Driving Revenue Growth Through Smarter Outsourced Sales Systems | Angelica Iglesias from SalesFocus

Rick: Pathmonk is the AI for website conversions. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments with relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more.

Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50% by adding Pathmonk to your website in seconds by letting the AI do all the work and increase conversions by 50% while you keep doing marketing as usual. Check us out on pathmonk.com. Everybody, welcome back to Pathmonk Presents. Today we are joined by Angelica Iglesias.

She’s the marketing manager at SalesFocus. Angelica, welcome to the show.

Angelica Iglesias: Thanks for having me. I’m excited.

Rick: Excited to get things going, too, Angelica. Maybe we start with the basics. We talk about SalesFocus. What are you guys all about? What’s the heart of what your company does? And if you were having a coffee with a friend, how would you describe what you do?

Angelica Iglesias: Yeah. So SalesFocus, we like to call ourselves the pioneers of sales outsourcing. Our CEO and founder, Tony Horwath, he kinda came up with the idea in the late ’90s and initially kinda rolled it out for IT companies, ’cause he originally… that’s what he worked with, was IT companies, and he just kinda learned that they really needed sales assistance.

They were great web engineers that were doing all this great stuff within the new web world in the late ’90s, and they just really needed sales assistance, and he just kinda dove in and started providing that for them on an outsourced scale. And now it’s grown. We’ve been around for 28 years.

I’ve been with the company for almost four years now, and just in that time it’s been really incredible to see how much sales outsourcing has grown and just how much more people know about it. Even just four years ago, you tell people about it and they kinda, like, “What’s sales outsourcing?”

People know HR outsourcing, payroll, even marketing, but they maybe don’t know that they can outsource their sales. So that’s kinda the gist of it. We basically go into companies just like any marketing company would, but we assist with sales.

Rick: Okay. That’s awesome. And I’m sure there’s so many companies out there that could use help in that sense, right?

Outsourcing sales, ’cause it’s processes. There’s also SOPs. There’s a bunch of things that go behind sales and that know-how of doing sales that, of course, it might be easier to outsource it. Sure. Are there any specific industries or verticals even that you guys focus on? You said you focused on IT first, but, at the moment, what’s the landscape looking like?

Are you focusing on specific companies? And who’s the, in terms of marketing, who’s your ICP, if you will?

Angelica Iglesias: Yeah. So we can work within almost any industry, but we do have four main focuses with energy, telecommunications, healthcare, and still that IT SaaS. Again, we can work with anybody, but those are like the main ones that we market towards, and also that just, like, that come to us.

So IT and healthcare, they tend to be more of that inside sales. So we have a sales center in Charleston, South Carolina, where we have a team here, like a call center, and we just have people all day long selling for these companies. And then telecommunications and energy tend to be more outside sales, so we actually have people all across the country knocking on doors, going to businesses, and selling products and services.

Rick: Yeah. Sounds like it’s more of a face-to-face type of deal for those industries. That’s really interesting. You mentioned that, just a second ago, you said, “People come to us.” Now, I would like to understand, how do these people discover you?

Right? They’re, in a way, just trying to understand what marketing channels have become your go-to for bringing in more of those people and keeping that pipeline, if you will, filled up.

Angelica Iglesias: Yeah. So in the last couple years, we’ve put a big focus on AI and optimizing for AI. And we’ve gotten a pretty good traction on there. And it’s cool to see, we see, like, in our CRM where these people are coming from, and we’re getting… we’re probably starting to get close to 20% of our leads from AI referrals.

So I would say that’s a big thing. Anybody who’s doing any kind of marketing lead generation, definitely try and optimize for AI. And that’s really just people going in and searching, asking ChatGPT or Claude or whatever, like, “What are the best sales outsourcing companies?” Or, “What are companies that can assist me with my sales?”

And that’s really how people are finding us now. Before, it was similar, but more search engine. So people would Google, “hire sales teams,” “outsource sales teams,” things like that, and that’s how they would find us.

Rick: Got it. Okay. So it sounds to me like… Well, I don’t want to assume, so I’ll go into the question.

But how much of a role does your website play in pulling in more business, right? Is there anything about it that, as a marketing manager, you think really works? Or maybe things that you got your eye on improving for people coming through the website and eventually getting to understand more about you guys and getting your services?

Angelica Iglesias: Yeah. The website is the most important. Obviously, we have all of our landing pages there. It’s a big part of just the marketing and lead generation that we do. So for us, we really wanna focus on the website and attracting people to it.

