Venture: Somo
Somo is a business accelerator that supports social entrepreneurs working to transform low-income communities.
Expert: Tom Hanrahan
Head of U.S. Sales at Square
• Sales Leader, Amazon
Somo partnered with Rippleworks to design and implement new B2B sales processes
Somo is a business accelerator that supports social entrepreneurs working to transform low-income communities. They invest in community-led initiatives and provide the resources entrepreneurs need to build sustainable enterprises, including business training, funding, access to new markets, and tailored advising and mentorship.
Somo’s top priority was expanding their role as a sales channel for the entrepreneurs they serve. Somo partnered with Rippleworks to design and implement sales processes and operations in preparation for servicing B2B accounts.
Working with Rippleworks has been a transformational experience for our sales team.
The mentorship received has been vital for thinking through how we structure our sales team moving forward, how we pursue a potential pipeline of partners, and our team’s ability to find and pursue a lead.
We are excited to put what we have learned into practice and successfully push B2B sales, grow our businesses, and create more jobs across marginalized communities in Kenya.
—Somo founder and CEO Amelia Hopkins Phillips
Somo partnered with Rippleworks Expert Tom Hanrahan, a sales executive with years of experience leading teams at companies including Square, Amazon, and LivingSocial.Together, they:
• Prepared Somos sales team to identify, pursue, and land new partnership relationships; implemented a pipeline review process and learned to identify and prioritize target partnerships
• Developed Somo’s value proposition for partner segments
• Learned a suite of sales skills, including discovery, objection handling, and proposals/demos/contracts
• Learned the fundamentals of B2B sales; developed workshops and trainings for Somos sales team on B2B sales fundamentals
