As supply chains were disrupted and more interactions took place online than ever before, whatever vulnerabilities that existed were exposed in relatively short order in the weeks and months following the first wave of global COVID-19 cases.
As a result, B2B buyers and sellers were forced to go fully digital. However, what started out as a crisis response has now turned into the new normal, with far-reaching implications for how B2B buyers and sellers must do business and interact with each other. Interestingly, only about 20% of B2B buyers indicate they want to return to inperson sales, and this is true even in industries where face-to-face field sales have traditionally dominated.
Israel has long been regarded as one of the world’s start-up capitals after consistently producing a variety of highly successful businesses, many of which went on to achieve unicorn statuses, such as Waze, eToro, Fiverr, Papaya Global, Taboola and Payoneer.
Tel Aviv has earned the distinction of having the largest number of start-ups per capita globally, which is no mean feat. Now, several of the country’s hottest new start-ups are focusing on the B2B sales industry to address many of the long-standing issues faced by customer-facing teams, as well as many of the hiccups found along the customer’s buying journey – particularly those posed by the new digital landscape that businesses must now navigate.
Some of the main issues plaguing the B2B sales industry include the number of resources the process requires, problematic sales demos, successful integration of technology, too high of a percentage of the buyer journey occurs without the help of any sales reps, conflict between a buyer’s demand for personalization and the company’s need to scale production and the lack of customer insights.
Let’s take a look at three exciting Israeli start-ups that are poised to disrupt the market and address many of the challenges outlined above.
WALNUT, FOUNDED by Yoav Vilner, is a Tel Aviv-based SaaS company that provides companies with the tools and data they need to boost sales performance with the world’s first failure-free, codeless and 100% customizable sales platform.
The product demo is one of the most critical components of the entire sales process for many organizations (especially B2B SaaS companies). It gives businesses a one-of-a-kind opportunity to demonstrate their product’s value and capabilities to potential customers, intending to close a deal at the end of it. In many ways, a company’s product demo can spell the difference between landing a sale and losing a prospect, and as such, the demo can mean the difference between the company’s overall success and failure.
With this in mind, Walnut built a first-of-its-kind codeless platform that allows for a seamless remote sales process that can be entirely customized for each client or vertical they’re targeting. Using their platform, sales conversion rates skyrocket, and the amount of time and setup necessary for each sales demo plummets.
Additionally, many of the issues that sales teams experience today stem from disagreements between sales and back-end departments like R&D, product development, and graphic design. The good news is that many of these issues can be reduced by eliminating the need for back-end teams in the demo process. So how do they do this?
Well, removing the need for coding eliminates dependency on other teams. That way, the sales team can take complete control of their demo, allowing them to build a far more customer-centric experience which will only aid them in increasing conversions and sales performance.
GONG CEO Amit Bendov and CPO Eilon Reshef launched Gong in 2015, scaling the company to a point where it now supports over 2,000 businesses and generates an estimated $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
In its offices in the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange sector, the company employs 550 people, including 170 in research, development, and product management. Incredibly, Gong’s valuation has more than tripled in the last ten months to $7.2 billion, which is the largest valuation ever obtained by an Israeli firm in a financing round to this date.
As for the product, Gong is a revenue intelligence platform developed to assist businesses in making more informed decisions based on facts rather than opinions. It works by automatically collecting all of a company’s customer communications, including emails, online conference calls, video calls, messages, phone calls and more.
Gong then uses patented artificial intelligence technologies to decipher what is being stated in these client encounters with this data. It aids businesses in identifying patterns and trends in data, resulting in insights that can help boost sales due to a vastly improved sales experience.
Furthermore, this enables sales teams to identify risks in the sales pipeline before the deal is lost, allowing them to increase client retention and revenue. The platform’s analytics also enable businesses to improve their reps’ skills and improve customer interaction on various levels.
WALKME was founded in 2011 by Dan Adika and Rafael Sweary to help businesses navigate their digital and technological needs while accelerating the impact of their digital transformation strategies.
As we have already touched upon, companies worldwide have had to pivot to digital business models as a result of COVID-19, resulting in trends such as working remotely and cross-organization digital collaboration. During this time, many companies have discovered their reliance on programs that monitor their digital transformation journey and maximize the return on investment in technology due to these trends.
With this in mind, WalkMe created an enterprise guidance and engagement platform that allows business owners, software developers, and website masters to construct interactive on-screen assistance sequences to assist users with complex tasks. The no-code platform maximizes user adoption of digital content without requiring changes to the underlying program.
This enables businesses to save time and money on training and customer service while generating income through increased conversion rates thanks to valuable insights delivered through the platform.
At the time of writing, WalkMe boasts clients from 243 of the Global 2000 companies and 155 of the Fortune 500, such as IBM, Hershey’s, Hitachi, and Walgreens, and has just launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq, raising $287m. at $31 per share and giving the firm a valuation of $2.5b.
For many businesses, the effectiveness of their B2B sales processes is integral to the company’s overall success, which is why it’s typically one of the areas that receive the most investment. Yet, there are still too many issues involved in B2B sales pipelines, including problems with sales demos, successful integration of technology, and an overall lack of customer insights collected throughout the sales journey.
Fortunately, a handful of Israeli start-ups such as Walnut, Gong, and WalkMe are primed to disrupt this industry by providing much-needed solutions to many of these issues, and it only seems like a matter of time before they receive wider adoption on a global scale.