesIntel to enable sales teams with the best contact data for sales outreach.

Atlanta, Georgia – November, 12, 2018 – RampedUp announced that it has partnered with SalesIntel for top-level, account-based selling intelligence. SalesIntel provides human-verified, contact data with direct dial numbers to help sales team start conversations with their target buyers and get results.

RampedUp’s Look Alike customer functionality identifies the companies and contacts that are the perfect fit for your business. With SalesIntel, RampedUp will be able to provide over 1.5 million more direct dial numbers for sales teams.

“We are excited to partner with RampedUp to bring accurate and reliable B2B contact data to sales teams,” said Manoj Ramnani, CEO of SalesIntel. “Our 2M and growing human verified contact data focused on 75K accounts is the ideal data for RampedUp’s account based sales use case”

“We are thrilled to partner with SalesIntel,” said  Scott Miller, Founder RampedUp. “Manoj and his team have identified the number one barrier to entry for sales teams and that is direct phone numbers for key decision makers. Sellers are 147% more likely to set an appointment by calling directly.”

For more information on SalesIntel, go to: https://salesintel.io/

For more information on RampedUp, go to: https://rampedup.io/

About RampedUp

Our Look Alike customer functionality identifies the companies and contacts that are the perfect fit for your business. We provide deep insight in the form of triggering events, installed technology, competitive detail, and customize messaging that helps sellers get to their buyers – faster.

About SalesIntel

SalesIntel is the top provider of accurate and affordable sales and marketing contact data. With over 2 Million contacts and 1,700,000+ direct dial contacts, SalesIntel is your resource for contact data. SalesIntel’s new method is to have every direct dial number and email tested and re-verified every 90 days. Our combination of automation and researchers allows us to reach 95% data accuracy for all our published contact data while continuing to scale up our number of contacts.

November 13, 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 /  

Pro Tip: Append Direct Dial Phone Numbers to your Marketing Database for Better Conversion

For as long as I can remember, Marketing professionals have been in the business of growing the contacts in their Marketing Automation Platform and converting those contacts into actionable leads. But that job is getting A LOT harder.  I wrote a blog post highlighting 6 reasons why getting the attention of the decision maker is so challenging, but the math is easy to understand.  There are more people with more access to mass communication tools contacting the same people.  A cold email is almost never returned and that is the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that a cold email can get you black-listed by a private company or reported to a public official for violating privacy laws – yikes.

Now GDPR is not shutting down Sales and Marketing –  but it is making your existing database that much more of a priority.  Smart marketers are getting to know their prospects better by appending information to their records that allows for micro-campaigns; show me you know me campaigns if you will.  They are also redefining what a lead actually is so that an inside sales team can reach out earlier in the sales process to set an appointment.

Marketers are using different lead scoring techniques such as what pages a prospect may go to on a website and buyer intent from companies like Bombora to recognize when a prospect is in the market.  This data is fed to a BDR or Seller to make a phone call to set up an appointment.  This is the traditional Call to Action of a form completion or email reply – but it is what smart companies are doing to get above the noise.  They are also appending a direct dial phone number to this data as they pass it to sales.

Sellers are 147% more likely to set an appointment if they call their prospect directly.  That is why it is almost a wasted lead to send it over without direct dial data.  Too often, the seller will get lost in the phone tree or redirected from a gatekeeper to even leave a voice mail – much less connect with the prospect.   The average lead costs a B2B company over $1,000 and far less than 50% of those convert.  Smart marketers are increasing their odds with direct dials phone numbers.

 

September 3, 2018 / No Comments /  

Steal These Cold Calling / Email Icebreaker Scripts

Creating Demand is difficult –  it takes just as much will as it does skill to be successful at it.  The problem is that our buyers are busy and our competition has access to the same mass communication tools that we do. As a result – our solicitation is drowned out with everyone else. At RampedUp, we understand the hurdles that sellers have to jump over so we use an Icebreaker program that is multi-touch, multi-media, and personalized to every buyer.  They are short, can be used for phone, social, email, but templated so as not to paralyze demand gen efforts with excessive research.

Icebreaker #1 – Use Cases – 90 Percent of Buyers want a use-case to help them make a favorable decision

Since @<Company Name> and our most recent customer @<Customer 1> are both in the in the @<Industry> industry, I thought I would reach out and share why they came on board. We worked with their @<Title 1>, @<Title 2>, and @<Title 3> to really understand their business, it is what differentiates us. I will have the @<Customer 1> use-case prepared for a call if you are free early next week.

