Veelo’s New Webinar Series Challenge: Marketing ROI or Marketing Waste?

January 18, 2016 – Portland, Ore. – Veelo, an award-winning marketing and sales enablement technology leader, has scheduled a three-part webinar series addressing marketing ROI.

Designed for marketers who are asking themselves:

  • “We have lots of marketing content, but I don’t know what is being used and what isn’t.”
  • “Sales content isn’t always using the approved messaging and branding.”
  • “How do I prove the value and ROI of our marketing content to our CFO?”

The kick off webinar of the series provides an overview on achieving and proving the ROI of marketing.  Learn how to:

  • Create content that is actually used by sales
  • Ensure message and brand consistency
  • Implement tools and processes to track content usage

Two additional webinars will feature real world case studies of companies that reduced marketing waste, dramatically increased sales usage of effective marketing content, and experienced positive results right away.

Marketing ROI or Marketing Waste? A Free Veelo Webinar.

Marketing ROI or Marketing Waste?
Date:  February 16, 2016
Time:  10:00 a.m. PT/ 1:00 p.m. ET

 

Proving Marketing ROI: The ESI Success Story

Proving Marketing ROI: The ESI Success Story
Date: March 29, 2016
Time: 1:00 p.m. PT/4:00 p.m. ET

James Latham, CMO of ESI, a global manufacturer of laser-based solutions for the microtechnology industry, shares his experience on increasing product marketing ROI. Come hear how James and his team transformed how ESI launched global products, reduced product marketing waste and dramatically increased sales usage of marketing content. In this webinar we will cover the processes, tools and behaviors James changed, and the results he was able to produce in just months.

 

Proving Marketing ROI: Case Study #2

Proving Marketing ROI: Case Study #2
Date:  April 27, 2016
Time: 10:00 a.m. PT/1:00 p.m. ET

In this case study we will focus on best practices that enable sales enablement teams to deliver impact and ROI. Our guest presenter will talk about how their company achieved greater impact of content, increased seller confidence and shortened sales cycles through the use of new sales enablement tools and processes. Speaker TBD.

How to Become the New England Patriots of Channel Partner Sales

The Superbowl is near, and love them or hate them, it’s hard to argue against the success of the New England Patriots over the last ten-plus years.  Sure, they have star quarterback Tom Brady. However, like most channel programs, there are only a few stars—there are lot more people in the middle of the bell curve. 

In fact, the Patriots have become synonymous with making “average” players on paper into high performers. Look back at their track record of turning unknown running backs and wide receivers into high performers. How?  What’s their secret?

Boost your channel partner sales by engaging your partner reps more effectively.Coaching. 

Again, love him or hate him, it’s hard to argue against the success of their head coach, Bill Belichick. Plenty of teams with far more star power have failed to reach even half of their success.

So what can we learn from the Patriots and Belichick when it comes channel partner sales?  Here are a few lessons we can take from the Patriots:

Channel Partner Sales Tip 1: What’s in it for me?

Belichick may have a cold exterior with the press, but his players love him and are loyal because he cares about them as individuals. When dealing with your channel partners, there needs to be something in it for them. SPIFFs, promos and contests are short term and don’t build long term value for you or your partner, yet they are by far the most used tactics.

When is the last time you sat down with your channel partners and asked: “What are your biggest challenges and how can I help?” Build solutions for them that utilize your products/services and maybe even others.  Make you offering part of their solution.  Don’t make it all about you and your product.

Channel Partner Sales Tip 2: Practice makes perfect.

It’s a cliché, but it’s true. One-time events, contests, promotions, etc. are simply that. One time. Imagine if the Patriots practiced each offensive play once a quarter like your channel partner reps do with your training (if you are lucky). 

Now, there is no way for you be in front of your partner sales reps to help them practice as often as you need to be.  But… technology can. Tools like the Veelo platform can be used to guide your partner sales reps with short bursts of knowledge, reminders and exercises. It’s just like a football coach.  Coach in the moment. 

Channel Partner Sales Tip 3: The coaching needs to adapt to the situation.

Does the coach in football give the team the game plan before the game and then sit back and watch it on TV? No. Of course not. But is that what you are doing with your channel partners? At best quarterly training? Offering Starbucks gift card rewards to please come to your portal and take your training? (The equivalent of begging your players to come to the pre-game briefing). 

Great coaches coach in the moment. Belichick is famous for making adjustments in real time, often running plays he has never run before, but tailored specifically for the opponent. With today’s technology, you can use tools that allow you to coach your channel reps in real time. In the moment. Tailor the message and content to the specific opportunity.

Conclusion

Hope this helps and inspires you to go out and coach your sales reps like a hall of famer coach. And for the record, I’m neither a lover nor hater of the New England Patriots. As a Philadelphia Eagles fan, I simply stand in awe and jealously of what they have achieved.

p.s. I was surprised to learn that Belichick is so famous that MS Word recognizes it and doesn’t flag it as a misspelled word. Now that is something to aspire to.

Portland Business Journal Covers Veelo’s New Name

Veelo's sales effectiveness platform enables salespeople to perform their best.Portland Business Journal covers Veelo’s name launch:

With the new name and new brand, the company wants to make more noise. Its previous name, MobilePaks, was intended as a placeholder that ended up sticking around longer. The company was born from Ballance’s previous startup VIA.

“This name reflects a new chapter for the company,” she said in a written statement. “We’ve helped our customers experience increased sales velocity and we have our own continued ambitious growth plans. We had simply outgrown the MobilePaks name.”

Read the full article on the Portland Business Journal.

