Enabling Sales With Personalized Experiences at Scale

Jessica Ly: I'm here with Adam Johnson, who is the SVP of sales at Active Campaign. Hi, Adam.

Adam Johnson: Hi, Jessica.

Jessica Ly: You know, there's a lot of marketing tools out there, and I know you are in the marketing space. So let's hear what is Active Campaign? How is that different?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, that's a great question. First of all, one thing I'd like to do, if you don't mind, I try to start every meeting with my team with a moment of gratitude. So I would just like to take a second to say thank you for having me on. I'm excited to be here excited to have a chance to speak with you. And I've been looking forward to this for some time now. So

Jessica Ly: I appreciate to be on the show to talk about innovation.

Adam Johnson: Yeah, well, as you mentioned, you know, I'm Adam Johnson, the SVP of sales at Active Campaign, currently, having the opportunity to lead our sales, our channel sales and our customer success organizations within Active Campaign, which has been a tremendously exciting opportunity for me to be a part of the growth of the business. And to give you some context, we think about customer experience automation. That’s really the mission that we're on. That’s the category we believe that we're a part of. And so, you know, some marketing technology companies think about, you know, top of the funnel, something about conversion, we're really trying to help deliver tools that allow our customers to orchestrate the entire experience from generating awareness all the way through to creating successful customers and advocates of their brand. And part of the way that we do that is, you know, by allowing customers, our customers to communicate with their customers and prospects across multiple channels, and leverage the things that they know about them, their preferences, their characteristics, and their behaviors, to really curate a one to one feel, by and leveraging technology to do that. Whereas historically, a lot of businesses have had to rely on human capital on people to manage those one-to-one relationships. We want to help businesses make those one-to-one relationships significantly more scalable by leveraging technology.

Jessica Ly: Okay, so tell us, how do you do that? How do you leverage AI and machine learning to make it very personal? At scale?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, there's always, you know, there's always an element of needing a marketer needing the expert, right? We want to take the knowledge that those folks have within their organization, the knowledge of their customers, and help them extend that to make it more, as I mentioned, more scalable. One example you mentioned, machine learning, that's definitely a part of what we do. One example of that for us would be what we refer to as send time optimization. So an example of that would be, you know, I, I have a friend that lives down the street from me, he and I both work in technology, we both live in the same town, we ride the same train to work, we used to ride the same train to work now we all work from home. But you know, on paper, we look very similar. But the reality is, you know, we engage with messaging in completely different ways, right? I, you know, I checked my email first thing in the morning, every morning, when I wake up, it's one of the first things I do, not a habit that my wife loves. But it's a habit nonetheless. And you know, he does not, he's intentional about, you know, not getting into his inbox until a specific time within the day. And so what Active Campaign can help our customers do is recognize those patterns, and then deliver the messages that they have in store for those people at the right time to ensure that it's towards the top of the inbox that it's more likely to kind of rise above some of the other noise that may be out there. So that's an example of how we're taking customer behaviors, applying machine learning, and extending that to our customers to give them a greater chance of success in reaching their target audience.

Jessica Ly: I see, okay, that's true. We all have preferences as far as when we want to engage. And then also the device, the method like the app that we want to use. And so, with technology, you're able to make sure that is the preferred method preferred time and delivering the right message at that time. The conversion should be stronger if you're able to do that at scale and keep costs down. Also, leveraging tools to automate a lot of that. So that sounds wonderful. Let's talk about sales. You've been a sales leader for a while. You’re managing a pretty large team, like 225 people and different functions. And I think there's a lot of approaches to do in sales, but in your role, because you have sales and customer success, you know, it's a broader scope of responsibility. How do you put it in place so that you optimize the sales outcome given the different roles?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, well, it's a great question. And it's a complicated challenge, I think, you know, active campaigns really interesting too. And that we have a really healthy self-service component of our business, a lot of our customers find us via a free trial, they sign up online, they experience the product, and they convert without ever interacting with sales. And so, you know, our new business efforts are a close collaboration between marketing and sales within Active Campaign to kind of maximize conversion in that way. But we also work with everyone from entrepreneurs all the way up to, you know, larger companies that might have pretty significantly sized marketing teams. And so we have to think about kind of segmenting our customer base, our prospect base, and applying different treatments to different customers to make our own efforts more scalable, some of which are driven entirely by automation. And, and that's really exciting. And that's a fun challenge. But you definitely have to be thoughtful about, you know, who's coming in? How are they experiencing the product? How did they get to you? What is their level of intent? That's something that I think about a lot, you know, when thinking about customer qualification, lead scoring is the concept of what I refer to as fit and intent. So how good of a fit are they for your product? And how much intent do they have to actually address or solve the challenge that caused them to become aware of your product? That’s kind of the matrix that I think about lead scoring on? And so we try to separate those things and get the right, you know, the right leads into the hands of our team to try and maximize conversion. The same kind of applies on the customer success side when we think about, you know, how we take care of customers that are signing up and who are choosing to deploy and leverage the tool. And, you know, so one example is we have many one to many programs available. So an onboarding program that is specifically conducted over webinar, so that we can invite many people into that, have them get some coaching and advice on how to get started, because as you can imagine, as entrepreneurs, people who are experts in their craft, who are starting a business or running a small business, may not be experts in marketing or marketing automation. And so we want to make sure that they have resources available. But we also want to be thoughtful and conscientious about how we deliver those to make sure that we're running an efficient operation as well. And then for some larger customers, who maybe have higher expectations of, you know, the amount of interaction they get or engagement, or some who may be spending significantly more, you know, we have higher touch approaches to the way that we handle them through onboarding and through the kind of full lifecycle as well.

