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Hello everyone and welcome back to the SourceForge podcast.
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I'm your host, Bo Hamilton.
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Now, I want to start today's episode with a little bit of a gut check before we get into it.
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Think about the last sales deck or product catalog somebody emailed you.
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It was probably a PDF, right?
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You maybe skimmed it and the person that sent it to you, you know, absolutely had no idea if you even opened it.
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That's that's how it goes.
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Um and let's face it, you know, PDFs are still everywhere in business.
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Companies use them for everything from sales presentations, brochures, product catalogs, reports, all kinds of other uh customer-facing content.
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But yeah, the problem is once you send it out into the world, it can be difficult to know whether anyone actually read it, uh, what caught their attention, or whether it helped actually move a deal forward.
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Um, and so that's the problem uh FlipSnack is trying to solve.
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Uh the company started as an online flipbook maker and has since evolved into a digital publishing platform that helps businesses turn static documents into really nice, interactive, trackable content that can be created, shared, updated, and measured from one place, one platform.
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So joining me today is Janina Moza, Chief Marketing Officer at FlipSnack.
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Janina has spent more than a decade with the company and has uh had a front row seat as FlipSnack evolved from an early stage product into a broader B2B platform.
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So I'm really excited to chat with her to learn more about what they're doing over there.
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Uh today we are digging into sales enablement, how sales teams are using this stuff, what both buyers actually respond to, and where, of course, this is all headed.
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So, Janina, welcome to the SourceForge podcast.
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Glad you can join us.
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Hello, everyone.
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Thank you for having me, Bo.
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Yeah, so um I I want to uh get right into it.
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I gave my sort of like quick and dirty version of in the intro, but I always like to hear it straight from the source, of course.
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Uh, for listeners hearing about FlipSnack for the very first time, how would you describe what the platform does specifically uh for a sales team?
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Yeah, uh also great introduction.
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Thank you for that.
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Um, FlipSnack is a tool that can be used by many businesses, and it's it's used by many businesses to create, share, and track interactive content, uh, like catalogs, brochures, reports, presentations, and specifically for sales.
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We see a lot of sales speeches, uh, sales proposals, and other types of sales collateral, like you mentioned, B2B catalogs as well.
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There are a lot of materials published on FlipSnack, uh, not just for sales, also for marketing, for internal communication.
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And we generally tend to call these flipbooks because uh of the page flip effect.
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But definitely, FlipSnack is more than just a flip bookmaker.
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We tend to think about FlipSnack like an all-in-one solution, uh, a one-stop shop for all the needs, all the publishing needs of a business, basically.
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If someone has a PDF that they want to share and to track, FlipSnack is a great platform for that.
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You can upload a PDF.
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If someone wants to create something from scratch, they can also do that.
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We have a very cool design studio tool integrated in FlipSnack.
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It's kind of similar to Canvas, so it also allows people to create something from scratch if they want that.
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There's also the possibility to create branded lock templates.
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So the company can set up some lock templates uh for their sales teams to use, for example.
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And from there, it's very, very easy for sales agents to create their own versions of a proposal, for example, and to send it out and also to make sure that it stays on brand.
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Everything published to FlipSmack is editable.
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Um, also, everything can be branded from colors, fonts, uh, down to the URL as well.
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There's also advanced privacy settings.
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So if a company is very concerned about the security aspect of what's published and they want to publish something just for their employees, that's something that can be done through FlipSmack as well.
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Uh, but also it allows for public materials to be published, of course.
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Yeah, like I mentioned, everything published through FlipSnack is super trackable, and everyone who publishes something through FlipSnack can check overall statistics and also if you want, you can use trackable links.
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So you could even see how individual readers have interacted with your publication, which is also great for sales, and it's also used in this context.
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Gotcha.
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Okay, so there's a lot of there's a lot of um uh really valuable assets here with this platform.
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I mean, I think you you mentioned Flipbook, uh listeners who um, I don't know, people who hear Flipbook and just picture uh sort of a page-turning animation, like that's it, that's the product.
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But no, there's there's a lot more to it.
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There's you know uh uh a format for for catalogs, magazines, brochures, um, basically all your business needs.
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Uh the sales team has like that all-in-one hub to create content, brand content, share it, um, track it.
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That's a very, very valuable um component.
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Uh so there's a lot, there's a lot to it, of course.
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Um, and I want to you know continue to unravel um and get into uh the platform some more.
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But I want to maybe uh establish some of the more basics.
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Like what actually makes a digital flipbook more engaging than a traditional PDF?
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Yeah, that's a really interesting question, actually.
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Um, and it reminds me of a study that we've done uh recently.
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We've analyzed the performance of static materials compared to interactive flipbooks published on FlipSnack that also had interactivity layered on top of a PDF uploaded on FlipSnack.
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So videos, links, stuff like that.
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And from our internal research, we've seen that there was a 700% increase in engagement with the digital flipbooks that had interactivity layered on them.
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So definitely publishing something that's interactive is way more exciting for the reader.
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It's something that's gonna draw them in, that's gonna want to make them click.
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Also, it's something that's gonna make them want to stay longer on it.
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And it's frankly more exciting than uh static something, sometimes I even say boring PDF.
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Yeah, I mean 700% increase in engagement, that's pretty staggering.
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Um, and I know just broadly speaking, like who wouldn't prefer something that's gonna be more easy on the eyes, more engaging?
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I mean, uh, let's face it, like I'm looking, if I look at a PDF, I mean, just the idea of opening a PDF is kind of can kind of lull you to sleep a little bit.
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So spicing it up with the the animations and the digital aspect, um, I think is uh is very valuable there.
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Yeah, right.
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And also when I'm thinking about PDFs, there are also other practical elements of why sometimes PDFs are not ideal.
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Like, for example, when you send out a PDF to someone, then you need to update it.
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There's no really easy way to recall a PDF that's been shared to, let's say, 100 people, right?
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But instead, if you're using a flipbook, you can have a link that's always updated, always live.
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You can replace that PDF if you want to, you can make edits to it, and the link is gonna stay always, always updated.
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So that's definitely something that's great.
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Also, sometimes with PDFs, they can, I don't know, if you're sending it to someone, it can fail as an email attachment.
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So they're all different aspects that may not be ideal with traditional PDFs.
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Yeah, so I mean, I imagine that's gonna probably be the answer to the next question.
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But what what kind of, I mean, practically speaking, sales teams have a whole pile of content, right?
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Uh that they have to uh work with decks, one pagers, various proposals.
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Um, but yeah, what kind of uh sales assets do you do you see teams like turning into flipbooks uh the most?
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Definitely a lot of B2B sales catalogs.
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That's something that we see a lot, but also a lot of sales proposals, sales presentations.
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And I was thinking I can also tell you a little bit about how our own team is using FlipSnack, our own sales team.
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We have on FlipSnack a dedicated sales workspace where uh the team can find a lot of the sales collateral organized into folders.
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So they have a lot of like ebooks that they can use in their calls, uh, different presentations for different use cases.
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So all of the assets that they need are nicely organized in that workspace.
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And also a very exciting use case, I would say for them is how easy it is and how quick it is for them to create and to share sales proposal.
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I bet you've you've inspired a lot of use cases for some of the clients that you've you work with.
