Jeffrey Gitomer, writer of “The Gross sales Bible,” famously mentioned, “Nice salespeople are relationship builders who present worth and assist their clients win.”
Quick ahead to 2024, and the trendy gross sales mantra has developed: nice salespeople leverage AI to strengthen relationships and ship unparalleled buyer worth.
Whereas AI has added nice worth to companies and helped with productiveness, gross sales groups nonetheless wrestle to unlock its full potential to revolutionize buyer and stakeholder relationships.
Within the quest to unravel this problem, we interviewed Kapil Khangaonkar, founder and CEO of Clodura.AI, a number one GenAI-powered gross sales prospecting platform. The interview explores how integrating AI into gross sales processes drives innovation and enriches the stakeholder expertise.
Kapil reveals the profitable methods that reworked Clodura.AI’s income pipeline and discusses techniques to eradicate silos, foster cross-departmental synergy, and draw AI’s full potential for gross sales.
He additionally shares distinctive tales and learnings that turned priceless product enhancements for Clodura.AI.
This interview is a part of G2’s Skilled Highlight collection. For extra content material like this, subscribe to G2 Tea, a e-newsletter with SaaS-y information and leisure.
Heat-up questions
What’s your favourite beverage? Contemporary lime soda, salted.
What was your first job? My first job was as a software program developer at DMC Software program, a product growth firm valued at round $1.6 to $1.7 billion. I began as an unpaid intern and shortly transitioned to a paid internship at $10,000 per thirty days. Six months later, I used to be employed as an engineer.
What’s your favourite software program in your present tech stack? Microsoft Groups is my favourite. We use it rather a lot for collaboration, particularly given the hybrid work construction. Alongside Groups, Outlook is indispensable. As a gross sales man, we’re at all times on the street or on Outlook. So, each these instruments are important for our workflow.
What issues at work make you need to throw your laptop computer out the window?
One thing I actually do not get pleasure from doing is finance and accounting. It’s an integral a part of operating any enterprise, nevertheless it’s not one thing I stay up for on a Monday morning. So long as every part is okay, I simply desire to get it executed and transfer on.
Deep dives with Kapil Khangaonkar
Kamaljeet Kalsi: You started as an engineer, then moved to enterprise growth, and now you are an entrepreneur. How has your engineering background benefited your profession?
Kapil Khangaonkar: My engineering background has helped rather a lot. I spent about three and a half years in engineering earlier than shifting to gross sales. Whereas at my earlier firm, I used to be conversant in the product growth lifecycle and even led a crew of seven to eight folks.
Once we began constructing Clodura.AI, I did not have a CTO, so I managed each gross sales and engineering myself. That fundamental understanding of engineering was essential, particularly within the preliminary years earlier than my accomplice joined. It helped me navigate each worlds and perceive when my engineers had been being easy or wanted some challenges. We would not have reached the place we’re immediately with out my engineering basis.
A e book I learn emphasised that nice CEOs want information of their crew’s fields. How has your engineering background influenced your management?
After I employed my first batch of Python builders, I did not know Python since I used to be a Java professional. I Googled “High 10 Python Questions” and used my engineering and gross sales expertise to interview them confidently. It was all about displaying confidence and flexibility.
I learn your insightful LinkedIn article on how AI reworked your gross sales outreach. What strategic and tactical shifts did you utilize to propel Clodura.AI’s gross sales pipeline dramatically?
In gross sales, we’re usually taught to knock on each door with the identical depth, however that is not humanly doable when your complete addressable market is big. This method results in some prospects receiving extra consideration than others with none knowledge to again these choices.
We used AI to handle this. It helped our gross sales crew determine which prospects usually tend to reply. Once we began constructing our platform, we noticed the potential in AI and machine studying (ML), despite the fact that they weren’t extensively mentioned. We started by amassing in depth knowledge on firms — like their present actions, funding areas, decision-makers, and organizational construction. We additionally checked out particulars like e mail IDs, cellphone numbers, and the optimum traits of an outreach e mail, equivalent to size and topic line.
We built-in this knowledge into our platform, permitting it to deal with the heavy lifting. We regularly refined our mannequin by feeding again the outcomes to enhance accuracy. This method has maximized our ROI and helped our gross sales crew prioritize high-potential clients successfully.
