In this interview, Jotform channel marketing manager Erman Ergün talks with Sarah Ahmad, founder of Desol Int., an agency focused on providing business process automation, application development, web development, lead generation, graphic design, website design, and chatbot development. Erman and Sarah chatted about how she’s built a successful business, how her organization measures partnership value, and how Jotform helps Desol Int. achieve its goals.
This interview is part of our affiliate/solution partner interview series. If you’d like to be interviewed for this series, please fill out this form.
Erman: Thank you, Sarah, for being with us today. As the owner of the Desol Int., an online consulting business and agency, you are actively promoting and using Jotform for your clients, among many other SaaS products, and you’re doing an amazing job — you’re one of our really strong solution partners. So if you’re ready, we can start with the first question. Can you start by telling us about Desol Int., its mission and vision, and its focus industry? Can you also tell us the story of how you created the company?
Sarah: So our mission is to help companies scale their businesses through automation. We work with small to medium-sized enterprises. And we build everything from no-code to low-code and fully automated web applications and everything in between.
I started Desol International in 2016 when I started offering web development services. And luckily, I started getting some clients who were interested in getting me to build their websites. I was also trying to create lead-generation forms for their websites. While doing so, I also started to create forms and use Jotform as a service. Now, I have built an agency where I have full-time team members, helping me provide no-code solutions and implement web applications, forms, and all of these things.
Erman: That’s wonderful, a really great story and great success. Kudos to you for that. So the second question is, how many partners do you manage right now? And how do you prioritize who to work with?
Sarah: We partner with many low-code and no-code solutions. Jotform is one of them.
Other than Jotform, there are some other things that our clients ask for — for example, integrations. So for integrations, we partner with one of the industry leaders, Zapier, and Make.com. We also use some other integration tools where needed, but these two are the top partners we are working with.
Basically, there are numerous SaaS platforms and tools used for forms and integrations, and websites. But we want to partner with those who align with our mission. Because it’s not just about the tool, it’s how the tool is built and how it is scaling. Is it adding new features for the customers or not? Is their customer support responsive? I mean, once the user purchases that tool and pays for the subscription, is it going to work long-term for them?
You know, it’s about, is it evolving with the passage of time, with the new things that are coming into the market? Is it supporting webhooks and integrations? Based on all these things, we decide which company or which SaaS platform we should partner with.
Erman: Great. That’s the way to go. You’ve got to provide the best for your customers and for your clients. So this brings us to our next question: What does an ideal partner relationship look like to you? What are the elements and features that enable you to have a successful and healthy working relationship with your partners?
Sarah: We measure partnership value by analyzing our clients. What requirements do our clients have and which platforms are both the most useful and support what they need? And another aspect is which platform is continuously improving, as I previously mentioned. The platform that offers and focuses on high-quality products.
We consider the marketing and commissions, you know, when deciding whether to partner with a specific company, but I think that’s a secondary thing. Our focus is choosing a partner that has a big impact, currently and in the future.
Erman: How do Jotform services fit Desol Int.’s priorities and strategies?
Sarah: OK, so basically, when our clients come to us, they ask for web applications or websites. So [we use Jotform] rather than creating a form from scratch and creating a database. Of course, it’s not only about creating a form or database, but it’s also about HIPAA-friendly if they are from the health domain, and security-wise, we have to consider a lot of features while collecting data. So that’s where Jotform comes in.
We want to go with Jotform because it has a lot of security measures like forms that are password-protected, and a secure and encrypted database. There are numerous features that made us choose Jotform. And as I said, we want our clients to get the best product, to get a secure product. So we prefer to partner with Jotform and use your tools, and your integrations, to give a full-fledged experience for our clients.
Erman: So amazing to hear all that. You know the product really well, so you know what to offer to your clients, I’m assuming. So this actually ties in really well with the next question: How does Jotform help you increase your sales, if it does? And what kind of contributions does it make to your company?
Sarah: As an agency, we have two sides of the business. One is the employee management side and one is getting leads for our business. So when it comes to lead generation, we use a Jotform form on our website in different places like on the contact page, and in some popups. Using the Jotform integration with Calendly and Zoom, we have a fully automated system so that whenever a lead comes in, we don’t miss them. We automatically book calls with them. And ultimately, this increases our revenue and sales. So rather than doing manual work to follow up with the clients, we have automated all systems from form collection to data collection to calling to task management.
And then if I talk from the company management perspective, when we hire employees, we use Jotform to collect applications. And our HR department controls the approval flows. So if a candidate is accepted or rejected, we manage it on the go. Again, Jotform saves us from the hassle of writing manual emails for rejections or approvals to the candidates, and all of this system gets automated not only for the clients but also for our internal processes.
Erman: That’s wonderful to hear. You’re not only a partner, but you’re also an active user of Jotform for your company.
Sarah: Yeah, I’m a customer of Jotform as well.
Erman: That’s amazing. So one follow-up question that I just thought of, have any of your clients come to you and asked specifically for Jotform and you said yes, I know Jotform, how to use Jotform, so they were onboarded by you. Did that ever happen? Or did you gain new clients just by being a pro user and being a partner with Jotform’s solution partner program?
Sarah: Actually, Jotform has become very popular. Not [just] now but for many years. This is what I have seen. So a lot of clients come to me and were users of Jotform, but they want someone to manage their businesses. But many times clients are coming to me and I’m recommending Jotform to them. Apart from Jotform, I also partner with many other form builders as well.
