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 The
economic climate of the past year
killed businesses without sound tactics, which is
why I decided to interview Scott Dorsey of ExactTarget,
who has not only started up
I recently spoke with CEO and co-founder of ExactTarget,
Scott Dorsey, quizzing him closely on his actionable success
tactics for you to consider using in your own business.
Today’s article presents these tactics ‘at-a-glance’ for
those of you in a hurry, and if you’d like to linger you
can read the interview itself.
ExactTarget’s Actionable Success Tactics:
- Send success emails to all employees when the company
has a success, great or small. This increases morale,
and reminds everyone that their contributions are
crucial to the success of the company. Here’s a success
email ExactTarget sent around (using their software
of course). http://www.webpronews.com/pages/exacttarget.html
- For startups – create a motorboat instead of a battle
ship. Make your product affordable to small businesses
so you’ll have that which fuels enthusiasm: sales.
- Grow slowly as quickly as you can. New markets provide
a wealth of data that patience and analysis turn in
to a wealth of profits. In most cases, though, opening
markets too quickly brings only short-term gains.
- Be brutally specific about what problem your product
solves.
- Share company direction, performance metrics, equity
and ownership with your employees.
- Foster strong communication between your tech/production
department and sales. Big sales scoreboards help,
as well as close proximity between sales and tech
(no walls!).
And now for the interview:
| Q:
How did the products originate (who had the initial
vision, briefly describe the stages of development)
|
A:
Chris Baggott, one of our founders, had the initial
vision for the company. Chris worked for RR Donnelley
during the 90’s and truly became an expert in database
marketing. As his entrepreneurial passion grew,
he left RR Donnelley and purchased a chain of dry
cleaners in Indianapolis.
His theory was that dry cleaning offered an ideal
opportunity to capture and leverage customer data.
Dry cleaners know the address, phone number and
buying patterns of their customers. Armed with this
data, he turned to email as a medium to communicate
with his customers. Through in-store sign up sheets,
he quickly gathered over 2,000 email addresses.
On a weekly basis, he would send coupons, articles
about textile care and most importantly would include
personal content like pictures of his family, restaurant
reviews and coverage of his philanthropic efforts
in the community.
The results were overwhelming – 15% coupon redemption
rates, improved customer loyalty and lots of reply
emails from his customers. These customers began
to feel like they knew Chris on a personal level.
The only problem was that building and sending visually
appealing emails was an enormous chore.
Chris would spend countless hours per week building
an HTML email and jury-rigging a solution together
to send it to a large group. He ran into many problems
and decided to start ExactTarget to create an affordable
and easy-to-use solution that would help companies
of all sizes leverage the power of email marketing.
Chris recruited me from an Internet venture in Chicago
and we formed ExactTarget. We partnered with a small
but talented development firm and began creating
the software that is now utilized by over 500 companies
located around the world. |
| Q:
Please describe your three products and include
prices, specific targets for each, and profile companies
to whom you've sold each product |
A:Connect
– Do-It-Yourself Email Marketing
Overview: Connect enables anyone with basic computer
skills to easily create, deliver, and track email
marketing campaigns. Organizations implement Connect
to improve their customer communications, generate
additional revenue and lower their marketing expenses.
Targets: Organizations of all sizes and levels of
marketing sophistication.
Clients: Marsh Supermarkets, Conseco, American Cancer
Society, Gartner Research
Pricing: Base set-up and subscription fee starts
at $2,500
ProConnect – Provide, Share & Sell Email Marketing
Services
Overview: ProConnect offers agencies new revenue
streams via email marketing. Agencies implement
ProConnect to provide, share and sell email marketing
services with their clients.
Targets: Marketing service agencies including advertising
and public relations firms, graphic design houses
and/or other professional service providers.
Clients: Weber Shandwick Worldwide, Ciceron, New
Media Worx, and Inbox Marketing
Pricing: Base set-up and subscription fee starts
at $9,000
ChannelConnect – Brand Globally, Email Locally
Overview: ChannelConnect engages an organization's
entire sales channel in email marketing. ChannelConnect
enables sales reps, distributors, and franchisees
to deliver branded emails directly from their PC.
ChannelConnect offers two implementation options
that can be utilized independently or in tandem.
Targets: Organizations with multiple sales channels
including sales reps, distributors and/or franchisees.
Clients: Abbott Laboratories, Carpet Network, Computer
Renaissance, Jostens and Struers
Pricing: Base set-up and subscription fee starts
at $15,000 |
| Q:
Is your company revenue supported right now,
venture funded, or a percentage of both? If venture
capital's involved, how soon will you be entirely
revenue supported? |
| A:
Our growth is supported both through client revenue
and private funding. We anticipate being completely
revenue supported by the end of 2002. |
| Q:
How did you fund your start up? |
| A:
ExactTarget has been funded by strategic individual
investors. |
| Q:
What have you learned from your key competitors?
(and who are they) |
| A:
Key competitors include Responsys, YesMail and E2Communications. |
| Q:
What advice would you give to CEOs who would
like to jumpstart employee enthusiasm? |
A:
In my experience, employees are looking for a connection
with their company that extends far beyond just
receiving a paycheck. They want to understand the
company’s vision and play a role in helping it come
to fruition.
As a result, we work hard to share the company’s
direction and performance metrics with every employee.
This way, they can see very clearly where the company
is heading and how their role fits into the larger
picture.
I would encourage CEO’s of both small and large
companies to drive this level of communication –
and, it must be on a frequent basis. In addition,
I suggest sharing many of the incremental day-to-day
successes of the company. Send out a company-wide
email when an important client comes on board or
a significant milestone is met within the company.
By sharing these successes, employees leave the
office with a positive feeling about the company
– everyone likes to be on a winning team. We also
offer many inexpensive social outings for our employees
and their families – baseball games, bowling, etc.
This way, our employee’s families become integrated
into our company. After feeling the vibe and passion
of our company, they tend to be more supportive
of the long hours and weekends that come with the
territory. |
| Q:
How do you foster the relationship between the
sales and technical side, and how did this relationship
begin? |
A:
The synergy between technology and sales started
as a result of our physical environment. The sales
and technology groups were placed in close proximity
to one another thus encouraging communication and
relationship building.
Also, our sales scoreboard (large whiteboard showing
monthly sales by rep) was placed in an open area
so that the technology group could be sensitive
to our emphasis on customers and sales volume. In
addition, we have developed a very collaborative
product development process which involves sales,
marketing and technology groups. |
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