Scott Schonberger is the president of City Wide of Georgia. City Wide has made a name for itself in major U.S. cities by streamlining commercial facilities and maintenance management of more than 20 services through a collection of service providers and alliance partners, including floor care, window washing, janitorial supplies, parking lot maintenance and several others. Taking the onus off building owners and property management companies that typically have to choose separate companies for each task, City Wide eases the selection and management processes for its clients.
César Restrepo, from Colombia is one of the founders of Emprendedores Latinos USA (Latino entrepreneurs of USA). His background and education in the arts has made of him a person with creativity and enthusiasm. In 2012, his life takes an unexpected turn when he decides to risk everything to become an entrepreneur. Since then, his vision has been to integrate the fragmented community of Latino entrepreneurs in the U.S. César has founded two companies since. One Voice Language Solutions, a company dedicated to the interpretation and translation of documents in over 80 languages. His latest business venture is Gourmet Wonders, an import product for distinguished Gourmet supermarket chains, restaurants, chefs, etc. In January 2013, César, with a group of innovative entrepreneurs decided to start a grassroots movement: Entrepreneurs Latino USA, an organization that seeks to inspire, educate and connect the Latino entrepreneurs. In addition to his business activities, César is an opera singer, and passionate about agriculture, kitchen and family.
Keren Granados, born in Salamanca, Guanajuato,Mexico is a bilingual entrepreneur whose passion is to inspire entrepreneurship, facilitate business training and cultural integration in the US. After having completed her degree in business administration at the Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico, Keren immigrated to America in search of her master’s degree from which she holds a Master business administration (MBA) from National University, La Jolla, California in 2011.
Keren is also President and CEO of One Voice Language Solutions, a company of interpretation and translation that develops and implements strategies for companies in the field of health, legal and corporate, connecting them with new markets. Keren is also vice president of Latino Entrepreneurs USA, a nonprofit organization that aims to inspire, educate and connect the Latino in order to stimulate the creation of new businesses in Latino communities in the United States. Within their roles in the organization is the anchor for “Emprendedores” in internet TV channel. Also, she is the President of Casa Guanajuato – Georgia a nonprofit organization where impacts the largest immigrant community from Mexico of the state of Guanajato in the state of Georgia where it creates programs to support communities in need in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico.
Keren has over 10 years of practice in accounting and currently she is focusing on domestic and international franchises. Expert in industries such as food and beverage, interpretation and translation, import and export business creation and development, Keren also has over seven years of experience as a certified tax preparer.
Jeremy Lefkovitz, from Venezuela, is the founder and co-owner od Andi’s which for a year was a simple planting wheat grass project in the basement of Lefkovits in Atlanta, and is now a success venture with twelve employees in an area of two hectares, in Forsyth Co, Georgia . Andi’s Way is since 2011 a company with a growing business whose main customer is Whole Foods. In its premises (Whole Foods) you can order freshly squeezed wheat grass juice by one of its employees. Among Whole Foods and other stores, such as Earth Fare, Andi’s Way has over a hundred outlets to the public, especially in the Southeast. Jeremy and M’Lee, his wife, work long hours devoted to the vicissitudes of the business. She used to be a pharmaceutical sales representative company, and now she is the one in charge of the technical process of planting and experimenting with different vegetables in order to expand the product line; he, with his training in business and finance, handles marketing, promoting the brand in the Southeast of the U.S.
ABOUT EMPRENDEDORES LATINOS USA.
Emprendedores Latinos USA is a grassroots organization that exist with the purpose of inspiring, educating and connecting the Latino entrepreneur in the U.S. with a Local and National footprint.
Visión. To create an organization that is driving-force for Latinos by forging paths that transcends language, culture and geographic barriers in order to inspire the entrepreneur spirit in Latino communities throughout the United States.
Misión. To create unique experiences and events that will offer inspiration, opportunities and professional development for Latino entrepreneurs in order to create new business and foster development and economic growth.
ABOUT #VIVAMYBUSINESS.
VivaMiNegocio or VivaMyBusiness is THE largest & most anticipated Business Forum for Latino entrepreneurs and decision-makers in Atlanta and surrounding areas. At the #VivaMiNegocio EXPO, the audience can learn about products & services offered by more than a hundred companies. At the same time, the event will help these business owners exceed their goals networking with other industry professionals, attending informative and cutting-edge WORKSHOPS, and most important: being exposed to a large audience ready to learn about their services, products, and ideas. Latino business owners, entrepreneurs and companies eager to connect with the Latino business community will be part of this joint effort. The COCKTAIL & GALA event aims to honor business leaders in the Hispanic community who have blazed a trail for entrepreneurship as well as up and coming small businesses who’ve achieved success in the following categories: Innovation, Creativity, Perseverance and Community Service.