Jessica Ly: I often think when salespeople are tasked with getting a new logo, signing up new customers, that's really their focus. And then it's the customer success team that has to retain that relationship and grow that revenue over time. So how do you make sure that the sales view on signing up really good customers, and that they do stay, and it's not just signing them up so they can meet their quotas? Get that bonus? And then they don't have to worry about what happens afterward?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, that's definitely something you have to keep in mind. You know, it's, I think that extends even further to marketing as well like if you think about it, it's easy for businesses to set up kind of multiple funnels. So it's easy to say we have a marketing funnel in this. The definition of success for the marketing funnel is to get leads. And then, we have a sales funnel, and the definition of success is to get revenue. And then, we have a success funnel. And the definition of success there is to retain customers. But really, at the end of the day, the overall objective of the business is to attract, convert, retain customers. So really, there's only one funnel, right? There’s one funnel for the entire business. And I think, you know, it's important to think about your decisions, the way you incentivize employees now and all of those things in the context of those other partners that you're working with across the organization. So you know, we definitely think that we put elements in our comp plans, even for salespeople who are new business focus to ensure that they are also focused on retention and ensuring that customers become successful and that they leverage the product. And I think we have we also have a really good and healthy feedback loop actually this later this afternoon. We'll be doing a business review Where we have the different stakeholders from our team, on the phone talking about those very things, if there are, if there are opportunities for improvement and how we're handling, you know, our customers, at any point within the process, we have a format to be able to discuss that, and make improvements and adjustments to the way that we're doing that and ensure that we're all driving towards the ultimate outcome of the business, which is, you know, to help our customers create better experiences for their customers, and ultimately. As a result, you know, grow our own business.

Jessica Ly: Yeah. I'm sure that everybody wants to improve their performance metrics. And if they can improve their colleagues, right, that the other department, so the culture, if the culture is right, of course, you're going to hear the head of the department offering, how can I help you prove your metrics, right? Because you're saying there, there is a journey from marketing, attracting that lead to sales, converting that lead to customer success retaining that relationship. So it's one of those challenges where you kind of balancing what you need to do to make sure you hit your metrics, but I'll help others too. So that collaboration, I think it's no ball, but how effective I am, you're, like, you're saying that's this incentive plan to put in place so that it does encourage them?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think there is always probably always room for improvement if I'm being honest, but I think we're doing a, I think we're doing a pretty good job of it. And I think, you know, we've tried to instill this into the team. It’s something that we think about a lot is, how do we make sure that our team members, irrespective of department or job function, how do we connect them more closely to the outcomes that we're trying to drive as a business, not to just be task-oriented, not just think exclusively about the assignment that they have, but to be thoughtful about the things that we're trying to drive for our customers and for our own business? And I think, if you put some intent around that, I think you can be more successful, I think, you know, inherently, when you're dealing with individuals, and you know, all individuals have an ego of some kind, you know, they're going to want personal success. And so, I think you have to keep an eye out for those things. I think that's something that myself, especially in our sales leadership team, try to be vigilant about in terms of keeping an eye on, you know, are we spotting anything is are, you know, are people pushing things too hard? Are they? Are they selling our services in the right way? Are they promising things to the customers in the way that we intend for them to be communicated? And so I think it's something we always watch out for and try to make adjustments as we see anything that might get out of line?

