Ben Jablow, VP of Business Development at Postal.io, is an experienced tech executive having led multiple products, built alliance & channel operations, and managed sales organizations. At Postal.io, Jablow oversees corporate development, channels/alliances, integrations and strategic initiatives. Jablow spent 16 years at CareerBuilder, developing and growing multiple products, including their niche websites. He also built and launched their partnership and channel program. Previously, Jablow was the Chief Revenue Officer at Hunt Club and is a board member at multiple startups, including Zero Keyboard.
How has your work at Postal.io changed in the last few years?
In spite of economic shifts, privacy regulations, and pressure to decrease costs, our original hypothesis remains the same: Offline/direct mail should be an important part of every company’s sales, marketing and people ops strategies. What’s changed is the runway for companies to experiment. As purse strings get justifiably tighter, and finance gets more involved in software buying decisions, conveying our value to the appropriate buyer early in the sales process is critical.
In the context of offline engagement, why does a good partnership matter to all parties, including sales, marketing, and operations?
From our perspective, there are a lot of moving pieces with offline engagement. You have the technology, the vendors who offer their goods in our marketplace, distributors and supply chain marketing orgs that provide companies with branded merchandise, and warehouse/fulfillment for companies that want to send items that they have pre-purchased. We want to provide our clients with amazing technology. Our philosophy has been, and continues to be, to partner with companies to provide the other pieces of the puzzle. It allows us to build awesome technology and partner with companies that sell amazing products, create unique branded merchandise and have created a top-notch logistics network and experience for their clients.
Can you explain the role of offline engagement within the omni-channels of marketing and how it is utilized by Sales, Marketing, and People Ops?
The most savvy companies are building true omni-channel campaigns that incorporate multiple mediums. Sales and marketing are incorporating gifting as part of prospecting in their workflows, cadences and sequences to schedule meetings with decision-makers or differentiating through the sales process. They are also utilizing it for current clients to incentivize actions or to assist in building product loyalty and advocacy.
People Ops uses it to maintain/build culture and employee loyalty. Many of our clients focus on automating new hire swag packs recognizing employees on milestones like birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, etc.
Who benefits the most from “offline engagement?
Most companies benefit from it when they truly make it part of their sales, marketing and people ops processes. Tech/software companies are a bit ahead of the curve, but other industries are catching up quickly. We see a ton of engagement in financial services, healthcare and real estate.
Can you provide insight into the ROI of offline engagement, specifically related to the distribution and shipping of swag?
Most companies haven’t historically tracked ROI associated with branded or non-branded goods. Technical integrations with Salesforce, Hubspot, etc. have allowed us to provide clients with the true influence on prospects, clients, etc. We offer the ability to understand how each stage of the sales pipeline is influenced by each send to a prospect. This type of ROI reporting hasn’t been available historically at scale.
Can you share any stats about the preferences of recipients, and how businesses can leverage this information to optimize their offline engagement?
Here are a few statistics that I frequently point to, all of which point to the value of adding offline engagement to the sales and marketing stack. It’s quantifiable and extremely effective.