<h2>Announcing Cuda</h2>
<p>Hey everyone</p>
<p>Salespeople worry that AI will take their job, but they shouldn’t.</p>
<p>People like to buy from people. That’s why personal letters like this one work.</p>
<p>It feels great to get on a call with someone who understands you. Someone that can help you identify the right software for your needs - but also talk about how Lebron James really is the goat.</p>
<p>But people say the times are a-changin.</p>
<p>They want you to talk to automated chat bots. To fill out endless forms. To schedule 30 minute windows 8 days in the future.</p>
<p><strong>Fuck.</strong></p>
<p><strong>That.</strong></p>
<p>There will always be a place for a human in the sales process. And you can get an edge now, more than ever, since your competitors are so afraid to hop on a call.</p>
<p>With Cuda, we’re helping companies discover that edge. It’s a redo, a rethink, a simplified,
potent reintroduction of the scheduling process that makes sales people available in one click.</p>
<p>It’s simple. No bullshit to get in the way.</p>
<p>If you’re a high-performance team looking to level up your sales software, <a href="https://cuda.io">sign up here</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/CudaSalesCo">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p>
<p>~ Barracuda Founders: <a href="https://twitter.com/aleckhoury">Alec</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/itstheonlychris">Chris</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/_samsklar">Sam</a>.</p>


Converting leads from interested to on video in 30 seconds.

Announcing Cuda

<h1>Cuda for Marketing: The Ultimate Lead Conversion Solution</h1>
<p>Keeping your sales team fed with high intent leads is hard. You're competing with hundreds of other companies to piece together the perfect combination of SEO, paid ads, and brand stunts to drive traffic.
And even once you have someone interested, there's no guarantee they fill out the form, book a demo and actually show up for the meeting.
That's where Cuda comes in. It's a stupid simple yet incredibly powerful tool that drives high intent leads into video calls with your sales team in one click.</p>
<h2>Embed into Your Website and Prompt Immediate Action</h2>
<p>Cuda seamlessly integrates into your website, allowing you to capture leads effortlessly. By using simple and compelling CTAs, your website visitors can start a call with your team instantly. No more waiting for prospects to book a demo or schedule an appointment. Take advantage of their peak interest and engage with them right away.</p>
<h2>Maximize Outbound Campaigns with Call Responses</h2>
<p>Tired of sending countless emails or direct messages without getting a response? Cuda has the solution. By incorporating Cuda into your outbound campaigns, prospects can easily respond to your communication with a call, rather than a calendar invite. This streamlined approach increases the chances of converting leads into valuable customers.</p>
<h2>Enhance Paid Ads Performance</h2>
<p>Paid ads are a valuable tool for generating leads, but they often fall short in prompt customer engagement. Cuda solves this problem by enabling the first available team member to respond and initiate the sales process immediately. By capturing leads' attention and acting swiftly, you can stay ahead of your competitors and increase your chances of closing deals.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Did you know? According to research, contacting prospects within the first minute of showing interest can lead to a staggering 391% increase in deal closures.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>How Can Cuda Benefit Your Marketing Team?</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Optimize Landing Page Conversion
Traditional "booking a demo" processes can be cumbersome and deter potential customers. With Cuda, your prospects only need to make one click to connect with your team on a call. By reducing friction and simplifying the process, Cuda significantly improves call conversion rates, resulting in higher customer interest.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Create More Pipeline Opportunities
Cuda ensures that your sales team is never idle. Every minute spent at their desks becomes an opportunity to engage with leads in real-time. By leveraging Cuda's instant call functionality, your team can proactively reach out to potential customers, increasing your chances of conversions and revenue growth.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Control the Narrative and Improve Close Rates
Timing is crucial in sales. With Cuda, you can talk to your prospects at the exact moment they express the highest intent, before your competitors have a chance to intervene. By establishing a connection when prospects are most receptive, you can shape the narrative in your favor, leading to higher close rates and a competitive edge.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Seamlessly Sync Leads with Your CRM
Cuda integrates seamlessly with popular Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce. By syncing leads directly into your CRM, you can ensure that your marketing stack remains connected and your valuable data stays in sync. Simplify lead management and enhance collaboration</p>
</li>
</ol>


How marketing teams use Cuda to create more pipeline.

