Qualified welcomes Eric Sikola as President & Chief Revenue Officer

I’m excited to announce that Eric Sikola, a seasoned leader in the enterprise software industry, has joined our executive team as President & Chief Revenue Officer. I’ve personally known Eric for more than 20 years. I’ve worked with him directly as a sales leader, we’ve shared war stories on founding companies and the challenges of entrepreneurship, and I’ve admired his success from afar in creating billion dollar companies. Today, I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Eric to the team and about the opportunity that lies ahead. I’m confident that Eric’s experience and leadership will help guide our company and our industry through this next phase of growth as Conversational Marketing goes mainstream.

Behind the news: A year of momentum

Over the past year, the Conversational Marketing movement has gained massive momentum. Why? Because it’s a fundamental change in the way B2B companies engage and convert buyers. And more importantly, it’s helping these companies impact their top line immediately by accelerating pipeline generation, deal volume, and sales cycles. 

B2B companies around the globe have realized that the way they have been engaging buyers with website forms is broken. With marketing budgets frozen, less than 5% of visitors completing forms, and 38% of hot leads ghosting sales teams, it’s undoubtedly time for a change. Conversational Marketing, which turns your website into a selling platform, is the change we’ve been waiting for.

Conversational Marketing for Salesforce goes mainstream

As larger organizations move to Conversational Marketing, they’ve discovered that this approach is most powerful when it’s tightly connected with Salesforce, which serves as the heartbeat of their selling machine. This connection is what drives intelligent conversations suitable for larger sales cycles; it allows companies to focus on the right buyers, and deliver high quality, hyper-personalized sales experiences. This need for a connected solution carved out a space for Qualified.com, a Conversational Marketing platform that’s purpose-built for companies using Salesforce.

We’ve quickly climbed the ranks to become the #1 Conversational Marketing solution for Salesforce customers. Our customers have seen a big business impact:

• 10X more sales conversations with ABM target accounts (Reported by Silicon Valley Unicorn ThoughtSpot) 
• 6X increase in sales opportunities (Reported by the leading digital asset management company Brandfolder) 
• Over $1.3 million in sales pipeline (Reported by the UK’s leading telecom provider Gamma)
  

Together with Eric, we're entering our next phase of growth

To help foster this momentum and position the company for its next phase of growth, we’re excited to welcome Eric Sikola as our new President & Chief Revenue Officer. In his new role, Eric will be responsible for overall operational execution and go-to-market activities.

Eric has spent his career building and scaling cloud-based businesses. He joins Qualified.com from Acquia, which sold to Vista Equity for $1B in November 2019, where he served on the executive leadership team. Before that, Eric founded ExpenseCloud, a SaaS expense management company which sold to HR powerhouse TriNet in 2012. 

In his 20+ years of experience, Eric has been involved in building, growing, and scaling some of the world’s most reputable brands. We’re lucky to have him. 

“Qualified.com and the Conversational Marketing movement is the single most exciting opportunity I’ve seen in decades” says Eric Sikola. “This is a once-in-a-career opportunity to create the next Silicon Valley unicorn. If you’re a B2B sales or marketing leader, this platform is a silver bullet that will help you exceed your quota, right now.”

“Qualified.com has been a shining star in the Salesforce ecosystem, helping thousands of Trailblazers discover the power of Conversational Marketing” says Michael Kostow, SVP & GM Salesforce Pardot. "With the addition of Eric to the leadership team, Qualified is incredibly well positioned to accelerate this transformation.”

On behalf of everyone here at Qualified.com, welcome to the team, Eric! We’re thrilled to have you onboard to lead this next phase of growth for our customers, our company, and our industry.