Press Release: RampedUp Announces Data.com Credit Matching Program to Qualified Companies

Atlanta, GA, March 9, 2019. RampedUp announced today that the company is matching all existing contact credits of Data.com customers. On May 3rd, 2018, Salesforce.com discontinued selling Data.com Connect. As a result, RampedUp is matching all Data.com credits for existing customers. To claim the credits, customers must be able to show proof of account ownership and existing credits.

Scott Miller, Founder of RampedUp, “Salesforce.com has cultivated a very loyal following of customers that have accumulated hundreds and thousands of credits. These customers will be left out in the cold when Data.com is discontinued on May 4th, 2019.  For many people this is the lifeblood of their business. That’s why we created this program – to give these people an alternative.”

RampedUp provides Human Validated Direct Dial data.  This is different from the Data.com model of crowd-sourcing but lends itself to better accuracy and less duplication,  Data.com users will find a familiar interface for contact data and integration with Salesforce.com. They will also find the quantity to which they are accustomed:

  • 100 Million Global Contact records
  • 9 Million Companies
  • 9000 Daily Trigger Events delivered to the inbox

William Lennon,  Chief Sales Officer at GroupBDO, “As GroupBDO had to find an alternative to Data.com we were; quite frankly, a little scared of what the replacement marketplace presented to us. We were used to getting information quickly and without fuss and after looking at several of the vendors we did not feel that we could see a fit until we came across RampedUp! We are glad that we did and have been very happy with our downloads and the ease of use.“

January 24, 2019 / No Comments /  

Finding Old Customers

When is bad news good news for sellers? When one of your existing customers moves to another company. New executives are hired to bring in new agendas and are often looking to replace existing relationships in their first 3-6 months. As an example, a new sales executive will make $1,000,000 in their first 90 days in the office.

Identifying the executives that are important to your sales process and “helping them unpack” allows you to earn the right to help them set their new agenda.   Even better, by following your OC/NC’s (old contact / new company) to their new place of business shortens sales cycles due to the familiarity with your product. Here are a some ideas to find old customers.

First, take inventory of your customer base including all former users as far back as you find necessary. Second, run a data health check to identify users that have moved to other companies and update that data within your platform. Also consider appending personal email addresses to your database of former users.  When you do solicit your old customers – try these approaches for a “Help them Unpack” campaign:

1. Recognize, appreciate, and thank your Past customers for past patronage. Let them know they’re important enough to you.

2. Remind them of why they chose to do business with you in the first place (perhaps this is your unique selling proposition or the largest result they hoped to achieve with you).

3. Give a time-limited offer exclusively for former customers as a token of appreciation for past business with you.

RampedUp can help identify your old customers within your current database or update the old users with their current contact data.  We would love to help.

January 21, 2019 / No Comments /  

Speak Directly to the Decision Maker

Getting the Attention of the Decision Maker – its a tough business but if you know what you are doing it can be the difference in making or breaking your goals. Getting the Attention of the Decision Maker 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, speaking directly to the decision maker 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! 

Tactical Approach:  When calling a decision makers, 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.   By committing to calling decision makers directly you will net results quickly. A study from TOPO found the the average Time to Dial is 80 seconds for a switchboard vs. 45 seconds to dial direct.  So the math here is quite simple – having direct dial phone numbers save the average seller 15 minutes per hour.

Tailored Messaging: If you are looking to translate your conversation with a decision maker into a real appointment – you need to be capture their attention within the first 10 seconds – then keep it with asking informed questions. The challenge however is how to prep for a quality call but not slow down on the volume of calls needed for successful campaigning. We recommend taking 3 minutes before you call a decision maker and prepare with the account, buyers, and use cases.

Minute One – The Account.  Companies make purchases because they are either dissatisfied with what they currently have or they have a pain they have yet to remedy.  Its the seller’s responsibility to understand which one to make the right sales play.  First, ascertain if the prospect is using a competitive solution to see if they have already addressed the issue your company can solve.  It they have not, look for triggering events to link your solution to solve stated pains or goals.  Use the News!

Minute Two – The Buyers.  CEB has stated that the average B2B purchase has 5.4 decision makers and most sellers are talking to the lowest one on the org chart.  Successful sellers uncover the entire buying committee by name and position.  Then they have these individuals ready to reference as fellow decision makers in the sales process.  By letting the decision maker know – you know the other players it shows you are prepared.

Minute Three – Use Cases. Buyers want to understand how their peers have used your solution to solve similar problems.  Having specific use cases available by industry, size, location, competitor, title, and product before the call will show the prospect you are knowledgeable and prepared. 

If you do not get the decision maker on the phone then always leave a voicemail – this is a chance at a 30 second commercial. On the voicemail, tell the decision maker when you are going to call back and ensure you do so! If you get the decision maker on the phone and cannot secure the appointment, then ask them to refer you to the other members of the buying committee you have researched. Call them out by name. Lastly, ask if there is anyone outside of their company whom they would recommend. Never miss an chance for a referral.

