We had the chance to interview Kris Rudeegraap, the CEO & Co-Founder of Sendoso, about why he loves Clay.
Sendoso recently implemented Clay to power their outbound motion, and generated $500k of outbound pipeline in the first quarter.
Kris tapped Jacob Tuwiner to lead Sendoso’s Clay implementation. Jacob is a Clay Expert and the Founder of Sculpted, “a Claygency with a twist.”
Jacob helps clients like Sendoso roll out Clay to scale outbound pipeline without scaling headcount.
In this interview, Jacob and Mishti sit down with Kris to hear about his experience building the SDR motion at Sendoso before Clay, how Kris thinks about the outbound motion in 2024 and beyond, why Sendoso loves Clay, and how others can get in on the action.
Let’s dive in!
Interview Recap
0:39 "Excited to learn about your journey building the SDR team at Sendoso, your sales philosophy, and why you're moving towards a clay-powered automated outbound motion."
Response: Sendoso is a direct mail and gifting platform helping mostly B2B companies build pipeline, drive revenue, retain customers, by sending stuff, mostly physical things, and e-gifts. The company started about seven years ago. Before that, I spent about a decade in software sales myself. So I grew up in sales, then started a company selling sales tech, MarTech. We've raised about 150 million in funding, we have tens of thousands of users and customers, and hundreds of millions spent through our platform. We've seen a lot and we've enabled a lot of teams in terms of how they go to market. That's given us a lot of insights and given myself a lot of insights into how I think about building the best outbound motion.
1:39 "Could you share how we (Kris & Jacob) met?"
Response: I stumbled across Clay through a LinkedIn post and became fascinated with its automation capabilities. Intrigued, I met with the founder of Clay, as I enjoy meeting with founders, and subsequently joined the Clay user group. Seeking expert assistance to leverage Clay at its fullest, I asked the founder about the smartest hire to help us scale Clay's integration. This led to your referral, which was awesome from the start.
2:37 "Chris, given your long experience in sales, how was scaling Sendoso's sales with SDRs, especially considering the shift towards fewer human resources for outbound scaling?"
Response: We followed the playbook most SaaS companies followed for decades involved analyzing spreadsheets, revenue goals, pipeline, and average contract value (ACV), then calculating the number of meetings needed and hiring tons of junior SDRs to secure these meetings. We started in our San Francisco office, but it soon became costly, so we opened an Arizona office, and eventually went fully remote during COVID. This model, sustainable only with limitless funds and a tolerance for inefficiency, began to falter as market dynamics evolved. Companies, driven by a need for efficiency and automation amid a venture capital investment crunch and recessionary pressures, started to question the sustainability of relying heavily on human resources for outbound efforts. The inefficiencies of the traditional model were highlighted, along with the necessity for a new strategy that minimized the dependence on extensive, costly human workforce. Enter Clay and the development of the SDB (Sales Development Bot), which is a pivotal shift towards envisioning a more efficient, automated future for outbound sales, which Jacob and his team are spearheading with Sculpted.
5:04 "Many sales leaders seem unaware of Clay's potential. Could you share what's possible with Clay that they might not realize?"
Response: Kris outlined Clay's key features, including contact data enrichment, signals for personalized sequences, data syncs, personalization, and workflows, emphasizing how these automations streamline SDR tasks and improve efficiency.
8:42 "What has been your process for implementing Clay at Sendoso, moving from manual SDR tasks to automation, and what lessons have you learned?"
Response: For us, implementing Clay involved several steps, starting with reeducating our sales development and revenue teams about the automation possibilities that many previously thought were exclusively human tasks. This change management effort aimed to remove misconceptions about automation's capabilities, demonstrating that tasks such as bulk personalization and continuous outbound prospecting can be efficiently managed by Clay on an ongoing basis. We then prioritized which plays or Clay operations to launch first, collaborating with Jacob and his team to refine our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), messaging strategies, and offers based on our past experiences. Subsequently, Jacob's team took over the detailed work, including contact data enrichment, identifying signals, synchronizing data, personalizing messages, and managing workflows. This shift allowed our team to concentrate on responding to warm leads and managing inbound communications more effectively, focusing our efforts on engaging the most promising prospects.
