Recruiting tool where you can match with new sales jobs every day
About Graftus
Jonas: Graftus is a recruitment platform for salespeople, similar to a search engine in a Tinder environment. They put up their profile, experience level, what they’re looking for, and their lowest salary expectations. They are on mobile, while the company looking for sales reps is on the web app, our SaaS platform. They have a subscription and can use the platform and filters, not job ads, more like filters. When they have put in the requirements, they will get up all the site reps that match them and discard them. Of course, the sales rep will see it on their mobile device, and they either swipe left or right.
The problem they’re solving
Jonas: With Graftus, the company is more like an active road when they’re looking for a sales rep. If you put out the job ad, you are in passive recruiting, as you have to wait for the sales rep to apply for your work, and that can take time, and you can get low-quality applicants. If you use a filter, you’ll get the one with the formal requirements, save you time, and get better quality.
I’ve worked for 13 years in B2B, and finding the best sales rep in Sweden was tough. We got around a hundred applicants, but when you go through them, you have maybe two or three that were good. We used recruitment firms, which were quite pricey, and the result was still the same. One day about one and a half years ago, I woke up and got this idea. Now we have to disrupt the market and make it data-driven. Like dating, before you had a dating ad in the paper, Tinder changed everything and made it more accessible. Now it’s time for Graftus to disrupt the market and change everything the sales reps best, and of course for the company as well, because it will be more price and time efficient.
For the sales industry
Jonas: We are going to stay in the sales industry. In the future, we will consider marketing because, in the modern environment, marketing and sales are more together in SaaS companies and IT companies. Perhaps it can be like a hybrid between sales and marketing in the future. But for now, we’re focusing on salespeople only.
Are you marketing Graftus as Tinder for salespeople?
Jonas: Of course. We do it all the time. When we talk to people on LinkedIn because it’s easier to understand how it works, in our platform, you can block your current no employer. If the company is looking for a sales rep, they can’t find you. I don’t know if there is a feature on Tinder that you can block your wife, but you can block your employer on our platform. Because sometimes, you’re in a trial period and don’t like it, but you need money or are looking for other opportunities, and you don’t want your boss to think about that.
Graftus best features
Jonas: The filter is the main feature because you will get people showing up, so it’s our most usable feature. Of course, the salary features were good because the sales put in the low salary expectations and the company put in the highest. You don’t see each other, but you know they’re in the gap. You will show up if you’re in the gap between the lowest and the highest.
If you’re in a current position and have an excellent salary, you have no thoughts about leaving, and you have $5000 per month, I can put in $6,000 in the platform. And if I start to get companies that are approaching me, then I know that I will have a bump up in my salary. Of course, I’m going to listen, but if I get a DM on LinkedIn – hey, are you interested in this job? It’ll be a long conversation before we can get to the salary report. That’s feature number two.
In Sweden, we have something called bank ID verification. It means that I can verify that I am who I am, so we don’t have any spam on the platform. If you have heard about Twitter and everything, it’s a MEPA account. Every user we have is legit with a personal number and bank ID verification. All our numbers are for real, and I think that’s a good feature as well.
How do you plan to disrupt the market?
Jonas: We’re already disrupting the market because we are faster and shiftier than our current competition. We are disrupting the market, and we now have a filter platform. Later, we’ll be more like a community for salespeople where they can get information, tips, books, podcasts, and webinars. It will be more like a whole community for the salespeople so that we will have a higher engagement in the platform. You will not be on the platform if you’re looking for jobs. You will be on the platform seeking information and seeking people like you competing, sharing sales advice, and everything like that. That’s how we are going to disrupt the market.
How did you find your first companies and your first salespeople?
Jonas: For salespeople, we are doing marketing automation. We have an ICP that we’re looking for. I talked to 400 sales reps before we launched the platform to hear what they wanted and needed to have in place to use the platform. And, of course, we sent them an email when we launched. For the companies, it’s all more like cold calling. After we did some cold calling and got objections about what they were looking for and what kind of questions they had, we turned more into an email outreach campaign structure. I’m doing the call calling to get updated information about the market right now. Cold calling works well in the Nordics.
When did you start Graftus?