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I mean, with all the internal uses and being able to, I mean, you know your product best, right?
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So you create a lot of the really attractive, like useful, sort of trackable brochures and and different types of content and sharing that out with clients and working with them directly.
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I bet they get inspired to try and create their own once they sign up with FlipSnack.
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Yeah, definitely.
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And I think that's one of the more powerful ways.
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Like when I sometimes when I look at our our salespeople doing the demo for another salesperson, I think they make it very real.
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They're sharing their own.
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Look, this is how I'm using FlipSnack.
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This is what I'm doing.
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This is how easy it is for me to create a sales proposal for a client.
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So, for example, our sales enablement team has created in their sales proposal like a master template, which has a lot of slides, like a lot of content on the different things that FlipSnack has to offer.
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So now when one of our sales people want to create a proposal for a customer, it's super easy for them to just uh select the template and then they can just select those pages that are relevant for that specific customer or for that specific um prospect.
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And in two minutes, they're gonna have the full proposal that's gonna be uh on-brand.
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They can just replace the generic logo with the customer, the customer's logo.
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Um, and change if they want to change one or two things in there, they can do that.
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But other than that, the proposal is gonna be done in like a minute or two.
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Very cool.
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Yeah, the the it's interesting because the the sales proposal, um, that's that's one of those like highest, one of the highest stakes documents in the whole, in a whole deal, you know, um, in the business world.
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And normally you have sort of zero visibility once you, once you hit send.
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Um, so being able to track that and then also um have kind of the branding assets there too.
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Um uh I know that's that's you know, obviously a big deal for you guys, especially at the enterprise level and um a big deal with for the clients you you work with and who are using the platform.
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But maybe you could tell us why why is branding so important when companies publish sales materials online?
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Yeah, I think branding is generally super important in pretty much everything that a company does and everything the company publishes, because it's tied to recognition, to trust, to familiarity.
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So I think generally people are going to buy sometimes because of the brand, because they trust that brand, because they recognize the brand.
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And because the branding influences so many things, and also it's super important in the sales process as well.
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A lot of the companies are super interested in making sure that everything that the company publishes through sales or marketing as well, everything is gonna be very like on brand.
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So brand consistency is important for big companies that we're working with.
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Uh and on FlipSnack, they can have full control over branding.
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Uh, they can use their own brand colors, they can add their logo, they can even brand the URL.
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So instead of sending out a FlipSnack link, they can have their company URL in there.
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So they can set up like a subdomain on their website.
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So everything that they would publish through FlipSnack would look like it, like it's been made by them.
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So basically FlipSnack, all of the collateral published through Flipsnack can become like a like an extension of their brand.
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That makes sense.
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Okay, so there's a lot of uh there's a lot of reasons why it's branding is important, of course.
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Um, I mean there's some obvious use cases, but yeah, the trust and recognition and then the consistency portion of it um at scale, especially.
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You know, when when dozens of reps are sharing content um and and permissions and and various templates and whatnot, like keeping everyone on brand without um uh a designer sort of bottleneck is is uh is a huge component, I would say.
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Um okay, I want to hear about some of the maybe common mistakes you you come across and you hear from from clients uh and customers.
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What are the some of the most common mistakes teams make when they first try to make a sales deck uh quote unquote interactive?
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What are some of the horror stories?
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Well, I think sometimes trying to do too much right from the start before you're more familiar with what you're working with.
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I think I'm also gonna I think this is also gonna a little bit tie in uh to the previous question.
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Sometimes the salespeople that are using FlipSnack are not, they like they don't have the design skills that a market like that a designer has.
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So sometimes even with our own salespeople, Whipskin Dum scratch logos or stretch a video, stuff like that.
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And I think that's something that we're seeing we're seeing sometimes.
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Luckily, with FlipSnack, you can have a way in which non-designers, people who don't have the skills or they just don't see that it's wrong, you know.
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Uh, they can still work with FlipSnack and create something that would be on-brand and beautiful.
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Uh, because if you have like a lock template and they cannot change the font, they cannot change the color or the location of the text or the location of the logo, they cannot stretch it out, you know.
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Having all of these things locked in place can give them, even non-designers, even salespeople with maybe zero design skills, can still give them a powerful way to create something that looks really beautiful, uh really fast, and stays on brand.
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So, yeah, you you you create the the the design element and then the like the other portion of what do we actually want to do part of it that's kind of bolted on as well.
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Um so I want to uh kind of get into some more of the marketing and sales collaboration side of things.
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Um, how how would you say those those two sides of a business come together on this kind of flip snack, you know, deliverable?
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Um, how do the two teams kind of merge together to work on the platform?
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Yeah, so usually we see a lot of marketers who are actually on the platform and they are producing the content that sales uses afterwards.
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So they're let's say two types of scenarios usually.
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Sometimes we see the marketing, uh maybe marketer and designer producing the material, and then they create the link, and then the sales would just use that link for sharing and using it afterwards.
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They not they don't necessarily always log into flip snack.
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Uh, the other use case that we're seeing is when both marketing and sales are in the platform.
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So marketing would create the materials, but also sales have access to create their own version of that original material, similar to the use case that I was telling you earlier about when we have uh, let's say a master template, and from there it's very easy for a salesperson to generate their own presentation, like a small mini version of the large of the large one.
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Um also, especially for B2B catalogs, for that specific use case, we generally tend to see a lot of salespeople in there because it becomes the tool that they are using uh for sales.
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They can they can set out a B2B catalog to their customer uh and receive orders directly through that catalog.
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So in that case, for B2B catalogs, usually sales is definitely part of the process.
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Yeah, the the feedback loop is interesting there because it's like this the sales sales will see the content um actually resonate with prospects um through things like you know analytics.
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Um and then uh at the same time, that intel that they gather will flow back to marketing to make the content better.
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So it kind of creates this full circle.
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And yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting because I I want to dig into that some more.
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And I also want to get into the analytics side um because I think that that that's a really killer feature, being able to track um everything that is viewed, something you absolutely can't do with a PDF that's that's being sent out.
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Um, what can a sales team actually see through a prospect from the analytics side of things?
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And and how does that sort of translate into something to act on and something like some kind of lead and insight?
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Yeah, so from our inbuilt uh analytics, and if they're using the unique tracking URLs, they will get the most advanced picture of what people are doing and how they're interacting with the content.
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So they would see from when the brochure was open, they would know how far the reader has progressed into reading the material they sent out.
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They would know the location, the device used by that person.
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They can also see how much time was spent on each page of the proposal or whatever was sent.
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Uh, they can also see clicks.
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We have a heat map as well, so you they can see exactly on the page where where the click was on what button.
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So definitely a lot of information they they can use.
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And it's also something that they can use, like you mentioned, to make the next versions even better.
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And especially for sales, I was thinking it's also something that they can use in the sales process as well.
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So if I'm sending a material to uh Prospect, I would see right away when they open the publication, and I would even be able to see maybe what parts of that proposal they were the most interested in.
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Like, for example, if I'm sending a proposal to someone and I see that they spend a lot of time on the security aspect on the security page, let's say, and maybe they even click on the security certification, I will know for sure that that's something that's really important for the customer.