Are you able to inform us about your product’s guardrails that guarantee gross sales groups entry essentially the most helpful knowledge and insights with out compromising knowledge security and oversharing with prospects?
Knowledge privateness is a significant concern, particularly with rules like GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and comparable legal guidelines anticipated quickly in India. We had been very cautious whereas constructing our platform to make sure we solely entry public data and avoid non-public knowledge.
Our method is to take advantage of public data with out crossing moral traces. Typically, clients ask if we will present non-public details about firms. We make it clear that we received’t breach that line, even when it means shedding a sale.
We have carried out strict practices to make sure our platform solely makes use of publicly accessible knowledge and presents it in a curated, comprehensible method. This fashion, customers can simply make sense of the knowledge with out being overwhelmed, and we preserve the best requirements of knowledge ethics.
Along with your in depth knowledge ecosystem, how do you forestall salespeople from by chance sharing internal-use knowledge whereas accessing it in actual time?
My co-partner and CTO deal with this facet. Now we have in depth QA processes and a number of builds that undergo rigorous testing on varied servers earlier than something is launched. Our well-established processes make sure that internal-use knowledge isn’t mistakenly shared. This setup has successfully prevented any such points.
Gross sales groups is probably not automation specialists, and even one of the best expertise is of no use except people enter the info. What are some methods during which such groups can adapt and leverage automation of their day-to-day actions?
The issue with automation is when it doesn’t really feel pure to the customers. Salespeople are sometimes not naturally tuned to updating CRMs — it’s not a part of their pure workflow. I’ve not often seen a crew that updates every part on their very own with out follow-up.
When constructing an automation platform, making it as near their pure workflow as doable is essential. For instance, in Clodura.AI, we have designed it in order that no matter a salesman does day by day is totally automated. They begin at the first step and end at step ten with only one click on. This ease of use makes adoption extraordinarily easy.
Our power lies in the truth that Clodura.AI is constructed by salespeople, for salespeople. The processes we’ve automated are designed precisely the best way salespeople work naturally, which facilitates the sleek adoption of automation.
Are you able to share some dialog prompts that may assist gross sales leaders method important conversations with IT and finance counterparts within the above context?
One key facet is minimizing the IT division’s involvement. Options like ChatGPT and Bard (now often known as Gemini) are usually accessible to everybody on-line, and IT departments usually don’t block them. Nevertheless, in terms of procuring new software program, the IT crew usually must conduct safety checks.
It is essential to convey to the IT crew that daily misplaced on this course of is a loss for the gross sales crew and the corporate’s income. Sensitively explaining the urgency and the necessity for fast processes can assist velocity issues alongside.
Actionable Prompts to Interact IT Groups
“We perceive the necessity for thorough safety checks to safeguard our infrastructure. Nevertheless, might we discover methods to expedite this course of to attenuate potential income losses and increase our gross sales crew’s productiveness? Streamlining day by day approvals would enormously improve our effectiveness with out compromising safety.”
The finance aspect is normally supportive, and procurement groups are usually useful. The primary concept is to emphasise the short turnaround and the significance of minimizing delays for each the IT and finance groups.
Actionable Prompts to Interact Finance Groups
“Your help in effectively processing procurement requests is essential for us to quickly undertake new instruments and obtain higher advertising outcomes. How can we collaborate to streamline this course of, making certain we proceed producing income with out pointless delays, whereas upholding our dedication to monetary diligence?”
I learn this assertion, ‘AI won’t take jobs, however somebody who makes use of AI effectively will.’ What are your ideas on this, particularly when AI gross sales assistants are on the rise?
I completely agree with that assertion. At present’s AI expertise isn’t designed to exchange people; handbook intervention and immediate engineering are nonetheless essential. For example, if 10 folks use ChatGPT for a similar process, they may seemingly get completely different outcomes. Efficient use of AI requires good immediate engineering expertise.
AI has bridged the hole between unusual people and sensible minds, permitting everybody to carry out at the next stage with the proper instruments. Nevertheless, human enter continues to be important. Those that fail to undertake and correctly use AI instruments could discover themselves outpaced. So, whereas AI is not changing jobs, it is undoubtedly placing those that neglect it at a drawback.
