The SaaS Blueprint: Building Brand Trust Through Unified Outreach

When delving into the world of SaaS, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the myriad of strategies and methods on offer. Yet, one fundamental truth stands out: our approach truly counts.

Now, there’s no denying the time-tested efficacy of the phone. There’s something about the immediacy of voice, the rapport it establishes. It’s undeniably our ace in the hole. However, let’s face it, we’re in a digital era, and platforms like Email and LinkedIn are simply indispensable. They’re not mere add-ons; they’re part of the core trio. These platforms grant us the ability to engage potential clients in diverse yet equally impactful ways, and when used effectively, they each compliment and bolster the others.

This brings me to another key point: the potential outcomes when sales and marketing join forces. The era when sales and marketing operated in their own bubbles is, thankfully, bygone. In today’s world, especially within SaaS, the fusion of the two has led to some incredible results. Our SDR teams receive these qualified, nurtured, warm leads, transforming conversions into genuine dialogues.

A unified front is essential. It’s not just about the message but ensuring it’s delivered harmoniously. If our marketing colleagues are communicating a narrative, it’s pivotal we’re all on the same page, talking the same language and replicating each other’s approach. This alignment doesn’t just enhance our brand’s authenticity, it amplifies it, particularly when our SDRs are reaching out.

Lastly, there’s the matter of brand trust. With marketing standing shoulder to shoulder with sales, reinforcing the narrative, it’s akin to bestowing our brand with a seal of credibility. And trust me, that doesn’t go unnoticed.

In conclusion, as the SaaS industry continues to grow and evolve, it’s pivotal that we remain agile, adaptive, and most importantly, integrated in our approach. By ensuring that our sales and marketing efforts are not just aligned but intertwined, we position ourselves for sustained success and growth. Always remember the basics: integration, consistency, and collaboration.

See how this simple, collaborative approach has led to many success stories with clients the SaaS sector, here.

Opinion piece by Sales Director, Marco Alfano-Rogers

From Good to Great: Transforming Sales Teams – Powered by Air Sales Academy

Are you ready to take your sales team to new heights of success? Air Sales Academy presents a special live event aimed to reshape the way businesses approach SDR training and development.

Join our esteemed panel of sales leaders and experts as they unveil their strategies and approaches to building world-class SDR teams.

Panellists:
Erik Pollitt – Sales Trainer & Performance Coach
Michael Hanson – Founder & CEO of Growth Genie
Chris Ritson – Co-Founder & CEO of Flexprts

Host:
Owen Richards – Founder & CEO of Air Marketing

This live roundtable will give you a front-row seat to captivating discussions and valuable insights from experts in the field.

You will hear about:
– Insight from the experts who have achieved extraordinary success in building and empowering top-performing SDR teams.
– Innovative approaches to SDR training, enablement, and development that are redefining industry standards.
– Proven strategies, cutting-edge techniques, and best practices for transforming your sales team’s performance.
– The latest tools, technologies, and methodologies that have driven SDR performance in recent years.
– Exclusive insight into the brand new sessions and resources offered by Air Sales Academy, designed to equip SDR teams for success.

Who is it for?
Founders & CEOs
Sales & Marketing Leaders
Revenue Leaders
Sales & Marketing Managers
Sales Development Representatives (SDRs)
Business Development Representatives (BDRs)

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to unlock your team’s true potential and set new standards of success in the SDR landscape.

The Revenue Revolution Podcast by Jointflows Featuring Owen Richards – Founder & CEO, Air Marketing

We’re thrilled to share an exciting podcast episode from The Revenue Revolution series, hosted by Jointflows – a game-changing tool that simplifies the sales process, with a particular focus on the crucial closing stages. 

In this episode, hosts Mick Gosset (CEO of Jointflows) and Hitesh Kapadia (CRO of Jointflows) engage in a captivating conversation with Air Marketing’s Founder & CEO, Owen Richards. They delve into Owen’s insightful perspective on the current state of the sales and revenue landscape; shedding light on various factors that influence it, including the emergence of new stakeholders during the final stages of the sales process.

They share their thoughts on the essential skills that sales leaders should possess, which unfortunately many often lack. Moreover, Owen reveals the innovative and creative strategies that set Air Marketing apart from competitors in a saturated market.