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So I would make sure when I follow up with them, when I have a conversation with them next, that I will make sure that's part of the conversation that we're having.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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I mean, yeah, instead of just like the the sort of check-in in email, uh, you're actually following up uh because they they read the pricing page three times, let's say, you know?
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Um, and that leads to a totally different conversation.
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It's more focused and um more relatable.
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And you're gonna get a better sort of conversation, more responses and whatnot.
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Exactly.
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And also the timing, I think is super important in this context because you would know when they open the proposal.
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So you would know if you're following up before that moment, you would know they have not read what you've sent them.
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Or if you or if they have access that, you would know maybe now is the right time because they've just read it, they're gonna know what's in there, and I know they're interested in this.
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True, true.
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Yeah, timing is is everything, as they say.
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Um, I want to briefly mention integrations, um, or you know, talk about that because integrations are very, very powerful, uh, very important for uh an all-in-one platform.
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Um, how did the analytics flow into uh some of the like CRMs out there?
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Um what kind of integrations do you guys offer?
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Uh we have an integration with HubSpot and an integration with Salesforce.
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So the two most popular CRMs.
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Uh we also have an integration with Zapier.
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So with someone working with something else, like another tool, uh, Zapier can also facilitate some of the analytics from Flips to be transferred to another third-party tool.
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Gotcha.
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Okay.
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And then you uh I imagine you probably leverage some of the newer uh like AI tools to help like summarize uh some of the findings and and some of the patterns automatically so you don't have to necessarily hunt for for them as well, right?
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:30.480
Exactly, exactly.
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:38.720
Um, so we we've noticed that especially salespeople, they don't like to look a lot at analytics as opposed to marketers.
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:43.759
Marketers generally like they're very comfortable with reports and they spend a lot of time with that.
00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:47.119
Sales are more focused on doing sales, doing it fast.
00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:51.839
You know, they don't really have time to spend a lot of time analyzing all of the data.
00:19:52.000 --> 00:20:02.000
So with Flip Snack, they can get an AI summary, which will basically give them a summary of the entire thing and also some suggestions on how that content could be improved.
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:09.599
It let if let's say the engagement is not ideal with that, it can also have have it also has some suggestions in how on how to improve it.
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:13.039
Um okay, very powerful, uh, very powerful capabilities there.
00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:22.480
And I I'm sure the some of the AI insights and maybe agentic capabilities are are one of those things that you're you're constantly kind of like playing around with and figuring out what to incorporate into the platform.
00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:31.039
I mean, this is such a developing time, such a fluid, interesting time to be uh uh in the SaaS space with a lot of these AI automations.
00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:42.880
So um, no, you obviously got to kind of roll rolls roll out some AI features, but also kind of be careful not to, I don't know, get it wrong, I guess, and make sure you roll out the ones that that are actually gonna be helpful.
00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:44.240
Yeah, definitely.
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:53.680
We're we're working on a lot of AI features, but what we've talked about internally is that we don't we don't just want to have AI for the sake of having AI within the platform.
00:20:53.920 --> 00:21:00.880
We want to make sure we're choosing to integrate those things that are going to give our customers the most value.
00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:05.039
So we've integrated some AI functionalities that our customers love.
00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:12.720
We're also going to do that more, but also the focus is going to be on delivering value and not just adding AI for the sake of adding AI.
00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:13.920
That makes sense.
00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:15.440
I think that's a good strategy.
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:26.240
Um, but speaking of of customers and and value, can you share an example of a customer who maybe has used FlipSnack for something like specifically for sales enablement?
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:31.759
Um I'm curious if anything, you know, if there's a story that comes to mind and maybe you can share some of the results they saw.
00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:32.960
Yeah, of course.
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.640
Uh we actually have a customer story about this on our website.
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:47.759
So if someone will want to read more about it, uh we have a customer story about how uh Pandora France is using FlipSnack and how they used it for their uh catalogs in stores.
00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:55.519
They came in wanting searchable product catalogs that their salespeople can use in stores.
00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:59.680
This was meant to replace to replace printed catalogs, they had printed catalogs.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:51.839
their stores and the problem they had with those is first of all they were printed so it's very costly to update them because you're not re updating you're just replacing them basically with new versions and also also for them it was hard to search through over a thousand variations of different engraving options on their on their catalogs so it was like a really massive catalog and it wasn't ideal to do that it was very time consuming for their people who were you know doing sales in store so they didn't really have a lot of time doing that and with FlipSnack um they had something that was super easy to create also super searchable and it was really really easy for them to replace something that was static and not really working from an uh operational standpoint.
00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:59.519
And with FlipSnack uh they have achieved uh over 300% operational efficiency.
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:12.559
Wow okay yeah I mean and then just you think about again some of the things we talked about of of being able to uh yeah just track track what's working what's not I mean you're obviously not able to do that with a physical catalog.
00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:16.400
I mean the physical catalogs printed catalogs has their the their pros and cons.
00:23:16.480 --> 00:24:01.279
I think we're kind of uh there's like that uh nostalgic kind of um kind of that tangible feel I guess is something but also it's just way more practical to have a digital interactive catalog that you can flip through you're able to send it out uh more readily and uh being able to also like have an interactive flipbook with with things like product tags and and maybe videos and and tutorials I mean a lot of helpful assets there to to help um with various partners so that's that's neat to hear I'm sure you have like a like you said you have a w a a page on your website with kind of customer success stories um that listeners can go to to learn more because I'm sure you have a whole list of examples and uh clients you could you could share stories about.
00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:09.759
Okay, so you've been you've been at Flipstack uh for over a decade now I mean more like what 15 years or so.
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:19.920
Maybe you could tell us what is a surprising lesson you've learned about your market or your customers that sort of changed your approach with how you've worked with them.
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:23.599
Customers are a lot more creative than we are.
00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:35.440
And I think even after all of these years, I feel like I'm constantly learning from our customers the different ways in which they're using FlipSnack for all the various use cases.
00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:43.200
Even the use case that we are talking about today using FlipSnack for sales enablement it's something that we didn't start with.
00:24:43.359 --> 00:25:01.599
It's something that we've realized a few years ago oh look people are actually using this for sales materials how can we make their lives easier how can we add more value for them by bringing more functionality that will help them sell more or sell or sell faster or track these sales better.
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:36.000
So definitely constantly learning from how people are using FlipSnack um there are also some things that we knew about FlipSnack but we didn't really realize how powerful they were like for example something that we thought was super basic and why would we even mention this to anyone the thing that I mentioned earlier having a link and being able to update the content and without resending the link that's something that a few years ago I thought it you know too basic to even market to customers.
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:45.839
But it's something that we've we've seen it drives real value for some of the people and even though it's something that we consider we consider basic it's something actually extremely valuable.
00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:52.480
So definitely I'm still learning a lot of things about FlipSmack and sometimes I'm even impressed with what they are creating.
00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:54.319
Like people are super creative.
00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:50.079
Yeah I bet that's probably the most um just fun and exciting part of the job is just seeing all the different um kind of design elements and uh creative use cases that clients have have developed um that'd be fun I I gotta I gotta personally flip through a bunch of uh of your uh flip stacks uh to see them firsthand because I'm I'd be curious to kind of see uh some of the design elements but um okay I want to continue to focus the last you know question or two back on on yourself um again talk about your um your sort of tenure at the at the company of course you've you've seen a lot of um really positive stories and data but surely that means you've obviously been through some some rough periods too I mean the past 10 years that also includes the COVID era and we all know how that unfolded um but I'm curious like how do you just handle setbacks and failures and and what advice might you give to others facing challenges in in their professional life?