Are you able to share a humorous incident the place utilizing AI prompts didn’t go as anticipated?
Oh, sure. Once we first began utilizing ChatGPT, notably ChatGPT-3, we determined to check its output to see how good it was. I requested my crew to write down an e mail for a similar persona and standards. To our shock, all eight crew members produced drastically completely different emails. Some had been extraordinarily humorous, whereas others had been outright horrible.
We gathered everybody in a room and had them learn their emails out loud. It was a laughing riot as a result of the emails had been hilariously incorrect. The topic traces had been flawed, and the messages had been means off. This train highlighted the significance of immediate engineering and the way essential it’s to make use of these instruments accurately.
We took what we discovered and integrated it into Clodura.AI’s platform. We added filters and a drag-and-drop choice to make sure customers do not make the identical errors. This fashion, there’s no scope for errors, making the instruments way more efficient.
Are you able to share some actionable recommendation on how gross sales people can up their AI recreation to remain related?
One space the place salespeople can actually enhance is in opening up good conversations. That is usually a problem for a lot of in India and globally. AI can assist considerably right here.
You should utilize AI instruments to investigate social media profiles or chatbot interactions to get a way of how one can interact with somebody. For instance, placing a social media profile right into a instrument like ChatGPT can reveal behavioral parameters — whether or not the particular person is open to conversations, prone to negotiate, or prefers cellphone calls.
Utilizing this data to craft your opening dialog will be extremely efficient. It helps you higher talk and tailor your method to every particular person. This fashion, you’ll be able to convey extra folks to the desk and foster significant discussions.
I reviewed Clodura.AI’s G2 web page and noticed your key industries are advertising, promoting, ITS, and laptop software program. What are the highest three gross sales ache factors these industries face in 2024?
One of many major ache factors is the shortage of readability on whom to succeed in out to. You will have a big database or can subscribe to companies for contacts, however that is now not sufficient. Folks have instruments to display screen calls and don’t love being disturbed. Figuring out the proper prospects to contact is important, but usually missed.
One other main difficulty is over-reliance on calling. There’s a false impression that emailing does not work. Nevertheless, the primary and very last thing most of us do day by day is verify our emails. The issue lies in not placing sufficient effort into crafting efficient emails. They have to be effectively thought out, with a catchy topic line and tailor-made content material that reveals effort. If executed accurately, emails will be extremely efficient, generally much more so than calls or LinkedIn messages.
Lastly, there’s usually an inadequacy in integrating a number of communication channels successfully. Gross sales groups would possibly lean too closely on one methodology, lacking out on the advantages of a multi-channel method. Balancing calls, emails, and social media outreach can result in higher outcomes.
Fantasy buster: Chilly calling doesn’t trump emailing
Opposite to standard perception, you usually must name somebody seven or eight instances earlier than they decide up. Preferring cold-calling over e mail outreach is like changing an easier methodology with a tougher one which has a a lot decrease success price.
Do particular industries or personas current challenges that your gross sales crew ought to be aware of when reaching out? How can your gross sales crew assist handle these challenges?
Completely. We run a complete success program with our clients after they be part of us, and the primary three weeks are devoted to creating their superb buyer profile (ICP). This includes defining six key parameters: for contacts, it is seniority, perform, and placement; for the corporate, it is trade, dimension, and placement.
For example, if I am emailing an IT head in a software program group, that e mail can be completely different from one despatched to an IT supervisor or an engineer in the identical group. Every function has completely different set off factors. When emailing customers, we give attention to product options. For managers, we spotlight crew administration capabilities on the platform. For VPs, we emphasize how the product helps obtain organizational targets and targets.
The frequent mistake is sending the identical e mail to everybody, assuming they’ve the identical ache factors, which they don’t. Tailoring the message to the particular function and wishes is essential for higher engagement and responses.
Understanding your viewers’s particular wants and triggers is essential — whether or not focusing on a director or C-level govt in advertising and promoting or a CTO or head of IT in laptop software program. Every of those roles has completely different triggers, and figuring out them sharpens your method, enhancing outcomes and driving success.
Sustain with Kapil Khangaonkar on LinkedIn.
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