Howard Brown in the Media: Revenue.io’s CEO on AI, Sales Technology, and Industry Trends

Revenue Founder & CEO Howard Brown discusses AI on Bloomberg TV

Our Founder & CEO Howard Brown appeared on Bloomberg TV to discuss AI in the workforce, the future of labor, and how Revenue.io is transforming the sales experience.

Most of the news surrounding AI seems to be negative in terms of impact on the workforce, but Howard shares a more optimistic view. He discusses how Revenue.io not only improves rep efficiency but also how they use AI to improve human performance. Howard gave examples of how salespeople are using AI to surface moments that can be used to make them more effective at selling, ultimately resulting in greater, more sustainable revenue growth for sales teams.

You can view the full segment here:

0:00 how much do you think productivity is being helped or hampered by AI?

0:30 how much human involvement has to still exist to make AI effective?

1:08 will technology and automation destroy jobs?

2:40 what industries are most receptive to AI?

3:30 will the future of AI be subtle and slow or immediate?

Artificial Intelligence & Jobs: A Threat or a New Opportunity? Howard Brown

It is a common fear that artificial intelligence will take over human jobs, reduce the number of jobs available to humans, and ultimately negatively impact the labor market.

Today, BNN Bloomberg turned to Revenue.io CEO Howard Brown for his take on the impact of AI. Howard shares that artificial intelligence will not steal jobs from humans, it will actually make us better at them.

“We see artificial intelligence as helping transition workers from more mundane tasks to ones where they can actually use their human experience to deliver better results and better experiences for the customers that they speak to,” says Howard. They go on to discuss how to empower workers to provide superior customer experiences which will future-proof them for a world in which AI is prevalent.

Howard also discusses possible regulations on AI and how lawmakers can avoid pitfalls that could hurt its potential to increase performance.

See the full interview here:

Revenue CEO Talks AI’s Impact on the Labor Market in Bloomberg Interview

Revenue.io Founder and CEO recently joined Bloomberg’s The Close to discuss artificial intelligence and its impact on the labor market.

Rather than the common misconception that AI will take jobs from both blue and white-collar workers, Howard says that AI will actually augment those works to help them be better at their jobs.

“We see artificial intelligence really helping provide better experiences to customers.”

In the case of Revenue.io, AI helps sales, marketing, and support teams actually connect better with their prospects, and allows them to have a more engaging, effective conversation.

Howard says that AI will, “Bring more human benefit to the work environment,” and that it is, “truly humanizing the workforce and making people more productive and more satisfied with what they are doing.”

Revenue CEO Howard Brown on How AI Can Humanize the Sales Experience

Our Founder and CEO Howard Brown appeared live on Cheddar at the NYSE to discuss how we are using artificial intelligence to analyze hundreds of millions of sales calls and help improve a company’s sales tactics.

As human communication continues to play a core role in how people connect, companies are looking for ways to improve their engagement with customers. Howard shares insights on how companies are using Revenue.io’s platform to better connect with customers in meaningful ways, how we are able to analyze key patterns and outcomes in successful sales conversations, and how we are using AI to humanize the sales experience.

You can watch the full segment here:

Goldman Sachs recognized Revenue CEO & Founder, Howard Brown as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2019

Howard Brown, CEO & Founder of Revenue.io, Among 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs
at 2019 Builders + Innovators Summit

Los Angeles, CA – October 16, 2019 – Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is recognizing Revenue.io (www.revenue.io) CEO & Founder, Howard Brown as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2019 at its Builders + Innovators Summit in Santa Barbara, California.

Goldman Sachs selected Howard as one of 100 entrepreneurs from multiple industries to be honored at the three-day event. As a former clinical psychologist and three-time entrepreneur, Howard founded Revenue.io in 2012 after winning Salesforce’s Dreamforce hackathon. Today, Revenue.io is the leading sales engagement platform helping businesses scale revenue growth through AI, with thousands of professionals using Revenue.io to sell smarter, faster and more effectively. The company’s customers, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, SAP Concur, KeepTruckin, and Twilio, leverage Revenue.io to deliver better sales experiences through a range of solutions including conversation intelligence, lead prioritization, sales cadences, customer engagement and performance insight.

