Outreach Adds Sue Bostrom, Former EVP and CMO of Cisco Systems, to Board of Directors

Outreach, the number one sales engagement platform, announced the appointment of Sue Bostrom, a tech veteran with more than 30 years of experience, to its board of directors.

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“Sue‌ ‌is‌ ‌a‌ ‌remarkable‌ ‌addition‌ ‌to‌ ‌our‌ ‌board,” said‌ ‌Manny‌ ‌Medina,‌ ‌chief‌ ‌executive‌ ‌officer‌ ‌of‌ ‌Outreach.‌ ‌”We’re‌ ‌eager‌ ‌to‌ ‌welcome‌ ‌her‌ ‌depth‌ ‌of‌ ‌knowledge‌ ‌in‌ ‌leadership,‌ technology, ‌and‌ ‌marketing‌ ‌excellence.‌ ‌I‌ ‌know‌ ‌she‌ ‌will‌ ‌help‌ ‌propel‌ ‌Outreach‌ ‌to‌ ‌new‌ ‌heights.‌‌”

Bostrom was executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Cisco Systems, where she worked for 14 years and was responsible for the company’s positioning, branding, advertising, and product marketing. She was also responsible for Cisco’s Worldwide Government Affairs and Small Business Council and was the executive sponsor of the Women’s Initiative. In addition, she built and led the Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), which brought vertical expertise and Internet business best practices to global Fortune 500 companies and heads of state. She has also held leadership positions at National Semiconductor and McKinsey & Company. In addition to Outreach, Sue is on the board of directors of public companies ServiceNow, Nutanix, Anaplan, and Cadence Design Systems. She serves on the private company boards of GitLab and Druva.

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Grit is one of Outreach’s core values, and Bostrom embraces it. She hit the ground running with her involvement at Outreach, making her first public appearance as a board member in front of thousands of sales professionals at Outreach’s Unleash Virtual Summit. Along with CEO Manny Medina, she took to the virtual stage to present Outreach’s latest innovation, Outreach Kaia – a real-time Knowledge AI Assistant. Outreach Kaia uses AI to make every sales representative more effective by giving them the critical information they need, exactly when they need it.

Outreach Announces “Outreach Kaia,” Real-Time Knowledge AI Assistant Which Helps Customer-Facing Reps Sell Smarter and Close Deals Faster

Outreach, the number one sales engagement platform, today announced Outreach Kaia (Knowledge AI Assistant), a revolutionary real-time, voice-enabled knowledge assistant powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that makes every sale rep more effective and every customer conversation more productive. The new product was unveiled today at Outreach’s flagship event, the Unleash Virtual Summit 2020, before an audience of over 10,000 sales professionals.

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Outreach Kaia brings together intelligent sales enablement, advanced automation that streamlines tasks, and out-of-the-box capabilities that help sales reps conduct productive meetings and execute the perfect follow up.

“I’ve been waiting five years for Outreach Kaia. This is the most powerful tool to be introduced in the sales industry in a long time, and we are very excited to be bringing the next generation of sales technology to life,” said Manny Medina, CEO of Outreach. “Now more than ever, sales teams need Outreach Kaia — especially when so many of them are working remotely. Outreach Kaia’s ability to surface real-time information exactly when a sales rep needs it during a live conversation is powerful.

“Imagine you’re on a sales call and someone asks you a question about your product or your competitor’s pricing and you don’t know the answer. Well, Outreach Kaia will automatically pull up the information you need – in real-time.

“This level of intelligent assistance will make sales teams productive immediately. Outreach already drives a nearly 5x return for our customers. Now, with Outreach Kaia we expect that ROI to soar.”

Outreach Kaia keeps sales deals moving. It reduces the need for follow-up that can slow down a deal cycle — helping sales reps stay organized and focused during meetings and makes sure nothing falls through the cracks. Key features include:

  • Web conferencing integration: Outreach Kaia is integrated into Zoom, a leading online conferencing solution, and includes support for video recording with screen share. Additional conferencing partners are planned in the future.
  • Real-time call recording and transcription: Sub-second call recording and speech-to-text transcription accurately capture the sales conversation as it happens.  Transcriptions can be searched or reviewed after the call for training and coaching.
  • Flashcards: Questions raised by a prospect during the meeting are answered by Outreach Kaia with prompt, on-screen Content Cards.
    • Content Cards provide information on topics such as product specifications and competitor comparisons, so sales reps can provide smart and timely answers to customer questions.
    • People Cards provide the sales rep with real-time knowledge about stakeholders that may be involved in the sales cycle
  • Action Items: Critical sales tasks and action items are automatically captured in real-time as they occur during the conversation and are included in the meeting summary.
  • Meeting Summary: A meeting summary is automatically created and sent to the rep which includes a list of meeting attendees, action items, and notes. The meeting summary can then be personalized and quickly emailed to all stakeholders.
  • Bookmarks and Notes: Key moments during the meeting can be “bookmarked” by the rep in real-time so they’re easy to refer back to later and reps can create notes for easy reference.
  • Security & Privacy: Kaia has security and privacy measures built directly into the experience. Participants are alerted to recordings prior to and at the beginning of the meeting as Kaia visibly joins as a meeting participant. Recordings and transcripts are securely stored within Outreach, which has enterprise-grade security measures already in place.
  • Along with Outreach Kaia, Outreach unveiled several other platform enhancements at its virtual summit including:
    • Sequence Intent Reporting: This feature in Outreach’s Amplify AI suite uses machine learning to classify the intent of a prospect’s email into granular categories. Instead of a simple yes/no replies, Sequence Intent Reporting classifies responses into positive, objections, referrals, and unsubscribe requests. Now managers have more context into customers’ intent, giving them the insights they need to respond rapidly and increase productivity while closing the gaps between top and bottom performers.
    • Outreach Voice Connectors: Now sales professionals can call their customers within Outreach. With new integrations with IP telephony solutions like Dialpad and RingCentral, sales reps can launch their inbound or outbound call tasks within Outreach seamlessly, and have that call data collected in Outreach.
    • Buyer Intent Scores featuring Bombora: Given the current selling environment, understanding where potential buyers are in their buying process is critically important. Outreach is the only sales engagement platform offering buyer intent scores powered by intent data providers, which allows reps to prioritize engagement based on the accounts most likely to buy. Leading intent data provider Bombora joins the Outreach Galaxy of partners with its integration and an exclusive offer for all Outreach customers.

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