Tag: Org Charts

People.AI Acquires Hero and Releases Sales Solution for Salesforce (Part II)

People.AI Sales Solution for Salesforce

Continuing my discussion [Part 1] of PeopleGlass and Sales Solution for Salesforce….

“People.AI’s acquisition of Hero Research is changing the game for enterprise sales teams who use Salesforce,” said People.AI CEO Oleg Rogynskyy.  “Companies run sales on CRM, yet virtually every rep and manager we meet runs a shadow spreadsheet to manage what’s actually happening in their territories. Finally, we’re able to bring the two worlds together with People.ai and Hero Research’s best-in-class solution, so sales teams have the flexibility to manage their pipeline, territories, and activities in an optimal way, ultimately closing more deals.”

PeopleGlass simplifies CRM access to “a single pane of glass to do their job better than ever,” continued Rogynskyy.   There is “no more tab sprawl, no more cutting and pasting, no more shadow spreadsheets.”  Sales reps create a custom view with access to their CRM data without requiring admin or IT support.

“CRM is the place where most sales organizations want their reps and managers to spend their time. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a rep that isn’t trying to fill critical CRM gaps by stitching together a patchwork of other siloed sales tools without a cohesive workflow. With the People.ai experience available inside of Salesforce, sales teams gain access to all of the data and insights they love incorporated into their daily workflows in a simple and unified way. That has a massive impact on CRM adoption and utilization.”

Thomas Wyatt, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at People.ai

People.AI is bringing the full Hero team onboard, including founders Morgan Bender and Daniel Chen, who will be joining the product organization.  No deal terms were disclosed.

“Combining our unique dataset with People.AI’s AI-driven insights creates a sales productivity solution unlike any other vendor in the market. Customers who have used the solution are reporting an increase of up to 25% in selling time,” commented Bender.

PeopleGlass is available on a freemium basis, sold both as a standalone offering and bundled with People.AI solutions.  According to COO Art Harding, the firm is still defining pricing and packaging following the acquisition.

While People.AI has simplified data access and update, reps will continue to access Salesforce for the “mission-critical workflows that can only be accessed within the solution.”  The new embedded Salesforce experience integrates “the power of People.AI’s benchmarks, leading indicators and sales insights with Salesforce’s native pipeline, account, and opportunity views.”  The integration also supports People.AI tools such as auto-populated relationship maps, deal scorecards, and digital playbooks.

The Sales Solution for Salesforce includes People.AI’s org chart tool built on their October 2020 ClosePlan acquisition.  The Sales Solution for Salesforce also displays engagement insights, peer benchmarks, and next-step recommendations for sales reps.

Sales Managers can track account health, opportunity execution, and rep performance through the Sales Solution.

“People.ai does the heavy lifting by bringing the tools and the data into Salesforce, allowing sales ops to deliver a better end-user experience to their teams and giving reps new tools to accelerate bookings,” explained Rogynskyy.  “Customers who have deployed the product tell me that in a few weeks, this solution has had a bigger impact on Salesforce adoption than years of serving up other carrots and sticks.”

People.AI employs over 200 and has revenue “well into the double digits.”

People.AI Employment (Source: LinkedIn)

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Q2 2019 (Part III) – Org Charts & Lists

The new org chart SNAP connector for MS Dynamics provides rich biographic information for executives.
The new org chart SNAP connector for MS Dynamics provides rich biographic information for executives.

I’ve been covering Q2 enhancements to LinkedIn Sales Navigator this week. On Monday, I discussed their Sales Coach enhancements and on Wednesday their Alerting enhancements. There were also a set of communications enhancements to Sales Navigator (an area of strength vs. other Sales Intelligence offerings). Communication enhancements include conversation histories, improved filtering, more visible icebreakers, and InMail credit status.

Improved Sales Navigator Keyword Searching

Keyword searching speed has been improved and a guided search experience helps the user expand or narrow the search term (see image on left).

Sales Navigator custom lists were introduced last year and nearly one million have been created.  More than half of saved leads have been added to custom lists.  

Two new list features were added in Q2:

  • Bulk save and bulk remove accounts and contacts from lists.
  • Match Lead to Account – As not all leads (people) are attached to accounts, the match feature allows users to assign leads to any company for alerting purposes.

A live org chart integration is being introduced For Microsoft Dynamics which supports saved accounts.  The functionality is being delivered through LinkedIn SNAP.

The chart displays LinkedIn member profile photos and additional profile details which provide additional insights into the account.

During Q2, Lucidchart also became a SNAP partner.  Lucidchart users can now view lead recommendations, save leads to Sales Navigator, view contact profiles and updates, request introductions, and send InMails from within Lucidchart.

“Sales teams work faster and smarter when they work visually.  Bringing the power of the world’s largest professional online network into Lucidchart in a more seamless way underscores our ongoing commitment to enhance the sales experience.”

Lucidchart CEO Karl Sun

Note: This is the final chapter on the Q2 2019 LinkedIn Sales Navigator release. Part 1 | Part II

LinkedIn Q4 Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator now supports custom Account and Lead lists.
Sales Navigator now supports custom Account and Lead lists.