“I’m honored and humbled to be recognized among such an elite group of entrepreneurs,” said Howard Brown, CEO & Founder of Revenue.io. “I feel very fortunate to work with some of the most talented people on this journey as we help businesses achieve unprecedented revenue growth while offering amazing sales experiences that their customers love.”

“True innovation is built from a diversity of perspectives and experiences,” said David M. Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs. “Our Builders + Innovators Summit brings together a collective of impressive future leaders who are striving to drive meaningful change. For 150 years, Goldman Sachs has supported entrepreneurs as they launch and grow their businesses. That’s why we are pleased to recognize Howard as one of the most intriguing entrepreneurs of 2019.”

In addition to honoring 100 entrepreneurs, the summit consists of general sessions and clinics led by seasoned entrepreneurs, academics and business leaders as well as resident scholars.

To learn more about Howard Brown or Revenue.io, please visit www.revenue.io.

Press Related Questions:

For Revenue.io, please contact Eric Lammerding: eric@revenue.io
For Goldman Sachs, please contact Nicole Sharp: Nicole.Sharp@gs.com

Howard Brown Talks Sales Acceleration Software on NBC’s Smart Money

Our Founder and CEO, Howard Brown, kicked this week off with a guest appearance on NBC’s Smart Money talk radio program. The appearance came on the heels of Howard’s heavily shared Entrepreneur article, The New Wave of Sales Acceleration Technology, which challenged business owners to outfit their sales teams with sales acceleration technology (or lose deals to competitors with superior sales technology.)

In case you missed it, you can listen to a recording of Howard’s appearance and read the transcript here.

Here are 5 great takeaways from Howard’s interview:

2/3rds of Inside Sales Reps Don’t Make Quota

During his radio appearance, Howard described sales acceleration technology in greater depth, underpinning why it’s so vital for businesses to invest in solutions that improve sales ROI. As Howard told host Jim Conaway, “67% of reps don’t hit quota … and a lot of revenue gets left on the table.” .

But with sales acceleration technology, this doesn’t have to be the case. Sales acceleration technology does what the name implies: increase the velocity of sales by helping reps identify hot prospects, connect with them more successfully and increase productivity during the selling process.

Phone Calls Are More Important Than Ever

Buyers have changed. Most customers don’t want to meet sales reps – even in the B2B world, where software can be extremely expensive.The phone call has become even more important than it has in the past. Since far fewer in-person meetings are happening, companies really need as much insight into what is happening on the phone as they do what’s happening by email and other forms of communications. Most don’t have it.

Managers Should Establish Benchmarks to Maximize Success

Howard also discussed how we’re helping inside sales managers ramp up reps much quicker by giving managers real-time feedback into reps’ performance. Managers not only get predictive analytics, but can also drill into call recordings and listen to live calls to monitor which reps are giving a great sales pitch and which reps need some additional coaching. By looking at top performing reps’ sales activities and listening to their pitches, managers can establish benchmarks that can raise the performance of an entire team and help more reps crush quota than ever.

Sales Acceleration Technology Helps Reps Ramp Faster

Without sales acceleration technology, ramping up inside sales reps can be a slow and arduous process. In fact, it can take up to 6 months to ramp up inside sales reps. But by using Revenue.io our customers are ramping up to full quota in a fraction of that time.

The Importance of Scalable Sales Technology

Though Revenue.io was designed for enterprise sales teams, one important question that Jim Conaway asked Howard was whether Revenue.io can work for smaller sales teams as well. Howard raised a great point, stating that many the same tools and processes that work for large enterprise sales teams can almost always be applied to smaller sales organizations as well. Revenue.io was built to scale with your company. Since our customers are closing more revenue, many of them continue to on-boarding more reps. In fact, many of our cusotmers onboard new reps regularly. And whether your sales organization is scaling from 5 reps to 10 or from 100 to 200, Revenue.io makes scaling painless. With Revenue.io, onboarding new reps is as simple as installing an app, and new reps can get up and running in a couple minutes.