Jessica Ly: Adam, so you guys are doing? Well, you're hiring in lots of different roles. I mean, I hear that a lot. I know quite a few companies. I've said that laying off people. So there must be a lot more talent out there for you, or is it still a very competitive marketplace to attract workers?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, great question. It is actually still a really competitive market for talent. I think especially for top-tier salespeople, customer success, people in leadership, especially, you know, in moments like these, I think there may be layoffs. It's rare that people actively lay off their top talent unless they're in a position where they absolutely have to do that. And so we found definitely, that it's a competitive market for talent, for sure, in spite of the circumstances in the economy.

Jessica Ly: So attracting talent is hard. But retaining talent, it's also hard. What recommendations do you have to make sure you're attracting talent retaining talent?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, that's a great question. And actually, something that is really kind of near and dear to my heart. We've grown the team significantly when I started with Active Campaign. Three and a half years ago, our sales organization was 15 people. And we were all in one office, we've had the opportunity to grow that significantly, we've opened offices in multiple locations, including Dublin, Sydney, in Brazil. And we've maintained really, really great employee retention numbers. And that's something I'm particularly proud of. I think a couple of things that play into that. Number one is just kind of the brand of your leadership team and the types of people that you put into those positions. I think we've really tried hard to recruit leaders who are authentic, who care about their people, who care about the development of their team and of the employees on their team. And that I think goes a long way I think transparency too, especially when you're working in a high-growth company, is really important because the reality is things are always going to change. You know, we've had to adjust processes, add new rules, we've had to change and then re change, you know, things that we changed already and if you are open and honest and communicating why you're making those changes, it can create really tense experiences for employees a lot of uncertainty, which can cause people to not always react in the way that you might expect. And so we've been really intentional about making sure that we're authentic, that we're trying to be as transparent as we can be. But then I think maybe most importantly, is that you have to kind of design the team with the growth of your people in mind. As the business grows, you want the team to be excited to be a part of that growth. But you also want to make sure that your team is structured in a way that allows the individuals on your team to partake in that growth from an individual advancement standpoint. And so, actually, just a month, about a month and a half ago, we crossed the threshold of having our 100th promotion within the sales organization since I started, which is something I'm super proud of. And so you know, there have been over 100 people get promoted. As we've grown the team, we've also, you know, help grow the company. We’ve helped a lot of customers improve the way that they operate. And we've been able to create a lot of success for the individuals on our team as well. And I hope that you know, as we continue on this journey, we'll continue to be able to deliver that for our team so that they can continue their personal development and professional growth along the way as well.

Jessica Ly: That's a great idea. So have a career growth plan in mind, be transparent?

Adam Johnson: Yeah, absolutely. Those things alone, you know, go a long way, I think if you if, people feel like they're working towards something if they understand how to take, what steps to take, and how to get to that next thing, you know, people will work hard, and they'll and they'll stay committed, and they'll stay excited about where they're at. And they won't feel like they have to go somewhere else to get the growth that they're looking for. And I think that to me is a huge part of retaining employees is not just, you know, over-promising, but making sure that people understand how to get to the next thing that they are interested in. And then when you start delivering that and people see it, then you know that it's real, they know that, that it's there. And they know that you know if they take the coaching, they invest the effort, that those opportunities will be there for them and that those things are really important.

Jessica Ly: Yeah, I think in sales, often we think of money as being the number one incentive, but it's more than just money, right? There's that working culture, how you feel about your boss. And so yeah, all of that is really important.

Adam Johnson: Absolutely, yeah. I've worked for some great leaders in my career, and I've worked for some not-so-great leaders in my career, too. And I think you know, you learn from both really, you know, you learn the things that you want to model and emulate and you learn the thing that you learn the experiences that you don't want to recreate for others as well. So it's important to pay attention to both sides and make sure you learn from them.

Jessica Ly: And the last question for you, what are you looking forward to doing?

Adam Johnson: Oh, well, you know, we were. This is just such an amazing journey. I mean, I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to join Jason, our founder and CEO. And I'm just super excited about the mission. I think the opportunity to help businesses of all sizes improve the way that they engage with their customers is really important. That’s something I have a passion for. I love helping businesses use technology to be better. And, and that's really exciting. I'm super excited about the team that we're building. You know, we're growing like crazy. We met we announced several months ago that we crossed the threshold of 100 million revenue in 100,000 customers. And we've continued to grow really rapidly from that point forward. And just super excited to continue on the mission that we have in front of us and the future super bright. So I am just very excited to continue forward.

Jessica Ly: I appreciate you being on the show to talk about Active Campaign and am so happy to hear that you guys are doing well.

Adam Johnson: Thank you, Jessica, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.