Ep. 508 | The CEO’s Guide to Transforming Thought Leadership into Sales Success

OnBase: Smashing Sales and Marketing Misalignments

Episode Summary

In this episode of OnBase, host Chris Moody talks with Kris Rudeegraap about innovative approaches to thought leadership, the use of AI tools, and leveraging direct mail to break through email saturation and create personalized customer experiences. Kris shares his journey from Silicon Valley software sales to founding Sendoso, a category-defining direct mail and gifting platform. The conversation dives into actionable strategies for building a thought leadership culture, using AI for smarter engagement, and orchestrating complex sales processes. Kris highlights how combining creative campaigns, social media, and direct mail can generate significant pipeline growth and enhance brand awareness.

About the guest

Kris Rudeegraap is the co-founder and CEO of Sendoso, the leading Sending Platform. Kris has more than a decade of sales experience and has spent time at Talkdesk, Yapstone, and Piqora. During that time, he discovered that creating meaningful engagements through direct mail and gifting was an effective way to drive demand and increase sales—which helped inspire the idea for Sendoso. Kris is a California native and CSU-Chico alum currently residing in the Bay Area.

Connect with Kris

Key takeaways

- Thought Leadership as a Growth Driver: Kris emphasizes the role of thought leadership in educating the market, inspiring internal teams, and generating quality leads.

- The Power of Direct Mail: Innovative direct mail campaigns, integrated with social and digital channels, can cut through saturated email inboxes and create memorable customer interactions.

- Leveraging AI for Sales Enablement: Kris outlines how tools like Clay, Hyperbound, and Grace are revolutionizing outreach, training, and account management.

- Category Creation: Educating the market is critical in emerging categories. Thought leadership and community building can amplify this effort.

- Social Media for Pipeline Growth: Consistently sharing content and creating employee-driven advocacy on platforms like LinkedIn can be a lead generation powerhouse.

Quotes

On Thought Leadership:"Thought leadership inspires your team internally and builds trust externally, driving both brand value and pipeline growth."

On Personalization:"Customers don’t want just another email—they want relevance, authenticity, and creativity at every touchpoint."

Books:

- Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Newsletters:

- Hypergrowth Leadership

- Andy’s newsletter