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Michael Findling
Director of Digital Marketing & ABM @ PRGX Global Inc.
Professional Background
Michael Findling is a seasoned Process-driven Marketing leader with extensive experience in the B2B SaaS domain. He possesses a profound understanding of the intricate relationship between Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Customer Success, which equips him with the ability to engineer robust marketing strategies that drive business growth. Throughout his impressive career, Michael has successfully led various marketing initiatives, particularly in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and sophisticated go-to-market (GTM) strategies, that align closely with sales objectives and customer engagement goals. Michael's career is marked by a notable tenure at multiple prestigious organizations, where he took on critical roles that have shaped his marketing leadership prowess.
Education and Achievements
Michael pursued his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from Boston University. This educational foundation provided him with the essential business acumen to navigate the complexities of marketing in today’s technology-driven landscape. In addition to his formal education, Michael's professional journey is lined with remarkable achievements. For instance, he spearheaded the implementation of strategic Account-Based Marketing frameworks, which led to a remarkable 30% increase in pipeline generation and influence within just two months of execution. Through targeted channel tactics and personalized audience engagement, he has consistently proven his capability to deliver substantial marketing results.
Key Professional Experiences
Michael's career is characterized by several pivotal roles in leading organizations:
- As the Director of Digital Marketing & ABM at PRGX Global Inc., Michael honed his skills in digital strategy and customer-driven marketing initiatives, effectively contributing to the organization’s marketing goals.
- At AMCS Group, Michael served as the Director of Account Based Marketing, focusing on sophisticated marketing strategies tailored for crucial accounts, enhancing client relationships, and boosting engagement.
- In his capacity as Senior Principal Program Manager for Account Based Marketing at Red Hat, he successfully enhanced marketing operations to align with sales objectives, fostering a culture of collaboration across departments.
- His role as the Global Marketing Operations Practice Leader at Salesforce allowed Michael to oversee operational effectiveness at a global scale, ensuring marketing initiatives were both impactful and measurable.
- Other notable positions Michael has held include Senior Manager of Enterprise Campaigns at Salesforce, Director of Demand Generation at Get Satisfaction, and Senior Manager of Marketing & Communications at Crowd Factory, which was later acquired by Marketo.
- Michael began his career as a Business Analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, gaining important insights into data-driven marketing decision-making. His early experiences included the Learning Management Systems Strategist role at Standard & Poor's, and the Learning and Professional Development Analyst position at Goldman Sachs, both of which contributed to his understanding of corporate training and communication.
Notable Achievements
Michael's notable achievements reflect his adeptness in driving measurable business results through innovative marketing practices:
- He successfully enhanced the effectiveness of sales teams by introducing tailored sales enablement programs for Enterprise Sales Leadership, achieving a 20% increase in engagement rates and reducing churn risk within a quick 90-day period.
- His robust data-driven approach to marketing operations led to an 80% enhancement in CRM data quality. Through extensive data audits and optimizations, Michael established best practices in data management that fostered successful marketing efforts across multiple platforms.
- By managing a significant annual customer marketing budget of $7 million, he optimized budget allocations to stimulate digital marketing initiatives, resulting in a 35% increase in pipeline influence quarter-over-quarter.
- Michael shows expertise in cross-functional collaboration, leading a team of 95 regional field marketers in customer-centric strategic planning. This leadership significantly improved communication across departments and enhanced the utilization of data analytics for more informed marketing strategies.
- As a skilled market analyst and strategist, Michael is adept at conducting market research and evaluations to guide marketing decisions, ensuring strategies remain aligned with business objectives and responsive to market dynamics.
- Moreover, he has developed a comprehensive demand generation reporting framework, enhancing the marketing team's capabilities in managing campaigns, mapping customer journeys, and executing targeted marketing efforts that lead to effective lead nurturing and higher conversion rates.
Conclusion
With a career that spans numerous high-profile roles and accomplishments in the B2B SaaS marketing sector, Michael Findling epitomizes the ideal marketing leader. His background reflects a strong blend of strategic thinking, data-driven execution, and a commitment to collaboration that yields impressive outcomes. Through innovative ABM initiatives and his expertise in crafting go-to-market strategies, Michael has established himself as a distinguished voice in the marketing sphere. Looking ahead, he is poised to continue leading transformative marketing efforts that not only drive growth but also enhance overall business performance.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.