Cuda for Marketing: The Ultimate Lead Conversion Solution

<h1>CudaClose for Sales Teams</h1>
<h2>Boost Sales and Accelerate Your Sales Cycle with Instant Video Calls</h2>
<p>In today's market, it's crucial to stay ahead of your competitors and engage with prospects at the right moment. CudaClose is the ultimate solution that empowers your sales team to engage leads at their moment of highest intent. With instant video calls and a range of powerful features, CudaClose ensures that you're always in the driver's seat.</p>
<h2>How Can CudaClose Benefit Your Sales Team?</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Improve Call Conversion Rates
Converting live demos into sales can be challenging. However, with CudaClose, prospects only need to make one click to connect with your team through a video call. By reducing friction and streamlining the process, CudaClose increases the number of calls, leading to higher conversion rates and more successful demos.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Increase Win Rates by Engaging at Peak Interest
Timing is everything in sales. CudaClose allows you to engage with prospects at their moment of highest intent, giving you an advantage over your competitors. By establishing a connection when prospects are most receptive, you can improve your win rates and secure more deals.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Shorten Sales Cycles and Reduce Deal Losses
Long sales cycles can often result in missed opportunities and lost deals. On average, demos are booked eight days in advance, and that's before considering rescheduling. By initiating the first call as soon as possible, CudaClose enables you to close deals eight days faster, minimizing the chances of losing prospects to a slow sales cycle.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Drive Expansion Revenue and Increase ACV
For Product-Led Growth (PLG) teams, CudaClose offers a valuable opportunity to increase Average Contract Value (ACV). By making sales representatives available for chat to discuss use cases, you can encourage prospects to upgrade to the next tier and maximize revenue potential.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h2>How Does CudaClose Work?</h2>
<p>Share your link or embed it on your website: Whether through the CudaClose widget, a popup, or a custom booking page, you can easily share your CudaClose link and make it accessible to prospects.</p>
<p>If you're online, prospects can initiate a call immediately. In cases where you're not available, visitors have the option to schedule a call for later, ensuring a seamless experience.</p>
<p>CudaClose sends notifications through Slack and routes calls to the next available team member, ensuring a smooth transition from lead to sales conversation.</p>


Boost sales and accelerate your sales cycle with instant vidoe calls.

How sales teams leverage instant calls to convert more leads.

<h1>Boost Sales Efficiency with CudaClose + Calendly Integration</h1>
<p>Are you looking for a seamless solution that combines the power of instant sales calls with the convenience of scheduling future meetings? Look no further! The CudaClose + Calendly integration allows you to leverage your existing Calendly link as a fallback option when your team is unavailable to meet prospects immediately.</p>
<h2>Simplify Sales Engagement with CudaClose + Calendly</h2>
<p>With CudaClose and Calendly working together, you can enhance your sales process and ensure that you never miss an opportunity. The integration requires no coding or complex setup. Simply copy and paste your Calendly link into the CudaClose dashboard, and you're ready to go!</p>
<h2>Benefits of CudaClose + Calendly Integration</h2>
<p>Be the First to Engage and Win Deals. Statistics show that 50% of sales go to the company that contacts the prospect first. Timing is crucial in sales, and being the first to connect with potential customers can give you a significant advantage. However, traditional scheduling methods often require leads to book meetings days or weeks in advance, allowing competitors to step in or prospects to lose interest. By utilizing CudaClose + Calendly, you can meet with prospects immediately, capitalizing on their highest level of interest. This approach shortens sales cycles and increases your chances of closing deals successfully.</p>
<h2>Seamless Scheduling for Optimal Convenience</h2>
<p>The CudaClose + Calendly integration provides a simple and effective way to manage your scheduling process. When you combine Calendly with CudaClose, you gain access to an availability link or widget that can be used across various platforms, including landing pages, outbound emails, and paid ads. When a prospect expresses interest in connecting with your team, they are prompted to provide their details, such as name and email. If they are ready for an immediate conversation and one of your team members is online, they can launch an instant video chat. However, if they are not available or your team is offline, they can easily schedule a meeting using the familiar Calendly interface. It's a seamless and efficient process for both you and your prospects.</p>
<h2>Unlock the Full Potential of Your Sales Process</h2>
<p>By integrating CudaClose with Calendly, you can streamline your sales engagement and maximize your productivity. Say goodbye to missed opportunities and hello to efficient scheduling that caters to your prospects' needs. Don't let valuable leads slip away due to unnecessary waiting periods. Take advantage of CudaClose + Calendly and connect with prospects when their interest is at its peak.</p>


How teams supercharge Calendly with CudaClose instant video calls.

