Applying AI to Lead Generation: Rev CEO Jonathan Spier (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: We have tried to move the software industry into this DIY model. The whole SaaS industry is a DIY model. Ho and I were talking about the opportunity to do a DIFM (Do It For Me). Years ago, I coined another phrase to describe those – SaaS-enabled BPO.

There is technology, but the technology is being used by the services agency that is applying that technology to achieve significant results, but people are not using the software. They’re using the functionality of this vendor. It sounds like you are doing DIFM kind of model.

Jonathan Spier: When I signed on, that’s the model. Now, we’re doing both. At the end of the day, you want to solve the problem for a customer. That’s where you unlock a lot of value. Never mind the definitions put on it.

Our head of revenue, Fred Mondragon, came from Medallia where they offer survey software. Their competitor, Qualtrics, has a DIY model. Medallia had an element of white-glove service. It’s not just about executing surveys but about getting the process and methodology right to do a great job of understanding your customer. That’s valuable for companies to think that way. If a company wants your hands on the keyboard for some parts of it, that’s fine. I don’t think those distinctions are important.

Sramana Mitra: There are so many nuances to this problem that are not necessarily software-specific nuances. They’re just strategic nuances. One of the techniques we use for heuristics was job postings of potential customers. What are they looking for? We’d figure out what product they were using. That’s a whole goldmine of data around which we could do lead generation.

There are probably 500 such heuristic models for somebody to be using this to know. It’s not always easy to educate that population in all of those heuristics. You talked about Nick from Gainsight. He has created a training organization for people who are in charge of customer engagements. If you really want to do high-powered lead generation, then you’re going to need to teach a whole body of people all these heuristics. Then they can use your product like a Ferrari.

Jonathan Spier: I think you’re right. But I want to point out that companies are already doing this today. They’re already spending a fortune on it. They’re just not doing it all that well.

Sramana Mitra: That’s my point. How do you make them do it well? For your product to be used and leveraged sufficiently, you have to teach them to use it well.

Jonathan Spier: It’s an opportunity.

Sramana Mitra: That’s in the DIY model. This is the roadblock. People don’t have enough knowledge of the possibilities and heuristics.

Jonathan Spier: Do you think that’s very different than something like Nurturing was when the marketing automation systems came along?

Sramana Mitra: That’s why I gave you the example of Gainsight of providing training. You need to create a training program for your target audience of lead generators and train them to be good at it. I’m not saying it’s any different.

Jonathan Spier: I understand where you’re going. In that case, I agree with you. We need to do a lot of best practice in teaching.

Sramana Mitra: How far along are you now? How many customers?

Jonathan Spier: We have several hundred customers .

Sramana Mitra: All in the tech industry?

Jonathan Spier: Not all, but we have a nice list from the software space. We also have a number of medical and medtech companies, a few manufacturing, a large number of agencies.

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Applying AI to Lead Generation: Rev CEO Jonathan Spier
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