AI-Powered Efficiency in RFP Responses | Farah van Caloen from Rohirrim

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 the 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 their key decision moments with relevant micro experiences like case studies, inch 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 fit. Get 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us on pathmonk.com. Alright, welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Farah van Caloen from Rohirrim, Director of Marketing. How are you doing today, Farah?

Farah van Caloen: I’m doing great, thank you. How are you, Ernesto?

Ernesto: I’m doing great, thank you so much for asking, Farah. And while I’m sure our listeners are tuning in wondering what Rohirrim is all about, let’s kick it off with that. Farah, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Farah: Sure. Rohirrim owns the patent on organization-specific generative AI technology. So, what that means is Rohirrim uses a company’s own data, its own database, its own knowledge base to generate content specific to the company. Whether it’s RFP responses, technical papers, or any long-form, complex content, Rohirrim can generate that for you in minutes, and it’s all based on your own company’s information. So, it’s not open to the Internet.

Ernesto: Okay, interesting, perfect. So, that way our listeners can get a good understanding. What would you say is a key problem that you guys like to solve for clients?

Farah: Basically, the company was founded because our CEO wanted to get some of his time back. The whole vision of the company is to give people some time back, give them their weekends back. So, it’s mostly efficiencies and time gains. For example, when we did the human versus AI trial with our beta product, in some instances, the AI generated the first draft of a proposal or a proposal response 4000% faster than a human would. So, we’re not giving you back 10-15 minutes, we’re giving you back days, which is obviously very welcomed by businesses because it helps their growth. But also, for individuals, they get to focus on the interesting work and don’t have to work weekends. That’s our promise to our users.

Ernesto: Definitely important. Alright, awesome to hear that from you. Is there a certain vertical segment that you guys like to go for? Is there an ideal ICP there for Rohirrim?

Farah: Yeah, so our ICP, in terms of job title, is usually Chief Growth Officers or Chief Revenue Officers. In terms of verticals, it’s defense and aerospace, government contracting, healthcare, higher education—basically any business that relies on producing long-form, complex documents to grow. The most straightforward example would be RFP responses. Sometimes these responses take weeks for a company to generate, but with Rohirrim, we cut down that time significantly—sometimes to hours.

Ernesto: That’s amazing to hear. How would somebody then usually find out about Rohirrim? Is there a top channel for you guys?

Farah: The company has been around for a couple of years, and we’ve been growing very quickly, but it’s mostly been through personal relationships. Our CEO has been in the AI industry for a long time, so we leverage those relationships and networks within the AI community to get new partnerships and customers on board. We also attend a lot of industry events. The reason we’ve focused more on relationship building and word-of-mouth is because we didn’t have a robust marketing team. I’m the first marketing hire, so I’m building the marketing team from scratch right now. We have a lot of cool strategies and interesting channels that we plan on using going forward, but it’s all being set up right now. I’d say if you check back in a few weeks, you’re going to notice a very different online presence from us.

Ernesto: Alright, interesting. Love to hear about that. So, for listeners who want to visit you, they can check you out at rohirrim.ai. What role does the website play in client acquisition?

Farah: That’s correct. We had an old website for about a year, and we just launched our new website last week. With our old website, we received feedback from visitors and customers that they weren’t sure what we did. We tried to be a catch-all for any generative AI-specific need. We listened to that feedback, and now we’ve redone our website to focus more on the use cases we serve best. It has a new look. Going forward, the website will play a much bigger role in telling our story—the Rohirrim story and the story of our platform, Rohirrim RFP. It speaks more to our customers’ pain points and how we solve them, which is what users want to see when they visit a website.

Ernesto: Definitely. Awesome. I love hearing that. Are there any tools or tips you’d recommend to our listeners for website lead generation?

Farah: Yeah, I’ve tested websites to death over the years, so I have a lot of tips. They’re not fancy, but it’s about strategy, not tools. One thing that worked really well for me is having the form on the top right-hand corner of the page rather than at the bottom, or having a button that leads to the form. It’s one of those things where there’s always a push and pull with the design team because, let’s be honest, it’s not the nicest design to have the form right in front of you, but it converts better. Another thing is having a video in the header banner that summarizes what the page or product is about. Even if people don’t watch the whole video, we see more conversions and form fills just by having it. Content should focus on the users’ pain points—people want products that make their lives better. Also, lots of white space, product images, and icons help keep people on the page longer. And testing—I’m constantly testing. There’s always room for improvement.

Ernesto: Definitely. Awesome, awesome, perfect. Love the knowledge you provide. So, how does your day look like? You mentioned you’re the first marketing person at Rohirrim. What are some key tasks you focus on day-to-day?

Farah: Right now, I do a little bit of everything—product marketing, customer marketing, demand gen, content marketing, corporate comms. Yesterday, for example, I worked on a roadmap deck for a client meeting, wrote a press release for a new partnership, worked on our social media calendar, did keyword research, and worked on customer webinars. It’s all over the place, but it works for me. I love the challenge and momentum.

Ernesto: Awesome. How do you stay up to date with marketing trends? Is there a preferred channel for you?

Farah: Honestly, I work long days and have a toddler at home, so I used to read more marketing books when I had more time. Now I get most of my news from LinkedIn and blogs. I scroll through LinkedIn every day and follow certain influencers like Kyle Poyar and Matthew Reeves, as well as blogs like Marketing Brew, eMarketer, and MarketingProfs. I go down a rabbit hole if I’m really interested in a topic.

Ernesto: Love it. LinkedIn is great for bite-sized content. Let’s move to our rapid-fire questions. Are you ready?

Farah: Rapid fire? Okay, let’s do this.

Ernesto: First, what’s the last book you read?

Farah: The last book I read was The Lemon by S. Boy—it’s hilarious. Highly recommend it.

Ernesto: Perfect. If there were no boundaries in technology, what’s one thing you’d fix for your role as a marketer?

Farah: You’re not going to like my answer, but we don’t need more tech. Just make what we have work better. I still struggle to find a presentation software that works perfectly. Just make products work better.

Ernesto: Love that. If there’s one repetitive task you could automate, what would it be?

Farah: It sounds silly, but timesheets. I hated doing them earlier in my career. I wish something could scan emails and calendars to automate them.

Ernesto: Interesting. What’s one piece of advice you’d give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer?

Farah: Two things: We’re not saving lives, and all you can do is your best. I worked in stressful jobs where everything was an emergency, and it really hurt my mental health. I wish I could tell my younger self that it’s okay if something isn’t perfect or is delayed by a day.

Ernesto: Great advice. As we come to the end, what’s the one thing listeners should remember about Rohirrim?

Farah: I’d say, keep checking back. Right now, we have one product, but we’re building more. Our vision is to make everyone’s work life better by finding efficiencies and giving people their time back.

Ernesto: Perfect. You can check them out at rohirrim.ai. Farah, thank you so much for being on today. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in, and I’m looking forward to our next episode of Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Farah.

Farah: Thank you for having me. Bye.