Home > Companies > Thought Leaders > Q&A with Erik Charles, Vice President and Solutions Evangelist at Xactly Corporation

Q&A with Erik Charles, Vice President and Solutions Evangelist at Xactly Corporation

MEDIA 7 | October 7, 2019

Erik Charles, Vice President and Solutions Evangelist at Xactly Corporation is an accomplished professional with over two decades of experience in Marketing, Consulting, and Product Evangelization. Erik focuses on helping companies drive expansion and growth by better aligning positions, responsibilities, and incentives.

Erik serves as a subject matter expert in the area of Sales Performance Management to ensure that Xactly’s marketing, sales and product teams have the necessary strategic input for industry leading messaging, positioning, and future direction.

MEDIA 7: When did you start working and what was it?
ERIK CHARLES:  In early 1980s, I wrote software on TRS-80 model II coded in BASIC to enable for computerized quotes for a life insurance agency. I was in middle school at the time, that was a contract work. My next job was at a software store back when software used to be bundled up into a cardboard box with inserted floppy disks and then it went on from there.

M7: You have an astounding experience of over two decades with industry pioneers like Apple, Sun Microsystems, Canon and recently Xactly Corporation. What has been the driving force behind your remarkable career?
EC: There are two things: as a marketer, I don’t believe in mistakes, I only believe in experiments and what we can learn from them, that has kept me moving forward. I keep on trying new things and seeing what works. I assume that just because it worked last week doesn’t mean it’s going to work tomorrow. So, I’ve never allowed myself to get into a rut. I have always been more than willing to find people who can provide excellent advice at critical moments, even on a specific direction. Finding someone that I can speak with, that can give me a few tips, tricks, hints, ideas, direction or path on moving on. So, I have never been afraid to ask just how could I do this better.


"Sales and marketing have to be best friends, they have to be fully aligned with each other, and they have to know what each other is doing at all times so they can partner. Companies that don’t do that cause themselves a lot of heartache."

M7: As the Vice President and Solutions Evangelist at Xactly Corporation, what are some of the challenges that you face and what has helped you in overcoming them?
EC: The biggest challenge I face – it is a changing marketplace out there. As we know, from a pure marketing perspective, there’s plenty of data sources out there. 60-70% of the buyer’s journey occurs without ever talking to the sales organization which puts more pressure on the marketing team.

Over the course of this interview I’ve already received two inbound phone calls that are unmarked/unlicensed or I don’t have in my directory. I just reject them automatically, they go straight to voice mail, I later read the transcribed voicemail and decide if I want to talk to them. So, cold-calling is not necessarily dead but it does take more work. I wake up every morning and delete approximately 50 cold emails, oftentimes from people who haven’t done any research on what my company does. They’ll hunt my name and my company but they don’t even realize what we do. So, I flip that to my own role in supporting Xactly and make sure that our voice is heard in an appropriate fashion.

The biggest challenge that I work on the most is in the area of thought leadership in terms of not ‘the same old all over again’ but actually being able to talk about what is going on in any given industry/market. I provide that advice backwards and set up Xactly and myself as the thought leaders and experts in the space, so customers have someone to turn to, to know where you should be going next.


"From a pure marketing perspective, there’s plenty of data sources out there. 60-70% of the buyer’s journey occurs without ever talking to the sales organization which puts more pressure on the marketing team."

M7: You’ve been in leadership roles for both sales and marketing functions, how do you think this alliance has evolved over the years and how significant is it for upcoming organizations to align both the departments?
EC: If you don’t have sales and marketing aligned, all you’re going to do is go through a revolving door of firing your CMO or firing your CRO every 18 or so months. Sales and marketing have to be best friends, they have to be fully aligned with each other, and they have to know what each other is doing at all times so they can partner. Companies that don’t do that cause themselves a lot of heartache. I believe that everybody should work in sales at some point in their lives. Even if it’s retail sales at the shopping mall, dealing with the general public, dealing with the challenges of a sales organization at minimum just doing ride-alongs with the sales organization to see what their life is like.