Boost Sales Efficiency with CudaClose + Calendly Integration

<h2>The Ultimate Guide to High Ticket Closing: How to Succeed in Remote Sales</h2>
<p>If you’re joining the world of high ticket sales, you’re in luck. Selling a high ticket item is a great privilege, because with a high price point you and your team can afford to offer an incredible product or service.</p>
<p>I think most salespeople would agree that they feel the most fulfilled when they are driving great outcomes for their customers. And that’s what you get with high ticket sales. (If you’re trying to charge a high price point without a product or service that’s incredibly valuable, you may need to reconsider your price point.)</p>
<p>In this article, we’ll look at<br>
(1) What are high ticket sales and how that definition can mean different things to different companies based on the context<br>
(2) The Skills You Need to Succeed in High Ticket Closing<br>
(3) Tips, Tools and Resources for Remote High Ticket Sellers</p>
<h3>Section 1: What are High Ticket Sales?</h3>
<p>The first time I saw an enterprise contract - I was in shock. My company had just received renewal terms from our primary data provider. They were seeking $80k for the next year’s service.</p>
<p>I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had never spent $80k on software in my life. In fact, I’m hesitant to this day to pay 99 cents for an iPhone app.</p>
<p>During the conversation with our vendor, I shared my trepidation. He guided me, through a thoughtful set of questions, how much we had saved in the past year using their software. Their data solution was instrumental to our business. And to build it in house, we’d need 3 full time engineers which would run us a minimum of $600k (not to mention the overhead of hiring and training new employees).</p>
<p>Next, he walked me through the time and resources his company had spent developing their product and the ongoing support staff they employ to provide us with near instant SLAs.</p>
<p>And finally, he lopped on a nice discount. Over the course of 30 minutes, I went from appalled by the asking price to feeling we were getting away with highway robbery on our deal.
Is $80k the threshold for a high ticket sale? In the moment, it certainly felt like it met the criteria.</p>
<p>As a result of the recent Elon Musk led Twitter layoffs, they announced they were able to <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/twitter-cuts-salesforce-bill-75-as-more-buyers-scrutinize-software-spending">reduce their Salesforce contract from $20 million to $5 million</a>.</p>
<p>In context, Twitter may look at our $80k contract as pocket change.</p>
<p>The point of my story is not to set a numerical benchmark for high ticket sales - it’s to show that the contract value is not the only indicator as it’s highly context dependent.</p>
<p>Another benchmark for high ticket sales may be that the sales process is human driven. High ticket sales, as opposed to low ticket sales, can include a human in the process because the revenue from a deal is high enough to cover a salesperson’s salary. Moreover, high ticket products tend to be more bespoke, rather than out of the box, and benefit from human led consultation.</p>
<p>Human driven sales is not a perfect proxy either however. Many luxury goods, like Louis Vuitton luggage, can sell for tens of thousands of dollars to buyers who purchase online without ever speaking to a representative. And while these goods are handmade and have great craftsmanship, they are not bespoke and do not require consultation.</p>
<p>In general, high ticket sales meet the following criteria:</p>
<ul>
<li>Are >$1k in cost</li>
<li>Have a human in the loop for both parties</li>
<li>Have negotiable / bespoke pricing</li>
<li>Involve an ongoing relationship between the company and the customer</li>
</ul>
<p>For the rest of this article, we’ll limit our focus to sales driven go-to-market functions for high ticket B2B products. If you instead want to learn how to sell high ticket luxury consumer goods, you should <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Luxury-Strategy-Break-Marketing-Brands/dp/0749464917/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=ed09c2c0-2c64-44da-ae1a-038b35c0443b">check out this book</a>.</p>
<h3>Section 2: The Skills You Need to Succeed in High Ticket Closing</h3>
<p>When most people think of sales, they picture a charismatic closer who creates urgency and overcomes every objection that hurdles their way. This caricature of a salesman is great at selling knives door to door. But he can’t sell an enterprise contract to save his life.</p>
<p>Why is high ticket closing different from low ticket sales?</p>
<p>Low ticket products are a one size fits all solution. You don’t often need to know your client well to make the sale. Everyone needs steak knives. If you focus your pitch on why your steak knives are best, and create social pressure to buy, you can get your sale and be on your way.</p>
<p>While everyone needs steak knives, not everyone needs an $80k fintech data provider. And even if you do, it may not be immediately apparent why it’s worth $80k.</p>
<p>The sales rep who sold me was great at asking questions, not pitching. Through his questions, he came to understand me, my company and our goals. He got me to talk about how his product would help us achieve those goals. By the end of his questioning, he didn’t even have to pitch.
His second most valuable skill was responsiveness. He answered my emails promptly. He returned my phone calls. And he left me with the impression that he was the type of person I like working with. I don’t care if I enjoy working with my steak knives salesmen because I’ll never see him again after the sale! My software sales rep, on the other hand, was my main point of content for another full year of service.</p>
<p>In summary, asking great questions and responsiveness will get you far. If you want to dive deeper on how to ask great questions, check out <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/spin-selling-the-ultimate-guide">Neil Rackham’s book SPIN Selling</a>.</p>
<h3>Section 3: Tips, Tools and Resources for Remote High Ticket Sellers</h3>
<p>Whether you like it or not, Enterprise sales has moved from an in person, golf course driven industry to remote video conferencing. Once you’ve accepted this fact, you can embrace the benefits and fill the gaps where possible.</p>
<p>First and foremost, you need a decent home video setup. I emphasize decent here because I think a lot of people went overboard during the pandemic. The only requirements are that you (1) position a light behind your camera to shine on your face (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082QHRZFW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&#x26;psc=1">here’s the light I use</a>) (2) have a quiet, distraction free environment. If you want to level up further, check out this guide.</p>
<p>Next, consider how you can leverage the strength of remote sales. Since you no longer need to travel from meeting to meeting, you can spend the extra time taking more sales calls &#x26; following up with leads. Packing your calendar means more commission for you.</p>
<p>More importantly, since a face to face video chat is only one click away, you can reduce your time to responding to inbound leads to zero. You can drive high intent leads into instant video calls with you and your time using <a href="https://cuda.io/">Cuda</a>. Video calls, rather than phone calls, help drive personal connection.</p>
<p>When possible, leverage in person meetings as an added boost for rapport building. Keep track of where your key accounts are located and reach out to line up meetings when you’re in town.</p>
<h3>Conclusion:</h3>
<p>In conclusion, the best high ticket closers are great listeners and create rapport just as well via zoom as they can in person. High ticket sales are great for you (since you can earn huge commissions) and great for the client (because you can profitably offer a great product + service given the price point).</p>