LinkedIn rolled out its Q4 Sales Navigator release in November, but I failed to blog about it.  (Q1 will be covered next week in this blog.) The release contains several nascent initiatives including custom lists and the collection of “Reports To” data to assist with organizational mapping.  Other feature sets include three new alerts, an improved accounts center, PointDrive activity logging, and additional SNAP connectors.

LinkedIn is beginning to collect data around who reports to whom.  As sales reps or others learn about reporting relationships, they can add them to executive profiles.  The data is then shared across the LinkedIn contract with co-workers but not more broadly.  Following after last quarter’s support of buying committees, it is evident that LinkedIn is looking to infuse additional project and reporting relationships within Sales Navigator.

“We’re laying the foundation for full-blown org charts by adding a new “Reports To” field on the Lead Page,” blogged Head of Products for LinkedIn Sales Solutions Doug Camplejohn.  “Once you learn who someone’s manager is, you can add that info to their page by searching for a name or browsing our recommendations.  Any additions you or your colleagues make will only appear to those in your company’s Sales Navigator contract. So, the next time you or a team member looks that lead up, you’ll see who they report to, who added that connection, and a reporting history.”

An unlimited number of custom lists of accounts or leads may be built within the LinkedIn desktop or mobile app. Users may post notes on saved leads or accounts and filter the lists by people who have changed jobs in the last 90 days, people who have posted on LinkedIn in the past 30 days, companies who have had senior leadership changes in the past 3 months, etc.

LinkedIn does not yet support custom list uploading. Custom Sharing is part of the Q1 release.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator added three new alerts
LinkedIn Sales Navigator added three new alerts

LinkedIn added three new alerts:

  1. Someone at a saved account viewed your profile
  2. A saved account has just raised funding
  3. A saved lead has engaged with LinkedIn posts from your company

which accompany six current alerts:

  1. A saved lead started a position at a new company
  2. A saved lead has a new position within the same company
  3. A saved lead viewed your profile
  4. A potential lead recently joined a saved account
  5. A saved lead has accepted your connection request
  6. A saved lead was mentioned in the news

Alerts are now included in the main menu bar of both the desktop and mobile editions.  Camplejohn noted that LinkedIn has improved the “signal-to-noise ratio” of its alerts.

“Think of our Alerts as a trusted sales advisor tapping you on the shoulder with information about your saved leads and accounts when it’s most important and relevant to you,” said Camplejohn.

LinkedIn has simplified its admin experience and “made it much easier to do tasks from assigning users to managing groups.”  LinkedIn also unified its administration module across Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Learning, and LinkedIn Recruiter.

Advanced Searching was added to the Sales Navigator mobile app, bringing it to list building parity with the desktop application.  Earlier this year, LinkedIn enhanced its company and lead profiles, also bringing them to parity with the desktop application.

“LinkedIn’s recent updates to its Sales Navigator management tool makes it a more robust platform for sales teams.  More importantly, the moves to bring more of its desktop features to the mobile app are evidence that LinkedIn finally understands how crucial a mobile experience is when designing a sales tool focused on lead management.”


Amy Gesenhues, MarTech Today

PointDrive, Sales Navigator’s multi-media sharing application, will begin writing activity history back to Microsoft Dynamics.  Salesforce PointDrive sync will come in 2019.  PointDrive presents documents and video to end users as a landing page and tracks views and shares.

“Now when you send that pricing proposal to a prospect in PointDrive and members of the buying committee engage with it, you’ll be able to see that activity in both Sales Navigator and your CRM,” blogged Camplejohn.

LinkedIn continues to expand its SNAP partnerships, adding Zoom as their first web conferencing partner.  Users can now hover over an attendee name and view Sales Navigator intelligence including their profile photo, title, and common connections.  

The Zoom LinkedIn SNAP integration provides meeting attendee insights and connections from within Zoom.
The Zoom LinkedIn SNAP integration provides meeting attendee insights and connections from within Zoom.

Four vendors launched v2 SNAP integrations which provide broader access to Sales Navigator actions:

  1. Yesware (Email Engagement)
  2. Leadfeeder (Visitor ID Analytics)
  3. Groove (Sales Engagement)
  4. Outreach (Sales Engagement)

SalesLoft, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics previously released V2 SNAP integrations.

In the Salesforce Winter Lightning release, admins will be able to configure Sales Navigator and add support for Person accounts without having to go to the AppExchange.

This year, Sales Navigator focused on improved functionality and display for accounts, leads, and list building in their mobile and desktop applications; SNAP integrations; GDPR compliance and security; CRM opportunity management and buyers circles; alerting; employment analytics; and PointDrive CRM integration.  Details on earlier releases are available in my blog: Q1, Q2, Q3.

DiscoverOrg Releases Operations Dataset

The Operations Dataset includes headshots, bios, responsibilities, org charts, emails, direct dials, and social links.
The Operations Dataset includes headshots, bios, responsibilities, org charts, emails, direct dials, exec changes, and social links.