The CEB graph you see to the right show just how important it is to reference the entire buying committee – because there are going to be more people involved in the decision anyway.

Icebreaker #2 – Triggering Event – referencing a news headline shows you have done your homework.

I saw that @<Company Name> was in the news recently: @<Trigger Event Headline>

We work with growing companies like @<Customer 1> in the @<Industry> industry. With the recent news, it looks like a good time to share how we are helping titles such as @<Title 1>, @<Title 2>, and @<Title 3> reach their goals. Are you free for a quick conversation early next week?

12 Trigger Events that Spark Buying Decisions 

Icebreaker #3 – Competition – all companies are defined by their competitors.

I was researching @<Competitor 1> in the @<Industry> industry and came across @<Company Name>. I saw that @<Company Name> was in the news recently: @<Trigger Event Headline> so I wanted to introduce myself and my company.

If you are you looking for a competitive advantage against @<Competitor 1>, we can help. We help companies like @<Customer 1> reach their goals and would like to do the same with you. Are you free early next week?

Icebreaker #4 – Installed Technologies – Time honored competitive or complimentary strategy

I have done some research on @<Competitor 1> and the decision making process the @<Title 1> did evaluating @<Installed Technology 1> and wanted to share some insights. Are you open to quick conversation on how we helping companies like @<Competitor 1> in the @<Industry> industry improve upon their experience with @<Installed Technology 1>? Are you free to speak early next week?

Use Installed Technology to define your Account Based Selling Strategy 

Feel free to steal these templates for your own demand generation efforts.  We built a platform that will auto-populate these fields to make this process super simple.

August 19, 2018 / No Comments /  

Data.com Clean vs RampedUp Salesforce Clean

Salesforce recently announced the retirement of Data.com Clean, leaving their users scrambling for alternatives. RampedUp is helping data.com customers with the following functionality:

Account and Contact Table Cleaning  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the average person changes jobs ten to fifteen times (with an average of 12 job changes) during his or her career. That has a very tangible impact on the health of your CRM but also a great opportunity to follow your old customers to their new jobs for quick wins.

Real-Time Lead Appending.  The premise is simple, use the leads table to qualify contacts, companies, and opportunities before they care converted into permanent records. Once this policy is in place, add real-time lead appending to clean leads as they come into your system. If you have one point of entry into Salesforce.com and the point is reinforced with a cleansing tool, your data will enter current, complete, and accurate.

Account Cleaning – User Enabled.  An account cleansing tool will empower the user to clean up the accounts and contacts that are important to them and thus important to the entire company.  Old contacts will be labelled as such and their replacements will be imported ensuring the entire buying committee is represented.

RampedUp is offering a credit exchange program for all Data.com users – fill out the form Here to see if you qualify.

August 17, 2018 / No Comments /  

Why the Best Salespeople Cold Call Like Crazy

Gordon Tredgold Founder and CEO of Leadership Principles wrote a wonderful article entitled, “Why the Best Salespeople Cold Call Like Crazy” in Inc. – It can be found here.  My favorite quote is the following, “I read that 90% of C-Levels don’t answer the phone. It’s a survey, it’s wrong. They don’t want to admit that they do. They do! Many CXOs were once sellers and will accept a valiant, pro effort to reach them.”

“The opportunity is vast for the courageous. Be bold! Be a bull breaking fine china! Pick up the phone. Make sure you have the data you need to directly dial.” This last part is particularly true. A recent study from Funnel Clarity found that a seller is 147% more likely to have conversation with a VP by calling that person directly.

Gordon goes on to state, “Call prospects that scare you. Call the people that make the decision first. Don’t over think it but ensure you have the right narrative by leading with why the conversation matters. Don’t research all day. I couldn’t agree with the last part more – the old paralysis by analyses syndrome. I wrote this blog about limiting your research to 3 minutes before you call a prospect.

The math is eye opening. By committing to a calling campaign and adding direct dials to you will net results quickly. A study from TOPO found the average connect rate for a seller is 18:1 – or 18 dials to connect with 1 decision maker in the course of an hour.  The average Time to Dial is 80 seconds for a switchboard vs. 45 seconds to call them directly.  So the math here is quite simple – having direct dial phone numbers save the average seller 15 minutes per hour.

Imagine giving your sellers 25% of their calling hours back to them. Also, imagine the phone fatigue a seller experiences when they have to navigate a phone tree to “hopefully” find their prospect.  If you haven;t picked up the phone in a while you should try it – it isn’t fun.

 

 

August 16, 2018 / No Comments /