High ticket closing is the process by which business sell high value products and services. Read our tips and tricks for high ticket closing in a remote sales world.

The Ultimate Guide to High Ticket Closing

<h2>Speed to Lead: How Quickly Should You Contact Inbound Leads?</h2>
<p>Spoiler alert - speed to lead is important. There are a number of articles on this topic that regurgitate the same thesis - faster is better.</p>
<p>Of course speed is important. But if you’re a business person worth your salt, you know that business is about tradeoffs. In this article, we'll answer<br>
(1) Which businesses should prioritize speed to lead?<br>
(2) How to achieve near instantaneous response times.</p>
<h2>What are Inbound Leads?</h2>
<p>Inbound leads are leads who have shown interest in your product or service and have reached out to you. We distinguish inbound leads from outbound leads that we had to reach out to cold. Inbound leads are highly valuable - who doesn’t love when people come banging down your door to buy your product?</p>
<p>Inbound leads come from a variety of sources: <a href="https://popupsmart.com/blog/inbound-marketing-channels">word of mouth, SEO, and paid ads</a> to name a few.</p>
<p>No matter where they come from, inbound leads land on our website ready to learn more. And most of them will encounter something like this:</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/barracuda-app-images/blog/blog-demo-form.png" alt="Demo Form"></p>
<p>If you're like me, this book a demo form sends a shiver down your spine. There's nothing inherently wrong with a book a demo form, it's what happens next that's frustrating. In a study done on the top 100 SAAS companies, it takes an <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/natalie-marcotullio_clicking-a-book-a-demo-cta-doesnt-guarantee-activity-7067501777171951616-Ie4o">average of 2 days to hear back and 35% of companies will never reach out</a>.</p>
<p>While frustrating for buyers - other companies's complacency around inbound leads is a huge opportunity for us as sellers.</p>
<h2>What is Speed to Lead?</h2>
<p>Speed to lead is the time it takes for you to contact an inbound lead after they've expressed interest. The quicker you reach out to them, the more likely you are to convert them into a customer.</p>
<p>Research done by <a href="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/25649/file-13535879-pdf/docs/mit_study.pdf">MIT Sloan and InsideSales.com shows there’s a 100x drop off</a> in responding to leads within 5 minutes vs 30 minutes of filling out your form. Simply put, speedy companies close more deals. And as we demonstrated earlier, most companies are really bad at this!</p>
<p>Intuitively, the importance of speed should come as a surprise to no one. When a lead contacts you, they’re at their moment of highest intent. They’ve just finished reading one of your articles or learning about your product from another customer. Your value proposition is clear in their mind and solves a need pressing enough that they took the time to come to your website.</p>
<p>As they wait to hear from you, their interest wanes. They may forget why they reached out in the first place. Or if their need is pressing, they may research and find an alternative before talking to you.</p>
<p>In general, businesses that nail speed to lead close more revenue and create strong, lasting impressions with customers that they care about their business.</p>
<h2>How to know if your business should focus on speed to lead</h2>
<p>If you're firm meets all or most of the following criteria, then you should prioritize speed to lead:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Competitive industry</strong>: If you're operating in a highly competitive industry, relatively commoditized industry, then providing high quality service is essential. When your prospects can be just as well serviced by a competitor (or at least led to believe they can be just as well serviced by a competitor) then it's essential to respond quickly.</li>
<li><strong>Deadline oriented product</strong>: If your prospects are reaching out for help with an imposing deadline (i.e. filing taxes, closing the books for the month, getting a security audit to close an enterprise deal) then they will shop other vendors if you're slow.</li>
<li><strong>Ready to pitch</strong>: Responding quickly is only useful if you're giving a prospect the information they need. If your staff can't provide quality answers without doing specific preparation before each call, then there's only so much you can do to minimize response time.</li>
