Making an effective sales pitch at an event or in-person visit is crucial for marketers, and now one Seattle startup is using technology to help make that process a little easier.
Seattle-based startup TouchBase is a new company that builds custom, branded apps for salespeople. Touchbase’s software allows marketers to upload their own photos, videos, and PDFs through a back-end content management system so that they can be viewed on the apps without Internet or data connection, while also providing customer engagement analytics. In addition, Touchbase allows its clients to integrate their apps with services like Salesforce and Docusign.
“TouchBase is all about making it easy for marketing and sales,” Touchbase CEO Santosh Khare said.
In August, TouchBase was accepted into the TechStars Seattle startup accelerator and will pitch to a group of investors next month. We caught up with Khare for this installment of Startup Spotlight, a regular GeekWire feature.
Inspiration hit us when: “As mobile app developers we did quite a few custom projects that were granted to us to solve this very problem space.”
VC, Angel or Bootstrap: “Techstars Seattle 2014”
Our ‘secret sauce’ is: “The secret sauce is basically a combination of three key things. First, TouchBase makes it possible that marketing organizations of larger enterprises can actually work in tandem with an equally-large sales organization. It does that by making the information flow between marketing and sales seamless. Second, it makes it every sales representative who is on the road super efficient and responsive. And third, the most important component is the feedback loop that comes back to marketing on a real-time basis. We do that by using our smart touch-enabled analytics engine that produces useful content engagement data back to the marketing team so that they can make informed decisions.”
The smartest move we’ve made so far: “TouchBase is all about making it easy for marketing and sales. In this context we are in constant touch with complementary service providers and making them part of the TouchBase platform. For example, one of the most successful integrations we did is with DocuSign. With this integration, busy salespeople can still initiate signature-based paperwork right from the TouchBase app using DocuSign electronic signature services.”
The biggest mistake we’ve made so far: “TouchBase is valuable to almost all sized companies, but it is especially beneficial to larger-sized enterprises. We were slow at reaching out to larger-sized enterprise customers. They tend to have a longer sales cycle and we believe we should have started our engagement with them a little earlier.”
Would you rather have Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg or Bezos in your corner: “I would have Bill Gates in my corner because I respect and trust his thought leadership in the technology space.”
Our world domination strategy starts when: “Software starts doing many things that hardware used to do before — for example, cell phone keypads. Similarly, TouchBase is replacing printed material with state-of-the-art mobile platform-driven content consumption.”
Rivals should fear us because: “We are financially efficient, technically advanced, and committed to our customers success.”
We are truly unique because: “We are unique because of the way we satisfy our customers’ needs. Field sales reps love our user interface. Marketers love the insight they get from field sales in real time, and content developers love us because we on-board them to our system with no hassle whatsoever.”
The biggest hurdle we’ve overcome is: “Uncover the true pain of our customers and identify specific solutions that are subtle in nature but mean a lot to our end users.”
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other entrepreneurs just starting out: “Keep a good eye on your long-term vision but be very focused on your daily and weekly goals. One step at a time and you will get what you envision.”
Editor’s note: GeekWire is featuring each of the 10 startup companies participating in the TechStars Seattle incubator in the lead up to the Demo Day pitch event and launch party on Nov. 6.
