You are reading an article from the series in which Polish startups, technology companies and venture capital funds sum up 2021.
In the photo: from left: Dariusz Nawojczyk and Jacek Maciak, founders of Salesbook
The new sales paradigm
We often say that it is COVID that is changing the reality around us, but de facto it is only a catalyst for transformations that were inevitable. Rather, it is the new technologies themselves that have changed our social and business contexts, shedding a brighter light on how we can do something better, more conveniently and efficiently.
In consultative sales, where contact between the consultant and the client is required, for a long time such an approach was not standard and in a way everyone accepted it. And finally something broke and companies said: hey, we also want to improve this area, we want to give our potential customers above-average quality of sales meeting, we want to know what happened during it and measure its quality.
Salesbook addresses exactly those needs, so the last year has been a time for us to actively acquire new customers. Our portfolio increased by 60%, which resulted in more than doubling of revenues. We were acquiring companies from various industries: energy, automotive or finance, helping them to increase the effectiveness of sales meeting conversion by 53% on average.
Finally, we can boast that among our clients there are such brands as Orange, PGE or Unum.
Best Sales Enablement Tool
Salesbook is an all-in-one product. In addition to the classic CRM system, it provides sales departments with a set of tools that allow them to strengthen the entire process. Thus, we will find here functions of attractive product presentation, customer needs research, offer configuration during the meeting, signing of contracts, and finally full automation of the lead handling process combined with advanced analytics.
With the product offer presented in this way, we went to London to participate in one of the largest fairs of sales tools in the world – Sales Innovation Expo. There, we had an opportunity to verify our product against the competition, not only by observing other solutions, but also by participating in a competition for the best tool in the Sales Enablement category. In the vote of conference participants (over 4 thousand people) Salesbook took the first place.
It is worth mentioning that a year earlier we were recognized by UiPath as the best sales process automation tool and received the title of the best scaleup in the UiPath Automation Awards.
An investment in the organization
Salesbook is of course about the people who make it, so 2021 is also about our focus on internal processes. We’ve always wanted to be an organization where a creative startup approach is balanced by a harmony of transparent procedures within which people find joy in their work.
So we implemented a lot of internal programs related to, for example, onboarding, communication and customer service, which allowed us to scale the team relatively easily. The team grew by 30%, with specialists in sales, application development and project management joining Salesbook.
As an anecdote, we can tell you that by leveraging the best practice strategies we use to onboard new employees, one of our sales support specialists closed a deal on his fourth day on the job. We’re waiting for someone to break that record.
A new round and ambitions for 2022
It’s worth noting that all of 2021 Salesbook operated in organic mode, meaning it funded all activities from its own resources. Nevertheless, at that time talks were held with many investors in order to raise funds for accelerated growth. In Q4 we managed to sign a term sheet, and at the end of the year we were closely connected with negotiations of a new investment agreement. We managed to sign it in mid-January with the Level2 fund.
Our plans for 2022 are very clear – to effectively use the funds raised for development in two directions: entry into foreign markets (mainly UK and US) and adaptation of our product to new verticals such as HR, manufacturing and ICT.
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Author: Dariusz Nawojczyk, CMO & Member of the Management Board Salesbook