00:26:50.400 --> 00:27:07.920
Yeah definitely I've been with the company for a long time so I've been through the highest highs and uh definitely experiencing setbacks sometimes um and challenges those are gonna happen right it's not like you can you can avoid them if you're gonna stay with the company long enough you're going to experience some of those.
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:12.720
So I think when that happens it's really important to you know not panic.
00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:21.599
Just analyze what's actually happening maybe break it down into smaller problems that you can tackle and formulate a plan.
00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:37.839
For example a challenge that we are experiencing and a lot of the companies in our in our industry that are experiencing as well is historically we've we used to have to get a lot of traffic organically from Google.
00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:47.359
So that was the majority of where we got our signups and and our customers as well and the way people are searching nowadays is changing.
00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:51.680
People are using AI way more and search is slowly decreasing.
00:27:51.920 --> 00:28:02.079
We sort of know and we predict that this is definitely going to be of a much lesser importance for us than it was in the past.
00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:07.680
And we've seen the signups from Google decreasing over the years.
00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:20.640
So what we're doing in this context we realize look it's not like we can change we can change this it's what the market is and it's what the world how the world is is changing, you know so we just need to adapt.
00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:29.440
So instead of now focusing much on um optimizations for search changes we're still doing that but it's not that like the major focus for us right now.
00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:34.400
Now we're just trying to figure out more ways on how we can appear more in AI overview.
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:41.839
So instead of uh focusing on the general traditional search we just have to get in line with how people are searching nowadays.
00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:50.640
So yeah this is just an example of uh of a that's a current challenge that we're facing and I think a lot of businesses are facing this one as well.
00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:58.640
Yeah absolutely I know I'm glad you I'm really glad you mentioned that because that is such a kind of existential threat for a lot of um publishers out there, right?
00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:07.359
Where um we we're all using whether we want to admit it or not, we're using AI it's being incorporated into a lot of the features we've used before AI was a thing.
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:08.960
So you kind of are forced to use it.
00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:33.920
But as a result, especially especially with the Google um and and web search um uh domain there it's like you don't end up going to visit actual websites much anymore and so you're not generating that um revenue for them and then it creates it kind of upends this whole framework of um the web and how it's it's been operating the last decade or two uh with with monetization and the ripple effects there are um yet to be seen.
00:29:34.000 --> 00:30:00.880
I mean we're already starting to see it but you have to really adapt and find ways to be featured in the AI overviews and then also just kind of pressure the the powers that be um you know ChatGPT, Anthropic, uh Google to include the sources that make sure people you know at least have the source so they can go and not only fact check, but also go and support the publishers.
00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:07.119
And I think there's going to be a move to you know kind of a Patreon sort of subscription based model.
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:10.640
We're already starting to see more paywalls with a lot of the news organizations.
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:16.480
I mean there's a lot of things that are are changing pretty quickly but let's look at that let's continue with that forward looking vision.
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:21.359
Looking ahead how do you see uh like sales enablement content evolving?
00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:28.160
Where do you see the industry going in the next, I don't know, six months to six years from now if we can even plan that far in advance.
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:38.319
Yeah um of course I'm gonna talk about AI automations and integrations I think using all of that I I feel like that's that's the future.
00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:49.279
As I mentioned earlier salespeople I I think that they are you know busy they don't have a lot of time for creating assets probably they don't even like to create assets.
00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:57.359
So I think for them everything has to be done super quickly automated would be ideal definitely and having everything integrated would be best.
00:30:57.920 --> 00:31:05.839
So I think what we are going to see pretty soon will be to have integrated solutions for content creations.
00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:13.359
Like for example being able to create a sales proposal directly from the CRM like on the contact page of the of the prospect.
00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:24.160
So I would have there all of the all of the data points that should be in the proposal I would I would know what the prospect is interested in, what they're looking for, what their pain points are.
00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:51.200
So being able from there to generate an on-brand proposal on a solution like Flip snack very quickly with AI within I don't know just like a button of a a click of a button and then also having the stats of what happens after I send that proposal having everything also flown flowing back into the CRM I think that's the future for for sales enablement and for solutions like this.
00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:53.519
Yeah that's that's a that's a great answer.
00:31:53.599 --> 00:32:02.319
I think that is um that is something that I could absolutely see happening and and being able to continue to find kind of extrapolate the data and and and act upon it.
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:29.039
I I would love to yeah I would love to um hopefully we can have you back in the in the future to talk updates and maybe even lead a product demo to kind of get a visual hands on because this has been a really uh interesting conversation um and as a visual learner like myself um you know there's nothing quite like getting a hands-on uh view of the platform but until then I'm curious like where where should people go to learn more about FlipSnack um or get in contact with you and your team?
00:32:29.359 --> 00:32:55.200
Yeah so we have the website flipsnack.com there you can also see examples if you want to see sort of what customers are publishing through FlipSnack and examples of some of the things that we've talked about like interactivity it's also a tool that if anyone wants to try it they can they can sign up right away and give it out a try without even having to uh add their card the details and if anyone wants to talk to me they can also write to me on LinkedIn.
00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:24.799
Perfect okay so flip snack.com uh give uh give it a try you get a free trial and then go connect with Janina over on LinkedIn uh perfect we'll have all the links down below in the the show notes um but Janina thank you so much for everything you share with us this has been uh this has been really great yeah of course thank you thank you all for listening to the Sourceforge podcast I'm your host Bo Hamilton make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all of our upcoming B2B software related podcasts I will see you in the next one
00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:07.919
Hello everyone and welcome back to the SourceForge podcast.
00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:09.519
I'm your host, Bo Hamilton.
00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:13.439
Now, I want to start today's episode with a little bit of a gut check before we get into it.
00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:18.399
Think about the last sales deck or product catalog somebody emailed you.
00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:20.320
It was probably a PDF, right?
00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:26.480
You maybe skimmed it and the person that sent it to you, you know, absolutely had no idea if you even opened it.
00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:27.679
That's that's how it goes.
00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.640
Um and let's face it, you know, PDFs are still everywhere in business.
00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:38.880
Companies use them for everything from sales presentations, brochures, product catalogs, reports, all kinds of other uh customer-facing content.
00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:48.240
But yeah, the problem is once you send it out into the world, it can be difficult to know whether anyone actually read it, uh, what caught their attention, or whether it helped actually move a deal forward.
00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:52.240
Um, and so that's the problem uh FlipSnack is trying to solve.
00:00:52.320 --> 00:01:09.040
Uh the company started as an online flipbook maker and has since evolved into a digital publishing platform that helps businesses turn static documents into really nice, interactive, trackable content that can be created, shared, updated, and measured from one place, one platform.
00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:13.599
So joining me today is Janina Moza, Chief Marketing Officer at FlipSnack.
00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:23.040
Janina has spent more than a decade with the company and has uh had a front row seat as FlipSnack evolved from an early stage product into a broader B2B platform.
00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:26.879
So I'm really excited to chat with her to learn more about what they're doing over there.