Things that have worked really well is just making it more… When I came in a few years ago, the website was very outdated, so we did a full overhaul, made it more modern, brought it to this century. And then, on top of that, we’ve just continued to optimize based on, again, AI and SEO, but just making it more user-friendly.

We wanna make sure when people come to the website, it’s easy to understand, it’s visually pleasing, and they can go through the website easily and get the information that they’re looking for.

Rick: Fair enough. Many websites or many people think websites are essentially a brochure, right, type thing.

But maybe it is for some businesses out there, but most people just need them to get those leads in, to get more people to click on that book a call or request a consultation or whatever it is. So, I’m glad to hear that’s what you guys worked on.

From your experience, and you can draw from your overall experience, what actually makes a website convert? What’s working for you guys? Are there any tools, tactics, frameworks that worked wonders for you to get more people to convert?

Angelica Iglesias: So for converting, we’ve really just focused on… Especially lately, we’ve been doing a lot of testing with CTAs, button placement, button wording, and a lot of that. We’ve learned that, like, almost the less aggressive ones get people more to click, which was interesting.

So really asking people more like, “Here’s more information. Learn more.” People tend to gravitate more towards that than, like, “Let’s book a call right now.” I think they find it a little less pushy. And then through that cycle, they go through, and then eventually after they hit, we’ve noticed maybe, like, two different pages, service pages or blogs, depending on how they came to the website, then they end up going to our Contact Us page to have us contact them.

Rick: Got it. Okay. That’s all super interesting, and we could talk about this for the rest of the episode here. But I wanna actually switch gears for a second, Angelica, and maybe talk about you as a marketing manager, just for our listeners and myself understand what does a typical workday look like for you?

What are the main things you focus on as a marketing manager at SalesFocus? What’s it like?

Angelica Iglesias: Yeah. So I kinda do a little bit of everything, and I definitely don’t just focus on marketing. I do a lot of communications and PR for the company as well. Basically anything that you are reading from SalesFocus, I wrote it.

So that’s a big part. All of the branding, the copy, things like that, press releases, blogs. We do have a content team now, so they kinda help more with the blogs. But as far as, like, social media, any kind of smaller things on the website, but even still a lot of the blogs I have written too.

So I manage our SEO team, manage the content, manage social media, like I said, all communications. We do email marketing as well, so that’s a big part of my job. Luckily, I really like email marketing.

Rick: Good.

Angelica Iglesias: So it’s a fun part for me. And then, I do a lot of just managing our CRM as well. That’s just a big part of the job, making sure that workflows are going, working the way they’re supposed to, that contacts are being put in properly, and companies, helping out our…

We have a business development team, so another big part of my job is just assisting them, providing them with marketing collateral that they may need, to present, any case studies, things like that. And then also, again, just making sure that they’re keeping their CRM clean and managing, and helping them manage all that.

So I wear a lot of different hats, but really I just try and help everybody where I can, make sure that everybody has the information they need, the branding materials, that things overall are cohesive across the entire brand.

Rick: Makes a lot of sense. And I’m also curious ’cause obviously when you do many things, there’s things that you really enjoy, and there’s things that you just have to do as part of the job.

To keep on top of things and to keep focused, how do you stay ahead? There’s a flood of content out there, right? So maybe when it relates to email marketing, if you will, how do you stay focused?

How do you keep learning? Are there certain places or people or routines you turn to for inspiration, for staying ahead, for learning frameworks? I don’t know. How does that work for you?

Angelica Iglesias: Yeah, so I get a few different marketing newsletters. Those kind of, like, help inspire, give some… Sometimes it’s a little different because we are so B2B. I would say a lot of marketing, especially the flashier kind that gets more attention, obviously is for products, things like that, locations.

So sometimes it can be a little harder to create content that is more visual for what we do. So that’s somewhere where I try and find inspiration. I get a lot of inspiration from LinkedIn, too, just scrolling, trying to follow people that I believe that they’re doing… They’re providing good tips and stuff like that.

So I would say between a few different newsletters that I get and then LinkedIn, and then just natural research in general, whenever I have a question or something. I’m always trying to learn, so.

Rick: That’s awesome. And maybe these days with AI, it’s also easier to scour through the content that’s out there. If you ask for a specific question, then you can maybe find something new or maybe you find, like, a summary of what could be an article or even a book at times.

And that’s what I’m speaking for myself, the point. That’s what I do, right? But yeah, super interesting. Now, staying on that content topic, I would love us to maybe shift to our last segment of the episode since we’re about to wrap things up, Angelica. It’s a rapid-fire segment.

