How Brex Grew Signups 3x

Hey folks, today is going to be a short and sweet article diving into personalised social proof and how some of the world’s best companies use this tactic.

This can be one of the most powerful levers sales people can utilise but only if done in the right way. However, most reps are using it in completely the wrong way and if you think your reps may be doing so it will actually be harming your close rates by more than 20%. So today let’s dive into: 

• Who are Brex?

• Brex & Personalised Social Proof 

• It’s Impact on Conversion Rates & Why it Works so well

• How to Leverage it in your Business

At the end of this article I’m also placing a link to claim a few free consulting calls based on the success of the last batch. 

I absolutely loved meeting a bunch of you and so if you’re looking to get some help on pricing, top of funnel demand gen, or churn reduction you’ll have the opportunity to get a few hours of my time, free of charge. Check out the bottom of this article for the link. 

Who are Brex?

Founded in 2017 by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, Brex emerged with a mission to redefine corporate expense management. Originally designed to serve startups and small businesses, Brex’s first product was a corporate credit card with no personal guarantees and tailored rewards. This product quickly became very popular and was one of the fastest growing products in the valley, raising money from the likes of Kleiner Perkins & YC by growing their product suite across different products and target customer profiles. 

Brex & Personalised Social Proof 

The interesting thing about this case study is you likely would never notice it. If you work at a Life Sciences company in the US then this is what you would see on Brex’s homepage. Seems normal enough… it makes it clear what their main product is (corporate card), they have some nice social proof of other life sciences companies and a clear call to action. 

As a prospect you might be impressed. Given the focus of their homepage it seems like their product is specifically built from the ground up to serve companies in your industry and so it would be reasonable to assume it may be better suited than one of those broader corporate card startups targeting software companies. After all, we may value different things such as spend approval. 

However, as I’m sure many of you may know, Brex doesn't solely serve life sciences startups. In fact their main ICP is software companies and if somebody from one of the software companies visited Brex’s homepage they would see this. 

Greater focus on their AI features, more established product shot and a different call to action (CTA). 

Similarly, if you’re working at an e-commerce company the landing page changes again. Instead of positioning their product suite around the corporate card they highlight benefits more important and more differentiated to e-commerce companies such as interest-free financing. For e-comm companies operating in a high-interest rate environment where they have to finance the production of inventory long before they get to sell it this is a pretty major benefit. Yes please! 

And it just gets better. Not only are they promising a great offer but there’s some great social proof from other e-commerce companies in the space meaning I don’t have to worry as much about their reputation when considering securing financing from them. 

How does this all work?

They use a tool called Mutiny (not sponsored), which allows you to personalise your websites CTAs, headline copy, and social proof to better resonate with different ICPs. For companies that are expanding into the enterprise from SMB, or going from just targeting fintechs and now targeting AI companies this is a powerful way to make prospects feel like the product is purpose built with you in mind. 

Its Impact on Conversion Rates 

But does this actually make any real difference? Or is it just marginal improvements that matter when you’re a 2,000 person company?

Not quite… whilst these may not seem like major changes they matter far more than you may think. Here’s the results driven by Mutiny from the case studies they display on their website:

• Carta: Increased seed-stage signups 80%

• Amplitude: 40% Increase in Inbound leads

• Brex: 3x more signups with personalised outreach 

Whilst these are obviously cherry picked it’s hard to argue with these results and so I’m going to explain the data & psychology behind why. 

It’s no secret almost all sales people will leverage social proof to try and sell a prospect. However, this can (& will) actually backfire. Data from 48,006 sales calls analysed by Gong show that sellers who use social proof techniques actually had a 22% lower close rate! 

What?!?!?!

The reason for this is that it’s used horrendously wrong in most sales calls, with reps sauntering into a call, asking poor discovery questions and then rattling off half a dozen names of the largest clients their company has in an unpersonalised sales deck. 

But guess what? You’re alienating the person in front of you. The 7-person startup who’s only just raised a seed round is’t going to have the same needs as Google or Meta when it comes to a corporate card and just gives off the impression that they don’t serve you well, don’t care about serving you well, or will be too unaffordable for the little guys like you. 

As a result if your sales reps are trying to use non-personalised social proof during the first meeting your close rates continue to drop, by a massive 47%…

How to Leverage it in your Business

So, how can you use social proof to get results like Brex & Carta instead of being a harm to your business?

Method 1: Tailored Customer Case Studies

Get reps to properly understand a prospect’s pain points and problems so they can tell stories that resonate with the person sitting in front of them. 

Apart from just showing this isn’t a cookie cutter sales process and they somewhat care about the pain the prospect is in, it also will far better resonate with the buyer and they’ll naturally see themselves in your stories. 

Tip: If you can describe the buyer’s problem better than they can themselves, they will automatically assume you have the best solution.

Method 2: Make it feel Tribal

Tribal social proof is when you talk about your customers in a way that makes your prospects think “Those guys sound like me. They dealt with the same punishing world I’m dealing with.” Chris Orlob, Gong 

If you can arm your reps with 4-6 handpicked names tailored for the specific prospect joining a call your win rates will massively increase. 

It’ll make it seem like everyone is jumping on board and will make prospects feel like they’re missing out to the competition if they don’t commit to you, creating internal motivation more powerful than any tricks a rep can try and pull. 

Ways I can help you

1. Book a Free Consulting Call: Need help with top of funnel demand gen, pricing, or churn? Let me know in the Calendly link and I’ll spend some time working on a deck for you. 

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