Sales success turns Sendoso advocate into an employee

KEY POINTS

• Learn the best gifting tips from an expert who has been on both sides of the process.
• Get creative. Try incentives to boost gifting adaptation.
• How Sendoso Playbooks can help streamline SDR training.

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Have you ever tried a new restaurant and it was so good that you kept coming back?

That’s exactly how I felt when I first used Sendoso.

My interest in Sendoso went beyond using the platform for sending corporate gifts. A good sales tool grabs your attention. But a great sales tool turns you into a fan, then an advocate, and in my case an employee.

Starting with Sendoso

I began using Sendoso as a customer.

As a sales development representative (SDR), I liked the idea of using a Sending Platform™. However, I didn’t fully realize how powerful automated corporate gifting could be until I began experimenting with it.

I quickly realized that Sendoso was more than simply sending gifts. The true sales power came from using it to drive more meetings and move opportunities further down the sales funnel.

Some of my favorite Sendoso features:

• Amazon integration for a personalized gift
• Using eGifts as door openers and meeting reminders
• Built-in playbooks, which narrow down gifts by stage segments (more on this amazing feature below)
• Leveraging Sendoso Marketplace catalog

Smart gifting strategies produced real results for me. Some of the early wins included:

• Generating $1.2M in influenced pipeline (FY22 Q2)
• Sourced $200K in a closed-won deal.

The latter didn’t come easy but shows the power of gifting with Sendoso. The prospect originally attended a marketing webinar, but then ignored me. Eventually, I created a Sendsoo touch to automate a gift and get their attention.

B2B corporate gifting pays off

The results didn’t add up just for my company. Professionally, they added up for me too.

My previous employer promoted me. I became a marketing program specialist and was tapped to manage the entire corporate gifting platform.

We started to roll out Sendoso to our global SDR team.

It was a challenge to get the entire international sales team to incorporate gifting into their sales strategy. The concept was still new. Nobody believed in the power of sending yet.

So I turned to the data.

I found more data points to encourage my team to use Sendoso. Like how Boulevard quadrupled its return on investment in one campaign. Or how MachiningCloud increased revenue by 97% with gifting.

Expanding the sales playbook with gifts

As we onboarded the global SDR team, I worked closely with my customer success manager (CSM) at Sendoso. He helped me create a game plan. His ideas made it more fun for the SDRs to start using Sendoso more.

So what did we do?

Create an incentive, of course! More commonly known in the sales community as a spiff or sales program incentive fund.

Why? Because everyone loves the idea of a sales bonus.

The idea was straightforward. Our CSM offered $30 eGifts to the SDR who booked the most meetings by the end of the month by incorporating Sendoso.

Eventually, our CSM introduced me to our SuperSender program, a group of Sendoso customers who collaborate by sharing their best practices for selling, gifting, and promoting their brand. The SuperSenders became a community where I could ask peers questions to see what was working and what was not.

The SuperSender community introduced me to the Sendoso Playbook feature. Playbooks help integrate the platform into your existing workflow. The account administrator can curate gift ideas, messaging, and use suggestions for your entire team.

You’re creating a gifting blueprint for your entire team.

Expanding the sales playbook with gifts

It’s a time saver. And for us, it was another opportunity to reward ambitious SDRs with a SPIFF.

Here’s how it worked:

1. Booked a 30-minute meeting with the SDRs to introduce the playbook, explaining the benefits and how to use it.
2. Asked the SDRs to review the playbook and pick a few gift ideas that resonated with them.
3. Used that feedback to create new touches (gift options).
4. Created the playbook SPIFF. The two SDRs who booked the most meetings in a month received gift cards for dinner.

We tracked the results of having our SDRs adopt Sendoso in real-time.

Our revised sales campaigns brought in $9 million in marketing-influenced pipeline with $30K in spending. Sendoso also had the second-highest opportunity touch.

Our success and my advocacy for Sendoso opened another new door. It turned into a new career opportunity.

I joined the team in January 2022 as a customer success associate. Now, after seeing Sendoso from both sides, I can offer full-circle advice, especially for anyone struggling to have their SDRs integrate corporate gifting in a meaningful way.

I recommend working closely with your CSM. Join the SuperSender program and create a SPIFF to help get your sales playbook, campaign, or new idea off the ground.

Eventually, everyone on the team will see the value of Sendoso, the world’s leading Sending Platform.

About the Writer: Danny Luu is a customer success associate at Sendoso. He’s a passionate and inquisitive self-starter with a background in financial services and Software-as-a-Service. Connect with Danny for customer success tips or help developing direct mail campaign ideas.