Working with VCs, PEs and startup Founders in Atlanta, Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach/LA. Biographical Data (This space will expand.) Steven has 25+ years experience as an accomplished Fortune 50 global strategic brand marketer and CMO with GM expertise in consumer-centric brand building, transformational innovation, B2C and B2B business development and account management with P&G, Coca-Cola and Samsung Electronics, as well as startup experience in Palo Alto, LA and Atlanta.
He has built and led iconic, image-based CPG and durable passion brands globally online and offline in the highly competitive Electronics, Tech, Entertainment, Beverage, Food, Cosmetics, Personal Care, and Health & Well-being categories where building customer intimacy and strong emotional connections with consumers is critical to growing brand equity and KPI results.
Steven is the Founder, Managing Partner of FortuneCMO LLC www.FortuneCMO.co working with Fortune 1000 companies, VCs, PEs & startup Founders leveraging his global CMO experience. He is working with Forté Ventures www.ForteVentures.com/Advisors and Champion Capital Group www.ChampionCapitalGroup.com serving in CMO, Biz Dev, Product Innovation & capital raise roles.
Steven was Samsung Electronics SVP, CMO, North America where he led Brand Marketing B2C and B2B teams and agencies across the $25 Billion Divisions. He was part of the Executive Team that contributed to Samsung maintaining its #1 share in HDTV and achieving #1 share in Mobile Phone in the U.S., and creating synergy across Product Groups.
Steven served as Coca-Cola VP Worldwide Strategic Planning, Business Development and Marketing for 13 years leading global and local teams to develop innovative consumer-driven brand strategies, technologies and programs. His brand marketing career started with P&G leading iconic brands and growth initiatives in N. America, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific for 13 years.
Steven is regularly invited to Chair CMO events, keynote, and lead panels at global CMO thought leadership conferences. Steven is the Resident Digital CMO and Contributing Editor for CMO.com , a Writer for Forbes CMO Network, and has been published in other leading CMO and business ePubs. http://newsle.com/StevenCook He is on the Palo Alto-based CMO Council Advisory Board. He is a Charter Member of TiE Atlanta https://atlanta.tie.org the 4th largest Chapter in the TiE global entrepreneur network.
Matthew Kroge, 2015 MBA candidate, Georgia Tech, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Matthew has a BS in Civil Engineering, BA in Physics, Black Belt in Six Sigma and is a registered Professional Engineer in GA and SC. He has over a decade of experience in operations and sales in multiple industries, and is currently a Territory Manager for a heavy industrial equipment distributor.
Nathan is a PhD candidate in Material Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. Nathan is an inventor of Viapore’s surface-porous technology and has practical experience commercializing new technologies from his time at MedShape, Inc., where he worked as part of a team to clear new materials and devices through the FDA approval process.
Liv Harrison is a Certified Health Coach, business professional, German teacher and loving mother of one. She decided to become a Certified Health Coach in 2012 to fulfill her passion to work with business professionals to improve their health and happiness, reduce their stress level, have more energy and learn how to eat better on the “Go” or at home.
Liv received her training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City and is certified by the AADP. She offers individual health, nutrition and lifestyle coaching and is also a group workshop presenter.
She was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. While graduating in honor from the apprenticeship program for Hotel Management, she received a scholarship for further education. She then completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from City University at the Frankfurt Germany Campus in 2002. Liv is also a certified Personal Trainer and currently working on her Cancer Exercise Specialist Certification.
Ms. Harrison came to the US in 2002 for a job offer in Florida. She is bilingual in German and English. She loves basketball, track, horse back riding and fitness. She is a very outgoing people person and has a passion for helping individuals. Liv is part of a ‘Giving Club’ and volunteers at ‘The Launch Pad Foundation’ where free housing, mentorship and coaching sessions are provided to individuals who faced various challenges.
Liv supports business professionals to find the right balance in life. Her mission is to help individuals to achieve their optimal health and happiness and be the best they can be at all times.
“Heal, grow, breakfree – be in charge of how you feel.”
For more info on Liv With Bliss upcoming 5k in Marietta, GA please visit Active.com: Legs & Eggs 5k Run/ Walk
Cheri Augustine Flake is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 20 years of experience helping people in the Atlanta area. Cheri has worked as a social worker and therapist in numerous settings including inpatient, outpatient, pharmaceutical research, and private practice. Her training includes Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Michigan State University, and a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Georgia. Cheri is also a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist as well as a Certified Distance Credentialed Counselor. Cheri is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers, the National Association of Social Workers, the Georgia Society of Clinical Social Work and the International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy.
Posh Life is a Professional Organizing and Consulting company. We specialize in sustainable solutions to help you face your organization challenges and accomplish your goal of living a more appointed lifestyle. With a focus in residential, business, and lifestyle organization, our services cater to each individual’s personality and style. Our services are completely confidential and we guarantee respect when handling your possessions. Serving the Atlanta Metropolitan area to include Clayton, Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb, Douglas and Gwinnett counties, we look forward to working with you.
