Effective marketing automation requires personalizing customer relationships based on data and account-based marketing. Using the data in CRM systems like Saleforce.com to personalize customer relationships is a powerful tool for demand gen, sales, and customer loyalty.
In this video, Mike Rethage, Vice President for Customer Success at Touchtown, explains how he uses Act-On Software with Salesforce for selling. Mike speaks with Michael Krigsman, industry Analyst and the host of CXOTALK.
For more information on Touchtown, see http://www.touchtown.us/
Learn more about Act-On Software at https://www.act-on.
See upcoming CXOTALK shows https://cxotalk.com
————
From the transcript:
Mike Rethage:
(02:21) We’re heavy Salesforce.com users. That’s the hub of kind of all of our information; what our people are mostly working in every day. But, it’s connected to many other systems. So Act-On, for example, does all of our marketing automation, but also collecting a lot of that digital body language and help us score what people are doing, because that connects our marketing website in the emails that we send out, puts that information into Salesforce at the fingertips of everyone. That connection is so solid. That helps us, again, interpret and work through to provide all those solutions to our customer.
Michael Krigsman:
(02:56) How do you interpret that data? What do you do with that data? How do you act on that data? And, how does it relate to your understanding of the customer journey?
Mike Rethage:
(03:13) Well, we believe that if someone’s on our website, and they’re looking at a product page, that is a perfect time to follow up immediately after and ensure that we are answering any questions that we may have. So, if we see someone open up an email, and they are maybe interested in a webinar, we’re following up with them to answer any questions and also just be there; be consultative for them. And that timeliness is so important because we know that if we can give them a presentation or a demo of our software, 50% of those demos turn into sales. So, if we can get them to that point by being consultative, that helps us grow our business.
Michael Krigsman:
(03:50) So, you’re using this data to help support the buyer?
Mike Rethage:
(04:06) Sure. So, being consultative in that process and selling technology to senior living, we want to make sure that we’re providing that right solution so they […] can use our solutions in a number of different ways whether they’re engaging their residents or need a growth census, or need to retain their employees more. So, we want to ask the right questions to give them that personalized journey. And, sometimes, that is just as simple as sending them an email at the right time with a friendly face on it, and providing them links to tools like Calendly to quickly set up a time with us. Being there at the right time often makes that journey easier for the customer and makes them, again, feel like we’re a part of their team, not just trying to push something on them.
Michael Krigsman:
(04:49) How has this personalization affected the business of Touchtown?
Mike Rethage:
(04:54) Well, I think the personalization has helped a lot. Not only has it increased our number of demos; because again, it makes a mass email feel more personalized if you include someone’s picture and some tailored content based on what they’ve done; but it also has helped us on the customer success side – obviously, the customer retention. We have a 99% retention rate of our clients, and we do that by also following up using these tools like Act-On to give them information post-sales that are going to help them engage with our software and use the product to its fullest extent. And sometimes, that’s just simply sharing new features; and sharing features that … Our software’s complicated. They may not know about and be able to take advantage of their community.
Michael Krigsman:
(05:36) So, it’s not just about selling, but it’s really about understanding what that customer needs at every point in their journey?
Mike Rethage:
(05:57) That’s exactly right. We always say that we are number one in this engagement arena. But, we need to be number one at every step of the process from pre-sales to the actual sales process for understanding what they’re doing with our proposal, [up] to continuing that through the post-sales process in engaging each customer. Especially with that high turnover rate, [we need to] educate them on what our system can do and make sure that they’re using it, again, to its fullest extent. We do that through digital body language, and again, making that timely in giving them the information they need.