💜 Will Allred

LavenderLand

A show where I answer real email questions with the help of some not so real friends.

Watch at https://lavender.ai/land

Host of "Ask Allred" on LavenderLand

Lavender

Lavender helps sales teams write better emails, faster.
Get started for free at Install.TryLavender.com. 
(Available in Gmail, Outlook 365, Outreach, and SalesLoft.)

Lavender is the ultimate email assistant. As a salesperson, it provides everything you need to quickly write, high quality emails.

Lavender's coaching dashboard gives revenue teams never before had insight into what's working in each reps' inbox.

Co-Founder & COO

Sorter

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

TopRight

TopRight is a strategic marketing firm based in Atlanta practicing Transformational Marketing. Our work puts the customer first through TopRight’s 3S Methodology. We help companies; define a Story that motivates customers to care, buy and stay, develop a Strategy that gets the right message to the right customers at the right time, and enable the Systems needed to execute on those winning Strategies.

In my time at TopRight, I have served as support and run several internal, partnership and client projects. Below, I have outlined a few highlights from my time as a Senior Associate and the head of HR at TopRight:

I currently lead all technology-focused initiatives and projects within TopRight. This includes: 
• Helping clients assess the best possible marketing systems. This includes technology sets, the people running those systems and the processes that enable them.
• Currently managing TopRight’s technology partnerships. 
• Running day-to-day execution of our clients' digital marketing needs.

I am also on a TopRight's team of three working on the launch of a client's groundbreaking ICO and future blockchain application that is set to redefine the private equity market. My role on the project is focused on the creation of the client's whitepaper, buzz-creation (aka marketing the launch), and general support. 

As a core member of TopRight’s internal marketing team, I assist in TopRight’s inbound marketing strategy execution including campaign ideation, content creation, influencer outreach, and funnel conversion strategy and tactics.

As part of a larger initiative to improve internal processes, in addition to my role as a Senior Associate, I am serving as the HR Coordinator. This role has required:
• The creation of an employee handbook to help define and shape company culture
• Improved meeting processes
• Improved recruiting processes
• An initiative to improve team dynamics through the better analytical management of skillsets, capacity, and personality.

Senior Associate

As an Associate at TopRight, I served as support and run several internal, partnership and client projects. Below, I have outlined a few highlights from my time as an Associate at TopRight:

• Led a grassroots, multi-channel campaign for a non-profit to support free speech from ideation, through research, to creation.
• Managed the relaunch of the TopRight website. 
• Helped in the brand relaunch of a Marketing Technology Operations Company in ~30 days. Our teams are also currently leading a multi-channel, co-branded campaign.
• Helped multiple clients assess the best possible marketing systems. This included technology sets, the people running those systems and the processes that enabling them.
• Assisted a multi-billion dollar Telco in establishing a partnership alliance program for the software industry.
• Currently leading an initiative to improve internal operations and efficiencies.

Associate

In my time as an Analyst at TopRight, I served as support and run several internal, partnership and client projects. Below, I have outlined a few highlights from my time as an analyst at TopRight:

• On a team of two, my team helped rebrand a supply chain management software company. With a new brand narrative and a revised corporate sales deck, the company saw three consecutive record-breaking quarters of sales growth.
• Helped multiple clients assess the best possible marketing systems. This included technology sets, the people running those systems and the processes that enabling them.
• As a core member of TopRight’s internal marketing team, I assist in TopRight’s inbound marketing strategy execution including campaign ideation, content creation, influencer outreach, and funnel conversion strategy and tactics.

Analyst

YoVo

I was working on Yovo in the background for a while. I learned loads about entrepreneurship working on this project, but ultimately I could never get it off the ground. The idea was simple: 
- resumes are ineffective at screening 
- recruiting calls are filled with human error/bias

Using voice analytics, the plan was to help hiring mangers make smarter decisions by giving an objective look at conversations.

I was able to spin up exciting conversations in the enterprise, but eventually, I decided to focus my time and energy into Sorter.

First Founder Attempt

Healthgrades

Worked with Healthgrades as an initial member of their Elective Provider Solutions team. After building out the initial pipeline for Healthgrades direct sales model. We consulted with heads of marketing for enterprise level specialty practices to help design digital marketing solutions to best utilize Healthgrades.com. 