Jonas: We started working on the project one and a half years ago. We have been launched for about 13 weeks now. We’re pretty new to this, still learning, humble, talking to the companies, talking to the sales rep, and iterating all the time to make a better platform.
What is the pricing for Graftus?
Jonas: Currently, it’s 1000 euros, and the first companies get something that we call a happy customer guarantee in Sweeden. They’re paying one fee upfront, and we assure them to find one sign of a sales rep, the data go into a subscription environment. And the price is between two different price stages. It depends on how many they think they will recruit next year. And, of course, you are always looking to recruit more, but sometimes you can also lose salespeople. We believe this platform will be as if you used lead generation and built a lead pipeline, right?
We look into a recruitment pipeline because when you’re losing a sales rep or when you want a sales rep, you wanted them yesterday and not tomorrow. That’s why we think that if you’re doing a recruitment pipeline, you can have the best sales rep warm under the process, and you will always have a place for good salespeople. That’s why we’re doing it in a subscription model because it’s more convenient to have a hot or a warm recruitment pipeline. We can do that because, with data-driven, it’s not what you call a high price.
For now, for salespeople is free, but later on, you can do microtransactions to boost your profile and add some extra features. When we get more data, we can add some AI to help them get notifications about the jobs. Help them provide the sales skills or something like that. For now, it’s just the companies that are paying.
What’s your vision with Graftus?
Jonas: We’re starting in Sweden right now. We have been talking to many companies in England, so I know how hard it is for them over here to find salespeople, and the price picture is much higher in the UK than in Sweden. Our platform will help them radically decrease the cost of recruitment salespeople in the UK. I thought the UK market would be the second market before I thought about Norway, but I used to push a button, and we could have everything in English and start to convert the salespeople in London into the platform.
Raising funds
Jonas: We are looking to raise funds, we don’t need it, but it will help us increase our marketing automation, and we would like to hire some developers so we can iterate faster. We are bootstrapped now, and we can survive bootstrapped, of course. In this environment, finding the right money can be tricky. We want the right money and the right people behind it that can bring some knowledge to the table and help us build the absolute best recruitment platform that has ever been built. It’s not just money, it’s the right money. We’re looking, and I don’t know how long we have to be looking, but we will not say no if the right money shows up.
How big is your team right now?
We have three people right now, and we will keep it relatively small. We will keep the low burn rate to take this through this time. We hire consultants to the platform to iterate and change some crucial part if it needs to be changed.
How did you start your career?
Jonas: I started my career way back at the warehouse. I was an ice hockey player and was not the best kid in school. I was playing hockey, and then I got a job offer at the warehouse. And after that, I went to B2B, started knocking on doors, and made a cold calling. I did an outstanding job on the floor and won some sales competitions. I went higher up in the ranking, and I was a safe leader. And after that, I become a company manager for a division in Sweden. I became a Business Group Manager and was responsible for that group of people, but it was a special part of the company.
I was in Sweden and Norway, and I hired people. I went out, too, and we made sales together. I put up new products and new product IDs in the product area. I did a lot of things in that company. That company built me from the ground up. I learned a lot of things at that company, but sometimes you need to take a different part. When this idea came into my head, I couldn’t let it go because everyone I talked to me this was a good idea, and I think you should go for it. So I did. I quit my job now I’m here.
What do you think is the most important quality for a salesperson?
Jonas: You got two ears and one mouth. You have to listen, and I think in the new market, you will be more like a doctor asking a lot of questions to understand the pain point at the companies because if you don’t understand the pain points, you cannot add value. If you don’t add value, you don’t have a solution to a problem. I think that’s the most important thing.
What’s your best piece of advice for a starting salesperson?
Jonas: Read, exercise, and record all your sales call. Learn to smile, of course, don’t be a robot, and don’t go into a manuscript. You can use some keywords, but you must be authentic because people buy from people. And then they buy the product if it adds value. Read a lot and. You never fail. You learn or win, and it’s up to you how you see everything. I failed. No, you didn’t. You haven’t learned yet. You have to do it again and again and again. And then you will learn, and when you learn, you will win because you will always be a winner when learning something new.
What’s your favorite software?
Jonas: My favorite software right now is HubSpot. I made some gray hairs down the journey with HubSpot, but now we’re in order with everything. HubSpot is a good friend of mine now, although we did not go so well together.