How on earth can you create a presentation deck for sales to use if you’ve never delivered it yourself or at least heard it being delivered in a customer or prospect facing situation. If you haven’t done that you get yourself into trouble very fast in my opinion. In smart organizations, the CMO and the CRO should be going out for coffee and cocktails whenever possible and talking about what’s working or not working in a non-threatening, not a senior staff offsite situation but more of a “Huh, we have this challenge how can we work together better?” But too often I’ve seen companies where marketing and sales are not in partnership. One of my advantages has been because I’ve been in sales, because I’ve carried a bag, because I’ve had a quota it has helped me significantly. So, when I’m talking to sales I can say, “Here’s a different way I might present this information, see if it works for you and if it does please let me know and we can share it out with the other members of the team”.

M7: You are a regular speaker at summits. Could you share some insights into being an industry thought leader?
EC: Yeah, don’t sell your product, provide information. Provide interesting, current, actionable information that is backed by both data but entertained with anecdotes. You have to remember things like the Ebbinghaus curve which gets into the fact that within 20 minutes how much people have forgotten and within 2 weeks how much more they have forgotten. I want people to walk out of my sessions and if somebody asks, “What did you learn in there?”, they should be able to list off almost bulletized format, three to five total things that they learned that they’re going to take away and act upon. And if they do that two weeks later, if they didn’t write it down, they’re still left with three of them and they’ll actually be able to get value out of my talk. I work very hard so that when people walk out they don’t think they’ve been sold to.


"In smart organizations, the CMO and the CRO should be going out for coffee and cocktails whenever possible and talking about what’s working or not working."

M7: According to you, what are the key marketing areas that industries will need to focus on in the coming 5 years?
EC: From a marketing perspective, one is to make sure you are adjusting your channels of communication to meet the next generation of employees. Millennials and the follow-on generation are taking over the workforce, and personally I welcome them. I think it’s magnificent, but note how they are communicating – people text as opposed to calling, they are using tools like Whatsapp to communicate. That is slowly shifting the communication medium and how people wish to absorb information on the business side as well. So, that’s going to be critical.

The other is people have gotten very good at detecting false narratives being used solely to sell product. People are looking to learn – constant learning is important for professionals but if you treat your outbound conversations also as constant learning people will respond positively. I had a customer at Xactly ask me, “Look, I’m a customer now, but can I still come to some of the talks and webinars and learn something?” And the answer is, “Of course!” That’s how they became a customer, they were interested in the education that we provided and that actually raised our profile as a company within the marketplace and it makes people want to do business with us.

M7: What have you learned from your experiences?
EC: You’re going to stumble and fall a lot, mistakes will be made, mistakes will happen. You will butt heads with opposing personality and you’ll have to learn to work with people with a variety of different interaction, styles, and skills, introverts and extroverts, people that go on the attack very quickly, etc. Understanding the personal side of the professional world is very important. People can claim that they can turn it off, I don’t think that’s true, especially now that it’s a 24/7 world.

I do international business so it’s always work time someplace on the globe for someplace that my company does business and I just have to accept that. So at the same time, I need to be able to accept that for my employees and for the people I’m talking to. They do have a personal life; unfortunately, personal life is blended into their professional life. Recognize it, accept it, work around it.

ABOUT XACTLY CORPORATION

Xactly delivers a scalable, enterprise platform for planning and incenting sales organizations, including sales quota and territory planning, incentive compensation management, and predictive analytics. Using this powerful sales performance management (SPM) portfolio, customers mitigate risk, accelerate sales performance, and increase business agility. Combined with Xactly Insights™-- the industry’s only empirical big data platform, Xactly empowers companies with real-time compensation insights and benchmarking data that maximize the bottom line. With an open, standards-based architecture, Xactly seamlessly integrates within an enterprise’s existing infrastructure, with the ability to work with any ERP, CRM, or HCM application, while meeting the highest enterprise standards in security, reliability, and privacy.

More THOUGHT LEADERS

'Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them' says Barry Richards, VP Global Strategy at Transmission.

Media7 | July 28, 2022

Barry Richards is the VP Global Strategist at Transmission, London. With over 25 years’ experience in the B2B Marketing industry, Barry is a seasoned strategist with a specialism in Account Based Marketing programmes. As part of the leadership team Barry has helped establish and develop the ABM planning, research and insight functions at the agency (including an Insight's Centre of Excellence). He has worked across all accounts and regions helping clients create the right ABM strategy and programmes to meet their goals. ...

