Sales efforts are often slowed down by the long, drawn-out process of prospecting. Potential leads want your time and attention and oftentimes, sales reps need a helping hand to acquire that next client. 

​In today’s episode of Sales Development Podcast, Steve Woods, CTO of Nudge.ai, breaks down a tool that will “nudge” you in the right direction regarding your target accounts and relationship building efforts. Tune-in and learn how you can enhance your prospecting efforts and increase your closing rate by taking advantage of the latest machine learning technologies offered by Nudge.ai.

3 Key Points:
1.The Buyer wants you to INVEST more time and effort into the relationship.
2.AI frees you to scale your relationship building efforts and focus on those target accounts.
3.FOCUS on smaller steps that offer greater VALUE.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 00:16 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
  • 00:25 – Introducing Steve to the show
  • 01:02 – Steve’s longest marketing stint has been with Eloqua; this company started in the year 2000 and was bought by Oracle twelve years later
    • 02:25 – Eloqua is one of the pioneers in the marketing automation space
    • 02:55 – The internet changed the way information flies
    • 03:54 – Back then, marketing operations and demand generation people did not exist; today the entire marketing process is analytics driven
    • 05:18 – Activity became trackable due to the changing technology landscape
  • 05:57 – Revenue Disruption: Game-Changing Sales and Marketing Strategies to Accelerate Growth is a book by Phil Fernandez, the founder of Marketo; he talks at length about the technology change that took place
  • 07:04 – A profound behavior change was observed on both sides of the revenue equation
  • 08:17 – The human touch in sales
    • 08:17 – Sales are dependent on trust and relationships; sales reps who commoditize their outreach efforts have a low chance of success
    • 09:08 – Today, in the world of sales, we are going back to the BASICS; the human component is becoming increasingly relevant again
    • 10:06 – There was a GAP in the market when it came to understanding relationships and the deals in play
    • 10:23 – Today, there is a SHIFT from looking at sales as a volume exercise to a relationship exercise
  • 11:13 – The CHALLENGES facing sales teams today
    • 11:13 – 90% of your outreach efforts do not result in an immediate closing
    • 12:34 – The buyer wants you to invest time and effort into the relationship and get meaningful stuff in front of them
  • 13:34 – What Nudge can do for you
    • 13:34 – Nudge understands where your relationship with the prospect is strong and where it is falling off; provides the big reasons why you should stay in touch
    • 15:50 – Get various relationship statistics by adding Nudge to your Chrome extension
    • 18:01 – The AI capabilities of Nudge handles the workload that you would otherwise be doing manually
    • 19:04 – Nudge does the research for you and gives you a set of actions that will enhance your relationship building efforts
    • 20:15 – The professional version lets you focus on your TARGET accounts
    • 21:26 – Possible to scale up due to enhanced AI capabilities
    • 23:10 – Looking through a different set of eyes  (with AI) enables you to consider patterns which you would not have otherwise seen
  • 24:11 – The idea that AI is going to replace humans is a total MYTH
  • 25:30 – Avoid over-reliance on technology in your sales efforts
  • 26:25 – Shape your technique based on what buyers are anticipating right now
  • 28:00 – Nudge is not targeting huge volumes of prospects; instead, they are starting the prospecting process and targeting specific accounts
  • 30:36 – Just like we tend to become immune to disease over a period of time, messaging tends to lose its effectiveness with increased usage
  • 32:13 – Rely on a long-term strategy that relies on a point of view rather than a tactic
  • 33:12 – The sales team, marketing team and product team should focus on the smaller steps that offer greater value
    • 33:39 – TRIM down the “ask” and INFLATE the reward
  • 35:32 – The Sales Development Conference is coming up on the 21st

 
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