Marc Gorlin has been a successful entrepreneur in Atlanta for almost 20 years. Marc previously co-founded Kabbage Inc., which provides working capital to small and medium-sized businesses and has raised more than $100 million in venture funding and has a $270 million credit facility from Guggenheim Securities. In 1996, Marc was a co-founder and an original board member of Pretty Good Privacy (“PGP”), a company formed to commercialize one of the most prevalent security standards used on the Internet, and recently popularized in the book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Marc assisted with the initial formation of PGP and oversaw the financing, growth and eventual sale of the company (to Network Associates (Nasdaq: INTC), a public company worth over $1 billion) in December of 1997. After PGP, Marc co-founded VerticalOne Corporation, a content personalization service that was sold to S1 Corporation (Nasdaq: ACIW) for $166 million. Marc was Executive Vice President of VerticalOne and worked in multiple areas of the company including financing, business development, sales, M&A and security issues. Marc is an active speaker on raising venture funding and has spoken at the Technology Association of Georgia, Internet Summit, Southeastern Venture Conference, and Finovate among other conferences. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and remains an avid bulldog fan.
BullsEye Telecom Inc. is a leading telecommunications provider empowering enterprises nationwide with the tools needed to consolidate and better manage critical business functions. BullsEye sets the industry standard for voice and data solutions designed to increase employee productivity, reduce costs and enhance the overall business performance. One telecom partner for complete phone and converged network solutions and support.
Having built a legendary reputation as a unique, different and innovative telecommunications provider, BullsEye is a high-growth, Inc. 500 company. BullsEye has earned the trust of SMBs and Multi-Location National Corporations alike, with telecom solutions that leverage new technologies. Their customers gain operational efficiencies and save with the simplicity and convenience of one accountable supplier, competitive pricing and a single invoice for all locations nationwide. BullsEye guarantees reliability, performance and security. Add to that the peace of mind customers receive from their proprietary online telecom expense management tools and unsurpassed customer support.
Founded in 1999, BullsEye,offers Hosted PBX, voice, data, digital voice, cellular, hosted IP, network security, unified communications and cloud-based managed services. Recipient of the prestigious ChannelVision Magazine 2015 Channel Deployment of the Year Award and recognized for its ongoing innovation with the 2014 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award as well as the 2013 Internet Telephony Award, BullsEye successfully migrates single and multi-location businesses from traditional phone service to Hosted IP PBX, Digital Voice and much more. For more information visit www.bullseyetelecom.com or call 877-438-2855.
Arash is a Chief Medicine Resident at Emory University School of Medicine and the Managing Director of Forge, an initiative that supports healthcare startups by connecting founders, engineers, clinicians and designers. You can reach him at arash@forgehealth.org or linkedin.com/in/arashharzand.
For 103 years, dental professionals have considered the Thomas P. Hinman Dental Meeting to be one of the premier sources of continuing education. The meeting continues to attract the country’s leading, most respected clinicians and lecturers in the field of dentistry today.
Atlanta Business Radio Host Lee Kantor “walks the carpet” at Hinman 2015, stopping along the way to visit with several Exhibitors . . .
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As a marketing and communications strategist with over nine years of strategic experience in B2B and B2C markets, Tami joined SalesLoft to scale the marketing team and lead digital, content marketing, and inbound lead generation initiatives across multiple platforms.
Tami delivers branding insights and channels collaborative discussion among internal and external audiences. A champion for guerilla marketing and taking big risks to gain traction in a dynamic market, Tami was named the 2014 B2B Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Marketing Innovator of the Year.
A former NCAA Division 1 collegiate tennis player, Tami believes in the strength of collaboration and exudes passion for career and teammates. Rooted firmly in South African soil where she grew up, Tami now calls Atlanta home, a city she believes holds exponential potential and a distinct flavor of home.
It was an absolute delight having her back in the studio — and as expected, she had a great deal of wisdom to share.
Here’s the Full Broadcast Audio and Segment Transcript from Tami’s first appearance with us on January 5, 2015…
Lee: Lee Kantor here with Stone Payton another episode of Atlanta Business Radio and this is going to be a good one, Stone.
Stone: Hey I have been looking forward to this segment, ever since the holidays. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce the Director of Marketing for SalesLoft, please join me in welcoming to the broadcast Miss Tami McQueen. Welcome to the show.
Tami: Thanks Stone, such a pleasure to be here this afternoon.
Lee: Well, SalesLoft you have been in Atlanta for a while now but you got some big news.
Tami: Absolutely we have seen a tremendous growth from where we were last year this time, and I think it is such a great idea when you kick off the year in 2015 to see how far we have come and where we are taking SalesLoft this year. To give you a bit of highlight reel I shared with Stone a little bit earlier that I wanted to give you a bit of recap of what SalesLoft has been doing.
Lee: Yes why don’t you start with first what are you guys about?
Tami: Yes, we are the easiest and fastest way on the internet to build a list of prospects. We use a Google Chrome extension and you can search by industry, title and location for your prospects. It is the application of record of your sales development team and we truly believe that the sales development team is the biggest innovation to happen to the sales process in the past decade.