Tweaking and building upon market insights for our products- we were able to design action oriented campaigns for practices and their physicians. The challenge was not only to create campaigns that would succeed, but to create campaign designs that would sell in a market adverse to change. Through our work we found it was important to help providers:

 1. Make practices and providers more discoverable, 
 2. Increase new patient acquisition, 
 3. Enhance practices and providers' online reputations.

These were the three things we could do most effectively for our clients. 

At Healthgrades, there is a "healthy obsession" with driving a ROI for clients. So by working in concert with our clients, we help maximize their ROI by learning from our current marketing efforts, and making the proper adjustments as needed.

In my tenure there, I was:

•a top revenue producer on my team
•able to uncover optimization strategies not only in product design, but also sales and marketing strategy for both Healthgrades and clients
•built out entirety of the direct sales pipeline
•cultivated relationships with agencies and practices

Healthgrades is backed by Vestar Capital Partners, as is the top site for rating doctors and hospitals. Truly on the cutting edge, it is where America goes to find a doctor.

Manager: Elective Provider Solutions

As a summer sales intern, I served as CEB's first interaction with HR executives. Cold calling on a territory of 100 HR executives, based in firms with annual revenues ranging from 50-750 million dollars, I was able to effectively introduce C-suite executives to CEB's valuable advisory resources. 

As an intern team, we were tasked with helping recruiting with their outreach to prospective employee's. We designed potent marketing material driving the impactful value of one's work at CEB, and the advantages of being a member of CEB's motivated workforce. 

CEB is the leading member-based advisory company. By combining the best practices of thousands of member companies with our advanced research methodologies and human capital analytics, we equip senior leaders and their teams with insight and actionable solutions to transform operations.

CEB offers comprehensive data analysis, research and advisory services that align to executive leadership roles and empower clients to focus efforts, move quickly, and address emerging and recurring business challenges with confidence.

CEB trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CEB).

HR Leadership Council

Northwestern Mutual

After working to attain my North Carolina Life, Health, and Disability Insurance, I worked with potential clients to develop financial solutions to achieve their desired long-term success. 

This is where I learned my love of sales and marketing, as I saw the impact I was able to have by effectively showing the benefits of Northwestern's Life Insurance products. Through this valuable experience, I was able to drive many never would be customers into the sales pipeline at Northwestern.

Financial Representative

Carrboro Capital

As a summer intern, I evaluated small, rapid-growth businesses in North Carolina for acquisition. I would forecast potential risks for the companies and report a pro/con analysis to my senior managers. 

Also as a summer intern, I was tasked with analyzing financial statements for potential acquisitions. My timing when joining Carrboro Capital was especially advantageous, as I witnessed the acquisition of the local retailer Southern Season.

Private Equity Summer Analyst

Kidder Properties

Working for the four employee (including myself) start up Kidder Properties, I was able to effectively work cross-functionally with a litany of responsibilities that wouldn't have otherwise been given to a person of my age and experience. 

In my first summer with Kidder, I assisted in the analysis and acquisition of approximately 50 foreclosure homes. Comparing acquisition costs and renovation costs with the projected income from renting and ultimately selling the home, I was able to produce ROI reports. After openly discussing the tangibles and intangibles of these potential assets with my supervisor and the CEO, we would come up with a judgment for the perspective home. 

In my second summer, my focus shifted to the operational side of the business helping to reduce costs and improve the overall quality of the rental properties we provided. After analyzing the past performances of different purchased assets, I would determine if budget changes needed to be made to improve the long-term quality and therefore profitability of the home. Also in my final summer with Kidder, I helped train and coach a successor to take my place.

Real Estate Acquisitions & Renovation Operations

👋 Welcome to my LinkedIn page. Struggling with email writing? 👇 See below 👇

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2. Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.lavender.ai/lavender-letter

3. Since you made it this far, use promo code "LavenderLove" to 2x your free trial when you sign up for Lavender

The hot topic at last night's SDRLeaders dinner? Deliverability

Outreach sends one email and you'd think email was dead. 😂

Y'all really thought you could blast 500 spam templates a day and expect 0 consequences?!

Google has to protect their users.