</ul>
<p>Some industries that benefit from optimizing speed to lead are SMB/Mid Market SAAS firms, Accounting &#x26; Bookkeeping services, Security Auditing, Insurance, and HR &#x26; Payroll management companies.</p>
<h2>What does it mean to “contact” an inbound lead?</h2>
<p>Existing content tends to fall short on this point. Many people argue that contacting a lead quickly is important - but what does it mean to contact a lead?</p>
<p>The simplest, yet arguably pointless, way to contact an inbound lead is to send them an automated email as soon as they fill out your website form letting them know that you’ll reach out to them soon. These follow up emails accomplish almost nothing. We should all endeavor to do better than this.</p>
<p>Better yet, some companies let inbound leads schedule a demo with your revenue team right away - using a platform like ChiliPiper or Calendly. Having an inbound lead schedule their demo at their moment of highest intent significantly increases your booked demo rates. ChiliPiper shared that they were able to increase lead to demo conversion 400% over B2B standards with this method.</p>
<p>The problem is that getting a lead to book a demo is only part of the story. You still need to ensure that your lead shows up to the demo and that you close the deal. As the days roll on leading up to the demo, your lead may cool off or talk to a competitor first! And around <a href="https://tray.io/blog/minimize-no-shows-automation">20% of prospects no show booked demos</a> today.</p>
<p>The final, and most aggressive, lead contact strategy is to connect your inbound lead with a member of your revenue team instantly. We call this instant lead resolution.</p>
<h2>How to achieve instant lead resolution</h2>
<p>There are several ways to achieve instant lead routing, and not all are created equal.</p>
<p>First, you can put a phone number on your website that routes to your sales team. This used to be the norm and can still work wonders for some businesses. Whether you’ve got a team staffed in the office, or you’re out on the go, you can answer calls as they come in. The drawbacks are that (1) many younger buyers are less likely to make phone calls (2) it’s impossible to demo a visual interface over the phone (3) you can’t achieve the same personal connection on the phone that you can with video conferencing.</p>
<p>Another increasingly popular option is to put a chatbot pop up on your website. Hubspot, Drift, Intercom, all offer out of the box solutions that let website visitors chat with your team (or AI bots) directly. Chatbots can be used in conjunction with other solutions and can work for both sales and customer success use cases. Unfortunately some browsers, like Arc, block chatbot popups. Moreover, <a href="https://chainstoreage.com/do-customers-ai-based-chatbots#:~:text=According%20to%20data%20from%20a,human%20for%20customer%20service%20needs.">77% of people prefer talking to a human than a chat bot</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, you can leverage an instant inbound video platform like Cuda. Cuda lets leads launch an instant video call with your sales team when someone’s online. The team gets notified in slack and the first available rep can take the call and provide immediate resolution for the lead. Cuda can be embedded as a widget or included as a hyperlink making it easy to leverage throughout all of your content.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>In summary, responding to inbound leads quickly can dramatically improve close rates for the right businesses. By responding quickly, you can show that you value the lead's time and interest, stand out from the competition, and increase your chances of converting the lead into a customer. The benefits of instant response times tend to outweigh the operational overhead the most for companies in highly competitive industries with a sales force that knows the product inside and out.</p>


Speed to lead is the time it takes for you to contact an inbound lead after they express interest. Optimizing response time can lead to 100x improvements in conversion rates.

The Better Sales blog

Speed to Lead: The potential to 100x conversion rates

The Ultimate Guide to High Ticket Closing

Boost Sales Efficiency with CudaClose + Calendly Integration

Cuda for Marketing: The Ultimate Lead Conversion Solution

How sales teams leverage instant calls to convert more leads.

Announcing Cuda