Lee: So now how were people doing it before SalesLoft?
Tami: They were scouring the internet and copying and pasting names from whatever site they could get their hands on and then searching through Google for these email addresses of their prospects.
Lee: So now I use SalesLoft, I go online, I get the extension in my– is it only Chrome or on all the browsers?
Tami: It is a Chrome extension.
Lee: So I go to Chrome, go get that extension and then now I type in..
Tami: Correct, so for example you would look for a search of VP of sales in Atlanta for a SAAS, software as a service companies and you will get a list on Google of all these names and you can then import their email addresses into a CRM specifically integrated with salesforce.com.
Lee: So this is made for salesforce.com or it works..?
Tami: It is not made specifically for sales force, it does have a direct integration. However, you can use a download of a CSP file as well.
Lee: Cool, so now you mentioned that you guys got some highlight you want to share?
Tami: Absolutely, so last year this time we had 4 employees and now we are at 40.
Lee: Wow!
Tami: So that is 700% growth which is really exciting and then last year we also started the year off just shy of 200,000 in annual reccurring revenue, we closed our Q4 with $ 4.6 million dollars. So that is a 2,200% increase.
Lee: So what turned the corner for you guys?
Tami: As I mentioned with the application of record for the sales development team is we really believe in the art of specialization of the sales process. What we have done is taken sales development to focus primarily on prospecting leads and your account executives who focus on closing the deals and it’s really that..
Lee: So you have kind of separated them?
Tami: We have separated them yes.
Lee: So previously it was the same person and they get hung-up on all the admin part of just searching.
Tami: Everything, they were searching, they were finding these people, they were reaching out, they were setting a demo and they were trying to close the lead as well.
Lee: So that is one individual.
Tami: One individual is typically doing that in a traditional sales organization.
Lee: So you kind of shook that up a little.
Tami: Turned it on its head and really introduced the art of specialization, not only does this decrease the time people have spent on prospecting but it really maximizes their focus on channeling the right leads at the right times.
Lee: So but now somebody’s job is just the prospecting it. They are just plugging names into the Google Chrome extension using SalesLoft.
Tami: Right exactly and then what they do is we solve.. we have this idea of okay, so you have prospected all these leads, and now what do you do with them?
Lee: So now I have got this long list. Now what?
Tami: You have this long list now what do you do with them and that’s where SalesLoft Cadence comes in to it. We released the new product, took it to market in October of last year and this solves the problem of what you do with all the prospects.
Lee: So what do you do with them?
Tami: And it is a..putting them into a rhythm and a cadence and that allows you to set a type of outreach program whether you want to send on the first day an email, second day you want to leave a voice mail and an email and it’s how many touches over a seven day process or however long that cadence is and it allows you to set and increase appointments by about 200% to 300%.
Lee: So you recommend some combination of email and voice mail?
Tami: Absolutely yes.
Lee: So you need to have somebody that is on the phone as well as somebody sending.
Tami: That is the same person, that is your sales development rep typically, yes.
Lee: So you have a prospecting person; you have a sales development person?
Tami: That is the same person.
Lee: One person?
Tami: Yes
Lee: And then what about the closure?
Tami: The closure that is the separate, so once you get that demo set, we put them with the closure who is a prospecting expert and we pass them on to them.
Lee: So you need two people now.
Tami: Two people.
Lee: And one person is kind of pre sales and one person is sales forward.
Tami: Exactly.
Lee: And when once the sale happens, do you get to a third person that is the manager of the account?
Tami: Yes, we send them off to our clients success team, which is our client adequate team and we like to say we drink our own cool-aid in that we use our own products and what we do with our clients success team is they are everything from on boarding a new client to sharing how the best practices work for their specific industry and how they can best maximize the product.
Lee: So now like you said that you guys used the same situation so for you are you looking for that same person,
that VP of sales or the CMO.
Tami: Exactly, that is our target market. CMO, VPs of sales, the link of sales.
Lee: So now you have, okay once you’ve identified them then you have some outbound email like hey, here is a tip or here is some white paper.
Tami: Exactly, yeas we have our own cadence that we send out, and we have its true fault for SalesLoft. Number 1 is the outbound prospecting with our sales development team, secondly is our marketing team who does all inbound reach which is independent of the sales development team. We focus on content marketing, thought leadership, we want to be the go to source in the sales development industry, and that’s producing blogs, white papers, and e-books.
Lee: So you are creating a lot of content yourself.
Tami: That provides value to the audience that we are reaching out to. And I like to give the analogy that we want to be a vitamin rather than a pain reliever, it is a daily need first, not just when you have an issue.
Lee: Right but in the real world most people take pain relievers, not vitamins.
Tami: Well I don’t know who you’re hanging out with.
Lee: So you are creating a lot of this thought leadership and now is that, just your internal staff like this is just Kyle [SP] being smart on top of the mountain.