As the conversation continues, Hitesh and Mick explore Owen’s thoughts on the potential revolution brought about by AI in the sales industry, including how it may reshape the sales landscape, presenting exciting possibilities for the future.

I Bet Your SDRs Aren’t Hitting Quota… Here’s Why | SaaSGrowth2023 | Owen Richards

Discover the top 10 reasons why your SDRs may not be hitting their quota in this insightful event talk by our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, at SaaSGrowth2023 – powered by Sales Confidence.

A bit about Owen:

Originally from Kent, Owen started his sales career at our Sister Company, Forrest Marketing Group (FMG), in Sydney, Australia while traveling. He started as a Telesales Executive and, having planned to be in Australia for a year, he was sponsored by the company and one year eventually became 8. During this time he progressed into a Head of Sales and Operations role.

In 2015, Owen and his wife, Amy, moved back to the UK to start a family, and in early 2016, he co-founded Air Marketing Group with his business partner and Managing Director of FMG, Richard Forrest. Seven years on, Air is now one of the UKs leading sales and marketing agencies; is the parent company to a sales and marketing recruitment company (Seed Talent); and trains and coaches other sales professionals to elevate their performance from good to great through Air Sales Academy

Launch of The SDR Academy by Air Sales Academy

We are delighted to announce our further expansion with the launch of  The SDR Academy by Air Sales Academy – a virtual sales training academy to help businesses upskill their sales teams.

The SDR Academy is designed to help businesses across the UK, train Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) in skills including cold calling, social selling, email writing, and objection handling. All sessions are live and interactive, allowing delegates to ask questions as they learn.

Delivering the live sessions will be trainers like Erik Pollitt, a Sales Trainer & Consultant with over fifteen years of experience (including as Learning & Performance Manager at ao.com), Owen Richards (Air’s Founder & CEO) and James Ski (Founder of Sales Confidence).

Erik said: “Many businesses want to create a comprehensive training package for sales staff but don’t have the time, money, or experience. This is where Air’s Sales Academy comes into its own. With over 100 sessions on offer, delegates can attend as many or as few sessions as they want, whether they’re working from home or the office.

We offer an ongoing training solution. One that sees your sales reps experience industry leading training sessions every week. And with a cost of as little as £15 per person per session, companies will see a fantastic return on their investment.”

Owen Richards, Founder & CEO of Air Marketing, continued: “We’ve been providing sales support to companies across the country for several years, employing and training SDRs. As a part of that journey we have built a best-in-class training academy internally, and it makes sense to open that experience up to other organisations. We’re perfectly placed to offer relevant, innovative, and effective SDR training, and help other companies get the most out of their investment in sales roles.

It’s been exciting pulling all of the content together and now we’re able to offer this brand-new service to businesses that want to improve their sales results and see tangible results. I’m just looking forward to getting started.”

To find out more about The SDR Academy, visit the website here, or call our team on 0345 241 3038.

From Zero Knowledge to Big Sales Success – Event Talk with Air Marketing’s Katelyn Tomlinson

We’re excited to share the inspiring talk by our very own Business Development Executive (BDE), Katelyn Tomlinson, at Sales Confidence‘s SDRs and BDRs event. Katelyn shared her personal journey of going from a beginner position with little knowledge of SaaS to becoming a successful BDE at Air Marketing.

In her talk, Katelyn gave insightful B2B sales tips that helped her achieve her goals, and encouraged others who are new to the SaaS space, thinking about launching a new career in sales, or even seasoned professionals to learn from her experience.

Through her infectious motivation and drive, Katelyn showed that success in sales is not only about having prior knowledge or experience, but also about the right mindset, determination, and willingness to learn and grow.

At Air, we believe that everyone has the potential to achieve their goals, and we are proud to have Katelyn as a part of our team. Her success story is a testament to the value we place on personal development and continuous learning, which we believe is vital to our growth as a business.

So, whether you’re new to the SaaS space or a seasoned professional, we invite you to watch Katelyn’s 7-minute talk and get inspired to take your sales game to the next level!

What is a Sales and Marketing Tech Stack?