Read More

'Don’t just sell a product - use content to establish yourself as an authentic thought leader,' advises AdDaptive Intelligence's Laura Goldstone

Media 7 | March 2, 2022

Laura Goldstone, Director, Communications and Branding Strategy at AdDaptive Intelligence, and an MBA graduate is an accomplished, creative, and strategic marketing leader with a proven ability to develop and implement integrated marketing and communication strategies. We had the opportunity to explore her expertise in elevating brand identities through correct messaging that addresses the customers' pain points. Read on to find out how she leverages analytics and sales communication when creating marketing campaigns that work for AdDaptive Intelligence....

Read More

Customer Success upholds and revamps the value-driven from a product, says Folloze's Adi Aloni

Media 7 | February 14, 2022

We had an opportunity to explore the crossroad between marketing and customer success with Adi Aloni, VP of Customer Success at Folloze. Read and find out more about building a customer success team from the ground up....

Read More

'Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them' says Barry Richards, VP Global Strategy at Transmission.

Media7 | July 28, 2022

Barry Richards is the VP Global Strategist at Transmission, London. With over 25 years’ experience in the B2B Marketing industry, Barry is a seasoned strategist with a specialism in Account Based Marketing programmes. As part of the leadership team Barry has helped establish and develop the ABM planning, research and insight functions at the agency (including an Insight's Centre of Excellence). He has worked across all accounts and regions helping clients create the right ABM strategy and programmes to meet their goals. ...

Read More

'Don’t just sell a product - use content to establish yourself as an authentic thought leader,' advises AdDaptive Intelligence's Laura Goldstone

Media 7 | March 2, 2022

Laura Goldstone, Director, Communications and Branding Strategy at AdDaptive Intelligence, and an MBA graduate is an accomplished, creative, and strategic marketing leader with a proven ability to develop and implement integrated marketing and communication strategies. We had the opportunity to explore her expertise in elevating brand identities through correct messaging that addresses the customers' pain points. Read on to find out how she leverages analytics and sales communication when creating marketing campaigns that work for AdDaptive Intelligence....

Read More

Customer Success upholds and revamps the value-driven from a product, says Folloze's Adi Aloni

Media 7 | February 14, 2022

We had an opportunity to explore the crossroad between marketing and customer success with Adi Aloni, VP of Customer Success at Folloze. Read and find out more about building a customer success team from the ground up....

Read More

Related News

CORE ABM

6sense Wins Three TrustRadius Winter 2023 Best of Awards for ABM

6Sense, TrustRadius | February 03, 2023

6sense, the premier platform for B2B enterprises creating predictable revenue, recently announced that TrustRadius has recognized the company with three awards in the account-based marketing category, including Best Value for the Price,Best Feature Set,and Best Relationship. The awards recognize 6sense products that exhibit a dedication to transparency, development, and user insights. Sanjay Kini, 6sense Chief Customer Officer, said, “Earning these awards from TrustRadius is an excellent way to kick-off 2023.” He added, “We’re happy for the opportunity to continue providing customers with the best options to help them reach their revenue goals through high-quality intent data, account prospecting, activity tracking, and personalized outreach.” (Source – Businesswire) TrustRadius is the review site for technology items that assists purchasers in making more informed product purchases based on impartial and insightful consumer evaluations. To reach the list, products must have attained a trScore of at least 7.5 and received at least 40 customer reviews in the previous year. About 6sense 6sense aims to revolutionize how businesses generate, manage, and convert pipeline to revenue. 6sense Revenue AITM analyzes anonymous purchasing signals, targets the appropriate accounts at the optimal moment, and advises the channels and content that will increase revenue performance. Itenables sales, marketing, and customer success teams to drastically enhance pipeline quality, increase conversion rates,accelerate sales velocity, and grow revenue predictably by removing uncertainty, friction, and wasted sales effort. Gartner,Forbes Cloud 100, and Forrester have acknowledged 6sense's market-defining technology, while Glassdoor, Inc. Magazine, and Comparably have praised the company's great culture. About TrustRadius TrustRadius is the most reliable research and review platform for business leaders looking to find and select the best software for their needs. It provides verified, peer-reviewed recommendations and research to decision-makers across sectors. In addition, vendors engage and convert high-intent buyers by telling their unique stories through rich feedback. On its website, over 12 million visitors per year create and interact with high-quality review content and data. TrustRadius was founded by successful entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas, and is backed by LiveOak Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, and Next Coast Ventures.