Tami: That’s everything we need from Kyle is trying to get inside his brain and get all that information out, but we have a team on a marketing side that is working constantly on producing top contents and constantly putting out great value pieces for the community.
Lee: Now is that a challenge for you because I am sure for some of your clients that you know it sounds great, like oh yes we have this system, we just need content and now some young person is charged with getting this content out of the brain of some older person, C level person, isn’t that a challenge for some companies?
Tami: I think it can definitely be a challenge by that’s looking at what does the buyer need, what does the user needs, what problems are they facing in the industry that we can provide value to and none of our content that we produce is salesey, we are not trying to push SalesLoft, we are not trying to..
Lee: You are just trying to educate them about…
Tami: We are trying to educate them and instill the process of sales development or how prospecting can better be used in an outbound [SS]
Lee: Best practices and research right.
Tami: Best practices, videos, research, we do a lot of guest posts. We are a guest on salesforce.com, Forbes, SASTER and we really collaborate with a lot of leaders in the industry as well.
Lee: To get their story about how they are solving on this problem right?
Tami: Absolutely, yes.
Lee: Because you want to be the person that they go to get that information, so you are out there trying to find it.
Tami: Exactly.
Stone: So what is your back story personally? How did you get involved in this kind of work?
Tami: My back story, I have been in marketing throughout my career and I joined SalesLoft in about the early summer last year and reached out through call on LinkedIn specifically and dove into the marketing team and led the team to different heights on contents as well as SEO, we’re focusing on the social media as well and it has just been a passion to see how getting comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation, how startups are very dynamic in the market, a SAAS Company is changing very quickly, it is moving fast and finding ways to provide value in a market that is moving very very quickly.
Lee: Now were you here in America, when you found SalesLoft?
Tami: Yes, yes, I have been in the US for 12 years. Back story, I was recruited. I used to play tennis in college, went to grad school.
Lee: What college?
Tami: Murray State University. Go racers and moved to Dallas, Texas for a short while and then Atlanta, so I like to call Atlanta my home.
Lee: So when you were here in Atlanta, were you working in marketing for other firms?
Tami: Yes I was.
Lee: And that’s where you found Kyle?
Tami: Yes, yes.
Lee: So now how did you leverage LinkedIn? Any tips for somebody that is looking for a job to leverage LinkedIn?
Tami: Absolutely, you have to be active on LinkedIn and get involved in groups, find groups that specifically are around your area of expertise. I would recommend a professional photo. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a selfie on LinkedIn or a prom photo or a wedding picture.
Lee: A prom photo, really?
Tami: Exactly. Get a professional head shot, it’s well worth it’s weight and you want to be able to have a clear distinct message, what your outlook is, what you are looking for? And share some stories, what you have done, be a quantitative approach to LinkedIn. Give stats, I increased sales by 60% over the course of 2014. Give some quantitative results as well.
Stone: Beyond just, “I throw the best parties.”
Lee: Should you lead with that because culture is important in a startup?
Stone: I want to ask about startups because you mentioned that earlier, does this service really lend itself to startups, can they afford to utilize a service like this?
Tami: Yes absolutely, this product is something that a startup can use to an SMB to an enterprise company as well. There are different levels of applications so that you can use it, different processing models and it is a great opportunity for whether you are a one man show or you are leading a Fortune 500.
Lee: Now I want to talk about the culture because going from 4 to 40 is dramatic in a lot of ways and how did you guys manage that?
Tami: It is huge and I am so glad you brought up the culture aspect because this is something that we hold so true to our values and our core values we have incorporated is to be positive, supportive and self starting and when we go into the hiring process, we look at folks who can punch above their way class and are in the top 1% of folks who attribute those core values to their lives and our hiring process is very vigorous in that we hire for those core values we want and it’s understandably David Cummings shared the quote that “Culture is the only aspect of the business that you have complete control over” and so it goes beyond moving to a point where you’re just filling seats and it is really taking the time to fill those seats and to add team players who can contribute the business, the growth and the culture as well.
Lee: So now you are the director of Marketing, what are your looking for in a marketer?
Tami: Looking for someone who is a team player, who is positive, who is ready to do whatever it takes to see success and to support each other and to really not be afraid to take risks. We want to go one step ahead, take a risk, be bold, and not follow what has always been done, oh it is always been done that way, well we will do it again, that is not the case. This market is moving far too quickly and we are going to get left behind if we do that.
Lee: Can you share an example where you were able to do that? Maybe you took the risk that hadn’t been done at SalesLoft before?
