Almost every day, we learn more about the different ways our users apply MailTrack.io in their personal and professional life.

To better evaluate how we can improve our tool and make it even more useful to you, we’ve been filling our blog with interviews on common use cases of MailTrack. We believe that sharing these stories could provide you with some interesting insights on how to further use email and MailTrack as an innovative productivity tool.

This month, we’ve asked Adil Gherib, Co-Founder and COO at Maqtoob, to advise us in the ways he uses MailTrack to prospect clients and increase sales. Interestingly enough, we’ve learned that he applies MailTrack as one of his must-have tools as a digital nomad. Since April, Adil has been travelling to 12 countries in 12 months, spreading the word on his website and sharing ideas through local workshops at co-working spaces, universities, and other relative events.

Previously, for this interview section, we interviewed David Baratech, Co-Founder of the Spanish online supermarket Ulabox, on how an entrepreneur can use MailTrack in his or her everyday routine.

“MailTrack helps me send fewer emails.”

Adil Gherib, Co-Founder and COO at Maqtoob

Maqtoob is unusual, so interviewing one of its founders couldn’t be a regular task. Adil Gherib answered a couple of my emails between meetings and events, and wrapped up our conversation on Skype from Iran, a country he’s  visiting while on a tour around the world through places such as Kenya, Brazil, Philippines and Vietnam.

“We’ve created Maqtoob thinking about tech companies and software developers outside the Silicon Valley,” explained Adil, whose Belgian-Moroccan heritage has undoubtedly played an important role in this vision. Maqtoob bases both its product and business model in developing countries, curating web tools that help businesses in those regions stay competitive.

Adil gave us some of his precious spare time, which he usually dedicates to photography and diving, to share with us how he uses MailTrack as a sales tool. “I’ve never imagined that email tracking would be so easy and efficient,” he told us.

Maqtoob takes to its core the idea of democratizing technology. What made you and your team bet for emerging countries?
I created Maqtoob with Kristyna Zapletalova in Indonesia, with the idea of making technology for people not connected to it, especially outside the Silicon Valley. We then took Maqtoob to Morocco and, while there, we were lucky to receive an invitation from an incubator inside the Google Campus in London, an important hub for the startup community in Europe. It was important for us, because we learned so much and met a lot of interesting people from the digital and startup scenario. But we’ve always kept in mind that we wanted to develop something beyond that area of influence.

What is different about doing business with those countries?
It’s very rewarding, and you learn a lot. When you’re building something for an American or a Canadian public, you’re just another digital company. Try to do something in Lebanon or Vietnam, and you’ll see how people crave being part of the tech world. You wouldn’t believe the number of startups and entrepreneurs who approached us here in Iran, for example. There is nothing like that for exchanging experiences and ideas.

How is your sales routine when doing business with those regions?
The techniques and principles are the same. We’re a small, growing startup, which means that we have to be a-jack-of-all-trades. I’m responsible for many areas, from business development to customer relations. But I try to send, everyday, between 4 and 5 emails offering highlights in our website, our newsletters, and in the several events we hold with entrepreneurs and people connected to the tech scene in those countries.

And how does MailTrack help you with sales?
Since I approach many clients a day, MailTrack is a key tool. Without MailTrack, you’re blind until someone maybe answers you. You never know if they opened and deleted your message, ignored it, or simply never saw it, because it was filtered as spam for some reason. Tracking emails cuts that whole speculation around what happens with our messages.

Does our app change your sales routine?
Tracking my emails helps me send fewer of them by avoiding dozens of impertinent follow-up messages to the same person. With MailTrack, I know when to send a message or not. And even when I send them, I change the text depending on how the recipient interacted with our previous conversations.

So you change your type of follow-up according to the number of times a prospect client opened your messages, for example.
I think that’s probably the most valuable information MailTrack can give their users. With MailTrack’s double-checks, we’re able to know if a potential client interacted with our sales pitch. But when I see that an email was opened more than once, it’s clear for me that the interest might be higher; they’re either consulting that message repeatedly, or sharing that with their team… For some reason, that message has got their attention.

Does that information also influence you when to use or not use the telephone?
Being a digital nomad, a telephone is usually out of the map. When I feel it’s right, I’ll invite some of my prospect clients for a Skype or a Google Hangout call. As you know, people hate telephones anyway. Try to call someone offering something, and they’ll ask you to never call them back again, so simply send them an email. When it comes to sales, emails are much less invasive, and much more effective too.

“If I stopped using MailTrack now, my pitching routine wouldn’t be so effective. It would eventually make our project less sustainable.”

Now that you’ve had MailTrack for a while, what would you lose if you stopped using it?
It would be painful to go back to sales’ emails without MailTrack. MailTrack allows you to use data in your sales process, making it smarter and smoother. If I stopped using MailTrack now, my pitching routine would be longer and less effective, which in the longer run would mean losing sales opportunities and making our project less sustainable.

How did you get to know MailTrack?
Kristyna Zapletalova, our content manager and CEO, featured MailTrack on Maqtoob and told all the team about it. I’ve never imagined that email tracking would be so easy and efficient.

We’ve been working hard in new features and developments. Would you like to suggest any?
I can’t wait to use your version for mobile. It’s a pity I can’t send tracked emails from my smartphone. I hope you’ll release that soon: it’ll be very helpful.

Adil, besides MailTrack, what are the best apps for sales in your opinion?
For CRM, I always recommend Pipedrive, which makes it easy to export LinkedIn profile information from my contacts. I couldn’t live either without Rapportive, which parses social media information from your recipient’s email address, so you know your contact a little better before sending an email. Also, for finding emails from prospect clients in the web, I recommend SellHack.

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Do you want to share your experience with other MailTrackers too? Tell us here or via Twitter with the hashtag #MailTracker, and we might just interview you for our next blog post. 🙂