Read More

ACCOUNT BASED DATA

Bidtellect and Bombora Partner to Increase Conversions per Click in a Campaign Test Using Contextual Targeting

Bidtellect, Bombora | January 20, 2023

Bidtellect, one of the leading demand-side platform and advertising technology firms, and Bombora, the pioneer in B2B intent data, recently collaborated with a financial services client to compare the effectiveness of contextual targeting and behavioral targeting in a head-to-head campaign test. The results demonstrate the efficacy of context-sensitive, cookie-free technology as a performance aid rather than a cookie substitute. The objectives of the campaign were to direct users to the client's landing pages and promote chatbot interactions. The contextual campaign used Bombora's contextual segments to accompany Bidtellect's bidding technology. Ultimately, Bombora and Bidtellect contextual technology drastically reduced the cost of driving users to landing pages, saving the client money and optimising return on spend. Director of Sales at Bidtellect, Jonno Burden, said, "Account-based marketing has historically been the default strategy for our B2B partners targeting decision-makers in their industry." He added, "Bombora and Bidtellect's double-pronged approach incorporating their contextual solution not only reaches potential clients via ABM targeting, but drives incremental conversions, engagement, and reach that are potentially missed. We were thrilled to see such great results with new converting clients." (Source – GlobeNewswire) Notable outcomes include eCPC (effective cost per click) and eCPM efficiencies, which resulted in 38% more impressions and an astounding 83% more clicks by the contextual test campaign than to the control campaign. In addition, the Bombora contextual test campaign performed 48% higher in landing page CPA (cost per acquisition) and 19% better in chatbot CPA than the behavioral control campaign. About Bidtellect Bidtellect is a performance-driven demand side platform (DSP) focusing on context-first optimization, cookieless solutions, and native programmatic. It is one of the industry leaders in premium supply quality and optimizing down to the placement level while providing extensive campaign insights across various KPIs for our brand, agency, and trade desk partners. Due to industry-leading brand safety technologies, premium supply quality, and better context capabilities, the company consistently surpasses rivals in almost every head-to-head performance test. About Bombora Bombora is the leading source of marketing and sales intent data for B2B companies. The company's data unify marketing and sales teams, enabling them to make decisions based on information about which businesses are actively investigating which products and the intensity of their research. Thus, marketers may leverage this data to drive more qualified demand down the sales funnel, while sales teams can prioritize accounts more efficiently and achieve higher-quality conversions. This information was compiled by the first cooperative of more than 5,000 premium B2B media suppliers.

Read More

CORE ABM, ABM ACCOUNTS

Full Circle Insights Partners with Bombora to Help ABM Users

Full Circle Insights, Bombora | January 25, 2023

On January 24, 2023, Full Circle Insights, a provider of marketing and sales performance evaluation solutions that enable B2B marketers to enhance their marketing mix and generate more revenue, and Bombora, the leading provider of B2B intent data solutions, announced an integration that enables Full Circle ABM users to utilize the power of intent data to detect and track accounts from the identified stage of account activation to closed-won deals. The integration with Bombora enables B2B marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of their ABM strategy inside the CRM, which acts as a single source of truth for data. In addition, this fosters tighter cooperation on account targeting, which is essential for B2B success. The Company Surge® Intent data from Bombora tells customers which companies are studying the products and services they and their rivals provide. It employs data from the largest coalition of B2B publisher websites and a sophisticated Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine to detect the context of the content instead of merely scraping keywords. Full Circle Insights uniquely records, saves, and utilizes the historical data directly inside Salesforce. This allows B2B marketers to compare ABM funnel information from different time periods, spot patterns, and optimize marketing expenditures. Additionally, users can track the buyer's journey from the first website click to the final sale. About Bombora Bombora is the premier provider of B2B marketing and sales intent data. Its data unify marketing and sales teams, allowing them to make decisions based on the information of which organizations are actively studying what products and the intensity of their investigation. As a result, marketers can use this data to drive more qualified demand through the sales funnel, while sales teams can prioritize accounts more effectively and have higher-quality conversions. This data comes from the first cooperative of over 5,000 premium B2B media providers. Members provide content consumption and audience behavior data aggregated into more than 10,000 Intent topics. About Full Circle Insights Full Circle Insights offers solutions for marketing performance management. It provides sales and marketing performance management tools to improve a business's marketing mix and increase revenue. In addition, the company offers multi-touch attribution, full-funnel data, and technology for lead management. Full Circle Insights' products are 100% built on the Salesforce Platform and complement major marketing automation solutions. The company was founded by former Salesforce executives, CRM implementation veterans, and marketing automation professionals with extensive experience establishing marketing measurement foundations for revenue growth.

