It’s not every day you get your app’s very first user into your office for a fireside chat.
Okay, that’s a lie. We had some friends and family initially testing out Dooly… but Marc Sherwood was our first legitimate user—and to this day, is one of the best users of our product!
We sat down with Marc, Sales Director at Elastic, to hear his take on the evolution of Dooly and what it has meant to him throughout the years.
Neha: What was your first experience with Dooly?
I’ve been using Dooly from the get-go. I’m one of those guys that likes to experiment and optimize processes. I’m always thinking, “Where’s the problem and how can I make it better?”
At first, I thought, “Great, another system,” but once I started using it, I realized it made a REAL impact. I use Dooly every day and it saves me from the stuff I hate doing. I HATE going into Salesforce. It kills me. It wastes my time. I hate taking notes in my notebooks because I’ll just end up collecting 10 years worth, without that data ever making its way back to the CRM. The results of that? Me forgetting crucial details in conversations. However, ever since I started using Dooly, I would say I’m an extremely diligent notetaker. Globally, it’s like, “look at this guy, he’s on top of it,” and that’s only because of Dooly.
Any time I talk to anyone at any company, even in customer meetings, I end up showing them Dooly. It’s pretty crazy!
Neha: Is there a particular AHA! moment you remember having in our product?
Yes, it’s when I realized I wasn’t going into Salesforce. “Wait a minute, I’m keeping my deals up-to-date, but I’m not living in the CRM.” When I had to log back into Salesforce… I was like shoot… I don’t know the URL.
Salesforce just gets worse and worse. It starts off with, “Hey! It’s not software, it’s a CRM!” Okay, that’s great, but when everyone adds their bit, you end up with some sort of Frankenstein implementation that gets worse over time, not better!
When I go in and load a lead page in Salesforce, there are 15 things that start to spin up. I just look at it and have a laugh, because I don’t have to see that anymore. It’s great. Other people complain, but I don’t see it.
When I started to use templates and fields in Dooly, that was my next AHA! moment—but these moments don’t stop. With the team always releasing new features and integrations, I keep getting them along the way. It’s neat.
Neha: You mentioned you’re one of those early adopters at companies that tries out a lot of tools—where do you go to discover them?
I search all over. I go on a lot of forums, LinkedIn Groups where people talk about different optimization techniques, and various subreddits where people discuss tools. I don’t go on Salesforce subreddits because I hate Salesforce. I don’t think of Dooly as connected to Salesforce because it completely erases it from my view. I literally don’t use Salesforce anymore thanks to Dooly.
Neha: You’re a raving advocate for Dooly. What do you tell people about us?
Most of the time, I’ll see someone taking a note, and I’ll ask them when they’re going to put it into Salesforce or share that note. They always say they’ll do it later. I then ask if it’s a pain for them to transcribe everything. Their answer almost always will be, “I use OneNote,” or “I use Evernote,” to which I ask, “How do you get your notes into Salesforce then?”
Then I’ll turn my laptop around and show them how easy it is in Dooly.
I pick a lead record in Dooly, and in another tab, I open up the same record in Salesforce. I create a task for my Engineer and show them how I didn’t have to go into Salesforce. I tell teams Dooly is a tool to document and streamline their conversations—it’s an intelligent sales automation tool. Everyone I’ve shown it to has been in awe by both the simplicity and power of Dooly.
I love inviting folks to take it for a spin through the “Invite team” panel in the product.
Slack is our tool of communication so I’ll just throw someone a note that pops them into a separate channel. They then get curious and click in to learn more. It’s a great way to share Dooly… because it shows them how I’m automating what I’m doing.
Neha: What are some features in our product you couldn’t live without?
I’m using the heck out of Boards to edit my pipeline. We’re hyperfocused on constantly updating deal notes in every opportunity and Dooly allows me to do that with a single click! Prior to using Dooly, if I had 30 opportunities in a quarter—I’d have to update each of these deals weekly and it’d take a minute just to load the page in Salesforce and click through the endless steps. Factor in the time savings Dooly affords me, and it’s a no brainer how that contributes to our revenue numbers.
Your Google Calendar integration has also been phenomenal. I go straight to start.dooly.ai when I open up my browser. My schedule is already pulled into Dooly and I just click into a meeting and away I go taking notes!
Neha: How much time does Dooly get you back in your day?
Loads of time. Just from my forecast today with my new RVP, it saved me 20 minutes from not having to dig around in Salesforce—resulting in a super expedited and pleasant call!
I usually have 5 meetings a day and I use Dooly the entire time. Dooly is open every day, all day on my screen. I use it for updating all of my notes, and for moving deals in and out throughout my forecast.
Saving time is great, but what are you doing with that gained time back in your day? You’re being way more productive. I use the time I save with Dooly to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the sales landscape. That’s the real win for me!
I need to conduct a lot of research and constantly plan my strategy around how I’m going to continue building out my business. If I can save 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, I now have the time to map out how to break into a new account.
Everyone thinks they have their system down to a science; whether it be OneNote, Evernote, Text Editor, smoke signals… but it doesn’t work for them in the end. People assume they know best—but really, they need to take the first step and just try out Dooly. Along with using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Zoom for my meetings, Dooly helps me stay off the naughty list at my company!
Join the thousands of top-performing AEs who use Dooly every day to stay more organized, instantly update their pipeline, and spend more time selling instead of mindless admin work. Try Dooly free, no credit card required. Or, Request a demo to speak with a Dooly product expert right now.
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