Client: A software company with $20M in revenue selling their SaaS-based software to SMB Digital Marketing Agencies in the U.S.
Client Challenge: Revenue had been in decline for the last three quarters, resulting in a budget freeze for the Sales Group, including lead generation efforts. The Sales Development and Marketing Teams were not booking enough sales demos with cold prospects using their available budget. VP of Sales, Kevin, was under increasing pressure to do more with his existing budget.
AutoNow’s Role: The AutoSales™ Module within the AutoNow™ Workforce Solutions Platform
- Prospect Sourcing: Finding new cold prospect communities within a target demographic.
- List Building: Creating target lists of cold prospects.
- Prospecting: Sending highly customized, one-to-one email messages to cold prospects.
- Response Incentives: Sourcing and deploying $50 digital gift cards to incentivize target prospects to book a meeting.
- Booking Meetings: Setting up Zoom meetings with Digital Marketing Agencies for the client’s Sales Team.
- Saving Costs: Reducing the cost-per-meeting booked for the client’s sales team.
AutoSales™ Services:
- Automated List Building Service
- Automated Messaging Service
- Prospect Incentives
Budget: $2k/month
Duration: Started as a month-to-month trial and moved to ongoing based on success metrics.
The Challenge
AutoNow began collaborating with a U.S.-based SaaS company ($20M in revenues) when their VP of Sales, Kevin, reached out to us. His company sells consultative services and software solutions that enable Digital Marketing Agencies to create, deploy, and track banner ads. Kevin’s revenue had been down for two consecutive quarters, and his sales pipeline indicated they would not meet their numbers for the next quarter. The source of these declining numbers was the decrease in demo meetings his senior sales team was having with cold prospects. Despite a consistent lead generation budget, Kevin’s Sales Development Reps (SDRs) and Marketing team were not booking as many meetings as in the previous four quarters. He knew that revenue growth would come if he could get his sales closers in front of more decision-makers in their target market.
The SDR and Marketing team faced three primary challenges:
- Finding new cold prospects in their target industry.
- Engaging them through email messaging.
- Getting cold prospects to commit to a sales demo meeting with a senior sales/strategist.
Hiring more SDRs, who were costing them $4,000 per month plus incentives, was not an option because Kevin’s budget had been frozen due to declining sales. Reallocating his budget to increase the marketing effort was not an option because it took time and results varied widely. He needed a strategy that would deliver results within a quarter.
Kevin contacted AutoNow while exploring new strategies and solutions to generate more leads for his sales team.
Solution: A Trial License to AutoNow’s AI-powered AutoSales™ Module
Kevin purchased a one-month license to the AutoSales™ module within the AutoNow™ Workforce Solutions platform for $2,000. This license included the software services necessary to execute the multiple tasks involved in booking new meetings with cold prospects. These services included:
- List Building
- Email Content Curation
- Rewards: Incentives for prospects that book meetings
- Meeting Booking
List Building:
Kevin used the AutoSales™ dashboard to set up the List Building Service by filling in a demographic profile of his target market. He then selected the sources for the list, including Apollo, Seamless, D7, and ZoomInfo. The AutoSales™ module automatically compiled a list of potential prospects, streamlining the outreach process and enhancing overall efficiency. Kevin cross-referenced the list built by AutoSales™ with his internal client and prospect databases to ensure there were no redundancies.
Email Content Curation:
Kevin then used the AI-powered Email Content Curation Service to create personalized email messages. The service automatically generated a message template with a subject line and message content crafted to communicate directly with key decision-makers in a one-to-one and personalized way. The message template included tags to personalize the messages based on multiple categories. The tags included recipient city, news from the recipient’s website, their local weather, and information from their LinkedIn profile, including schools, interests, and job history. The tags could be edited to craft the message to communicate directly with key decision-makers in a one-to-one and personalized way. Using AI, the Email Content Curation Service crafted messages that emphasized how Kevin’s company’s software could address the specific needs of a Digital Marketing Agency.
Incentives:
To encourage recipients to book meetings, Kevin used AutoSales™’s Rewards Service to offer a $50 Visa card to the recipient “to buy their team coffee to consume while participating in a demo.”
Meeting Booking:
As prospects agreed to meetings, Kevin coordinated with the Account Managers who were conducting the meetings. His next step was to allocate his AutoSales™ license to one of his Sales Development reps to continue hunting for new prospects.
Kevin Determines ROI Generated from AutoSales™
Initial Cost Analysis:
Initially, the cost for Kevin to facilitate each new meeting through traditional SDRs was an average of $500, based on a salary of $4,000 per month to book an average of eight meetings per month.
First Month Results with AutoSales™ Module:
Meetings Booked: Using the AutoSales™ Services, Kevin successfully scheduled 4 meetings in the first month. Cost Effectiveness: Despite the lower number of meetings compared to traditional SDR efforts, Kevin found the initial results promising enough to continue with AutoSales™ for another trial month.
Second Month Performance:
Increased Booking: Using AutoSales™ Services, Kevin’s results improved, booking 8 meetings. Reduced Cost per Meeting: The cost per meeting dropped to $300, marking a 40% reduction in costs compared to traditional methods.
Financial Breakdown:
- Monthly Budget for the Trial: $2400
- No SDR Salaries: Since AutoSales™ Services replaced the need for additional SDR staff, there were no salaries to be paid.
- AutoSales™ Licensing Fees: $2,000 per month
- Incentives: $400 was allocated for 8 gift cards used as meeting incentives.
Results:
In the second month of the trial, AutoSales™ Services booked the same number of demos (8) as the SDR team, however, the cost of these meetings decreased to $300, marking a 40% reduction.
Trial Evaluation and Future Planning:
Trial Success and Future Considerations: The trial’s success and the resultant cost savings encouraged Kevin to expand the program. Team Expansion: Motivated by AutoSales™’s performance, Kevin decided to purchase another seat license to amplify the team’s results. Expanded Use of Gift Cards: Kevin used the remaining $2000 budget to fund more gift cards. He explored using AutoSales™ Services in varying ways:
- Enhance engagement across different trial target segments.
- Use lower denominations in CTAs for broader reach.
- Use higher denominations to facilitate a higher response from CTA messages.
Summary
By leveraging AutoNow’s AutoSales™ Module, Kevin’s company was able to overcome their lead generation challenges, reduce costs per meeting, and book more meetings with qualified prospects. The positive outcomes from the trial encouraged further investment in AutoSales™ Services, leading to significant cost savings and improved sales performance.