If you swipe a credit card... And don't pay it back. Folks will stop taking your $$$.

You've got to get the technical infrastructure set up correctly. Jesse Ouellette is a killer resource on this.

Domain warming, multiple/segmented domains, proper dmarc & SPF records, etc etc. 

The biggest thing?

Stop sending so many terrible automated emails.

Start using cadences how they were intended.

As. A. Process.

It's not a spam cannon.

7 easy tips to operate in this "not so new" environment:

1) Personalized steps (1200% more replies)

2) Fewer steps (fewer overdue tasks)

3) Multiple channels (elevates all channels)

4) stop sending links on 1st touch emails, and turn off link tracking

5) don't send passive aggressive follow ups like "thoughts?" Etc. These emails are designed to agitate a response, but they also get you marked as spam more often.

Tentative tones can soften the blow on a lot of outbound and boost replies.

6) With shorter cadences - run plays w multiple people within the org!

Great slide deck on my profile on how to execute account based outbound

7) Use Lavender to fix your copy & to speed up the personalization in those manual steps 

Last one is key.

Average time to write a personalized email is 15+ minutes.

Lavender users spend ~3 min.

You can still find volume without the automation and without destroying deliverability.

--------

Next stop?

Austin! 

Our partner SalesLoft is hosting their annual SalesLove conference

Excited to see the progress they've made on rhythm, hang w shared customers, and meet some new friends

Hit me up if you'll be there!

One of our core values at Lavender is to "Give First"

For a sales community that has given us so much... we wanted to do our part in giving back this holiday season.

2023 has been hard enough.

If you're in sales, and you've been laid off, last thing you need to be worried about is putting food on the table for Thanksgiving.

We're offering up to 100 Instacart gift cards valued at $100 dollars each for sellers stuck between jobs.

Included a form here:

https://lnkd.in/ex_dm-ij

We'll give them out 1st come 1st serve.

Happy holidays from the team here at Lavender 💜 

Oh... and if you're between roles - Lavender is free. Just hit up support. We'll set you up. 

Let's GO! SOC2 (Type 2) Compliant!

So proud of the Lavender team for setting the bar for what companies should expect from AI-Native companies re: security & compliance.

Tons of kudos to Jared Smith for making this happen.

Onwards!

I just answered my first cold call in forever.

It was pleasant.

Just a reminder to the people like me that accidentally pick up... there's a person on the other end of the phone doing their job.

It doesn't cost anything to be nice.

PS. Prospecting tip... picking up the phone makes email work better. Data supports it.

PPS. Emailing thoughtfully also makes the phones work better too :)

If you're using the 2018 playbook... 
Sales is going to feel like this:

recognize the shifts that are happening

1) buyers are overwhelmed with messages

average time spent reading your email... 9 seconds

most emails are deleted in 3

because they're overwhelmed...

2) buyers are more discerning w/ what they reply to

Personalized emails see 1200% more replies than automated templates.

(up from 100% last year)

96% of emails sent are automated

because the bar is so low, we're falling for the efficiency trap

3) "AI" drafted emails (current state) will eventually be noise just like templates

there's only so many things the AI can draft from... so the "one liners" will eventually get tired

doesn't mean personalization is going anywhere

Just means the bar gets raised

4) sales is no longer 1:1 (it's definitely not 1 to many)

It's many:many

account to account

sales reps need to be using multiple members of their team and ecosystem to open doors and keep deals moving

Here's a 70+ slide deck I posted earlier this year with some tactics you can be using: https://lnkd.in/e95ynJWW

More coming at Nearbound this week :)


On the surface an Apple Watch is a dope birthday gift from my team

But - there's a level of thoughtfulness that you don't see. 

~5 months ago I left a note in slack walking through a thought experiment of Whoop vs. Apple Watch.

One is iconic.

One is niche.

I gave up on the niche product and I was sharing the correlaries for our product org.

5 months later this shows up.

🥲

💜 this crew 

32 —> 33

PS. Lavender's Watch preview in our mobile editor just hit a whole new level of relevance for me 👀

What's the point of community if we don't lift each other up?!

Vin Matano just hit Presidents Club attainment!!!

Doesn't take a wizard to know this was a tough year in SaaS sales. 

Congrats dude!

