Taking Flight:

OpenView and Balihoos Collaborative Inside Sales Effort

At the end of 2010, Balihoo was a fast-rising marketing software company with a superior product. But the Boise-based organization lacked a fully-functioning inside sales team, which was hindering its ability to take advantage of a potentially lucrative new market. By the end of the following quarter, however, Balihoo with OpenView Venture Partners as the copilot had reconstructed the inside sales organization and put its sales operation on the fast track to success.

inside sales organization felt a little bit like a plane that was flying while it was still being built.

A s local automation marketing software company Balihoo approached 2011, the businesss

While Balihoo had experienced its fair share of sales success since Pete Gombert founded it in 2004, last year marked the companys first real attempt at executing inside sales as a vehicle to attack a new market. Encumbering its effort, however, was Balihoos challenge of sustaining a dedicated inside sales team and finding a true sales executive to lead that operation. We were doing the best with what we had and we were succeeding, says Gombert, Balihoos CEO. But to say that there wasnt some turbulence would be a lie. We were borrowing resources from within our own company to make it work. It wasnt very efficient and if we wanted to really go after some new opportunities, that had to change. Of course, Gombert and his management team could have enlisted the services of recruiters and consultants to get Balihoos inside sales operation up and running. However, he wanted to take a more holistic approach to building the team that involved more than simply recruiting. Thankfully, Balihoo had access to a much more personal and invested advisor OpenView Venture Partners, a Boston-based venture capital firm that made a capital investment in the company in 2009. Through its in-house Labs consulting team, OpenView offered to provide the insight, training, and recruitment services that Balihoo needed to build an efficient It reminded me of having this great, ve and scalable inside course meal at a restaurant, except you were involved sales organization. with sourcing the ingredients, preparing them, cooking the food, and serving it. At the end of March, we had From start to finish, everything we needed to replicate the process. the project took about

three months and included the hiring of a VP of Sales and two inside sales reps, as well as the creation of a handbook that laid out personalized sales scripts and training tools that would make future recruitment and onboarding consistent and repeatable.
Pete Gombert, Founder and CEO, Balihoo

We take a collaborative and proactive approach with our portfolio companies, says OpenView Venture Partner George Roberts, who sits on Balihoos Board of Directors. I think we operate with a pretty unique perspective of each companys needs and, with our Labs team, we were able to tailor a plan to help Balihoo address them.

Writing The Book On Inside Sales

Before OpenView helped Balihoo scale its team, the firm wanted to be sure that it truly understood the companys needs, the new market it was targeting, and the employee profile that would help move the company forward. So OpenView sent Brian Zimmerman, a Managing Director, and Devon Warwick, a Sales and Marketing Analyst, to Boise for two days in January to dissect the companys sales and lead generation processes, team makeup, and long-term goals. We looked at the things they were doing well so that we could pair our methodologies to them, ethodologies said Zimmerman. At the end of the day, they own the project. Were kind of in the background tweaking the gauges to help them make it successful. So we wanted to be su they were comforture able with our design.

We looked at the things they were doing well so that we could pair
our methodologies to them. At the end of the day, they own the project. Were kind of in the background tweaking the gauges to help them make it successful. So we wanted to be sure they were comfortable with our design.
Brian Zimmerman, Managing Director, OpenView Venture Partners

Subsequently, Warwick made several trips to Idaho to work more closely with Matt Borud, a senior member of Balihoos Client Development and Program Management team, who was spearheading the companys inside sales operation at the time. They dove into Balihoos leads, made cold calls, and worked together to create a system that would ultimately allow for a unified sales approach. Within weeks, Warwick, Zimmerman, and the OpenView Labs team had collaborated with Balihoo to refine its database of sales leads, successfully promote and execute a couple of well-attended webinars, and develop a 25-page sales training handbook that highlighted specific metrics, roles, target audiences, qualifying questions, and cold call scripts. Without question, what they did in less than three months would have taken us at least nine, Borud said. We went from flying blind to a singular, repeatable sales process in one quarter.

Identifying The Right Sales Leader

With its semi-assembled Cessna now fully converted into a shiny new Gulfstream, the only remaining piece to Balihoos inside sales puzzle was finding a pilot to fly it. Thats where Diana Martz and Victor Mahillon came in. OpenViews Recruiting Analysts worked with Balihoo to develop job descriptions for a Vice President of Sales and two Inside Sales Representatives, and executed both a proactive and inbound search for the right candidates. In January, the VP of Sales search led Mahillon to Ron Clevenger, who was enjoying his post as the Head of Sales for real estate software provider Single Point Solutions in Eagle, Idaho. Clevenger possessed previous inside sales management experience and knew what it took to build a

Recruiting at the Expansion Stage

Recruiting Analyst Diana Martz breaks down OpenViews ve-step recruitment process for expansion stage organizations and explains the important role cultural t plays in choosing the right candidate.

sales team from the ground up. Rons previous experience really spoke to what we were looking for and what Balihoo had told us they wanted, says Mahillon. It was a huge hire for Balihoo, so we wanted to be absolutely sure that we found the right candidate. With Ron, it kind of felt like the stars aligned.
Mahillon and Martz interviewed Clevenger over the phone, performed due diligence, and passed him off to Zimmerman and Roberts, both of whom led high performing sales teams before joining OpenView. They interviewed Clevenger and, when they believed hed be an ideal fit for Balihoo, sent him to Gombert with their seal of approval. Looking at it from a CEOs perspective, Im sure it was a load off Petes back to know that the candidates had been through an incredibly thorough screening process, Clevenger said. When youre being recruited, everyone talks about how great they are. But for me, it was unbelievable to see venture capitalists that were truly supporting the organization and investing in its future.

