The “Traditional” Sales Motion
Throughout my first several years of sales, I was just a few blocks from Alyce at a different software company. Over the course of three years, we went from a relatively small and unknown player in the space to a strong competitor to some of the tech space’s household names. To get there, we militantly observed the old-world sales methods of competing to make the most dials, sending ice cold emails, and using a constant stream of “touches” until we received a yes or a no.
My First “Ah-Ha” Moment
Sometimes, however, for a brief, shining moment, there would be an interaction between sales rep and prospect that was genuinely human and would make our day, regardless of whether it was immediately leading to a hot opportunity. I remember listening to stories of a now friend of mine about his Yurt trips across Russia, hearing about my champion’s time on House Hunters, and cheering side by side with our CAB members at Bruins Games.
Those genuine human moments were built from the too rare instances when we’d accrued enough cold calls to step back and take time to understand what these people actually cared about.
My lasting relationships are the ones that started with mailing a book on data science to someone who had made it clear it was a passion of theirs as they kept learning about areas outside their immediate job function. The book made it to someone’s desk, something that could not be so easily ignored as an email or blinking light on an answering machine covered in dust.
I had managed to show that I cared about building a relationship that would be about them throughout the sales cycle, not about me.
I had managed to show that I cared about building a relationship that would be about them throughout the sales cycle, not about me.
An opportunity was created, not only to get closer to my pipeline goal, but to get to know this highly influential person within the cybersecurity space who I had suddenly become on texting terms with.
The Time Management Challenge
Figuring out the human that sits behind the Linkedin profile can be massively time-consuming endeavor, but being able to let someone know they aren’t part of an automated campaign makes all the difference in building trust from the get-go.
There was the constant challenge of time management; how do I continue to get in the door of enterprise companies at the speed necessary to have a consistent flow of qualified pipeline for a 90 day (minimum) sales cycle?
A colleague of mine introduced me to Alyce, a company that does not send emails or make cold calls. They take an entirely new approach to sales and marketing.
“We send people invitations to accept a gift,” she told me.
I thought about the time I spent hours going to Barnes and Noble to find the right Malcolm Gladwell book, writing a handwritten note (a few times before I could even get through it without errors) and walking to the post office to send the book to an address I hoped was correct, expensing the book and the shipping costs, and waiting blindly for some kind of response from my efforts.
I have a mess of SPAM in my personal and work email. My apartment building has a giant basket for all the junk mail we receive seeing if this is the week we will finally buy a new mattress. I don’t answer my phone unless I know who’s calling.
B2B outreach is in the same vein- often highly ineffective, frustrating for everyone involved, and extremely wasteful. The same goes for trade shows. Who needs another stress ball or tote that rips when you put the brochures in it you aren’t going to read because it’s on the website anyways?
My Own Epiphany
When I realized Alyce was a way for sales reps to send hundreds or thousands of personalized Malcolm Gladwell type researched physical gifts without the pains of trying to figure out what to send and where, I felt like I was learning about Netflix and On Demand after having had only live cable TV. This was a company that existed around building genuine human interactions in a B2B world whose noise was drowning out any meaningful conversation.
I quickly realized I needed to focus on all the meetings that I suddenly had stacking up on my calendar, and take the time to read all the “thank you’s” from the gift recipients who were so delighted and surprised by a sales interaction not starting with bullet points about how I can solve all of their problems.
“Thank you Jordyn – what a wonderful way to engage with your team and program. Thank you!”
Really appreciate your follow up and the gift!
Wow. Ok I have say this is awesome. For a second I thought wow what a coincidence and then it clicked!!! Thank you so much.
It was a pleasure meeting your crew at Summit and thank you for the great gift! Look forward to talking in a couple weeks about how we can partner and how Alyce can help.
Jordyn, I was looking forward to your email as every other follow up email from the Adobe Summit was noise. Thank You. Looking forward to learning more.
Jordyn, what a cool concept! Thanks so much for the gift and really looking forward to learning more about Alyce.
Thanks Jordyn. Alyce is very cool.
Looking forward to chatting.
Thanks for the gift, Daniel and I were impressed with the service. I’d like to speak towards the end of Q2 about our ABM/direct mail progress and potential plans for Q3/Q4.
This is an awesome idea. We love it and definitely want to learn more. You are speaking with Rod and Valerie on Friday. I look forward to next steps.
Hi Jordyn,
The whole unboxing experience kinda made my day. I’m an artist’s tools snob; the Sketchbox looks really cool! Look forward to learning more about alyce.
THX so much!
Thanks for thinking of me! Love me some Woodford 🙂 Looking forward to connecting.
Hey Jordyn, very spot on! I love beauty products, and anything to do with hair/makeup/etc! Great job. This is very cool, also I loved my box! It’s a really nice quality!
Thanks so much – looking forward to learning about your programs to support my sales teams. I would like to understand how your programs have helped to build pipeline and get meetings for sales people. Would like to also pass your details to my C-level marketing person.
Going back to the old way of sales and building connections seems about as likely as us all returning to yurts.