Appreciate you sharing the journey. 

PS. Shout out to Ambition for capturing that finally got to meet moment.

A tale of two clicks... And a lot more replies

A fix it all button.

Objectively better AI... only with Lavender 💜

CS is sales.

My big mindset shift from the Catalyst Customer- Led Summit last week?

In sales, we tend to get caught up in the close.

It's not *the* sale

It's the *first* sale

It sets up your
- renewal sales
- expansion sales
- cross sales
- references for new sales

As revenue leaders, we have to recognize

1) if your CS team isn't working like a sales team... They're probably getting outsold by someone else's top performer.

People buy outcomes. Help them achieve them.

That's fundamentally different than "getting set up on the software"

2) the sales to CS handoff is critical

It's not just "an email intro" or a step in a process

It's a changing of the guard.

You're handing over the value of a promise made to your customer.

Make sure your csm is set up to deliver on that promise.


Also.. thank you, thank you, thank you Kevin Chiu

Finally... A conference where "AI" wasnt force fed into every sentence and we talked about real growth levers and unique ways to pull them.

Also also - Jen Allen-Knuth is the best conference MC in SaaS 😎

One of our core values at Lavender is to "Give First"

For a sales community that has given us so much... we wanted to do our part in giving back this holiday season.

2023 has been hard enough.

If you're in sales, and you've been laid off, last thing you need to be worried about is putting food on the table for Thanksgiving.

We're offering up to 100 Instacart gift cards valued at $100 dollars each for sellers stuck between jobs.

Included a form here:

https://lnkd.in/ex_dm-ij

We'll give them out 1st come 1st serve.

Happy holidays from the team here at Lavender 💜 

Oh... and if you're between roles - Lavender is free. Just hit up support. We'll set you up.

Saw a tweet yesterday that caught my eye

"The number one influence on cold email reply rates isn't personalization. It's targeting"

Ideally your personalization *process* helps you sort that targeting out. 

Too much personalization is "checking a box"

Lazy selling

Good personalization is a process of discovery. Figuring out why the hell they should want to talk to you.

When you prospect you should know:

- What you're looking for
- How you're going to use it
- Where you're going to find it

That requires you understand:

- What you do
- The problems you solve
- The nuances of how different folks experience those problems
- The external factors that indicate those problems exist.

If that process doesn't yield a good reason for talking to them... more discovery is required.

Find a new person.
Do more research.
Be willing to talk to people to gain 1st and 3rd party perspectives to aid that discovery.

Sellers, want to burn your reputation & TAM?

Try to trick your prospect

AI

Scale

Automation

... it can get real tempting when you're behind on quota to try and scale up a "trick" that is getting "traction"

that traction might be 5% reply rates compared to your normal 2%... but it won't last long.

it wont generate quality pipeline

it will CERTAINLY put you at risk of landing in spam

and the 95% of folks that didn't respond... they think even worse of you than had you just sent a bad email. 

Just don't do it.

If you're behind on quota focus on doing more of the right things.

- Be thoughtful

- Show up with a good answer for "why you're reaching out"

If you do the work... it will work.

Love seeing my own cold email framework being used on me! 

Acknowledge the tech.
Compliment.
Shortcoming.
Social Cred & Solution. (Frame solution as multiplier > replacement)
Easy to answer CTA.

Subject line, copy, and cta could DEFINITELY be optimized

Classic example of "I follow you, but I haven't downloaded Lavender"

BUT I still believe the logic is sound.

Some fixes

1) Kill the first name in subject
2) Shorten subject to Intercom question
3) Use less big words
5) Shorter sentences
6) Less data
7) Ask for call is agressive - better cta would ask if I thought Meagan or Ashleigh had bandwidth to look into this

Simple tweaks would easily 2x performance

Other tweaks?

I might rework the framework and move the cta up

Subj: Intercom Question

Will - think Meagan has bandwidth for this?

Saw you're on intercom. Great choice, but it tends to be underused.

In just a month, we spruced up a similar startup Wifly's (plg SaaS) intercom.

Lot more self service.

Let me know if you want me to send over a deeper dive.

- Will

Yesterday was an amazing reminder why "who" you raise $$$ from as a startup matters.

It's not just money... it's the network of folks you get to join.