13:54 "Concerning augmenting SDR teams with Clay, how do you see it helping SDRs focus on more valuable tasks instead of replacing them?"
Response: Automating mundane tasks with Clay allows sales teams to focus on prioritized selling and intent signals, optimizing the limited hours available each day for more critical and impactful activities. Clay ensures that no step in the sales process is overlooked, addressing a common issue where SDRs might skip essential research or personalization due to time constraints. This approach ensures compliance with best practices and prevents things from slipping through the cracks. Moreover, Clay's automation fosters a closer alignment with marketing strategies, leading to a more repeatable process that not only enhances efficiency but also opens opportunities for career advancement within the organization by enabling SDRs to engage in more strategic and less repetitive tasks.
15:58 "As the sales landscape evolves with AI, how should we adapt our outreach and strategy to stay ahead?"
Response: Throughout history, marketing channels and strategies have often faced the risk of saturation, with marketing automation emails serving as a prime example. However, Clay's significance lies in its ability to maintain a focus on quality while also achieving quantity, offering a level of personalization that adds real value. By targeting the right Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) effectively, Clay helps in educating the market about the value of a service, suggesting that its usage is likely to become more widespread. Reflecting on the past, where techniques such as sequencing were unknown just a decade or so ago, it's evident that as the landscape evolves, new channels and strategies emerge. Marketers will continue to evolve and adapt to new strategies as they always have in the past.
17:52 "For those building a growth motion or refining their team, what's your ideal team setup and role distribution advice?"
Response: There's an emerging future where the focus shifts towards a more savvy, technically adept, and automation-oriented marketer, sales ops, or operations professional, capable of going beyond basic tasks like email composition or data entry. Many organizations are currently not structured to support this advanced role, presenting a significant opportunity for specialized agencies like Sculpted to bridge the gap. These agencies can leverage the latest tools and technologies, allowing the core team to concentrate on their strengths such as understanding the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), executing broader marketing campaigns, or refining the sales process. Utilizing the right tools for specific tasks and, when necessary, partnering with agencies, is probably the best way for orgs to harness new technologies for organizational growth and efficiency.
We had the chance to interview Kris Rudeegraap, the CEO & Co-Founder of Sendoso, about why he loves Clay.
Sendoso recently implemented Clay to power their outbound motion, and generated $500k of outbound pipeline in the first quarter.
Kris tapped Jacob Tuwiner to lead Sendoso’s Clay implementation. Jacob is a Clay Expert and the Founder of Sculpted, “a Claygency with a twist.”
Jacob helps clients like Sendoso roll out Clay to scale outbound pipeline without scaling headcount.
In this interview, Jacob and Mishti sit down with Kris to hear about his experience building the SDR motion at Sendoso before Clay, how Kris thinks about the outbound motion in 2024 and beyond, why Sendoso loves Clay, and how others can get in on the action.
Let’s dive in!
Interview Recap
0:39 "Excited to learn about your journey building the SDR team at Sendoso, your sales philosophy, and why you're moving towards a clay-powered automated outbound motion."
Response: Sendoso is a direct mail and gifting platform helping mostly B2B companies build pipeline, drive revenue, retain customers, by sending stuff, mostly physical things, and e-gifts. The company started about seven years ago. Before that, I spent about a decade in software sales myself. So I grew up in sales, then started a company selling sales tech, MarTech. We've raised about 150 million in funding, we have tens of thousands of users and customers, and hundreds of millions spent through our platform. We've seen a lot and we've enabled a lot of teams in terms of how they go to market. That's given us a lot of insights and given myself a lot of insights into how I think about building the best outbound motion.
1:39 "Could you share how we (Kris & Jacob) met?"
Response: I stumbled across Clay through a LinkedIn post and became fascinated with its automation capabilities. Intrigued, I met with the founder of Clay, as I enjoy meeting with founders, and subsequently joined the Clay user group. Seeking expert assistance to leverage Clay at its fullest, I asked the founder about the smartest hire to help us scale Clay's integration. This led to your referral, which was awesome from the start.
2:37 "Chris, given your long experience in sales, how was scaling Sendoso's sales with SDRs, especially considering the shift towards fewer human resources for outbound scaling?"
