Implementing Salesforce for Success | Arthur Backouche from Skie

Ernesto Quezada: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. 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%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds, let the AI do all the work, and get up to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us out on pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Arthur from Skie, Senior Salesforce Marketing Cloud Consultant with them. How are you doing today, Arthur?

Arthur Backouche: I’m really good. How are you?

Ernesto: I’m doing great, great. Thank you so much for joining. We’re literally on the other side of the world, so it’s great that we’re able to connect and have you here on our podcast today.

Arthur: Yeah, it’s really great because you are based in Mexico and I’m based in Sydney, so it’s amazing that we can connect with intellect.

Ernesto: Definitely. Awesome. Well, Arthur, let’s kick it off then. I’m sure listeners are tuning in wondering what Skie is all about. So, in your own words, tell us a little bit more.

Arthur: Skie is a Salesforce practice. What we are doing is we are implementing Salesforce solutions for customers. Salesforce is a CRM platform but also a range of different products and software from the brand Salesforce. What we are doing is helping our customers to configure Salesforce systems for their organization.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Awesome. And so that way, our listeners can get a good understanding of your company. What is that key problem that you guys like to solve for your clients?

Arthur: Salesforce is an amazing platform because there are so many possibilities; you can configure Salesforce the way you want, but it’s always amazing to receive advice from trusted experts on how you could configure Salesforce in the best way to answer your business challenges and increase your productivity. So I guess this is what we really bring to our customers: an expert eye on how to configure the platform correctly.

Ernesto: Definitely. Okay, perfect. And so then, on that note, is there a certain vertical or segment? Is there an ideal ICP that you guys like to focus on?

Arthur: Yeah, so we are working with real estate property developers. We have this segment that is quite huge in Australia. We also have tech companies and retail. The beauty of Salesforce is that every type of industry uses Salesforce, but Skie focuses on, I would say, five or six main verticals, ranging from real estate to technology to retail, and also sports clubs and this type of business. So yeah, we have a quite broad range of ideal customers, but we have expertise in each of them, so it’s a good thing.

Ernesto: Definitely. Okay, perfect. And say someone would want to try to find Skie. What is the top client acquisition channel for you guys?

Arthur: The top channel to get some acquisition for Salesforce practice is referrals. Salesforce, the company itself, will refer their clients to a partner like Skie. Based on whether we deliver very good work, we will be able to get the trust from Salesforce and receive the referral. So referral is definitely the main channel of acquisition. After that, there are other channels that are quite interesting. I’m thinking about Google Ads, for example, for purchase intent, where we can really deliver something like a free assessment or a health check of our customer’s Salesforce instance. And the last one that I’m thinking about at this stage would be LinkedIn because it’s very B2B-focused and it’s also a great channel for acquisition.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. And so that way, our listeners who are tuned in could go ahead and visit you. They could always check you out at Skie. That’s skie.com.au. What role does the website play for client acquisition, Arthur?

Arthur: The website for client acquisition plays different roles, I guess. The first one is to deliver knowledge around what Salesforce is and how you can leverage Salesforce for your organization. For example, by reading the blog on our website, you can gain knowledge around Salesforce CRM. You can also build more trust when visiting our website because you will see the success stories and use cases that we have been working on for other customers. By reading the different use cases, people can see, “Okay, this is something similar to what I’m currently facing, and I would like to use Skie because they have worked with similar clients, in a similar industry, and with similar use cases.” So I would say building trust would be another aspect of our website. Also, we have the lead generation side, of course, by booking a session with one of our team members through Calendly. This allows us to generate leads as well. So those are the three main aspects of our website at this stage.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. So on that note, is there any tools or tips or methods that you would recommend to our listeners as far as some website lead generation?

Arthur: For website lead generation, what would be interesting to recommend? Well, I think having a website well optimized would be the first step. So loading time and technical SEO should be on point to make sure the website is loading as fast as possible. After that, I would recommend using gated content. Gated content is a well-known strategy, but it still allows you to generate leads within your CRM. So delivering value through your website by offering ebooks, white papers, webinar recordings, for example, and then using gated content to collect contact details in exchange for the valuable content.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing those tips and methods with us, Arthur. And well, let’s switch gears a little bit, Arthur, and let’s talk about you. What are some key tasks you like to focus on in your day-to-day work?

Arthur: Well, at this stage, my day-to-day task is solving issues for our customers. As you know, Salesforce is a CRM platform, and there are different products. It’s a product that is always ongoing, always evolving. Customers are always working on implementing new features and new campaigns. Sometimes our customers will have questions on how to do something, or sometimes they will create something that is not set up correctly, and they need support with that. So at this stage, my day-to-day is really to help the customer build the features they want or solve the bugs they have. That’s my main project. After that, I also work with Skie on our presence on the internet. So I work on setting up the different advertising campaigns, ebooks, webinars, LinkedIn, all of that. And finally, I’m also doing some presentations around new technology. I investigate the new platform proposals from Salesforce, and I create explanations on how to leverage this platform and how to use it best. My role is quite wide but very interesting, I think.

Ernesto: Definitely. I mean, it sounds like you have a full plate there on your hands, Arthur. So in the between time, when you do have some time available, Arthur, is there a preferred channel to stay up to date with all the marketing trends and news out there in the marketing world?

Arthur: Yeah, I think LinkedIn is definitely my favorite social media platform because you can connect with people. After that, I find X (formerly Twitter), quite interesting as well because it’s more niche. For example, topics such as artificial intelligence—I find the content there more valuable. And finally, YouTube. For everything related to tutorials, there is a lot of documentation on YouTube, and sometimes watching a video and playing it is the best way to learn.

Ernesto: Okay, great, great. Thank you so much for sharing that with our listeners. And well, let’s jump into our next section here, Arthur, which is our rapid-fire question round. Are you ready for them?

Arthur: Yeah.

Ernesto: Awesome. All right, first off then, Arthur, what is the last book that you read?

Arthur: It’s a PDF about artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, and machine learning. I haven’t finished it, but I’ve read half.

Ernesto: All right, good read there for listeners. Next, if there were no boundaries in technology, what would be the one thing that you would want to have fixed for your role as a marketer today?

Arthur: The one thing that I would like to work on as a marketer today is probably artificial intelligence and machine learning. I think it’s very important to master these two technologies and to face them as a marketer to understand their usage.

Ernesto: Definitely would agree with you. And it’s here to stay, right? So definitely. All right, next then, if there’s one repetitive task that you could automate, what would that be?

Arthur: That’s a good question. If there’s one task I could automate, it would be logging my time. Every week we need to log our hours because we have billable hours at the company, at Skie. If we could automate that and I didn’t have to go into the spreadsheet to say, “I did one hour here, one hour there,” that would be a nice thing to automate, I think.

Ernesto: I think that would be really nice, yeah. I would agree. Lastly, Arthur, what would be one piece of advice that you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Arthur: One piece of advice is that an excellent marketer knows about technology.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Some great advice there for everybody. Well, Arthur, we are coming to the end of the show here, but before we end, I do want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is the one thing they should remember about Skie?

Arthur: Skie is an implementation partner that is able to configure Salesforce products in a way that helps customers achieve more.

Ernesto: Perfect. Awesome. Arthur, thank you so much for being on with us today. And to our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. I’m looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Arthur.

Arthur: Thank you.