Tami: Sure, yes, this may not have been done anywhere before but we went to Dream Force last year, the biggest SAAS conference of the year and we impersonated Mark Benioff of Salesforce, CEO. Look I am telling you, we were sitting there, we were going to be first time sponsors and we said well what swag are we going to give out, are we are going to give out battery chargers or are we going to give out pens, mints, what are we going to do? That is not going to cut through the clutter of 130,000 people, and we thought well we need to come up with something. We sat around Kyle and I, we came up with the idea that we needed to impersonate a celebrity and it was going to be Mark Benioff, put out an add on Craigslist for a Mark Benioff impersonator, got all sorts of responses from agents, they were like well you know, I don’t know about Mark Benioff. There are hundreds of Elvises out there, we can help you with that.
Anyway we’ve got a guy Cam Melson. He’s the VP of Sales here in Atlanta and took him. He’s a spitting image of Mark Benioff, put him on a plane to San Francisco, headed out to hobby lobby and bought a pair of converse shoes and put glitter on them like the Salesforce cloud and off we went to San Francisco. We had no idea what we were going to do when we got there but we knew that we were going to make a splash. Eventually we got him all decked out in a pinstripe signature Mark Benioff suit, got him a hat and we got a little ear phone and we wound it up so it was curly, stuck it in that ear so it looked like an ear piece. We got our VP of Sales to dress up in a total security men in black suits and we were ready to go and we took to the crowds and we were pushing our way. We took photos in different areas, philanthropy booths and said hello to the sponsors and all the time we were taking photos and posting on social media as well.
First day turns out great. Second day, we’re walking around and we walk smack dab that into Mark Benioff on the radio show. We’re like, oh man it’s ruined and all his people were taking us out the way and we thought well what are we going to do and we walked around for a little bit more and decided to go back to our trade show booth and we saw Mark again with all his folks and his press and his agents and they said, “Do not come any closer. We know who you are and we know what you are doing.” I was like, “yes, this is awesome.” We’ve got to talk to him, we have to do something. If we get kicked out that’s great, that’s exactly what we need.
Stone: I love her attitude.
Tami: We got him to walk past SalesLoft booth, meet everyone at the booth and introduced ourselves. He said thanks, I know what you’re doing. I saw your Craigslist ad. Thanks for taking a weight off my shoulders and for all your press and PR interviews over the past two days. We got our photo made. He retweeted it, shared it on Twitter and that was pretty bold.
Lee: And that helped you achieve your goal for the trade show to be noticed and remembered, right?
Tami: It did. It got us a lot of branding, a lot of word of mouth.
Lee: And then it kind of..I don’t know if it was the inspiration but it was definitely part of being the catalyst of starting your own conference right.
Tami: Absolutely, you know we really wanted to make a splash for the new year 2015 kick it off.
Lee: So you have a new conference starting up?
Tami: We do. We have a Rainmaker and that is going to be held on 13th and 14th which is next week and it is the..
Lee: And I have a Cragslist ad right now for a Kyle Porter lookalike.
Tami: That’s awesome, and it’s the first ever conference for the sales development industry, really excited about it. We’ve got some great leaders coming on. Steve Richard, Craig Rosenberg, Trish Bertuzzi, some real influences and great sponsors in the Atlanta startup community as well that we are partnering with, really excited about it. On the first day on Tuesday we’ll have a workshop in the Atlanta Tech Village. Wednesday, we’re going to be at the W-Hotel in Bucket and that is going to be a full day event and I’d love to share a registration promo code with listeners, if they go to www.sdrsummit.com, that’s where they can register, and we have a promo code which is SalesLoft ATL which is S-A-L-E-S-L-O-F-T ATL and that will give you 30% discount.
Lee: And then it is a one day or a day and a half total.
Tami: It’s a day and a half total.
Lee: And this give you access to both sessions?
Tami: Correct.
Lee: And then so now who should go? This is all VPs of Marketing, CMOs, who should attend this session?
Tami: It is your VP’s of Sales, sales leaders, sales influencers its really geared toward the sales development and business development leaders.
Lee: So business development, now is this a B to B or B to C or does work in both?
Tami: It’s B to B.
Lee: So it’s primarily B to B, and so if you have a business that’s selling other business this is a definitely great way to start your year.
Tami: Absolutely 100%.
Stone: So I want to dive back. I know we need to wrap up here in a moment and we’re going to get a chance to visit with Nancy but I want to dive back into structuring the sales organization because this idea of having a sales development professional and distinguishing that from the account executive role, can you talk about that a little bit more aspect more specifically for those of us who might find ourselves in a situation where we need to recruit and develop those two different roles? I don’t know, mistakes you’ve run into, some definite dos or definite don’ts you have run into in your tenure for that.
Tami: Yes, it’s definitely something that is really important as you’re growing a sales team or whether you’re scaling it or keeping at where it is to know what were your goals are. You need to be able to provide the team your sales development team actionable goals that can be measured and that they are held accountable for so their goals cannot be dependent upon how many deals are closed but rather how many demos are set. For example, hire someone and when you’re growing your team as you would have a sales development rep, business development rep who is measured on how many demos they are set per quarter and then your account executives are measured on how many deals are closed, how much sales revenue that they are bringing in each quarter. So those two goals are independent of each other but to be able to have that closed revenue you have to have x number of demos set which then back into the outbound and your inbound, how many inbound leads are generated to be able to go to your SDR team, sales development reps to set that amount of demos. Now you may think okay you need one SDR for every accounts exec. Typically what we have is a two to one ratio. So we’ll have two SDRs for one accounts executive and that works best in the organization that we have set up. So it’s three to two, two to one. You’re going to have two sales development reps for every closure that you have.