If all else fails the main point to consider is that your buyers are very busy and you are one of many unsolicited interruptions they receive during their day. There is no perfect pitch – but there is a perfect campaign. Today might not be good but tomorrow is better. This message might not work but the next one might. This might not be the right person but the next person could be. Keep at it but the one thing you have to be is – tailored. The form emails and voicemails will never get the attention of the decision maker.

January 18, 2019 / No Comments /  

Use the News for Personalization

For all intents and purposes – mass communication in demand generation is dead. Tools like SalesLoft and Outreach have made it too easy for sellers to send bulk solicitation to their buyers.  As a result – these buyers tune out and unsubscribe.  And that’s even if you make it into their inbox.

Savvy sellers understand that their solicitations not only need to be personalized – they need to be impactful. Introducing Trigger Event Selling.

Trigger Event Selling is very simple concept; companies share their achievements or goals in the form of press releases and we as sales people align our products and services to help reinforce those achievements or goals.  If a company takes the time, energy, and effort to create a press release then that company obviously thinks the topic is very important.  The opposite is also the case.  If a company is receiving bad press then that company wants to be able to tell the media, stock holders, and customers that that company is doing everything within its power to rectify the situation. And more importantly, has the process in place to ensure it won’t happen again.

 “You’ve been told for years that there is no silver bullet in sales. But there is. It is called timing – getting in front of the right person at EXACTLY the right time. When you have the right timing, the sale almost closes itself – you have fewer challenges getting to the prospect, understanding their dissatisfaction, presenting a solution, or selling at a much higher price.” Craig Elias – Founder of Shift Selling

In his opinion, the silver bullet in sales is timing and to reach the right person at the right time with the right message is how you find that silver bullet.  Sellers looking for silver bullets should focus on the three P’s:

People – New executives are hired to bring in new agendas and are often looking to replace existing relationships in their first 3-6 months.  Identifying the executives that are important to your sales process and “helping them unpack” allows you to earn the right to help them set their new agenda.  

Product – New products and services receive the lions-share of a company’s attention to help them get off the ground.  They are promoted with press releases and social media posts that are easy to spot.  What isn’t easy however is connecting your service to the success of the new product unless you have access to a relevant use-cases.  Make the connection simple and effective by providing a reference library for your sellers.

Places – When companies expand to new markets, they make for great triggering events for sellers. Companies that are moving into new states or countries also have compliance obligations that are non-negotiable.  If your service can help with this compliance, then you are in a great position. New markets like EMEA or APAC require completely new go-to-market strategies that in-country services can uniquely provide.

Here is an example of using the news for Personalization:

Hi John,

As the VP of Sales at Tellio, I am looking to get 15 minutes of your time to discuss improving seller results through Account Based Selling tools.  If this doesn’t fall under you directly, perhaps you could forward me to Jane Dixon in Sales Operations.

I recently saw where Tellio has a new product line helping HR professionals, complimenting your already strong presence with Finance.  RampedUp has helped similar companies in the Human Resources space such as Ceridian and Workday by improving seller productivity by 27%. How? We provided company, customer, and contact details all inside of the account record in Salesforce.com.  Now sellers don’t have to search for time-consuming sales data outside of their CRM.

Again, if you are free for 15 minutes next Tuesday afternoon then I can share in greater detail.

January 16, 2019 / No Comments /  

Tips and Tricks on how to Avoid No-Shows for your B2B Appointments

There is nothing more infuriating as a seller than having a No-Show appointment. It is the culmination of prep and hard work only to result in the ultimate let down. We have all been there. The truth is however there are many things that you can do to decrease your No-Show rate. They start with how you set the appointment, making it easy for them to attend, and becoming a priority for the prospect. 

Setting the Appointment – When you finally get the prospect to agree to meet with you, remember the hardest objection to overcome is no objection at all. That is why you must ask qualifying questions to build rapport and value with the prospect. Jeremy Donovan, SVP Sales Strategy & GM at SalesLoft recommends the following, “So I can better prepare, what are you looking to get from our meeting?” or, less formally, “Prepping for our meeting… anything specific you’d like to cover?”  You also want to ask the prospect who else “would find value” in attending the meeting or recommend additional attendees that you know are part of the buying committee.  The simple truth is the more people who attend the better your chances are for avoiding a No-Show. 

As you close the appointment – ask for the prospect’s direct dial phone number or confirm the number if you already have it.  Ask the customer for permission to call them directly if something comes up or if their day becomes too busy.  (They will always concede and you will need this permission later.) If the prospect wants a date more than two weeks in the future then tell them that your company has a policy that doesn’t allow for appointments that far in advance – perhaps we can try something sooner. Another simple truth is the farther out – the less likely to attend.

