The science of sales development: how Everstring uses intent data to build pipeline

Collin Stewart, CEO
27 February 2019
The seemingly unbridled growth of the sales development discipline over the last 10 years has brought countless benefits to our profession: dedicated teams, expert leadership, and better pay.
Of course, the growth of sales development – and all of its professional-development bonuses – means more competition. And more competition means devising new and interesting ways to stand out from the pack.
Although that task is the very definition of our job (if you don’t stand out, you won’t get that meeting, right?), separating yourself from your competition is easier said than done.
Think about this: when Jack Veronin, Senior Sales Development Manager at EverString, attended SalesLoft’s annual sales conference last year, they discussed the fact there were more 2 billion B2B sales emails sent
That’s right – more than 2 billion.
That’s a staggering amount of emails – and every person that sends one is trying to stand out from their competitors.
“There’s probably

“Email as a channel has been beat up. Everybody is trying to contact you through that channel, including marketing automation software. A sales development rep can stand out from marketing automation because we have three things at our disposal: email, phone and social. Marketing automation only has one option: email. So, a multi-prong, multi-channel approach is the new way to get people’s attention.”
The importance of being relevant
The overwhelming trend in prospecting over the last few years has been to personalize one’s outreach as much as possible. No one wants to be sent an automated, canned response, right? Right?
Well, almost.
Personalization is good, says Veronin. But relevance is better.
“A
“Personalization, in fact, is in a solid third place for me. And that’s the approach we take here.”
Relevance at EverString begins with intent data, information gleaned from a prospect’s or an account’s search history. Think about searching for a new pair of shoes you want to buy: one trip to Nike’s website will result in a stream of ads for Nike products (and Nike’s competitors) being served to you.
The intent data that EverString uses to understand the interests of their prospects is the same, just now being used in the B2B world.
“Account selection is super important. You don’t want to waste your time on companies that can’t use your services. And, we rely on data to figure out that fit for us,” says Veronin.
“The internet is slow – reading investor relations documents is slow, reading product descriptions is slow. But, we have
Intent data…in the trenches
So…what does that intent data look like on the ground for EverString’s SDRs? How do they actually execute their prospecting using this information?
The process is remarkably simple: EverString collects intent data (sent to the via Bombora, the service they use that collects the information) in Salesforce. What their SDRs see is a simple dashboard containing:
- SDR owner
- Account name
- Website
Everstring fit score- Intent topics (Bombora data)
- Last activity
The “intent topics” from the above list could a collection of keywords an account is searching, or a list of websites they are visiting in their search for a new software vendor (or both). And the EverString fit score, like traditional lead scoring, is number derived from the data they receive from Bombora (relevant search terms, relevant vertical etc.).
“Intent data and keyword data all flown into your CRM, all in one crisp, clean, tidy report and you have your target accounts for the week. You walk in a
“So our reps are able to look at the fit right there, and reach out to them.”
(We had

The outreach
Once an EverString SDR begins reaching out, they use three sources to build their messaging:
- It all starts with intent data – it’s the
trigger, and the source that displays what thecompany / account is interested in - Keyword analysis so an EverString knows which specific words to use in their messaging (using strategic terminology shows you know what you’re talking about, says Veronin)
- Finally, EverString SDRs use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to personalize their message to each specific contact
Depending on what the intent data is showing, EverString has unique cadences for the different types of topics that prospects are researching (or “surging on” as the team refers to it internally).
Those cadences, however, never refer to an account’s explicit keyword or search history.
“We don’t say ‘we know you are looking into solution X.’ That can come across as a bit creepy. We want to poke around, prod, and find out what they’re doing, but not say we know exactly what they’re doing,” says Veronin.
“So, what we do is say ‘hey, we’re an alternative to this solution.” We also say who we are working
Being pleasantly persistent
Once a cadence in set in motion, it lasts for 6 days. Over that period, EverString
“Personally, if I’m getting relevant updates, I’ll read them. If you’re not relevant – then you have a problem,” says Veronin.
“We call it pleasantly persistent and relevant, you will get responses. Whether they are positive or negative, that remains to be seen. But, you will get them. I want brands out there to know what we do, so when they are ready to buy, they reach out. They know they heard from us, and they know what they do. Aggressive outreach helps you get through prospects as well – you want to get an answer and move on to the next one as quickly as possible.”
In total, EverString SDRs are working 50 accounts per week (200 per month). For enterprise companies, they’re working about 10 contacts per account and for SMBs, only 2-3 prospects. That’s a total of 2000-3000 activities per SDR, per month. From that activity, SDRs on their enterprise team
“That’s the clip we’re able to perform our best at. The pipeline we’re throwing up has never been better,” says Veronin.
“And it all comes down to being authentic, being relevant, being helpful.”
For more on Veronin’s thoughts on prospecting, check out his full interview on The Predictable Revenue Podcast.
Have a look at these blog posts, too:
- 4 Signs You Should Make Outbound Your Top Priority
- What it really takes to get a successful SDR team off the ground with Aaron Ross
- How to tailor your cold calls to match your prospect’s communication style
You can talk to us anytime about getting started with outbound.