When we first built Revenue.io the term sales acceleration technology was not commonly being used. However, we knew that with the right tools, inside sales managers and reps could work together to close more revenue than ever before.  We’re thankful to Jim Conaway and the NBC SmartMoney team for taking the time to interview Howard and cast light on this bustling vertical of business technology.

About Smart Money

Takeaways From Howard Brown’s Interview on Andy Paul’s Accelerate! Podcast

I’m always on the lookout for awesome podcasts on sales and marketing. One of my favorite new sales podcasts is Andy Paul’s Accelerate! Ever since collaborating with Andy on a webinar, our entire team has been fans of his approach to sales. In fact, his books Zero Time Selling and Amp Up Your Sales, should be required reading for anyone in the sales profession. So I was extra stoked when I found out that our CEO Howard Brown was going to be a guest on Andy’s podcast. Now, you can listen to Howard’s entire appearance on Accelerate! on demand.

The episode is packed with takeaways for sales leaders:

• How to effectively leverage the next generation of sales tools
• Measuring the effectiveness of sales messaging (e.g. voicemails, emails and phone calls)
• How contextual data can transform sales
• The importance of coaching reps based on real-time metrics

Here are five highlights:

Sales Process Means Nothing Without Execution

During the episode Andy presented some interesting data showing that 72% of sales teams don’t have a documented sales process. And, as Howard mentioned, even those that do have documented sales processes don’t always have the capability to tell if that process is being well executed. Without execution, process means nothing!

Always Deliver Value

Howard and Andy both agreed that one of the most important pillars of sales is to always offer value. As Howard stated, “Make sure at every interaction that a rep is delivering something of value.” Often, that value is knowledge. That’s why it’s important for reps to not only be product experts, but also have the contextual information (e.g. communications history, account information, etc.) in front of them needed to have intelligent sales conversations.

What Inside Sales Managers Need to Do in Their First Week

Andy asked Howard what he would do, during week one, were he put in charge of a failing inside sales team with a mandate from upper management to make changes. Howard espoused the importance of listening. “ interview current customers as well as sales team. Get a better understanding of how customers are using the product. And understand what they’re selling, how they’re selling and how to add immediate value.”

How to Make Reps More Successful

According to Howard, the way you make a more successful sales rep is by providing tools that allow for better training and education. It’s likewise crucial to be able to test and measure sales messages like emails, talking points and voicemails.  To properly coach reps, sales managers need to be able to listen in on calls and provide feedback in real time.

The Definition of Productivity Varies

As Howard mentioned, different organizations use different benchmarks to define successful productivity.  “In many organizations, number of dials is the key benchmark. Others may look at conversations that lead to demos and meetings. And ultimately, you have organizations that not only look at activity level, but also efficiency.” This is an important point because a rep may be dialing and connecting with prospects all day. But in the end, it’s only the activities that lead to revenue that matter. The reps that are creating revenue most efficiently are the ones who are most valuable.

For more on accelerating sales productivity, advanced sales coaching strategies, a discussion of the challenges facing sales teams and more, check out Howard Brown’s episode on Accelerate!

Revenue’s Howard Brown Shares Startup Advice on Entrepreneur on Fire

What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur? This is the question Entrepreneur on Fire – or EOFire, as it’s known to fans – seeks to answer in its ongoing series of interviews with business leaders. Past guests have included marketing guru Seth Godin, Nimble’s Jon Ferrara and Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran. In the most recent episode, Revenue.io Founder and CEO Howard Brown sat down with host John Lee Dumas to share Revenue.io’s story and offer insights to fellow entrepreneurs acquired during his more-than-14-year journey as a business owner and consultant.

The interview kicks off with Howard relating stories from his early career in healthcare. “I realized I was a problem solver. I was on the right path. Trouble was, while I enjoyed helping people, I wanted to help them in a bigger way.”