Yesterday's portfolio member marketing conference was next level insightful. 

Hearing from top marketers at the B2B *and* B2C brands across the portfolio... lots of notes and ideas :) 

The cherry on top?

Moderating this panel on "dark social" with Maura, Sarah, and Todd.

Such a thoughtful crew that I got to pepper with every question imaginable. 

"I figured out this new ai email hack"

Me:


A reminder from an "ai founder":

AI written emails aren't there yet. They're objectively not good.

It's why it's not the core focus of our product experience.

The results don't support it.

Stop chasing the efficiency trap.

We continue to seek efficiency at the detriment of building relationships.

Ai can help... 

but if you remove the human from the loop... you lose a lot of your ability to create connection and learn new things.

Wild to think Jen Allen-Knuth first introduced me to 🧭Zachary Gropper in London outside one of our SaaStr events 

(Steel drums not Van Gogh... iykyk)

Over the months, I've gotten to see what he and his team are building at Insight Revenue.

The curriculum and programs that they're building to upskill sales teams are *NEEDED*

The game is changing and they're taking a competency-first approach.

Thrilled to be partnered with them as a tech partner.

Not a "slap a logo on" and say this tech is cool partner...

A this tech is woven into the curriculum and programs to make sellers better type partner

Excited to see what we can do together!

PS. Partnerships take time, follow ups, alignment, and patience. We met in May (London), this selfie is from October (Nashville), and I'm talking to y'all in almost December (NYC) 💜

This weekend's Open AI drama is a nice reminder that we:

1) Diversified our use of LLMs, and vet models constantly 
2) Built a system that doesn't require LLMs to be successful

PS. Generative AI in sales is mostly known for "writing emails"

They're typically pretty long and objectively* bad... but they do solve the blank page problem.

(* just check the Lavender score)

Here are 3 other ways we're using LLMs to drive sales success with Lavender:

1) Brainstorming

ex. What pain points would a {persona} be focused on solving in {scenario}?

We put a "chatgpt" style modal right in the inbox for this.

2) Narrow Recommendations

a) Writing recs
ex. Lavender knows *this* long sentence is hurting your reply rate. We can also then show you other ways to rewrite that.

b) Personalization
ex 2. Lavender surfaces data on the person you're emailing. We can also show you how to start a conversation with it.

3) Summarization

You're seeing a lot of this roll out from the conversational intelligence tools.

We do this too.

Summarize
a) long emails & email threads to get caught up quickly.
b) documents like 10-k's, articles, etc to speed up research
c) give a "read of the room" on incoming email to help you best respond

"Hey Will Aitken, I saw your new YouTube video. Anyways... are you ready for tax season?"

Incredible cold email "personalization" breakdown 

Level 4 or bust!

Need some examples to teach your team?

Send them this.

It's not about checking a box.

It's about showing a real reason for *why* you're reaching out, but also *why* they should care.

Check it out:

Open video: The 4 Levels of Cold Email Personalization (Easy-Hard) on youtube.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EpBiBbB7Gg

Over half a billion sales emails later... we've learned a LOT about what makes better emails. These 6 writing exercises will help you:

Write more clearly
Write with better logic
Personalize more effectively
Effectively personalize emails faster

Share it with...

Your Manager
Your AE that needs to be prospecting
Your SDR
etc. etc. etc.

While I'd love for y'all to use Lavender... I just want y'all to write better emails.

💜

The friction (the work) creates the texture that gives the moments meaning.

"In some ways, we only remember moments in our lives that had some form of texture, often in the form of surprise or difficulty." - Scott Belsky

"The Work" is key to your development as a professional.

The hacks.

The tricks.

The easy.

It is holding back your long term potential in exchange for short term dopamine hits.

"AI" can feel like a productivity super power.

But don't allow it to be a replacement for your development.

Don't allow it to replace your thinking.

Don't allow sales tech's efficiency problem to become your development problem.

Templates, scale, etc...

They remove you from the work.

They remove you from critical thought.

"AI" is the most recent thing to fall into this efficiency trap.

"Personalize faster"

... but what about "personalize better"? What about sustainable results? What about the development of the reps that use the tool? 

💜 building in opposite direction of the efficiency trap

Taplio

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