WorkRails is a sales automation tool for software companies that makes it easier to sell professional, managed and educational services.
"We used to spend tons of time researching companies and contacts. Hello Outbound is now a key source for us thanks to their custom prospect lists that automatically import into our CRM every month." - Steve Schneider, Cofounder
Profile
WorkRails was founded in 2016 and has an impressive roster of customers like Gainsight and Namely. They have a 4 person sales team, a proven pitch, and a CRM and outreach tools to contact, track and nurture leads.
Challenge #1
WorkRails sales reps were searching LinkedIn and directories to find decision makers at their target companies. Add in finding accurate information for prospects, and this became a full time job. They weren't spending enough time actually selling.
Solution: Monthly exports of highly customized lead lists
We queried our database for WorkRail's key buyer personas: Heads of Professional Services, Customer Success, and Technical Services. Our platform can filter on 50+ different data points (employee size, industry, funding amount, location, seniority, etc.), so our next step was to hone in on their perfect company profile.
With our built in review process, WorkRails could Approve the leads that they liked, Decline leads that they didn't, and leave comments that helped our data team update filters. This feedback loop made it possible for lead quality to continually improve overtime.
Once they approved leads, it was time to download the lists and start doing outreach! The .cvs file included verified email addresses and LinkedIn profiles that WorkRails easily imported into their CRM and outreach tools of choice. Now their team can focus on messaging, nurturing, and meeting preparation, rather than finding prospects.
Challenge #2
Often, the downside with purchasing lead lists rather than doing manual searches is missing out on context and opportunities for personalization.
Solution: Event-based Data Signals
Our technology taps into triggers like active job postings, position changes, ad spend, and recent funding to identify companies that may be more buyer-ready. This allows our clients to contact decision makers at the exact moment of their pain point.
Since WorkRails is an automation tool for selling software services, we scraped job posting boards like Indeed and Angle List to find companies hiring for "Sales Operations". This position opening indicated that the company was experiencing pains around efficiency and operations, and had enough budget to make improvements.
We also found Heads of Professional Services and Revenue at their target companies who were hired within the last 6 months. Our campaign data shows that recent hires are almost 2X more likely to respond warmly to cold outreach.
Letting you in a on a secret...the key to getting higher response rates from outbound sales is pairing these Data Signals with industry customization. Our engineers have trained machine learning tools that labels companies according to our proprietary categories. This industry categorization was included as a data point in the lists for WorkRails.
Not only were they able to target the right person at the right time, but they could write messaging that related specifically to sub-verticals like cybersecurity and FinTech.
"The context in their lists- like if a person was recently hired, or has an open job posting- helps us personalize our outreach and really sets them apart from other data companies." - Steve Schneider, Co-founder
