Liz Fulham, SalesOptimize
13th July 2016
Every month we speak to women entrepreneurs who have just launched into the business world.
In the hot seat for July’s Women Who Launch is Liz Fulham, SalesOptimize.
The Elevator Pitch
SalesOptimize’s B2B search engine scans the internet to identify eCommerce sales leads that can be exported to a business’s CRM.
The Operation
We are a team of 11 based in the NCI Business and Research Centre in the IFSC. We’re bringing lead generation to a whole new level with our revolutionary B2B eCommerce search engine.
My vision is to keep the internet open and give all business equal access to the eCommerce market. With our B2B search engine, a company can fill their pipeline with 1000s of sales leads and keep their sales team busy for years to come.
The Financials
Our main investors are Enterprise Ireland, Wayra (Telefonica’s startup accelerator), private investor and friends/family. Price Plan starts at €199 a month for 150 sales leads and raises to €1,599 a month for 2000 sales leads.
Target Market
The markets we are targeting are Marketing Software and ICT companies, Payment Processors, Shipping/delivery companies and manufacturers who wish to sell their products to online retailers.
Brands You Love
We love the payment and shipping brands like DPD, Hermes UK, Amazon, Digital River.
Biggest ‘Win’ To Date
DPD and Digital River have been great wins for us. Not just because of their brand name but also their feedback on how to improve the product.
Biggest ‘Slap in the Face’
We had a big shipping company push back to say that every major website declares who they ship with. From our own analysis we know that this is not true (you can see this on www.apple.com, www.nike.com). I don’t think big companies understand the big mess is the internet. We had to develop a lot of algorithms to clean up the data.
Are You Social When It Comes To Media?
It’s very important, not only for us to have a presence for our own brand image, SEO and backlink opportunities but it also part of the product. Our search engine data mines these social media platforms to help present a true picture of each sales lead.
Technology & Innovation
I am all about technology and innovation. I have over 25 years work experience in major corporates e.g. Microsoft, IBM, Paypal, Telefonica and others. I am an inventor at heart, always coming up with new innovative ways of doing things and technology is my enabler.
Business Model You’d Like To Emulate
I love the Microsoft Licensing model. I was there when it was created and I was blown away by the efficiency and profit margin. I also like the Salesforce model where you give back 1% of your profit. My long term hope is to give back a lot more than this to our community.
If you had a blank cheque
1. Scale our product worldwide by localising for each of the major markets.
2. I’d love to partner with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) companies to fill the sales pipeline with all their leads.
3. Help business have access to the new market – by providing leads for any business online.
Your Traits – Best and Worst
Best: I’m an insane innovator with too many ideas.
I love coaching and leading people.
I’m very customer centric. I will do what I can to help my customers win.
Worst: Spend too much time working – my children go bonkers when I bring the laptop on holidays. I am writing this brief down in Kerry now 😉
Too many ideas – Need to focus on a few and make these really successful. My technology team suggested an ‘ideas box’ where I could pick out a new idea once every six months but I secretly think this is just a paper shredder!
Get work life balance right as I do over 80 hours+ a week but to be honest I think that is the life of a start-up CEO.
Best Business Lunch Date
Robert Fisk – the Middle East Correspondent. I think a big problem in life is that people don’t deal with the truth. Robert seems to truly understand the crisis in the Middle East and calls it as he sees it.
Ideal Business Partner
Bill Gates – Not only does he know how to make money but also how to help the world. He is one of the world biggest philanthropists and I admire this about him. I had the privilege of meeting him in Microsoft and seeing his leadership in action.
Best business advice
Have a vision. Believe in yourself. Put the customer at the heart of what you do. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and will challenge your thinking. Get rid of the people who flatter your ego. To be successful you must be solving a big problem for your customers and they must come first. Never forget as a leader you are there to serve your customers, staff and shareholders.