Inspired by Rapid Growth, MobilePaks Announces Name Change to Veelo™

Veelo: A Sales Effectiveness Platform

January 18, 2016.  Portland, Ore. – Chanin Ballance, CEO of MobilePaks, announced today that the company has changed its name to Veelo. 

Ballance explained, “This name change reflects a new chapter for the company. We’ve helped our customers experience increased sales velocity and we have our own continued ambitious growth plans in a fast growing market. We wanted a name that better reflected the expanding value we deliver to our customers and we had simply outgrown the MobilePaks name.” 

Ballance emphasized that the company’s direction remains focused on delivering the best in class sales enablement platform, leading to increased performance by sales teams and customer facing employees. The Veelo platform is easy to use and integrates with the most common B2B systems and tools used by companies today. It helps salespeople quickly find sales and marketing content using a proprietary machine-learning algorithm, and it delivers short bursts of knowledge just in time, making sellers more effective. 

Ballance notes, “Sales effectiveness is a high priority for many companies , so it is a high growth area. InsideSales.com reports that North American companies already spend $12.8 billion annually on sales acceleration technology.” 

The name Veelo was inspired by the Latin derived root velo, meaning swift.  Speed and effectiveness are at the core of what Veelo delivers to its customers. It also describes the company’s growth.  In the last 12 months, the company documented an impressive 296% percent year-over-year increase in revenue, fueled by the success and popularity of its offerings.

Sales enablement on any device from Veelo

About Veelo

Veelo helps companies improve selling effectiveness and marketing ROI with tools for developing and delivering sales content and support.  Based on an exclusive brain science approach, Veelo is the only system that helps organizations create and deliver content based on the way sellers learn, retain and apply information. The Veelo Guided Selling™ product uses a proprietary machine-learning algorithm that automatically suggests dynamic content and support based on the sales stage, prospect type and preferences of sellers and managers, resulting in exceptional customer experiences.

What’s in a Name?

Veelo: A Sales Effectiveness Platform

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.”

—Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

In this famous line Shakespeare was suggesting that a name is simply a label to distinguish something from another, and the true worth is in the individual or thing. 

We here at Veelo™ (formerly MobilePaks) wholeheartedly agree.  Today marks a real milestone in the company’s history. After a tremendous amount of success and growth it was clear that it was time to distinguish the company from it’s beginnings to its current high growth state.

Our mission remains the same: To empower users to perform at their best by providing them knowledge when they need it most.  We are excited to have a name that will grow with us as we deliver market leading products and services to help businesses increase their sales effectiveness and marketing ROI.

Where did the name come from? Well, it was partly inspired by “velo,” a Latin root meaning “swift” (think velocity). That idea largely embodies what we do. Our products quickly deliver training recommendations and coaching to sellers in context and in the moment. It also describes our growth and momentum.

We hope you like the new name and look.  We here at Veelo are excited about writing this new chapter for the company.  To quote Shakespeare once again: “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

Five Tips to Make Your Sales Kick-Off Memorable

For many companies, the beginning of the year means the sales kick-off meeting is right around the corner. The annual gathering is supposed to be an event where sales reps get inspired and learn.

However, often the annual event means long hours in nondescript ballrooms and conferences rooms, late nights at the bar and lots and lots of Powerpoint slides. Do they remember anything? Well sure, who can forget that time Joe had a little too much to drink and drove the golf cart into the pool?

Here are a 5 tips to make your sales kick-off inspiring, fun and an event where your reps learn:

The wrong way to Powerpoint at a sales kick-off.

  1. Shorter is better. This applies to just about everything. From the length of the event, to the length of executive keynotes, to classroom style presentations. Everyone knows this, but it’s amazing how few people practice it. Largely because it’s hard. Getting an executive to shorten their 60-minute keynote to 30 is no easy task. Product managers will passionately drone on for 50 PowerPoint slides if you let them. The key is discipline, focus and content editors. Choose a theme for the conference and align content. If content isn’t related to the theme, leave it out. When in doubt, practice Steve Krug’s 3rd law: “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what is left.”
  2. Don’t make it a parade. This one can be tricky because now we are talking about executive egos, but the sales force probably doesn’t need to hear from the entire executive staff, each parading on in increments of 30 to 60 minutes. Of course, you’ll want the head of sales up on stage pumping up the team. Probably the CEO if available. Maybe 1-2 other execs. After that, think of more interactive, personal ways to interface with the other execs. Five to 10 keynotes over two to three days won’t be retained and by the third, most people won’t be paying attention any more.
  3. Make it entertaining. Great! You’ve scheduled a cocktail reception the first evening and you have an exciting band/DJ lined up for the last night. But what about the eight-plus hours a day when your reps are sitting in ballrooms and conference rooms? Don’t make your sales kick-off the equivalent of being forced to sit in the DMV. Add humor. Add entertainment. Interact. Learning is far more effective when your students are engaged.
  4. Make it active. Chinese proverb: “Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.” Interactivity will dramatically increase what the attendees retain, but go beyond just question and answers. Have people stand up, move around, get hands on with your products or even just discuss topics amongst themselves. You can easily achieve this in a classroom, but I’ve even seen this done well with an audience of 5000 people in an auditorium. It takes some creativity, but you can do it.
  5. Follow-up. This is the biggest mistake companies make. They put on an exciting event, throw a great party and then everyone hops on a plane and returns home tired. Monday morning, it’s back to the day job, and all that learning has been lost. Develop a structured follow-up and reinforcement plan. It should be part of your overall sales kick-off plan. Use tools and technology to help you. You might even want to consider testing or competency certification to make sure the time and effort was worth it.

Best of luck. Have fun. Learn a lot. And stay away from golf carts in the evening.