William Ballance

Lavender

Lavender helps you write sales emails that convert, faster. (🏆 #1 on Product Hunt • 🔶 9.9/10 on G2)

Lavender has everything a seller needs to get more replies in less time: email assistance, sentence suggestions, prospect research + email verification, mobile optimization, data-driven team coaching and recommendations, and much more. 

Integrates with Gmail, Outlook 365, Outreach, and Salesloft.
Get started at www.lavender.ai

CEO & Co-Founder

Sorter

🏅Winner - Techstars Startup Weekend (Atlanta 2018)

A marketing platform that combines neuroscience, psychology, and data science to build better communication at scale for brands like Yamaha, Gravity Blankets, and KettleSpace.

Sorter’s internal AI, CATIE( Creative Algorithms for Text and Image Enhancement) blends behavioral sciences with cutting edge data science and natural language processing enabling you to easily apply an objective science to the art of communication. 

We help create better content faster.

Fueling the backend of our platforms for healthcare, marketing, sales, and HR, CATIE analyzes and determines what distinguishes top-performing campaigns from baseline and under-performing content within your audiences.

Sorter (sorter.com): 1:Many Communications
Lavender (trylavender.com): 1:1 Communications

Co-Founder & CEO

Dooly

Strategic Advisor

Alum

Born out of a campaign to help save Sweet Briar College, a historic women's college in Virginia, Alum was a mobile app for alumni social networking and mobile fundraising active at over 200 colleges and high schools.

Founder

My Fun Filter

My Fun Filter was the #1 supplier of custom Snapchat filters on Groupon and LivingSocial in the US and Canada. Acquired.

Springbot

Springbot is a Magento Gold and Shopify partner that delivers a marketing automation and predictive analytics software to eCommerce stores ranging from early stage startups to $100mm global companies.

Springbot's awards include TAG Top 10 Most Innovative Technology Company, TiE Silicon Valley - TiE50 Top Startups 2016, and Atlanta Business Chronicle's Best Places to Work.

SDR & AE - US/UK/Australia

Candle Spas

• Co-founded the first digital e-commerce platform for subscription spa services in Atlanta, New York, and San Francisco. 
• Built our spa network to over 200 locations across three cities in 2 months. 
• Developed relationships with local and national influencers to drive sales and customer acquisition. 
• Spearheaded partnerships and advertising opportunities with nationally known brands including Stylecaster, Mercedes-Benz, Lululemon, Rocksbox, HowAboutWe, and Graze.

Employee #1

Loclly

• First permanent sales hire at a startup regional local services and "daily deal" e-commerce store.
• Grew annual revenue over 6,000% in a year and a half, then launched a new brand (Candle).
• Utilized strategic user acquisition, e-mail marketing, and pricing models to capture an active audience of buyers across multiple brands and verticals.

SDR & AE - US/MX

Pinnacle Fête

Pinnacle Fête began as an event and artist promotion company in the college town of Blacksburg, Virginia, representing nationally known acts including Rhêtorik, Tim Gunter, and Super Dopplar.

Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce

Intern - Lead Hampton Roads

👋 Hey, I'm William. My team and I design technology that combines communication psychology with AI. Want to write better emails faster? We built software for that. 👇

1. Install for free to use our AI Email Assistant at https://install.lavender.ai (for Gmail, Outlook 365, Outreach, and Salesloft)

2. Are you a student or unemployed? We give you Lavender for free until you have a full time job.

3. Want to start a startup one day? I write a lot about our startup journey + happy to help if I can.

4. Want to generate passive pipeline on autopilot? We built Ora, Lavender's new intelligent AI sales agent to help with just that. www.ora.im


--

about me:

👨‍💻 I'm a sales rep turned startup founder. 

🇲🇽🗽🍑 I spent a year and a half remote working in Mexico. We built most of Lavender during this. I'm based in New York but we got our start in Atlanta. 

🎨 🏛 I've been designing software since I was a kid, but went to school to study Government and Economics. 

🌍 I'm passionate about entrepreneurship. I wrote my senior thesis on using micro-finance to encourage entrepreneurship and bottoms-up development of emerging economies.

🦊 I'm most proud of starting a series of campaigns to help save a historic women's college, Sweet Briar, from closing. 

👩‍🎓The school was saved by its alumnae, and this experience led me to leave my job and start my first startup: an alumni social chat and mobile fundraising app. 

🧠 Through that I was introduced to the cognitive sciences, met my co-founders, and pivoted. We built technology for marketers that leveraged personality and decision making science.