But when they’re asking for specific features, I feel Jotform is a tool that covers all of the multiple features, as you know, when it comes to workflows, when it comes to PDF generation, email handling, and so many things. So I suggest Jotform, but I also give them some other options. And of course, as a partner, this is my responsibility to give them the best options. And it’s their choice to choose what suits them best.
Erman: That’s wonderful. I’m hearing from other partners as well after they start with Jotform via your “valuable partners” suggestion, and they want to increase their package; therefore increasing your commission or increasing your service charges, or they grow their business and want to get more of your services. So it’s a win-win situation. When I hear this, it makes me really happy.
Sarah: I told you that I started as a freelancer initially. So until now, I have completed more than 2,000 Jotforms, me and my team. And sometimes we work on simple forms, but our focus is creating automation systems using Jotform. So we move to the next step and the next stage of automating stuff.
Erman: Many people actually do that. They don’t just provide Jotform services. Obviously, it doesn’t really make sense. Although Jotform, as you know, is not only capable of building forms, it has many different options: apps, workflows, and the PDF Editor. But it also works really well with other SaaS tools. So what you guys do is you decide which tools are the best for your customers. And then that’s how you provide value to them, because they don’t know which tools to use, and you give them a bundle, and then life is easier.
Sarah: Yes, correct and one lovely feature about Jotform is its Card version. It is really useful for lead capturing for short forms. And this is something that I was really missing a few years before. And since you guys introduced it, now I recommend all our clients use this card version. This really helps them get more leads for their business.
Erman: Amazing. Next question: In the service you offer as a partner with Jotform, what do you think your ideal customer industries are? This is really important for our readers because they might be wondering which industries could be the best fit. If I want to become a partner with Jotform, does it align with my audience? And do your clients ask for your services knowing Jotform ahead of time or do you first recommend Jotform to them?
Sarah: Actually, I feel whatever industry it is, every industry needs forms for sure, one way or another. Whether it’s converting their paper forms into online forms, application collection, saving data for their employees, etc. Everyone needs them. And though we have also served a lot of industries, the most popular that I have seen so far are the legal industry, the insurance industry, and healthcare. These are the three top industries that I think have so much potential to use Jotform and improve their processes.
Erman: For sure. And also I answered my question, I guess. Sometimes you suggest Jotform for the first time and sometimes they come in knowing Jotform services, right?
Sarah: Yes. So many times, I suggesting Jotform because the legal industry and the insurance industry sometimes need PDF integrations. So there I feel that there are many other expensive options for PDF integration in the market but PDF automation, you can say it’s like a free version. It’s free in Jotform. And especially for the healthcare industry, Jotform security, encryption, and password generation. All of these things are super helpful for the healthcare industry.
Erman: That’s wonderful. If you like, we can move on to the rapid-fire questions. What’s your favorite use case/feature/product? By the way, you don’t have to list them all. You can just say a product name or a feature or widget. What’s your favorite tool in Jotform?
Sarah: I think the save-and-edit feature is super nice when it comes to saving, you know, dealing with long forms. And the second feature I love is the PDF builder. It’s super flexible and super cool. You can add some conditions and logic and print the data as you like. You can automate your documents. And integrations, like you guys have a vast library of integrations. So think about any tool, and you will see that it’s already present. And you don’t have to pay extra for other tools for integrations; everything is there already in the integrations directory. These are the best features.
Erman: Alright, what is one element that makes you the proudest in your Desol Int. career? I know, it’s filled with proud moments, but if you have to pick one. It’s a hard question.
Sarah: I was recognized by [the] government of Pakistan; my country recognized me as one of the young female entrepreneurs doing wonders in the IT field. So as a female entrepreneur, and a female founder, this was the best experience of my life.
Erman: Congratulations on that. That’s amazing!
Sarah: Thank you very much.
Erman: For sure. The next one, what’s the best learning experience you ever had with your partnership journey in one sentence?
Sarah: I learned a lot about the way these partnership programs operate and how they provide support and help partners. I plan to make SaaS products in the future. I love the way you guys interact with your partners, and not only just feature them, but also empower them, and tell them how a partnership works, and what is the workflow. So this learning experience will give me an insight into my product in the future so that I can also start my partnership program and create a team of nice guys like you who are helpful and offer a good experience.
Erman: Wonderful, so good.
Sarah: So any partner who has their own SaaS platform or is in the process can do a partnership with you and can not only help you guys evolve but also develop their own knowledge and skills and use it for their own.
Erman: Win-win situation for sure.
Sarah: Yeah, it’s a win for both.
Erman: Can you tell us your favorite productivity tip? Is there something that you do all the time?
Sarah: Yeah, I believe that slow and steady wins the race. So one of the things that I always do is, work with consistency. You never give up. Keep trying; keep continuing. Because life is very busy, life is tiring. Sometimes you’re fed up. But you have to continue. Take a break, take a small break, but continue again from where you left off. And this is how you will improve with time.
Erman: So great. Well, one final question, what book inspired you the most, or what’s your favorite book?
Sarah: I love Atomic Habits. Like improve 1 percent of yourself daily and you improve by 37 percent by the end of the year.
Erman: That’s wonderful. Well, Sarah, that’s the end of our interview. Thank you so much for joining us. And thank you so much for being such a great partner with Jotform. And hopefully, we’ll grow together even further from this point on. There’s no stopping us.
Sarah: Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to connect with you.
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