Read More

CORE ABM

6sense Wins Three TrustRadius Winter 2023 Best of Awards for ABM

6Sense, TrustRadius | February 03, 2023

6sense, the premier platform for B2B enterprises creating predictable revenue, recently announced that TrustRadius has recognized the company with three awards in the account-based marketing category, including Best Value for the Price,Best Feature Set,and Best Relationship. The awards recognize 6sense products that exhibit a dedication to transparency, development, and user insights. Sanjay Kini, 6sense Chief Customer Officer, said, “Earning these awards from TrustRadius is an excellent way to kick-off 2023.” He added, “We’re happy for the opportunity to continue providing customers with the best options to help them reach their revenue goals through high-quality intent data, account prospecting, activity tracking, and personalized outreach.” (Source – Businesswire) TrustRadius is the review site for technology items that assists purchasers in making more informed product purchases based on impartial and insightful consumer evaluations. To reach the list, products must have attained a trScore of at least 7.5 and received at least 40 customer reviews in the previous year. About 6sense 6sense aims to revolutionize how businesses generate, manage, and convert pipeline to revenue. 6sense Revenue AITM analyzes anonymous purchasing signals, targets the appropriate accounts at the optimal moment, and advises the channels and content that will increase revenue performance. Itenables sales, marketing, and customer success teams to drastically enhance pipeline quality, increase conversion rates,accelerate sales velocity, and grow revenue predictably by removing uncertainty, friction, and wasted sales effort. Gartner,Forbes Cloud 100, and Forrester have acknowledged 6sense's market-defining technology, while Glassdoor, Inc. Magazine, and Comparably have praised the company's great culture. About TrustRadius TrustRadius is the most reliable research and review platform for business leaders looking to find and select the best software for their needs. It provides verified, peer-reviewed recommendations and research to decision-makers across sectors. In addition, vendors engage and convert high-intent buyers by telling their unique stories through rich feedback. On its website, over 12 million visitors per year create and interact with high-quality review content and data. TrustRadius was founded by successful entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas, and is backed by LiveOak Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, and Next Coast Ventures.

Read More

ACCOUNT BASED DATA

Bidtellect and Bombora Partner to Increase Conversions per Click in a Campaign Test Using Contextual Targeting