Make it easy to Attend – Once the appointment is set then your job is to make it is easy as possible to attend.  Don’t just send a confirmation email – send a calendar invite.  Ensure your calendar invite has a value-centric subject line and not just Demo or Check-In. In the invite, provide a dial in number and link to a web conference.  I prefer a dial in because the prospect has a large window to make a call instead of a short window to take a call from you.  Depending on your audience, you also should consider a reputable web conference software and avoid Google Hang Outs or Skype. It could give the wrong impression to serious buyers. Lastly, provide a tailored agenda based on the qualification questions when you set the appointment. This way the prospect understands exactly what will be covered during the meeting.

Be a Priority – Our prospects are inundated with requests for their time both internally and externally so it is our responsibility to be a priority for them. Showing them you are a real person with genuine business value by connecting with them on LinkedIn.  You may want to follow them on other social channels like Twitter as well.  You also want to remind them of the appointment via email the day before and the day of.  I also recommend starting the appointment 5 minutes early and sending out a calendar reminder. If the prospect isn’t showing up on time, use the No-Show Check list:

  • Email after 5 minutes
  • Text after 10 minutes
  • Call after 15 minutes – leave a voicemail
  • InMail after 20 minutes

You want to wait at least 20 minutes because our prospects are busy and they often run late.  If they do show up, they will be contrite and open to your pitch.  Don’t rush the meeting however, if you can’t fit your demo within the time allotment then ask for more time or reschedule.

If your prospect bags the appointment altogether then you want to save the time and energy you put into setting it in the first place.  First research why they might have missed the appointment.  There could be time zone confusion, bad weather, a holiday, or a local event.  When you send the email to reschedule mentioning this will show empathy and give them an easy out. Let them reschedule using scheduling software but remember to share your call prep and remind them why they set the appointment in the first place.

Post Mortem – We have no shows at RampedUp but almost all of them are rescheduled and executed. That wasn’t always the case however, we had to take a close look at our no-show rate and discover what they had in common.  The easiest answer was that the no-shows hadn’t confirmed our calendar appointment so we now cancel the meeting if they haven’t done so 24 hours before the call.  We also don’t set appointments outside of our Ideal Customer Profile – they just aren’t worth our time. I recommend you find the commonality in your No-Shows as well to close the gap.

Let’s Kick Off the New Year with 5 Healthy Demand Generation Habits!  Register Here!

January 15, 2019 / No Comments /  

Setting Up Referrals as a Service for B2B

Referrals are the lifeblood of any successful B2B Marketing program but is perhaps the most under utilized tool for demand generation today. People are 4X more likely to buy a product when it is referred to them by a friend! With traditional marketing techniques taking such a huge hit in effectiveness – businesses are looking for new ways to fill the funnel. Make referrals part of your new year by formalizing the process, making it part of your sale and activating your customer base!

Provided by Influitive

Formalize the process –  Let your team know you are setting up a robust referral program complete with KPI’s and ownership. Create a referral portal to log and track referrals or look to companies like Influitive to do it for you. We recommend incentives for referrals such as a 5% referral bonus or a free month of service. You most certainly want to involve your employees and offer the incentives to them as well. Kick the campaign off with a press release and a quote from your executives. Look to traditional sources to promote your new initiative such as your website, social sites, and blog but also look at non-traditional sites such as your app’s log in page or the email signature of your customer success team.

Make it part of your sale – Referrals don’t have to just come from existing customers, they can come from prospects as well.

  • First Call: Can you think of anyone else within your organization that would be a good fit?
  • Presentation: Can you think of anyone else within your network that would be a good fit?
  • Negotiation: Exchange discounts for a promise of referrals
  • Customer: Ask for referrals during the honeymoon stage – 30 days after the contract is signed. 

Activate your Customer Base – Of course the most likely referral will come from a satisfied customer. 83% of satisfied customers are likely to recommend your company to their peers but how do you know which customers are most satisfied? We use the simple NPS score of asking customers on a scale of 1 – 10 (10 being the highest) how likely they are to recommend us to friends or family. NPS is usually used as a success metric but if you receive an 9 or 10 – turn that data around quickly for a referral. But be proactive as well – find the most active users on your site and contact them for a referral and make the referral process as part of the customer success experience. Customers that have had an issue resolved are happy customers and more willing to share their positive experience in the form of a referral.

Let’s Kick Off the New Year with 5 Healthy Demand Generation Habits!  Register Here!

Referrals are in places outside of your line of site as well. Look up your company is user forums such as G2 Crowd, TrustRadius, or Capterra. Search your enablement community or complementary technologies for positive recommendations online and turn kind words into referrals as well.

A referred customer has 16% higher lifetime value than customers acquired through other methods so it is definitely worth the time to get a formalized referral plan in place.

January 14, 2019 / No Comments /  

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 /  1

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 /