Build Prospect and Customer Relationships Using Sendoso & Salesforce

If you’ve heard the phrase “Do more with less,” raise your hand. 🙋

Marketers have been tasked with generating a pipeline that converts, filling the lead funnel, creating engaging content, launching campaigns - the list goes on. At the same time, budgets are flat or shrinking, and time spent on any one project is at a premium.

So, how can you effectively accomplish all these goals while being efficient with time and money? We have one word for you: automation.

You might be thinking, “Sendoso, you’re all about the personal touch! Isn’t automation the complete opposite of that?” We’re here to tell you that you can have your automation and build personal relationships, too. We think of it as helping you send the right gift to the right person at the right time.

By integrating the tools you already have at your fingertips with Sendoso, you can build (and scale!) outreach programs that are personalized and effective without adding any additional workflows to your marketing or sales process. 

Salesforce + Sendoso

Salesforce is one of the most common CRMs used by all types of businesses. Using it with Sendoso allows you to automatically send gifts to prospects based on opportunity status changes and allows your sales team to send one-to-one gifts directly from their instance. This prevents the need to leave their current workflow, encouraging the adoption of the tool.

Using this playbook, you can:

• Execute sends automatically by triggering on changes to Salesforce fields
• Increase user adoption by enabling your teams to send directly from within Salesforce

‍If you need help setting up an automated gifting campaign using Sendoso + Salesforce, click here for setup instructions.

Formula for Success

When using this playbook, follow this formula:

Using Salesforce opportunity status fields allows you to trigger a gift to prospects that are at different stages of the sales cycle to accelerate deal cycles and provide the best experience for your buyers.

Identify the signal: Gifting can be used throughout the sales funnel, from demo to close. You can choose the stages that make the most sense for you and your team and the prospects you’re working with.

Using our Salesforce integration, you can trigger gift sends based on opportunity stage changes. This saves time and allows you to focus on other important tasks.

In some instances, you’ll want to be more personalized. In that case, you can use the Sendoso widget in your Salesforce instance to choose a specific gift without leaving your workflow.

Set up the trigger: Using the Salesforce integration in Sendoso, you can easily set up a trigger based on Salesforce fields like opportunity stage. 

Complete the action: Trigger sending to accounts at different stages of the sales cycle.

Use Cases

Gifting is a strategy you can incorporate into many aspects of your business, but for the purpose of this playbook we’ve identified five of the best ways to use Salesforce opportunity stages:

• Increasing meeting hold rates
• Setting the tone for the relationship post-qualified demo 
• Expanding the sphere of influence
• Pushing deals across the finish line
• Celebrating the close

Using gifting as a tool in these five scenarios can help ensure meeting attendance, build authentic connections with prospects, accelerate deals through the funnel, and generate more closed-won business.

Action: Increase Meeting Hold Rates

After getting a meeting on the calendar, you want to do everything you can to encourage attendance. A coffee eGift as a meeting confirmation helps confirm your prospect’s interest and makes sure it’s a meaningful conversation. It sets the relationship off on the right foot and starts building rapport immediately.

Identify the signal: A meeting is set with a contact on an account. 

Create the trigger: Set up an email with a gift link to be sent the day before the meeting as a reminder.

Complete the action: The accounts that have booked an initial demo are ready to be put into a gifting campaign, automated by Sendoso. 

Here’s an example meeting reminder email:

We use it as a sales practice here at Sendoso. A coffee gift card is sent to the prospect before every meeting, and they can improve meeting attendance by as much as 90%. Plus, using our automation to trigger sends frees up time for the sales team to focus on more important tasks.

Action: Set the Tone For the Relationship Post-Qualified Demo

Now’s the time to get personal. Using Sendoso’s SmartSend feature or Amazon integration, pick out a relatable and meaningful gift for your prospect. This will set the tone for the relationship moving forward and build champions.

Identify the signal: A successful demo meeting moves to a qualified opportunity.

Create the trigger: Include a task or reminder for the Account Executive to send a follow-up email with a gift using SmartSend.

‍Complete the action: The Account Executive uses SmartSend to find the perfect gift for the prospect and adds the Address Confirmation link to their personalized meeting recap email.

