How CIENCE Created A Stable Flow Of Outbound Leads For A Boutique Marketing Agency
About SolDesign
SolDesign is a boutique marketing agency that handles everything from strategy to design to development. They are a group of talented designers, writers, web developers, information architects and brand engineers that work together to design creative solutions communicating a brand's message across all mediums.
SolDesign creates products with front-end strategy needed to flourish and the back-end solutions they need to function. Established in November 2001, they have offices in Atlanta, GA, and New York, and are headquartered in the historic Stoveworks Complex in Edgewood near downtown Atlanta.
Shannon Yarbrough
Business Development Director
Industry
Marketing & Advertising
Website
Challenges & Scope
ICP: Geo-specific, also specific types of organizations.
Product: Creative solutions that communicate a brand's message through all mediums.
Task: Building Sales Development process from scratch.
CIENCE uses an efficient methodology when it comes to sales research and intelligence. We combine software and human intelligence to deliver the best results on the market. Our trained researchers excel at finding hard-to-find leads that match even the most complex ICPs.
"We needed a partner who could help with the research portion of lead generation. It was a bonus that CIENCE also did the outreach and scheduled appointments. They're effectively acting as part of our sales team."
We help our clients build outbound prospecting from scratch. For SolDesign, we provided an SDR Team package, which includes dedicated research and outreach on behalf of their company.
"CIENCE reached out to us through their own process that they use for clients as well. They probably saw that I was newer to the role of business development. I had a few introductory calls with them to ask questions. We were gearing up for some outbound marketing and had not really done that for ourselves before. We agreed on a three-month trial, and they performed well and provided a list of clients that were solid fits for us. They matched our needs well, and we decided to move forward."
CIENCE provides guidance on best practices for approaching new clients and closing deals.
Why CIENCE
SolDesign was looking for B2B companies in a number of different industries. They limited the scope of our research to particular geographical locations. The CIENCE Sales Development team was also able to provide sales intelligence for the pilot program.
"We work with them on a monthly basis for outreach and research. They examine different industries in different locations depending on what we're targeting in order to find companies that might be worthwhile partners for us. Then we collaborate to create messaging, and they send those messages to those companies and schedule calls or appointments for me. They have also been helpful in sharing best practices with us."
For a business to grow, it's crucial to generate a large number of high-quality leads on a regular basis. Our teams deliver the outbound prospecting process that enables us to reach out to a large number of potential buyers with personalized messaging on a daily basis.
"CIENCE has proven to be familiar with the latest industry practices, and their overall research ability fosters excellent opportunities for growth. They have been collaborative and invested partners. We work with such different sectors that it can be confusing who our best clients are, but they've done an excellent job of being creative and working with us to mine the best sectors to reach out to. They also appear to be well-versed in the latest strategies of their industry."
Our process provides a smooth transition of prospects from the SDR to the Account Manager or Sales Manager that closes the deal. We include a Project Manager and deliver biweekly reporting.
"CIENCE is open to answering any questions about their process. They have been very responsive. We have worked well together via phone calls and emails. The more a company knows about its own business goals, the more CIENCE can help them."
"All of the leads they have provided have been a good fit."
Results
Geo-targeting is a successful strategy in many email outreach campaigns. However, attaining the contact data of the leads can be more difficult for geo-specific targets. So our researchers use special methods and tools to succeed in geo-targeting campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
What challenge did SolDesign face before working with CIENCE?
SolDesign had no outbound sales development process in place when Shannon Yarbrough joined as Business Development Director. The agency needed a partner to handle both the research and outreach components of lead generation, with a focus on geo-specific targets across multiple industries.
How did CIENCE help SolDesign build an outbound pipeline?
CIENCE provided an SDR Team package that included dedicated researchers and outreach specialists acting as an extension of SolDesign's sales team. The team identified target companies by industry and geography, co-created messaging with SolDesign, and scheduled appointments directly on Shannon's calendar. CIENCE also shared best practices for approaching and closing new clients.
What results did SolDesign achieve with CIENCE?
SolDesign received multiple qualified calls every week with companies they would not have found independently. Of all the calls booked during the engagement, only one was not a qualified lead: a result SolDesign attributed directly to CIENCE's research skill. The client described all leads provided as good fits for their business.
Why was geo-targeting important for SolDesign's campaign and how did CIENCE handle it?
SolDesign required leads within specific geographic locations, which makes contact data harder to source than broad national campaigns. CIENCE used specialized research methods and tools to successfully identify and reach geo-specific prospects, rotating across different industries and regions each month based on SolDesign's evolving priorities.
