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Wally Clost
Retired
Professional Background
Wally Clost is a distinguished professional with extensive experience in account management and sales within the technology and telecommunications sectors. His dynamic career spans several prominent organizations where he has played pivotal roles in driving sales and managing key client relationships. With a robust background in computer science and applied mathematics, Wally possesses a unique blend of technical expertise and business acumen, making him a valuable leader in the industry.
Wally's journey in the corporate world began at CSG/STM/ISM/IBM Global Service, where he honed his skills as a Senior Account Executive. His ability to understand complex client needs and deliver tailored solutions helped establish a strong foundation for his career. Following this role, Wally took on the responsibilities of Senior Account Manager at SunGard Availability Services, where he further developed his sales strategy and client management skills.
His ascent in the corporate ladder continued as he became the Director of Sales at SunGard Availability Services. In this leadership position, Wally was instrumental in driving sales initiatives and fostering relationships that significantly increased the company’s revenue and market presence. His strategic thinking and exceptional communication skills were vital in aligning the business objectives with client expectations, ensuring long-term partnerships.
Wally's extensive experience also includes his tenure at Savvis Communication Canada, Inc. (formerly Fusepoint), where he served as both Director of Sales and Senior Account Executive. In these roles, he excelled in creating strategies that not only met sales targets but also focused on enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement. His impressive track record at Savvis is a testament to his ability to adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Most recently, Wally served as a Senior Account Manager at CenturyLink Business for Enterprise. In this role, he further solidified his reputation as a strategic thinker and a results-oriented professional, managing large-scale accounts and implementing effective sales strategies that contributed to the company's success in the competitive telecommunications market.
Education and Achievements
Wally Clost pursued his academic passion for technology and mathematical applications by studying for a Bachelor of Science (BSC) in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at McMaster University. His educational background has provided him with a solid foundation to approach complex business problems with analytical and quantitative reasoning. This combination of education and experience has empowered him to excel in his roles and drive both team and organizational success.
Throughout his career, Wally has earned recognition for his outstanding contributions in sales and account management. His commitment to professional development and continuous improvement has kept him at the forefront of industry trends, allowing him to provide exceptional value to his clients and employers.
Notable Achievements
- Successfully managed key enterprise accounts and drove significant revenue growth during his tenure at various organizations.
- Played a crucial role in developing sales strategies that increased market share and enhanced customer engagement for Savvis Communication and SunGard Availability Services.
- Recognized for excellence in sales performance and awarded for meeting and exceeding targets consistently across his career.
- Established a reputation for cultivating long-term relationships with clients, leading to repeat business and referrals that further reinforced the organizations he represented.
Wally Clost continues to be a respected figure in the technology and telecommunications sectors, leveraging his broad experience and educational background to influence and lead in his field. His dedication to fostering client relationships and his expertise in sales strategy makes him a sought-after professional for organizations aiming to navigate the complexities of modern business environments.
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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:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- 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.
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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.
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