Howard tells the story of founding his first startup, 4therapy, which he eventually sold to CRC Health (a Bain Capital company) before going on to serve as the company’s VP of Marketing. He then founded Senior Transitions, which he sold to RealPage, as well as a marketing consultancy, DemandResults. Revenue.io is the culmination of his journey as a marketer and consultant.

“I think of telecom as the commodity and all of the data that exists as what’s truly valuable to the company and the consumers,” he explains. “We want our problems solved and we want it to happen quickly. With Revenue.io, the consumer gets the right person and the company gets the right data.”

Howard’s Journey as an Entrepreneur

Revenue.io Founder and CEO Howard Brown uses an cool old-school handset to take a call on his iPad

Howard’s entrepreneurial philosophy is one of perpetual motion. “The difference between success and failure is movement.” And while he acknowledges that every day presents new opportunities to stop short, he challenges all entrepreneurs to constantly put one foot in front of the other. “There are people who stand and spin, they tend to think they’re actually moving, but they’re moving like a top and not going anywhere.”

But by persevering and staying true to course, he believes that no problem is too big to solve. “If you have a goal in your mind and you believe it in your heart and soul, then follow that dream to the end.”

Listen to Howard Brown’s entire interview on Entrepreneur on Fire.

Revenue CEO Howard Brown Presents at LeadsCon

Revenue.io CEO Howard Brown, along with Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, presented a vision of the future of mobile enterprise sales that includes access to actionable lead data in real time. The live demo of the new Revenue.io mobile contact center demonstrated how sales reps can see critical information about contacts – such as the campaign they saw right before they called, their search keywords or even their past contact history – in real time, offering a competitive edge during the sales process.

Automated Call Back Feature

Brown also demonstrated Revenue.io’s automated callback feature, which automatically calls a lead after a phone number is inputted into a website form. The Revenue.io team enjoyed chatting with customers that came up to the booth before and after the live demo to find out more.

Howard Brown, Revenue.io Founder & CEO

By some estimates, up to 43% of sales that begin on the internet are actually closed via telephone. When this happens, most companies lose insight into what really influenced a particular sale. We believe that the brands who will be most successful at phone sales will be those that know who is calling, what they want and how to sell it to them before the phone call even begins.

“Consumers are so tired of calling companies and being met immediately with a sales pitch that has no bearing on why they called in the first place,” said  Brown. “Companies should know before they even pick up the phone what consumers are interested in without having them select from a gauntlet of menu options.”

Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said, “Revenue.io is the amazing integration of a call center with CRM, call tracking, and marketing analytics all in one simple, easy to use mobile iPad app. Twilio is thrilled to power this transformative app.”

LeadsCon Buzz

We are thankful for all the interest we received at LeadsCon. Revenue.io has been generating buzz since last August, when our Chief Architect, Kyle Roche, won the Hackathon at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce convention. Our initial release will be specifically for Salesforce CRM customers, and we will be contacting companies that signed up for the beta release just as soon as there is space on the list.

LeadsCon for a Presentation on Intelligent Call Tracking

LeadsCon is here, and we’re super excited to be presenting again! LeadsCon is the definitive conference for lead generation, vertical media and direct response marketing. It has brought together an international community of marketers who, like us, value marketing accountability and results-based marketing. We’re looking forward to speaking with lead generation agencies, companies and individual marketers who are interested in getting credit for 100% of their marketing efforts.

This year, we’ve joined forces with our partner Twilio to prepare a presentation that addresses one of the biggest challenges to marketers today. Even your average marketers have little trouble taking credit for online ads that convert online. But how can marketers prove the ROI of inbound calls from marketing campaigns? How can sales teams optimize inbound call conversions?

The Answer to Inbound Calls

The answer is intelligent call tracking. This presentation is especially important in light of the reality that the business phone is more vital than it has ever been. Thanks to increased mobile adoption, inbound calls to businesses are on pace to more-than-double by 2016. In this competitive landscape, companies and agencies need the ability to not only draw a straight line from their efforts to inbound calls, but also draw a straight line to ROI generated from those calls. In our presentation, our CMO, William Tyree, will demonstrate how our customers are using call tracking to gain a 360-degree view of marketing ROI, and are making killer ad investments as a result.