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Uh today we are digging into sales enablement, how sales teams are using this stuff, what both buyers actually respond to, and where, of course, this is all headed.
00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:39.280
So, Janina, welcome to the SourceForge podcast.
00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:40.239
Glad you can join us.
00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:41.280
Hello, everyone.
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Thank you for having me, Bo.
00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:46.959
Yeah, so um I I want to uh get right into it.
00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:53.040
I gave my sort of like quick and dirty version of in the intro, but I always like to hear it straight from the source, of course.
00:01:53.120 --> 00:02:00.879
Uh, for listeners hearing about FlipSnack for the very first time, how would you describe what the platform does specifically uh for a sales team?
00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.519
Yeah, uh also great introduction.
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:04.719
Thank you for that.
00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:18.400
Um, FlipSnack is a tool that can be used by many businesses, and it's it's used by many businesses to create, share, and track interactive content, uh, like catalogs, brochures, reports, presentations, and specifically for sales.
00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:24.879
We see a lot of sales speeches, uh, sales proposals, and other types of sales collateral, like you mentioned, B2B catalogs as well.
00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:31.840
There are a lot of materials published on FlipSnack, uh, not just for sales, also for marketing, for internal communication.
00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.520
And we generally tend to call these flipbooks because uh of the page flip effect.
00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:41.280
But definitely, FlipSnack is more than just a flip bookmaker.
00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:51.840
We tend to think about FlipSnack like an all-in-one solution, uh, a one-stop shop for all the needs, all the publishing needs of a business, basically.
00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:56.639
If someone has a PDF that they want to share and to track, FlipSnack is a great platform for that.
00:02:56.719 --> 00:02:58.080
You can upload a PDF.
00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.360
If someone wants to create something from scratch, they can also do that.
00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.759
We have a very cool design studio tool integrated in FlipSnack.
00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:10.800
It's kind of similar to Canvas, so it also allows people to create something from scratch if they want that.
00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:15.360
There's also the possibility to create branded lock templates.
00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:20.960
So the company can set up some lock templates uh for their sales teams to use, for example.
00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:32.240
And from there, it's very, very easy for sales agents to create their own versions of a proposal, for example, and to send it out and also to make sure that it stays on brand.
00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:35.439
Everything published to FlipSmack is editable.
00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:41.439
Um, also, everything can be branded from colors, fonts, uh, down to the URL as well.
00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:43.599
There's also advanced privacy settings.
00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:53.360
So if a company is very concerned about the security aspect of what's published and they want to publish something just for their employees, that's something that can be done through FlipSmack as well.
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:57.840
Uh, but also it allows for public materials to be published, of course.
00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:10.960
Yeah, like I mentioned, everything published through FlipSnack is super trackable, and everyone who publishes something through FlipSnack can check overall statistics and also if you want, you can use trackable links.
00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:19.920
So you could even see how individual readers have interacted with your publication, which is also great for sales, and it's also used in this context.
00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:20.639
Gotcha.
00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:25.040
Okay, so there's a lot of there's a lot of um uh really valuable assets here with this platform.
00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:35.839
I mean, I think you you mentioned Flipbook, uh listeners who um, I don't know, people who hear Flipbook and just picture uh sort of a page-turning animation, like that's it, that's the product.
00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:37.600
But no, there's there's a lot more to it.
00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:44.639
There's you know uh uh a format for for catalogs, magazines, brochures, um, basically all your business needs.
00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:51.759
Uh the sales team has like that all-in-one hub to create content, brand content, share it, um, track it.
00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:54.480
That's a very, very valuable um component.
00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:56.800
Uh so there's a lot, there's a lot to it, of course.
00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:02.560
Um, and I want to you know continue to unravel um and get into uh the platform some more.
00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:06.560
But I want to maybe uh establish some of the more basics.
00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:12.240
Like what actually makes a digital flipbook more engaging than a traditional PDF?
00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:14.800
Yeah, that's a really interesting question, actually.
00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:19.759
Um, and it reminds me of a study that we've done uh recently.
00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:33.439
We've analyzed the performance of static materials compared to interactive flipbooks published on FlipSnack that also had interactivity layered on top of a PDF uploaded on FlipSnack.
00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:36.160
So videos, links, stuff like that.
00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:48.399
And from our internal research, we've seen that there was a 700% increase in engagement with the digital flipbooks that had interactivity layered on them.
00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:54.319
So definitely publishing something that's interactive is way more exciting for the reader.
00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:58.000
It's something that's gonna draw them in, that's gonna want to make them click.
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Also, it's something that's gonna make them want to stay longer on it.
00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:08.480
And it's frankly more exciting than uh static something, sometimes I even say boring PDF.
00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:13.360
Yeah, I mean 700% increase in engagement, that's pretty staggering.
00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:19.120
Um, and I know just broadly speaking, like who wouldn't prefer something that's gonna be more easy on the eyes, more engaging?
00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:27.360
I mean, uh, let's face it, like I'm looking, if I look at a PDF, I mean, just the idea of opening a PDF is kind of can kind of lull you to sleep a little bit.
00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:34.160
So spicing it up with the the animations and the digital aspect, um, I think is uh is very valuable there.
00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:35.120
Yeah, right.
00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:42.639
And also when I'm thinking about PDFs, there are also other practical elements of why sometimes PDFs are not ideal.
00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:49.279
Like, for example, when you send out a PDF to someone, then you need to update it.
00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:54.319
There's no really easy way to recall a PDF that's been shared to, let's say, 100 people, right?
00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:59.600
But instead, if you're using a flipbook, you can have a link that's always updated, always live.
00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:06.639
You can replace that PDF if you want to, you can make edits to it, and the link is gonna stay always, always updated.
00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:08.560
So that's definitely something that's great.
00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:16.000
Also, sometimes with PDFs, they can, I don't know, if you're sending it to someone, it can fail as an email attachment.
00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:21.120
So they're all different aspects that may not be ideal with traditional PDFs.
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:25.120
Yeah, so I mean, I imagine that's gonna probably be the answer to the next question.
00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:30.079
But what what kind of, I mean, practically speaking, sales teams have a whole pile of content, right?
00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:34.319
Uh that they have to uh work with decks, one pagers, various proposals.
00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:41.680
Um, but yeah, what kind of uh sales assets do you do you see teams like turning into flipbooks uh the most?
00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:45.120
Definitely a lot of B2B sales catalogs.
00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:50.079
That's something that we see a lot, but also a lot of sales proposals, sales presentations.
00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:56.720
And I was thinking I can also tell you a little bit about how our own team is using FlipSnack, our own sales team.
00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:07.519
We have on FlipSnack a dedicated sales workspace where uh the team can find a lot of the sales collateral organized into folders.
00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:14.240
So they have a lot of like ebooks that they can use in their calls, uh, different presentations for different use cases.
00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:18.079
So all of the assets that they need are nicely organized in that workspace.
00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:27.439
And also a very exciting use case, I would say for them is how easy it is and how quick it is for them to create and to share sales proposal.
00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:32.559
I bet you've you've inspired a lot of use cases for some of the clients that you've you work with.
00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:36.320
I mean, with all the internal uses and being able to, I mean, you know your product best, right?