Bidtellect, Bombora | January 20, 2023

Bidtellect, one of the leading demand-side platform and advertising technology firms, and Bombora, the pioneer in B2B intent data, recently collaborated with a financial services client to compare the effectiveness of contextual targeting and behavioral targeting in a head-to-head campaign test. The results demonstrate the efficacy of context-sensitive, cookie-free technology as a performance aid rather than a cookie substitute. The objectives of the campaign were to direct users to the client's landing pages and promote chatbot interactions. The contextual campaign used Bombora's contextual segments to accompany Bidtellect's bidding technology. Ultimately, Bombora and Bidtellect contextual technology drastically reduced the cost of driving users to landing pages, saving the client money and optimising return on spend. Director of Sales at Bidtellect, Jonno Burden, said, "Account-based marketing has historically been the default strategy for our B2B partners targeting decision-makers in their industry." He added, "Bombora and Bidtellect's double-pronged approach incorporating their contextual solution not only reaches potential clients via ABM targeting, but drives incremental conversions, engagement, and reach that are potentially missed. We were thrilled to see such great results with new converting clients." (Source – GlobeNewswire) Notable outcomes include eCPC (effective cost per click) and eCPM efficiencies, which resulted in 38% more impressions and an astounding 83% more clicks by the contextual test campaign than to the control campaign. In addition, the Bombora contextual test campaign performed 48% higher in landing page CPA (cost per acquisition) and 19% better in chatbot CPA than the behavioral control campaign. About Bidtellect Bidtellect is a performance-driven demand side platform (DSP) focusing on context-first optimization, cookieless solutions, and native programmatic. It is one of the industry leaders in premium supply quality and optimizing down to the placement level while providing extensive campaign insights across various KPIs for our brand, agency, and trade desk partners. Due to industry-leading brand safety technologies, premium supply quality, and better context capabilities, the company consistently surpasses rivals in almost every head-to-head performance test. About Bombora Bombora is the leading source of marketing and sales intent data for B2B companies. The company's data unify marketing and sales teams, enabling them to make decisions based on information about which businesses are actively investigating which products and the intensity of their research. Thus, marketers may leverage this data to drive more qualified demand down the sales funnel, while sales teams can prioritize accounts more efficiently and achieve higher-quality conversions. This information was compiled by the first cooperative of more than 5,000 premium B2B media suppliers.

Read More

CORE ABM, ABM ACCOUNTS

Full Circle Insights Partners with Bombora to Help ABM Users

Full Circle Insights, Bombora | January 25, 2023

On January 24, 2023, Full Circle Insights, a provider of marketing and sales performance evaluation solutions that enable B2B marketers to enhance their marketing mix and generate more revenue, and Bombora, the leading provider of B2B intent data solutions, announced an integration that enables Full Circle ABM users to utilize the power of intent data to detect and track accounts from the identified stage of account activation to closed-won deals. The integration with Bombora enables B2B marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of their ABM strategy inside the CRM, which acts as a single source of truth for data. In addition, this fosters tighter cooperation on account targeting, which is essential for B2B success. The Company Surge® Intent data from Bombora tells customers which companies are studying the products and services they and their rivals provide. It employs data from the largest coalition of B2B publisher websites and a sophisticated Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine to detect the context of the content instead of merely scraping keywords. Full Circle Insights uniquely records, saves, and utilizes the historical data directly inside Salesforce. This allows B2B marketers to compare ABM funnel information from different time periods, spot patterns, and optimize marketing expenditures. Additionally, users can track the buyer's journey from the first website click to the final sale. About Bombora Bombora is the premier provider of B2B marketing and sales intent data. Its data unify marketing and sales teams, allowing them to make decisions based on the information of which organizations are actively studying what products and the intensity of their investigation. As a result, marketers can use this data to drive more qualified demand through the sales funnel, while sales teams can prioritize accounts more effectively and have higher-quality conversions. This data comes from the first cooperative of over 5,000 premium B2B media providers. Members provide content consumption and audience behavior data aggregated into more than 10,000 Intent topics. About Full Circle Insights Full Circle Insights offers solutions for marketing performance management. It provides sales and marketing performance management tools to improve a business's marketing mix and increase revenue. In addition, the company offers multi-touch attribution, full-funnel data, and technology for lead management. Full Circle Insights' products are 100% built on the Salesforce Platform and complement major marketing automation solutions. The company was founded by former Salesforce executives, CRM implementation veterans, and marketing automation professionals with extensive experience establishing marketing measurement foundations for revenue growth.

Read More

Spotlight

Xactly Corp

Xactly delivers a scalable, enterprise platform for planning and incenting sales organizations, including sales quota and territory planning, incentive compensation management, and predictive analytics. Using this powerful sales performance management (SPM) portfolio, customers mitigate risk, accele...

Events

Resources

resource image

Spreadsheets vs. Automation: What's Best for Sales Compensation Management?

Article

resource image

How to Increase Sales Forecasting Accuracy with Automation

Article

resource image

Xactly Sales Performance Management Software | Extend the Power of NetSuite

Video

Events