In sales and marketing, a tech stack often refers to the collection of digital tools and software applications that a company uses to automate, optimise, and measure its sales and marketing activities. It typically includes customer relationship management (CRM) software, email marketing platforms, social media management tools, landing page builders, lead generation and qualification tools, lead nurturing solutions, analytics and reporting software, and many others. The sales and marketing tech stack is crucial for enabling organisations to manage their customer interactions and improve their overall sales and marketing performance.

Managing your tech stack

  1. Consolidate your tech stack: Rather than using a variety of different tools and software, streamline your tech stack by consolidating tools and focusing on a few core platforms. This can help make your tech stack more efficient and easier to manage.
  2. Regularly review your tech stack: Review your tech stack frequently to ensure that all tools and software are still relevant and useful. Get rid of any tools or software that are no longer needed or useful.
  3. Invest in training: Invest in training and education for yourself and your team to ensure that everyone is proficient in the tools and software that are being used. This can help increase productivity and efficiency.
  4. Use cloud-based software: Using cloud-based software can help make your tech stack more flexible and easier to manage. This can also help reduce costs associated with maintaining hardware and software.
  5. Seek feedback: Regularly seek feedback from your team and customers to find out what tools and software are working well and what could be improved. Use this feedback to make informed decisions about your tech stack.

Software you should consider adding to your tech stack (or at least reviewing):

  1. Salesforce – Salesforce is the most popular CRM software being used today.
  2. HubSpot – HubSpot is a marketing and sales software platform that provides tools for companies to attract, engage, and delight customers. It includes a wide range of features, including email marketing, social media management, search engine optimisation, website design and development, customer relationship management, and more. HubSpot is designed to help businesses streamline their marketing and sales processes, improve customer relationships, and ultimately drive revenue growth.
  3. Adobe Marketo Engage – Marketo Engage is the world’s largest marketing automation platform, a singular solution that combines the power of automation, content, lead development and account-based marketing. It helps connect you with customers and keeps them coming back, saving your team time, effort, and resources.
  4. Oracle Eloqua – Eloqua is a marketing automation software that provides insights and marketing campaign management capabilities.
  5. Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a social media marketing platform that helps businesses manage their social media accounts to publish content, monitor engagement, and analyse performance.
  6. Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a free analytics tool that helps businesses track website traffic and user behaviour on their website.
  7. Optimizely – Optimizely is a testing and optimisation software that allows businesses to test different versions of their website to optimize conversion rates.
  8. SEMrush – SEMrush is an SEO and SEM software that provides competitive intelligence, keyword research and tracking, and site auditing capabilities.
  9. ZoomInfo – ZoomInfo is a B2B data intelligence platform that helps businesses identify and target potential customers.
  10. ChatGPT – ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with the chatbot. The language model can answer questions and assist you with tasks like composing emails, essays, and code. Most of what you have read above was written by ChatGPT, not Shaun Weston 😊

Opinion piece by Shaun Weston – CRM Manager at Air Marketing

We’re offering a FREE tech stack audit to help you understand your existing CRM and identify any inefficiencies. We will provide honest, actionable recommendations to optimise your tech stack and improve your business operations.

LIVE Event: The Great Debate – Paid Vs. Organic

Introducing our first live debate of 2023 in our popular debate series! We’re excited to tackle the topic of Paid vs Organic – where is best to invest your marketing budget in 2023?

Our panellists have tried and tested in their field, they have their favourite and they’re ready to battle it out…

Fighting for team ‘Paid’ we have:
Jaye Cowle – Managing Director of Launch

And on team ‘Organic’ we have:
Sam Dunning – Co-Owner of WEB CHOICE
Dan Holt – Managing Director of Boss Digital

Sitting in the cross-fire and chairing the debate is our very own Founder & CEO, Owen Richards.
 
Who is it for?
Founders
Sales Leaders
Revenue Leaders
Sales Managers
Sales Development Representatives

How to Be Brave and Sell More with Your Sales and Marketing

We’re living in an exciting age of advertising, so there’s no doubt that you’ve recently come across a piece of highly creative and snappy marketing and thought  ‘I wish my company could do something like that’. The good news is, that no matter what industry you operate in, you can! Thinking outside of the box and being brave with your sales and marketing has many benefits that can drive revenue growth.