00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:46.000
So you create a lot of the really attractive, like useful, sort of trackable brochures and and different types of content and sharing that out with clients and working with them directly.
00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:49.919
I bet they get inspired to try and create their own once they sign up with FlipSnack.
00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:50.879
Yeah, definitely.
00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:54.799
And I think that's one of the more powerful ways.
00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:04.080
Like when I sometimes when I look at our our salespeople doing the demo for another salesperson, I think they make it very real.
00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:05.279
They're sharing their own.
00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:07.279
Look, this is how I'm using FlipSnack.
00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:08.240
This is what I'm doing.
00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:13.200
This is how easy it is for me to create a sales proposal for a client.
00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:27.360
So, for example, our sales enablement team has created in their sales proposal like a master template, which has a lot of slides, like a lot of content on the different things that FlipSnack has to offer.
00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:42.240
So now when one of our sales people want to create a proposal for a customer, it's super easy for them to just uh select the template and then they can just select those pages that are relevant for that specific customer or for that specific um prospect.
00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:49.200
And in two minutes, they're gonna have the full proposal that's gonna be uh on-brand.
00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:54.879
They can just replace the generic logo with the customer, the customer's logo.
00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:58.480
Um, and change if they want to change one or two things in there, they can do that.
00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:02.240
But other than that, the proposal is gonna be done in like a minute or two.
00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:03.200
Very cool.
00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:13.519
Yeah, the the it's interesting because the the sales proposal, um, that's that's one of those like highest, one of the highest stakes documents in the whole, in a whole deal, you know, um, in the business world.
00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:17.519
And normally you have sort of zero visibility once you, once you hit send.
00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:23.200
Um, so being able to track that and then also um have kind of the branding assets there too.
00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:33.200
Um uh I know that's that's you know, obviously a big deal for you guys, especially at the enterprise level and um a big deal with for the clients you you work with and who are using the platform.
00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:38.799
But maybe you could tell us why why is branding so important when companies publish sales materials online?
00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:49.679
Yeah, I think branding is generally super important in pretty much everything that a company does and everything the company publishes, because it's tied to recognition, to trust, to familiarity.
00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:59.120
So I think generally people are going to buy sometimes because of the brand, because they trust that brand, because they recognize the brand.
00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:04.720
And because the branding influences so many things, and also it's super important in the sales process as well.
00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:16.000
A lot of the companies are super interested in making sure that everything that the company publishes through sales or marketing as well, everything is gonna be very like on brand.
00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:20.240
So brand consistency is important for big companies that we're working with.
00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:26.000
Uh and on FlipSnack, they can have full control over branding.
00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:32.720
Uh, they can use their own brand colors, they can add their logo, they can even brand the URL.
00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:37.600
So instead of sending out a FlipSnack link, they can have their company URL in there.
00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:40.080
So they can set up like a subdomain on their website.
00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:45.440
So everything that they would publish through FlipSnack would look like it, like it's been made by them.
00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:52.320
So basically FlipSnack, all of the collateral published through Flipsnack can become like a like an extension of their brand.
00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:53.200
That makes sense.
00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:57.039
Okay, so there's a lot of uh there's a lot of reasons why it's branding is important, of course.
00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:04.000
Um, I mean there's some obvious use cases, but yeah, the trust and recognition and then the consistency portion of it um at scale, especially.
00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:17.919
You know, when when dozens of reps are sharing content um and and permissions and and various templates and whatnot, like keeping everyone on brand without um uh a designer sort of bottleneck is is uh is a huge component, I would say.
00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:27.600
Um okay, I want to hear about some of the maybe common mistakes you you come across and you hear from from clients uh and customers.
00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:34.799
What are the some of the most common mistakes teams make when they first try to make a sales deck uh quote unquote interactive?
00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:36.960
What are some of the horror stories?
00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:44.159
Well, I think sometimes trying to do too much right from the start before you're more familiar with what you're working with.
00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:49.600
I think I'm also gonna I think this is also gonna a little bit tie in uh to the previous question.
00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:59.120
Sometimes the salespeople that are using FlipSnack are not, they like they don't have the design skills that a market like that a designer has.
00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:06.159
So sometimes even with our own salespeople, Whipskin Dum scratch logos or stretch a video, stuff like that.
00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:09.600
And I think that's something that we're seeing we're seeing sometimes.
00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:20.080
Luckily, with FlipSnack, you can have a way in which non-designers, people who don't have the skills or they just don't see that it's wrong, you know.
00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:25.519
Uh, they can still work with FlipSnack and create something that would be on-brand and beautiful.
00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:35.600
Uh, because if you have like a lock template and they cannot change the font, they cannot change the color or the location of the text or the location of the logo, they cannot stretch it out, you know.
00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:49.200
Having all of these things locked in place can give them, even non-designers, even salespeople with maybe zero design skills, can still give them a powerful way to create something that looks really beautiful, uh really fast, and stays on brand.
00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:58.960
So, yeah, you you you create the the the design element and then the like the other portion of what do we actually want to do part of it that's kind of bolted on as well.
00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:06.559
Um so I want to uh kind of get into some more of the marketing and sales collaboration side of things.
00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:14.720
Um, how how would you say those those two sides of a business come together on this kind of flip snack, you know, deliverable?
00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:18.559
Um, how do the two teams kind of merge together to work on the platform?
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:28.559
Yeah, so usually we see a lot of marketers who are actually on the platform and they are producing the content that sales uses afterwards.
00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:32.399
So they're let's say two types of scenarios usually.
00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:44.720
Sometimes we see the marketing, uh maybe marketer and designer producing the material, and then they create the link, and then the sales would just use that link for sharing and using it afterwards.
00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:47.519
They not they don't necessarily always log into flip snack.
00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:54.000
Uh, the other use case that we're seeing is when both marketing and sales are in the platform.
00:14:54.159 --> 00:15:15.600
So marketing would create the materials, but also sales have access to create their own version of that original material, similar to the use case that I was telling you earlier about when we have uh, let's say a master template, and from there it's very easy for a salesperson to generate their own presentation, like a small mini version of the large of the large one.
00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:27.279
Um also, especially for B2B catalogs, for that specific use case, we generally tend to see a lot of salespeople in there because it becomes the tool that they are using uh for sales.
00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:34.000
They can they can set out a B2B catalog to their customer uh and receive orders directly through that catalog.
00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:39.679
So in that case, for B2B catalogs, usually sales is definitely part of the process.
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:49.600
Yeah, the the feedback loop is interesting there because it's like this the sales sales will see the content um actually resonate with prospects um through things like you know analytics.
00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:55.679
Um and then uh at the same time, that intel that they gather will flow back to marketing to make the content better.
00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:57.440
So it kind of creates this full circle.
00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.519
And yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting because I I want to dig into that some more.
00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:11.759
And I also want to get into the analytics side um because I think that that that's a really killer feature, being able to track um everything that is viewed, something you absolutely can't do with a PDF that's that's being sent out.
00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:18.000
Um, what can a sales team actually see through a prospect from the analytics side of things?
00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:24.080
And and how does that sort of translate into something to act on and something like some kind of lead and insight?
00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:38.159
Yeah, so from our inbuilt uh analytics, and if they're using the unique tracking URLs, they will get the most advanced picture of what people are doing and how they're interacting with the content.
