memoryBlue Insights – 9/27/2021

Below is the memoryBlue weekly bulletin, delivering sales development insights every Monday to our entire slate of high-tech clients. The updates span all six memoryBlue offices, encompassing 150+ sales development campaigns and 275+ SDRs working relentlessly to generate net new revenue for these businesses.

We have a large contingent of memoryBlue staff out in the Bay Area this week attending the SaaStr Annual 2021 industry event. This is one of several in-person conferences our team plans to attend in the coming year and it represents a very positive signal. Emerging from the virtual events world that Covid created is a very welcome change in the high-tech space. These events offer a fantastic opportunity to learn from one another, network, and stay current on rapidly changing technology landscapes. We also love connecting with our clients in these environments, so if you or your colleagues are attending SaaStr this week, drop me a note and I’ll connect you with our crew.

Notable Numbers

• We’re averaging a 5% (weekly) prospect connection rate across the entire business in September. That’s a high mark we hit four times in each of the prior weeks this year. Rising connection rates (conversations with prospects) leads directly to increases at the top of the sales development funnel.

• Meeting hold rate rose to 71.2% last week. That’s a gain of nearly 5% week over week and, combined with the elevated connection rates, represents an additional positive buying signal from our targeted sales prospects.

• 71.5% of leads occurred have been scored by our client reps in September. Elevating this key quality measurement metric above 70% carries fantastic benefits for both memoryBlue and the entire portfolio of our client campaigns.

Highlight of the Week

Will, an SDR based out of our Denver office, turned raw hustle into a major $500K+ contract renewal deal for his mobile technology focused client. Not only did Will complete this impressive feat on his very first booked meeting for the client, but the deal he surfaced ended up closing with a 24% increase in annual recurring revenue compared to the prior contract with one of the largest banking institutions in the U.S.

Successful sales development is often a combination of surfacing net new deals as well as securing major contract renewals (and increases!). Will understood the potential of a massive renewal opportunity in this case and he made it happen on behalf of an exceedingly appreciative client. Great hustle always pays off!

Spotlight on Training

Tyson Mattox, a Client Delivery Manager based out of our Boston office, led a staff training last week focused on prospect rapport building. At its most basic level, building rapport with a prospect is the ability for a sales professional to connect with the individual on the other end of the phone and make them feel at ease with a conversation. It may sound straightforward, but Tyson walked the team through a variety of specific tactics and techniques they can employ to achieve this desired result.

Tyson stressed the importance of completing prospect research, performing active listening, and engaging in tone mirroring among other important rapport building methods during his hour-long session. The team walked away armed with specific ready-to-use tools following this detailed sales skill building session.

Lead Scores

These client-based lead scores caught our attention last week:

9/22/2021 – 8:37AM – 10/10 – Henry
“Strong fit, had the whole C Suite on the line, several doctors in great need.”

9/21/2021 – 11:58AM – 10/10 – Ann Marie
“Fantastic lead! Right POC, willing to connect us to others. Outstanding all around. This is the result of doing enough calling into an account to be able to identify and weed out solid contacts.”

9/22/2021 – 11:24AM – 10/10 – Angela
“The words, “I normally wouldn’t have taken a meeting or call like this, but I’m glad I did now” will always be such an accomplishment to hang our hats on as SDRs/BDRs. Huge thanks to Angela!”

The Opportunity of a Lifetime

memoryBlue is on pace to launch over 150 new alumni into the high-tech sales space by the end of 2021. That number would represent a nearly 100% increase over our record-setting mark of 80 set last year. As we kicked off our 3rd annual Phenom Award alumni program last week (honoring the memoryBlue alum off to the hottest start in the last two years), these numbers underscore the massive demand that exists today for strong, well-trained sales professionals.

When the ball drops and we ring in 2022, memoryBlue will have helped 200+ individuals build a rock solid foundation for exceedingly promising careers in high-tech professional sales in the last two years alone. Those numbers will grow even larger next year and it dramatically demonstrates the opportunity right now in this space. As our campus recruiting teams continue to visit career fairs at colleges and universities across the country this Fall, highlighting this opportunity to tomorrow’s best and brightest stands at the core of their mission.