💜 COVID happened and we pivoted again, applying our communication psychology research to sales.

🙌 Now Lavender helps thousands of sales people around the world write better emails faster.

👉 Learn more about Lavender at www.lavender.ai and www.ora.im

William M. Ballance

Riley Blaisdell 🦏

Leavitt Group Northwest

Business Development Specialist

West Sound Human Resource Management Association (WSHRMA)

Working in a voluntary position on the board as Secretary for the WSHRMA. My job is to take minutes of chapter meetings and provide notice of meetings and general correspondence. 

For our monthly luncheons, I am responsible for keeping attendance and providing food for the event.

Secretary

Paycor

Major Market Account Executive

AMMEX Corporation

Oversaw and managed end-to-end B2B wholesale account ownership to achieve sales quota and assigned strategic account objectives a thorough deep understanding of the customer base, organizational structure, and knowledge of the influencers within those organizations. 

•	Grew a book of business from $1.3M+ in 2014 to $35.6M+ in 2021 by establishing and fostering customer relationships and leading solution development efforts that best address customer needs.
•	Achieved a 38% average margin by building and scaling product sales within the defined business segment to drive exponential channel growth.
•	Increased market share in the automotive industry from 3-4% to 16% by networking with existing and new clients to provide new products and upsell product gaps.
•	Earned numerous awards and recognitions, including the 2021 Supplier of the Year for a Buying Group, 2021 Sales Rep of Q3, and 2015 Core Value Legend.

Enterprise Sales Specialist

National Sales Representative

Receivables Performance Management

Maintained a complete debt collection portfolio per contracting agreements and FDCPA rules and regulations.

•	Reached and exceeded company quotas, achieving numerous recognitions as the top monthly grosser and building a large book of business with accounts on a payment plan.
•	Improved team performance by collaborating with management to train and supervise new or underperforming employees on industry best practices.
•	Increased debt collection revenue by selling services and educating the consumers on how to pay their debts in full within a timely manner.
•	Provided exceptional communication, customer service, and problem-solving skills to resolve issues.

Debt Collector

In 2013, I entered B2B sales, building my book of business by cold calling 📞. This is a full-cycle role. My first deal closed a month outside of training for a whopping 345.00! The days of 90-100 cold calls a day paid off 💵.

We had a bell 🔔 you would ring for new business orders. After that first ring, I set a goal not to ring it unless the start-up order exceeded 10k. It took me seven months to earn it with an order of 29k 💵.

Eventually, I was closing high 6-figure to low 7-figure deals 💰.  

August 4th, 2022, a meeting popped up on my calendar to connect. Once HR appeared on the screen, I racked my brain to try and piece together what I did that could cause this. I happened to get laid off 🤔.

As a father of two kids on a single income, I felt like a failure. I went downstairs and apologized to Megan because I felt like I let her down 😔.

I took the time to grieve and heal. I wanted to land in tech sales, but I had no experience or college degree backing me. 

I started to lurk 👀 on LinkedIn with my 217 connections in September of 2022. I began to hand out connection requests like Oprah handed out keys 🔑. That method didn't work. 

On October 7th, 2022, I made my first post. It didn't go well. Shortly after, I created a post about myself seeking employment 🆘, and I went from 3-4 interviews a week. To 10-15 per week 📈. Thanks to the community.  

A quick stint at Paycor opened doors to the Employee Benefits space and landed at Leavitt Group NW.  
 
It's time to serve.

We have two kids. Titan, our son, was diagnosed as autistic, high-functioning, and non-verbal. He has proven experts wrong by how far he has come. I am so proud and admire your grit and determination. 

Our daughter Mine Mae was born six years after Titan. She is obsessed with her brother Titan and knows Jen Allen's voice because Winning The Challenger Sales was part of her bath time routine. 

Megan is my better half. She is strong, squats more than your boyfriend 🤣, and is a huge advocate for our children. 

I miss a heavy barbell but fell in love with golf on 12-7-2019 ⛳. I played my first round in the rain and shot a 132. Don't worry. I have gotten better and love it. I am Hawaiian but from the big island of California! 🤣🤣

You can find me on LinkedIn cheering 📣 and sharing LinkedIn's VIP list.  

Welcome to my community. Engage is the rage. The party is in the comments. 

Mahalo Nui Loa. 

Let's connect!

taplio

The Battle

William M. Ballance

Riley Blaisdell 🦏

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