Lee: Now do you also incent the account manager in order for retaining the business?
Tami: Yes, we have a setup where they retain and they also upsell as well. So whether you come in as a baseline package and whether they increase it they have an incredible job. They do such excellent work in working with our clients that they are there to make the customer happy, successful and in their business. That’s all they want to see and the support is tremendous that they are honored.
Lee: Because I mean in the life cycle of a customer, a lot of energy is placed on getting the customer but once their a customer now the most amount of time is spent with the account manager because they could be with them for years.
Tami: Yes, it is.
Lee: You know where the sales people are only with them for a short period of time relative to the amount of time they are with the organization.
Tami: Right, and we have that broken up as well with specialization in terms of our support. We have a support team and then we have advocates, client advocates and success managers who are going to work with you and help the account, what do you need, how can we onboard you better? How can we get you up and running and ensure your success?
Lee: Are you monitoring the actual use?
Tami: Yes.
Lee : So, that if you can see like hey they are not using it enough or they are not using it properly somebody has to intervene here and then check in to make sure that are they frustrated by something or they got somebody else’s in charge now.
Tami: Right, an e-mail might say hey we see that you have not logged in or how can we help you? You may have only prospected once or twice this week, how can we help you maximize the use of the product and you know is there something else we can show you that you might be missing out on?
Lee: Because you want to elevate your relationship to where this isn’t just a commodity and a vendor there where you are a partner trying to help them achieve their goals.
Tami: And I think that is where the missing link is with sales so much is that you’re selling relationships. It’s about that engagement and that relationship that is continuing through the life span of the entire product.
Lee: Right and it’s not just when that guy rings the bell that he’s sold one.
Tami: No, not at all exactly. It’s a whole other process and with marketing as well what we do is we’re sharing a lot of… once an e-book is released we’ll share it with them. We will share them promo codes to the conference. Hey, you’re client of ours, our friends and family and we want to share new releases. If an e-book or a white paper releases they are the first to know about it. They are the source of how we build our product. Our engineering team rests so heavily on customer feedback that that has been the success of both products.
Lee: Now how do you incent the customer to refer back to you or do you not?
Tami: We do. We have a referral form as well.
Lee: So then the customer can actually you know there is incentive to tell other people like hey this is [inaudible 00:24:55]
Stone: And I’ll tell you what they’re going to be incented just by the behavior that you’re describing because as logical as that whole conversation sounds, I got to tell you and I know Nancy will back this up in her conversation in a little while, so many times, we have such a large number of our clients are at risk and we don’t even realize it.
Tami: Absolutely, it is that inactivity that is more risky.
Stone: Yes. I mean it really is. I think the emphasis on cross selling, upselling, all that is very important, in fact would you like to buy another water to enjoy while we visit with Nancy?
Tami: I am after the candy, you promised me candy.
Stone: Oh that’s right and you did do a fantastic job, now what a marvelous conversation, an important conversation, I hope you’ll come back with us and continue and it may be a little quick for this but the next time you guys are all getting together and having a group of people converge like you are in a couple of weeks, let’s go onsite and do some stuff, and have some of these conversations onsite. I thing that could be fun.
Tami: Yes, that would be awesome. Still time, not too late, 10 days.
Stone: It has been absolute delight having you in the studio this afternoon. I want to make sure that our listeners have your coordinates so what is the best way for them to reach out, have a conversation with you or someone of your team?
Tami: Right, I can be reached on Twitter, we are always available which is @salesloft and then you can reach out directly to me. I am tami@salesloft.com T-A-M-I and I will be happy to put you in touch with the area that you need to be with.
Sonia Booker/ Real Estate Investor, Author, Wealth Coach /SoniaBooker.com
Sonia is among the nation’s top ‘Go To’ thought-leaders on wealth creation and real estate investing. She is also one of most sought-after speakers and real estate coaches. Sonia’s passion to equip everyday people with the blueprint to build wealth, “one dollar at a time,” is her unique and distinct brand. It has resonated with the public and inspired a wealth building movement centered not just on building a better life, but a building a lasting legacy. Sonia is the author of “Real Estate and Wealth: Investing in the American Dream.” This bestseller is a simple, step-by step guide to purchasing real estate as a form of wealth building. Sonia’s newly-released DVD, “7 Basic Truths of Wealth Building,” has also sparked eager conversations on how small changes now can create large rewards later. Sonia is the creator of the iBuild Wealth Workshop and the Everything Real Estate Conference & Expo. This savvy wealth-builder started her first business at the age of twenty-four; an Allstate Insurance Agency which she later sold at a profit. Then, for twelve years, Sonia worked with her mentor and friend, the late Herman J. Russell, legendary founder of H.J. Russell Company. It is this iconic Atlanta-based builder and real-estate mogul whom she credits with spring-boarding her knowledge and success.
