Sales Development in New Industries, with Jason Klumpp of Segment

Jason started off studying biology, but quickly realized he didn't want a research job. Instead, he wanted a career where he could interact with people and solve problems. Specifically, he was always fascinated by how people make their buying decisions. That fascination has helped him excel in Sales Development. 

In this interview, he shares how his team is raising awareness of a new industry, why they no longer use data enrichment tools, and how they keep their messaging relevant. 

New industry challengesSegment is a customer data platform that allows companies to capture the complete customer journey by tracking their first-party touchpoints, then leveraging that data to provide personalization at scale in a way that respects users’ privacy needs. It’s a new approach, so some education is needed. 

To meet this challenge, Segment is serving as a thought leader in the space. They’re talking to companies and introducing the idea of a customer data platform, explaining what challenges it solves. The category is defined by their messaging, so it’s important that their message is clear and consistent. 

Another big challenge for any company is reacting to inbound requests fast enough. A slow response leads to a huge drop in conversion. To ensure they’re responding as quickly as possible, Segment has people in various parts of the world so they can reply promptly to customers wherever they are. 

It’s also important to properly qualify prospects. This a rigorous process so that, when a prospect is handed over to an account executive, they have a strong understanding of what the customer wants to accomplish and what particular solution will best help them.

Using the right tech When a customer visits the Segment site and submits a demo request, the experience should be as seamless as possible. By using Chili Piper, companies are given the option to book a time with an SDR immediately. They can select the time that works for them and it’ll be routed to the appropriate rep, without any of the back and forth trying to schedule a meeting over email. 

Other tech tools, while potentially helpful, don’t fit in with Segment’s philosophy. As a company, they pride themselves on respecting customers’ privacy wishes; if somebody chooses to provide Segment with their contact information, that's great, but they no longer use enrichment tools to uncover data that hasn’t already been shared. 

Using multiple approachesWhile his team is supported by a healthy amount of inbound activity, Jason also wants to be regularly experimenting with new ways to create as much pipeline as possible. To that end, the team runs campaigns on three separate levels: 

• Net new leads
• Reengaging cold leads 
• Cold outbound to a targeted list

Whenever the team does outreach, they make sure it’s relevant and specific. That involves looking at what’s happening with a prospect company (if they’ve just raised funding, changed their tech stack, etc), but also the signals they’re giving out directly to Segment. Are they viewing content? Are they signing up and attending webinars? These signals are taken into account so they’re able to personalize their messaging. 
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Sales Development in 2020A lot of customers are starting to understand the importance of customer data, personalization, and delivering personalization while respecting customer privacy. Segment is developing their story across those three areas, so understanding and conveying their positioning on those topics is something that's top of mind for Jason.

Going forward, Jason is working to keep their messaging consistent with the direction the company is heading in. Rather than talking about the details of what Segment does, he wants to drive conversations with companies about their initiatives and their strategy, and how Segment can be a part of that strategy. 

If you’re looking for ways to improve your Sales Development program and overcome similar challenges, contact us at Tenbound today for a no-obligation exploratory call.