Whether you are a call tracking novice, or have already had some success tracking calls, we’re certain that you’ll find our presentation to be valuable and informative. We’re looking forward to meeting some new people and building new relationships with forward-thinking marketers.

Here are the details:

Date: Tuesday, March 25
Time: 3:40-4:20p
Room: Jamaica AB

How to Track Bears, Cabs and Leads Using the Power of Software and the Cloud

A new breed of communications is emerging – one that empowers marketers to manage campaigns better, optimize returns, and tackle the mobile world. Twilio powers leading call tracking, lead management, and mobile marketing solutions. In this session, you will learn about Twilio’s cloud communications platform and  Revenue.io’s call tracking system that helps customers discover which marketing efforts are driving most valuable sales calls.

We’ll demonstrate that with call tracking, anything can be tracked—including bears. And if wild animals can be tracked, you better believe that direct mailings and radio ads can be as well. We will also reveal call tracking best practices that can help companies ensure that no leads fall through the cracks.

2025 update: This post contains legacy content regarding Revenue.io features. For the most recent up-to-date information about Revenue.io, please check out our amazing solutions at www.revenue.io

Revenue Founder & CEO Howard Brown on BNN Bloomberg Video

Our Founder & CEO Howard Brown appeared on BNN Bloomberg to discuss AI in sales, the powerful sales data trapped inside of everyone’s sales calls, and his experience working with amazing investors like Goldman Sachs and Bryant Stibel.

Howard covers how Revenue.io began as a platform that increases the effectiveness of sales reps, and added artificial intelligence to decode the conversations that occur through the platform. They also discuss the data that can be gleaned from calls, and how sales teams can use it to unlock massive success.

Also covered is how AI has and will continue to impact sales by actually allowing us to be more human.

Key points include:

0:00 – How Revenue.io got into AI via sales performance optimization

0:44 How Revenue.io is improving the sales conversation experience for everyone involved

2:15 What kind of ROI have customers seen after implementing Revenue.io

4:50 What it is like to work with investors like Goldman Sachs and Bryant Stibel

We’re Here to Support You – CEO, Howard Brown

As companies and other organizations make swift operational changes during this global health crisis, Revenue.io is taking steps to help our customers put the safety of their employees first while continuing to operate normally.

If your team is not already working remotely or distributed across multiple locations, we want you to know that we are ready to help you get there swiftly. Long before the COVID-19 outbreak, Revenue.io was designed to support remote teams across the globe with a wide variety of technical and operational challenges. Revenue.io currently supports customers across five continents, offering 24/7 support for teams operating across dozens of countries. We remain ready and committed to helping you navigate any challenge you might face.

Complimentary Remote Work Consultation

We are committed to helping customers prioritize the health and safety of their employees while carrying out business as usual. Our teams were already equipped with our own platform for seamless communications and enhanced productivity. That made it easy for us to make the decision to have 100% of Revenue.io employees work virtually to help prevent the risk of infection. In addition, we have canceled all employee travel for the next several weeks. Most importantly for customers, our success and support teams are operating without interruption.

The vast majority of Revenue.io customers operate worldwide with just a laptop and an Internet connection. Most remote users can be onboarded in a matter of minutes. We also offer a deep feature set for remote management, analytics and communications that your team may not be aware of. Should you be moving entire teams to remote locations for the first time, or simply need to increase your management capabilities, we are available to advise on capabilities that can make the transition virtually seamless. For help, simply reach out to your Revenue.io Customer Success Manager or contact us at support@revenue.io.

Next Steps

Revenue.io has formed a task force that meets regularly to ensure that we are abreast of the latest news affecting employees, customers and partners. In addition, we are accelerating innovations that will specifically help remote teams be more productive and successful. We will continue to be proactive, agile and decisive in our actions so that we will all get through this crisis together.

Sincerely,

Howard Brown

Founder & CEO
Revenue.io