VIMTREK takes BIM to the next level of creating a revolutionary visualization and collaboration tool which produces a fully immersive, easily navigable, interactive Visual Information Model (VIM) environments from Revit BIM projects.
VIMtrek’s VIM Viewer, built on state of the art Gaming Technology, provides a virtual 3D Repository of building data which can be used for collaboration between the building’s Owner, Architect, Engineers and Contractors. VIMtrek is state of the art technology and a game changer for companies looking to save big money on construction time and change orders, create Sustainability and Whole Life Cycle Management. This Technology can be used for real time collaboration between Owners and other stakeholders to bridge communication gaps, while collaborating on a project in real time. VIMtrek offers complete immersion in the building environment and enables Owners, Architects and Stakeholders the ability to work smarter and more efficiently together within a single environment. VIMtrek’s application is able to rapidly convert Autodesk Revit® designs into immersive, beautifully rendered, and interactive environments, and then share these locally or over the Internet. VIMtrek changes the use of 3-D technology and makes it part of the daily creative process. Through rapid 3D rendering, VIMtrek’ offers a new way for Owners and the AEC industry, to experience Sustainability, cost effective and efficient buildings and Whole Life cycle efficiency. VIMtrek will dramatically improve collaboration while working towards lean and green principals.
Arol Wolford
Arol Wolford is the founder of Manufacturers Survey Associates and Construction Market Data. He is the former president/CEO of the CMD Group of companies including Associated Construction Magazines, Buildcore Canadian Product Source, Canadata, CMD Building Reports (all Canada, United States, and Mexico); R.S. Means Costing Company; Byggfakta of Scandinavia; and Cordell Construction Information Services of Australia. Arol was a early Board Member and Investor in Revit. When Revit was sold to Autodesk in 2003 Arol started SmartBIM to create Revit Objects and a Quantity Survey System connected to R.S. Means for costing with Revit. When naming Wolford an honorary member of The American Institute of Architects in 1997, the AIA citation stated “his efforts go beyond making information more usable and valuable for architects….Wolford has been successful in bringing positive recognition to the architectural profession through his highly effective efforts to design, develop, and grow businesses that relate directly to, and support the work of design professionals and the construction process.”
Arol started VIMtrek to take BIM to VIM (Visual Information Modeling) and he serves as VIMtrek’s President.
Joseph Malbrough is the President of Parkland Place Associates, which owns and operates The UPS Store Cumberland Galleria in Smyrna, Georgia.
He was the top revenue producer at The Metro Atlanta Chamber, where he generated over a million dollars in revenue from 1994-2004. He served as the Assistant Vice President of New Business Development at United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta and Vice President of Business development at Entrepreneur Advisors. He also held revenue development roles at Motorola Communications and Clear Channel Communications.
Joseph is Past President of the Smyrna Business Association, where he currently serves on its Board of Directors and Chairs the Smyrna Business Expo.
He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Cobb County Business Associations, The Campbell High IB Foundation and Chairs ACE (Antioch Christian Entrepreneurs).
A native of Beaumont, Texas; He received a Bachelor of Communications degree from Lamar University. He and his wife Cara are active members of Antioch Baptist North and reside in Smyrna with their sons Evan and Jared.
John Loud, originally hailing from Boston, has embraced the spirit of Southern hospitality in all aspects of his personal and professional life. Devoted father of two children, John has worn many hats in his career: hockey player, comedy club manager, Delta flight attendant, political campaign worker, community volunteer and entrepreneur.
John’s primary focus since 1995 has been the establishment and growth of LOUD Security. From its humble beginning as a one-man operation in the basement of his home, to its role as a cutting edge leader in commercial and residential security, LOUD Security now employs over 40 people and services 6,000 customers. Most recently, John’s outstanding leadership was recognized by the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce when LOUD Security was voted one of the Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year for 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014. LOUD Security also came in at the number 10 spot on The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s list of Top 10 security companies in 2010 and moved up to the number 9 spot in 2011. LOUD Security was also honored with the Kennesaw Business Association Business of the Year and the Acworth Business Association Business of the Year and the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the year for 2014. John was recently awarded the Kennesaw Citizen of the Year and the Mack Henderson Public Service Award for his commitment and dedication to the quality of life for the citizens of Cobb County.
Not only has John used his talent of integrating today’s technology with old fashioned service to his current business, he has lent his talents to professional and community organizations across the state of Georgia. From President of the Kennesaw Business Association, President of the Georgia Electronic Life Safety and Security Association, cooperating with local police departments to promote Georgia legislation that would increase life safety to his customers; John has been, and continues to be, an avid champion for the security industry.
