{"id":2436,"date":"2017-04-28T10:37:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T17:37:24","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-10-16T02:21:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T02:21:47","slug":"folloze-disrupts-sales-industry-microsoft-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/industry\/microsoft-in-business\/business-transformation\/2017\/04\/28\/folloze-disrupts-sales-industry-microsoft-azure\/","title":{"rendered":"How Folloze disrupts the sales industry with Microsoft Azure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\nFocus on: Engage customers, Transform products, Empower employees <\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Traditionally, Sales and Marketing don\u2019t always play nicely together. In fact, in companies that sell to large accounts, marketing typically sources only up to 10% of the sales pipeline. Folloze is changing that paradigm with disruptive technology that has the potential to transform the industry. Its unique platform empowers salespeople to use marketing techniques, and allows Marketing and Sales to work hand-in-hand to deliver account-specific experiences, run content campaigns, act on behavioral alerts, and build sustainable customer engagements. It\u2019s a model that has proven to have significant impact on increasing win rates and building sustainable relationships with customers.<\/p>\n

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Folloze is an Account Based Marketing (ABM) sales platform with headquarters in Palo Alto and a development center in Tel Aviv. As a young, dynamic company, the Folloze team continually looks for new tools that will keep them on the cutting-edge of technology.<\/p>\n

Digital transformation is a movement that is creating unprecedented opportunities for organizations of all shapes and sizes to reinvent themselves as digital-first enterprises. Folloze co-founder and CEO Etai Beck and Customer Success Manager Jon Heintschel believe that being a digital-first enterprise offers countless benefits. The company has worked to ensure it has the right tools in place as it grows, which allows Folloze to transform products, engage customers, and empower employees.
\nDriving Deeper Engagements through Customized Content<\/strong><\/span>The Folloze sales platform allows sellers to leverage Folloze boards that organize content by customer need or interest. These Folloze boards look just like a content-based microsite without requiring any technical skills to be put together. Once a board is created, sellers can add compelling content that supports the board\u2019s message and then connect that content to their specific customer conversation.<\/p>\n

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When Folloze was founded in 2013, it used Google products, but soon after, migrated to Microsoft Office 365. \u201cIt just became necessary as we grew,\u201d Jon explains.<\/p>\n

Through a customer insight study, Folloze learned that sellers were spending a great deal of their time sending emails and communicating with customers via Outlook. Based on this research, Folloze created an Outlook add-in that allows users to send boards via email, text or image with hyperlink to their customers, so that they are can quickly share relevant, targeted, and timely content.<\/p>\n

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Once it\u2019s delivered, board creators can return to the Folloze board within Outlook to see how their prospects are engaging with the content. When they are ready to dive into other analytics, they can also see how their content is performing via notifications in real time. Those detailed analytics can now be exported through excel and sent via email in seconds for cleaner presenting. Armed with this information, sellers can better customize messaging and move the deal forward.<\/p>\n

Fully integrating Office 365 has simplified sales and marketing for not only the Folloze team but for their customers. And because Microsoft is a familiar platform, onboarding is simplified as well. \u201cIt\u2019s an industry standard.\u201d Jon says. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen tremendous success and adoption using the Outlook add-in.\u201d Getting new team members up to speed quickly saves time and resources. \u201cWith our entire team using the Outlook add-in, it just makes more sense for us all to be on Office 365,\u201d Jon says.
\nBuilding Trust with Azure<\/strong><\/span>Several months ago, while Folloze was still hosted with a competitor cloud service, the cloud platform went through a hacker attack and Folloze was one of the systems that was affected by several hours of down time. The Folloze team looked for a more secure platform that could provide the maximum uptime. Their relationship with Microsoft, the cost benefits, and the high level of support and security Microsoft offered led them to Azure.<\/p>\n

Folloze provides hosting of assets and communication for its customers. \u201cThe trust that\u2019s required is critical to our business so security is of the utmost concern,\u201d Jon explains. With Azure, they can take advantage of all of Microsoft\u2019s security layers.<\/p>\n

The fact that Azure is compliant in every country in which it does business is another plus. Folloze supports multi-national enterprises with offices in the EU, Latin America, APAC, and North America. Because of the company\u2019s reach, Jon says, \u201cIt was imperative that our cloud provider have a global aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Folloze boards are hosted on Azure and the company is working towards a complete Azure migration. \u201cBoard activity changes frequently, and Azure gives us the availability to scale additional data quickly as needed.\u201d Jon explains. And with an uptime of 99.95%, he and his team can be confident that their business won\u2019t be negatively affected by down time. \u201cSo far, the transition has been seamless,\u201d Jon says. \u201cWhich is another reason we\u2019re expanding with Azure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Power of Convenience<\/strong><\/span>As a small, agile company, Folloze recently provided every member of its sales team with a Surface Book. The device effectively transforms from a full-size computer into a small tablet, making it ideal for remote working and traveling. \u201cI love everything about this device!\u201d Jon says. When it comes to presenting to clients and potential customers, Jon loves the Surface Book\u2019s wireless display mechanism, which allows him to present from across the table or across the room. \u201cI\u2019m not tied to an HDMI cable, so I don\u2019t have to worry about the environment I\u2019m walking into,\u201d Jon explains. \u201cI\u2019m confident that I can present from anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He also loves the flexibility when traveling. \u201cWhen you travel as much as I do, you have to shut down your large devices at some point. But because I can go to just tablet mode without the keyboard, I never have to stop working. And you never really know how long you\u2019ll be stuck taxiing on the runway!\u201d That time is not lost any longer. And because the Surface Book is classified as a tablet, the hassle of pulling it out for security or having to drag it out of a packed carry-on once on board is removed. \u201cIt\u2019s just a very convenient way to work,\u201d he adds. \u201cI can collaborate with coworkers just by using my touchscreen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team has a standing call three mornings a week to talk about products, enhancements and other company updates. \u201cI conduct a lot of meetings with our team in Israel,\u201d Jon says. \u201cThe vast majority of both my internal and external meetings take place via Skype.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Looking to the Future<\/strong><\/span>Folloze plans to continue pioneering down the Account-Based Marketing (ABM) path\u2013 both in regard to internal and external expansion. The team plans to migrate fully to Azure in the near future and to continue monitoring its customers needs, looking for new ways to save them time and effort, increase win rates, and build sustainable relationships with their customers.<\/p>\n

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