Let’s delve into some of them:

Standing Out From the Crowd

CPB London’s 2022 International Women’s Day Campaign around breaking the gender bias was built around a nationwide study that said 39% of primary school aged children still believe that mothers should look after babies and do the housework, whilst fathers should go to work.

They produced a series of bold text-only posters that challenge instant biases with copy such as ‘Imagine a CEO. Is it a man?’ and ‘Imagine someone crying in the office. Is it a woman?’ They also launched a children’s colouring book alongside this that went further in challenging traditional gender roles.

Image credit: cpblondon.com

This campaign made them stand out from their competition and differentiate their brand as a disruptor within the industry. It also introduced them to a wider audience, including people who would not have been aware of their brand otherwise.

Increasing Brand Awareness

What feelings do you want to evoke when people think of your business? Boring, dated, ‘had its day’? Didn’t think so.

Your brand identity is the key to resonating with your target audience and driving more sales.

Take the latest British Airways campaign, for example. They’ve put a series of billboards up around the UK encouraging people to take their holiday seriously with a series of tongue in cheek out of office emails such as this one:

Image credit: famouscampaigns.com

They are implicitly driving sales by subverting expectations and relating to their audience’s desire to book holidays in order to switch off from their everyday working lives.

How relatable are your current marketing and sales materials? How could you appeal to your target audience more closely in your next campaign?

Building Trust with Your Potential Customers

By being bold and assertive with how you sell your products or services, you display a confidence in them that attracts interest and can lead to sales. Take this recent #RaiseYourArches advert from McDonalds. It doesn’t feature a single product or restaurant shot. It doesn’t even feature speech. It uses clever body language and their iconic golden-arch branding to show how people may communicate that they want a McDonalds.

Image credit: McDonald’s

McDonalds know that they don’t always have to use product imagery in order to sell burgers – they can instead focus on the feelings their food and the experience of eating it offers.

Consider how you could demonstrate confidence in your products or services within your marketing or sales collateral.

Increasing Sales Through Scarcity

KFC’s double down burger is one of its most popular menu items. But it’s not available all year round. The fast-food chain only makes it available for limited 5 week periods and when it’s on sale, it accounts for roughly 5% of its total revenue. The fact that it’s never clear when the burger might be returning to the menu, drives sales from satisfied customers who have previously enjoyed it. The product has a loyal customer base which means KFC can expect increased revenue over time, so long as they keep selling it.

How could you replicate this sense of urgency to motivate your ideal customers into action? Could you create exclusivity around a product or offer a lucrative limited time deal? The bolder, the better!

Leading Not Following

The release of the John Lewis Christmas advert is a highly anticipated event in the festive calendar. Viewers have come to expect a highly emotive and heart-warming tale that evokes the yule-tide spirit of giving. Hailing back two decades, this format has now set a trend with lots of other retailers now following suit with story-telling adverts in a similar format. This powerful story-telling format increases brand awareness and can be effective in driving sales, especially around the all-important festive period.

How could your business lead rather than follow with your sales and marketing processes? Could you offer added value that your customer base wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else? How could you inject freshness into your industry?

Being brave with sales and marketing isn’t something that’s exclusively reserved for the titans of their industry. In being bold and making your offering stand out from that of your competitors, you’ll force your audience to sit up and listen to what you have to say.

In thinking outside of the box with how you market and sell to your audience,, you will undoubtedly  achieve a wider reach, build trust, and ultimately generate more opportunities for revenue growth. So be brave with your ideas, make the sky your limit and then go a bit further. In today’s oversaturated digital world, who dares wins!

Is your business ready to be brave and sell more, but in need of some guidance on how to execute this strategy? We’re here to help. Get in touch today to find out how we could guide you through the process and help you to generate more revenue opportunities.

CloudTask’s Transform Sales Podcast Featuring Owen Richards – Founder & CEO, Air Marketing

Want to know the secret to a successful sales strategy? Air Marketing’s Founder & CEO, Owen Richards, reveals all in an interview with Amir Reiter, CEO of CloudTask.

They discuss:
– How to qualify leads efficiently
– How to find the right niche for any product or service
– How to identify when buyers don’t fit your target

Learn more about how Air Marketing works with expert teams that provide all the sales and marketing services you need to generate a pipeline that drives results and revenue, here.

Connect with Owen and Amir on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenjrichards/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirreiter/