Description
🎯 What happens when email stops working and you need another edge? Kris Rudeegraap—co-founder and co-CEO of Sendoso—went from 90% email response rates to running a mini mail room out of desperation. Then he built the largest direct mail and gifting platform in the world.
This episode is essential viewing for sales leaders, VPs of sales, sales enablement professionals, and anyone whose pipeline looks rough and whose emails are going to spam. If you're tired of "more, faster, louder" and want to actually get someone's attention, this conversation will give you ideas.
📚 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
THE OPEN RATE OF FEDEX IS 100% — There's psychology to the tangible unboxing of a box. The reciprocity of getting a gift—you feel more inclined to reply. And there's scarcity: not everyone is doing it.
FROM MAIL MERGE TO MAIL ROOM — Kris got 90% response rates with email in 2014. Then SalesLoft, Outreach, and Apollo flooded the market. So he started sending handwritten notes, dog toys, and swag from the marketing closet. He became the top seller—and then built a company around it.
THE DOG BARK MOMENT — Kris heard a dog bark on a sales call and sent a dog toy from Amazon. That curiosity—noticing what's going on in someone's world—became the foundation of Sendoso.
THE KANSAS CITY RIBS STORY — A prospect broke a rib skiing. The Sendoso team sent a rack of BBQ ribs to his office. He shared the story with his whole company, and they got the deal. "Things like that break down the divide of a company selling to another company."
PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE — Kris's motto isn't just a tagline—it's how they build their product, culture, and customer relationships. Trust comes from deposits in the relationship bank account.
AI AND DATA — Sendoso is pulling interests from Gong calls to recommend gifts six months later. That data is usually lost in transcripts. Now it powers an interest graph.
📌 KEY MOMENTS:
00:00 - Who is Kris Rudeegraap?
03:00 - From mail merge to 90% response rates
06:00 - The dog bark moment: curiosity as competitive advantage
09:00 - "The open rate of a FedEx box is 100%"
12:00 - Building Sendoso: software + warehouses + drop-ship + AI
15:00 - Door opening vs. customer appreciation
18:00 - The Kansas City ribs story
22:00 - The pizza box campaign: "Hungry for a new solution?"
26:00 - AI/data layer: pulling interests from Gong calls
30:00 - Secret sauce: tenacity to win + wow experiences
35:00 - "People buy from people they trust"
40:00 - What's next: AI agents and autonomous workflows
🔗 CONNECT WITH KRIS RUDEEGRAAP:
LinkedIn: Kris Rudeegraap
Email: kris@sendoso.com
Website: sendoso.com
🎙️ ABOUT THOUGHTS ON SELLING:
Lee Levitt—sales coach, podcast host, and author of The Second Meeting and Together We Win—brings you conversations with sales leaders, authors, and practitioners who are redefining what it means to sell with integrity. New episodes weekly.
📧 CONNECT WITH LEE:
Website: podcast.thoughtsonselling.com
Schedule a conversation: meet.aceleragroup.com
#DirectMail #B2BSales #Gifting #SalesEngagement #CustomerDelight #Reciprocity #Personalization #SalesStrategy #AIinSales #thoughtsonselling
SEO Tags
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