DiscoverOrg continues to build out its functional datasets to assist firms in targeting specific departments.  The newest dataset, Operations, joins functional coverage of IT, Product Management (TEDD), Sales, Marketing, HR, and Legal/Compliance.  The Legal/Compliance dataset was released in January.

The new dataset covers 250,000 operations professionals and is divided into twelve sub-functions: Operations (including COOs), Customer Service, Supply Chain, Facilities Management, Logistics, Corporate Strategy, Office/Store Management, Safety, Real Estate, Physical Security, Quality Management, and Construction.

“Operations teams are rapidly transforming; in response, there has been an explosion in technology and service providers serving their needs,” said DiscoverOrg CEO Henry Schuck. “Our new operations dataset makes it easy for these companies to find and connect to the right decision-maker, nail their pitch, and save hours of grind.”

DiscoverOrg projects that operations will be the next function transformed by technology.  “Operations, which has historically have had to rely on trickle-down budget from IT or other departments, now has a budget of its own,” said Justin Stanley, VP of Data and Research at DiscoverOrg.  “Historically, sales to the operations function has been based on long-standing vendor relationships, making it difficult for startups, newcomers, and disruptors to get a piece of the pie. The democratization of data has made it much easier to contact buyers directly (if you can find them) – and beat out older incumbent vendors.”

Furthermore, the budget is “huge” and includes “smart” buildings, security, infrastructure, transportation, insurance, planning, and facilities management.

Stanley noted that operations buyers are focused on efficiency, digitization, automation, and efficiency. They also have a significant role in purchasing and implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) at their facilities.  Forbes sized process automation and digitization at $157 billion in 2016 growing to $457 billion by 2020.

But selling into this function is difficult.  “First, ‘operations’ is a pretty vague term. It doesn’t usually appear in an employee’s title, so it’s hard to identify exactly the role you’re looking for,” said Stanley.  “Second, Operations employees don’t often hold high-profile titles. These aren’t roles that are typically listed on a corporate website, and there aren’t a lot of operations ‘thought leaders’ on LinkedIn. So, they’re difficult to identify – and harder to find contact information for.”

A recent survey by BSG found that the two biggest problems for operations and facilities sales are prospecting and accessing the right decision makers.

“Customers and prospects repeatedly asked for it [an operations database],” said Senior VP of Data and Research Derek Smith.  “Over time, it became clear that plenty of people wanted to reach these types of contacts. But there was nowhere to get them.”

DiscoverOrg now covers over 3.6 million contacts across 140,000+ global companies.  Data is collected through direct research by their multi-lingual editorial team and refreshed every ninety days.  The dataset includes firmographics; contact details like direct dials and verified email addresses; org charts and reporting structures; installed technologies; and buying signals like planned projects, online research behavior, funding announcements and personnel moves.

“We are currently evaluating and prioritizing what our next dataset launch will be,” said Chief Growth Officer Katie Bullard.  The database will double in size again this year – some of that growth will be from new dataset launches and most from additional contacts in our existing datasets.”

OrgChartCity: New Source of Top Company Intelligence

OrgChartCity provides family trees by function and division.
OrgChartCity provides family trees by function and division.

Five years ago, there were several options for editorially researched org charts. These included DiscoverOrg, RainKing, SalesQuest Crush reports, and iProfile. But DiscoverOrg acquired both RainKing and iProfile and SalesQuest was acquired by OneSource which was later acquired by Dun & Bradstreet and bundled into the D&B Hoovers technology premium. Thus, the options for org chart intelligence narrowed significantly. However, Bowman Marketing Services (BMS), a company profile research firm based in Austin, TX, now offers OrgChartCity as both single profiles and a subscription service.

OrgChartCity intelligence includes both organizational structures and notes concerning budget data and responsibilities. Licensees receive both a PDF org chart and an Excel CSV containing first and last name, department, email, phone, and title.

CEO David Bowman, describes the OrgChartCity value proposition as “contacts in context” which provides org charts “handcrafted by business experts, not some nested database of contacts that a computer nerd put together.”

Information is collected through both primary and secondary research along with automated checks. Each data source is assessed by recency, context, and source type with records included only if they meet a 90% confidence threshold. If a company has not been updated in the prior 90 days, the licensee is provided with the current profile and a refreshed profile within a couple of days.

The firm focuses on the Fortune 500 and Global 2000. Coverage currently spans 500 companies with the firm adding dozens of org charts each quarter. Overall, the firm has around 35,000 active, profiled executives.

Individual profiles may be purchased by credit card on the OrgChartCity website for $125. An annual subscription to the full database is priced at $10,000 and includes alerts and full access to updates.

While Bowman Marketing Services is initially focusing on org charts, the firm performs detailed custom research for its clients and plans to market additional datasets in the future.

Custom research topics include company overviews, competition, segments, budgets and departments, social media presence, sustainability, news (specific to the client), technology platforms (specific to the clients), awards and recognition, financial outlook (summarized for sales reps), and 2018 initiatives. Custom report pricing runs between $1,000 and $5,000 per company based upon the number of topics covered and the size of the company.

BMS has been providing custom research since 2005. The custom business is profitable and OrgChartCity is nearing breakeven. The firm maintains a staff of 20 to 25 researchers.