Response: We followed the playbook most SaaS companies followed for decades involved analyzing spreadsheets, revenue goals, pipeline, and average contract value (ACV), then calculating the number of meetings needed and hiring tons of junior SDRs to secure these meetings. We started in our San Francisco office, but it soon became costly, so we opened an Arizona office, and eventually went fully remote during COVID. This model, sustainable only with limitless funds and a tolerance for inefficiency, began to falter as market dynamics evolved. Companies, driven by a need for efficiency and automation amid a venture capital investment crunch and recessionary pressures, started to question the sustainability of relying heavily on human resources for outbound efforts. The inefficiencies of the traditional model were highlighted, along with the necessity for a new strategy that minimized the dependence on extensive, costly human workforce. Enter Clay and the development of the SDB (Sales Development Bot), which is a pivotal shift towards envisioning a more efficient, automated future for outbound sales, which Jacob and his team are spearheading with Sculpted.
5:04 "Many sales leaders seem unaware of Clay's potential. Could you share what's possible with Clay that they might not realize?"
Response: Kris outlined Clay's key features, including contact data enrichment, signals for personalized sequences, data syncs, personalization, and workflows, emphasizing how these automations streamline SDR tasks and improve efficiency.
8:42 "What has been your process for implementing Clay at Sendoso, moving from manual SDR tasks to automation, and what lessons have you learned?"
Response: For us, implementing Clay involved several steps, starting with reeducating our sales development and revenue teams about the automation possibilities that many previously thought were exclusively human tasks. This change management effort aimed to remove misconceptions about automation's capabilities, demonstrating that tasks such as bulk personalization and continuous outbound prospecting can be efficiently managed by Clay on an ongoing basis. We then prioritized which plays or Clay operations to launch first, collaborating with Jacob and his team to refine our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), messaging strategies, and offers based on our past experiences. Subsequently, Jacob's team took over the detailed work, including contact data enrichment, identifying signals, synchronizing data, personalizing messages, and managing workflows. This shift allowed our team to concentrate on responding to warm leads and managing inbound communications more effectively, focusing our efforts on engaging the most promising prospects.
13:54 "Concerning augmenting SDR teams with Clay, how do you see it helping SDRs focus on more valuable tasks instead of replacing them?"
Response: Automating mundane tasks with Clay allows sales teams to focus on prioritized selling and intent signals, optimizing the limited hours available each day for more critical and impactful activities. Clay ensures that no step in the sales process is overlooked, addressing a common issue where SDRs might skip essential research or personalization due to time constraints. This approach ensures compliance with best practices and prevents things from slipping through the cracks. Moreover, Clay's automation fosters a closer alignment with marketing strategies, leading to a more repeatable process that not only enhances efficiency but also opens opportunities for career advancement within the organization by enabling SDRs to engage in more strategic and less repetitive tasks.
15:58 "As the sales landscape evolves with AI, how should we adapt our outreach and strategy to stay ahead?"
Response: Throughout history, marketing channels and strategies have often faced the risk of saturation, with marketing automation emails serving as a prime example. However, Clay's significance lies in its ability to maintain a focus on quality while also achieving quantity, offering a level of personalization that adds real value. By targeting the right Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) effectively, Clay helps in educating the market about the value of a service, suggesting that its usage is likely to become more widespread. Reflecting on the past, where techniques such as sequencing were unknown just a decade or so ago, it's evident that as the landscape evolves, new channels and strategies emerge. Marketers will continue to evolve and adapt to new strategies as they always have in the past.
17:52 "For those building a growth motion or refining their team, what's your ideal team setup and role distribution advice?"
Response: There's an emerging future where the focus shifts towards a more savvy, technically adept, and automation-oriented marketer, sales ops, or operations professional, capable of going beyond basic tasks like email composition or data entry. Many organizations are currently not structured to support this advanced role, presenting a significant opportunity for specialized agencies like Sculpted to bridge the gap. These agencies can leverage the latest tools and technologies, allowing the core team to concentrate on their strengths such as understanding the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), executing broader marketing campaigns, or refining the sales process. Utilizing the right tools for specific tasks and, when necessary, partnering with agencies, is probably the best way for orgs to harness new technologies for organizational growth and efficiency.
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