Action: Expand the Sphere of Influence

Buying committees have drastically changed over the past few years, mainly due to budget constraints, putting all spending under a microscope.

An average of 7 decision makers are involved in the process, with 50-90% of the journey completed before any interaction with the sales rep. Getting them involved earlier in the conversation is essential to closing the deal.

Identify the signal: An opportunity has moved to a stage where it’s appropriate to multi-thread into other decision makers at the company.

Create the trigger: Identify other contacts connected to the opportunity that have not yet been reached out to and put them in a gifting campaign.

Complete the action: Send an email to the decision makers in the account introducing yourself and offering a gift as a thank you for taking the time to be involved in the conversation.

Make it fun by sending a gift that relates to the idea you’re trying to convey. For example, sending a succulent with the following message is a great icebreaker and an easy way to make an introduction:

Action: Push Deals Across the Finish Line 

Helping your prospect build a business case for your company can be one of the most daunting parts of the sales process, but gifting can also help grease the wheels at this stage.

Identify the signal: Opportunities with a close date in the current month.

Create the trigger: Segment opportunities scheduled to close in the current month by Account Executive, and trigger emails to be sent to any decision makers connected to the opportunity.

‍Complete the action: Send an email from the AE with a gift to the relevant contacts on the opportunity.

Customer Example

Sending your decision makers a box with branded swag and collateral with ROI language can go a long way in accelerating the deal. Sendoso customer Automox uses this strategy to convert $2mm in pipeline per month into actual ROI.

Laura Partyka, senior manager of ABM at Automox, explains, “Typically [the sales cycle is] about 60 days, and we’re trying to get that to about 45 days.” 

She urges her sales reps to send a Sendoso gift to any deals they have slotted to close that month. It’s a small investment strategy that pays off.

“We accelerated a deal-close by six days using Sendoso,” says Partyka. “The prospect kept telling us, ‘Yeah, we’ll sign the paperwork.’ We didn’t want to wait, so one of our sales leaders said, ‘If you can get this signed today, I’ll send you lunch.’”

Guess what happened?

“BOOM. Signed that day.”

Action: Celebrating the Close

Congrats! You closed the deal. But the relationship-building shouldn’t stop there. 

‍Identify the signal: Your opportunity is closed-won!

Create the trigger: Closed-won opportunities are put into a gifting campaign that includes a physical gift to celebrate the partnership.

Complete the action: Send a gift to your primary POC or champion to celebrate the partnership - a branded box of sweets or a bottle of champagne are great options.

Analyze Your Success

Once you’ve implemented your campaigns using Demandbase and Sendoso, you’ll want to track and analyze your results to determine your success. You can look at the data in a few different ways.

Gift acceptance: Are your gifts being accepted or going unnoticed? A high acceptance rate means that your prospects are at least reading your emails and are interested enough to redeem their gift offer. Periodically looking at what gifts are accepted the most can help determine which items are the best choices for your campaigns.

Meetings booked: Compare the number of meetings booked from these campaigns to your typical benchmark. Is it higher or lower? This is a good indicator of effective messaging.

Meetings booked to show rate: Are your prospects attending the meetings they’ve booked with you? Compare your benchmark show rate to those of your campaigns. If it’s missing the mark, you may consider changing your messaging or the signals you’re targeting.

Deal acceleration: Is the sales cycle of your opportunities inlufneced by these campaigns decreasing, or staying the same?

Opportunity Win Rate: How are your campaigns influencing won deals? Tracking the progress of your account lists through the sales cycle is another helpful indicator of your timing, messaging, and gift resonating with your prospects.

Send It!

As we've explored in this guide, integrating Sendoso and Salesforce is a strategic move that enhances your ability to build and maintain meaningful relationships with prospects and customers. By automating gift sending based on Salesforce triggers, you can personalize interactions without additional workload, ensuring timely and thoughtful engagement.

Whether it's increasing meeting hold rates, deepening relationships post-demo, or pushing deals across the finish line, this approach not only saves time but also solidifies connections that are crucial for business growth. Remember, in the world of sales and marketing, a well-timed gift can make all the difference.