Consult Your Handbook

he collaboration between Balihoo and OpenView produced a new Inside Sales Handbook designed to clearly describe the structure, roles and expectations of the Balihoo team. Based on a framework that OpenViews Zimmerman had used with past organizations, Warwick, Borud and Clevenger teamed up to craft a new handbook customized specically for Balihoo. The result was a 28-page document that works as a comprehensive guide for existing and future reps alike, as well as a recruiting tool for setting candidate expectations early in the hiring process. OpenView has always encouraged portfolio companies to have an Inside Sales Handbook. Quite simply, it creates alignment within a sales organization and makes for a faster new hire ramp up time, Warwick said. When Ron started, Matt and I presented him with a draft of the handbook, and he made the nishing touches. It was a true team effort, and the end product was something that everyone had condence in. That end product included a host of information on the primary roles and responsibilities of the inside sales team. All measured activities and metrics were clearly mapped out, as was the companys Model Day for Success a short outline demonstrating the ideal day in the life of a Balihoo sales rep. Warwick stressed the importance of having such a feature in place, especially when ramping up new sales hires. Salespeople have a lot of balls to juggle over the course of a day, and without some kind of structure, time can really escape you, she explained. Warwick noted, however, that the model day is meant to act as more of a framework than an actual daily agenda.
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Wh When youre being recruited,

every everyone talks about how great they are. But, for me, it was unbelievable to see ventu venture capitalists that were truly suppo supporting the organization and investing i in its future.
Ron Clevenger, VP of Sales, Balihoo

The whole process was perfectly timed, too. Clevenger took over Balihoos inside sales operation soon after Gombert offered him the job, which aligned perfectly with the onboarding of the companys two new inside sales reps, both of whom Martz and Mahillon had recruited. Warwick traveled back to Boise to greet the new sales team for their first week on the job and continued to work with them remotely throughout the training process. Before long, Clevenger had Balihoos inside sales operation running like a well-oiled machine. You could see the impact that he had on our two new reps almost immediately, explains Borud. Going from a rudderless ship to having someone like Ron bring structure and leadership to our inside sales operation, it was night and day.

A Recipe For Sustained Success

When the project was completed, Gombert likened the three-month collaborative experience to cooking classes with some of the best culinary experts and executive chefs

in the world. It reminded me of having this great, five course meal at a restaurant, except you were involved with sourcing the ingredients, preparing them, cooking the food, and serving it, Gombert says. At the end of March, we had everything we needed to replicate the process and everyone involved had a very deep understanding of what they needed to do to make it happen.
B lih M B d (l f ) i h O Vi Balihoos Matt Borud (left) with OpenView Managing Director, Brian Zimmerman, at the companys main headquarters in Boise.

In sales, things come up that you have to tend to regardless of schedule. But a model day really helps sales people self-manage and focus their time on what is most important. The handbook also included a glossary of terms for categorizing account statuses in Salesforce. With the glossary, new reps can nd clearly dened explanations of how to organize leads and easily track the status of prospective accounts. Phone and email scripts were included in the document as well, with multiple variations listed for different account types and situations. This included recommended scripts for cold calls and follow-up emails, as well as a list of qualifying questions for each method of contact. The handbook even featured approved responses to common objections from accounts that tend to crop up time and again. Warwick said that creating this sort of one-stop shop for process information is a major boon for any inside sales team. Most expansion stage companies have some content created for their sales teams. Scripts, FAQs, objection handling pieces they do exist. But they are usually scattered all over the place, Warwick said. The sales handbook is basically all of the most valuable content in one centralized location that new sales hires will need to be successful in their jobs.

Best of all, Balihoo didnt have to wait long to reap the benefits of its newly developed inside sales team, as the new hires closed deals within their first three weeks on the job. The companys newly-formed inside sales team closed deals within their first three weeks on the job. Warwick attributes much of that immediate success to Clevengers leadership and the sales teams commitment to the newly implemented process. I honestly figured it would take at least at quarter to start seeing results from the new team. Within weeks after the start date, the team was already closing deals. I think its a true testament to Rons ability to lead a sales organization at the expansion stage I cant wait to see how well theyre producing a year from now. Neither can Gombert. In just 12 weeks, he witnessed Balihoos inside sales organization completely transform. Now, with a solid foundation on which to build and a much more sophisticated sales approach as its framework, the sky is the limit. Im biased, but I always believed that we had a much more unique solution than our competitors, Gombert says. The issue was that our superior product wasnt supported by a superior sales organization. That was the gap holding us back. But after working with OpenView, I feel like weve closed that gap significantly and it may be a matter of time before we eliminate it completely.

OpenView has always

encouraged portfolio companies to have an Inside Sales Handbook. Quite simply, it creates alignment within a sales organization and makes for a faster new hire ramp up time.
Devon Warwick, Sales and Marketing Analyst, OpenView Venture Partners