It’s just a few questions really to keep things light and engaging. Are you ready for it?

Angelica Iglesias: I’m ready.

Rick: All right. Let’s do it. So when it comes to consuming content, do you prefer watching, listening, or reading?

Angelica Iglesias: I definitely do listening the most.

Rick: Okay. So what’s the latest piece of content, could be a podcast, could be an audiobook, that you picked up, and was there anything that really stuck with you in it?

It could be anything. It doesn’t have to be work-related. Anything.

Angelica Iglesias: Yeah. I recently read a whole series. Actually, I actually read this one. I didn’t do it in audio. So I kinda do a lot of audiobooks, but then sometimes I try and pick up a real book now and then, too.

Yeah. But actually with this book I was… Because it was like 600 pages, I ended up doing it half and half. Audiobook, half real book. But picking up from it, honestly, this isn’t even related to the book, and I know this is something that people already know and say, but reading is, like, really relaxing.

And I know it’s a silly thing to say, but it… I kinda started picking it up when I was a little more stressed, like a month ago, and it’s just really helped with keeping calm, taking, like, a step back. I feel like in this digital world we’re, like, constantly scrolling, and have all this information.

So just being able to read a book, and it’s slow pace and kinda just calms you down. So that would be my takeaway, would be give yourself some time to get away from the digital screen.

Rick: I love that. Yeah, no, that’s a great message. And I can totally relate to this, just being able to zoom in and zone out in a way as you’re reading something.

I guess you focus on that and that’s… nothing else stimulating you, right? Right. But that’s interesting. So if you… Completely different question, but if you had a magic wand and you could fix one frustrating thing in your marketing life with tech, what would you pick?

Angelica Iglesias: Probably HubSpot.

What I would choose, would be tough. I wish I could just honestly, like… ‘Cause we have almost 100,000 contacts, and most of them obviously there before I ever got to the company. So I think if I could just go in and magically clean them all perfectly, get everything the way I want it, that would be what I would do.

Rick: I’m sure. Well, as soon as you said HubSpot, I said, “Here we go.” ‘Cause, it’s a beautiful… And we’re… By the way, Pathmonk is a HubSpot partner, but it’s a beautiful platform. Sometimes it’s just, especially when you’re dealing with the numbers that you’re dealing, it’s crazy, right?

The amount of leads, of data really that you can parse through is just, you can spend your entire career on it and not get out of it. So I feel you. Yeah. Last one. What’s one repetitive task that you’d love to put on autopilot forever?

Angelica Iglesias: Repetitive task. Probably, lead lists, cleaning them up, putting them into HubSpot. I actually did a lot of that this morning, for a campaign we’re about to run. So had about three different lists, had to clean them all up in Excel, then import into the CRM, do all that.

If I could automate all of that would be a beautiful thing.

Rick: Sure. Sounds, it’s one of those tasks that you need to do, but at the same time it’s like, if there’s something that could just press a button and then it’s done, then that would be great. And we’re getting there. Many of the AI tools, as I mentioned earlier.

But, Angelica, I wanna thank you a lot for being on the show with us today, and before we wrap things up, I wanna give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is the one thing that they should remember about the work you guys are doing at SalesFocus?

Angelica Iglesias: That at SalesFocus, sales process is the most important part. So if you need help with your process, your SOPs, or anything like that, you don’t even have to come to SalesFocus, but figure out your sales, because at the end of the day, that is the most important part of your business, ’cause that’s where you make your money.

Rick: I couldn’t agree more, and at Pathmonk, we’re all about increasing sales through website conversion. So, we agree with that message 100%.

Now, Angelica, if people want to check you guys out and wanna learn more about SalesFocus, where can they go? How could they do it?

Angelica Iglesias: Best and easiest way is our website, salesfocusinc.com. We have tons of information on there, but if you wanna come straight to us, just click that Contact Us button, and we’ll get right to you.

Rick: Amazing. Angelica, thanks again for being with us today, and thank you for your insights, and just letting us know a little bit more about yourself even, understanding reading is a skill that can de-stress. Right?

That was one of my main takeaways, but of course, all of the good stuff about SalesFocus, too, and then the work you guys are doing. Thank you again for your insights, and I wish you a wonderful day.

Angelica Iglesias: Thank you so much, and thanks for having me.

Rick: Of course. All right. Bye, everyone.

Angelica Iglesias: Bye.