00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:46.399
So they would see from when the brochure was open, they would know how far the reader has progressed into reading the material they sent out.
00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:49.519
They would know the location, the device used by that person.
00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:55.600
They can also see how much time was spent on each page of the proposal or whatever was sent.
00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:57.360
Uh, they can also see clicks.
00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:02.879
We have a heat map as well, so you they can see exactly on the page where where the click was on what button.
00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:06.960
So definitely a lot of information they they can use.
00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:12.559
And it's also something that they can use, like you mentioned, to make the next versions even better.
00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:17.440
And especially for sales, I was thinking it's also something that they can use in the sales process as well.
00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:31.680
So if I'm sending a material to uh Prospect, I would see right away when they open the publication, and I would even be able to see maybe what parts of that proposal they were the most interested in.
00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:46.160
Like, for example, if I'm sending a proposal to someone and I see that they spend a lot of time on the security aspect on the security page, let's say, and maybe they even click on the security certification, I will know for sure that that's something that's really important for the customer.
00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:54.160
So I would make sure when I follow up with them, when I have a conversation with them next, that I will make sure that's part of the conversation that we're having.
00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:55.119
Yeah, absolutely.
00:17:55.200 --> 00:18:05.039
I mean, yeah, instead of just like the the sort of check-in in email, uh, you're actually following up uh because they they read the pricing page three times, let's say, you know?
00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:06.960
Um, and that leads to a totally different conversation.
00:18:07.039 --> 00:18:09.759
It's more focused and um more relatable.
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.759
And you're gonna get a better sort of conversation, more responses and whatnot.
00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:14.559
Exactly.
00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:19.839
And also the timing, I think is super important in this context because you would know when they open the proposal.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.480
So you would know if you're following up before that moment, you would know they have not read what you've sent them.
00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:33.200
Or if you or if they have access that, you would know maybe now is the right time because they've just read it, they're gonna know what's in there, and I know they're interested in this.
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:34.240
True, true.
00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:36.799
Yeah, timing is is everything, as they say.
00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:47.119
Um, I want to briefly mention integrations, um, or you know, talk about that because integrations are very, very powerful, uh, very important for uh an all-in-one platform.
00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:52.079
Um, how did the analytics flow into uh some of the like CRMs out there?
00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:54.799
Um what kind of integrations do you guys offer?
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:59.119
Uh we have an integration with HubSpot and an integration with Salesforce.
00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.440
So the two most popular CRMs.
00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:04.720
Uh we also have an integration with Zapier.
00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:15.039
So with someone working with something else, like another tool, uh, Zapier can also facilitate some of the analytics from Flips to be transferred to another third-party tool.
00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:15.839
Gotcha.
00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:16.240
Okay.
00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:28.559
And then you uh I imagine you probably leverage some of the newer uh like AI tools to help like summarize uh some of the findings and and some of the patterns automatically so you don't have to necessarily hunt for for them as well, right?
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:30.480
Exactly, exactly.
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:38.720
Um, so we we've noticed that especially salespeople, they don't like to look a lot at analytics as opposed to marketers.
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:43.759
Marketers generally like they're very comfortable with reports and they spend a lot of time with that.
00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:47.119
Sales are more focused on doing sales, doing it fast.
00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:51.839
You know, they don't really have time to spend a lot of time analyzing all of the data.
00:19:52.000 --> 00:20:02.000
So with Flip Snack, they can get an AI summary, which will basically give them a summary of the entire thing and also some suggestions on how that content could be improved.
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:09.599
It let if let's say the engagement is not ideal with that, it can also have have it also has some suggestions in how on how to improve it.
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:13.039
Um okay, very powerful, uh, very powerful capabilities there.
00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:22.480
And I I'm sure the some of the AI insights and maybe agentic capabilities are are one of those things that you're you're constantly kind of like playing around with and figuring out what to incorporate into the platform.
00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:31.039
I mean, this is such a developing time, such a fluid, interesting time to be uh uh in the SaaS space with a lot of these AI automations.
00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:42.880
So um, no, you obviously got to kind of roll rolls roll out some AI features, but also kind of be careful not to, I don't know, get it wrong, I guess, and make sure you roll out the ones that that are actually gonna be helpful.
00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:44.240
Yeah, definitely.
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:53.680
We're we're working on a lot of AI features, but what we've talked about internally is that we don't we don't just want to have AI for the sake of having AI within the platform.
00:20:53.920 --> 00:21:00.880
We want to make sure we're choosing to integrate those things that are going to give our customers the most value.
00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:05.039
So we've integrated some AI functionalities that our customers love.
00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:12.720
We're also going to do that more, but also the focus is going to be on delivering value and not just adding AI for the sake of adding AI.
00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:13.920
That makes sense.
00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:15.440
I think that's a good strategy.
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:26.240
Um, but speaking of of customers and and value, can you share an example of a customer who maybe has used FlipSnack for something like specifically for sales enablement?
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:31.759
Um I'm curious if anything, you know, if there's a story that comes to mind and maybe you can share some of the results they saw.
00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:32.960
Yeah, of course.
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.640
Uh we actually have a customer story about this on our website.
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:47.759
So if someone will want to read more about it, uh we have a customer story about how uh Pandora France is using FlipSnack and how they used it for their uh catalogs in stores.
00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:55.519
They came in wanting searchable product catalogs that their salespeople can use in stores.
00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:59.680
This was meant to replace to replace printed catalogs, they had printed catalogs.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:51.839
their stores and the problem they had with those is first of all they were printed so it's very costly to update them because you're not re updating you're just replacing them basically with new versions and also also for them it was hard to search through over a thousand variations of different engraving options on their on their catalogs so it was like a really massive catalog and it wasn't ideal to do that it was very time consuming for their people who were you know doing sales in store so they didn't really have a lot of time doing that and with FlipSnack um they had something that was super easy to create also super searchable and it was really really easy for them to replace something that was static and not really working from an uh operational standpoint.
00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:59.519
And with FlipSnack uh they have achieved uh over 300% operational efficiency.
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:12.559
Wow okay yeah I mean and then just you think about again some of the things we talked about of of being able to uh yeah just track track what's working what's not I mean you're obviously not able to do that with a physical catalog.
00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:16.400
I mean the physical catalogs printed catalogs has their the their pros and cons.
00:23:16.480 --> 00:24:01.279
I think we're kind of uh there's like that uh nostalgic kind of um kind of that tangible feel I guess is something but also it's just way more practical to have a digital interactive catalog that you can flip through you're able to send it out uh more readily and uh being able to also like have an interactive flipbook with with things like product tags and and maybe videos and and tutorials I mean a lot of helpful assets there to to help um with various partners so that's that's neat to hear I'm sure you have like a like you said you have a w a a page on your website with kind of customer success stories um that listeners can go to to learn more because I'm sure you have a whole list of examples and uh clients you could you could share stories about.
00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:09.759
Okay, so you've been you've been at Flipstack uh for over a decade now I mean more like what 15 years or so.
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:19.920
Maybe you could tell us what is a surprising lesson you've learned about your market or your customers that sort of changed your approach with how you've worked with them.
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:23.599
Customers are a lot more creative than we are.
