etailinsights eCommerce Data and Sales Blog

Power User Spotlight: Taylor Philippi, SkyBOX Checkout

Taylor's Hack: Don't Forget to Listen to Your Customers

A lot of the time in SaaS sales, it’s easy to list off features and statistics and dive right into a demo of the product, which can overwhelm prospects or cause them to tune out on a call or WebEx. Avoid being put on mute after effectively securing a demo by listening, engaging with, and asking effective questions to your prospect. Find out what the root problem or pain point in your prospect’s current business is, and adjust your demo to highlight the specific areas of your solution that can help fix their current pain points.

And Hollywood says, “Where’d who go?”

Without a doubt, my favorite movie as a kid was Top Gun. I knew all the lines to the movie. My Gramps (J.B. Pierce) flew in fighter jets in the Marine corps (actually, he was a “gunner”), and he gave me his old helmet. I had an Atari joystick. I’d parlay these into a re-enactment of Maverick’s attack on Russian jets over and over. Sometimes I’d let Ice Man get shot down.

My High School Reunion

Recently, against my will, I attended my 20-year high school reunion. I didn’t want to go. But I was encouraged (read: forced) by a good friend, so I attended. I’m glad I went because it was great to see everyone.

Unfortunately, we didn’t rent out the entire bar. Therefore, there were lots of people in the bar who did not attend my high school. This was a recipe for disaster because many times I entered discussions with folks who weren’t from my school, and this took away the limited time I had to speak with my true classmates. And worse, I was confronted by a few people who remembered me, but I didn’t immediately remember them, and that feels terrible.

Power User Spotlight: Ryan Fitzgerald, eAccountable

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Ryan's Hack: Localize Your Prospecting

I can’t say enough about localizing your prospecting. We have sales people in major markets including Arizona, Texas, Illinois, and Colorado. Being able to call on a prospect and tell them you’re located within driving distance is huge. With all the sales calls that etailers receive, it's important to put a face with a name. Plus, knowing you're close gives them some comfort that if they do decide to work with you they have a local “throat to choke.”

This voicemail box is full.

If you email me, I’ll probably delete it – unless it’s a really good email.

If you call the etailinsights office, you’ll never get to me. Ever. I promise.

If you happen to have my cell phone number, you can call that, but I won’t answer. Then you’ll get a message that says, “This voicemail box is full.” Why? Because I get between 10 and 20 calls to my personal cell phone per day from numbers that I don’t have saved, likely because it’s a salesperson trying to sell something to me. They go straight to voicemail (do not disturb settings).

My son Julian turns two next month. He has very strong opinions already and does not like being told what to do (he gets this from his Dad). As you might imagine, this makes for some interesting battles about bath time, nap time, bedtime, etc. You see, the trick is that he has to think he came up with the idea to go to bed himself, not that he’s being told to go to bed. Yes, hard.

One trick I’ve learned is that I give him a very long sentence (i.e. a longer email) such as “Hey Julian, we can shoot the basketballs into the hoop for one more minute, but then we need to go upstairs and have a bath, ok?” He rarely ever replies to this long statement.

But, what I’ve found interesting is that I reply to my previous statement with a shorter one (i.e. a shorter email), “Julian, one more minute.” Then, what happens is amazing. He replies to me with:

“One more minute shooting the basketballs, then I have a bath Daddy.”

Power User Spotlight: John Cecilian, Clutch

John's Hack: Research Your Prospect's Partners

"Technology Spy." Such a cool cheat that allows you to quickly know when a firm changes ESP, eCommerce platforms, or anything else in between. This is essential for our business, as we care deeply about integration partners. If a firm goes from "in-house" capabilities to demandware over night, we want to know. Technology Spy will push that information to you in real-time, keeping you update with the prospects and firms you care about engaging with the most.

Happy New Year.

With a new year comes excitement about what’s ahead. Gyms are filled with those resolving to shed some pounds and get healthy. Tax returns begin flowing back into the US economy. And some look to “cleanse” themselves of the past year and push the “reset” button.

June is Here.

“Blah that’s disgusting,” exclaimed my wife from her hospital bed. Our Daughter, June, was minutes away from entering the world. My job was to keep a cold glass of ginger ale ready in case my wife wanted some.

I failed. I had one job, and I got it wrong.

Power User Spotlight: Nick Hale, Lyons Consulting Group - LYONSCG

Nick's Hack: Leverage etailinsights for Account Based Marketing

Use etailinsights for "Account Based Marketing" – calling or emailing a contact/account with a targeted message. If you are an email service provider, you could run a report in etailinsights of every company using your top competitor (i.e. MailChimp could target everyone using Constant Contact). You can then use that report to build out your top accounts, create a sequence of messaging, and build out a successful cadence of calls/emails.