With just over two weeks until entries close for the 13th annual Meffys we are taking a look at some of last year’s winners to find out what they’ve been up to since they celebrated receiving the accolade.
This week, we speak to Carolyn Choo, Marketing manager at Clearslide, whose enterprise focussed mail platform was picked by the judges as the best Global Enterprise App.
What did you win the Meffy for?
ClearSlide Mail won a Meffy for Best Global Enterprise App.
Why do you think the judges picked your entry?
ClearSlide Mail was chosen as the best Global Enterprise App because it helps salespeople overcome common barriers in their workflow by enabling timely email communications and engagement with customers.
It consolidates multiple mailboxes, contacts, and calendars into one centralized app and makes it easy for sellers to create, track, and send emails from their phone. Available for both iOS and Android devices, ClearSlide Mail lets sellers create and send personalized emails with links to proven sales content, receive instant alerts and track recipient responses, plus get real-time viewer analytics when presentations are viewed. Winning the Meffy Award affirms that ClearSlide Mail is a top mobile app for salespeople.
What has ClearSlide been up to since winning last year?
ClearSlide has always been about transforming the business of selling with more modern, cloud-based tools that deliver immediate ROI for individual users and sales leaders. A number of new features were released this year that dramatically amplified customer engagement and sales success, such as ClearSlide Video Mail, ClearSlide Presenter, and ClearSlide Replay. ClearSlide has also increased its sales productivity features, in which users can now conduct live pitches and access and distribute sales content all from within a single application, rather than needing to switch between multiple tools and applications.
What are your plans for the year ahead?
In the coming year, expect to see continued innovation in ClearSlide Mail. In the past year the iPhone 6s release brought new capabilities including 3D touch and quick actions – allowing ClearSlide to innovate and improve the user experience for ClearSlide mail. As the devices from which users work continue to evolve, ClearSlide Mail will continue to iterate and innovate to take advantage of these technologies.
One major area of development over the coming year specifically for ClearSlide Mail will be expanding our ClearSlide video mail capability. When it seems that every company has a product to sell, it is increasingly difficult to break through the clutter and reach prospects and customers. Sellers need a differentiator – we have found that video is incredibly effective in connecting with customers and prospects.
ClearSlide users have seen a 45-60% increase in open rates with the use of personalized video using ClearSlide video mail, because it helps get to the first conversation quicker. ClearSlide video mail is available today on iOS devices, and we will extend to Android users in the coming months.
Apart from your own, which mobile company, sector or region is most exciting to you right now and why?
The ClearSlide team is currently interested in many new areas of technology. One area that is particularly interesting is voice activation in mobile technology – features like Apple’s Siri, will have great implications for the future of mobile apps. A main purpose of our technology is to make it easier for sales leaders and reps to do their jobs, to increase their productivity and efficiency and we believe that part of continuing to provide that will be in the growing capabilities of voice technology.
In the sales engagement space, the rapidly developing area around sales coaching and performance management is of particular interest. One of our favorites is ExecVision, which also happens to be a ClearSlide Partner. ExecVision’s mobile app allows sales leaders to stay connected and drive their teams’ performance from anywhere – allowing sales leaders to create and save reports of calls to listen to and review while they are on the road.
This is an incredibly valuable tool and growing area of interest as only 20% of sales managers’ time is spent coaching, and most sales reps feel they don’t get enough time from their manager. The ExecVision app also allows leaders to listen to conversations from their phone, which makes it ideal for commutes and travel, and also provides the ability to leave feedback on the calls through voice notes.
Which mobile industry figure do you most admire or think is making game changing impact on the industry?
The mobile industry is still relatively new in the sales enablement space, which makes this an incredibly exciting time. There is lots of opportunity to have a bold impact and drive innovation. Apple and Android continue to be driving forces as mobile app innovations are greatly influenced by the new developments in device capability.
Carolyn Choo
Marketing Manger
ClearSlide
Looking to more consumer innovations for inspiration, what the founders of SnapChat have done is incredibly interesting to us. SnapChat has been able to acquire a large number of users (and not just young people) around the world in a very short time, and has now reached critical mass to try new business models. SnapChat has done something spectacular – which is to create a vibrant community and an urgency around daily use of their product. The viral, easy to use – and frankly, addictive nature – of SnapChat in the B2C space is something at every B2B company needs to learns from.
Meffys 2016 is open for submissions now! Visit Meffys.com to enter – deadline is October 1st