00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:35.440
And I think even after all of these years, I feel like I'm constantly learning from our customers the different ways in which they're using FlipSnack for all the various use cases.
00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:43.200
Even the use case that we are talking about today using FlipSnack for sales enablement it's something that we didn't start with.
00:24:43.359 --> 00:25:01.599
It's something that we've realized a few years ago oh look people are actually using this for sales materials how can we make their lives easier how can we add more value for them by bringing more functionality that will help them sell more or sell or sell faster or track these sales better.
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:36.000
So definitely constantly learning from how people are using FlipSnack um there are also some things that we knew about FlipSnack but we didn't really realize how powerful they were like for example something that we thought was super basic and why would we even mention this to anyone the thing that I mentioned earlier having a link and being able to update the content and without resending the link that's something that a few years ago I thought it you know too basic to even market to customers.
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:45.839
But it's something that we've we've seen it drives real value for some of the people and even though it's something that we consider we consider basic it's something actually extremely valuable.
00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:52.480
So definitely I'm still learning a lot of things about FlipSmack and sometimes I'm even impressed with what they are creating.
00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:54.319
Like people are super creative.
00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:50.079
Yeah I bet that's probably the most um just fun and exciting part of the job is just seeing all the different um kind of design elements and uh creative use cases that clients have have developed um that'd be fun I I gotta I gotta personally flip through a bunch of uh of your uh flip stacks uh to see them firsthand because I'm I'd be curious to kind of see uh some of the design elements but um okay I want to continue to focus the last you know question or two back on on yourself um again talk about your um your sort of tenure at the at the company of course you've you've seen a lot of um really positive stories and data but surely that means you've obviously been through some some rough periods too I mean the past 10 years that also includes the COVID era and we all know how that unfolded um but I'm curious like how do you just handle setbacks and failures and and what advice might you give to others facing challenges in in their professional life?
00:26:50.400 --> 00:27:07.920
Yeah definitely I've been with the company for a long time so I've been through the highest highs and uh definitely experiencing setbacks sometimes um and challenges those are gonna happen right it's not like you can you can avoid them if you're gonna stay with the company long enough you're going to experience some of those.
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:12.720
So I think when that happens it's really important to you know not panic.
00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:21.599
Just analyze what's actually happening maybe break it down into smaller problems that you can tackle and formulate a plan.
00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:37.839
For example a challenge that we are experiencing and a lot of the companies in our in our industry that are experiencing as well is historically we've we used to have to get a lot of traffic organically from Google.
00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:47.359
So that was the majority of where we got our signups and and our customers as well and the way people are searching nowadays is changing.
00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:51.680
People are using AI way more and search is slowly decreasing.
00:27:51.920 --> 00:28:02.079
We sort of know and we predict that this is definitely going to be of a much lesser importance for us than it was in the past.
00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:07.680
And we've seen the signups from Google decreasing over the years.
00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:20.640
So what we're doing in this context we realize look it's not like we can change we can change this it's what the market is and it's what the world how the world is is changing, you know so we just need to adapt.
00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:29.440
So instead of now focusing much on um optimizations for search changes we're still doing that but it's not that like the major focus for us right now.
00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:34.400
Now we're just trying to figure out more ways on how we can appear more in AI overview.
00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:41.839
So instead of uh focusing on the general traditional search we just have to get in line with how people are searching nowadays.
00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:50.640
So yeah this is just an example of uh of a that's a current challenge that we're facing and I think a lot of businesses are facing this one as well.
00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:58.640
Yeah absolutely I know I'm glad you I'm really glad you mentioned that because that is such a kind of existential threat for a lot of um publishers out there, right?
00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:07.359
Where um we we're all using whether we want to admit it or not, we're using AI it's being incorporated into a lot of the features we've used before AI was a thing.
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:08.960
So you kind of are forced to use it.
00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:33.920
But as a result, especially especially with the Google um and and web search um uh domain there it's like you don't end up going to visit actual websites much anymore and so you're not generating that um revenue for them and then it creates it kind of upends this whole framework of um the web and how it's it's been operating the last decade or two uh with with monetization and the ripple effects there are um yet to be seen.
00:29:34.000 --> 00:30:00.880
I mean we're already starting to see it but you have to really adapt and find ways to be featured in the AI overviews and then also just kind of pressure the the powers that be um you know ChatGPT, Anthropic, uh Google to include the sources that make sure people you know at least have the source so they can go and not only fact check, but also go and support the publishers.
00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:07.119
And I think there's going to be a move to you know kind of a Patreon sort of subscription based model.
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:10.640
We're already starting to see more paywalls with a lot of the news organizations.
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:16.480
I mean there's a lot of things that are are changing pretty quickly but let's look at that let's continue with that forward looking vision.
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:21.359
Looking ahead how do you see uh like sales enablement content evolving?
00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:28.160
Where do you see the industry going in the next, I don't know, six months to six years from now if we can even plan that far in advance.
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:38.319
Yeah um of course I'm gonna talk about AI automations and integrations I think using all of that I I feel like that's that's the future.
00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:49.279
As I mentioned earlier salespeople I I think that they are you know busy they don't have a lot of time for creating assets probably they don't even like to create assets.
00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:57.359
So I think for them everything has to be done super quickly automated would be ideal definitely and having everything integrated would be best.
00:30:57.920 --> 00:31:05.839
So I think what we are going to see pretty soon will be to have integrated solutions for content creations.
00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:13.359
Like for example being able to create a sales proposal directly from the CRM like on the contact page of the of the prospect.
00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:24.160
So I would have there all of the all of the data points that should be in the proposal I would I would know what the prospect is interested in, what they're looking for, what their pain points are.
00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:51.200
So being able from there to generate an on-brand proposal on a solution like Flip snack very quickly with AI within I don't know just like a button of a a click of a button and then also having the stats of what happens after I send that proposal having everything also flown flowing back into the CRM I think that's the future for for sales enablement and for solutions like this.
00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:53.519
Yeah that's that's a that's a great answer.
00:31:53.599 --> 00:32:02.319
I think that is um that is something that I could absolutely see happening and and being able to continue to find kind of extrapolate the data and and and act upon it.
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:29.039
I I would love to yeah I would love to um hopefully we can have you back in the in the future to talk updates and maybe even lead a product demo to kind of get a visual hands on because this has been a really uh interesting conversation um and as a visual learner like myself um you know there's nothing quite like getting a hands-on uh view of the platform but until then I'm curious like where where should people go to learn more about FlipSnack um or get in contact with you and your team?
00:32:29.359 --> 00:32:55.200
Yeah so we have the website flipsnack.com there you can also see examples if you want to see sort of what customers are publishing through FlipSnack and examples of some of the things that we've talked about like interactivity it's also a tool that if anyone wants to try it they can they can sign up right away and give it out a try without even having to uh add their card the details and if anyone wants to talk to me they can also write to me on LinkedIn.
00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:24.799
Perfect okay so flip snack.com uh give uh give it a try you get a free trial and then go connect with Janina over on LinkedIn uh perfect we'll have all the links down below in the the show notes um but Janina thank you so much for everything you share with us this has been uh this has been really great yeah of course thank you thank you all for listening to the Sourceforge podcast I'm your host Bo Hamilton make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all of our upcoming B2B software related podcasts I will see you in the next one
