As inside sales grows fifteen times faster than the more-traditional field approach, field sales are becoming a strategy of the past. Seeking more efficient ways to connect with modern buyers and customers, enterprises are increasingly replying on phone calls and web conferences; in effect, salespeople are spending less time in face-to-face interactions and more time in remote conversations.
These interactions hold tremendous value, as buyers and customers signal their needs, preferences, likes and dislikes to salespeople. However, without facial expressions and behavioral cues, inside sales representatives have to gauge how customers and buyers feel based on subjective understandings of how they sound.
This complicates sales leaders’ roles; faced with the challenge of striking a balance between business, customer and team management, sales leaders don’t have time to effectively coach their teams. This limits understandings of both customers and buyers and stunts sales productivity. Speakalytics solves this problem with artificial intelligence.
Co-founders James Knowles, III (CEO) and Mohammed Washim (CMO) met at Georgia Tech; in 2015, Speakalytics was founded out of Tech’s incubator, Create-X. They joined the Advanced Technology Development Center and recently landed in the Queen City Fintech Accelerator in Charlotte, NC, to connect with enterprises and mature their company. Here, they share more about their product: how it turns phone calls into data, shortens the sales rep training process, and quantifies “the art of selling”.
What’s your elevator pitch?
Speakalytics is the Artificial Intelligent sales coach for enterprise conversations. We drive customer acquisition by analyzing sales calls. Our insights cultivate the ABCs of Sales Intelligence, offering sales leaders the (A) ability to coach at scale, (B), business intelligence and insight into the (C), customer’s journey. Speakalytics is an investment into the conversations salespeople have every day.
How did you get started?
Upon graduating from Georgia Tech, James wanted to combine his technical expertise with a lesson he learned in high school. Years before receiving a degree in computer engineering, James had the opportunity to debate and learned that his ability to resonate with an audience was based on content (what is being said), delivery (how it is being said) and preparation. When college graduation came around, James recognized that salespeople were moving to a more virtual space. He saw an opportunity to integrate his interdisciplinary knowledge and decided to build a technology to enable sales productivity with effective communication.
James teamed up with his colleague, Washim, and in June of 2015, Speakalytics was founded at Georgia Tech’s incubator, Create-X. Two years later, we have a team of three and an incredible network of advisors. We are empowered by a board that consists of experts from First Data, IBM, VMWare, Sirius XM and DHISCO. We also have tremendous resources from our local incubators Create-X and ATDC. Next up, we will be working with Queen City (QC) Fintech, an accelerator in Charlotte, NC.
What problem are you solving?
The challenge in leading a modern salesforce is time; there is never enough time for sales leaders to listen to calls and effectively coach representatives. 92 percent of sales interactions occur over the phone and sales leaders understand that in order to make a meaningful difference, it is time to focus resources in this department. Speakalytics not only interprets qualitative information from phone calls into hard data, but also condenses a training process that usually lasts between 1-2 hours per representative in preparation and training, reducing it to about 15 minutes. Speakalytics is more than a new technology; it is the science to understanding your customers, your sales representatives and ultimately, what sells.
Please describe the market/industry impact.
By analyzing sales calls, Speakalytics can quantify what is traditionally considered the “art of selling”. The impact that Speakalytics brings to the market is an objective way of aligning what is being said, as well as how it is being said, so that the data resonates with buyers. We want salespeople to know that although the setting in which they sell is changing, we built a tool that will increase their confidence and their ability to adapt to these shifts in modernity. We help companies quantify interactions, thus empowering their teams to engage in meaningful conversations.
What is your revenue model?
We leverage a price per seat monthly subscription model. Sales managers are free to access our data and we only charge a fee for the sales reps whose conversations we analyze. Through our platform, sales managers have access to a dashboard that combines a holistic analysis of what is driving their business, with a deeper dive into each call.
What’s your funding status?
Chris Klaus sponsors Create-X, and thus, was our first investor. He invested $20K. Now we are backed by QC Fintech as well.
Who are your competitors and why do you stand out among them?
The B2B voice analytics space is growing; Speakalytics competes with innovative companies such as Gong, TalkIQ and Chorus. Our competitors do a great job at providing insight into calls and reducing coaching time. They have set the bar at decreasing the ramp-up time for new hires, too. But what separates Speakalytics is that we leverage deep learning to create actionable intelligence that reduces the length of sales cycles. With our technology, salespeople will have insights that accelerate their time to value. Speakalytics identifies buying opportunities and in a one-on-one session with a representative, pinpoint exactly where salespeople can capitalize moving forward. Sentiment analysis and an algorithm that detects if the call was successful validates our insights.
Why did you decide to apply to QC Fintech and what do you think will be the most valuable about the program?
Having the opportunity to work with QC Fintech is a dream come true. Not only do we have capital to expedite our growth, but we also get to work with world-class leaders rom leading global financial institutions. Having the ability to leverage their expertise will add a magnifying glass to our market strategy, production roadmap and approach to calculating ROI. The processes we implement in the program will prepare us for the growth trajectory we are seeking; we are most excited for scalability and sustainability.
Besides that, what’s coming up for Speakalytics next?
Ubiquity. Stay tuned.
